ON SS. SERVANDUS AND GERMANUS, MARTYRS NEAR CÁDIZ IN SPAIN,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Servandus, M. near Cádiz in Spain. (S.)
Germanus, M. near Cádiz in Spain. (S.)
BY J. V. H.
§ sole. The cult of the holy Martyrs according to the Mozarabic liturgy; their homeland and family; the time and place of the martyrdom.
The memory of these champions is celebrated by the Little Roman Martyrology in these words: The cult of the Saints from the Martyrologies and the liturgy In the Spains, of Servandus and Germanus. St. Ado, according to his custom, embraces the history of the whole passion in a summary; which, with a very few exceptions, Usuard and the present-day Roman Martyrology copy out: In the Spains, the birthday of the Saints Servandus and Germanus, who after blows, the squalor of prison, the injury of thirst and hunger, and the labour of a very long time, which, by order of Viator the governor, they bore laden with iron, at last fulfilled the course of their martyrdom, their necks being cut with the sword. Of whom Germanus was buried at Mérida next to St. Eulalia; while Servandus, translated to Seville, was laid near Saints Justa and Rufina. What we adduce from the most ancient and most celebrated Martyrologies sufficiently shows that the passion and glory of our Saints can rightly be called into controversy by no one. Further, the whole Church of the Spains has venerated SS. Servandus and Germanus from of old, as is shown by the Mozarabic Breviary and Missal, arranged according to the Rule of St. Isidore, which exhibit to us a special liturgy of the holy Martyrs. So the Breviary has a proper hymn at Vespers of the following tenor Patrologia, volume LXXXVI, column 1233.:
O Christ, true king of Saints, And consecrator of Martyrs, You are the truth and the way, And the life of those who believe; You give to those who long their wish And to the Blessed the prize *.
To you the whole company * of the faithful Lays open its vows of praise, You who to Servandus and Germanus Soon granted surpassing strength, So that by fighting they might conquer The Devil *.
For the worldly governor commands The strong soldiers of Christ To go to the altar, To make offering to vain idols, And to be immolated with the harmful Blood of the victims.
They awaited the punishments, Undismayed through love of Christ: It was sweet then to them to be burned, Sweet to endure the iron, And to offer their bodies To heavy tortures.
We indeed, confessing Christ, Curse the idols; And adoring the heavenly one We despise earthly things; Far be it from us with profane rite To bow our bodies.
As they say these things the Martyrs Are overwhelmed with a thousand punishments, Twisted hardness wraps both hands In its bonds, And steel surrounds their chafed necks With hard rings.
Through a wide wound a noble door Is opened to the just; And Christ joins them To the white-robed cohorts: He mingles them with the choirs of Angels And crowns them with rewards.
Stand now, all you hymn-singers, In voice, in vows, in gift, And in praise of the Saints Let the voice of all resound: Let this day and feast be to us A consecrated joy.
Let glory to God the parent Resound in the heights, Let us sing glory to Christ And to the Holy Spirit; To whom be praise and power Through eternal ages. Amen.
[2] Mozarabic: The special texts which the Mozarabic Missal has are often repeated; wherefore let it suffice here to have cited both the prayer for peace and the inlatio, which two embrace all that is said in the rest of the divine office. The prayer for peace is said before the Inlatio (in the ordinary Latin Mass the Preface), because the priest prays for peace and charity on the faithful, especially on those who at that time are present at the sacrifice [Pinius, Liturgia antiqua Hispanica, preliminary Tract, no. 454, Acta Sanctorum, volume VI of July, page 89.]. The prayer for peace, then, has Patrologia LXXXV, volume I, column 886.: O God, who place in divided regions the bodies of your Martyrs, undividedly enjoying the reward of one glory; and who give Servandus to the land of Cádiz, and bestow Germanus on the citizens of Mérida; grant to us that, enlightened by the light of your grace, and bodily divided, we may retain the unity of sweetness, and, gathered into one, may overflow with the gift of charity. The Inlatio or Preface, further, adds other things worth noting Ibid., place cited.: It is worthy and just, right indeed and salutary, that we should give you thanks, holy Lord, eternal Father, almighty God, through Christ our Lord: for whom the Blessed Martyrs Servandus and Germanus, bodily assailed, conquered hunger, chains and prisons. Happy life rendered them unconquered in punishment, humble in conscience, approved in doctrine. They preach that the rites of the idols are to be overturned, and that Christ the Son of God alone is to be adored. After the first victory, then, which they merited, over the vanquished enemy, they are again snatched away to the hooks and torments, and again to punishments and tortures. Neither the labour of the journey, nor the straitness of the prison, nor the tortures of the whole passion inflicted terrified them; but both, entering firmly on the field of faith, attained by passion what they had purchased by faith. For they received on their sacred necks the flashing sword, and for your name, O God, they manfully laid down their lives. And so by an equal and reciprocal mystery, while, divided, they illumine the lands with their sacred bodies, by the undivided suffrage of their merits they bestow both benefits and crowns on the peoples, by the granting clemency of your Only-begotten, to whom deservedly all the Angels do not cease to cry out, saying thus. R. Holy. Holy. Holy. What we have so far brought forward from the Spanish liturgy are, unless perhaps you except the Little Martyrology, the most ancient and most certain monuments of the cult and history of our Saints. Besides, their birthday was once counted among the more solemn festivals, as our Pinius reports from Aguirre, no. 422 Liturgia antiqua Hispanica, page 77.; although according to the Calendar prefixed to the Mozarabic Missal and Breviary, the same feast is noted with the rite of nine lessons, that is, in the fourth order. For solemnities of the first order are called of six copes; of the second, of four copes; of the third, of two copes; and finally of the fourth, of nine lessons.
[3] In the Acts three things occur that are to be explained: We have no Acts of SS. Servandus and Germanus other than those extracted from the Spanish Breviaries; which, since they are more recent than the Mozarabic liturgy, are chiefly to be judged by its standard; especially so long as more certain documents do not urge otherwise. All who have treated of the Spanish Saints, except (what is surprising) Pseudo-Dexter, have extolled our Martyrs with praises, and have added to what the liturgy relates various circumstances, which it is worth the labour to examine more closely. First of all they say that Servandus and Germanus were brothers, and sons of St. Marcellus the centurion by St. Nonia or Nonna. From this genealogy they further deduce the homeland of our Martyrs, and indeed that the race or family from which they drew their origin was Roman. Next they fix the time of the passion at the end of the third century; which others defer to the beginning of the fourth. Finally, while the others keep silent, the Roman Martyrology defines the place of the passion more accurately, when it says: In Spain near Cádiz at the estate of Urso, of the holy Martyrs Servandus and Germanus etc.: from which words there has arisen a controversy about the place where the Ursonian estate, the place of contest of our Martyrs, is to be located. These three things, then, recur to be examined in this preliminary commentary, while the rest can easily be explained in the Annotations to the Life extracted from the Breviaries.
[4] 1° Whether the saints were sons of St. Marcellus, Now as regards the family of SS. Servandus and Germanus, these things are read in our Pedro Ribadeneira in the Flos Sanctorum, especially of the Spaniards, which book is often appended to his Legendary: The Breviary of Évora, he says Flos Sanctorum, page 324, Cologne edition of 1741., and likewise Juan Vaseo in the chronicle of Spain Hispania illustrata, volume I, page 649 and following., testify that these were the names of the twelve sons of St. Marcellus: Claudius, Lupercius, Victoricus, Facundus, Primitivus, Hemeterius, Cheledonius, Faustus, Januarius, Martial, Servandus and Germanus, and that all these were Martyrs. Nicolás Antonio enumerates the same in his censure of fabulous histories Censura de historias fabulosas, page 330., but with this appendix, which we render into Latin from the Spanish language: Some authors doubt whether all these are sons of St. Marcellus, and substitute others in their place: this inquiry does not concern us. Our men have already touched on this inquiry in various places, and have stuck in doubt. For at the 3rd of March, in the Acts of SS. Emetherius and Caledonius, they examine the question Acta Sanctorum, volume I of March, page 229. and with an argument certainly not to be despised they demolish the sonship of these Martyrs, since Prudentius too says in the Peristephanon, Hymn I Patrologia, volume LX, column 288, Migne's edition.:
O forgetfulness, grown stale, of silent antiquity! These things are begrudged us, and fame itself is extinguished; For long ago a blaspheming Attendant carried off the writings, Lest ages, taught by tenacious books, Should spread the order, time and manner of the passion, handed down, With sweet tongues through the ears of those to come.
The writer of the Compendium of the Acts from the ecclesiastical records of the Church of Burgos, our men say Acta Sanctorum, volume I of March, page 232., professes the same ignorance in the same words; for of these most excellent Martyrs, he says, the origin and native soil, as also the time of the martyrdom, and the kinds of torments (which, as memory handed down from fathers to sons holds, were most atrocious) have been entirely obliterated and are unknown. But since Prudentius, as his words openly testify, says that the written documents of the martyrdom of SS. Emeterius and Chelidonius perished by the malice of the persecutors, it follows that at the beginning of the fifth century, in which he flourished, the manner of the martyrdom remained surviving by a certain vague tradition; which kind of argument indeed seems positive rather than negative.
[5] And brothers of other Martyrs, Similarly at the 13th of October our men treat of SS. Faustus, Januarius and Martial, Martyrs of Córdoba Ibid., volume VI of October, page 187., who are themselves also said to have been sons of St. Marcellus, and so brothers of SS. Servandus and Germanus. Our Cornelius de Bye denies this in the Preliminary Commentary to their passion, no. 4 and following Ibid., page 188., saying that the opinion was born from Pseudo-Julian, which however is older, since it had already been put forth by Lucas of Tuy, a writer of the thirteenth century, in the Preface of his Chronicle Hispania illustrata, volume IV, page 2.. Certainly the Acts of the Martyrs of Córdoba, which are held to be genuine [Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume VI, page 188, and Ruinart, Acta Martyrum, page 534, Amsterdam edition of 1713.], not only are silent about their kinship with St. Marcellus and the others,
but rather suggest the contrary, as Bartolomé Sánchez de Feria shows in his Palestra sagrada of the Martyrs of Córdoba Feria, Palestra Sagrada, volume III, page 156.. For the tyrant Eugenius, when he saw the champions steadfast in the confession of the faith, in exasperation said Acta Sanctorum, volume VI of October, page 193.: Whence do you have this so desperate fellowship? And a little below Eugenius, turning to Martial, said: You see the madness of mind of these men, who have drawn you into their fellowship. From which words, in my judgment, one may deduce that the fellowship contracted among these champions grew together not by the tie of blood but of friendship, and so that they were companions rather than brothers. For it can scarcely be believed that the tyrant, with no mention made of kinship, should have repeatedly reproached a fellowship in the same faith, which seemed to him a fortuitous one. Wherefore I judge that not only the silence of the ancients, but chiefly the positive argument, such as it is, here brought forward, damages the opinion now commonly received. Whence, five supposititious sons of St. Marcellus having already been eliminated, we cannot admit that SS. Servandus and Germanus belonged to the same family of St. Marcellus; indeed the ancient documents do not indicate by even one word that these Saints were joined by blood. But this same question will necessarily have to be taken up again at the 30th of October, on which the Roman Martyrology celebrates the passion of St. Marcellus [Compare Tillemont, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, volume IV, page 575, and España Sagrada, volume XXXIV, page 336.].
[6] 2° The time of the martyrdom, As regards the time at which our Saints suffered, their descent from St. Marcellus, if it were established, would lay down for us a very easy way of tracking it: but since that very descent can deservedly be called into controversy, there is no place in which we may fix a sure footing. In this indeed all agree, as many as I have read, that our Martyrs suffered during the raging of the persecution of Diocletian: but at the same time it must be admitted that this tradition borrows its authority rather from the unanimity of those who assert it than from any ancient document. Nor does Ado supply an argument for defining the time more accurately, when he says that Germanus was buried at Mérida next to St. Eulalia, while Servandus was laid near SS. Justa and Rufina: that indeed would have weight, if immediately after the passion Germanus had been translated to Mérida and Servandus to Seville; for it would show that the holy Virgins, who suffered at the beginning of the fourth century, ran before our champions to the crown; and thus that the passion of our saints is to be tied to the beginning of the fourth century. But this will have happened much later, and probably when peace had already been restored to the Church: which indeed is most certain in the case of St. Servandus; for in the prayer of the Mozarabic Missal, cited above at no. 2, he is said to be given to the land of Cádiz; whence it follows that St. Servandus lay for some time in the territory of Cádiz, and obtained public veneration there, before he was translated to Seville and laid near SS. Justa and Rufina. Some chronological moment would be supplied by the circumstance that it was by order of Viator, whom Ado calls governor, and the Acts to be published below at no. 4 a Vicar, holding the office of vicar-prefect, that our Martyrs were struck with the sword. But the name of this governor or vicar has nowhere so far met me, except in those very commentaries that treat of our Saints; so that the name is wholly useless for solving the difficulty. Certainly Juan de Masdeu, who in his Critical History of Spain seems to have most diligently collected the old Roman inscriptions, and has published them up to the number of 1350 Masdeu, Historia Crítica de España, volumes V and VI., nowhere among so many names makes mention of Viator, so that he is so far known only from our Acts. If however it is true, what the Acts at the place cited exhibit, namely that Viator obtained the title of Vicar through the Spains, it must be said that he held the magistracy in the last times of the Diocletianic persecution. For, on the testimony of Ambrosio de Morales Corónica General de España, volume V, page 206, Madrid edition of 1791. and Juan Masdeu Historia Crítica, volume VIII, page 36., the dignity of Vicar was established by Constantine the Great, and consisted in this, as Ambrosio Morales says at the place cited, that he was governor-general of all the Spains, on whom the governors of the seven provinces depended in momentous affairs of war and peace. If these things are so, it becomes rather likely that Viator obtained some magistracy while the persecution was still raging, and so that our Martyrs suffered at the beginning of the fourth century; wherefore we have marked this epoch, such as it is, at the head of this commentary. Nor let anyone object that Viator, a persecutor under Diocletian, should have attained such favour under the Christian Constantine as to obtain the supreme dignity in Spain: for such was the condition of the times, that it would have been impossible, pagans being excluded, to entrust even the first offices to Christians alone: certainly toward the end of the same fourth century a great part of the Roman senate was addicted to the worship of idols, as is shown by its intercession against the decree of the emperor Gratian ordering the removal of the statue of Victory, which was held in superstitious veneration as the prop of the empire [Compare Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume V, page 73 and following. And, if you like, Prudentius, Carmen contra Symmachum, book I, verse 614, in Migne, Patrologia, volume LX, column 171.].
[7] 3° The place, which, Osuna being excluded, We come at last to the third difficulty, namely in what place our Saints consummated their contest. The Roman Martyrology and the Acts to be published below at no. 4 assign as the place of contest the Ursonian estate. Some have thought that this word signifies the city of Urso, which was also called Ursao, Orsona, even Genua or Gemina Urbanorum Masdeu, Historia Crítica, volume VI, page 400., today Osuna in the province of Baetica and the diocese of Seville: but I allege this opinion rather from the opinion of others than from my own: for no writer has so far met me who located the place of contest of our Martyrs in the city of Urso. Yet since Spanish writers have refuted this view, it is beyond controversy for me that it flourished among some: whom Rodrigo Caro refutes in his Antiquities of Seville, book III, chapter 55 Caro, Antigüedades de Sevilla, folio 178, verso.. Certainly if we follow etymology, an interpretation of this kind is convenient, and even right, when the other things concur or at least are not opposed. But in the first place the same name is not rarely proper to various places, as is evident at a glance to anyone inspecting some topographical lexicon; and so it does not necessarily point to the present city of Osuna of Urso. And this holds in our case; since the Ursonian estate, as the Roman Martyrology and the Passion at no. 6 have it, must be found near Cádiz: whereas Osuna is at least twenty-eight French leagues, according to the maps, or 112 kilometres, distant from Cádiz, and so Osuna would be incorrectly said to be near Cádiz.
[8] Seems to be located near Cádiz. Nor is the error corrected by saying that nearness can be signified by the juridical convent; inasmuch as the province of Baetica was divided into four juridical convents, each of which had its own judges, namely those of Seville, Córdoba, Cádiz and Astigi (today Écija) [Flórez, España Sagrada, volume IX, page 59; Cellarius, Geographia antiqua, volume I, page 66.]: and some interpret nearness as the convent [Tamayo, Martyrologium Hispanicum at the 23rd of October, volume V, page 622, and Caro, Antigüedades de Sevilla, folio 178 verso.]. But I do not see why an ancient writer should have substituted ambiguous words such as "near Cádiz" for the certain and defined name of the convent. And even if the objection were disposed of in some fashion or other, a graver difficulty arises, namely that Pliny in book III of the Natural History, chapter I, numbers Urso, which, he says, is also called Genua Urbanorum, in the convent of Astigi; and thus Urso or Osuna is excluded from the convent of Cádiz. Further, if Urso is in question as the place of contest of the Martyrs, no reason can be given why, omitting the designation of colony, the writer should have used the name of an estate, which can in no way suit a colony remarkable for its coins and indeed for its mint Masdeu, Historia Crítica de España, volume VI, pages 19, 400, 454 and 603.: for under the name of fundus, as is established from law 211, Digest, De verborum significatione (L. 16), every building and every field is included; but in usage urban buildings are called aedes; rustic ones, villae: a place without a building in the city, however, is called an area; in the country, a field. And the same field with a building is called a fundus. A celebrated colony would therefore be ineptly called a fundus, or, as others have it, a village. Wherefore one must entirely agree with the Spanish authors who locate the place of contest of the Martyrs within the island of Cádiz. From this the opinion of Enrique Flórez in the España Sagrada España Sagrada, volume XIII, page 315. can also be maintained, who assigns as the place of martyrdom the village called Ad Pontem in the Itinerary of Antoninus (today Puente de Zuazo), fourteen miles distant from the port of Cádiz Vetera Romanorum Itineraria, page 409, Wesseling's edition, Amsterdam 1735., which village is rightly said to be both near Cádiz and in the territory of Cádiz, which is bounded by the island of the same name.
[9] Various translations. At the end of the Passion to be published below the body of St. Servandus is said to have been translated to Seville; which belongs to later centuries. For the Mozarabic liturgy, while it assigns St. Germanus to the city of Mérida, gives St. Servandus to the land of Cádiz: from which words it follows that the body of St. Servandus rested at Cádiz or near Cádiz at least until the beginning of the seventh century, in which St. Isidore flourished; and that it was translated to Seville later. Indeed, the very bodies of SS. Justa and Rufina seem to have rested through the whole Middle Ages in the village of Wittlaer in the present-day deanery of Düsseldorf, in the diocese of Cologne Handbuch der Erzdiöcese Köln, page 44.. For Diego de Zúñiga relates the following in his Annals of Seville under the year 1602, no. 5 Zúñiga, Anales de Sevilla, page 602.; I render it from Spanish into Latin: For years the news had been widespread in Seville and in the convent of the Holy Trinity that in a certain place of the diocese of Cologne, in Germany, there were preserved remarkable Relics, which tradition held to belong to the holy Martyrs Justa and Rufina, which had been carried away to so remote a place by Christians fleeing the captivity of the Moors: then hope shone forth of recovering them, a hope which had so far all but wholly despaired. At the instance of Fr. Cristóbal de Gaona, the minister general of the Order had interceded so efficaciously with Ernest, prince of the empire and archbishop of Cologne, that he at length obtained that there be given to him for the convent of Seville a head, which was held to be that of St. Rufina, and a large and nearly whole bone of St. Justa. Which Relics the said prince archbishop, by letters given on the 11th of July 1601 at Liège (for Ernest of Bavaria was at the same time bishop of Liège), declares to be held as those of the holy Martyrs of Seville, and as such to have been held in honour from time immemorial in the parish church of Wittilaer (Wittlahr), in his diocese of Cologne; wherefore at the instance and
request of the minister general of the whole Order of the Holy Trinity he grants the said Relics to the said Order and especially to the religious of the convent of Seville, and thus the said Relics were translated to Seville with various authentic instruments. These were afterward approved by Jerónimo Leyba, vicar of Fernando Guevara, cardinal archbishop of Seville. Of this translation our men have nothing where they treat of SS. Justa and Rufina at the 19th of July Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of July, page 584.: indeed, even to the author himself whose words we have copied out, the sacred remains seem still to lie hidden within the city of Seville. For the rest, a translation into so distant a region ought not to seem strange: for we know that the body of St. Leocadia, Martyr of Toledo, rested until the sixteenth century in the monastery of Saint-Ghislain in Hainaut, having been translated there through fear of the Moors [Compare Flórez, España Sagrada, volume VI, page 308; Annales de l'abbaye de Saint-Ghislain, Monuments pour servir à l'histoire des provinces de Namur, Hainaut et Luxembourg, page 765.].
[10] The Acts to be published. These matters being dispatched, it remains that we exhibit the Acts of the martyrdom themselves. Contemporary ones indeed we lack: the most ancient monuments are those which we have recited from the Mozarabic liturgy at the beginning of this Commentary; nor do I doubt that the other Acts were composed to their standard, as being the most ancient. Further, we have before us three different compositions. Namely Tamayo at this day Martyrologium Hispanicum, volume V, page 621. collected the Acts of our holy Martyrs from the manuscript Sanctorals, as he himself says, of the holy Churches of Seville, Astorga and Segovia. They differ in words rather than in substance from those which are found both in the Bollandist collection from the manuscript codex of Jean Bouhier of Dijon, and in Enrique Flórez España Sagrada, volume XIII, page 412.. Between these last there is one difference; inasmuch as the Bouhier copy has a brief Prologue and at the end the usual doxology; both of which are lacking in the edition of Flórez, who himself also drew his text from old Breviaries of Spain. These legends agree well enough with one another and with the Mozarabic liturgy, and it is not easy to determine which of them is the most ancient, so as to prefer one to another and make it public: wherefore we shall publish the Acts from the Bouhier codex, with the addition of the Prologue and the doxology: but what differs we shall record in the Annotations according to custom, without omitting the lessons of the present office, which is found in the Proper of the Spanish Saints.
Annotations* bravium
* cohors
* diabolum
THE PASSION OF SS. SERVANDUS AND GERMANUS,
From the manuscript codex of Jean Bouhier of Dijon,
Collated with the Legend of Enrique Flórez, Volume XIII of the España Sagrada.
Servandus, M. near Cádiz in Spain. (S.)
Germanus, M. near Cádiz in Spain. (S.)
BHL Number: 7608
FROM MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITIONS.
Prologue. The glorious passions of the most blessed Martyrs, as of all, so also of Servandus and Germanus, what are they other than the powers of their faith and the glorious testimonies of their most steadfast patience? While, then, we direct our mind to these things, and, admiring in the honour of confession the power of the passion and their most strong hearts dedicated to God according to their merit, proclaim them with a worthy herald's praise, we are strengthened for heavenly grace. Nor am I unaware that we cannot unfold each of their excellent deeds of virtue: for my talent is of a very narrow mediocrity and my speech is often unskilled: but things that are true do not desire pomp or fullness of words, but the most pure brightness of sincere faith.
[2] SS. Servandus and Germanus, Servandus, then, and Germanus, most blessed Martyrs a, the most bright day of whose passion has dawned, great and noble by family, pious, good, simple, outstanding in virtue, of soul and of body alike, cultivated a religious mind, a just faith and a chaste patience for true working. These men then, since some years before this b they had grave minds, a grateful and manly conscience, and carried on a most religious care, well conscious in themselves of a candid simplicity, for the thorough cleansing of every earthly appearance, the most blessed Martyrs received the longed-for grace. Born again, therefore, of water and the Holy Spirit, animated by the heavenly Spirit, they put on the arms of justice, and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, they drove out most wicked demons from bodies possessed and by the imposition of their hands healed the limbs of many, worn out by diverse sickness. When therefore love of the law had increased their inmost hearts by just works, they began from that time to triumph over the ancient Devil c, being glorious both by many virtues and by divine suffrages. Why should I recall how they were always much given to fasts and alms, how they despised all lust with spiritual vigour, how they trampled various vices and earthly sins, so that running to the palms and crowns of justice they arrived there by these pursuits of chastity, faith and patience.
[3] After the earlier torments When, then, they were exercising their pious and most strong mind in this contest, after no long intervals of time the sacrilegious persecution of the raging princes began to rage, out of hatred of the name of Christ; for the Devil, the dragon, had poured the savage poison of his malice into the breast of lost men, so that Christians were immediately put to death, if any refused to sacrifice to idols, and, wounded by long punishments and tortures, were compelled to deny the venerable name of Christ. For so had ingenious cruelty discovered various and unheard-of punishments, that long torments overcame the strength of soul of many. In those same times, while punishment raged without end and a beautiful death through wounds came for the name of Christ, Servandus and Germanus, most strong soldiers, the more they were torn by greater punishments, rejoiced that they had attained greater glory: there was in them a tearing of the body, but a glorious victory of the soul; and being stronger through such great constancy they conquered the savage torments; when savagery, conquered in its temporal turbulence, grew faint, and the Devil groaned that he had been overcome by the soldiers of Christ, then they, in the very desperation of the body and the loosening of the joining of the sinews, deserved to be greater in the confession of the name of Christ. These Confessors, then, exalted by the titles of victory, offered to Christ the most joyful spectacles of their virtue, and gave to their brothers the most just examples of spirit.
[4] Set free, But behold, divine indulgence bringing aid in the violent persecution, after the tempest of fury and the ruin of many, when, God looking down, the tranquillity restored to the Church had shone again, for Servandus and Germanus, first among Confessors, the crown of martyrdom was being prepared through a second victory d: after whoever were in chains, in punishments, in prisons, in torments were ordered to be released, Servandus and Germanus did not relax their spirit for temporal refreshment, nor did they reckon the life of this world to be anything, since they sought eternal life from God e. The images of the gentiles, therefore, which foolish men thought to be gods, they thoroughly scattered, together with their groves and buildings and altars, so that they might take away from all the error of vain superstition of a stupid mind, and thus the wretched might be led from death to life and from darkness to the most bright light of Christ f. Very many therefore began to shudder at the deadly rites, they left the idols, which, shattered, could defend themselves from Christian men by no majesty, they believed in the name of Christ, running to the Church of the Lord, giving thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ, cleansed from the filth of sins.
[5] They are tortured again But how quickly the Devil groans, envious, savage, and dreadfully pours himself again into the breasts of temporal judges. It is therefore ordered that Servandus and Germanus, noble Confessors, be snatched away again to chains, again to the torments which, cleansed, they had most recently conquered; that death which they had begrudged * to the future Martyrs as glorious, he began as soon as possible to wish to be inflicted on those by whose most just works he saw his deadly rites overturned. At the Devil's urging, therefore, Servandus and Germanus, after the crowns of confession glorious again, about to triumph more beautifully over death and the Devil, are subjected to chains, punishments and harsh torments, for having scattered those images at whose altars they had refused to sacrifice. But as they were able to believe, the most ferocious judge, whose envious heart the ancient serpent besieged, now raged to put Servandus and Germanus to death, now reserved them for exquisite kinds of punishments: and so that nothing might be left undared or unattempted by crime, he ordered their happy necks to be surrounded with iron rings and their religious hands to be bound.
[6] And at last they are beheaded. When however one Viator by name , holding the office of vicar-prefect [g], was proceeding from the city of Mérida, from the province of Lusitania, to the province of Mauretania h, he ordered them to be dragged after him bound together with iron chains, so that no punishment should cease from their destruction. But they, weighed down by chains, by hunger, thirst, cold and storms, bore the harsh labour of the journey with strength of soul, most strong soldiers of Christ, so that they might triumph the more keenly over the hostile judge and the enemy Devil: for while the others in chains had pain, grief, lamentation and groaning in that punishment of the longer journey, for Servandus and Germanus there was joy in place of grief, gladness in place of lamentation; and where they were thought to be most in toil, they soothed their religious hearts with psalms, hymns and praises. When at last they had come to the estate whose name is Ursiano, which is in the territory of Cádiz i, divine grace poured a great light on this place, so that the convent of Cádiz alone might be illustrated by so great a divine passion of Martyrs, it which alone seemed to lack such great glory. The day of their passion then dawned in the Ursanian place: the prefect k Viator sent the sentence, that the executioners should cut off the necks of Servandus and Germanus. Then they are led to a hill, where there is a higher place, set as it were on a lookout over the surrounding fields; and there with knees bent, silently praying to God, they received the sword on their sacred necks, offering themselves a clean victim. They suffered for their confidence in the truth on the 10th day before the kalends of November, attaining perpetual life by their glorious death. O how greatly blessed is the land of Cádiz, which received in its bosom the blood of the most blessed Martyrs! Where death was conquered together with the Devil, where the most strong soldiers of Christ in such a triumph passed over to immortality by their precious death. But the great cities of Seville and Mérida too attained the grace of their passion: since the nourishing land of Mérida received the body of Germanus, which was given most honourable burial next to Eulalia and the other Martyrs in the cemetery: the body of Servandus, buried in the cemetery of Seville between the most blessed Martyrs Justa and Rufina, rests in honour l, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who lives with God the Father and the Holy Spirit through ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
of Spain or in other old monuments the brotherly kinship of SS. Servandus and Germanus with one another is not suggested by even a word, although often, as the liturgical fragments brought forward in no. 1 show, the occasion offered itself for such a relationship to be indicated.
The vicar-prefecture was the supreme dignity of the Roman empire through the Spains, and he who held it was called the vicar of the praetorian prefect. The origin of this dignity is uncertain. Enrique Flórez España Sagrada, volume I, page 223., Juan de Mariana and others Book IV, chapter 16, volume II, Historia de España, pages 91 and 463. refer it to the times of Constantine the Great. But Tillemont in the History of the Emperors Histoire des Empereurs, volume III, page 130. assigns greater antiquity to the vicariate, when he places in the times of Decius a certain inscription of Tarragona, in which Septimius Acindynus, Agindinus or Agnidius (for it is variously written) is named as having exercised vicarial power through the Spains. We give the Tarragona inscription from Enrique Flórez's España Sagrada [España Sagrada, volume IV, part II, page 250. Compare Masdeu, Historia Crítica de España, volume V, page 442 and volume XIX, page 143.]. This alone is to be observed, that in both readings to be given below the abbreviation V. C. occurs twice: Flórez interprets it the first time as vir consularis, the second as the vicariate, relying on the authority of a stone in which vc. signifies vicarius España Sagrada, volume IV, page 251.. If however the beginning of the Spanish vicariate is to be taken from Constantine the Great, as we said in no. 6, the abbreviation signifies vir consularis.
PIO ATQUE INCLITO DN. TRAIANO
NOBILISSIMO. AC. FORTISSIMO. ET
FOELICISSIMO. CÆSARI. SEPTIMIUS
AGNIDIUS V. C. AGENS PER HISPANIAS
V. C. ET. VICE SACRA COGNOSCENS
NUMINI MAJESTATIQUE EJUS SEMP
DICATISSIMUS.
[To the pious and renowned our lord Trajan, most noble, most brave and most fortunate Caesar, Septimius Agnidius, V. C., acting through the Spains as V. C. and judging in the sacred stead, ever most dedicated to his divinity and majesty.]
In another way Antoine Povillon renders the same inscription, who in a manuscript codex, found in the Royal Library of Brussels under no. 3821, affirms that he copied it at Tarragona.
PIO. ATQUE INVICTO
DN. TRAIANO NOBILIS
SIMO AC FORTISSIMO FELICISSIMO
CÆSARI SEPTIMIUS
AGINDINUS. V. C. A
GENS PER HISPANIAS
V. C. P. T. VICE SACRA COG
NOSCENS NUMINI
MAJESTATIQUE EJUS
SEMPER DEVOTISSIMUS
[To the pious and unconquered our lord Trajan, most noble, most brave, most fortunate Caesar, Septimius Agindinus, V. C., acting through the Spains as V. C. P. T., judging in the sacred stead, ever most devoted to his divinity and majesty.]
This is not the place to track down too scrupulously the difference of words and lines occurring between the two inscriptions: it is enough for our purpose that in the time of Trajan Caesar a vicar-prefecture already existed for the Spains. Certainly the inscription does not seem to belong to the emperor Trajan, both because in his time the vicar-prefecture did not exist; and because Trajan would not be called simply Caesar, but either Augustus or Caesar Augustus; and finally, because in the time of the emperor Trajan such formulas were not employed. Further, the inscription seems to belong to the son of Decius, whose name was: Q. Herennius Hostilius Etruscus Messius Trajanus [Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume III, page 273. Compare Onofrio Panvinio, Fasti, page 82, Venice edition of 1557.]. For whatever may be the number of the sons of the emperor Decius, which some reduce to two, others extend to more Acta Sanctorum, volume VIII of October, page 320, no. 10., surely nothing prevents one of the sons of Decius from having borne the name of Trajan, which the father had according to old inscriptions Masdeu, Historia Crítica de España, volume V, page 357.. Further, the formulas themselves and the heaping up of names come close to Decian times, as is established from a marble of Tortosa [Ibid., place cited. Compare Eckhel, Doctrina numorum veterum, volume II, page 350.]:
QUINTO HERRENNIO
ETRUSCO. MESSIO. DECIO
NOBILISSIMO. CÆS
FILIO
D. N. SANCTISSIMI
TRAJANI. DECI
P. F. INVICTI. AUG.
ORD. D. C. D. Note: of the decurions of the colony of Dertosa.
DICATISSIMUS
NUMINI. EJUS
[To Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius, most noble Caesar, son of our most holy lord Trajan Decius, pious, fortunate, unconquered Augustus; the order of the decurions, most dedicated to his divinity.]
From what has been said so far it seems probable to me that in the time of Decius the office of Vicar already existed, which Septimius Agnidius or Agindinus exercised through the Spains. Nevertheless the often-praised Tillemont says that the office of Vicar first began under Diocletian, and brings forward as surety for his opinion Lactantius Histoire des Empereurs, volume III, page 130., who in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 7 Works, volume II, page 191, Paris edition of 1748., says: So that all things might be filled with terror, the provinces too were cut into pieces, and many governors and more offices brooded over the several regions, and almost now over the cities; likewise many receivers and masters and vicars of the prefects, in all of whom civil acts were quite rare, but condemnations only and proscriptions frequent, etc. But how it can be deduced from these words that the office of Vicar was first established under Diocletian, I do not see, unless receivers and masters also first existed then. For the rest, as far as our matter is concerned, this becomes evident, that there were Vicars through the provinces under Diocletian.
* inviderat
* Flórez: governor, Viator by name
* Flórez omits "prefect"