Mary the Slave

ON ST. MARY THE SLAVE, VIRGIN AND MARTYR,

IN THE YEAR, AS IT SEEMS, CLXX.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Mary, virgin and martyr. (S.)

BY G. V. H.

§ I. The time of the martyrdom. A decree of persecution falsely inscribed with the name of Marcus Aurelius.

God, who is wonderful in his saints, seemed to show the power of his most mighty grace especially when he conferred the victory of martyrdom even on the frail sex, of St. Mary the slave and to young virgin girls, of tender age and weak flesh, amid the horrid apparatus of penalties, through racks and claws, through rods and scorpions, through wheels and flames, he gave a glorious triumph over the tyrant. Among the illustrious heroines of the Catholic Church, who have conquered their age and the tyrant, and join the roses of their own blood to the white lily of virginity, no lowest place is held by St. Mary the slave, virgin and martyr, whose wonderful acts we undertake to treat. Of what country this Mary was, or in what place she suffered martyrdom, is certainly a knot difficult of solution, and one which has more than once vexed the wits of hagiologists.

[2] Interpolated Acts We publish two Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Mary. In the first place we put those longer ones which Baluze published Miscellanea, vol. I, page 27.; we have diligently noted the variant readings of many codices. In the second place come shorter Acts, which Mombritius inserted in his Sanctuarium, and which we found in a codex of the Charterhouse of Utrecht. Are they shorter, or indeed more ancient? The codices of the first Acts are not older than the eleventh century; but the Acts themselves, however interpolated, show signs of an ancient and sincere origin, and as it were the architectural lines of an ancient building still visible in the rubble. For there are many things in these Acts which reflect Roman affairs, public life and the morals and institutions of those times. Which moved even Tillemont himself. For he writes thus: Baluze in the second volume of his Miscellanea has given us the history of a certain St. Mary, slave of a certain Tertullus, and rightly advises that this narrative, quite well written, shows the face of antiquity Mémoires pour servir à l'hist. eccl., vol. II, notes, page 279..

[3] they place the martyrdom under Hadrian and Antoninus. The Acts define the time of the martyrdom accurately enough by the emperors Hadrian and Antoninus. Hadrian adopted Antoninus on the 25th of February in the year 138 and died on the 12th of July of the same year. Wherefore, if one is to stand by the Acts, Mary suffered martyrdom in the year 138. For the Acts say in express words that she was both captured and killed in the time of Hadrian and Antoninus. But here indeed there arises the greatest of all the difficulties by which the Acts are pressed. For Hadrian issued no edict against the Christians. Most eloquent witnesses are at hand, Tertullian and Melito in Eusebius. The former thus, in chapter V of the Apologeticum Migne, P. L., vol. I, pp. 296, 297.: What then are those laws which only the impious, the unjust, the base, the fierce, the vain, the demented carry out against us? which Trajan in that part frustrated by forbidding Christians to be sought out, which no Hadrian … imposed. And Melito [Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book IV, chapter XXVI (Migne, P. G., vol. XX, p. 395).]: Alone of all, Nero and Domitian, led on by the counsels of certain malevolent men, strove to accuse our religion. From whom thereafter that false calumny against us flowed down to posterity, as is the way of the crowd, to give credit to rumours of this kind without any judgment. But your most pious parents corrected their ignorance, rebuking by frequent rescripts those who attempted anything new against the men of our religion. Among whom your grandfather Hadrian gave letters both to many others and to Fundanus, proconsul of Asia. Thus Melito of Asia, bishop of Sardis, in the Apology which he offered to the emperor Antoninus, not indeed to Antoninus Pius, but to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, in the tenth year of his reign, as is reported in the Chronicle of Eusebius Migne, P. G., vol. XIX, p. 562..

[4] who yet made no decree against the Christians. That very letter of Hadrian, of which Melito speaks, Justin Martyr brings forward in the Apology which he offered to Antoninus Pius. After he had pleaded the cause of the Christians and proved their holy and pure rites, he goes on thus: And these things, if they seem to you consonant with reason and truth, hold in esteem; but if they seem trifles to you, despise them, and do not decree death against innocent men as against enemies. For we foretell to you that you will not escape the judgment of God, if you remain in injustice; and we shall cry out: What pleases God, let that be done. And although from the letter of the greatest and most illustrious Caesar Hadrian, your father, we could ask of you that you order judgments to take place as we have requested, yet we have not asked the more for this reason, that it was so established by Hadrian; but, because we know that we are asking just things, we bring our speech and the narration of our affairs. And we also subjoin a copy of Hadrian's letter, that you may see in this too that the truth is being told by us. That copy reads thus: To Minucius Fundanus. I have received a letter written to me by Serenius Granianus, a most distinguished man, whom you have succeeded. It seems to me therefore that the matter should not be passed over without inquiry, lest both men be disturbed and matter of crime be provided for sycophants. If then the provincials can thus firmly set themselves to this manner of petition against the Christians, so as to answer also before the tribunal, let them turn themselves to that only, and not use petitions or mere clamours. For it is much more fitting, if anyone wishes to accuse, that you take cognizance of the matter. If then anyone accuses, and shows that they (Christians)) are doing anything contrary to the laws, decide as the gravity of the offence shall require. As also, by Hercules, if anyone seizes this pretext for the sake of calumny, take thought of this cruel way of acting and take care to avenge it Ibid., vol. VI, p. 431–434.. From this it is indeed clear that no edict of persecution was issued by Hadrian, much less by Hadrian together with Antoninus: for how, if it had been so done, would Justin have dared to write these things to Antoninus himself? But the Acts, the Passion of St. Mary Miscellanea, vol. I, p. 75., seem to be old and to smack of the discipline of those times, and he asks: What shall we do with this edict? I answer quickly: we shall declare it spurious and supposititious.

[5] The Acts show a false decree of persecution, What then is to be thought of the veracity of these Acts? I shall simply open my mind. I believe that these Acts of martyrdom are in great part sincere; yet there are not at hand arguments by which their sincerity can be certainly established. They are not genuine, they are apocryphal, yet they are redolent of antiquity. I should think they are among those which, after the archives of the churches had been burned, Christians restored from lively memory. But, you will say, those who forged the false edict of persecution, and so supposed a fictitious persecution, are they truthful and sincere in narrating the substance of the martyrdom? It must be observed that from a fictitious edict of persecution it does not follow that the persecution too was fictitious. For nothing is more certain than that the Christians in Asia, under the rule of Hadrian, and under the rule of Antoninus too, were attacked by the persecutions and calumnies of the provincials. This indeed is clear from the whole of book IV of Eusebius, and by name from the letters cited of Hadrian Migne, P. G., vol. XX, page 325. and M. Antoninus Ibid., p. 334., and from the very apology of Justin and Melito of which we have made mention. For, to set aside the persecution of Bar Kochba, raging most bitterly in Judaea against the Christians; why did Justin and Melito offer apologies, unless to allay the heat of persecution? There was certainly a persecution of Christians under Hadrian, to mitigate which Hadrian, informed by Serenius Granianus, gave letters to his successor. Yet that it was a popular persecution is manifest from those very letters. That Christians were harassed by petitions and clamours, not by just judgments, is clear from the same. The letter of M. Aurelius Antoninus declares the same. What then? In the Acts of Mary we find those same clamours of the people, demanding Mary for death. The Acts likewise set forth first a sycophantic accusation. We have therefore such a manner of persecution,

such as history assigns to those times.

[6] which was circulated under the name of Marcus Aurelius, But whence has the decree been taken which the Acts ascribe to Hadrian and Antoninus? Melito supplies a fitting answer. For how did restless and unjust men set snares for the Christians under clement emperors? For, he says, what had never been done, the race of pious men suffers persecution, harassed by new decrees throughout Asia. For the most impudent informers and those greedy for others' wealth, having found occasion from the imperial edicts, openly by day and night go about and despoil innocent men. And a little later: But if these things are done by your order, let them be held rightly and duly done. For it cannot be that a just prince should ever establish anything unjustly; and we bear with a willing mind the reward of such a death. One thing we ask of you, that, when you have first examined for yourself those who show this kind of stubbornness, you then decide according to your humanity whether they deserve to be afflicted with punishment and death, or to live safe and secure. But if that counsel and altogether unheard-of edict, which it would not have been fitting to sanction even against barbarian enemies, never came from you, we beseech you much the more not to permit us to be longer harassed by public robbery of this kind.

[7] and from which the informers found occasion, Here I would have the reader attentive. We have from Melito informers, greedy for others' wealth, finding occasion from the imperial edicts; we have an unheard-of edict, not to be sanctioned even against barbarians, about which Melito doubts whether it came from Marcus Antoninus: yet we do not have the form of the edict, whether it was suppressed by Melito or passed over by Eusebius. What if the Acts of Mary contain that false and cruel edict? Although I cannot certainly demonstrate that the matter is so, yet I think it so near and like to the truth, that I cannot keep myself from embracing that opinion. Here is that decree: Maximianus Hadrian and Antoninus, Pious, Fortunate, Augusti, to all living under our law, greeting. There has come to us a variety of religion lately invented by certain persons. For there are said to be some to whom neither sacrifices are at heart, nor that worship which we practise; through whom without doubt, unless the dread of punishment quickly comes to our aid, all the belief of antiquity will be obliterated and the veneration of our ancestors extinguished. We give therefore to all peoples this law, and we set forth these edicts to be observed by each judge, that each person be compelled to sacrifice, and that rebels be struck with the avenging sword. For we have preferred that few be killed rather than that all be deceived by error, and that they not wander through various ways, but rather be of one opinion. If anyone therefore shall think that anyone of whatever age or sex of this law or worship is to be hidden, let him himself by the sword breathe out his spirit, which fights against the laws; and let his property be brought to the advantage of the fisc. And let the informer of so great a crime rejoice in a payment of four hundred denarii from the public treasury, that all may acknowledge that neither sin nor reward perishes.

[8] as is clear from comparison with Melito; Let no one be offended by the names of the emperors, which cannot suit Melito's offering the apology to Marcus Antoninus; for I shall make it plain that they suit uniquely. We do not have the original form of the decree, nor ancient transcripts, but exemplars which are not earlier than eight hundred years. So copyists will have supplied the first names. Take away the supplements, and there is had, in place of Maximianus Hadrian Antoninus Pius, Fortunate, Augustus, M. A. Antoninus P. F. Aug., that is Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, son of Pius, Augustus, the same under whose name Melito complained that an unjust decree was being circulated. The decree in express words orders that Christians and those who hide Christians be denounced. We have the informers, of whom Melito complains: the decree establishes rewards for informers; we have men greedy for others' wealth, namely of the goods of Christians, assigned to the fisc after the slaughter, from which their pay was prepared for the informers. We now understand from what imperial decrees greedy informers could find occasion. So far is it, then, from the spurious decree inserted in the Acts making the sincerity of those Acts doubtful, that it commends it as much as possible.

[9] an indication of the time emerging from this. Here the origin of the manifest error is found, by which at the beginning of the Acts the whole history of the martyrdom is assigned to the times of Hadrian and Antoninus. For the copyists had to agree with themselves, since they had read Hadrian in the decree, and in certain exemplars the interposed conjunction and made a second emperor necessary. By which things it comes about that the time of the martyrdom becomes known quite accurately. For this apology of Melito, from which the decree falsely inscribed with the name of Marcus Antoninus became known to us, was offered to the emperor in his tenth year. Wherefore the martyrdom of Mary seems to be ascribed to the first decade of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; which is confirmed by the omission of the name of Lucius Verus: for he died in the ninth year of M. Aurelius.

§ II. Examination of the Acts. Traces of antiquity.

The Acts smack of antiquity: We have said that many things are found in these Acts which are redolent of antiquity, and report quite accurately Roman affairs and the morals and institutions of those times. This has seemed so not to us alone, but both to others and especially to the most learned man Edmond Le Blant, whom we name for honour's sake, and who has more than once touched on these same Acts of Mary in the supplement to Ruinart's Acta sincera [Les Actes des Martyrs (Mém. Acad. des inscript., vol. XXX), §§3, 63, etc.]. We most gladly confess that we think the same as the most learned man, which will become manifest from what follows, where we shall draw not a little collected by the distinguished Le Blant for our use, with every sign of honour. So to show how many things in these Acts smack of antiquity, let the following stand.

[11] 1st in the word principalis, on which ancient writers Mary is said to have been the slave of Tertullus princeps, or according to other codices principalis. — The dignity of the principales is very well known. Baluze in his notes on this Passion of Mary Miscell., vol. I, p. 75. cites several passages of authors: Augustine, Letter CLVIII: I commend Rufinus, principalis of Cirta, to your excellence. The same, Letter XLI (in the new edition): We greatly commend brother Hilarinus, chief physician of Hippo and principalis. Salvian, book V: What place then is there, as I have said, where the entrails of widows and orphans are not devoured by the principales of the cities? Those whom he here calls principales, says Baluze, he a little before calls curiales. For what are there, not only cities, but even municipalities and villages, where there are not as many tyrants as curiales? Thus he.

[12] and inscriptions. The first principalis of a colony is treated in various inscriptions. So in Orelli no. 2170, an inscription of Hispellum: C. MATRINIO AURELIO | C. F. LEM | ANTONINO V. P | CORONATO TUSC. ET UMBR | PONTI. GENTIS FLAVIÆ | ABUNDANTISSIMI MUNERIS SED ET | PRÆCIPUÆ LÆTITIÆ THEATRALIS. IN COL | ÆDILI. QUÆSTORI. DUUMVIRO. ITERUMQUE Q. I. D. HUJUS SPLENDIDISSIMÆ | COLONIÆ CURATORI R. P. EJUSDEM COL. ET PRIMO PRINCIPALI OB MERITUM | BENEVOLENTIÆ EJUS ERGA SE | URBS OMNIS URBANÆ FLAVIÆ | CONSTANTIS PATRONO DIGNISSIMO. A… | L. X. X. L. M. P. P. [To Gaius Matrinius Aurelius Antoninus, son of Gaius, of the tribe Lemonia, V. P., crowned of Tuscany and Umbria, pontiff of the Flavian gens, of most abundant munificence and also of outstanding theatrical gladness; in the colony aedile, quaestor, duumvir, and again Q. I. D.; curator of the commonwealth of this most splendid colony and first principalis of the same colony; for the merit of his benevolence toward it, the whole city of the Urbana Flavia Constans, to its most worthy patron. A… L. X. X. L. M. P. P.] The same inscription is cited again at no. 3866. Another inscription at Osimo (no. 3868) commemorates the same dignity: C. OPPIO C. F. VEL | BASSO P. P. P. C | PR. I. D. AUX. 7. LEG. ĪĪĪĪ. FL. FEL. ET LEG. II. TR. FOR | EVOC. AUG. AB. ACT. FORI | B. PR. PR. MIL. COH. II. PR | ET COH. XIII. ET. XIIII URB | OMNIBUS OFFICIIS IN CALIGA FUNCTO | CENTURIONES LEG. II. TRAIANÆ FORTIS | OPTIMO ET DIGNISSIMO | IN CUJUS DED. CENAM COL. DEDIT | L. D. D. D. [To Gaius Oppius Bassus, son of Gaius, of the tribe Velina, P. P. P. C., PR. I. D. of Auximum, centurion of the legions IIII Flavia Felix and II Traiana Fortis, evocatus of Augustus, ab actis fori, B. of the praetorian prefect, soldier of cohort II of the praetorians and of cohorts XIII and XIIII of the urban troops, having discharged all offices in the boot; the centurions of the legion II Traiana Fortis, to the best and most worthy man; at whose dedication he gave a dinner to the colony. L. D. D. D.] Where we think that P. P. P. C. should be read, with Orelli, PRIMO PRINCIPALI PATRONO COLONIÆ. Principal men are spoken of in Orelli in various inscriptions. So no. 3760, an inscription of Palermo: TI. CLAUDIO HERODI | ANO C. V. LEG. PROV. SI | CIL. JUDICI RARISSI | MO. PATRONO COL | PANHORMIT. PRINCI | PALES VIRI EX ÆRE COL | LATO. D. D. [To Tiberius Claudius Herodianus, C. V., legate of the province of Sicily, a most rare judge, patron of the colony of Panormus, the principal men, from money collected. D. D.] And another, no. 3761: L. GABONIO ARUNCULEIO. VALERIANO | V. F. EQ. R. SACERD. ET E PRINCIPAL | OMNIB. HONORIB. FUNCT. PATRI ET | AVO SENATOR. CURATORI SUO | ET PATRON. OB MERITA. COLL | FABR. ET CENT. L. D. D. D. [To Lucius Gabonius Arunculeius Valerianus, V. F., Roman knight, priest and from among the principales, having discharged all honours, father and grandfather of senators, their curator and patron, for his merits, the colleges of the smiths and rag-workers. L. D. D. D.]

[13] [These were the first of the decurions and discharged the first offices of the cities.] That it may be more clearly understood how great the dignity of the principal men was, I copy out a few things from the book of Everard Otto, On the Aediles of the Colonies and Municipalities, in which very many things pertaining to the old municipal polity are explained. The most erudite author, chapter V, p. 150, speaks thus: For just as, under the rule of Augustus, the senate began to be divided into two classes, to which under Constantine a third was added, so that senators of the first order were called illustres, of the second spectabiles, of the third clarissimi: and just as those were called the Decemprimi of the scholae who in the several scholae of the domestici had reached that grade by length of time, l. 7 and 10. C. Th. de domest. et prot., so too colonies and municipalities, after the example of the imperial city, had some foremost men among the decurions distributed into decuries, and leaders of the public council, who excelled in family, patrimony, age, authority, experience of affairs, number of children or amplitude of offices performed, or honoured and most distinguished men, adorned by the judgment of the prince, or by several votes at the same time, with the right of first decurion. See l. 6. §5. D. de Decur. l. 2. D. de albo scrib. together with l. 16. D. de usu et usufr. leg. l. 27. § pen. et ult. D. de pœn. l. 41. C. de lib. caus. l. 5. C. de cohort. and l. 2. C. de excusat. mun. and therefore the Principales are separated from the order on the stone in Gruter page 363. The viri perfectissimi and Principales and the most splendid order and people of Puteoli. And these primates, summates, heads of the order, seniors, principales, primarii, πρωτοστάται, πρωτοπολίται, and according to the amplitude of the curiales, were called the V, X, XV or XX first men. Caesar, book I of the Civil War, chapter 35: He called to him the XV first men of the Massilians. Cicero, book III of On the Nature of the Gods, chapter 30: L. Alenus imitated the handwriting of the six first men, and in the Novel of Majorian to Basilius, Praetorian Prefect: The subscription of the five first men of the curia is named. See Jacques Godefroy, Parat. C. Th. de decur., and Noris on the Pisan cenotaphs, dissertation 1, chapter 3. The Decemprimi therefore were not aediles, nor magistrates, as is read in the so often purged Thesaurus of Faber: Decemprimus, the name of a municipal magistrate, almost the same as decurion: nor for the sake of an embassy only

created, as Manutius and Hotman believed, being thrashed for this by the distinguished Graevius on Cicero's Pro Roscio, chapter 9; nor were they perhaps the same as the Decaproti who bore the charge of the patrimony, l. 3. §10. l. 18. §26. D. de decur., though they are commonly confused even in the Greek-Latin Glossaries, δεκαπρῶτος, Decemprimus, δεκαπρῶτοι Decuriones; but they administered the commonwealth, discharged the advocacy for their country, gave games, assignments, exactions and other things of the kind; and if they had rightly discharged these, they took up the ornaments of splendour and honour, l. 171. C. Th. de decur. These too before others had the right of giving their opinion, as I gather from l. 6. and from Apuleius, On the World: The decurions too, who have the right of giving their opinion, went to the public session. Perhaps also the chief of them, who was first asked his opinion, was like the princeps of the Roman Senate, who, as the distinguished Wesseling has recently advised, book I, Observations, chapter 8, is to be distinguished from the principes of the city, that is, the senators, who were of some number. Such therefore among the principales of Alexandria was the first of the curia, who, all offices being completed, reached the highest grade, in l. 56. C. de decur., and C. Matrinius Aurelius FIRST PRINCIPALIS in Fabretti, chapter II, inscription 250. L. Castronius Paetus, princeps of the municipality of Lucca, Cicero, book XIII, Letter 13. Granius likewise, princeps of the colony of Puteoli, Valerius Maximus, book IX, chapter 3, no. 8, and Silva, Primas of his order, in Ammianus, book 28, chapter 6. Princ. of the city of the Nicapolitans in Gruter 4, page 472, and in another in Ottavio Rossi: TIRINUS. INGENUI. F. PRINCEPS. SABINORUM, that is πρωτοπολίτης, and first decurion of the municipality of Sabium, as Reinesius explains, letter 44 to Rupert, page 394, class III, no. 43, class VI, no. 100. Whether then Tertullus was only principalis, or also princeps of the city, it is established that this man was among the foremost of his city, which accords with the tenor of the Acts.

[14] 2nd in the commemoration of the birthday feast; So while Tertullus was celebrating his son's birthday, and immolating victims to the impure idols and vain images, Mary was applying herself to fasts, etc. (Passion I, no. 1). That birthdays were accustomed to be celebrated with great and solemn observance, especially with banquets, is manifest from innumerable passages of the ancients. The birthdays of the gods were celebrated. So Minucius Felix in the Octavius Migne, P. L., vol. III, page 255.: I omit the old things, which are many, and about the birthdays of the gods, gifts, presents. Tertullian On Idolatry, chapter 10 (ibid., vol. I, p. 674).: The same is done on the birthday of an idol, it is thronged with all the pomp of the devil. The birthdays of the emperors. Suetonius: The Roman knights celebrated his (Augustus's) birthday of their own accord and by consent for two days On the Twelve Caesars, book II, chapter 57.. The consuls having forgotten to make proclamation about his birthday, he abrogated their magistracy (Caligula) Ibid., book IV, chapter 26. Birthdays of great men. Horace Odes, book IV, 11, verse 17.:

Rightly solemn to me, and holier Almost than my own birthday, because from this Dawn my Maecenas orders His flowing years.

Private persons celebrated their own birthdays. Plautus Pseudolus, I, 2, 32.:

Today is my birthday; it is fitting that all of you should celebrate it.

Juvenal Satires, XII, 1.:

This light is sweeter to me, Corvinus, than my birthday.

On a birthday the ancients used a more splendid dress. Persius Satires, I, 15, 16.:

Combed, and in a fresh toga, And white at last, with the birthday sardonyx.

On a birthday they received gifts from friends. Plautus Curculio, V, 2, 56.:

This (ring) is the one I sent you on your birthday.

Martial Epigrams, IX, 54, 1 and 2.:

On your birthday, Quintus, I wished to give small Gifts, you forbid it; you are a domineering man.

Those whose birthdays they were gave dinner to friends and teachers…, for the celebration of the annual day which they held as the beginning of their life. Gellius Attic Nights, book XIX, chapter 9. On the birthdays of their children they sometimes indulged themselves genially. The gouty old man drank scarcely honourable potions at the birthdays of his children [Seneca, On Anger, book II, chapter 33. Compare Marquardt, Handbuch der Röm. Alterth., vol. V, p. I, §7. Das tägliche Leben.]. Some held the birthdays of their sons so celebrated that they gave annual feasts even after their death. Let an example be an inscription of Crotone, in Orelli no. 4414: FUTIÆ C. F | LOLLIANÆ | FILIÆ PIISSIMÆ. C. FUTI | US ONIRUS ITERUM ĪĪ. VIR. ITEM | DEDIT DECURIONIBUS HS. X̄. N | UT EX USURIS EORUM | QUOD ANNIS V̄ĪĪ. IDUS APRILES | NATALE FILIÆ MEÆ EPULAN | TES CONFREQUENTETIS | HS. CCCC. N. ET IN PROFUSIONIBUS | HS. CC. N̄. NEQUE IN ALIOS | USUS CONVERTATIS | L. D. D. D. [To Futia Lolliana, daughter of Gaius, most pious daughter. Gaius Futius Onirus, twice duumvir, likewise gave to the decurions HS. 10,000, that from the interest on them, every year on the seventh before the Ides of April, you may throng together feasting on the birthday of my daughter, HS. 400, and on the offerings HS. 200, and may not convert it to other uses. L. D. D. D.] From these things it follows that a feast celebrated on the birthday of the son of Tertullus the principalis, such as the Acts report, agrees especially with the life and morals of the ancients.

[15] 3rd in the answers of Mary and the blows inflicted by her master; So on the birthday of the son of her master Tertullus, Mary was fasting, and, betrayed to her mistress by a fellow slave, and questioned about the cause of the fast, she freely confesses the fast prescribed according to the custom of the Christians. The narrative of the Acts certainly has the look of antiquity. Tertullus immolates victims on his son's birthday; Horace immolates victims on the birthday of Maecenas Odes, book IV, 11, 6–8.:

The altar, bound with chaste Vervain, longs to be sprinkled With an immolated lamb.

The secret observance too of the Christian slave's religion reflects the antiquity of earlier times. Yet she could not long lie hidden, with a fellow slave lying in wait; betrayed, she is soon called by her mistress, and it is said to her: What is the cause of the fast? Is this occasion of sadness, because you shudder at the master lately born to you? Mary answered: Am I now taking up anything new? I must always observe fasts. How is that ascribed to sadness which is kept for the sake of custom? I am a Christian, I am born of Christian stock; this worship of Christ is hereditary to me (Passion I, no. 2.) — Here again a mark of antiquity appears. For Mary's answer is such as suits those earlier ages. For then those were rarer who were born of Christian stock, to whom the worship of Christ was hereditary. This fits perfectly with what will afterwards be said in the defence of Tertullus by the advocate Nicagoras. For from this we learn that Mary was a house-born slave, of Christian parents, slaves of Cleonides, the father of her mistress, the wife of Tertullus. Similar answers of Christians are found elsewhere, as if for honour's sake: χριστιανὸς ἐκ χριστιανῶν γονέων τυγχάνω, I am a Christian of Christian parents Acta SS., vol. III Aug., p. 159, in the Acts of St. Ursicinus., and ἀπὸ παιδὸς χριστιανὸς, a Christian from boyhood Ibid., vol. II Jun., p. 1044, in the Acts of St. Tatian.. Hence on marbles πιστὸς ἐκ πιστῶν Lupi, Epitaphium Severæ, in Le Blant, op. cit., 236, 237., γένει χριστιανὸς, a Christian by birth Bayet, De titulis Atticæ christianæ, in Le Blant, ibid., p. 237.. — Then, as her mistress commanded that she should take some food, Mary, full of the Holy Spirit… cried out to her mistress: You can command the body, not the soul; God merits more than your son. Let him be delighted by base singing and obscene dancing, and whatever the diligent care of nurses invents for the delights of little ones; but the worship of God is not vain and empty, but full of happiness and grace, and chastity is to be protected, sobriety loved, food fled from (Passion I, no. 2). What Mary here answers about the impure apparatus of banquets and obscene singing, from which the chaste girl says she shrinks, is indeed redolent of antiquity. Nor perhaps do the blows inflicted thereafter by Tertullus on the most chaste virgin in a hidden part of the member, to mock her virginal modesty, paint any less the savage cruelty of the Gentiles. For it was customary with impure men to strip Christian virgins and to add cruel insult to the penalty.

[16] 4th in the circumstances of the judgment; After the cruel beating St. Mary is thrust into prison, where she spends thirty days. Meanwhile the matter had come to the ears of the informers, who were gaping after others' goods, and finding occasion from the fictitious decree of the emperors, they denounce the name of Tertullus to the governor, as one who had hidden a Christian in his home against the imperial decree. At once Tertullus is brought to the tribunal, and the foremost men being summoned, a ring of the crowd too standing by, the governor ordered the law to be reread from the codex (Passion I, no. 4). Let the solemn and public proclamation of the law before the foremost men and the people be noted, which plainly accords with antiquity. St. John Chrysostom commemorates this public recitation of imperial decrees On Genesis, homily XIV (Migne, P. G., vol. LIII, p. 112).. Symmachus, writing to Honorius, says that the decrees of the emperor, heavenly statutes, were recited to the peoples Letters, book X, 83 (Migne, P. L., vol. XVIII, p. 406).. From Theodoret we learn that the letters of Constantius were publicly read at Rome in the amphitheatre [Ecclesiastical History, book II, chapter 14 (Migne, P. G., vol. LXXXII, p. 1039).]. The same recitation of an imperial decree before the people and the foremost men is found in the Acts of St. Sergius Acta SS., vol. III Feb., p. 462., in the Acts of St. Terentian Ibid., vol. I Sept., p. 112., and elsewhere, as may be seen in Le Blant Op. cit., §4.. Of that decree we have treated above, and, indications being received from Melito, it appeared that that decree was spread abroad under the false name of Marcus Aurelius. It is worthy of note that, according to the Acts, when a principalis of the city was brought to judgment, the foremost men of the city came together and defended a man of their own order. Moreover the form of a public judgment is to be noted: So when this constitution had been read to those standing around, the governor said: What am I to do about these things? Can we resist these precepts? The chiefs of the curia answered, saying: Deign to hear us more humanely (Passion I, no. 5.) In a like manner begins a certain case judged by Marcus Aurelius: He said to the advocates of the fisc (Antoninus Caesar): You have your judges. Vivius Zeno said: I ask, lord emperor, hear me patiently Digest book XXVIII, title IV, 3.. — Then the governor orders what was said to be written down. There rose the advocate Nicogoras. As he was skilled in speech and an artist in speaking, taking up the person of all, with public voice he speaks thus (Passion I, no. 5). A scholasticus was the name for one who took up cases to defend publicly. Let an example be that of Constantius: Very often scholastici, beyond measure of the fees they have received in the defence of all cases, have been accustomed to take both provisions and expenses Cod. Theod., book VIII, title X, 2 (Godefroy's edition, vol. II).. Those words too, skilled in speech and an artist in speaking, are of genuine antiquity. Virgil: Cymodocea, most learned in speech

Virgil, Aeneid, X, 225.. Cicero: An artist at corrupting a judgment Cicero, Against Verres, VII, 71.. Quintilian: An artist in tears Quintilian, Declamations, X, 9..

[17] 5th in the defence on behalf of Tertullus Now Nicagoras enters on his speech, with Asiatic adulation indeed, most suited to the times, places and persons: Supreme morning star, light of the whole city (Passion I, no. 5). — And the things brought forward in the speech in commendation of Tertullus suit accurately a principal man of a city. Come, let us confirm some of these by public inscriptions. 1st He is said to have been Pontiff of the Augusti. In the cenotaphs called Pisan there is praised T. STATULENUS JUNCUS. PRINCEPS COLONIÆ NOSTRÆ. FLAMEN. AUGUST | PONTIF. MINOR PUBLICORUM P. R. SACRORUM. [T. Statulenus Juncus, first man of our colony, flamen of Augustus, lesser pontiff of the public sacred rites of the Roman people.] Orelli, Inscript. Lat., no. 643. An inscription found at Mahón: Q. CORNELIO | Q. F. QUIRINA | SECUNDO | ÆDILI ĪĪ VIRO | MUNICIPI. MAGO | FLAM. DIVOR. ET AUG | L. CORNELIUS SATUR | SOCERO | Q. CORNELIUS SATUR | AVO OPTIMO OB | PLURIMA MERITA. [To Quintus Cornelius Secundus, son of Quintus, of the tribe Quirina, aedile, duumvir of the municipality of Mago, flamen of the deified ones and of Augustus; Lucius Cornelius Satur to his father-in-law, Quintus Cornelius Satur to his excellent grandfather, for very many merits.] Ibid., no. 169. Another of Mahón: L. FABIO L. F. | QUIR. FABULLO | ÆD. ĪĪ VIR III | FLAMINI DIVOR. AUG. R. P. MAG | OB MULTA EJUS MERITA. [To Lucius Fabius Fabullus, son of Lucius, of the tribe Quirina, aedile, duumvir three times, flamen of the deified ones and of Augustus, the commonwealth of Mago, for his many merits.] Ibid., no. 170. But this dignity conferred on the foremost men of the colonies, of being pontiffs of the deified ones, flamines of Augustus, is so well known that it is enough to have brought forward these few out of many inscriptions by way of specimen.

[18] filled with his praises, He is called 2nd Munerarius of the city. How grateful the citizens were toward their foremost men for the giving of a show, the following inscriptions prove: C. MATRINIO AURELIO | C. F. LEM. ANTONIO V. P. | CORONATO TUSC. ET UMB | PONT. GENTIS FLAVIÆ | ABUNDANTISSIMI MUNERIS SED ET | PRÆCIPUÆ LÆTITIÆ THEATRALIS IN COL | ÆDILI. QUÆSTORI DUUMVIRO | ITERUM Q. Q. I. D. HUJUS SPLENDIDISSIMÆ | COLONIÆ. CURATORI R. P. EJUSDEM | COL. ET PRIMO PRINCIPALI OB MERITUM | BENEVOLENTIÆ EJUS ERGA SE | URBS OMNIS URBANÆ FLAVIÆ | CONSTANTIS PATRONO | DIGNISSIMO | A… | … I. X. X. L. M. P. P. [To Gaius Matrinius Aurelius Antonius, son of Gaius, of the tribe Lemonia, V. P., crowned of Tuscany and Umbria, pontiff of the Flavian gens, of most abundant munificence and also of outstanding theatrical gladness; in the colony aedile, quaestor, duumvir, again Q. Q. I. D. of this most splendid colony, curator of the commonwealth of the same colony and first principalis; for the merit of his benevolence toward it, the whole city of the Urbana Flavia Constans, to its most worthy patron. A… … I. X. X. L. M. P. P.] Ibid., no. 3866. Compare above, no. 12.. DIVO ANTONINO | PIO | C. EGNATIUS FESTUS ÆDIL. ĪĪ VIR | HUIC CUM PLEPS URBANA LUDOS PUPL | EDENTI AD STATUAM SIBI PONENDAM | PECUNIAM OPTULISSET. IS. HONORE | CONTENTUS IMPENSAM REMISIT | ET IMPETRATA VENIA AB ORDINE | PERUSINOR. OPTIMO MAXIMO PRINC | DE SUA PECUNIA POSUIT. CUJUS | OB DEDICATIONEM DARI JUSSIT | AB HEREDE SUO. DECURIONIB | SING. HS. ĪĪĪĪ N. PLEBI HS. ĪĪ. N. | L. D. D. D. [To the deified Antoninus Pius. Gaius Egnatius Festus, aedile, duumvir: when the urban plebs had offered him money, as he was giving public games, for setting up a statue to himself, he, content with the honour, remitted the expense, and leave being obtained from the order of the Perusians, he set it up at his own expense to the best and greatest prince. For the dedication of which he ordered to be given by his heir to the decurions, each, HS. 4, to the plebs HS. 2. L. D. D. D.] Ibid., no. 2531.. CN. VOESIO | CN. FIL. APRO | QUÆSTORI ÆDILI II VIRO | FLAMINI DIVI AUG. V̄Ī VIRO | AUGUSTALI. CURATORI ANNON | TRIENNIO CONTINUO. CURAT. MUNERIS PUBLICI GLADIATORI. ĪĪĪ | QUOT IS TEMPORE HONORUM. CU | RARUMQUE SUARUM PLENISSIMO | MUNIFICENTIÆ STUDIO VOLUPTATIB | ET UTILITATIBUS POPULI PLURIMA | CONTULERIT. LUDUM ETIAM GLADI | ATORIUM ET SPOLIAR. SOLO EMPTO | SUA PECUNIA EXTRUCTUM. PUBLICE OP | TULERIT. CUJUS MERITIS POSTULANTE POPULO | STATUAM PUBLICE PONI PLACUIT. D. D. [To Gnaeus Voesius Aper, son of Gnaeus, quaestor, aedile, duumvir, flamen of the deified Augustus, sevir Augustalis, curator of the grain supply for three continuous years, curator of the public gladiatorial show three times; because in the time of his honours and charges, with the fullest zeal of munificence, he bestowed very many things on the pleasures and benefits of the people; and also offered publicly a gladiatorial school and spoliarium, the ground being bought and built at his own expense; for whose merits, the people demanding it, it was resolved that a statue be set up publicly. D. D.] Ibid., no. 2532.. Q. VERRIO Q. F. PAL | FLACCO | SEVIRO AUGUSTALI | CURATORI MUNERIS | PUBLICI | DECRETO STATUAM ET FAS | ORDO DECURIONUM ET AUGUSTALIUM | ET PLEPS UNIVERSA S. P. P. P. D. D. [To Quintus Verrius Flaccus, son of Quintus, of the tribe Palatina, sevir Augustalis, curator of the public show, by decree a statue and FAS, the order of the decurions and of the Augustales and the whole plebs. S. P. P. P. D. D.] Ibid., no. 4009.. Against this kind of most stupid largesse these words in Vopiscus, Carinus, last chapter, avail: That shame might touch future givers of shows, that they should not assign their patrimonies … to mimes and buffoons. Yet that this custom was most pleasing to Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher, under whom we think the case of Mary was tried, is clear from Capitolinus, Antoninus the Philosopher, chapter 23: He commanded that the pleasures of the Roman people be strenuously attended to by the richest givers of shows.

[19] the inscriptions agreeing; Moreover the commonwealth was increased by his great largesses; he spread an unlimited measure of his money on various buildings and on the heating of baths (Passion I, no. 5). — The same largesse toward the citizens and the commonwealth many inscriptions commemorate: M. M. LARTIENI SABINI PATER | ET FILIUS QUINQUENNALES AQUAM | IN FANUM SUA IMPENSA PERDUXERU | NT. SALIENTES QUADRIFARIA SUO | LOCO RESTITUERUNT. CANALES VETUS | TATE CORRUPTOS ET DISSIPATOS RESTI | TUERUNT. FISTULAS OMNES. ET SIGILLA | AHENEA POSUERUNT. TECTA REFECE | RUNT. OMNIA SUA IMPENSA FECERUNT. [Marcus and Marcus Lartienus Sabinus, father and son, quinquennales, brought water to Fanum at their own expense; they restored the fourfold fountains in their place; they restored the channels ruined and scattered by age; they set up all the pipes and bronze figures; they rebuilt the roofs; they did all at their own expense.] Ibid., no. 3322.. M. VALERIO M. F | ÆD. DICT. | PRÆF. JUVENTUTIS | MUNICIPES COMPITENSES VEICORUM | QUINQUE. QUOD SPECUS MILLIA | PASSUS ∞ ∞ ∞ PURGAVIT. REFECIT | FISTULAS REPOSUIT. BALNEA VIRILIA | UTRAQUE ET MULIEBRE DE SUA | PECUNIA REFECIT. POPULO VISCERATI | GLADIATORES DEDIT. LUMINA. LUDOS | I. S. M. R. SOLUS FECIT. [To Marcus Valerius, son of Marcus, aedile, dictator, prefect of the youth, the municipal citizens of Compitum of the five villages; because he cleaned three thousand paces of the conduit, rebuilt it, replaced the pipes, rebuilt at his own expense both the men's baths and the women's, gave the people a distribution of meat and gladiators; lights, games of I. S. M. R. he alone provided.] Ibid., no. 3324.. L. ABULIUS DEXTER | MACELLUM. PORTICUM. CHALCIDICUM | CUM SUIS ORNAMENTIS LOCO ET | PECUNIA SUA. [Lucius Abulius Dexter, the market, the portico, the chalcidicum, with their ornaments, on his own ground and at his own expense.] Ibid., no. 3287.. C. QUINCTIUS C. F. VALGUS | M. PORCIUS M. F. DUOVIR | QUINQ | COLONIÆ HONORIS | CAUSSA SPECTACULA DE SUA | PEC. FAC. COER. ET COLONEIS | LOCUM IN PERPETUUM DEDER. [Gaius Quinctius Valgus, son of Gaius, and Marcus Porcius, son of Marcus, quinquennial duumvirs, for the honour of the colony had the spectacle-seats built at their own expense and saw to it, and gave the place to the colonists in perpetuity.] Ibid., no. 3295.. M. AUREL | CHRESTUS | OB HONO | REM PATRO | NAT. COLL | FABR. COL | APUL. AD EX | TRUCTION | ÆTOMÆ | DED. HS. N. VI. [Marcus Aurelius Chrestus, for the honour of the patronate of the college of smiths of the colony of Apulum, gave HS. 6,000 for the construction of the pediment.] Ibid., no. 3296.. C. VOLUSIO VICTOR | I QUÆSTORI R. P. OC | RICULANORUM IIII | VIRI ÆDILES IIII VIRI JUR | E EDC. IIII QUIN. Q. CIVES ET | PLEBEI HOCE MERITO STAT | UAM HUIC POSUERUNT. Q. | UI TERMAS IEMALIS. AD PRISTI | NAM DIG. RESTAURAVIT ET | D. D. C. V. [To Gaius Volusius Victor, quaestor of the commonwealth of the people of Ocriculum, the quattuorviri aediles, the quattuorviri for pronouncing the law, the quinquennial quattuorviri, and citizens and plebeians, for this merit set up this statue to him, who restored the winter baths to their former dignity, and D. D. C. V.] Ibid., no. 3857.. T. FL. AVITO | FORENSIII | VIR. ITER. QQ. OMNIB | MUNERIBUS FUNCTO. HIC | IDEM AD LAVACRUM BALNEAR. PUBLICAR. LIGNI | DURI. VEHES. N. CCCC EN | THECÆ NOMINE IN PER | PETUUM OBTULIT ITA | TAMEN UT MAGISTRATUUS | QUODANNIS SUCCESSORIB | SUIS TRADANT FILIO | T. FL. AVITI V. E PATRON. COL | ORDO ET POPULUS. MISENAT. [To Titus Flavius Avitus, of the Forensis tribe, duumvir, again quinquennalis, having discharged all offices. This same man offered in perpetuity, for the washing of the public baths, 400 wagonloads of hard wood by way of pledged stock, yet on condition that the magistrates each year hand it on to their successors. To the son of T. Flavius Avitus, V. E., patron of the colony, the order and people of Misenum.] Ibid., no. 3772. Compare Le Blant, op. cit., p. 182.. Many more could certainly be cited, but these suffice to show how fittingly the things which Nicagoras in the Acts is reported to have said in commendation of Tertullus square with the persons and times.

[20] 6th in the interrogation of Mary; The questions and answers that next follow in the Acts both show a judicial form by their brevity, concision, and turns divided by that well-worn said, answered, and agree with the morals of those times. The same must be said of the judge's sentence, in which various distinctions of Tertullus are enumerated, such as suit a principal man of a city, and examples of which are found in the public inscriptions we have adduced above: Tertullus, praised by the public voice, to whom honour is to be paid either for his merits or for his birth, an excellent giver of shows, a distinguished senator, devoted alike to the emperor and to the deity, who has satisfied both the laws and the rites, whose images I myself have often beheld throughout the whole city, let him depart free (Passion I, no. 5.) — Next the terms customary in judgments are to be noted: I order this girl TO BE BROUGHT FORWARD to me, and so she stood, BROUGHT at last. Take a few out of many examples. Namely for offerri, in Le Blant: Paul, Sentences V, XXXIII, 9: "Who shall have brought forward to the magistrates (a guilty man) to be transmitted to the governor." — L. 9, §3, de offic. procons.: "From the level, however, the proconsul can threaten and terrify a son brought forward by his father" (Digest, I, XVI). — Tertullian, On Flight, 6: "Brought forward to the governor." — Acts of Sts. Claudius, Asterius: "The governor, sitting before the tribunal, said: Let the Christians be brought forward to my decree." — Acts of St. Quirinus: "Whom the governor Amantius through his office ordered to be brought forward to him in the theatre" Op. cit., pp. 150, 151.. For adduci: Ἐκέλευσε τὸν Παῦλον ἀχθῆναι: And he ordered Paul to be brought: Acts of the Apostles, XXV, 6.. Λοιπὸν προσαχθέντα αὐτόν: For the rest, him being brought Ruinart, Act. sinc., Acts of St. Polycarp, no. IX.. He ordered her to be brought privately … he ordered her to be brought with her sons Ibid., Passion of St. Felicitas, nos. I and II.. They were brought to the governor of Rome Ibid., Acts of St. Justin, no. I..

[21] 7th in the way in which the crowd behaves That shout too of the raging people: Let her be burned alive in harsh fire (Passion I, no. 5), fits well with that antiquity. In the very interrogation of Mary, although I should not think the longer speeches genuine, there are very many things which smack of antiquity. Asked her name, she professes not her name but her worship: I am a Christian. The governor said: Your master awaits you here, to bring either reward to the one confessing or punishment to the one resisting. Choose therefore what you will follow. To whom Mary most fittingly answers: He is master of the body, not of the soul. To whom the governor, with a mind especially Roman, for whom a slave was a thing, not a person: Why do you not, being a slave, follow the religion of your master? Many more things can be noted in the course of the interrogation which commend an ancient origin. But what we have brought forward sufficiently proves what we laid down from the start, that in these Acts many signs of ancient origin and as it were surviving lines of a genuine form are observed.

[22] Certain other things are suspect. It must nonetheless be admitted that from the interrogation of Mary onward there appear manifest signs of corruption, such as that silence of the astounded governor for a whole hour. Then the shout of the indignant ring of bystanders, so great, that because of a human voice the governor thought the very roofs were falling (Passion I, no. 11), is deservedly suspect. Although it could have happened, given the mutable inconstancy of the crowd, that those who had before demanded that she be burned alive in the fire should now be moved by pity for a most innocent girl torn by horrid tortures. But what is narrated toward the end about the outcome of the whole business, and about Mary enclosed in the opened bosom of a rock, about heavenly spectacles, and about the idolaters burned up in the temple with their gods, and about the relics, to a church of the Christians

fleeing and prostrate before the feet of the clerics, merit no credit. And as to the rock opening for the fleeing virgin, we are of the opinion that this prodigy was derived here from the fabulous Acts of Thecla, which are read among the works of Metaphrastes, just as a similar miracle seems to have been drawn from the same source into the Acts of St. Barbara. For in both, before the event is narrated, mention is made of Thecla. We do not reject this miracle because we do not believe that it could have been done, but because it is in no way established for us that it was done. God could certainly, who promised that even a mountain would go into the sea at the faith of one praying, and who at the prayer of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus moved a mountain from its place, open a rock for the reception of a virgin. But this part of the Acts indicates so clear a corruption of a later age that it ought to find no credit with a prudent man. I suspect that those threefold rocks obedient to fleeing virgins were devised by unskilled men to repel the mockery of the Gentiles, who charged the Christians with tepid faith, because they had never prayed with such faith as to drive a mountain into the sea, according to the Saviour's promise. According to the Acts Mary is to be thought to have met her death within the bosom of the rock, but her death is not explicitly narrated. Peter de Natalibus adds in his compendium that Mary's body was afterwards dug out of the rock and given an honourable burial: which I should willingly believe, although Peter said it on no authority.

§ III. Of the homeland of Mary; her memory in the martyrologies.

The title Neocorus In this place we must treat of the homeland of Mary, which various writers have tried variously to fish out from the following words of the Acts: But he, moved with anger as well as with wonder, ordered Philocomus, principalis of the Neocorensians' city (Passion I, no. 16). For from this some have called Mary Neocorensian. Yet nothing is contained in these Acts from which we can be led to finding the martyr's homeland and demonstrating the place of the contest beyond all doubt. Some have judged her of Nicomedia, others a Neocorensian, there is also one who judged her of Verona, led, as we think, by no other trace except the adjectival name Neocorensis or the name Neocorus, which, suspecting it to be a patronymic, they called Mary Neocorensian. Others, supposing the word to have been disturbed by the slip of an erring scribe, substituted for Neocorensian Nicomedian or Veronese. Neither were in the truth. For neocorus is not the name of a city, but of a public office and dignity. There were men who were neocori, and neocoran cities. Of which matter Fr. Geremia de' Bennetti, Capuchin, has discussed most learnedly and eruditely in his Chronology and Criticism of Profane and Sacred History. In part I, volume V of whose work, the seventh prolegomenon is wholly occupied with the neocoran cities and peoples, in East and West, sacred to asylum.

[24] common to many cities It is not for us in this place to go over the discussion of the most learned man, nor is there leisure to copy it out. It will suffice for our purpose to have shown by the examples brought forward what neocoran cities and neocoran men are. Neocoran were the cities in which there were temples dedicated to the tutelary deities of the whole people, and celebrated by the concourse of the whole province. Some cities are read as several times neocoran, because of several temples built and several concourses and festivals held. And not only because of temples and festive assemblies instituted in honour of the gods, but also because of Augusti placed among the heavenly ones, and festivals celebrated in their honour, cities were called neocoran. Let one or two examples chosen out of innumerable ones demonstrate the matter: From the shrine of Diana Ephesus was called neocoran; then from two temples, of Diana and Jupiter, twice neocoran, in Spon, Athenian Itinerary; from three, of Diana, Jupiter and Apollo, thrice neocoran on the coins of Caracalla, Geta and Gallienus; from four, of Diana, Jupiter, Apollo and Proserpina, four times neocoran on the coins of Caracalla and Gallienus, in Hardouin, p. 59 f. Geremia de' Bennetti, vol. cited, p. 13.. Dio Cassius reports that Nicomedia built a shrine to Commodus and instituted a festive contest, and so merited to be called neocoran by the senate; Laodicea too was called neocoran of the same Commodus by decree of the senate, as is read on coins of Commodus and Caracalla, in Spanheim Ibid., p. 34..

[25] and to men, From this neocoria, then, or care of temples, cities were called neocoran, and men neocori, as it were keepers of temples or sacristans. So the citizens of Laodicea gloried that they were Νεωκόρους Ἀσίας. In the city of Paneas, afterwards called Caesarea by Philip the Tetrarch, Herod built and dedicated a temple in honour of Augustus, as Josephus writes, Antiquities book 15, chapter 12, and On the Jewish War, book 1, chapter 16. From the temple this religion flowed into the city, and the citizens called themselves neocori of Augustus. This is clear from a coin of Augustus struck at Paneas, on which an image of the temple appears with the legend: Καισαρεων φιλιππολιτων Νεωκορων, in Occo, p. 71 and 82, Goltzius table 74, and Holstenius in the notes on Stephanus, p. 154 f. Ibid., p. 24.. The title Νεοκόρων was transferred to sacristans, that is, to the keepers of sacred buildings, of whom the inscriptions speak, no. 60 and 79, in Spon, Miscell. Erud. Antiq., Sect. 10, p. 1328 and 1343, Lapides Oxon. Part I, p. 148, other inscriptions in Reinesius, Class I, no. 290, and Gruter, p. 1102.2, p. 314.1, p. 85, no. 5 Ibid., p. 12..

[26] not the name of a city in which Mary can be believed to have suffered. These things being recalled to memory, if anyone needed it, it is clear that there is no reason why the name neocorus should be reckoned a patronymic, and so why our Mary should be said to be by origin a Neocorensian. Moreover, as Giorgi notes on Ado, at this day, no city or town of this name occurs among the ancients, except the village of Neocoria in Boeotia, and, if you like, the city of Neoris. But since from the Acts themselves it is not a city Neocoria, but a neocorus of a city that becomes known, it is not permitted to think of that village of Boeotia. Moreover it is clearly plain that Mary earned the crown of martyrdom not in some obscure village, but in a celebrated city. Others have called our martyr Nicomedian: so Peter de Natalibus in the shorter Acts of Mary. I suspect that this hagiologist designated Mary's homeland by conjecture rather than by any certain indication. If he thought that Nicomedian should be read for Neocorensis or Neocorus, he certainly strayed from the truth. But it may be that he called Mary Nicomedian for another reason. For in the Acts the city in which Mary the slave lived is called Caesarea, it being doubtful whether as the proper name of the city or as an adjective. Peter will have thought it said as an adjective, and so could believe that Nicomedia was designated. But the same Acts, which place the martyrdom of Mary under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, forbid Nicomedia to be understood by the name of the city of Caesarea. We therefore suspect that she suffered at Caesarea, although the Acts do not indicate where that Caesarea was situated. That it was distinguished by a college of neocori is clear from the Acts, and so that the city was neocoran. Caesarea Philippi, as we said above, was neocoran of Augustus. Yet beware of concluding from this that Mary suffered at Caesarea Philippi. For it may be that other Caesareas too were neocoran, whether of gods or of Caesars. But since in so obscure a matter one must not divine, out of many Caesareas I do not dare to prefer any.

[27] Martyrologies. How celebrated the cult of St. Mary was from ancient times is clear from the principal martyrologies. Exemplars of the Hieronymian have made mention of Mary. That of Lucca: and of St. Mary, martyr; that of Echternach: and elsewhere of St. Mary, likewise that of Bern. But in place of the contracted word Mart. the copyist wrote and Marte, thinking it concerned Mary and Martha the sisters. Ado adorned our Mary with this short eulogy (Kalends of November): Likewise the natal day of St. Mary the virgin, who, being a slave and fasting on the birthday of her master's son, and being in no way able to be bent to eat of things sacrificed to idols, first afflicted with hard blows, then harassed by long custody in prison, by stretching on the rack and tearing with claws, completed her martyrdom. Where it is to be noted that Ado thought Mary refused to eat the food because she thought it was things sacrificed to idols, which our Acts do not say. Usuard thus: The natal day of St. Mary the virgin, who, afflicted with dreadful blows, harassed by stretching on the rack and laceration with claws, consummated her martyrdom. Maurolico and Galesini report almost the same; but they ascribe the natal day of Mary to Nicomedia, following, I think, Peter, of whom we treated above. The Roman Martyrology has the following encomium of Mary: On the same day of St. Mary the slave, who, accused of the name of the Christian religion, under the emperor Hadrian, afflicted with dreadful blows, harassed by stretching on the rack and laceration with claws, completed her martyrdom. That Mary's martyrdom is assigned to the times of Hadrian, as Baronius too did in the Annals at the year 140, I should think was done from the common reading of the Acts. In the Labbe martyrology one reads of Marneia the virgin, which we certainly think with Giorgi, in the notes on Ado at this day, was put for Mary the virgin. In the Trier martyrology: Kalends of Nov., of Mary.

FIRST PASSION OF ST. MARY THE SLAVE

Mary, virgin and martyr. (S.)

BHL Number: 5422

FROM MSS.

For publishing this Passion of Mary, most blessed martyr of Christ, there came into use: 1. A Paris codex, from the national library, on parchment, in large folio, of the 12th century, no. 17006. — 2. A Paris one, from the national library, on parchment, in largest folio, of the 11th century up to fol. 60, the rest of the 13th century, no. 5304. The Passion of Mary, assigned to the third before the Ides of May, is read at fol. 470–490; from the word Adriano the initial letter A has been cut out. — 3. The Vienna one in Austria, from the Imperial library, on parchment, in large folio, of the 11th century, no. 377. — 4. The Brussels one, from the Royal Library, on parchment, in smaller folio, of the 12th century, no. 9810–14. — 5. Of Montpellier, on parchment, in largest folio, of the 13th century, no. 1. — 6. The Brussels one, from the Royal Library, on parchment, in large folio, of the 13th century, no. 207–8. — 7. A Paris one, from the national library, on parchment, in larger folio, of the 14th century, no. 5306. The Passion of Mary depends for the most part on codex no. 5304; it has this very strange title: Here begins the passion of St. Mary at the martyrs, which is observed on the third before the Ides of May. — 8. A transcript from a Trier codex, which is held in the Bollandian fascicle of the Royal Library of Brussels, no. 8929. — 9. A Paris one, from the national library, on parchment, in largest folio, of the 12th century, no. 16733; it belonged to Saint-Martin-des-Champs. — 10. A Paris one, from the national library, on parchment, in smaller folio, of the 13th century, no. 12612; it belonged to St. Germain-des-Prés, XII, from the books of the monastery of Corbie. — 11. A Paris one, from the national library, on parchment, in largest folio, of the 13th or 14th century, no. 5353. — 12. The text published by Baluze, in the Miscellanea, vol. I, p. 27 (Lucca 1761). Compare ibid., p. 75.

CHAPTER ONE.

St. Mary the slave, beaten by her master for the profession of the Christian faith; then, her master being called to law on her account but acquitted, she herself, brought before the governor, bravely confesses Christ.

Mary, slave of Tertullus princeps, The emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Antonius 7. sent a law through all the peoples whom they ruled, that all ut cuncti 4. men of the Christian law religionis 2 – 8, 12. ought deberent 4. to be compelled to sacrifices sacrificium 2., and the penalty of death be held out to rebels. So at that time (I. i. t.) It. t. i. 4. Mary, a proven sheep of the Lord Christi 2., suffered a singular martyrdom. For nam 3, 4, 6, 8. when she was the slave famula 8. of Tertullus Tertulii 6, Tertuli 7. princeps principalis 2 – 5, 7, 9, 12., she overcame vincens 12. the nobility of the flesh domini 2 – 4, 6 – 8, 12; adds meritis 6 – 8. by the benignity benignitatem 7. of her mind, and omits 12. proved probat 2, 5 – 9; probavit 4. herself freeborn to Christ Christi 5., as it is written: He who was called in the Lord Deo 12. as a slave (e. s.) s. e. 6. is a freedman (l. e.) e. l. 3. of the Lord domino 2, 7, 12.. So while Tertullus was celebrating his son's birthday natale 2, 3, 7., and immolating immolare 2. victims to the impure idols and vain variisque 2, 6 – 8. images, Mary was applying herself to fasts, and deceived her companion by secret simulation, lest she be betrayed to her mistress domino 7..

[2] refusing to break her fast Yet she could not long lie hidden, with a fellow slave lying in wait. Betrayed predita 2., she is soon called (m. v.) v. m. 7, 12. by her mistress domino 6., and it is said que added above the line in 9. to her: What is the cause of the fast? Is this occasion of sadness tristitia 7. ejus 1, 3., because quod 4, 9, 12. you shudder at perhorrescis 4; perhorresces 3; perhorrescit 2, 7, 12. the master Deum 12; (n. d.) d. n. 4. lately super 2, 7. born iratum 8. to you? Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 2, 3, 6 – 9, 12.: Am I now omits 6, 8, 9. taking up anything new novum 2 – 4, 7, 8, 12.? I devote hæc 7; adds hæc 8. must adds hæc 2 – 4, 6, 12; omits 7. always observe observata 4 – 7, 9, 12. fasts. How is that ascribed to sadness which quo 3. is kept for the sake of custom? I am a Christian, I am born noscor 6; added from 4, 5, 7, 9, 12. of Christian christiana 2, 6, 8. stock; this worship of Christ is hereditary to me (m. i. c. e.) e. m. i. c. 4.. Then, as her mistress domino 2, 7. commanded that she should take some food, Mary, full omits 2, 7. of the Holy Spirit (Sp. s.) s. Sp. 2, 3, 12., mindful of heavenly food, invoking God Domino 3., thus omits 6, 8. cried out adds dicens 6, 8. to her mistress (a. d.) omits 6, 8.: You can poteris 2, 6 – 9. command the body corpore 2., not the soul; God merits miseretur 2; miretur 9. more than your son. Let him be delighted dilectet 3. by base singing and obscene dancing, and whatever the diligent care of nurses nutricium 3. invents for the delights of little ones pravorum 2, 12.. But the worship vultus 2, 8, 9. of God is not vain and empty, but full adds est 9. of happiness and grace, and chastity is to be protected (que) omits 2 – 4, 12; est 9; tenenda 4., sobriety loved, food fled from (es. f. e.) omits 6, 8; est omits 7.. At this quæ 7, 8. the mistress, inflamed flammata 2, 6 – 8, 12. with indignation, promises her heavy blows, unless she obeys what is said dicta 2; dictui 4, and threatens inveniat 2; indixit 12. her ipsa 3; ipsi 7, 8; adds etiam 2 – 4, 9, 12., if she resists repugnaret 2, 7, 8; adds etiam 6 – 8., with the penalty of death. Do what you wish, she answered (F. q. v. i. r.) I. r. f. q. v. 2, 6 – 8, 12.; I choose adds enim 4, 6 – 8. to bear all things (p. o.) o. p. 2, 4, 5, 9. for Christ.

[3] beaten with scourges by her master she is handed over to prison. But while this contest of words was going on between the compelling omits 2, 6, 8. mistress and the resisting slave, Tertullus enters, returning from the forum foris 4, 8, 9; furore 7.. He, all matters being inquired into from his wife, at once omits 6 – 8. commanded cœpit 1, 5, 9. the slave omits 6 – 8., unheard et auditam 1, 3, 9., to be flogged flagellari 4, 6 – 8, 12., and, afflicted with lasting diuturno 2, 7, 8. beating in a hidden part of the member [(in a. m. p.) in a. m. parti 5; i. addimta m. p. 7; i. a. carceris præcepit after an erasure 9; omits 6, 8.], to be thrust detrudit 3, 6 – 8; omits 2. into prison, a little mean food omits 1 – 3, 6 – 9. being administered, by which quod 2. not omits 7. hunger should be satisfied satiaretur 4., but the last part of her failing deficiens 3, 6 – 9. soul should be preserved servaretur 4. daily. But the mind devoted to Christ could not be broken by this pain; indeed et 7, 8. she applied herself to daily prayers, that she might have the ability to endure greater major 3, 4, 6, 8. things.

[4] [Tertullus, for hiding a Christian, is brought to the tribunal, and the law being recited] And when thirty days had passed, it is reported adnuntiatur 2, 12. to the governor that Tertullus, principalis principem 6, 8. of that ipsius 12. city civitatem 2., was hiding in his house a slave of the Christian religion; which the precepts of the emperors forbade. At once Tertullus is brought to the tribunal, and omits 1, 5, 9. the foremost men being summoned advocatis 4., a ring coronam 2. of the crowd viri 7. too standing by, the governor ordered the law to be reread recitari 2, 3, 12; recitare 4, 6 – 8. from the codex; of which this hac 12. is the form: Maximianus ^a, Hadrian and omits 12. Antoninus Antonius 6., pious adds et 3, 6 – 8., fortunate, Augusti Augustorum 7., to all living under omits 2, 4, 7 – 9, 12. our law (n. j.) j. n. 3, 6, 8, 9; nostris jure 2, 12; nostris in jure 7., greeting. There has come to us a variety of religion lately invented inventum 2, 12. by certain persons. For omits 2, 6 – 8. there are said to be some to whom neither sacrifices are at heart cordis 2; concordia 1, 5, 9., nor that iste 4. worship which we practise; through whom without doubt, unless the dread of punishment quickly comes to our aid, all the belief crudelitas 1, 3, 5 – 8. of antiquity antiqua 2, 7, 9, 12; antiquitas 1, 5. will be obliterated obliterata 5. and the veneration veteratio 3, 6, 8. of our ancestors extinguished extinguetur 1.. We give therefore itaque 2, 4, 5, 12. to all peoples this law, and we set forth these edicts edita 2, 7; dicta 3, 6. to be observed observandam 8. by each judge, that each person be compelled to sacrifice, and that rebels be struck with the avenging sword. For we have preferred malumus 4, 5; malimus 12. that few be killed rather than (quam-quis igitur) omits 8. that all be deceived by error (e. d.) errare 2 – 4, 6, 7, 12., nor atque 6. that they omits 2 – 4, 6, 7, 12. wander vacare 2, 7. through ut 2 – 4, 6, 7, 12. various ways pecora 2 – 4, 6, 7, 12., but rather be of one opinion scientiæ 7.. If anyone therefore shall think that anyone aliquid 5, 9. of whatever age or sex of this law or worship is to be hidden, let him himself omits 5. by the sword breathe out exhalat 2, 6 – 9. his spirit, which fights against the laws (l. r.) omits 6 – 8.; and let his property be brought imperantur 2. to the advantage of the fisc; and vero 6 – 8. let the informer deletor 1, 7, 8. of so great a crime rejoice glorietur 7, 8. in a payment of four hundred denarii from the public treasury, that all may acknowledge that neither sin nor reward perishes præterire 6, 8..

[5] he is defended in the name of the foremost men; So when this et 2. constitution had been read, the governor præsens 1, 4, 7, 8, 12. said to those standing around circumsistentes 3.: What am I sumus 4. to do about these things facturi 4; (a. i. f.) f. a. i. 7, 8.? Can we resist these precepts? The chiefs of the curia answered, saying: Deign to hear us more humanely humanus 2.. Then the governor orders what was said to be written down. There rose itaque adds 6 – 8. the advocate Nicagoras Nigagores 2; Nitagoras et 4; Nigagoras 7; Cicagorus 8.. As he was skilled in speech and omits 7; (et-loquitur) dicens 6, 8. an artist in speaking, taking up the person of all omni 3., with public voice omits 7. he speaks thus: Supreme morning star (L. s.) s. L. 6 – 8., light of the whole city and people, we pray that omits 5, 9. you hear us more benignly benignus 6.. This man, adorned with many public functions and the splendour of birth, gives great aid to our curia. He has been pontiff of the Augusti, moreover munerarius numerarius 1, 6 – 8. of the city; then studio 10. thereafter inde 10., undertaking præfuit 6 – 9; suscepit 3. very many embassies for the public benefit, he has gained for himself as much glory as love. Moreover magis 2, 12. the commonwealth has been increased by his great largesses que 6 – 8.; he spread an unlimited infinitarum 2, 7, 12. measure omits 2, 12. of his money on various buildings and on the heating calefactione 2 – 4. of baths. There are also other greater things multa 6 – 8. which to enumerate

is long perlongum 2 – 4, 9, 12.. For the first time of life, in which slippery life omits 6 – 8. and tender years are flamed flammatur 4. with youthful juvenalis 2. 3, 7. heat, obeying divine religion he conquered his age et 4., and magnæ 4. with the bridle of moderation moderationes 6. overcame the right jura 4, 5, 9, 12; vis 7. of nature natura 2. itself. But when, graver graviori 5. with age, he began to be of riper counsel, believing that he had satisfied omits 1, 3, 6 – 8. the divine precepts, he found also something to please the people. So he paid the shows of the auspicating year, and with great spectacles exspectaculis 1, 3, 6 – 8, 9. provided by his own means he sated sociavit 2. the common communis 4. sight of the whole people. He completed very many distinctions of contests in a 1, 5. the Caesarian Cæsarea 2 – 4, 5 – 10, 12. city; emulating æmulas 2, 4, 12. too, he did not refuse the citizens proprias 6 – 8. the pleasures of the battle of gladiators gladiatoribusque 6 – 8. fighting among themselves dimicantibus 6 – 8.; his own necessities omits 6 – 8. and omits 2, 12. gains coming to his household re 2, 12. familiari 2, 12. he always believed (s. c.) c. s. 6 – 8. should be set after his country. So omits 7, 8. he has pleased the gods omits 2, 12. with his priesthood, the city civitatis 2, 3, 6; (m. c.) c. m. 7, 8. with his shows. Then tum 4., what is greatest, a young priest taught docuit 7, 8. that age suam adds 2, 12. is conquered vincit 2; vicit 12., and omits 2, 12. showed that pleasure voluntatem 2. is not to be rejected in graver years.

[6] then he is questioned by the governor about the case of Mary, The governor [From here also for codd. 2, 7, 9, only the principal variant readings have been noted.] præfectus 12. said dixit 4, inquit 12. to the advocate: You who quid 3, 4, 6, 8; omits 12. recall adds et 4; nec 6, 8. the ornaments incrementa 6, 8; ortamenta 12. of past præterea 3; omits 6, 8. action, do you not omits 1, 6, 8. repel refellis 4. the crime which is charged? The advocate answered (r. a.) a. r. 3, 8.: This girl omits 8. , whose crimes scelere dominus perurgetur ut dotalia instrumenta 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. are being shown demonstrant 3, 4, 6, 8, 12., was given by his wife [adds præfecto ingeniti tituli nobilitatis 3, 6, 8; to these moreover adds uxor illius 3.]. The governor (Præses-eximiæ) omits 6, 8. said: Is the wife of Tertullus freeborn? The advocate answered (R. a.) A. r. 3.: Freeborn, indeed of outstanding nobility. For namque 3, 4, 6, 12. she is born of the father Elionides Cleonide 4, 9 – 12; Clionide 3. ^b. The governor præfectus 12. said ait 12.: Was this slave bought, or by house-born vernaculi educatione 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. rearing suscepta 3, 4, 6, 8, 12.? Tertullus said: She seems indeed to have been born in the house, but her parents came to us added from 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. by purchase. The governor præfectus 12. said dixit 6, 8; ait Tert. 4. to Tertullus Tertullio 3.: Is your father-in-law alive, or has he already departed from this light? Tertullus answered (r. T.) Tertullius respondit 3.: He has already fulfilled the gift of fate. The governor præfectus 2, 12; (Præses-defuncti sunt) omits 3, 6. said: Do the parents of that contumacious slave survive? Tertullus answered: They are dead. The governor præfectus 2, 12. said: Were they of this lost religion, or did they pay vows to the gods? Tertullus answered (r. T.) T. r. 6, 8, 12.: Of the same eadem 4. madness vesania 4.; for omits 4. they worshipped the crucified one. The advocate said dixit 3, 6.: What nunc 3, 6, 8. torments have not been brought on this omits 3, 8. girl, that she might depart from this superstition? But omits 4, 5, 12. she could never be ne 1; sed ne 4. softened mulcieri 8. or nec 12. bent. For the greater the torments were, so much the more stubbornly her mind endured.

[7] and after a deliberation held he is acquitted. To this the governor, a lengthy deliberation being held, at length brought forth adds tractatam diu cogitatamque 2 – 6, 12; tractam d. c. 2; t. d. cognitamque 9. sentence, saying: Tertullus, praised laudatur 8, 12. by the public voice, to whom honour is to be paid either for his merits or for his birth, an excellent giver of shows omits 6, 8; edictor 5; edictorum 9. , a distinguished senator, devoted alike to the emperor imperii 2, 12. and to the name communitati vel numinibus 4., who has satisfied satisfacit 3, 6. at once omits 4, 5, 9. both the laws and the rites; whose images I myself too (e. i.) i. e. 6, 8. have often beheld throughout the whole world urbem 2, 12; (om. or.) or. om. 3., let him depart free. Let him fear no false accuser, let him dread no judge, while omits 9. all these things are made known to the sacred ^c ears adds dum 9.; but I order this most wicked girl to be brought forward afferre 8. to me adds in publicum 4, 5, 9; in publico 12., that at once the fault may have its punishment and the people an example. For itaque 4, 6, 12; ita 5. the mind devoted to Christ is soon handed over to the executioners; and the more quanto 4, 12. it is cast down despicitur 3, 6, 8, 12; decipitur 4. by the feminine sex and girlish frailty, so much the more adds femina 4. it is lifted up by the virtue of Christianity.

[8] Mary, brought forward, invokes Christ So she stood, brought at last; and though she stretched tetenderet 3. her eyes toward the judge, yet she had her mind animam 4. on Christ. A clamour of the raging people is raised on all sides. They said dicentis 4, 12; dicens 6, 8.: Alive vah 3, 6. let her be burned in harsh fire. But she, fearless, as one omits 3, 6. who qui 2. knew reddat 2. the help of her God, gazing at heaven thus cried out: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, sure salvation of men, Only-begotten genitus 4. of the Only, whose nature no one can worthily comprehend or whose power relate, not angels adds non archangeli 3, 6, 8, 12., not thrones, not authorities potentiæ 2, 9, 12., not powers (pot. n. v.) v. n. potentiæ 3, 4; (n. v.) omits 9. , not stars, not constellations (n. a. n. s.) omits 12., not cherubim, not seraphim; for all things were made through you, Christ omits 6., and without you nothing was made; who alone know the Father, and whom the Father alone knows agnoscit 4, 6, 8, 12.; Lord, saviour of souls (D. s. a.) adesto mihi 6, 8; adds adesto mihi 2 – 5, 9, 12., who sicut 2; omits 12. have always been present for all te diligentibus 6, 8.; for there is no other defender: let all acknowledge your power, Lord, and let them observe advertatur 12. that he whom you love cannot be harmed (nec enim alius-diligis) omits 6, 8..

[9] and she confesses the Christian religion; At adversus 6, 8. this the governor, astounded for a whole hour, at length asks what she was called. Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 6, 8, 12.: Why adds meum 3. do you ask my name adds meum 6, 8. and say nothing about the law? That ought adds enim 6, 8. to be the reason of questioning (p. e.) e. p. 3, 6, 8. which is called to the charge; for my (m. r.) natura mihi 4; natura 3, 6, 8. name has not made facit 12; fecti 3; facti 6, 8. me guilty, but my worship. Secure secure 6, 8; secuturæ 2, 3; sævituræ 12. then I will answer respondeo 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. your question beforehand: I am a Christian. The governor said dixit 3, 6, 8.: Your master awaits you here, to omits 12. bring either reward to the one confessing or punishment to the one resisting (r. i.) i. r. 3, 4, 6, 8, 12.. Choose therefore what quod 6, 8. you will follow. Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 3, 6, 8, 12.: He is master (i. e. d.) e. i. d. 6, d. e. i. 2 – 4, 12, e. d. i. 5, 9. of the body corporeus 4., not of the soul. The governor said dixit 3, 6.: Why adds ad 3., being a slave, do you not follow sequaris 3. the religion of your master? Mary answered (corporis-Maria) omits 8; (r. M.) M. r. 2, 3, 6, 12.: I am a Christian; I have an understanding of wisdom (s. h.) h. s. 6, 8., and I know what belongs to reason; I despise images without sense; I adore him who made me, not what quæ 4. I myself have constructed. The governor said dixit 6, 8.: From what succession successatione 3. has this vanity of religion come to you? Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 2, 3, 6, 8, 12.: Formed by omits 12. my parents majoribus 2 – 4, 12. I so believe (præses ait ex-credo) omits 8.. The governor said: Were your parents adds quoque 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. of this opinion sectæ 4.? Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 3, 6, 8, 12.: They always remained permanserunt 8, 9. in this religion.

[10] to which she affirms she will be faithful. The governor said dixit 8.: Did you, as you say, take up this madness of believing before Deucalion diu caligionem 2, 7, 10; deculionem 8. ^d? Rather confess sacrifica 3, 4, 6, 8, 12., that omits 3, 6, 8. you may omits 4, 9. free both yourself and your master exues 6; erue 8. from guilt. Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 3, 6, 8, 12.: For omits 6, 8. what equality is there between the heavenly Lord and a sinful handmaid familiam 1.,

or whom quam 1. can she fear adds qui illum non timet 3, 8., by whose nod adds nos 3, 4, 6, 8. all things and the elements themselves are ruled? Whatever quoslibet 12. crosses cruciatus 12. then enim 3, 6, 8. I may bear, they will seem videntur 12. most sweet dulcissimi 12. for the love of our omits 4, 5, 9, 12. Lord Jesus Christ, who gives help here, but there will return reddit 6, 8; adds et 6, 12. the reward. He has strengthened us vero 1, 5, 9. through his apostle Paul omits 6. 8. against the weapons of all who lie in wait, saying: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? tribulation or distress, or persecution adds an fames an nuditas 3; an fames an spoliatio 4, 12; an fames 6, 8., or danger (a. p.) omits 6, 8., or the sword adds an nuditas an periculum 6, 8.? Hence is that invincible strength robor 3. adds hinc 4, 12., the indestructible soul and the mind more lofty sublimilior 3. in omits 4. the very bitterness acervitate 3. of pains, that these things (s. i.) i. s. 6, 8. which qualia 12. we suffer have been foretold prædicata 3, 6, 8. to us, and that the rewards which we hope for (q. s.) omits 3 – 5, 9, 12. are greater than the pains. Since then there is nothing which ought to separate us (s. n.) n. s. 6, 8. from Christ, I call to witness adds enim 12. him whom I love, that I shall remain permansuram 3, 6, 8. in his fear and in his ea 4, 12. confession, and tortured I shall leave earthly things and hasten to heavenly ones. The governor said: Sacrifice, if you are hastening to escape torments. Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 6, 8, 12.: The torments which you threaten are neither of long time nor of grave pain (g. d.) graves dolores 3, 6, 8.. I ask therefore that you do not delay what you are contriving. I have Christ and from there ideo 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. I fear nothing.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER TWO.

After most bitter torments, at the people's request she is handed over to free custody; fleeing she is received within the sides of an opened rock. Of her pursuers some are killed by the terror of heavenly power, others burned up by fire sent from heaven; the rest are converted.

The people take pity on Mary, Then at the order jussus 1. of the governor, applied to the torments tormento 4., she obtained so great a compassion of the people that tears too were shed by those standing around. Without delay, with the highest shout, pardon is demanded for the virgin; but the cruelty of the judge commanded jubet 8. that the torments be hastened accelerare 4. And behold, a second voice (v. s.) s. v. 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. of the people emerged emergit 12. rebuking grassantis 1, 5, 9. the governor's judgment: for there was almost one outcry of the whole ring of bystanders, that the virgin was being unjustly torn by the cruelty of the judge, not by the fault of sin peccantis 12.; that all things were being done against the laws, and the rights of equity were not being kept. And the governor, astonished and given over adstrictus 6, 8. to the sound of so great a clamour, as one omits 6. who quod 3, 6; quo 8; omits 12. thought that because of præter 5, 12. a human voice even the very roofs (e. i.) i. e. 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. were falling, soon commanded Mary to be loosed (et ecce secunda-præcepit) omits 2..

[12] reproaching the judge with cruelty. And when adds se 4, 5, 9. he believed that he had satisfied the clamours (s. c.) satis clamoribus fecisse 4., now secure he addresses the people: Whence is this omits 3, 4, 6, 8., O omits 3. citizens, the insanity of so great an outcry? why do you make a din strepitis 3, 6, 8.? why omits 6, 8. do you stand in the way instatis 3, 4, 6, 8, 9.? or is it that the precepts of the emperors imperatorem 3. should be violated (p. v.) præceptum violetur 3, 6, 8. and adds ut 4. crimes go unpunished? To an 1, 5. this the people exclaimed: No one violently violenter 3, 9. opposes extimet opponendas 4. his hands against omits 3, 6, 8. the divine laws. Their sacred majesty ^a has decreed that each should either sacrifice or be subject to capital sentence adds si 6, 8.. This girl does not sacrifice; let her receive the penalty which quam 3. is contained continentur 3; continent 6, 8. in the decree decreta 3, 6, 8.. Why is she pressed with divers tortures and exquisite kinds of pains? You have been ordered jussa 3. to kill her, not to consume her by tearing. Certainly if you willingly apply your mind to our petition, grant it, and omits 3, 6, 8; ei 4, 9. we ask for three days, in which, doing agens 8. penance pœnitentia 3., she may perhaps omits 8; sorte 6. depart from this persuasion This whole number omits 2, 12..

[13] Mary, interceding for Tertullus, is handed over to free custody. Assenting, the governor said to the people (p. a.) a. p. 8.: Behold, we do not deny negatur 3, 4, 6, 8. the requested space omits 3, 6, 8.; you persuade persuadere 1. by blandishments what I could not by fear. And he said to Mary: If this three-day period is not denied you (non n.) condonatur 4; condonamus 5, 9., you do not refuse sacrifice? Mary answered (r. M.) M. r. 6, 8.: What is best I hold timeo 6, 8., I do not seek human indulgence. The governor said: Behold, I have granted the space for which I was asked. After this omits 3, 4. three-day period, if you persist in this fury, know scite 3. that you are to be subjected efficiendam 8. to all torments. Mary answered (M. r.) r. M. 3, 4, 9.: If any care for my benefit (m. u.) u. m. 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. moves sollicitet 3, 8. you, excellent governor, I ask opto 8. a gift omits 3; id unum 3, 6, 8. magnanimously omits 6, 8., that you hold jubeas 3, 6, 8. Tertullus my master free aligenum 8. from ad 3. this omits 3, 6, 8. fault, and that, requested by me (a. m. p.) omits 6, 8., you absolve by the authority of your sentence adds tuæ 4. one whom no nullius 4. fault of this case cursæ 3. stains. The governor said dixit 3, 6, 8.: He is already omits 6, 8; tam 3. absolved and free; but you, if, bent by my words, you bring fueris 6, 8. yourself omits 6, 8. over to the better part, will have both the rewards of remuneration and the insignia of freedom. Mary answered (M. r.) r. M. 4, 5, 9.: I omits 8; ergo 3. have already omits 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. merited freedom from Christ; these things which you promise are frail (Annuens præses-promittis) omits 12.. Then the governor orders jussit 6, 8; this whole number omits 2. her to be kept servare 4. in free omits 3, 6, 8. ^b custody in 6, 8..

[14] Fleeing, she sees heavenly things and prays, And Mary fortified herself with the sign of God Domini 4, 6, 8, 12., and with her eyes lifted to heaven (a. c. o.) o. in cœlum 6, 8., after the tribunal was left she thus omits 12. prayed to the Lord (a. D.) dicens 6, 8.: I have lifted my eyes in your holy (s. t.) omits 6, 8. mountain montes 6, 8., and behold, help adds affuit 6, 8. for me from the Lord who made heaven and earth (a Domino-terram) omits 6, 8.. And as she said this and was stepping along the road as if fleeing (ad Dominum-graderetur) omits 12; (et per viam-graderetur) omits 3, 4, 6, 8., she saw a battle-line of angels and archangels, she saw atque 12. the holy prophets and apostles adds vidit martyres 4, et martyres 6, 8., she saw et 6, 8. her sister adds suam 3, 4, 6, 8. Thecla, she saw also cherubim and seraphim (et archang-seraphim) multitudinem sanctorum 12., and atque 12. the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father, and hinc 12. she was suddenly suffused with such gladness that she thought she had now etiam 4. entered paradise (p. i.) i. p. 12.. But those who were pursuing her in her flight stood astounded stuperunt 4. at the sudden subita 6, 8; subito 12. power virtute 6, 8, 12.; but when she saw herself (s. i.) i. s. surrounded by her pursuers, weeping lacrymis 6, 8. she cried out exclamavit 8; (Maria vero signo-clamavit) illa vero orabat 2. to the Lord, saying omits 3, 4, 12.: Lord Jesus Christ, who in the furnace of fire preserved the three boys, who freed Daniel from the den of lions, who ordered Jonah to be safe incolamen 3. in the womb of the beast, who gave sight to the blind (Domine Jesu-cæco) Deus omnipotens qui 2, 12., speech to the mute, hearing to the deaf, who are to come in glory (v. i. g.) i. g. v. 4. to judge the living and the dead (qui es venturus-mortuos) omits 6, 8., receive

my soul from me (a me) omits 2; amen 12., for many dogs (c. m.) vane m. 5; m. c. 3. have pursued (p. s.) persequuntur 2 – 4, 6, 8, 12. me omits 3., and do not ne 2, 4. permit your handmaid to be handed over omits 6, 8. [adds et lacerari manibus in piorum sed ostende misericordiam tuam cito et exaudi ancillam tuam 2; so also 3, but before lacerari omits et, and audi for exaudi; also 4, but omits cito et; also 12 but ostendens for ostende, before exaudi omits et; lacerari manibus impiorum sed exaudi me cito ostendens mihi misericordiam tuam 6, 8.]. Hear, Lord, heavenly King (e. D. r. c.) omits 6, 8..

[15] a rock being opened she is received and hidden. While she was engaged in such prayer, and renouncing the world was longing for the quiet of death (et renuntians-exoptat) omits 6, 8., looking at a rock which lay before her eyes (e. o.) o. e. 3, 4, 6, 12., she made a spectacle spectaculum 6, 8, 12. worthy of memory memoria 12.. For that rock, which either vel 1. chance had brought or the divinity had appointed destinata 1; destinaret 3; destinarit 12., opened at God's command, showed a cleft of refuge in which the virgin might be received, and like a most sweet nurse or dear mother, with a certain motion (m. q.) q. moto 3, 6; q. modo 8., it gave præbuit 3, 9, 12; (s. t.) omits 6, 8. itself embracing amplexa 3, 4, 9; amplexans 12; amplexa est 6, 8; amplexeram 5. Mary anxiam 3, 6, 8, 12., as if about to receive its dear offspring into its sweet womb (quasireceptura) omits 6, 8., and soon, the virgin virginem 3, 6, 8; virginis 1, 10. being received susceptam 3, 6, 8., closed the sides which had before ante 4; ante eam 3, 6, 8. been open. When the executioners saw viderent 4. this, they searched all the places of that rock, to see if somewhere the prey suddenly omits 6, 8. snatched reperta 3, 6, 8. from their eyes (e. o. p.) p. e. o. 4. was lying hidden delatitaret 3.. There ibi 3, 4, 12; ibique 6, 8. they detect clinging remains of her clothing and fragments frustra 1, 3, 6, 8, 9. of garments omits 4; vestigia 1, 9. attached adds saxo 3, 6, 8, 12; (r. e. a.) omits 4., and thrown into confusion by incredible stupor they at once report commemorant 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. what had been done rem gestam 4. to the governor præside 3..

[16] While the enemies seek her out, prodigies shine forth. But he, moved with (A. i. c.) Ille vero partim ira partim 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. wonder, ordered Philocomus Philicomo 6., principalis of the city of the Neochorenae neochorentium 5, neochorensium 2 – 4, 6, 8 – 10, 12. ^c, to go in haste to the aforesaid place, and to lead with him a numerous multitude to dig out diruendum 4. the stone. At once by the herald's voice the people are gathered. When there ubi 4, 6, 9, 12. first it arrived at the aforesaid place adds reliquias et affixa saxo vestium 4., with him to whom the chief charge of this majoris 12. work had been fuerit 12. assigned, as soon as adds ut 4. they tried sed 6, 8. to lay injecere 1, 6, 8. hand on the stone, at once from the east (a. o.) ad orientem 4. an excessive nimis 3; nimii 4, 6, 8, 9, 12. brightness of splendour arose. Without delay (n. m.) etiam 4; et cum 6, 8., thunder cum tonitruo 6, 8. and a certain crash resounded omits 3; adeo erupit 4., so that all things were expected to collapse. At once statimque 4; (et fragor-statim) omits 6, 8. the earth was shaken, and the tottering steps of all gave way adds et 6, 8.. And behold also omits 6, 8, 9, 12. two duos 1. horsemen, radiant with great brightness, coming from the heavenly cœlestia 3. seat, make for the earth with excessive flight (v. n.) cito v. 6, 8; transvolatu n. 12.; whose saddles sella 12; astile 6, 8; stile 2. and omits 6, 8. bridles adds et omnis ornatus ad instar lampadarum 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. glowed with heavenly fire.

[17] By the terror of these many die, others are burned up in the temple. When all that multitude which had come saw these hoc 8., it was so terrified with fear of so omits 6, 8; causa 12. present a power, that, sense and soul fleeing fugientes 3. together, their eyes were closed in eternal death (i. æ. m.) æterna morte 4.. But the rest who had escaped evaserunt 3., fleeing fugiebant 6, 8. to the profane images of the temple, as they were entering to the wicked altars, fell in the very seat of their refuge (s. c.) c. s. 3; (cum ad scelesta-ceciderunt) et 6, 8.. Neoquirus Neocarus 3; Neocorus 4, 6, 8, 12; adds this gloss: vel Philocomus etiam 4. gave out fudit 4 – 5, 9, 12. his spirit at ad 3, 4, 12. the very ipsam 3, 4, 12. door januam 3, 4, 12. of the temple. And when the whole temple was filled, fire sent from e 3, 4, 12. heaven burned up at once the people and the temple. So there perished with their gods the army of vain cruelty credulitatis 5, 12. adds et 3, 4, 6, 8, 12.; the more deities nomina 1, 5, 9. they had fuerunt 6, 8. there tibi 1., so much the greater fuel of burning incendio 12. was supplied for the increase of the fire. Let them impute then to their sins that they were burned, and to the number of the gods that they were burned longer. So the number (f. n.) n. f. 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. of the manifold death, both of those struck and of those burned, was two thousand six hundred septingenti 2 – 4, 6 – 8, 11, 12..

[18] The rest are converted And the few who had escaped, making for repetentes 3, 8, 9. the city, cried out with loud voices along the whole road: Great is the God of Mary, great is the God of the Christians. Truly this God alone adds est 4. is also just. Then prostrate on the floor of the church, clasping contingente 4. the knees of the clerics clericorumque 4., they both begged pardon for the past præteritam 3, 6, 8, 9. and asked help for the present præsens 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12.. And adds Christo 8. about three omits 12. thousand ferme 1. souls omits 3, 6, 8. believed, terrified perterritæ 3, 4, 6; perterrita 8, 9. by that fear in eum 12., and omits 6, 8. remained manserunt 3, 4, 8, 12. in our religion. So all persecution after the passion of St. Mary rested at these miracles (h. m.) hoc miraculum 3, 6, 8. adds ipso adjuvante qui vivit et regnat in secula. Amen. 4..

ANNOTATA.

SECOND PASSION OF ST. MARY THE SLAVE

from a Utrecht codex collated with Mombritius.

Mary, virgin and martyr. (S.)

BHL Number: 5424 a

Mary, slave of Tertullus, refusing to break her fast, Under [Thus 2 begins: Adrianus imperator legitur Antonium sibi adoptasse in filium, qui etiam postea eidem successit in imperium. Itaque sub] the emperors omits 2. Hadrian and Antoninus Antonio 2. the blessed virgin Mary is read to have suffered. She was the slave of Tertullus principalis, but she overcame the nobility of her omits 2. master by the benignity of her mind, and proved probat 2. herself freeborn to Christ. So while Tertullus was celebrating a birthday adds filii 2., and immolating victims to most impure impuris vanisque 2. images, Mary was applying herself to fasts, and deceived her companion by secret simulation, lest she be betrayed to her omits 2. mistress. Yet, with a fellow slave lying in wait i. c. 2., she could not long lie hidden, and omits 2. being betrayed she is soon called by her mistress. Who says (q. d.) diciturque. to her: What is the cause of the fast? Is this occasion of sadness because you shudder at the master lately angered at you? Mary answered: Am I now taking up anything new? Have these fasts not always been observed by me m. s.? I am a Christian, I am born of Christian stock; this worship of Christ is hereditary to me. Then, as her mistress commanded that she should take some food, she refused. Whence quare 2. the mistress, indignant, threatened heavy blows and even the penalty of death, if she resisted indixit 2..

[2] she is beaten and thrust into prison. But [ac.] while dum. this contest of words was going on between the compelling mistress and the resisting slave, Tertullus enters, returning from outside. He, all matters r. o. 2. being inquired into from his wife, at once commanded the slave, unheard, to be flogged, and, afflicted with lasting beating, to be thrust into prison d. i. c. 2., a little omits 1. mean food being administered, by which hunger should not be satisfied, but the last part of her failing soul should be preserved daily. But the mind devoted to Christ could not be broken by this pain, indeed quando 2. she applied herself to daily prayers, that the ability to endure might be greater e. m..

[3] Brought before the judge, she refuses to sacrifice. And when thirty decemnovem 2. days had passed lapsis 2., it is reported to the governor that Tertullus, principalis of that city, was hiding in his house a slave of the Christian religion, which the precepts of the emperors forbade. So she stood, brought at last, and though she stretched her eyes toward the judge, yet she had her mind on Christ. A clamour of the raging people is raised on all sides, saying: Alive let her be burned in harsh fire. But she, fearless, as one who knew the help of her God,

help, gazing at heaven cried out to the Lord. The governor said a. p. 2.: Sacrifice, if you are hastening to escape torments. Mary answered: The torments which you threaten are neither of long time nor of labour. I ask therefore that you do not delay what you are contriving (nec longi-moliris) non longe differas 2.. I have Christ, therefore I fear nothing.

[4] [Harassed by torments, as the people take pity she is handed over to free custody.] Then at the order of the governor, applied to the torments, she obtained so great a compassion of the people that tears too were shed by those standing around. Without delay, with the highest shout, pardon of the virgin is demanded; but the cruelty of the judge commanded that the torments be hastened. And behold, a second voice of the people emerges rebuking the governor's judgment. For there was almost one u. p. 2. outcry of the whole ring of bystanders, that the virgin was being unjustly torn by the cruelty of the judge, not by the fault of the sinner; that all things were being done against the laws, and the rights of equity were not being kept. But the governor, astonished, and led addictus 2. by the sound of so great a clamour, as one who because of præter 1. a human voice thought that even the very roofs omits 1. were falling, soon commanded Mary to be loosed. Then the governor omits 2. orders her to be kept in free custody.

[5] Fleeing she is received by an opened rock. And Mary fortified herself with the sign of the Lord, and with her eyes lifted to heaven, after the tribunal was left, she prayed to the Lord, and saw a battle-line of angels and omits 2. a multitude of saints, and the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father. Hence she was suddenly s. g. 2. suffused with such gladness that she thought she had now entered paradise. But those who were pursuing her in her flight stood suddenly astounded at the power of God omits 2.. But when she saw herself surrounded by her pursuers, weeping she cried out to the Lord: Do not permit, she said, Lord, your handmaid to be handed over and torn by the hand manibus 2. of the impious, but show your mercy. Quickly hear your handmaid; hear, Lord, heavenly King. And as she so prayed, a rock which lay before her eyes, opened at God's Domino 2. command, showed a cleft of refuge profugii 2. in which the virgin might be received, and like omits 2. a most sweet nurse or dear mother, with a certain motion, it gave itself embracing the anxious girl. And soon, the virgin being received, it closed the sides which had before been open.

[6] Those pursuing her, by heavenly sights When the executioners saw this Hoc 2., they searched all the places of that rock, to see if somewhere the prey suddenly snatched erecta 2. from their eyes p. e. o. 2. was lying hidden. There they detect clinging remains of her clothing and fragments frustra 2. of garments attached to the rock, and thrown into confusion by incredible stupor they report what had been done to the governor. But he, moved partly with anger, partly with wonder, ordered Philoxomius, principalis of the city of the Netronenses Veronensium 2. ^b, to go in haste to the aforesaid place, and to lead with him a numerous innumerosam 2. multitude to dig out the stone. At once by the herald's voice the people are gathered. When first it arrived at the aforesaid place, with him to whom the chief charge of this work had been assigned, soon they tried to lay hand on the stone. At once from the east an excessive brightness of splendour arose, and nec mora 2. thunder adds et 1, 2., a certain crash, so that all things were expected to collapse. At once too the earth was shaken, and the tottering steps of all gave way statim-omnium corruere omits 2. adds auditus est 2.. There Ecce 2. two horsemen, radiant with great brightness, coming from the heavenly seat, make for the earth with excessive flight v. n. 2.; whose saddles, bridles and all adornment glowed with heavenly fire like lamps.

[7] some are killed, others burned up; the rest are converted. When all that multitude which had come together saw these things, it was so terrified with fear adds causa 2. of the present power, that, sense and atque 2. soul fleeing together, their eyes were closed in eternal death. But the rest who had escaped, fleeing to the profane images of the temple, as they were entering to the wicked cœlestia 2. altars, fell in the very seat of their refuge perfugii 2.. Neochorus poured out his spirit at the very door of the temple. And when the whole temple was filled, fire sent from heaven burned up both the people and the temple adds multifariam diruit 2.. So the number of the manifold omits 2. death, both of those struck and of those burned, was adds ad 2. two thousand seven hundred septingentos 2.. And the few who had escaped, making for the city, cried out with loud voices along the whole road: Great is the God of Mary (m. D. M.) omits 2., great is the God of the Christians. And about three thousand men animarum 2. believed, terrified by that fear adds ad 2., by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ages of ages. Amen (præstante-Amen) omits 2..

ANNOTATA.