ON ST. CAPRASIUS, AND PROBABLY HIS COMPANIONS SS. PRIMUS AND FELICIAN, MARTYRS AT AGEN, IN AQUITAINE,
PROBABLY IN THE YEAR 303.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Caprasius, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
Primus, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
Felician, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
§ I. The memory of the Saints in the calendars, the credibility of the various Acts, and a synopsis of the passion.
J. V. H.
The memory of St. Caprasius in all the Martyrologies, All the classic Martyrologies announce the passion and glory of St. Caprasius under this day, the 20th of October. Usuard first of all has this: In Gaul, in the city of Agen, St. Caprasius, Martyr, who, when, shunning the fury of the persecution, he was hiding in a cave, at length, emboldened to endure the passion, hastened to the arena of combat, and by fighting bravely won the palm of martyrdom. Ado had gone before Usuard, weaving a fuller elogium: In Gaul, in the city of Agen, St. Caprasius, Martyr. When, shunning the fury of the persecution, he was hiding in a cave, hearing that the Blessed Virgin Faith was struggling bravely for Christ, emboldened to endure sufferings, he prayed to the Lord that, if He judged him for certain worthy of the glory of martyrdom, most limpid water should flow from the rock of that cave. And when the Lord had at once granted this, he hastened in security to the arena of combat, and by fighting bravely won the palm of martyrdom. The present-day Roman Martyrology has almost the same, though with the words "for certain" omitted, and others added, "under Maximian." But Florentini would have the name of St. Caprasius eliminated from the Hieronymian martyrologies, and therefore prints it in italic, as it is commonly called, type: but Caprasius, says Sollerius in his Usuard at this day (with whom should also be compared the Ado edited by Domenico Giorgi), is certainly recorded by the Hieronymian martyrologies, nor is there any reason why Florentini should reckon him an addition, unless perhaps because he was absent from the Lucca codex.
[2] yet he is held on various days. But although we have the unanimous testimony of the Martyrologies for the sanctity and cult of St. Caprasius, some nevertheless disagree in assigning the day on which his memory is to be celebrated. Thus the Vatican Calendar, written at the beginning of the eleventh century Martyrology of Ado edited by Dom. Giorgi, p. 701., joins St. Caprasius with St. Faith under the 6th day of October in these words: The day before the Nones of October, SS. Caprasius and Faith, martyrs. Some Auctaria of Usuard have the same, which may be seen in Sollerius under that day. But far greater, both in number and in authority, are the sacred calendars which separate the martyrdom of the two Saints by a space of fifteen days. I should think, moreover, that the joining arose from this: that, as can be read in Usuard and Ado, in the elogium of St. Faith of Agen St. Caprasius is said to have been emboldened for the contest by the Virgin's example; and some, contracting that announcement rather imprudently, made the day of the passion common to both Martyrs. And indeed Joseph Ghesquière, in the preliminary commentary to the Acts of St. Faith at the 6th day of October Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 269, no. 21., rightly observes: If, to rely on the Acts in Surius, under the heading of the same 6th day, that is, as I think it must be explained, if towards evening St. Caprasius saw from afar, from his rock where he lay hidden, the noble contest of our Virgin for Christ, and was thereby emboldened for the struggle, you will not easily find so much time on that day that he could, pouring out repeated prayers, be refreshed by heavenly visions, draw forth a spring from the rock, betake himself into the city, present himself before the judge, be duly interrogated by him, be enticed by him with blandishments to idolatry, be terrified by threats, be torn by the torturers, preach the name of Christ to the peoples, be led by the judge's sentence to the shrine, be urged again to sacrifice, and, refusing to offer, be beheaded. These things, namely, are too greatly multiplied for one remaining particle of a day to embrace them all. But if we place an interval of fifteen days between the two martyrdoms, all can take place conveniently and in order. Wherefore the natal day of St. Caprasius is to be set on the 20th of October, an opinion favoured by the number and the authority of the martyrologists. Wandelbert indeed, when under the sixth day, or the day before the Nones of October, he had sung of St. Faith D'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 53, Paris edition 1723.:
The Virgin Faith on the day before (the Nones of October) triumphs hence by a happy death,
records St. Caprasius under the 20th day of October with this little verse:
Three with ten (before the Kalends of November) you honour, martyr Caprasius.
[3] The proconsular Acts There are, then, two kinds of Acts which relate the deeds of St. Caprasius: namely, those which treat of the Holy Martyr alone, with no mention made of St. Faith, of the kind that Ghesquière presented of St. Faith, in which the name of St. Caprasius nowhere occurs. Of these we have three copies: one printed in the Appendix to the Nova Bibliotheca Manuscriptorum of Philippe Labbe, and two other handwritten transcripts from the codices of St. Lawrence of the Escorial and of the Church of Toledo, and these indeed fuller than the Labbe copy. At first sight they seem genuine, indeed they appear to be counted among the proconsular Acts, and so as most worthy of credence: but to one who inspects them carefully they are entirely spurious, since, with the Martyr's name and place changed, they reproduce the Acts of St. Symphorian of Autun not only in all the circumstances of the passion, but even word for word in the wording. These same Acts of St. Symphorian, moreover, were formerly shown, at the 16th day of October Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 823 and following., to have already been laid under the circumstances of the history and martyrdom of St. Silvanus.
[4] they are wrongly derived from St. Symphorian; Now, however, it must be shown in a few words that the Acts of St. Symphorian and of Caprasius are one and the same. In the first place, the martyrdom of each is placed under Aurelian in the Escorial and Toledo codices; the Labbe copy, however, relates that St. Caprasius suffered under Maximian, and this, as we shall see below, rightly. Then at the beginning they are entirely the same, namely: Under the emperor Aurelian, when the storm of a dire persecution thundered against the Christian name, and he turned the decrees of his empire to the destruction of the religion of the catholic law, there was then in the city of Autun (in the city of Agen) a son of Faustus, a noble man (a most noble), by name Symphorian (Caprasius), of a Christian family, well instructed in letters, and in name Ruinart, Acta sincera Martyrum, p. 79.. What we have enclosed in round brackets is drawn from the Acts of St. Caprasius. Now it is remarkable that Symphorian and Caprasius should have had fathers of the same name, but more remarkable that the tyrant, Heraclius, should have been of the same name; finally it is portentous that in the martyrdom of each a mother should have intervened, encouraging her son in exactly the same words to undergo death bravely, to say nothing besides of the replies of each athlete, which are likewise the same. That these Acts, moreover, were not transferred from St. Caprasius to St. Symphorian, but the contrary, is easily understood; since the Acts are attributed to St. Symphorian by St. Gregory of Tours, book I On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter LII Compare Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 824, no. 7, and the fame and cult of the Saint of Autun is far more celebrated than that of the Saint of Agen.
[5] others mingled with the passion of St. Faith, The Acts wrongly attributed to our Holy Man of Agen are therefore to be rejected; and we must inquire into the other kind of Acts, which are frequently found among the hagiologists under the 6th day of October, on which St. Faith is venerated; and although these writers agree accurately enough in relating the history of the Passion, they differ very greatly in style and in certain additions. For we have before us eight Acts of this kind (of the metrical Life we shall treat more at length afterwards): and if we use as the norm of the rest the Acts drawn from the Grimbergen codex, to be published by us with appropriate additions, the seven which are in our possession reduce to roughly this. For besides Surius we have above all a Legendary written by hand on parchment, formerly of the abbey of Grimbergen in Brabant, which contains no Saint later than Blessed Lambert, who died in the year 708, from which indeed it may be conjectured that a far more ancient exemplar lighted the way for the copyist. This Legendary, then, is very similar to Surius as regards our Saint; in such a way, however, that it has a Prologue, which is lacking in Surius, who in turn relates the history of the translation, omitted in the Grimbergen codex. The codices of St. Saviour's at Utrecht, of Rouge-Cloître, which recites the cited prologue and the translation, of St. Maximin at Trier, and of Conques likewise present the translation, and differ from the Grimbergen codex in variety of style; yet it is easy to see from the texture of the expressions, which frequently coincides, that one common history lighted the way for them all.
[6] of which we have various copies, and from Mombritius The sixth copy of the Acts that we have before us is found in a Legendary printed with the Cologne types in the year 1483, unknown to our predecessors, although reprinted two years later with the Louvain types, of whose value the notes at the 16th day in the Preliminary Commentary on St. Eliphius, number 4, may be seen Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 800.. Further, this Legendary too, the same facts, with the phrasing changed,
relates, and at the same time by certain expressions shows its affinity with the rest, as we have said. The seventh we take from the Sanctuarium of Bonino Mombrizio: this passion is more compressed than the rest, without however omitting certain things by which the deeds of the Saints are illustrated. Wherefore, so that the reader may form for himself some history of the martyrdom, we subjoin it here Sanctuarium, vol. I, fol. 291.. The Passion of the saints Faith, virgin, and Caprasius, Martyr. There suffered also under Dacian the holy virgin Faith, noble by birth and by character, in the city of Agen, still of tender age at the time of her passion, yet old in understanding and in deed. For from the very cradle she loved the Lord Jesus; and, sought out by Dacian, she showed with constancy that she was a Christian. And when, asserting that the gods of the gentiles were demons, she could be induced neither by blandishments nor by threats to sacrifice to them, by order of the governor she was stretched out with her limbs spread apart upon a bronze grate, and with coals laid beneath and fat thrown upon the flames, while she was thus being roasted, she converted many to Christ by her example.
[7] We give a synopsis. Then too St. Caprasius, who for fear of the governor lay near the city under the hollow of a certain rock, and plainly saw all that was done within the circuit of the walls, when he saw the virgin thus tortured, prayed God to make her victorious in the contest. And again, prostrate, he asked the Lord to show him the reward of her martyrdom. And at once he saw that a snow-white dove came down from heaven, which placed a crown, shining with gold and gems, upon the head of the Virgin, adorned with splendid garments; and so that the power of God might appear more clearly around the Virgin, the dove itself, by the fluttering of its wings and by heavenly dew, so extinguished the fire that nothing remained of the blaze. Seeing this, then, with spiritual eyes, Caprasius, now confident of victory, struck with his right hand the rock under which he had stayed, and a spring at once bursting forth, by the merits of St. Caprasius, bestows the remedy of health upon all the sick even until now. Leaping forth, therefore, Caprasius hastened to the place of the contest, and offering himself to Dacian as a Christian, when he could be swayed neither by blandishments nor by threats, he was torn with such cruelty by him who gave the orders that, among others weeping round about, the brothers Primus and Felician, converted on account of his patience, were punished together with Caprasius himself and the Virgin Faith. Their passion is celebrated on the day before the Nones of October. Thus far the Sanctuarium of Mombrizio.
[8] Hildebert gave the same Acts in metre: Akin to the Acts already cited is a poem on SS. Faith and Caprasius, preserved in the Bollandist papers of the royal library under number 8915, and transcribed from a certain Bremen codex. In the hand of our Rosweyde these words are added: They seem to be poems of Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans. See similar ones at the 9th (rather the 2nd) of April, on Mary of Egypt. Nor does any other testimony occur to me by which I might pronounce that poem an offspring of Hildebert. If we follow the authors of the Literary History of France Hist. litt. de la Fr., vol. XI, p. 403., we shall deny the poem to Hildebert, since it consists of what are commonly called leonine verses, a kind of poem which they say the bishop of Le Mans did not approve. But granted that Hildebert did not approve of it (for I am not obliged to investigate that), he certainly used this kind of poem very frequently himself, as is clear from the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, which Papebroch first edited from an English manuscript codex at the 2nd day of April Acta SS., vol. I of April, p. 83., and from the History of the Finding of the Holy Cross, which Antoine Beaugendre, a Benedictine monk, edited together with other works of Hildebert in the year 1708 Hildebert's Works, col. 1253.. Each poem consists of almost four hundred verses: from this head, therefore, no prejudice can be created against Rosweyde's opinion. That it is not found, moreover, among the works of Hildebert edited under the care of Ant. Beaugendre ought not to trouble us greatly: for it is admitted that not all the works of Hildebert have so far seen the public light; thus Casimir Oudin, in his work on the Ecclesiastical Writers Oudin, On the Ecclesiastical Writers, vol. II, p. 995., points to various libraries in England in which frequent mention of Hildebert's writings occurs, and which I should think are unexplored to this very day Compare Biogr. univ., vol. XX, p. 379.. I hope, therefore, that the edition of the poem will be welcome to the curious reader.
[9] the genuineness of all of which These things set out, the pledge of our predecessor Joseph Ghesquière comes to be redeemed, who in his Commentary on St. Faith at the 6th day of October, number 7 Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 265., promised that Acts of this kind would be weighed more severely at this day, where St. Caprasius comes to be treated. It must be observed first of all that the writer relies more on the oral tradition of his forebears than on written monuments; for in the Prologue, which I excerpt from the Trier codex, these words are read: Hence, then, for the honour of the deeds, as means permit, I shall gather a few words out of very many, with that same faith and devotion with which the course of the martyrdom has come down to us. For through the account of those who succeeded one another, oblivion has not yet cut off the memory of what was done. By these words it becomes manifest, in my judgment, that the history to be set out would be supported not so much by written and contemporary monuments as by the testimony of men succeeding one another: from which it also follows that the particular parts, as it were, or single facts of the passion, such as visions, portents and the like, do not rest on as great an authority as they would enjoy if they had been committed to writing by an eyewitness author: for history, handed down and preserved by the mouth of the common people, not seldom tends to be enriched and embellished with certain prodigious facts. And certainly the tradition of Agen erred in this, that it affirmed that SS. Faith and Caprasius obtained the palm of martyrdom on one and the same day; for the Martyrologies cited at numbers 1 and 2 place an interval between the passions of the two, and the very sequence of the narrative seems altogether to require it.
[10] is shown; What I have said so far, however, I should not wish anyone to interpret as though I judged all these narratives of martyrdoms to be rejected whenever visions and portents are related in them; for this reason indeed the writers of the Literary History of France hold our Acts suspect Hist. litt. de la Fr., vol. III, p. 379.. But, as Ghesquière rightly observes, in Acts of Martyrs genuine by the judgment of all Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 265, no. 7., prodigies of this kind frequently occur, as is clear from the Acts of SS. Ignatius, Polycarp, Perpetua, Felicity and Cyprian in Ruinart Acta sincera Martyrum, pp. 22, 40, 94, 211., which no one has judged must be rejected on account of prodigious facts of this kind Compare Honoré de Sainte-Marie, De l'Usage de la Critique, vol. II, p. 24. And rightly so: for either the power of working miracles must be denied to almighty God, or, if such occur, the authority and sincerity of the witnesses must be weighed, without the writing being rejected without further investigation on account of the narration of a miracle. There is no reason, moreover, for me to run on at greater length in discussing the difficulties which the writers of the Literary History of France have heaped up, for Ghesquière in the place cited resolved them absolutely and solidly. So that, if the tradition were established more certainly for us, we should not hesitate to admit similar portents.
[11] and at the same time into the time of the passion, As regards the time of St. Caprasius' martyrdom, we have already said at number 2 that he does not seem to have suffered on the same day together with St. Faith: since, however, according to the most certain testimonies of the classic Martyrologists, the Acts of our Saint are intertwined with the deeds of the Blessed Virgin of Agen, it must altogether be held that both Saints underwent martyrdom in the same year. Ghesquière, moreover, in the Commentary on the same Virgin, marks the passion of St. Faith about the year of Christ 287 Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 270, no. 24.. But Baronius in his Ecclesiastical Annals placed the contest of the holy Virgin and of St. Caprasius under the year 303, § CXXIX, and indeed insinuates that they underwent it under the governor Rictius Varus. But in all the copies which we have enumerated above and have before us, the name of Rictius Varus nowhere appears; but, if you except the Acts rejected by us above at number 3, in which Heraclius or Eraclius occurs, Dacian or Datian (for it is written variously) is constantly marked as the governor and instigator of the torments and of the death. I should readily believe, since it concerned Gallic Martyrs, that Baronius, a man otherwise most learned and most accurate, drew Rictius Varus from his own store, unless someone prefers to say that the name of Dacian dropped out inadvertently.
[12] which to the year of Christ 303 There is, however, another opinion much more widely received, by which St. Faith, and so St. Caprasius, are said to have suffered rather at the close of the third century than at the beginning of the fourth. For in confirmation of this view the authority of the contemporary Lactantius is invoked, who says in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter XV Lactantius' Works, vol. II, p. 202. Paris edition 1748.: Constantius (Chlorus), lest he should seem to dissent from the precepts of his superiors, allowed the meeting-places, that is, the walls, which could be restored, to be pulled down; but the true temple of God, which is in men, he kept unharmed. And a little below, chapter XVI: The whole earth, he says, was laid waste, and, except for the Gauls, from the east even to the west three most savage beasts were raging. Therefore an epoch of the martyrdom tied to the beginning of the fourth century does not seem to be approved; since Constantius, made caesar in the year of Christ 292, obtained by lot the provinces of the Gauls, and so, unless there are reasons resting on history, the passion of SS. Faith and Caprasius is to be placed before that year 292. And the argument would indeed bind most powerfully if, with Constantius Chlorus as either caesar or augustus, there had been no martyrdoms in the Gauls. But no one would assert this consistently: for Eusebius, going further than Lactantius cited above, when he had said Book VIII, chapter XIII. Cambridge edition, p. 396. that Constantius neither overturned the buildings of the churches nor contrived anything against the Christians, nevertheless admits that in the first two years of the persecution something deadly befell the Christians.
[13] can be assigned, Here are the words of Eusebius, drawn from the Acts of the Martyrs of Palestine Ibid., p. 437.: For the regions which are situated further off, namely all Italy and Sicily, Gaul also and whatever stretches towards the setting of the sun, Spain, Mauretania and Africa, when they had experienced the fury of the war (against the Christians) for scarcely two whole first years of the persecution, obtained in a short time the most present help of the divine power, and peace; the providence of God, that is, looking out for the simplicity and faith of those men. That series of years, moreover, began from the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, whose edict was promulgated in Palestine in the month Xanthicus or April, when the day of the saving passion, falling in this year on the 16th of April, was at hand: at about the same month the emperors' decree must have reached the Gauls also, and so the persecution lasted through the remainder of the year 303 and almost the whole of 304. Wherefore I judge that Baronius is altogether to be approved when he says at the year 304, § XXIII: With Constantius governing the western empire, not at once nor entirely
did the persecution that had been proclaimed cease, but it was somewhat milder: for he did not himself wish to seem to oppose the edicts of the emperors who were still living. But although no rescript had been given by Constantius in favour of the Christians (for if anything had been decreed by him in their favour, Eusebius would by no means have kept silent), yet the persecution once begun gradually died down completely. The statements of Eusebius, Lactantius and others must therefore be limited, and are not to be taken absolutely: for a little praise and flattery too was mixed in when talk fell upon the founder of the imperial family.
[14] indeed, if St. Ado is to be followed, So far we have shown that the passion of St. Caprasius can be extended to the year of Christ 303 without injury to historical truth: but whether in fact it should be so extended, we have not yet defined. Yet the testimony of St. Ado in his Breviary of Chronicles is not to be passed over Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, vol. XVI, p. 792.: In the eighteenth year of Diocletian, he says, he himself in the East and Maximian Herculius in the West command that the churches be laid waste and the Christians afflicted and slain, the divine books being burned. In this storm the martyrdom of the holy Thebans, Maurice and his companions, six thousand six hundred and sixty-six, is accomplished. The passion also of Victor and Ursus at the fortress of Solothurn, the passion also of blessed Faith and her companions at the city of Agen, who was afterwards translated to Conques: of the Martyrs also Gereon and his companions, three hundred and twenty-eight, at Colonia Agrippina; this persecution blazed so cruel and so frequent that within one month eighteen thousand Martyrs are found to have suffered for Christ. For, crossing even the border of the Ocean, it condemned Alban, Aaron and Julius of Britain, with many other men and women, to a happy bloodshed. At that time there suffered also Pamphilus the presbyter, whose life Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, comprised in three books. And in the second year of the persecution Diocletian at Nicomedia and Maximian Herculius at Milan laid down the purple. Yet the persecution once begun did not cease to rage until the seventh year of the emperor Constantine *. Constantine, in the sixteenth year of his reign, a man of the greatest gentleness and courtesy, died at York in Britain. In the third year of the persecution, in which Constantius also died, Maximinus and Severus were made caesars by Valerius Maximian. Of whom Maximian heaps his evil deeds and debaucheries upon the persecutions of the Christians. In that storm suffered Peter, bishop of Alexandria, by whom Arius the presbyter was first condemned: with him suffered many bishops of Egypt.
[15] it must be referred back, It was necessary to set out the whole sequence of Ado's narrative, so that it might be duly established that Ado meant to arrange a chronology of events. Without, however, laboriously investigating the difference of epoch, which Eusebius, as we saw above at number 13, joins with the 19th year of Diocletian and Ado with the 18th, Pagi, Critica in Baronium at the year 302, § V, shows it certain that the persecution began on the 7th day before the Kalends of March (the 23rd of February) of the year 303, in which Diocletian held his eighth and Maximian his seventh consulate, as Lactantius expressly writes, chapters XII and XIII of On the Deaths of the Persecutors Works, vol. II, p. 198 and following.. We have, therefore, in Ado a witness who without ambiguity sets the martyrdom of St. Faith at Agen, and so of St. Caprasius, in the first year of the persecution, and accordingly in the year of Christ 303. I admit indeed that Ado is a writer of the ninth century, and that his authority in facts so remote is not above every exception; but Ado probably had before him documents which are hidden from us, and which assign a more certain epoch to various Martyrs. Wherefore the opinion of Baronius, who ties the passion of our Saints to the year 303, is probable to me: since, however, it is not certain on every side, I therefore wrote at the head of this Commentary that the Holy Martyrs probably suffered in the year 303.
[16] is examined. For Ado's words are not beyond all error. Pagi first shows from Lactantius, at the year 304, § VI, that Diocletian and Maximian laid down the purple on the Kalends of May 305; but the error is venial, since Ado followed Eusebius, who says Mai, Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio, vol. VIII, p. 397.: In the second year of the persecution Diocletian at Nicomedia and Maximian at Milan laid down the purple: so that here Ado has simply copied Eusebius. But there is another slip, less curable. For he seems to refer to the first year of the persecution, the year of Christ 303, the martyrdom of St. Pamphilus the presbyter, which Eusebius, in the book on the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter VII and following P. 419 and following, Valois edition, Cambridge 1720., assigns to the seventh year of the persecution, the year of Christ 309. Similarly the passion of St. Peter, bishop of Alexandria, according to the Chronicle of Eusebius Mai, Nova Collectio, 398., belongs to the year 311, since, he says, in the ninth year of the persecution he gloriously accomplished his martyrdom: but Ado ranges the contest of St. Peter under the third year of the persecution. These things indeed weaken to some extent Ado's chronology of the martyrdoms, and accordingly shake his authority to some degree; but there is an answer, namely that the martyrdoms both of Pamphilus and of Peter, accomplished in remoter parts of the world, could have been unknown (as far as regards the time), but not so the passions of native Saints, of whom Ado could have had before him both a fuller and a more accurate knowledge. These considerations bring it about that, until we are taught better, we probably set the time of St. Caprasius' passion at the year of Christ 303.
Annotation* that is: Constantius
§ II. On the companions of St. Caprasius, Primus and Felician, on his episcopate, and on various monuments in his honour.
Primus and Felician seem to have been companions of St. Caprasius Our predecessors had promised, at the 6th day of October in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Faith, number 23 Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 270., that at the present day the question would again be discussed, whether SS. Primus and Felician, who are reported to be companions of the passion of SS. Faith and Caprasius, are not the same as those whom the Roman Church venerates on the 9th day of June as Martyrs of her own. Ghesquière, however, attached one condition to the promise, namely that before this day (the 20th of October) documents should be furnished by which the truth should at length manifest itself on every side, both about the natal day of St. Caprasius and about Primus and Felician, Martyrs of Agen, as some will have it. But we have obtained no document by which we might clarify the matter further. Now we have already treated above of the natal day of St. Caprasius, so that we need not repeat it here. As regards, however, the arena of SS. Primus and Felician at Agen, our Papebroch seems to have been the first to raise this question, treating of the Roman namesakes at the 9th day of June, number 6 Ibid., vol. II of June, p. 150.. He bases his conjecture on this, that the same thing has happened with other Martyrs as well; but everyone sees how slippery an argument of this kind is, which has no other support than mere possibility. More forcibly binding is the silence of the classic Martyrologists, among whom Ado describes the martyrdom of our Caprasius at sufficient length without uttering any word about his companions. But, as all admit, the Acts to be published are older than the lengthy Martyrologies, and so the silence of the latter is abundantly compensated by the elogium inserted into the Acts.
[18] SS. Primus and Felician. The distinction between the namesake Martyrs is made plainer by what Ghesquière brings forward in the place already cited: namely, the bodies of the Holy Roman Martyrs were first revealed about the year 648, as Anastasius the Librarian manifestly indicates in the Life of Pope Theodore [Anastasius the Librarian, Lives of the Pontiffs, vol. IV, p. 43, Bianchini edition]: and on the other hand, in the Acts to be published by us, written, in the judgment of the writers of the Literary History of France, after the middle of the 6th century Hist. de la Fr. lit., vol. III, p. 293., express mention is made of Primus and Felician as having once suffered and been buried at Agen, whence it is quite probable that the Martyrs of Agen are different from the Roman namesakes. This difference is favoured also by the fact that the bodies of the Roman Martyrs still existed at Rome in the year 846 Acta SS., vol. II of June, p. 150, no. 4., when the passion of the Martyrs of Agen had most certainly already been written, a copy of which more than 900 years old Ruinart testifies that he saw Acta Sincera Martyrum, Preface, p. LXVII.. All these things bring it about both that I ascribe SS. Primus and Felician to the arena of Agen, and that I join them as companions to St. Caprasius rather than to St. Faith, because they are read to have been emboldened by the example of our athlete to undergo the contest, which they accomplished with St. Caprasius. To this purpose also makes the reading drawn from the Ms. of Rouge-Cloître, in which, the name of St. Faith omitted, Primus and Felician are said to have been emboldened by the example of St. Caprasius alone and to have obtained the crown of martyrdom with him. For thus the Rouge-Cloître codex has it: Whose constancy, to be reproached by no injury and to be checked by no device of contrived tortures, two brothers, Primus and Felician by name and by merit, admiring both in faith and in deed, at once associated themselves with this work and eagerly threw themselves into the danger of the contest and of death; all of whom, bound together in one conspiracy to the throat of death … since they could be compelled by no force to sacrifice, slain with the sword together with St. Caprasius in the hour of one day, they merited to come happily together, with the triumph of martyrdom, to the crown of glory. It must be observed also that the proper day of the martyrdom of St. Faith, namely the 2nd day before the Nones of October, has been altogether eliminated.
[10] The neo-critics denied the episcopate of St. Caprasius Now, however, we must touch upon a weightier question, formerly aired not without acrimony, namely whether St. Caprasius was bishop of Agen. The Benedictine authors of Gallia Christiana Gall. Christ., vol. II, col. 892 and following, while they list St. Caprasius as the first bishop of Agen, profess that they are conforming to the present-day tradition, which (the people of Agen) contend is perpetual among the populace. The starting point for attacking the tradition, certainly a most ancient one, was given by a controversy that arose between the bishop and cathedral chapter and the canons of the collegiate church of St. Caprasius about the beginning of the 17th century: for in those centuries, on account of the jurisdiction, exemption and privileges of the lesser churches, there were frequent lawsuits, which were sometimes stirred with great agitation of minds: and this happened at Agen too. For the canon theologian published a writing in which he denied the episcopal dignity of St. Caprasius. An opinion of this kind, at once refuted, stung the collegiate canons and produced scandal among the people; nevertheless the bishop of Agen, Claude de Galas (who held the see from the year 1609 to 1630) Ibid., col. 932., striking out the title of bishop, had ordered that henceforth St. Caprasius should be venerated simply as a Martyr. But the champions of the ancient tradition carried the episcopal mandate by way of appeal to the archbishop of Bordeaux. This was François d'Escoubleau, Cardinal de Sourdis, a pious man of dauntless spirit. The consuls of the city of Agen also intervened in the question, since, they said, unless the episcopal mandate were reformed, the matter was tending towards sedition.
[20] from merely negative arguments, Accordingly, on the 31st of July 1623, Cardinal de Sourdis ordered that the feast of St. Caprasius be celebrated in the ancient manner as that of a Martyr Pontiff, which henceforth
has been religiously kept until the present day. But although the liturgical controversy, if one may so speak, was settled in this way, the learned did not acquiesce in the sentence pronounced, and among them the doubtful question is still aired. For Tillemont Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, vol. IV, p. 753. and the writers of the Literary History of France Hist. de la litt. Fr., vol. III, p. 293. raised it afresh, though Adrien Baillet professed at the 6th of October that he disdained it: indeed, about the end of the 18th century a canon of the collegiate church of St. Caprasius itself repeated with new pains the arguments already put forward by others: of which this is the sum, drawn faithfully, from a manuscript still preserved at Agen, by the Rev. Mr. A. David, canon of the same church. First, the Acts of St. Faith, into which the martyrdom of St. Caprasius is woven, make no mention of the episcopal dignity; nay rather they openly declare that he was a young man: I see, says Dacian, that you are a comely young man, words which in no way square with the age required for the episcopate. Next, St. Gregory, treating of the basilica built at Agen, calls the Saint simply a Martyr, omitting the title of bishop. Finally, the ancient manuscript Breviary of the cathedral church and the Martyrology of the collegiate church itself ascribe to our Saint only the title of Martyr, and he first obtained the name of bishop in the 14th century.
[21] namely from the silence of the Acts, These arguments indeed, if you except Dacian's words, are plainly negative: how much a negative argument is worth, however, which the neo-critics have used and abused very frequently, Honoré de Sainte-Marie shows in his book on the rules and use of criticism, Dissertation III, article II Réflexions sur les règles et l'usage de la critique, vol. I, p. 255.: namely, that an argument of this kind is for the most part slippery, especially when it contradicts a perpetual tradition. For one thing can be drawn from the silence of authors, namely that the historical fact is not so certain as if it rested on direct and contemporary monuments, and so is clouded by some obscurity: but we flatly deny that the constant tradition of a church or of a people can be overthrown by a negative argument. Nevertheless let us weigh more accurately the native worth of the reasons alleged. In the Acts, namely, of St. Faith there is deep silence about the episcopate of St. Caprasius. I should indeed think that this reason had some weight if we had distinct Acts of our Saint, such as those are reported to be which are read in the Appendix to volume II of the Bibliotheca of Philippe Labbe; for in them it is natural to indicate the quality and condition of the one about whom the narrative is to be woven, though this too admits its exceptions, as we shall show below. But we do not need even that defence in the present case, since above at number 3 we showed that those Acts attributed to St. Caprasius were derived from the Acts of St. Symphorian.
[22] which is refuted; And indeed, that the silence of the Acts does no harm to the opinion of the episcopate of St. Caprasius is manifestly clear from similar omissions in Acts of Martyrs that are genuine by the confession of all. Let the examples be drawn from the book of Thierry Ruinart. The first to meet us is St. Achatius, Martyr, in whose Acts Acta Sincera Martyrum, p. 152. no mention is made of the episcopal dignity or of any ecclesiastical Order received by him. Yet Bolland at the 31st day of March calls him bishop of Mitylene in Armenia Acta SS., vol. III of March, p. 903.; the title of bishop, though of a different or uncertain place, is likewise given him by Tillemont, On the Persecution of Decius, article XXIV [Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, vol. III, p. 357 and following.], Fleury, Ecclesiastical History, book VI Hist. Eccles., vol. II, p. 181., Ceillier, chapter XXIV Auteurs ecclésiastiques, vol. II, p. 560.; so too in the passion of St. Euplus Acta Sincera, p. 406., in the whole interrogation neither does the judge ask anything about his condition in the Church, nor does the Martyr hint anything about his diaconate, content to profess himself a Christian again and again. It is true indeed that in the preface of the Acts St. Euplus is written a deacon, and for that reason I said in the preceding number that silence in distinct Acts would have some little weight, although this too is struck down by the martyrdom of St. Achatius; but in the passion of St. Caprasius the subject was primarily St. Faith, and the dignity of her companion did not need to be expressed. As a third example, finally, I set St. Patricius, whom Mazzocchi places as bishop of Prusa in Bithynia and as having suffered in the year of Christ 101. No word whatever is said in his Acts about an episcopate; yet not even Ruinart himself Ibid., p. 554. denied St. Patricius the title of bishop on that account. The Acts of St. Patricius of Prusa, moreover, presented rather too hastily at the 27th day of April Acta SS., vol. III of April, p. 576., were illustrated most accurately and most learnedly by the praised Mazzocchi in the ancient Neapolitan Calendar [Commentary on the ancient marble Calendar of the Church of Naples, vol. II, p. 354 and following] at the 19th day of May. What we have said so far seems sufficient to show that the episcopate of St. Caprasius suffers no detriment from the silence of the Acts.
[23] various examples being brought forward There is objected besides to the episcopate of St. Caprasius the silence of the Martyrologies, which call him simply a Martyr. And this indeed is a negative argument which, as the adage has it, proves nothing because it proves too much. For the old Roman Martyrology, which is commonly called the Little, omits the title of bishop for St. Hilary of Poitiers on the Ides of January: may one argue from an omission of this kind that the rank of St. Hilary remained unknown for some centuries? or that Ado, who for the most part borrowed his material from the Little Roman, built a cathedra for St. Hilary on his own initiative? Surely no one would be so absurd: but at the same time he must admit that silence of itself prejudges nothing. A second example is supplied to us by St. Lucian, Martyr of Beauvais, on the sixth day before the Ides of January; whose elogium Ado comprises in a few words thus: At Beauvais, SS. Lucian and Messianus. But Usuard adds also another companion, Julian, and calls Lucian a presbyter, in which the present-day Roman Martyrology closely follows Usuard. Although, then, St. Lucian is called martyr on the one side and presbyter on the other, nevertheless the church of Beauvais venerates its Lucian as the first bishop of its see, an opinion which Gallia Christiana embraces until it is taught something more certain from the monuments Gall. Christ., vol. IX, col. 694.. Alban Butler adds in his historical synopsis on the holy Martyr that most Calendars older than the 16th century mark him with the sole appellation of Martyr, whence, he says, it is likely that he was a presbyter, not a bishop. We have not leisure to attack this inference at greater length; but it will certainly seem strange that in those centuries a presbyter should be deputed to found a church.
[24] of other Saints; Nor ought the testimony of Gregory of Tours, alleged by some, to detain us more, who says in book VI of the History, chapter XII Dom Bouquet, Recueil, vol. II, p. 294., that the wife of duke Regnovald sought the basilica of the holy Martyr Caprasius. For a little below it is read that she entered the basilica of St. Saturninus at Toulouse and remained there, without the dignity of both Martyr and bishop having on that account to be denied, on Gregory's authority, to the holy Prelate of Toulouse. For we are accustomed to designate churches by the one bare name of the Saint whose title they bear. But, they say, the people of Agen themselves formerly call their St. Caprasius simply a precious martyr in the old Breviary. We grant it; but while the people of Agen adorn their patron with this encomium, at the same time they present him conferring the order of the diaconate on St. Vincent. This is not the place to inquire more curiously whether St. Vincent was really ordained by St. Caprasius; for the fact of the ordination is enough for us to explain most conveniently the expression precious martyr [Compare what Henschen has at the 9th day of June. Acta SS., vol. II of June, p. 164.]. The canon of Saint-Caprais, Labenazie, while vindicating the episcopate of his patron, removes another difficulty, namely that Caprasius was not a bishop because he fled the persecution. But this was refuted before us copiously, both by the weight of reasons and by their own example, by St. Cyprian, epistles II and LVI and the book On the Lapsed Cyprian's Works, pp. 26, 195 and 375, edition of Étienne Baluze, Venice 1728., and by Athanasius the Great in the Apology for his flight Athanasius' Works, vol. I, p. 320, Paris edition 1698.: we have also, as may be seen in the Roman Breviary at the 3rd of February, St. Blaise, bishop of Sebaste, who in flight is caught by the guards and bravely undergoes death; St. Maximus, bishop of Nola, who wandered in the wilderness almost consumed by hunger; and many others. And so neither from this head can any credit be won for the adversaries.
[25] and from his youthful age. The difficulty that is raised, moreover, about his age, as though the youth of St. Caprasius prevented him from being able to obtain the episcopate, is conveniently removed. For in the first centuries of the church, while persecution raged, the rule laid down by St. Gelasius for the bishops of Lucania Labbe, vol. IV of the Councils, col. 1188. must have been in force: That the rigour of the canons in the ordinations of clerics be tempered by necessity. Therefore, even if it could be shown that the holy Martyr was quite young, nothing could be concluded against his episcopate. The Apostolic Constitutions indeed require the age of fifty in bishops to be ordained, but they also allow exceptions according to the necessity of times and places Ibid., vol. I, col. 223.. It is no concern of ours, however, to inquire laboriously up to what number of years youth may be extended, which Aulus Gellius, book X, chapter XXVIII Compare Forcellini, Lexicon, under Ætas, extends up to the fortieth year of age: let it suffice for the adversaries of our opinion to have shown that similar expressions are met with in those Acts of Martyrs which are genuine in the judgment of all. There exists in Ruinart the passion of St. Irenaeus, bishop of Sirmium Acta Sincera, p. 402., which Bolland, following the Roman Martyrology, reports at the 25th day of March Acta SS., vol. III of March, p. 556; he, brought before Probus, governor of Pannonia, answered constantly that he would sacrifice by a good confession to his God, to whom he had always sacrificed. But when he was being tortured, the grief of all his kin was upon him, the groaning of his household, the wailing of his neighbours and the lamentation of his friends, who all, crying out to him, said: Have pity on your tender youth. These entreaties of his intimates Probus the governor also pressed, saying: What do you say? Be swayed by their tears from your madness, and, taking thought for your youth, sacrifice: wherefore a little below he again addresses St. Irenaeus, saying: Take thought for yourself, young man. And so the coaxing words of Dacian, by which he strives to entice St. Caprasius to the worship of idols, have nothing by which the opinion of his episcopate is weakened; and he could say to a bishop: I see that you are a comely young man: did not the wife of the bishop Irenaeus, too, entreat him by his face and his age?
[26] The tradition of Agen We see thus far that from the accumulated silence of the documents nothing certain can be determined for taking away from St. Caprasius the episcopal dignity in the city of Agen. It remains for us to confirm the tradition of the people of Agen in whatever way we can: no one, surely, will demand of us that a continuous
series of testimonies be brought forward through the remoter centuries: for then it would be not only feeble but even ridiculous to oppose the silence of certain writers or documents to the direct assertions of contemporaries. We have first of all the perpetual and constant tradition of the Church of Agen itself, which no one, as we saw at number 19, had called into doubt before the seventeenth century. In similar questions the rule laid down by Mabillon, dissertation on the Azyme and the Leaven, chapter VIII Ouvrages posthumes de Mabillon, vol. I, p. 154., holds good: it suffices, he says, for proving the antiquity of a customary thing to refute the arguments which are proposed to the contrary. And St. Augustine, epistle LV (otherwise CXIX) to Januarius, chapter XVIII Works, vol. II, col. 141, Paris edition 1679., treating of ecclesiastical traditions, says: A most wholesome rule is to be kept, that those things which are neither against faith nor against good morals, and have something for exhortation to a better life, wherever we see them instituted or know them to have been instituted, we not only do not disapprove, but even follow by praising and imitating them, if the weakness of some does not so hinder it that the detriment be greater. Wherefore in the preceding epistle also, to the same Januarius, he had written Ibid., col. 124., chapter II: I have often perceived with grief and groaning that many disturbances of the weak arise through the contentious obstinacy or superstitious timidity of certain brethren, who in matters of this kind, which can arrive at no certain conclusion either by the authority of Holy Scripture, or by the tradition of the universal Church, or by usefulness for the correction of life (only because there underlies it some reasoning or other of the one thinking, or because he himself was so accustomed in his own country, or because he saw it there where he thinks his travel made the more learned the more remote it was from his own people), stir up such litigious questions that they reckon nothing right except what they themselves do. Thus far St. Augustine, who, although he is treating there rather of customs received through the tradition of particular Churches than of historical facts, nevertheless seems to bear accurately on our matter.
[27] is proved both by the privilege of the basilica of Saint-Caprais, Although, therefore, the constant tradition, whose beginning cannot be assigned to a more recent date, might suffice for the people of Agen, there are nevertheless various traces which support it. First, among the people of Agen, from time immemorial, which goes back as far as the 13th century, it was established custom that the bishop, on going to his see, should first, in the collegiate church of St. Caprasius, receive the pontifical ornaments from its prior or another canon. This is established, says the canon of Saint-Caprais, Labenazie Vindication of the Episcopate of St. Caprasius, p. 6., by an old title of that church written from the year 1246 on a certain parchment, which begins thus: From ancient times it has been so observed, that when the reverend Father, the lord bishop, enters the city of Agen at his first coming, he must first turn aside to the church of St. Caprasius and must receive the insignia from the hand of the prior or of some canon, etc. The praised canon Labenazie further notes that the faithful were accustomed, for the first bishops of each episcopal city, to dedicate collegiate churches to God under the title of the first bishop of those sees. As an example he adduces Narbonne, where St. Paul was the first bishop; Limoges, where St. Martial; Toulouse, where St. Saturninus. To these may be added various churches in the Gauls: thus the church of Amiens had, in memory of its first bishop, the collegiate church of St. Firminus; that of Beauvais, the distinguished monastery of St. Lucian, whose abbot is second after the bishop in all assemblies; indeed, says Gallia Christiana Vol. IX, col. 779., the elected prelates of Beauvais never presumed to enter upon the episcopate unless they had first spent the night in vigil before the tomb of St. Lucian. Thence, borne off by the clerics, they were set upon the pontifical chair, destined to receive burial at the feet of the holy Martyr. At Bourges there is the basilica of St. Symphorian, which, after the Relics of St. Ursinus were brought in by St. Germanus of Paris, assumed and retained the name of this first bishop of the Bituriges Ibid., col. 5.. In the same way the people of Périgueux Ibid., col. 1488. and of Poitiers Ibid., col. 1141. glory in their collegiate churches, the one of St. Hilary, the other of St. Fronto, just as, not to let the discourse run on too long, the people of Saintes built churches to Eutropius, their Apostle Gall. Christ., vol. II, col. 1093., and the people of Metz to their Clement Ibid., vol. XIII, col. 866., and the people of Toul to St. Mansuetus, their first bishop Ibid., col. 1085.. This being so, no one will easily deny that both the collegiate church and the rite of receiving the pontifical insignia from the hand of the prior of the chapter add some weight to the received tradition of the people of Agen concerning the episcopate of St. Caprasius.
[28] and by images at Agen The praised canon Labenazie brings forward another monument in confirmation of the same opinion. There was, namely, in Auvergne a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict, Mauzac or Mauziacum, built under the invocation of SS. Peter and Caprasius. Mabillon in his Annals, book XVII, § XVIII Annales Benedictini, vol. I, p. 518., and Gallia Christiana Gall. Christ., vol. II, col. 352. suspect this Caprasius to be the martyr of Lérins, not of Agen. But wrongly; for the praised canon brings forward the legend of Mauzac Vindication, p. 10., in which it is held that Caprasius was summoned by Dacian and questioned about his name, family and country; and he replies that he is a Christian by religion, a priest by order, Caprasius by name. Without inquiring at greater length into the legend, which in any case we lack, it is sufficiently clear from the cited words that the people of Mauzac thought they had as patron the Martyr of Agen, not the abbot of Lérins, who lived a century later and ended his day in peace as a Confessor. That the people of Mauzac borrowed their opinion of the episcopate of St. Caprasius from the tradition of Agen, everyone sees. Hither also belong the paintings and statues which present the Saint clothed in pontifical vestments, especially if Labenazie tells the truth about the three capitals of the church of St. Caprasius, on which the history of his ministry and passion is carved Ibid., p. 3.. For on one column he is seen carved delivering a sermon to the people, wherefore in the old Breviaries too St. Caprasius is called a herald of the ancient doctrine; on the second he is depicted performing an ordination; on the third the martyrdom itself is presented, where St. Caprasius is seen clothed in an ankle-length linen alb, shortened by the head, whose body is held up by a minister likewise clothed in a linen alb fringed with gold at the arms, the wrist, and below, in front and behind. In almost the same manner St. Cyprian is related to have suffered the cutting off of his head, in the proconsular Acts at the 14th day of September Acta SS., vol. IV of September, p. 333, no. 7..
[29] and placed in other places, Further, canon Labenazie carries the antiquity of the basilica of Saint-Caprais back to the times of St. Dulcidius, bishop of Agen, or at least to the 6th century Vindication, p. 4.. If this were true, all controversy would cease, since we should have before us a monument of the episcopate of St. Caprasius which would confirm the tradition from antiquity without ambiguity. But from a letter lately sent to me by the canon of Agen, the Rev. Mr. David, I understand that the last hand was put to the said basilica in the year 1508, and that on the boss of its dome is carved an image of our Saint clothed in pontifical rite. And although the present-day canon makes no mention of the columns, yet what was related by canon Labenazie can in no way be called into doubt; for these things were notorious and exposed to the sight of all, and had they not existed, especially while the lawsuit was raging, they would have ruined even the best cause. As regards, however, the age of the basilica, it is difficult for me to determine: there occurs to me, however, a certain image presenting the façade of the building of Saint-Caprais Mosaïque du Midi, fourth year, p. 136., whose architecture seems to belong to the 12th or 13th century: this I should say as if divining, since nothing lights my way except the image, perhaps not very accurate. Be that as it may, these carved columns are nevertheless to be held as monuments of an ancient tradition, as are also the remaining images, whether carved or painted, which are frequently found in churches marked with the Saint's title; for there are many churches in the dioceses of Agen and Bordeaux where St. Caprasius is patron and is represented clothed in pontifical vestments Vindication, p. 5.. Similarly in the monastery of Longueville (Longueville-la-Gillant), of the diocese of Rouen, of the Cluniac congregation, whose church had St. Faith of Agen as patron [Compare Description géographique de la Normandie, vol. I, p. 560, and Labbe, Bibliotheca nova, vol. I, p. 326.]: there was seen there a stone five feet long and two high, on which is seen the passion of St. Faith stretched upon a burning grate; behind the torturers there are seen in the mouth of a cave three men, marvelling at the spectacle, of whom the middle one wears an episcopal mitre set upon his head; and I interpret those three men as SS. Caprasius, Primus and Felician, whence the tradition of Agen is confirmed Labenazie, Vindication, at the end..
[30] and finally, by his pre-eminent cult; Finally, the very construction of the basilica of St. Caprasius at Agen seems to me to confirm the tradition of the people of Agen, not only on account of the analogy with the other Churches of the Gauls cited at number 27, but also because, although the cult of St. Faith was more widely diffused, the people of Agen nevertheless wished their basilica to be dedicated under the title of St. Caprasius. It is true indeed that various codices relate that St. Dulcidius consecrated the basilica under the name of the Holy Virgin, whom Surius interprets as St. Mary, as is evident from the marginal Note attached to the Passion of St. Faith. I should certainly believe that here St. Faith herself is designated, who is frequently designated in the course of the narrative by such or a similar appellation. But not all the codices designate St. Faith: for that of St. Saviour's at Utrecht says that St. Dulcidius, having scarcely obtained the episcopate of the people of Agen, devoted himself to building a beautiful basilica for laying up the bodies of the holy Martyrs, with no name of any particular Martyr added. Be that as it may, if at some time St. Faith gave her name to the basilica dedicated by St. Dulcidius, the common opinion of the people of Agen wiped out that title after a short time had elapsed, since, as we said above at number 24, already in the year 581 the basilica was known under the name of Caprasius alone Bouquet, vol. II, p. 274.. This being so, how does it come about that the people of Agen, passing over St. Faith and her cult, far more celebrated and wider, which is noted even in the present-day Calendar of the pseudo-church of England Book of Common Prayer., preferred St. Caprasius? unless because from the most ancient times they were persuaded that this Saint had made their city illustrious not only by martyrdom but also by the pontificate. This pre-eminence of cult and veneration is shown also by the usage of Agen indicated in the Utrecht codex, that, although the passion of St. Caprasius is noted together with the passion of St. Faith on the day before the Nones of October, when the solemnity of St. Faith alone is kept, yet in the translation of both the memory of one only, that is, of St. Caprasius, furnishes a feast day for all the faithful.
And these are the things that make the tradition of the church of Agen probable and venerable to us, from which we do not think we should depart until more certain monuments teach us the contrary.
[31] who even today in his basilica, made the cathedral, This church of St. Caprasius, further, now distinguished by the title of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, enjoys the episcopal chair, the ancient mother church having been destroyed probably about the end of the past century. There is still preserved there the head of the holy Martyr, formerly enclosed in a silver reliquary, which the partisans of liberty and fraternity, as they boasted themselves, made their own. Before, however, his church was despoiled of its precious furnishings, the parish priest, as he was called, a constitutional one, that is, adhering to the Gallican schism (for Agen had a bishop of the same stamp, André Constant by name, the legitimate pastor, Jean Louis de Bonnac, having been expelled Richard, Bibliothèque sacrée, vol. XXIX, p. 347.), had taken the sacred Relics out of their cases, and with an oath interposed, and with the testimony of a goldsmith and of two citizens, restored them in the year 1804 to the bishop of Agen, Jean Jacoupy: the genuineness of these Relics was also approved by their own vote and by an authentic instrument both by the man who had formerly been parish priest of the collegiate church and by two canons of Saint-Caprais: older documents than these, however, are lacking: although, when the Calvinists were troubling the Gauls in the 16th century, some canon withdrew the Relics of St. Caprasius from the impiety of the rebels, and these, after the city of Agen had been occupied by Blaise de Montluc [Compare the Commentaries of Blaise de Montluc, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France, First Series, vol. VII, p. 239.], were restored to their former veneration with great solemnity.
[32] and in the spring which he drew forth, Near the said church, formerly of St. Caprasius, today of St. Stephen, there is on the grounds of the Hospice of St. James a chapel, notable neither for its antiquity nor for its workmanship, but to be venerated by popular tradition, since it is set over a crypt where there was formerly a well, traces of whose mouth are still seen: in that place the bodies of the Martyrs once lay, for which reason in old instruments it is called the Martyrium, in the vulgar tongue le Martrou. Because, however, that well was giving occasion among the common people to certain superstitious usages, Claude Joly, bishop of Agen from the year 1664 to 1678, ordered it to be filled in. There overhangs Agen, moreover, towards the north a hill crowned above by a continuous rock, on which is a monastery commonly called the hermitage of St. Vincent. There once, as the Acts have it, St. Caprasius lay hidden and watched the arena of St. Faith: the cave which was the holy Martyr's hiding-place is now the church of St. Vincent, who is said to have been the deacon of St. Caprasius and afterwards his successor in the episcopate. And since, as the tradition has it, St. Vincent dwelt on the same rock in memory of his predecessor, he left his name to the rock, hollowed out in the form of an oratory.
[33] persists. Next to the aforesaid chapel is the spring which St. Caprasius drew forth by his prayers, as the Acts to be published have it at number 7, and which, flowing unfailingly, does not cease by the power of God to furnish the remedy of health to all who come. The use of the health-giving water still persists, and it is said to furnish healing especially to the feverish. That ascetic retreat was inhabited by certain hermits in the past century: afterwards, when all ecclesiastical properties were assigned to the treasury, it passed to certain private persons: until it came to the minor seminary of Agen, and for some time became the residence of certain evangelical labourers. Today, however, the house and church are occupied by Discalced Carmelites, refugees from Spain, who have established there a theological course of study for the students of the Order. St. Caprasius is also venerated on this day in the present-day cathedral church of St. Paul at Liège, with the rite of what is commonly called a greater double. The reason for a cult of this kind is shown us by the present-day Proper of the Saints of Liège in these words: The veneration of this most illustrious Martyr was formerly most celebrated among the people of Chèvremont (Caprimons) among the Eburones, a shrine having been dedicated there in his honour: but when the stronghold was uprooted to the ground by the prelate Notger, he took care that the cult due to so great a martyr should be religiously transferred to the basilica of St. Paul at Liège, then newly erected: the memory of which deed, received by the tradition of their forebears, posterity too strives to preserve with a solemn office. Whether the name of the place, Caprimons, is owed to our Caprasius, we leave to the archaeologists to investigate. Nothing besides what has been said so far occurs to be treated concerning St. Caprasius: we subjoin the twofold Acts of the holy Martyr, namely the prose Acts, which are found in various Legends, and which we have collated with the copies of Labbe, Utrecht, Trier, Rouge-Cloître and the one printed at Cologne; and the metrical ones, attributed to Hildebert of Le Mans, as we said at number 8 of this Commentary.
PASSION OF SS. FAITH, CAPRASIUS, PRIMUS AND FELICIAN
From the manuscript Grimbergen codex collated with the copies of Labbe, Trier, Utrecht and Rouge-Cloître.
Caprasius, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
Primus, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
Felician, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 2930
aBY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
Prologue While we attempt to unfold the distinguished merits of the passions of the great and renowned martyrs Caprasius and Faith the Virgin, our speech sinks rather than being able to be set forth with worthy praises. Concerning whose deeds and virtues, then, ancient gentile antiquity , the rival, that is, of Christian worship, will wish some memory thereof to be commended to the knowledge of men rather by the idleness of its crimes than by any monuments of titles. I, however, have touched upon, with faltering pen, a few out of the many things which I found in the account of the deeds. For whence shall I first take the beginning of my discourse, when there exist praises so great of the most blessed Martyrs, worthy of memory? So that not only I, but even if the authority of the learned were to supply me or the foremost pomp of the poets were to succeed me, I could not have filled out the path of so great a praise, nay not even attempted it . For the merits of the Blessed Martyr Caprasius and of the Holy Virgin Faith, Martyr, can more easily be recognized by their virtues than shrewdly drawn out by praises. But since we by no means excel in the eloquence of a rather arid wit, let the devotion of a roused mind at least animate the inmost heart of us to the incitement of holy imitation and the showing of example; for if, the office of the tongue by no means serving, we cease from the praises of the Saints, let us nevertheless preserve by will the devotion of faith . Having undertaken, therefore, this subject of the blessed passion, in proportion to the burden of the deeds, as the abundance of the divine gift has permitted, we shall take care to set down a few out of many things which are held marked by the pen here and there on the pages, with that same faith and devotion with which the course of the martyrdom has come down even to us. For through the account of those who succeeded one another oblivion has not yet cut off the memory of what was done b. For that reason particular places, which possess them, or particular cities, are held illustrious for particular martyrs; and not undeservedly, because they gave up their souls for the Lord Jesus Christ c.
[2] Holy Faith d, then, was a native of the city of the people of Agen, and, the most splendid offspring born of most illustrious parents, St. Faith, a noble Virgin of Agen, she who was a nursling of that place at her birth became its patroness at the death of her passion . Noble by the ancient and generous stock of her parents, she became nobler by the gift of Christ, because, clothed in the white stole of virginity, shining with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, she gave forth the odour of good sweetness. For she was the first in the city of Agen e, the glory and example of martyrdom for all the faithful of Christ ; for she did not fear to lose the temporal life that she might possess the eternal, because from the very cradle of infancy she loved the Lord Jesus Christ and declared Him to be her author . She was indeed young in age at the time of her passion, but remained old in understanding and in deed . She was beautiful in face , but more beautiful in faith, most comely also in the whiteness of virginity, and with a serene cheerfulness of countenance. When, therefore, at that same time a most wicked governor , Dacian by name, entered the city of Agen from the profane emperors Diocletian or Maximian f, who then seemed to rule the primacy of the Roman citadel, instigated by the guile of the devil, in order to reward the sacrilegious and to inflict most atrocious punishments on the Christians who lay hidden for fear of him, he at once ordered the most blessed Virgin Faith to be summoned, and commanded her to be brought into his sight.
[3] she is set before the tribunal of Dacian, But she, offering herself of her own accord to the servants, and fortifying her body on every side with the sign of the holy Cross, prayed to the Lord , saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who protect and help your own in all things, be present to me your handmaid, and give my mouth acceptable speech with which I may answer in the sight of this tyrant . And armed with the standard of the holy Cross , strengthened by the Holy Spirit in brow, mouth and breast, she went on with a cheerful spirit. When she stood before the governor, he said to her in a coaxing speech: What is the word of your name? To whom St. Faith, terrified by no fear, answered in turn: I am called Faith in name and in deed . The governor said: What, he says, is the worship of your religion and faith? To this the holy Virgin answered: From the beginning of my youth I am a Christian; I serve the Lord Jesus Christ with the whole devotion of my mind, and I confess His name, and to Him I commit myself with my whole intent . The governor, however, with a most cunning feigned calm, answered somewhat more indulgently: Accept, he says, O young girl , counsel necessary for your beauty and youth, and cease from this confession, and sacrifice to most sacred Diana, because she is most like to your sex g, and I will make you richer with many gifts . Which promise the Virgin of Christ reckoning as nothing, answered thus: From the traditions of the fathers I have learned that all the gods of the gentiles are demons h *, and do you wish to persuade me with blandishments that I ought to sacrifice to them?
[4] by whom she is cruelly tortured; But the governor, moved with anger, said to her: Why have you presumed to say that our gods are demons? Either, he says, with body prostrate , sacrifice; or I will make you perish by divers torments. Then holy Faith, secure of her reward , strengthened by the examples of the great Martyrs, hearing these threats, and desiring to pass from the earthly life to the supreme glory, broke out into this outcry, saying: For I, for the name of my God Jesus Christ, am ready not only to suffer divers torments, but I desire also to undergo death in the confession of Him. Then the governor, kindled the more with fury, ordered his attendants to bring the holy Virgin onto a bed of bronze, and commanded that, laid upon it, she be stretched out on four sides, and that fire be put beneath, so that her so tender limbs might be burst asunder by so cruel a punishment.
[5] And so the most holy Virgin, mounting the glowing grid of her own accord, is stretched out on four sides with her limbs constrained , placed on a fiery grid: and bound tight with iron thongs, is rolled over the flaming grate . Beneath her the impious servants throw burning coals with iron shovels *, and, fat being thrown on the flames, they force the scorching fires to fly up even to her sides. Seeing which, those who were present cried out with one voice, saying: O impiety and unjust judgments! An innocent woman, a worshipper of the true God, shining with the honour of the first rank, why is she delivered without any crime to the gravest punishments? There are many also, whose names we do not know, who that day, seeing the constancy of St. Faith, loosing themselves piously from the sacrilegious yoke of the demons
necks *, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom i.
[6] St. Caprasius, by her example At that time, then, while these things were being done, one chosen by God and a Martyr to be , namely St. Caprasius, shunning with the other worshippers of Christ the persecution of the sacrilegious governor, lay hidden, placed under the hollow of a certain rock towards the northern quarter of the city k, and with clear sharpness of sight looked out upon all that was being done within the circuit of the walls. At the very turn of that same day, directing his gaze from the very mouth of the cave to the ramparts of the city, he saw the holy Martyr being roasted over the burning coals by the savagery of the impious. Lifting up his eyes, therefore, and gazing into heaven, he poured out a prayer to the Lord with streaming tears , that He would make His handmaid victorious in the present contest. And again the athlete of Christ, with eyes lifted up, looked upon heaven with the whole eagerness of his mind, and once more, prostrate on the ground, he besought the Lord to show him the heavenly power. And so, having obtained the desired effect of his petition, he saw a dove, white as snow, descending from the clouds, and placing upon the head of the Virgin a crown with gems shining between, glowing beyond the splendour of the sun and gleaming with heavenly pearls; then, looking upon the very handmaid of God, clothed in a snowy and splendid garment, he recognized that the Martyr of God herself would obtain the prize of perpetual salvation , whom he saw enriched from heaven with so great a gift.
[7] and strengthened by prodigies, The dove, then, coming from heaven, so that the divine power might be proclaimed for the rest of time to have been the more wonderful around the holy Martyr, by the gentle fluttering of its wings and the sweet clapping of its wings, with rain-bearing dew, extinguished the whole force of the flames, and by such a flight altogether repressed the heat of the scorching fire, as if with watering springs. The holy man saw also the most blessed Faith as though not harmed by blows, not burnt by fire, nor wounded in body; but standing crowned with heavenly ornaments . As soon as the servant of God, the aforesaid Caprasius, beheld with spiritual eyes this power so splendid and so wonderful, he understood that she would be worthy of the joys above l. Then, secure , and about to undergo the same glory with no unequal merits, he struck with his right hand the rock under which he dwelt, and at once there flowed forth from it a spring of perpetual water, which, running unfailingly to the present day, does not cease by the power of God to furnish the remedy of health to all who come. For with whatever weariness of sickness anyone has been held, as soon as he has tasted a draught of the stream from that rock, he receives * the desired health by the merits of the holy Martyr m.
[8] Hoping by this miracle that he was by the grace of God worthy of martyrdom, the holy man, he presents himself to the tyrant cheerful in countenance, eager in spirit, fearless in heart, while the others knew nothing of it, arrived unexpectedly at the place where the most glorious Virgin and Martyr Faith was enduring the gibbets of the flames, preaching Christ with public voice. Whom the impious tyrant at once ordered to be set in his sight to be heard. He, however, stood fearless before him: and the governor asks his name, country and family. To whom St. Caprasius : First, as to what has been put foremost , I confess that I am a Christian, in whose laver of regeneration I am called Caprasius by the priest n. Hearing this, the governor began to soothe him with coaxing speeches. I see, he says, that you are a comely young man o, who, if perchance you assent to my words, will be able to enjoy the friendship of the highest princes in the palace and to obtain many estates . Then St. Caprasius, admonished by the heavenly powers , by the example of the Holy Martyr Faith, fixing his whole hope on the crown above, answered thus: I desire to dwell in the palace of Him whom I have loved since baptism, and whom I have always acknowledged as the redeemer of all who believe in Him. The governor said: I should like to call you back, O young man, from this unsound obstinacy, and that you should grow rich with ample possessions of estates . St. Caprasius answered: I believe I shall obtain unfailing estates from Him who is faithful in His words and holy in all His works. But when the governor saw his unchangeable mind and his irresistible speech, he said to his men : I fear to contend longer in speeches with this man, lest, wearied by * the wrangling, I be defeated. Then he orders the servants to take him and to tear his flesh without any pity [p]: and when this had been done, he bravely endured the punishments, and with cheerful countenance did not cease constantly to preach the name of Christ to the peoples present.
[9] whose threats and blandishments he despises They, weeping over him with the affection of pity and murmuring with great wailing, cried out with one voice, saying: O impiety and unheard-of judgments! Why do you go to destroy with such cruelty a saint of God, adorned with all goodness? For the blessed Martyr was lovable to all, and amid the testing of the torments an angelic man of special comeliness. Whose constancy, to be overcome by no force of injuries and to be checked by no device of contrived tortures, two brothers, Primus and Felician by name and by merits, admiring, both in faith and in deed at once associated themselves with him , and eagerly threw themselves into the perils of death [q]. As soon as that fierce executioner saw them all bound together in one conspiracy to the throat of death, he began to soothe them with blandishments and to terrify them with threats. But not even so could he in any way bend them. And so, moved to grave anger, when he perceived that he could in no way prevail against them, at last, sentence being given, he commanded all of them together with the blessed Virgin and glorious Martyr of Christ, Faith, to be led to the shrines; where it stands certain * for all either to sacrifice to the gods or to end their life with their heads struck off.
[10] and is beheaded with SS. Primus and Felician. The soldiers, then , were led together with Blessed Faith to the aforesaid place, where they could be compelled by no force to sacrifice. And, their heads cut off, in the hour of one day they merited to come happily together, with the triumph of martyrdom, to the crown of glory; so that those whose fellowship had been beautiful and venerable in constancy of faith might have a happiness more beautiful and more excellent in the fellowship of martyrdom. For we reckon worthy and happy the place of the city of Agen, which flourished by the origin of martyrs, and through their glorious contests merited the faith of Christ, and after their struggles received their bodies to be entombed. Whom Christ, with the highest of the heavenly powers, received exulting within the fellowship of the blessed spirits, with whom, adorned with the stole of immortality and laurelled with the unfading crown of glory, they enjoy an unspeakable reward; and, destined to reign with God and the Lamb without end, they enjoy the delight of the divine vision . In whose passion, on the day before the Nones of October, He who glories in His Saints, our Lord Jesus Christ, willed us to rejoice and to make it illustrious; to whom with * the Father and the Holy Spirit be honour and glory for ages of ages. Amen.
[11] [Peace being restored to the Church, they are honourably entombed by St. Dulcidius.] Their bodies, then, torn by pitiable torments and truncated by the cutting off of their heads, the unbelieving heathendom left in the streets as if neglected ; and the devout little flock of Christ, gathering them secretly with the highest veneration and wiping away the outpouring of the sacred blood with cleanest cloths, committed them to burial in a place unworthy of such great sanctity [r], where they seemed not so much to have buried them as to have hidden them away [s]. For, struck with grave fear, it dreaded lest the bodies of the Saints should through the malice of the wicked be transferred elsewhere, or, what is abominable, be sunk in the foul streams of the neighbouring river, and so be maliciously denied to holy Christianity . But by the providence of God it was brought about by the faithful that the city which had them as its indwellers, enriched with a threefold honour, namely of birth, of passion and of burial, should merit to have them also as patrons for obtaining the grace of almighty God. In that place the holy bodies lay through many returns of years, until, all the profanity of heathendom being taken away, St. Dulcidius [t] took up the episcopate and, bearing the pastoral charge, kept watch for the salvation of all . To this prelate it was pleasing above all things that, raising the Relics of the Saints from the unseemly place, he should bring them forth into the light, a new basilica having been built in their veneration, the church itself being dedicated under the title of the holy Virgin. And when he was about to open so great a treasure, and, not indeed unbelieving, but terrified by fear and reverence, hesitated for a long time, at last, admonished in the quiet of the night not to abandon negligently what he had faithfully begun, he called together the crowds of monks and the prelates of the other order *, and disclosed his secret to all. Aided by their counsel he brought it through to completion. And the rest of the people, agreeing with their wishes, honourably raise the Relics of the Saints from the ignoble place and set them in a sacred place. By whose merits innumerable miracles are wrought from heaven for the salvation of all, by the grant of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
For the merits of St. Caprasius and of Faith can more easily be recognized by their virtues than set forth in speeches. But since we are struck down in the barrenness of a more ardent wit, the devotion of the mind has gone beyond us, and if, the office of the tongue by no means serving, we cease from the praises of the Saints, we nevertheless serve the devotion of faith by will. Hence, for the honour of the deeds, as means have permitted, a few out of very many things are held marked here and there by the pen on the pages, with that same faith and devotion with which the course of the martyrdom has come to us (we shall take care to set them down). For through the account of those who succeeded one another oblivion has not yet cut off what was done; for particular places or particular cities, which possess them, are held illustrious for particular Martyrs; and not undeservedly, etc.
h. Ps. XCV, 5.
p. Pietas among the writers of the golden age commonly signifies love towards parents and country: sometimes, however, at least a little later, it is taken for mercy, as also in our text, as is clear from Suetonius, Domitian, chapter XI.
q. See, concerning SS. Primus and Felician, companions of St. Caprasius, numbers 17 and 18 of the Preliminary Commentary.
Our reading has it that the Holy Martyrs were buried in an unworthy place, while certain copies have that they were laid in a worthy place: I think ours is to be preferred, especially because it is said below that St. Dulcidius raised the bodies of the Saints from an unseemly place, and the metrical Passion, to be published below, conveys the same sense, singing:
While … he himself saw The sacred limbs lying buried in a building less tended.
s. It can be shown by many examples that the heathen very often tried to disperse the Relics of the Martyrs, so that, namely, they should not obtain the veneration due to the Saints: thus Eusebius, book VIII, chapter VI, says: The emperors decreed by sentences that the Martyrs, already committed to the earth, should be dug up again afresh and cast headlong into the sea, lest, as they themselves indeed supposed, some, reckoning them gods as they lay laid in sepulchres and monuments, should pursue them with divine veneration. From what has been said it is clear why the Christians of Agen feared lest the bodies of their Martyrs be thrown into the nearby Garonne.
t. Of St. Dulcidius, bishop of Agen, treatment has already been given in the Commentary on St. Faith at the 6th day of October, number 26 and following Acta SS., vol. III of October, p. 270., and more broadly in the present volume at the 17th day.
* T. antiquity
* T. search
* T. we are struck down in the barrenness of a more ardent wit,
* T. we serve the devotion
* U. nursling of the place by the right of dying; T. by the right of rising
* R. adds then; C. T. also
* R. adds but
* L. of faith
* R. at Agen
* R. adds great; U. great
* The whole phrase is lacking in L.; R. omits the last member.
* T. is said to have been
* R. mature
* T. appeared aged
* L. R. in mind
* "most wicked" is lacking in L.
* L. adds directed
* R. should endow with benefits
* "on every side" is lacking in R.
* R. adds God
* "protect" is lacking in L. R. T.
* T. by which
* R. I may bring forth
* T. with an impregnable shield
* T. I am called Faith; the governor
* L. intent
* L. devotion
* L. young maiden
* R. your (singular)
* L. and I will enrich myself with many gifts
* "are" is lacking in L.
* "he says" is lacking in L. S.
* R. concerning God and
* R. L. of the Lord
* "so" is lacking in L. R.
* L. R. spread apart
* R. is rolled through
* R. with spear-shafts
* In T. U. the passage is lacking.
* L. for
* T. omits and a Martyr to be
* R. part
* L. T. with prayers
* R. T. into heaven
* L. R. to have obtained
* L. R. and the pyre
* R. nor of torments
* "crowned" is lacking in L.
* "with spiritual eyes" is lacking in R.
* R. adds and he himself
* "a draught" is lacking in L. R.
* L. R. will receive
* R. the fodder
* R. begins
* L. R. T. most illustrious
* R. of generation
* R. rewards
* L. astonished
* L. R. and of the holy
* R. with the extent
* R. adds to the servants; T. to his companions
* "in speeches" is lacking in L.
* L. R. add him
* R. to be reproached by no injury
* L. adds to the contest; R. to the work
* R. and of the contest
* L. crowded together
* L. would be
* L. adds of Christ
* The whole phrase is lacking in L.
* L. R. add with veneration
* The entire period is lacking in L.; R. they possess.
* L. adds God
* R. omits as if neglected
* R. in a worthy place
* R. should be detracted
* R. omits by the faithful
* U. Dulcitius
* R. omits the last passage
* R. prelates and monks
METRICAL PASSION OF SS. FAITH AND CAPRASIUS,
By Hildebert of Le Mans, as it seems,
From the Bremen codex.
Caprasius, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
Primus, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
Felician, martyr at Agen in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 2938
aPROBABLY BY HILDEBERT.
Chapter I.
When the mad king Maximian was reigning, Faith, a noble virgin of Agen, With Diocletian, no less mad, accompanying him, They were ever contriving to condemn the sacred cohorts through various deaths, They who sacrificed to Satan: For the said kings strove to overturn the laws of Christ
They did not cease, while everywhere they commanded That believers be punished who despised their deities. A virgin pleasing to Christ flourished at that time, Faith was her name, to which it gave a true omen; She, strong in beauty, like a star lifting the twilight, Was born among the people of Agen, nor did she shudder at the swords Of the savage torturer, since in hope of the everlasting age She endured punishments, scourges, flames and chains, That so she might have the rewards of the true light. This noble girl had excellent parents, But counting worldly things vain as dung, She sought Christ, whom she desired with her whole mind. Therefore the vain governor, Dacian, lacking reason, Came into these parts, practising the arts of the demon, Sent by the Augusti to inflict harsh things upon the just; He, the herald of Satan, raged with blind heart, Going hither and thither, and delivering to death very many Bodies of the Saints, tortured by the zeal of the wicked; Harsh and hateful, a liar, a murderer, deceitful, He gave gifts to the wicked, but tore the worshippers of Christ: These he soothed, those he oppressed with torture.
Chapter II.
Therefore he commands that Faith (whom he knew by report) she is led to the governor Dacian, Be set before him: but the happy victim of Christ, At once delivering herself of her own accord to the insolent servants, Calls upon Him whom she venerates and loves, as a bride her bridegroom: You who in heaven have Your home-born servants, (good king), and govern all things, Good king, who say, b granting * solace to Your friends, While you stand before governors, be not at all afraid, The holy Spirit Himself will give to you, that the fierce enemy May be conquered through you, he who plans to conquer you, Give me help, and crown me by proving me, Give a helmet to me who am about to fight, and burn my mind With the saving fire, when I must speak with a judge Of hard neck, who threatens torments to the chaste. But now, Ruler, breathe into me strength for harsh things, And fortify me with faith against the torments of the tribune.
Chapter III.
Her * prayer finished, she stands joyful before the judge, Bearing the signs of Christ. The governor, seeking to join her to himself, to whom she answers fearlessly Speaks again * with a coaxing voice: Virgin to be revered, tell me Your name and your worship, tell it at once without disturbance. I am called Faith indeed, the virgin answered him, Christ, whom I devoutly worship, I will not set aside, Whom alone I truly desire and strive to please. Feigning a calm mind, the governor said to her: Virgin, take thought either for your age or for your nobility, I beg you to believe me, and depart from that law, Despise so vain a law by worshipping Diana; And I will furnish you (if I see you sacrifice) With men-servants, maid-servants, treasures, estates, villas. The virgin, trampling these things down like ears of grain, Christ, she answered, has promised far better things, If I believe Him, if I yield not to you, faithless one; You seem to me mad, offering libations to vain things, Plainly mad, you who give incense to Diana, For thus the prophet testifies, thus he cries aloud: The gods of the pagans are full of demons, I myself disdain to have such gods as companions; And the things you care for, perishing things, I care not for. To her the prefect, hiding his damnable heart, Why, he says, do you blaspheme the absent almighty ones? You rave greatly; you will incur the wrath of Caesar. Come, then, with auspicious hand either offer holocausts to the gods, Or soon, by the law laid down, you will die disgraced. The Martyr, confident, and laughing at the superfluous words: These threats, she says, I myself despise, and the heavy ruin Which you set before me for the worship of religion: Why then do you delay? In vain, fool, you labour; Either lay me waste with flames or torture me on the rack: The more I am tortured, the more and more I will confess the truth; For there remains for me a great reward through this brief death. Then, changing his mood, and wavering with blind heart, The mad Dacian grew pale and said to his men: See, faithful colleges of my servants, Bring here at once an iron grate made ready, Beneath which let fire blaze with wood and sulphur; And at once lay the foolish prophetess upon the grate, That the rebel's skin may lie stretched out above; And so let her be burned, and much and long be pressed With cudgels and thongs, that under the compelling force of pain She may cease to despise the eternally living gods, Nor praise a king whose law she holds in ignorance.
Chapter IV.
At once is fulfilled whatever is commanded to be done: Now kindling the coals and holding the forks, and by whom she is direly tortured: The unworthy stand by: the grate is set upon the fire. After the Virgin sees this torment so very violent, Of her own accord she mounts the grate, and renders thanks To the creator, in no way sparing her blood. As she bore the violence of the torment with devout * mind, The dire torturers, increasing the excessive pains, Torturing, roast her breast with her paps, with flames kindled on every side, Nor do they shudder at the punishment of their crime; Her inward parts scorched, as the impious enemy had commanded, Turning her, roasted, the cruel and insolent servants Throw a mass of salt into her wounds. Those standing by, reproaching the torturers for this crime, Inflame their wrath and, weeping, cry out such things: Why, wretches, do you thus burn the girl's limbs for nothing? What has she sinned? She has done nothing worthy of death, A royal virgin, pious, prudent and singular, For no just cause she is tortured, scorched by the flames, She who, while she is tortured, rejoices and confesses Christ: Therefore, captives, spare now a citizen of heaven, And abandon this crime, lest you perish. Safe for the rest, many, having thus said many things, Cast away the idols and merited the palm, For alike seized, alike they were slain by the sword.
Chapter V.
While the believing crowds suffered with her in the city, Caprasius was shunning the altars and lay hidden St. Caprasius, emboldened by her example, In the hollow rock of a mountain: him the depraved command of the king Did not deter: but he came to the help of the seized. He, chancing to see the blessed one roasted by fires From the hollow of the rock, and lying naked in the square, Prostrate on the earth wept, and as a suppliant prayed That the high-thundering king, bestowing punishments or rewards, Would strengthen her and adorn her with the sacred palm. Again he entreats, with his eyes directed upward, That it be revealed to him in what light the Virgin rejoices. Scarcely were his prayers so completed, when from the seat of rest Lo, a dove comes, which soothes the wounds of Faith, Embracing the force of the flames set beneath By the clapping of its wings as it flies around, And so adorns the Saint's head with a glowing garland; This Caprasius beheld, wondering and venerating, And, much more gladdened, He knew Faith healed, not torn, Clothed with a garment polished with gems and gold, Made victorious, and having attained the palaces of heaven. Emboldened, therefore, by these signs worthy of the Virgin, He was made stronger and touched with desire of death, Bursting forth, since with his right hand, his companions unaware c, He struck the rock, which he commanded to pour forth a spring: Which spring at once becomes abundant, sweet, and becomes healthful, From which whoever drinks at once grows well and is restored, Helped by the Martyr's merits and safe in the kindling. Delivering himself, then, to the wolves, from the summit of the rock He forthwith descends, and made for the contest, Crying out Christ, by whom the Martyr was d to overcome.
Chapter VI.
Him, thus bearing witness and reviling the images, he confesses Christ before the governor The servants at once present to the frenzied Dacian. He being presented, the judge says these things to the blessed one: Tell your name, O youth, resplendent in form: And take care to tell me the truth about your worship. That Martyr soon to be e said, secure: I am called indeed Caprasius, O Dacian, I know nothing of the gods; devout, I adore only The Almighty who fills the heavens, the sea, the lands. After this that impious man calmly adds thus: You err in your worship, youth most beautiful of face, You who, believing in Christ, trust in Him in vain, Whom, taken for a sin, Judaea presented to Pilate, Afflicted with punishments, and at last crucified: Therefore spurn Him, changing your fathers' laws, And know the gods and seek their divine powers, Who truly live, nor have undergone death. If you consent to me, spurn not the words of one who warns you; Among your fellow citizens you will be able to go forth rich, And you will rejoice together, when you see broad walls, Pleasing to the Romans: therefore the vain law ceases f. The devout Martyr, in no way moved by the gift, Admonished by the example of the Saint, whom he had seen before Overcome the living coals and fly to the contests, Thus says: O praetor, spurning your banquets I rejoice. Christ reigns in the citadel of heaven, Him alone I serve, Who fashioned us, and also restored us when fallen, Deigning on the cross to blot out our guilt; These things you think vain, these, fool, you refuse to believe, Taken by a vain hope, false Diana deceiving you, Whom you worship as living, lo, she lacks life. But why, senseless one, to figures that will not feel Do you offer incense? Wretch, you err; correct your mind. Strong in a sound mind, worship Christ, despise the shrines: Be a believer in Christ and depart from this error; Beware of the punishment, and gain a pleasant seat. He replies: Youth, I should wish, gentle, to spare you: See, I should wish to give you many things, but see, I see you Very rebellious: now at length cast away the worship Which you rashly boast, by which you hope to conquer. And my majesty (if you offer libations to the gods, And change your ways) will furnish great honours: But if you spurn the rites of those to be venerated, which heaven forbid, And defame them, and still cry out I know not what, For a thing so foolish, many harsh things remain for you. Do you not see the punishments which wicked Faith suffers For like arrogance, for a law in every way vile? So shall you be punished, and suffer heavy punishment, Yield, trembling at so much, appease my holy deities. The Martyr said to him: In hope of happy rest I prefer, bloodied, to bear your tortures, Than for a thing made, or a figure of whatever kind, To despise Christ: if I become His victim, So shall I be (secure), if I enjoy the true light, g Wherefore I am not terrified by the fire of such great threats, Nor am I warmed by the brightness of your promises. What I will, what I hope, what I seek with my whole heart, Both abides and has abided: but the glory of the world passes: If Faith is now tortured, she will enjoy the reward Given by right to the just: you, with death prepared for the wicked, Ever weeping will weep, and grieve with great grief. After her example I dedicate myself a temple of Christ, Tending whither she tends, reproving what she reproves. Therefore slay me, keeping for me the promised rewards, Punish me more swiftly, because (I serve) [h] Christ alone.
Chapter VII.
When the governor learned this, grief moved his inward parts; Whence, sighing, and marvelling at the faithful words, and together with the brothers Primus and Felician He mourns the royal decree spurned in every way. Wickedly, then, he rages, and scourges and burns the saint, Tortures, tears him apart, but hopes in vain to conquer. For he, relying on faith, bears so many harsh things joyfully; Tortured, he gives thanks, and the bronze grate pleases him. Then many stood by and bore it grievously, Seeing such things and suffering with the saint, And condemning the commands of the praetor, full of fury. Among whom, weeping and grieving that the saint should bear The ferocious torments of the kindled grate for nothing, Primus, still vain, with Felician, vain i, Marvelling, sees these things, pricked at heart, and spurns the shrines, And at once both joined themselves to the saints, embracing The law of the Thunderer, bound by a divine covenant. Therefore these four, now associated, pleasing to God, Bravely conquered Dacian, or his cohorts; Truly they conquered, who endured the punishments, Trampling earthly things and gaining the kingdoms above.
Chapter VIII.
When the governor had seen that, by much exhorting and much threatening, he is beheaded: He could not bend them, These madmen, he says, lictor, and truly profane Enemies of our gods, bring forth to the temples of the gods. L(ead them), dear one, (and) if they will not sacrifice, Remember to punish them with the sword drawn. These four aforesaid athletes of Christ, Singing psalms to Christ and now already desiring to die, Led on, come to the temples of the false gods, That they might offer libations to the gods, or make ready their necks to be cut.
Then, rejoicing together, and not willing to offer libations to the gods, They are at once laid prostrate, and struck together with the sword: And so, crowned with holy Faith, the blessed ones, Received into heaven, have attained the thresholds of life. Then the cruel and profane pagans, After the death of these four Saints had been accomplished, Withdrew from there and abandoned the bodies. Some believers, coming then by night, Gathered them, venerating them as they could; On whom they would have bestowed great honour, had they been able; But they feared the depraved people that worshipped the shrines: For the hostile frenzy of this raging people, Slaying, slew everywhere whomever it saw Believing in Christ or suffering with them. For the venomous and furious gentiles Cast into the sea, or burned with fire, the torn Bodies of the Saints, lest their praise be sung. When the believers had learned this and had feared it, They came by night, as we have said, and carried them off, Entombing the blessed limbs in a building little pleasing; So they entombed them, (and there) k they lay a long time, Until, the worship of the wicked Gods ceasing, The right of the faith grew (among the people) [k] and spurned the shrines.
Chapter IX.
Then the people raised up and created as pontiff whose bodies St. Dulcidius lays to rest with honour. Dulcidius, adorned with the gifts of religion, Who, a prelate truly devout, with his whole heart Loved Christ, and well ruled those committed to him. Who, while he bore himself (skilfully) [k], and himself saw The sacred limbs lying buried in a building less tended, Thought it unworthy, built a venerable temple, Consecrating it in honour of the aforesaid blessed one, And the most holy bodies of the blessed ones The same wise man had prepared to place in that very spot. But l […] lest he should touch the sacred limbs He reverently abstained, seeking pardon for himself; Soon chastised, called by a heavenly voice And admonished in dreams that the kindly father himself, or all The people, should raise up the sacred bodies and not hesitate. Thus strengthened, he discloses it, delaying his vows not at all, The assembly of the clergy summoned and the people called. Then all the clergy, and the strict monastic order, With the throngs of virgins joined, with the citizens of the city, Praising Christ and venerating the Relics, Raised these up and placed them in the sacred building Which the prelate had first adorned and likewise consecrated. Many mighty works are done here, and healings Are granted to all who venerate the sacred bodies, To the praise of the Almighty who bestows the palm, Whose majesty, whose wondrous power Lives from eternity, rules all things by right supreme.
ANNOTATIONS.
* præsto?
* Hac?
* refert?
* senella?