ON ST. FELIX OF TUBZACA, BISHOP OF TUBZACA IN AFRICA AND MARTYR AT VENOSA IN APULIA,
IN THE YEAR CCCIII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Felix, bishop of Tubzoca in Africa and martyr at Venosa in Apulia (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The various editions and classes of the Acts of St. Felix.
What has scarcely or not even scarcely ever happened in this our collection of the Acts of the Saints, Very greatly varied are there exists the greatest variety of opinions concerning St. Felix and the companions usually joined to him; although commentaries contemporary with the blessed martyr were long ago discovered and brought to light. For as many as are the questions that can be put, so many answers differing from one another and even conflicting have been given by the hagiographers; and this dissension arises from the fact that there is agreement in the old books on almost none of the affairs of St. Felix. For if you ask whether companions are to be assigned or removed: the monuments seem to suggest both; if assigned, what are their names: they occur everywhere very greatly different; to what day the martyrdom and cult are to be referred: the sacred calendars and passionaries disagree very greatly; what was the place of the contest: some thrust forward Nola, others Venosa, others another place; what was the episcopal see of St. Felix: not here either are darknesses absent; what finally was the manner and time of his journey from Africa to Italy: not here either do they agree, nay they disagree most openly. What then? That we may safely, as far as is permitted, get out of this labyrinth, a thread must be sought to direct and guide our steps; and if we find it, it must be held strenuously in the hands, that we may be able to keep to the right road as far as the end. And in this way a hope shines forth that we may detect the origin of the errors, interpolations and other similar blemishes by which nearly all the ancient documents concerning St. Felix are stained. And this thread is of such a kind that we reject those copies of the Acts which have been corrupted by manifest design, and not by the negligent sloth of copyists; and that we follow those editions in which no blemishes of that kind are to be found.
[2] the editions and manuscript codices of the Passion of St. Felix; But before we come to the application of this rule, the editions of the Acts of St. Felix that have come to light must be reviewed. The first place is held by the one in the book, printed at Paris in the year 1525 by the care of James Faber of Étaples, entitled Agones martyrum; which printed volume I do not have, but a handwritten copy. The second edition is that of Surius Lives of the Saints, at the 24th of October., which Baronius received into the Ecclesiastical Annals At the year 303, number CXVIII and following., with a few changes, and which was afterwards reprinted in the more recent editions of Surius according to Baronius's mind. The third is that of d'Achery, who, using a copy transcribed by Father Peter Francis Chifflet of the Society of Jesus, inserted the Acts of St. Felix in his Spicilegium Volume XII, page 634. under the title: Passion of St. Felix, Bishop of Tubzoca and Martyr; the same was repeated by Louis de la Barre of Tournai Spicilegium, volume II, page 68., some things being inserted and enclosed in brackets from the fourth edition, which is that of Baluze
Miscellanea, volume II, page 77.: who, as he subjoins in the annotations to the Acts, diligently collated the Acts of St. Felix with four ancient and excellent manuscript codices of the Colbert library, namely 59, 316, 401 and 901: all of which were again reproduced to the letter by John Dominic Mansi in the new printing of Baluze's Miscellanea Volume I, page 18.. A fifth edition was prepared by some learned Englishmen according to the Sarum codex, and they made it public with the Acts of SS. Felicity and Perpetua at Oxford in the year 1680; some years ago other Englishmen turned it into their own idiom Tracts for the times, Records of the church, n. XXIII, London, 1841., in order to vindicate the episcopal order from the calumnies of the presbyterian sect. But long before, namely in the year 1689, Ruinart had prepared a sixth edition, following for the most part the first Surian one; which has afterwards been frequently renewed with the rest of the Sincere Acts of the Martyrs. The editions of Baluze and Ruinart were reproduced in every part by Dupin among the Monuments of the schism of the Donatists Works of St. Optatus of Milevis, page 146 and 149.. Besides these we have at hand copies of the manuscript codices of Rouge-Cloître, of I, II and III of Saint-Omer, and of Utrecht. Nor are the Menaia of the Greeks to be omitted, who celebrate the memory of St. Felix on the 16th day of April; other things will occur of themselves as circumstances require.
[3] these and the remaining documents Now all these copies and other documents are to be distributed into four or five classes: of which the first contains the first edition or the Parisian of James Faber, the third or d'Achery's, the fourth which is Baluze's, and the fifth or English one, and also the Utrecht codex; it is peculiar to this class that it represents the programma, or imperial edict, as set forth on the nones of January, and Blessed Felix as captured on the following day and beheaded on the eighteenth day before the kalends of February. And here belongs also the manuscript Florarium of the saints, so often cited in our Acts, and the German Martyrology of Canisius and the addition of Greven to Usuard which preceded it, and also Mombritius Lives of the Saints, volume I, folio 290 verso. and the manuscript Utrecht compendium of the Passion; in all of which the birthday of St. Felix is referred to the eighteenth day before the kalends of February or the 15th of January: and indeed here pertain those who record the death of St. Felix on the following day (for very often there is a disagreement of one day in matters of this kind), namely Greven, Galesini, Ferrarius in both Catalogues, the addition to Usuard of the Charterhouse of Cologne, the German Martyrology, and he who preceded all these, Peter de Natalibus Catalogue of the Saints, book II, chapter LXXXV.. Nor is the third codex of Saint-Omer to be excluded from this class, although it records the death of Blessed Felix not on the eighteenth or seventeenth day before the kalends of February, but the ninth; for this was done not of design but by the negligence of the writer. There are also some other things peculiar to this class, especially that it sets the arena of the holy martyr at Nola.
[4] can be divided into five classes. The second class comprises the Menaia of the Greeks alone, in which the birthday of Blessed Felix is commemorated on the 16th day of April and the place of the contest is said to be the city of Ælurum in Lycaonia; in other respects they approach partly the first class, partly the fourth. The third class is made up of the codex of Rouge-Cloître and the first and second of Saint-Omer; in which this singularity is observed, that the programma is said to have been set forth on the nones of August, or the 5th day, and St. Felix to have been slain at Nola on the third day before the kalends of September, or the 30th day of August: in other respects they agree almost entirely with the Acts of the first class. Finally the fourth class is composed of the editions of Surius, Baronius and Ruinart, in which one reads that the imperial edicts were promulgated on the nones of June, and that Blessed Felix, his head cut off, accomplished martyrdom at Venosa on the third day before the kalends of September.
[5] The older martyrologies record his death at the 30th of August, And to this or to the third class belongs the Venerable Bede, writing in the Martyrology at the said 30th day of August Acta SS. volume II of March, page XXX.: In the city of Venosa in Apulia, the birthday of SS. Felix, bishop of the city of Tubzoca, and of Audactus and Januarius, presbyters, and Fortunatian and Septiminus, lectors: who in the times of Diocletian, seized in their own city by Magnelianus the curator, then long wasted by many chains and prisons both in Africa and in Sicily, were at length consummated by death with the sword. Felix died at fifty-six years of age, a virgin. And there are between Carthage and Tubzuca * thirty-five miles. Nor does Rabanus differ, who, nearly always according to his custom going one day ahead, announces these things at the 29th of August Canisius, Lectiones antiquæ, volume II, part II, page 339, Basnage edition.: On the fourth day before the kalends, in the city of Venosa in Apulia, the birthday of Felix, bishop of Tubroza, and Januarius, presbyter, and Fortunatian and Septimus, lectors, who in the times of Diocletian, seized in their own city by Magnellianus the procurator on the eighteenth day before the kalends of July, then long wasted by many chains and prisons both in Asia (rather, Africa) and in Sicily, were at length consummated by death with the sword: see in our work Acta SS. volume VI of August, page 496. what other more recent martyrologists have said at the 29th day of August on St. Felix or the companions attached to him. In a codex of St. Columba of Sens, afterwards of the Library of the Queen of Sweden, Holstenius found [Martyrology of Ado, Giorgi edition, page 543; Passion of St. Perpetua, page 319; Acta SS. supplement of June, page 46.] at the 30th day of August an announcement that agrees partly with the published Bede, partly with Rabanus: On the third day before the kalends of September. In the city of Venosa in Apulia, the birthday of SS. Felix, bishop of the city of Tubzoca, and Adauctus, presbyter, and Fortunatian and Septiminus, lectors, who in the times of Diocletian, seized in their own city by Magnellianus the curator on the eighteenth day before the kalends of July, then long wasted by many chains and prisons both in Africa and in Sicily, were at length consummated by the sword. Felix died at LVI years of age, a virgin. Below, at number 27, we shall show that to this are to be referred also the Hieronymian calendars and the marble calendar of Naples of the ninth century.
[6] the more recent ones after the Little Roman Martyrology at the 24th of October. And I hardly know whether a fifth class should be formed from the martyrologists who, using almost the words of Bede, have deferred the birthday of Blessed Felix to the 24th day of October, and have fixed it at Venosa. At the head of these goes Blessed Ado, saying Canisius, Lectiones antiquæ, volume II, part III, page 183.: In the city of Venosa in Apulia, the birthday of the saints Felix, bishop of the city of Tubzoca, and Audactus and Januarius, presbyters, and Fortunatian and Septimus, lectors. Who in the times of Diocletian, seized in their own city by Magnellianus the procurator, then long wasted by many chains and prisons both in Africa and in Sicily, were at length slain by death with the sword. And they were honourably buried between Carthage and Utica. Felix died at fifty-six years of age, a virgin. Ado departed from Bede in referring the birthday of St. Felix and his companions to the 24th of October, not to the 30th of August; because in his constant guide and companion, the Little Roman Martyrology, edited by Rosweyde and according to him by Giorgi, he had read: On the ninth day before the kalends of November, at Venosa, of Felix, bishop of Tubzoca, and Audactus and Januarius, presbyters, and Fortunatian and Septimus, lectors. Notker, whose Martyrology is taken partly from Rabanus, partly from Ado, adheres at this place more closely to Ado: with whom Usuard fully agrees, except that he omits the detention in Africa and the place of burial. Maurolico follows Usuard very closely; similarly Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, with the omission, however, of the praise of virginity. And here one may observe in passing that Baronius, in the edition of the year 1583, wrote Felix, bishop of Aptungi; but afterwards noted in the margin of his copy: He is by no means to be called of Aptungi; for Felix of Aptungi, of whom Optatus writes, survived until the times of the emperor Constantine. On account of the variant reading I should say only: of an African bishop: which emendation was afterwards received [Compare Giorgi, Martyrology of Ado, page 544. Compare note a to the Roman Martyrology at the 24th of October.]; but of the see of St. Felix we shall speak elsewhere. At this place we shall add this one thing, that in a less ancient hand there was also inserted in the Hieronymian Martyrology of Fulda at the 24th of October Ibid. page 543 and 671.: In the city of Venosa, the birthday of St. Felix, bishop.
Annotation* Manuscripts have Tibiuca
§ II. From the reckoning of the times it is shown that the Surian edition is by far the best.
[That the edition of Surius is by far the best, since it agrees with the time of the edict given by Diocletian;] Now if it is asked which of these classes seems the best, I judge that one must altogether agree with Ruinart Sincere Acts of the Martyrs, page 354, Amsterdam, 1713., Tillemont Mémoires ecclés. volume V, page 665 and following., Remy Ceillier Auteurs ecclés. volume III, page 480., Baillet Vies des Saints, October, page XXV and 373., Butler The lives of the Fathers, etc. volume X, page 499, London, 1814. and most of the more recent writers, whose common opinion it is that the Surian edition should be preferred; although they judge that it should sometimes be corrected from the other editions. The argument drawn from the reckoning of time is the chief for me, and as it were my guide out of that dark labyrinth. Let us first hear Ruinart on it: The published Acts, he says, disagree no less among themselves in assigning the time at which the same St. Felix underwent martyrdom. That this took place on the eighteenth day before the kalends of February is reported, with the manuscript codices, by the editions of d'Achery and Baluze: which the Surian edition puts back to the third day before the kalends of September; which latter opinion we judge to be preferred to the other. For since the edict for burning the books was promulgated at Nicomedia in the month of March of the year 303, scarcely anyone could persuade himself that it reached Africa only in the following year: which, however, those who embrace the first opinion must say. For it is certain from the Acts that Felix was apprehended as soon as that edict was promulgated in Africa. The Surian edition is favoured also by the very context of the Acts: Diocletian for the eighth time.., an edict went out, etc. Then the programma was set forth, etc. For in the other opinion these words: Then the programma, cannot be understood of the year which is designated by these words: Diocletian for the eighth time, etc. But all these things agree excellently with the Surian or Baronian reading. For Diocletian being consul for the eighth time and Maximian for the seventh, that is in the year 303, in the month of March, the first edict against the Christians for burning the books, etc., was issued at Nicomedia. Which edict, transmitted to the various provinces of the Roman empire, reached Africa in the month of June: and when it had been promulgated in the city over which Felix presided as bishop, since he constantly refused to hand over the sacred books, to various
tribunals, brought even across the sea, he at length, struck with the sword at Venosa, a city of Apulia, on the 30th day of August, completed his martyrdom. Thus he.
[8] other editions contain absurdities, But other and indeed much weightier considerations also fight against the first class of the Acts. For if you listen to it, the programma was set forth on the nones or the 5th day of January; on the following day St. Felix was captured; then he was placed in prison for three days; on the fourth day after, or the ninth day of January, he was sent to Carthage; sixteen days after that, or on the 26th or 27th day of January, he was brought before the proconsul, by whom about the end of the month of January he was ordered to be carried to Rome; where he was shut up in prison for twelve days, and then sent to sail after the emperors: which voyage could by no means have been begun before the middle of the month of February, and it lasted four days. These completed, St. Felix came to Nola and shortly afterwards was beheaded. It is therefore clearer than the sun that this martyrdom could not have taken place before about the 24th day of February, and yet that whole class of the Acts puts the slaying of the blessed martyr on the eighth or seventeenth day before the kalends of February, or the 15th or 16th day of January. The Acts of the third class labour under the same difficulty, since they relate that the programma was set forth on the nones, or the 5th day of August, and yet that Blessed Felix, after a double confinement of many days and a voyage, was at length slain at Nola on the 30th day of the same month. These inconveniences long ago struck the mind of Pagi Critique on the Annals of Baronius, at the year 302, number XXIII., Mansi Ibid. Notes of Mansi, volume III, page 327. and others. Wherefore they determined that the edict of persecution was set forth at Nicomedia at the close of the month of February of the year 303; but that it was proclaimed in the city of Tubzaca only on the nones of January of the year 304, and that St. Felix was captured on the following day; and that his captivity lasted more than a whole year, since he accomplished martyrdom on the 18th day of January of the year 305. But in truth, in the Annotations to the Acts of St. Felix we shall make it plain that the first edict of the persecution of Diocletian was set forth in Africa in the springtime of the year 303; that St. Felix was examined according to it; and finally that a second edict, much harsher, was brought into Africa before the third day before the ides of November 303, when the holy prelate had already long since been carried off into Italy. And let this suffice at this place.
[9] and they conflict with the custom of the open and closed sea: Besides this we have another dart in the quiver against that first class, supplied by the customs and laws concerning the closed and open sea which were in force in that age. Pliny Natural History II, 47. has related the following on this matter: Spring opens the seas to voyagers; Vegetius this other On Military Matters IV, 39.: From the third day before the ides of November until the sixth day before the ides of March the seas are closed. Apuleius adds Metamorphoses XI, page 365.: The day which shall be born of this night eternal religion has proclaimed to me as the day on which, the winter tempests being stilled and the stormy waves of the sea calmed, the deep being now navigable, my priests, dedicating a new keel, offer the first fruits of commerce: Apuleius is speaking of the celebration of the birthday of navigation. And from this it appears that the month of January was an inopportune time for the edict of the emperors to be carried over from Nicomedia into Africa and for Blessed Felix to be sent from Carthage to Rome. Further, by this too the second or Greek class of the Acts is shaken, by which the death of Blessed Felix is fixed on the 26th day of April. For the sixth day before the ides of March, on which the sea was opened, is only thirty-six days distant from the 26th day of April: within which space there would have to be placed not only the things we have gathered in the preceding number, but also the Nicomedian programma would have to be carried to Carthage and spread through Africa. Scarcely, or not even scarcely, even if you hasten everything to the utmost, will you enclose these things within those limits of time. But we have pursued this argument enough.
[10] [everything runs smoothly in the Surian edition; in which the Sicilian journey also is found.] On the contrary, the fourth class is liable to no difficulties of this kind, and in it everything runs most smoothly. The programma is set forth in the episcopal city of St. Felix on the nones of June; on the following day the blessed prelate is captured; three days later, or on the ninth day, he is sent to Carthage to the proconsul Anulinus, before whom he is brought on another day, and is then shut up in prison for sixteen days. Afterwards, namely on the ides of July, or the 15th day, he is sent to Rome to the prefect of the praetorium, by whom, after nine days' custody, he is ordered to sail after the emperors. In four days he reaches Agrigentum; from there he makes by ship for Catania, Messina and Taormina in Sicily; and from there he crosses over into the parts of Lucania and Apulia, where on the 30th day of August he adorns the city of Venosa with his noble martyrdom. Whether St. Felix truly died at Venosa and on that day will be disputed in another place; meanwhile it is manifest that the reckoning of the times in the Surian Acts is excellently coherent. These excel in another point of praise also: for they have the Sicilian journey of St. Felix and his last words on the virginity guarded through fifty-six years; both of which were most certainly in those Acts that the Venerable Bede had at hand.
[11] The other editions corrupted on account of St. Felix of Nola When I consider these things with close attention, I cannot but come to the opinion that the Acts of the first class were corrupted because the name of Felix, presbyter of Nola, most celebrated in every age, and also his feast, kept already of old on the 14th day of January, pressed on the mind of an idle copyist and led him to record the martyrdom of St. Felix, the African bishop, close to the birthday of St. Felix the presbyter, and even to present that city with the glory of that contest; as if there were room for the name of Felix nowhere else than at Nola or at any other time of the year than the middle of January. Hence in many manuscript Passionaries the Acts of three SS. Felix follow one another. Nor has it rarely been observed in our work that saints of the same name are venerated on the same or neighbouring days, and that according to this rule their Acts are sometimes disfigured; and indeed in the following paragraph, where we shall treat chiefly of the companions of Blessed Felix, examples of this will not be lacking.
§ III. Whether St. Felix had companions in martyrdom; why SS. Januarius, Fortunatus and Septiminus were added to him. Venosa his arena. His body translated to Carthage.
Enormous diversity of opinions on the companions of St. Felix; Moreover this argument concerning the companions of St. Felix is entangled in the greatest knots, if any ever was. Tillemont attempted to untie them Mémoires ecclésiast. volume V, page 667.; and in my opinion not unhappily. It must be observed first of all that in no Acts are companions in martyrdom assigned to St. Felix; but in the Surian Acts it is related that in his episcopal city he had the presbyter Aper, and Gyrus or Cyrus and Vitalis as lectors; while in all the others, both printed and handwritten, the presbyter Januarius and the lectors Fortunatius or Fortunatian and Septiminus; of whom not a whit is said to the effect that that presbyter and the two lectors crossed into Italy with St. Felix. Nor is it surprising therefore that mention is made of the most holy bishop alone by Peter de Natalibus, by Mombritius, and in a certain brief manuscript Passion of St. Felix, which Rosweyde took from a manuscript codex of St. Saviour's at Utrecht, and which I mentioned above at number 3. On the contrary, in the Menaia of the Greeks a commemoration is kept of Blessed Felix, of Januarius the presbyter, and of Fortunatus and Septiminus, who are all said to have been beheaded together. With which agree Bede, Rabanus and the published Martyrology of Sens, except that in the Sens one the name of Adauctus occupies the place of Januarius, and the same seems to have been intruded into the genuine text of Bede: otherwise, why should Rabanus, who for the rest treads in the footsteps of Bede, have omitted Adauctus?
[13] St. Adauctus is to be suppressed, as the companion of another Felix; Whatever the sincere reading of Bede was, already from the eighth century the name of Adauctus is bound up with the companions of St. Felix, derived from the Little Roman Martyrology into the Adonian, the Notkerian, the Usuardine, the Auxerre In Martène, Analecta, volume VI, column 726. and the Baronian; as the reader may gather from number 6 of this commentary. That it is a most manifest interpolation will be determined by anyone at all who reflects that this name is absent from absolutely all the Acts. Nor need its origin be sought far off. At the third day before the kalends of September, or the 30th day of August, there has been commemorated from the most ancient times at Rome on the Ostian Way the birthday of the most blessed martyrs Felix and Adauctus under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian; whence it was natural that the two Felixes should be confounded into one man, and that Adauctus should be counted among the companions of St. Felix of Africa. Indeed at that day in the Vatican calendar, which Giorgi published Martyrology of Ado, page 700., and in that of Stavelot, which Martène brought to public light Analecta, volume VI, column 675., one reads: In Apulia the passion of SS. Felix and Audactus. And since these things are so, it is manifest from this too (which the age of Bede suggests besides) that the more ancient arrangement of the calendars was that the name of St. Felix of Africa should be read at the end of the month of August, not at the 24th of October; and that place was made for this latter day, by error or by carelessness, first in the Little Roman and then in the subsequent Martyrologies.
[14] [SS. Januarius, Fortunatus and Septiminus are to be suppressed, who are of the band of the twelve brothers;] But as Adauctus is certainly not to be listed among the companions of St. Felix, so (as far as I see) neither is Januarius the presbyter, nor the lectors Fortunatus and Septiminus. To embracing this opinion I am moved by three causes: of which the first is that these names are absent from the Surian edition, by far the best of the others; the second, that it does not appear from any Acts that the presbyter and lectors of St. Felix came with their bishop into Italy and accomplished martyrdom with him; the third, that it is manifest from where the names of Januarius, Fortunatus and Septiminus were drawn and substituted for Aper, Cyrus and Vitalis. For at Venosa at the end of August there are venerated Felix, Januarius and Septiminus, who suffered under Maximian Herculius; whence it came about that in those parts the Acts of these martyrs were confounded with the Passion of our St. Felix, and this in turn with their Martyrdom. For in the Acts, little approved, of the twelve brothers of Hadrumetum we read of the proconsul Valerian Acta SS. volume I of September, page 138.: On another day he went away to the city of Venosa, carrying the saints with him, and he ordered the most holy Septimus (or Septiminus, in others), Januarius and Felix, who after interrogation confessed Christ, to be beheaded in the same city on the sixth day before the kalends of September. But who would believe that in the same city, with two days between, two handfuls of martyrs having altogether the same names were venerated? And lest you object that Fortunatus is not venerated at Venosa: he was in fact taken over from the rest of the twelve brothers, to whose band the martyrs of Venosa also belong.
[15] Fortunatus, Caius and Anthes are to be suppressed, who are martyrs of Salerno. Elsewhere other companions are assigned to Blessed Felix.
For in the Acts of SS. Fortunatus, Caius and Anthes, who are venerated at Salerno on the 28th day of August, the following is read Ibid. volume VI of August, page 167.: Under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian... Felix, bishop of Buzoca, and with him Donatus and Adauctus, presbyters, Fortunatus, Caius and Anthes … are brought to the praetorium of the proconsul Amaglenianus. When the proconsul saw them, he terrified them with threatening words.., unless they offered libations to the gods. And when they boldly execrated this, Felix and Adauctus, led to the second milestone from the City on the Ostian Way, were struck with the axe. But Fortunatus, Caius and Anthes Leontius, proconsul of Apulia, brought with him to Salerno;… who finally, not terrified even by the penalty of death, valiantly gave their heads and passed to the heavenly kingdom on the fifth day before the kalends of September. A splendid confusion: for that Felix has a double face, one of our African bishop, the other of the Roman presbyter and martyr. Adauctus is the companion of the latter, and is venerated with him on the 30th day of August. Donatus was taken from the band of the twelve brothers of Hadrumetum: the others our Pien held to be good martyrs of Salerno Ibid. page 163 and following.. But I should not wish to dwell longer on these things, which stand in need of mercy, not at all of refutation.
[16] [Our St. Felix is different from the other Felix of Venosa: as from the translation,] Moreover, as the reader will learn how much copyists formerly dared against the companions of St. Felix, it will be natural for him to ask whether that St. Felix, who on the sixth day before the kalends of September or the 27th day of August is said to have been slain at Venosa and belongs to the band of the twelve brothers, is the same as our St. Felix. I shall say candidly that the Acts of the twelve brothers Ibid. volume I of September, page 138 and following. please me little; that they seem to me to be numbered among that kind of writings which are usually called cycles, in which many things different from one another and discordant are reduced into one body; and hence that the Passion of our St. Felix guided their writer in many places. Nevertheless I should not dare to say that the two saints are one and the same. For first, that Felix of Venosa, who is counted among the twelve brothers, is nowhere called a bishop in the Acts or in the Martyrologies; indeed his name comes after Januarius and Septiminus. Second, they are not said to have been slain on the same day: the former, namely, on the 27th or 29th day of August Ibid. page 152 cd. compare page 154, note l., but ours constantly on the thirtieth. Third, in the year 760, when Arechis, prince of Benevento, ordered the bodies of the twelve brothers to be sought out, the remains of the former St. Felix were found, as is read in the history of the translation in these words Ibid. page 142 and 143.: SS. Septiminus, Januarius and Felix also, when in the city of Venosa they had completed their desired end by the punishment of the sword, there until now merited from the Lord a place of rest; at which time their bodies were laid up in the church of St. Sophia at Benevento [Ibid. page 136 and following, 142 and following, 154 and 155. Compare de Vita, Antiquit. Benev. volume II, page 98.]. On the contrary it seems not to be doubted that the bones of our St. Felix were carried to Africa.
[17] [the age of which, (the genealogical order of the documents on St. Felix having been established,)] But before I conclude these things, some matters we set forth above on the manifold edition and fortune of the Acts of our St. Felix must be gathered up again, that the genealogy of the various copies, if one may so speak, may be ascertained, and that from this the proposed question may be solved. That the genuine and primary source is the Surian copy we have said to the point of nausea. In it the people of Venosa first changed the name of the presbyter Aper into Januarius, and those of the lectors Cyrus and Vitalis into Fortunatus and Septiminus; which changes Bede already found in his copy at the beginning of the eighth century. A century later Ado found a copy, to which was added at the end this clause, which is read in all the manuscript codices except the Surian: This prayer being completed, he was led by the soldiers and beheaded there; and his body was placed there, and his relics were carried to kindly Carthage by religious servants of God and sons of mother Church, and placed on the road which is called of the Scillitans. For had he not read this in his copy, Ado could not have written: At length they were consummated by death with the sword. And they were honourably buried between Carthage and Utica. And so I should readily believe that these words belong to the primary text; so that the Surian edition is mutilated at the end. But I should not dare to determine whether Ado also read the following, met everywhere: In the same venerable place many wonders are done, and all languors are cured in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with God the Father be honour and praise and glory in the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen: for this, as others have already observed, is to be held a later addition. Acts similar to those of Bede or Ado, but more corrupted, were seen by him who inserted in the Menaia of the Greeks the encomium of SS. Felix, Januarius, Fortunatus and Septiminus; as is plain from this, that he assigns these companions to the holy bishop and commemorates the Sicilian journey: and the reason why I do not determine whether the Acts that he used were similar to those of Bede or to those of Ado is that nothing certain can be concluded from his silence on the translation of the relics. Afterwards the people of Nola so changed the Acts of Venosa that guided Ado, that they suppressed the Sicilian journey, substituted Nola for Venosa, and somewhere, where no name of a city was read, inserted Nola again: which last kind of interpolation is, so to speak, palpable in the following passage: This prayer being completed, he was led by the soldiers and beheaded there that is, at Nola on the eighteenth day before the kalends of February *; and there at Nola his body was placed, and his relics to kindly Carthage, etc. Whether in the Sarum manuscript the words were lacking: And there at Nola his body, etc., the editors seem to have suppressed by studied silence Compare Tillemont, Mém. ecclés. volume V, page 666..
[18] is inquired into. But this by no means prevents it from being altogether certain that already in the ninth century, as we have sufficiently shown from Ado, it was written even in the codices of Venosa that the body of St. Felix had been carried back from Venosa to Africa, and also that the place of the new burial was known, namely the road of the Scillitans. Since these things are so, and since moreover it is not credible that they were added by the people of Venosa after the translation of the twelve brothers, made in the year 760; it follows that the body of our Felix had already been carried to Africa when that of the other Felix was still resting at Venosa. There remains, however, a difficulty: in the Agones Martyrum, which I have already said were published by James Faber of Étaples at Paris in the year 1525, this is to be seen: At Nola … his body was placed; and his relics, THAT IS THE HEAD, … were carried to renowned Carthage. But Faber everywhere took to himself this licence, that for the sake of greater clearness he changed the words of the codices, and suppressed some and added others of his own: whence you may safely call the insertion: That is the head, a wicked interpolation. Let it remain certain, then, that the body of Blessed Felix was first laid up at Venosa; and that shortly afterwards, when, the enemies of the Christian name having been removed and Constantine being victor, God had cleared the sky, his relics and thus his whole body were carried by religious servants of God and sons of mother Church (which words savour of a venerable antiquity) to Carthage and placed on the road which is called of the Scillitans; and hence (to return to where we started) that this St. Felix is other than he who now rests at Benevento.
[19] St. Felix certainly died at Venosa. Nevertheless care must be taken lest, while St. Felix of Africa is distinguished from St. Felix of Venosa, you altogether snatch him from the people of Venosa: it must be firmly held that he accomplished martyrdom at Venosa; since the Surian Acts, in which no blemish can be detected, have this. Indeed, the Menaia of the Greeks report that his slaying took place in Lycaonia (rather, Lucania) in the city of the Æluri (rather, of Rhegium); but since they, as we taught above at number 17, were taken from books that had undergone the Venosan changes, there is no room whatever for doubt that the Menaion writer used a mutilated copy; from this, therefore, you will construct no argument. Nor does it seem that one need answer at more length to the suspicion which Fiorentini raises in these words: It is uncertain to me whether they completed their contest in Sicily or at Venosa, a city of Apulia. That they received veneration and a sepulchre at Venosa, the bodies having perhaps been translated from Sicily, is taught by the Martyrology of Sens. Let the words of this Martyrology be read above at number 5, and there will seem to be no doubt that Fiorentini is looking for a knot in a bulrush.
Annotation* The manuscripts of Rouge-Cloître and I and II of Saint-Omer have the third day before the kalends of September.
§ IV. The episcopal see of St. Felix; his cult.
St. Felix was bishop not far from Carthage; The remaining questions are less involved, although they too are not without perplexities. The first concerns the episcopal see of St. Felix. That it was situated in the proconsular province seems certain; since the holy prelate was sent to Carthage to the proconsul, as being answerable to him. Nor was it far distant from Carthage: for in the Passion these words are read: The programma was set up in the city of Tibiura on the day of the nones of June … On the same day Felix the bishop had set out for Carthage… But on the following day Felix the bishop came from Carthage to Tibiura. With which agree these words, already recited elsewhere from Bede: And there are between Carthage and Tubzoca or Tibiuca thirty-five miles. And on these things the more recent writers almost agree; but they go their different ways where the question is of presenting the name of this city.
[21] opinions on the name of the city: Baronius judged [Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 302, number CXVII and following. Roman Martyrology at the 24th of October, note a.] that it is Thibira or Tibira, sufficiently known from St. Cyprian: to which opinion Tillemont accedes Mémoires ecclés. volume V, page 667. on the ground that this city is known and that St. Felix ought to be distinguished by some mark from bishops of the same name. Ceillier assents to Baronius Auteurs ecclés. volume III, page 480. to the extent that he does not omit other forms of the name. Baillet remains in doubt Vies des saints, volume VII, page 373.. Morcelli fights Africa Christ. volume I, page 318 and volume II, page 184 and following. for Tibursica Bura or Thubursicubure in the proconsular province, and different from Thubursica in Numidia. The rest I omit. Before I disclose my opinion, a few things seem to need saying on the opinions of Baronius and Morcelli (for the others determine nothing). Baronius contends Roman Martyrology at the 24th of October, note a. that in Ado one reads that St. Felix was bishop of Tibiura; for my part in the Plantin edition of the year 1564 I find Tubrocensem; in the Rosweyde of the year 1613 and the Giorgi of the year 1745 Tubzocensem; nor do they mark
any variant readings. Baronius then observes that Tibiura is read in Surius: of this form below. The most learned man then adds: From ancient manuscripts, however, that truer reading is approved by me which has Tibirensis: but where the codices lie hidden he does not indicate, nor does anyone else after him. Besides, against that opinion stands the fact that Thibiris seems to have lain not in the proconsular province, but rather in Byzacena Compare Morcelli, Africa Christ. volume I, page 315.. Thubursicubure, which Morcelli preferred, seems to be composed of the three words Thubur, Sicca, Bura; by which I should think a cistern of a mountain hut is designated. But in the enormous heap of forms that I have found in the codices, nothing came my way that favoured Morcelli's conjecture.
[22] this was called Tubuza On the contrary, that whole list of forms conspires to this, that the episcopal see of St. Felix should be called Tubjuça, or Tubuza, so that the derivative of the former is Tubjocensis, of the latter Tubzacensis. Here is the catalogue of those variant readings which favour this form:
And among these account is especially to be taken of the four Colbert codices, which have this peculiarity, that in them Tubyza, Tupuza increases not by changing a into ensis, but into acensis or ocensis, so that from this arises Tubyzacensis, Tubizocensis, Tubzocensis etc.: just as Tambeæ in Byzacena increases into Tambaicensis Compare Morcelli, ibid. page 304..
[23] or less probably Tubjoca; The other form, namely Tubjuca with the derivative Tubjocensis, is supported by these remaining variant readings:
Since these things are so, and since moreover the letters c and z alternate, the whole matter finally seems to be reduced to this, whether one should write Tubjuca or Tubjuza, or Tubuca or Tubuza: the latter form is preferable, both because this word does not seem to be compound and hence admits only three consonants, as pertaining to the Semitic branch; and because the much praised form Tubzacensis cannot grow from Tubjuca, but can from Tubuca or Tubuza.
[24] what was then the civil government of that place. For the rest there is no other information about this place, and perhaps no successor was given there to St. Felix, because it was only a village. Indeed at the beginning of the fourth century there was there an order of decurions, one of whom was that Vincent Celsinus who was given to the holy prelate as guide and guard; there was also a curator of the city, namely Magnilianus, who first threw the blessed man into chains; there was also an office, which had among its duties the custody of accused persons. But all these things existed even in the smallest cities. For curators were of various kinds. Alexander Severus made at Rome fourteen curators of the city, but from consular men, who should give judgment with the prefect of the city Lampridius, chapter XXXIII.. Not unlike them (unless perhaps you take away the nobility) was Magnilianus, who under the proconsul or his legate took charge of justice at Tubuza and administered the rest of the public business; in nearly the same way as those we now call maires, bourgmestres. Decurions, whom the councillors of cities (conseillers communaux) now nearly represent, were possessed by municipalities and colonies, not only by metropolises Compare Eckhel, Doctrina numorum, volume IV, page 482.. The office consisted of a few attendants. There is here, therefore, no shadow or appearance of a greater city. But let us now come to the cult of the blessed martyr.
[25] The body of St. Felix, carried to Carthage, was laid up where? That the body was first deposited at Venosa, and afterwards brought to Carthage and finally placed on the road of the Scillitans, we have taught at number 18 of this commentary. For there was at Carthage a suburban cemeterial basilica of the holy Scillitan martyrs, in which St. Augustine delivered a sermon and which the Arian Vandals seized for themselves almost at the beginning of the persecution Acta SS. volume IV of July, page 206.. The road that led to this sanctuary and at the same time (as is clear from Ado) to the city of Utica seems to have been called that of the Scillitan Martyrs; and not the road by which one went to the town of Scilla. That a small church was built there, which was adorned with the relics of St. Felix, is very likely: although it has seemed to Morcelli Africa Christ. volume II, page 185. that they were placed near the Scillitan martyrs, that is in their basilica.
[26] His name is not read in the Calendar of Carthage, That the name of St. Felix was written in the calendar of Carthage has been stated by the same Morcelli Ibid. at the place cited.; not rightly. Indeed at the third day before the kalends of September, on which St. Felix consummated his martyrdom at Venosa, there is read in the calendar of Carthage Vetera Analecta, page 165.: On the third day before the kalends of September, of SS. Felix, Eva and Regiola, martyrs. But it was long ago observed by Mabillon Ibid. note q. that these three sacred champions are of the companions of St. Saturninus, whom some call the Alutinian martyrs, others the Abitinian, and whose Acts Henschen published at the 11th day of February Acta SS. volume II of February, page 513 and following.. That the name of St. Felix of Tubzaca, buried very close to Carthage, is not read in that calendar therefore has something of surprise; not much, however, since those calendars are mutilated in some places, nor were all suburban saints inscribed in calendars of that kind: as may easily be gathered from a comparison of the catalogue of the Roman cemeterial churches with the old Roman calendars.
[27] but in the marble one of Naples and probably in the Hieronymian. On the contrary the name of St. Felix is read in the most celebrated calendar of Naples, which was cut in marble in the ninth century and of which Mazzocchi illustrated the first half of the year, Louis Sabbatini the first nine months. There Mai, Scriptores veteres, volume V, page 63. therefore at the 30th day of August you have: Passion of St. Felix, bishop. Nor do I doubt that his name was inscribed also in the genuine Hieronymian lists, although it has dropped out of many codices. It was indeed absent from those that Fiorentini saw Hieronymian Martyrology, page 794 and following.; but in that of Augsburg Acta SS. last supplement of June, page 21. one reads: At Rome, of Gaudentia, virgin. Of Felix. Of Gemellinus. At Rome, of Felix and Adauctus, martyrs. In Labbe's Ibid. page 28.: At Rome, of Gaudentia, virgin. Of Felix, Audactus, martyr. Felix. Gemellinus. Of Candida, virgin. Similar things are read in the Gellone codex, which d'Achery published Spicilegium, volume II, page 34.. That Felix, surely, different from the companion of St. Audactus, is our Felix of Tubzaca.
[28] His cult at Venosa and elsewhere. At Naples, however, his cult seems to have ceased long ago. Sabbatini at any rate Il vetusto calendar. Neapolit. volume VIII, page 98., asserting that the name of St. Felix was formerly celebrated at Naples, hints that in his age it had been given to oblivion; nor do I find his name in the calendars and breviaries of Naples that are at my hand. That St. Felix was formerly venerated on this day at Tournai in Belgium is established for me from a note of our Henschen, in which he recorded that he had found the feast of this blessed martyr in the calendar of an old Breviary of that diocese; but as at Naples, so too at Tournai the veneration of St. Felix ceased long ago. The same must be said of his cult at Trier and Utrecht. For in the Calendar of the close of the thirteenth century, prefixed to the weekly book of St. Simeon of Trier, one reads at this day: Of Felix, bishop, and Boniface, Pope. Similarly in the Missals and Breviaries of Utrecht, both written and printed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which we have in fairly large number, the memory of St. Felix and others is prescribed to be celebrated at this day. But this was long ago discontinued. On the contrary at Venosa, which was the arena of the blessed man, the cult still flourishes. In the year 1698, while our Janning was staying at Rome, the chapter of Venosa had sent there an agent, to obtain new lessons on St. Felix and his supposed companions Audactus, Januarius, Fortunatus and Septimus, to be recited in the second Nocturn, as well as a prayer, and to propose them for approval by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Wherefore that man, sent by Cardinal Colloredo to Janning, begged this little writing from him, which on the 21st day of February of the following year was marked with a white stone. He took the lessons from the Baronian or Surian edition, except that he added these words at the end: As companions to their bishop on his journeys, as fellows in inquisitions and prisons, and as equals in victory, there were Audactus and Januarius, presbyters, and also Fortunatus and Septimus, lectors; by the blood of all of whom the city of Venosa has been consecrated, and, that it might better prove its deference to its most beneficent patrons, it long ago bound itself by a solemn vow to keep duly every year their feast day. This is not the place to pursue the praises of Venosa: see them in Ughelli Italia sacra, volume VII, column 165 and following., Orlendi Orbis sacer et profanus, volume IV, page 1961. and others.
[29] The order of publishing the Acts. It remains for us to bring again to light the Acts of St. Felix, which to Baronius and after him to other critics too have seemed to be in great part taken from the proconsular commentaries. As I understand from some of Bolland's papers, he had in mind to publish in the first place the Acts of St. Felix as they were corrupted to the praise of Nola; then to present the Surian or rather Baronian edition; and third an abridgment of the same Passion according to the Menaia of the Greeks. But in truth it is an evident matter that the first place is due to the Surian edition, as being the original; nor, however, is the Nolan one to be suppressed, which d'Achery, Baluze and the English preferred, especially since in this way we shall be able to treat briefly in the annotations of a number of matters of which it still remains to speak. On the Menaia of the Greeks we hesitated for some time: we shall nevertheless give and append the version, compendiously drawn up by Cardinal Sirleto, because he seems to have used Menaia somewhat different from the more recent ones. It seems that no more need be pointed out.
PASSION OF ST. FELIX, BISHOP OF TUBZACA,
According to the edition of Surius, Baronius and Ruinart, or the older Venosan family of codices.
Felix, bishop of Tubzoca in Africa and martyr at Venosa in Apulia (S.)
BHL Number: 2894, 2895
aAper, Gyrus and Vitalis, clerics of Tubzaca, are arrested on the 5th of June; Diocletian being consul for the VIIIth time and Maximian for the VIIth b, Augusti, there went forth an edict of the emperors and Caesars c over all the face of the earth; and it was set forth through the colonies and cities to the chief men and magistrates, each in his own place d, that they should seek the divine books from the hand of the bishops and presbyters e. Then the programma was set up in the city of Tibieura f on the day of the nones of June g. Then Magnilianus h the curator i ordered the elders of the people k to be brought to him. On the same day Felix the bishop had set out for Carthage. And he ordered Aper the presbyter to be brought to him, and Gyrus and Vitalis the lectors l. To whom Magnilianus the curator said: Have you the divine books? Aper said: We have. Magnilianus the curator said: Give them to be burned in the fire m. Then Aper: Our bishop has them with him.
Magnilianus the curator said: Where is he n? Aper said: I do not know. Magnilianus the curator said: You shall therefore be under the office o, until you render account to Anulinus the proconsul [p].
[2] on the following day St. Felix is captured and refuses the sacred codices; But on the following day Felix the bishop came from Carthage to Tibiura. Then Magnilianus the curator ordered Felix the bishop to be brought to him by an officer. To whom Magnilianus the curator said: Felix, bishop [q], give up the books or parchments, whatever you have. Felix the bishop said: I have them, but I do not give them [r]. Magnilianus the curator said: What the emperors have commanded comes before [s] what you say. Give up the books, that they may be burned in the fire [t]. Felix the bishop said: It is better that I be burned in the fire than the divine scriptures: for it is good to obey God [u] rather than men. Magnilianus the curator said: What the emperors have commanded comes before what you say. Felix the bishop said: The precept of the Lord comes before that of men. Magnilianus said: Think it over with yourself [x].
[3] he is sent to Carthage to the proconsul; But after the third day the curator ordered Felix the bishop to be brought to him and said to him: Have you thought it over with yourself? Felix the bishop said [y]: What I said before I say now, and I shall say it before the proconsul. Magnilianus the curator said: You shall go therefore to the proconsul and there render account [z] [α]. Then there was assigned to him Vincent Celsinus [β], decurion of the city of the Tibiurans.
[4] [to him he refuses to hand over the sacred books; he is sent to the prefect of the praetorium;] Then Felix set out from Tibiura, on the eighth day before the kalends of July. He was led bound; and he ordered him, bound [γ], to be thrust into prison. And on another day Felix the bishop was brought out before dawn; to whom the proconsul said. Why do you not give up your superfluous scriptures? Felix the bishop said: I have them, but I shall not give them. Then he ordered him to be bound and sent into the depth of the prison [δ]. And after sixteen [ε] days Felix the bishop was brought out of the prison in chains, at the fourth hour of the night, to Anulinus the proconsul [ζ]. To whom Anulinus said: Why do you not give up your superfluous scriptures? Felix the bishop replied: I am not going to give them. Then Anulinus the proconsul ordered him to be sent to the prefect of the praetorium [η], on the ides of July. Then the prefect ordered him to be received in his prison and bound with greater chains. And after nine [θ] days the prefect ordered him to sail after the emperors [ι].
[5] [ordered to sail after the emperors, he comes to Sicily, then to Venosa, where he is examined by the prefect of the praetorium;] Then Felix the bishop went up into the ship [κ] with great chains, and he was in the hold of the ship for four days. Rolled about under the feet of the horses, he tasted neither bread nor water: fasting he reached the port, and in the city of Agrigentum [λ] he was received by the brethren with the highest honour. From there they came to the city named Catania: there they were likewise received. From there they came to Messina. From there to Taormina: there they were likewise received. Afterwards they sailed the strait, into the parts of Lucania, to the city named Rulum . From there they set out for Venosa, which is a city of the region of Apulia. Then the prefect [μ] ordered Felix to be taken out of chains; and he said: Felix, why do you not give up the Lord's scriptures? Or perhaps you do not have them? To whom he replied: I have them indeed, but I do not give them. The prefect said: Kill Felix with the sword. Felix the bishop said with a clear voice: Thanks to thee, O Lord, who hast deigned to deliver me.
[6] he is beheaded on the 30th day of August. And he was led to the place of his passion (when also the very moon was turned into blood) on the third [ο] day before the kalends of September. Felix the bishop, raising his eyes to heaven, said with a clear voice: O God, thanks to thee. Fifty-six years I have in this world. I have guarded my virginity, I have kept the Gospels, I have preached faith and truth. O Lord God of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, to thee I bend my neck as a victim, who abidest [ν] for ever [π]: To whom is brightness and magnificence through ages of ages. Amen.
According to the edition of Faber, d'Achery and Baluze, and the manuscript codices of Utrecht, Rouge-Cloître and the three of Saint-Omer [α], or the Nolan family of codices.
[Januarius, Fortunatus and Septiminus, clerics of Tubzaca, are arrested on the 5th of January;] In those days, Diocletian being consul for the VIIIth time and Maximian for the VIIth [β], Augusti, there went forth an edict of the same Caesars or emperors [γ] over all the face of the earth, and it was set forth through the colonies and cities, to the chief men and magistrates, each in his own place [δ], that they should wrest the divine books from the hands of the bishops and presbyters [ε]. Then the programma was set up in the city of Tubyzaca [ζ] on the day of the nones of January [η]. Then Magnilianus [θ], curator [ι] of that city, ordered the presbyters [κ] to be brought to him, because Felix the bishop had set out for Carthage: he ordered Januarius the presbyter, and Fortunatius and Septiminus [λ], lectors, to be brought to him. To whom Magnilianus the curator said: Have you a bishop? Januarius the presbyter replied: We have. Magnilianus the curator said: Where is he [μ]? Januarius the presbyter replied: I do not know. Magnilianus said: Have you the divine books? Januarius replied: We have. Magnilianus said: Give them to be burned in the fire [ν]. Januarius the presbyter, and Fortunatius and Septiminius, lectors, said: Our bishop has them with him. Magnilianus the curator said: You shall therefore be under the office [ο], until you render account to Anulinus the proconsul [π].
[2] on the following day St. Felix is captured and refuses the sacred codices; But on the following day Felix the bishop came from Carthage to Tubyza. And when Magnilianus had learned of his arrival, he immediately determined to have him presented to him by the office. And when he had arrived quicker than it could be said, [Magnilianus the curator said to him: You are Felix, bishop of this city. Felix the bishop said: I am [ξ].] Magnilianus the curator said: Give up the books or parchments, of whatever kind you have in your possession. Felix the bishop said: I have them, but I do not hand over the law of the Lord my God, whom I worship. [Magnilianus said: So your God is greater than our gods? Felix the bishop said: Great and to be feared is our God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them. For your gods are stones, made by the hand of men, of whom it is written: They have eyes and shall not see; they have ears and shall not hear; they have a mouth and shall not speak. Let them that make them become like unto them, and all such as trust in them [ρ].] Maglinianus the curator said: What the emperors have commanded is first [σ], for what you say is nothing. Wherefore hand over all the books you have, that they may, as has been established, be burned in the fire [τ]. Felix the bishop said: It is better that I give my body to the fire than that the Lord's scriptures should be seen to be burned through me: for it is good to obey God, the perpetual [υ] and immortal king, rather than an emperor of this world commanding unjust things. Magnilianus said: I have already told you that what the emperors have commanded comes first, before the things you say. Felix the bishop said: It comes first to keep the precept of God, before obeying men. Magnilianus the curator said: Meanwhile within these three days think it over with yourself; for if in this your own city you neglect to fulfil what has been commanded, you shall go to the proconsul, and shall pursue the things you now say in his acts [φ].
[3] he is sent to Carthage to the proconsul; But after the third day Magnilianus the curator ordered St. Felix the bishop to be presented to him. And when Felix the bishop had been brought to him, the same Magnilianus said: Have you deliberated with yourself what better counsel you may seem to attain? Felix said: My speech is one; in what it began, in this too, God presiding, it shall be finished [χ]. For what I said at first, these same things I say now also, and before the proconsul I am not going to say anything at all different. Maglinianus the curator said: You shall go therefore now to the proconsul, and there you are to render account in examination [ψ]. Then he addressed his men in these words: Since Felix the bishop has in no way made haste to do, according to the decrees of the emperors, the things which they have deigned to command us, let him be taken to Carthage with you accompanying him a.] Felix the bishop said: Thanks be to God. Then a guide was designated for him, Vincent Celesinus [b] by name, decurion of the city of Tubyzaca.
[4] [to him and his legate he refuses to hand over the sacred books; he is sent to Rome to the prefect of the praetorium;] And Felix the bishop set out for Carthage. When they had come there, he was presented to the legate of the proconsul [c]. To whom the same legate said: Why do you not hand over your superfluous scriptures? Felix the bishop said: I have them indeed, but I do not give them. The scriptures that are held by us are not superfluous, nor can they in any way be handed over by us. Then the legate ordered him to be sent into the depth of the prison. And when Felix the bishop had entered there, he prayed to the Lord his God, saying: O Lord God, creator and maker of all things, Lord Jesus Christ [d], forsake me not, for on account of thee and on account of thy testament I suffer these things. Have mercy on me and receive my spirit, and leave my mortal body in this world, that from thee, O Lord, as thou hast deigned to promise, I may merit to receive an immortal one with thee. For in thee, O Lord, I shall always live, and death will never have power over me. And after sixteen days [e], at the fourth hour of the night, Felix the bishop, brought out of prison, was at once presented to the sight of Anulinus the proconsul. To whom Anulinus the proconsul said: What name have you? Felix the bishop said: I am a Christian. Anulinus the proconsul said: I have not asked about the appellation of your profession [f], but I have inquired by what name you are called. Felix the bishop said: As I have already told you, this I say now and again, that I am a Christian and a bishop. Then Anulinus the proconsul, angry because he had refused to tell him his name, said to him: Have you superfluous scriptures? Felix the bishop said: I have scriptures, but not (as you assert) superfluous *: which, know from me, are by no means to be handed over. Then Anulinus the proconsul sent him across to Rome to the prefect of the praetorium [g]. And when Felix the bishop had arrived there and had been presented to the same prefect, he ordered him to be received in his prison and bound with greater chains. And after twelve days [h] the prefect of the praetorium ordered him to sail after the emperors [i].
[5] [ordered to sail after the emperors, he comes to Nola; where he is examined by the judge of the city;] Then Felix the bishop went on board the ship, bound with the harsh bonds of chains, and he was in the bilge [k] of the ship for four days and four nights, lying under the feet of the horses, eating no bread nor drinking any water. And fasting he came to Nola [l]. Then the judge of the same city [m] determined to have Felix the bishop, as he came, presented to him, tied in heavier chains. To whom the same judge spoke thus: Felix, how have you come here? Felix the bishop said: As God willed. The judge said: If in your own city or before
Carthage you had handed over the divine scriptures, you would by no means have come here to me. Felix the bishop said: I have the divine scriptures indeed; but as you are not unaware that I have replied to various persons who questioned me, this also I now manifest most certainly to you in person, that I in no way hand them over. The judge said: If you are unwilling to hand over the divine scriptures, you shall be punished with loss of your head. Felix the bishop said: I am more ready to be punished with loss of my head than to hand over the Lord's books to the sacrilegious . Then the said judge ordered that the sacred precepts of the emperors be recited; and when what had been established had been read by Vincent the scribe, the judge said: Since this man so persists in the same confession, according to the precept of the princes * I determine that this same Felix the bishop be punished with the sword.
[6] he is beheaded on the 15th of January: his relics are carried to Carthage. Felix the bishop, raising his eyes to heaven, said : O God, I give thee thanks, who for fifty-six years in this world hast deigned to guard my virginity in me, O Lord God of heaven and earth, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for thy sake and for thy law and out of fear of thee I suffer this, and I bend my neck as a victim. Receive my spirit from this mortal world. For thou alone art God living and unconquered and abiding [n] glorious through everlasting ages [p]. Amen. This prayer being completed, he was led by the soldiers and beheaded there, that is, at Nola, on the eighteenth day [o] before the kalends of February; and there at Nola his body was placed, and his relics were carried to kindly Carthage by religious servants of God and sons of mother Church and placed on the road which is called of the Scillitans. And in the same venerable place many wonders are done, and all languors are cured, in the name of the Lord our God Jesus Christ, to whom with God the Father be honour and praise and glory in the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p π. St. Optatus compares the persecution of Diocletian to a bear: At which time, he adds, there were also impious judges, bringing war on the Christian name: of whom in the Proconsular Province … there was Anulinus, in Numidia Florus. It is known to all what their artful cruelty wrought; which he then describes at more length, especially that of Florus. And indeed the savagery of the latter was much more truculent than that of Anulinus, who seems unwillingly to have set forth and carried out the impious decrees. Hence he affixed the edict of Diocletian in public almost a whole month after Florus; and when Mensurius, prelate of Carthage, had collected the books of heretics in the basilica Novorum, to be carried off by the persecutors in place of the divine scriptures, and certain men of the order of Carthage had informed the proconsul of this fraud, Anulinus nevertheless refused to consent to them, or to decree that the bishop's house should be searched; as may be understood from the letter of Mensurius and the Breviculus of the conference of Carthage of the third day, chapter XIII Works of St. Augustine, volume IX, column 567.; indeed he seems not to have destroyed everywhere the houses in which scriptures had been found or were thought to be; although the law of the emperor required this and Anulinus himself allowed it to be done in some places. Anulinus was still alive on the nones of December of the year 304, when he examined St. Crispina Ruinart, Sincere Acts of the Martyrs, page 449., but perhaps at the beginning of the following year (if credit is to be given to the Acts of St. Mammarius [In Mabillon, Analecta, page 179, de la Barre edition. Compare Tillemont, Mémoires ecclés. volume V, page 66.]) he died and made room for Maximus.
q ξ. The pericope enclosed in brackets in the second copy is in all the codices and editions, except the Surian.
r ρ. This other pericope, enclosed in brackets, is again absent from the Surian edition alone; and indeed rightly:
s σ. Prius and primum are here referred neither to number nor to succession in time, but to excellence of order; as if one should say in the vernacular: Avant tout la loi. Before all, the law.
t τ. “That they may, as has been established, be burned in the fire. These words are lacking in two old copies. They can, moreover, be omitted without any inconvenience. Above: Give them to be burned in the fire.” Thus Baluze. They are not, however, to be omitted. For they are read in all our editions and codices, and the reply of St. Felix requires them.
u υ. Perpetuo regi, etc. are absent from the edition of Surius. By them there seems to be mocked the title perpetuus, by which, at least from the age of Probus, the Augusti and emperors were sometimes called perpetual. But it was scarcely or not even scarcely given to Diocletian and Maximian Herculius; but rather to the sons of Constantine the Great and afterwards Compare Eckhel, Doctrina numorum, volume VIII, page 358 and 501..
x φ. Here again there is much more in the second copy than in the Surian edition. Baluze at these words: Apud ejus acta observes: This is the true and genuine reading. Wrongly in the codices 59, 401 and 930: Apud eum acta. In all our codices: Apud ejus acta. — In the Agones Martyrum: Apud eum. In the Acts of the purgation of Caecilian one reads In Dupin, Works of St. Optatus, page 168.: Nundinarius the deacon said: You therefore replied in the acts that you gave up the codices… Let the acts be read; and similar things elsewhere.
y χ. Here again the second copy is richer. Finiet in the editions of Faber of Étaples, d'Achery and Baluze; in our codices finitur, except in Saint-Omer III, where finietur.
z ψ. Baluze adds: So the codices 401 and 930; others have examinatione; namely the codices 59 and 316, and the edition of d'Achery. — The Agones Martyrum support Baluze. The codices of Rouge-Cloître and of Saint-Omer I and II have: examinationem veram: Saint-Omer III: in examinatione rationem veram.
α a. What we have enclosed in brackets is read in the Agones Martyrum and in the editions of d'Achery and Baluze; but the latter notes the following: It is wonderful how it could have come about that a most depraved reading crept into the codices 59, 401 and 930, where one reads: And so his wife addressed her husband in these words. In the Saint-Omer codex III they are shown thus: And as he was going on to the proconsul, addressing him in these words: Since Felix the bishop has scorned to do the commands of the emperors, the things which they have deigned to command us, let him be taken to Carthage with you accompanying him. On the contrary in the codices of Rouge-Cloître and of Saint-Omer I and II and the edition of Surius they are altogether omitted: and rightly; since they do not agree with what follows, in which Vincent alone is read to have been given to St. Felix as companion. The pericope: Felix the bishop said: Thanks be to God, is found everywhere except in Surius: whether it should be retained or omitted, I do not determine.
β b. Celsinus or Celesinus is omitted in the editions of d'Achery and Baluze and in the Agones Martyrum. In the codex of Rouge-Cloître one reads Celesinæ; in Saint-Omer I and II Celesinia.
γ c. In the whole of this number there are very many discrepancies between the two copies. All have arisen from the fact that the Surian copyist read ligatus where the text had legatus, and arranged the rest according to this corruption. Moreover the proconsul of Africa, as is ascertained from the Notitia of the empire [Western Empire, chapter XLVI, in Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, volume VII, column 1891.], had two legates. A number are known from historians and marble monuments; neither, however, of Anulinus's. They were added to the proconsul, that he might use their labour and counsel and sometimes employ them as deputies Compare Eckhel, Doctrina numorum, volume IV, page 238 and following.. At the words: Ullo modo possunt, Baluze observes that in the Colbert codices 59, 401 and 930 one reads: nulla ratione. In all our codices: ullo modo.
δ d. This whole prayer to God seems better absent from the Surian edition. In the codices of Rouge-Cloître and of Saint-Omer I, II and III it has another beginning, namely: O Lord God, creator of all ages, forsake me not. At the words: Ut a te Domine Baluze notes that this reading is found in the Colbert codices 59, 401 and 930; but in codex 316 and the edition of d'Achery: Attend, O Lord, as thou hast deigned to promise us, that I may merit to receive immortality with thee. The Agones Martyrum and our codices favour the former reading, except that in place of a te they substitute tecum, and one or two omit sicut promittere dignatus est. We therefore agree with Baluze, who retained that reading, since it seems
more sincere and rests on the authority of more old copies. In the following pericope: In te enim, in place of vivens, which is read in the Saint-Omer codices I and II, in the Agones Martyrum and in d'Achery and Baluze, I have substituted vivam, which is in the codex of Rouge-Cloître and Saint-Omer III and which the context suggests admitting. Numquam adversus me: here too we have followed, says Baluze, the credit of the old books. For the edition of d'Achery has: Numquam inimicus adversus me habebit potestatem. Our books agree with those of Baluze, except that in three habeat is read.
ε e. Colbert codex 461, says Baluze, has twelve; ours all sixteen, the Menaia of the Greeks six.
ζ f. The Surian edition omits the inquiry about the name; perhaps not badly. Non te de vocabulo d'Achery and Baluze published, the latter however confessing that in his four codices one reads: Non tibi vocabulum quæsivi professionis; with which the Agones Martyrum agree, except that they have nomen. We have restored the better reading from the codices of Rouge-Cloître and Saint-Omer I and III. Saint-Omer II has: Non te vocabulo.
η g. Diocletian indeed had sent to Maximian Herculius his law for molesting the Christians; but in the usual way Maximian had handed it to the prefect of the praetorium, who should make that imperial law known to the provincials by an edict of his own set forth [Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine, chapter IX, page 333; Ecclesiastical History, book IX, chapter IX, page 362. Compare Henry Valesius, Annotations on book IX of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, chapter IX, page 187; and Godefroy, Theodosian Code, volume VI, part II, page 5, Leipzig, 1745.]. Moreover the prefect of the praetorium had supreme jurisdiction, from which there was no appeal, and to which it was permitted to appeal from all judges, unless they had judged in the imperial stead. Add that it was customary for judges to consult the prefects of the praetorium, if the difficulty of judging required it Compare Godefroy, at the place cited.; which was certainly the case in the trial of St. Felix, since the second edict of Diocletian had not yet reached Africa. And for these causes doubtless, especially for the third, the proconsul sent St. Felix to the prefect of the praetorium. In nearly the same way the matter was handled in the case of Blessed Romanus, the martyr of Antioch, who, when he was already to be devoured by flames, was brought to Diocletian himself. Ruinart judges that in the editions of d'Achery and Baluze the word Romæ, which is read in this pericope: He sent him across to Rome to the prefect, is a corrupt addition; indeed that at that time the prefect of the praetorium was staying in Africa. A difficult argument. On one side stands the Surian codex of the greatest authority, and in its favour are the Martyrologies of Bede, Rabanus, of Sens, of Ado, etc., in which the Sicilian journey is mentioned and the Roman passed over in silence; on the other side stand all the codices used by Faber of Étaples, d'Achery, Baluze, Ruinart himself, and also those of which we have copies. Ruinart cries out that from what follows it follows that the prefect was in Africa; and that another interpretation does not run correctly. Tillemont replies Mém. ecclés. note V on St. Felix, volume V, page 668. that it runs much better if it is said that the prefect went off from Rome with St. Felix to the emperors, with whom the prefects of the praetorium ordinarily stayed, and by their order delivered capital sentence against St. Felix; as the Surian edition has it: and that on the contrary prefects of the praetorium were very rarely in Africa, but a deputy prefect.
θ h. The Surian edition has nine days; the d'Achery edition and Saint-Omer codex III fourteen; the codices of Rouge-Cloître, Saint-Omer I and II, the Agones Martyrum and Baluze twelve; the Menaia of the Greeks fourteen.
ι i. There are understood Diocletian and Maximian Herculius, who in fact then held the empire. That the prefect of the praetorium sends Blessed Felix to the emperors seems to have the same cause as moved Anulinus the proconsul to direct the blessed prelate to Rome: namely that by the first decree the Christians were ordered indeed to hand over the sacred codices, but if they refused, no definite penalty was decreed against them. Observe further that this passage of the Passion, in which Blessed Felix is said to have been sent to the southern regions of Italy to be brought before the emperors, agrees excellently with the rest of the history of that age. For Lactantius writes On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter XVII.: This crime therefore having been perpetrated (the second edict having been set forth at Nicomedia and spread in all directions through the empire), Diocletian, since felicity had now departed from him, went at once to Rome, to celebrate there the day of the vicennalia, which was to be on the twelfth day before the kalends of December: so that, setting out from Nicomedia about the month of May, he entered Rome in triumph on the 20th day of November of the year 303. Meanwhile, however, Diocletian travelled through a number of cities; and there is a sure record from Eusebius [On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter II, page 320; compare Acta SS. volume VIII of October, page 425.] that he stayed at Antioch when St. Romanus was to be given to the fire. Moreover, no one will wonder that when Diocletian was approaching Rome, Maximian Herculius went to meet him. And the ship on which St. Felix was carried first put in at Sicily, because the Augusti were believed to be staying there; and when it did not find them there, it moved on to the Bruttii.
κ k. Faber of Étaples published Sentina, but perhaps according to his fancy; Surius Capsa; d'Achery Subsanno; Baluze Subsanio; Mombritius Subsamo; the manuscript compendium of the Passion of Utrecht subscampo: the codices of Rouge-Cloître and Saint-Omer I, II and III agree with Baluze, who for the rest followed three Colbert copies, while the fourth had subsannio. The Surian edition seems not to be despised. Capsa, capsus or capsum in matters of carriage signifies the place in which the baggage is [Compare John Scheffer, On Carriage, book I, chapter VII, in Poleni, volume V, column 1090 and following.]. Why not likewise in naval matters? The other readings are certainly corrupt, perhaps to be changed into subscalmo [Compare Pollux, Onomasticon, book I, chapter IX, volume I, page 59, edition of 1706.], which was the space under the scalmi or thole-pins, to which the oars were tied, namely between the bilge and the thalamus or lowest order of rowers. And that space was higher because the ship was of that kind which was called by the Greeks ἱππαγωγοι, by the Latins hippagines; by which, namely, horses and men were carried [John Scheffer, On Naval Warfare, book IV, chapter I, in Poleni, volume V, column 995.].
λ l. We have shown in the Commentary, §2 and here and there, that by a manifest corruption the Sicilian journey is suppressed in the copies of the Nolan family; of which all the ancient martyrologists make mention; and that Nola is substituted for Venosa. — Agrigentum, Catania, Messina and Taormina are very well-known cities of Sicily, all formerly episcopal, subject at different times to different metropolitans. Agrigentum (Girgenti) is now part of the province of Monreale; likewise Catania. Messina (Messine) is the head of a province. The see of Taormina is long since extinct. In the Surian edition probably one should read not: From there they came to Messina. From there to Taormina; but: From there they came to Taormina. From there to Messina; unless perhaps the Messina journey, passed over in the Menaia of the Greeks, is superfluous. For the ship was carried through the Tyrrhenian Sea, then through the Libyan, afterwards through the Sicilian. At these words: Afterwards they sailed (across) the strait, into the parts of Lucania, to the city named Rulum, Ruinart noted that the name of the city Rulum is not found in the notices of Italy: rightly indeed; but one should read Rhegium, as is plain from the fuller Acts of the twelve brothers of Hadrumetum, which were composed on the model of the Acts of St. Felix and in which one reads: Going up again into a ship, they were brought to Messina; in which, staying a little while, having taken another ship, they crossed over and landed at Regium. The name of Rhegium is known to all: this city lies almost opposite Messina, so that they are divided by the Sicilian strait.
μ m. Baluze, who, as is read in all the codices of the Nolan family, published: The judge of the same city, notes these things at those words: That passage disturbs me. For above the prefect sent Felix to Herculius, namely that the cause of Felix might receive its end in the presence of the emperor. And yet the judge of the city of Nola presumes judgment to himself, and orders Felix to be punished with loss of his head. But this must be so understood that the judge is said to have taken up that cause to be judged according to the precept, as is said below, that is, by delegation of Maximian, then present. Ruinart observes similar things. Tillemont Mém. ecclés. note V on St. Felix, volume V, page 668., who approves the Surian edition, finds no difficulty in these things: namely that the prefect of the praetorium went on to the emperors, in whose retinue he was accustomed to be and to whom he had sent St. Felix; and that there the prefect, by his ordinary power (although it is to be supposed that he first spoke of these things with the Augusti), delivered capital sentence against St. Felix; nor is there to be any doubt about these things, since the Menaia of the Greeks openly have St. Felix condemned to death by the same prefect by whom he was sent to the emperors. For the rest, that judge of the same city is to be expunged altogether: from which it is again plain that the Nolan family of the Acts of St. Felix is not the original, but interpolated. Indeed Symmachus Book X, letter LI. called the moderator or corrector of Apulia by the title of provincial cognitor; but in the age of Diocletian neither governors of provinces nor judges delegated by the prince were yet called cognitores: down to the age of Theodosius and Valentinian cognitores were almost the same as defenders and procurators of another's right; but under their rule that new kind of judges was introduced, who, since they sat on the tribunal by delegation of the princes, were called cognitores; a name that afterwards also clung to the governors of some provinces [Compare James Guthier, On the Offices of the Augustan Household, book I, chapter XXV, in Sallengre, Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum, volume III, column 338 and 339.].
ν n. Baluze notes on these things: Invictus et permanens; so three old Colbert codices. The fourth has vivificans permanes. The d'Achery edition, vivificans et permanens. The Agones Martyrum invictus permanens et gloriosus. The codices of Rouge-Cloître and Saint-Omer I and II agree with Baluze.
ο o. There is to be no doubt that St. Felix accomplished martyrdom on the third day before the kalends of September, or the 30th day of August. Compare the Preliminary Commentary here and there and annotation g η. Baluze observes that in three codices one reads XVIII, in the fourth and in the d'Achery edition XIX. In the Agones Martyrum and in Saint-Omer codex III one reads XVIII kal. Feb.; in the codices of Rouge-Cloître and Saint-Omer I and II III kal. Sept. Baluze adds that in the old Martyrologies the passion of St. Felix is referred to the ninth day before the kalends of November; and
indeed rightly, if you understand the Little Roman, and those who under its guidance went away into error, Ado, Notker and Usuard; but if you understand the older ones, namely the Hieronymian calendars, Bede, Rabanus, the marble Calendar of Naples, the Martyrology of Sens, etc., altogether otherwise: for in these the passion of St. Felix is recorded on the third day before the kalends of September: on which day he doubtless shed his blood. — In the years 303, 304 and 305 there was no eclipse on the 15th and 16th days of January, the 30th of August and the 24th of October: which we note on account of the words: the moon was turned into blood.
π p. From a comparison of the copies of the two families it is manifest that the prayer of St. Felix ends here, and that the words To whom is, etc. are the clausula of the hagiographer, not of the holy martyr; although Ruinart determined otherwise. Of the things that follow in the other copy enough has been said in the preliminary commentary.
* supply trans
* Rhegium
* non sunt u. a. supervacuæ Bal.
* sacrilegio Bal.
* duravit Bal.
* principum omitted by Bal.
* ita peroravit codex of Rouge-Cloître
* per omitted by Bal.
PASSION OF ST. FELIX
According to the Menaia of the Greeks.
Felix, bishop of Tubzoca in Africa and martyr at Venosa in Apulia (S.)
αΤῇ αὐτῃ ἡμέρᾳ (Ις μῆνος Ἀπριλίου) μνήμη τοῦ ἁγίου Φήλικος ἐπισκόπου, Ἰανουαρίου πρεσβυτέρου, Φουρτουνάτου, και Σεπτεμίνου. Στίχ. Τετρὰς ἀθλητῶν συγκεκομμένων ξίφει Νῦν συνχορεύει μυριάσιν Ἀγγέλων.
[1] St. Felix refuses to hand over the sacred books; Τῷ ὀγδοῷ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ καὶ Μαξιμιανοῦ ἐξῆλθε δόγμα κατὰ πᾶσαν χώραν, τοῦ καίεσθαι πάσας τὰς βίβλους τῶν χριστιανῶν. Ἀπεστάλη οὖν ἐν πόλει τοῦ Βιουκᾶν Μαριανός τις, ἢ, ὡς ἐν ἄλλοις γράφεται, Μαγνιανὸς, ἀνὴρ παμμίαρος· ὃς δὴ παρέστησε Φήλικα τὸν ἐπίσκοπον, Ἰανουάριον τὸν πρεσβύτερον, Φουρτουνάτον, καὶ Σεπτεμίνον· καὶ ὑπαναγνοὺς τὸ βασιλικὸν δόγμα, ἀπῂτει αὐτοῖς τὰ παρ᾽ αὐτῶν βιβλία. Ὁ δὲ ἁγιώτατος ἐπίσκοπος φησὶ προς αὐτόν: Γεγραπται, ᾦ Ἡγεμών, Μή δότε ὑμῶν τὰ ἅγια τοῖς κυσὶ μηδὲ ῥίψητε τοὺς μαργαρίτας ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων. Μάτην τοίνυν ἀγωνιᾷς, κἂν βασιλικὰ ἐπιφέρῃς προστάγματα. Ὁ ἄρχων εἴπεν: Ἄφες τὰς μωρολογίας, καὶ ποίησον τὸ θέλημα τοῦ βασιλέως, ἐπεὶ δέσμιόν σε ἀποστελῶ πρὸς τὸν ἀνθύπατον. Καὶ ὁ ἅγιος: Ὁ ποῖος εἰμὶ, φησιν, ἐν σοὶ, τοιοῦτος καὶ ἐν πᾶσι, καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ βασιλεῖ σου εὑρεθήσομαι.
[2] he is sent to the proconsul and the prefect of the praetorium; Τότε τῇ φυλακῇ ἐγκλείσας τοῦτον, ἀνεπιμέλητον εἴασεν ἐπὶ ἡμέρας τρεῖς. Ἐιθ᾽ οὑτως ἐξαγαγών, ἐπανέκρινε· καὶ δεσμεύσας αὐτὸν καὶ τοῦς σὺν αὐτῷ, ἀπέστειλε πρὸς τὸν ἀνθύπατον. Κακεῖνος πάλιν ἐξετάσας αὐτοὺς τῇ φυλακῇ καθεῖρξε. Καὶ μεθ᾽ ἡμέρας ἑξ [β] ἐξαγαγὼν αὐτοὺς δεσμίους ἀπέστειλε τῷ ἐπάρχῳ τῶν πραιτωρίων· οὓς ἐκεῖνος δεξάμενος, καὶ πάμπολλα ἐκφοβήσας, μετὰ πολλῆς ἀσφαλείας ἐν φυλακῇ δεινοτάτῃ τούτους ἀπέῤῥιψε.
[3] he is ordered to sail after the emperors; Καὶ μεθ᾽ ἡμέρας δεκατέσσαρας [γ] ἐξαγαγών, καὶ ἐπανακρίνας, εἰσῆξεν αὐτοὺς ἐν πλοίῳ μετὰ ἵππων, δεδεμένους ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν. Κυλιόμενοι δὲ οἱ ἅγιοι ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν τῶν ζώων, ἀπόσιτοι τε ὄντες, καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος ἄγευστοι, ἐπὶ ἡμέρας τέσσαρας, ἠυχαρίστουν τῷ Θεῷ. Καὶ φθάσαντες εἰς λιμένα πολέως τινὸσ [δ] ἐδεξιώθησαν κρυφίως ὑπο τῶν χριστιανῶν. Ἐκεῖθεν καταλαβόντες πόλιν, Ταυρομένην καλουμένην, και ἀποπλεύσαντες ἐν Λυκαονίᾳ, ἦλθον εἰς πόλιν Αἰλούρων [ε].
[4] he is beheaded with three companions. Τότε ὁ δύστηνος ἐκεῖνος ἔπαρχος, λύσας τοὺς ἁγίους τῶν δεσμῶν, φωνῇ πραείᾳ τάς ἐρωτήσεις πρὸς αὐτους ἐποιεῖτο. Τῶν δὲ ἀντιλεγόντων, μήτε βίβλους προδοῦναι, μήτε τοῖς εἰδωλοις θῦσαι [ζ], προσέταξεν αὐτοὺς μαχαίρᾳ ἀποτμηθῆναι. Καὶ λαβόντες τὴν ἀπόφασιν, προσηύξαντο· καὶ ἀποτμηθέντες τὰς κεφαλὰς, τοὺς στεφάνους ἐκ χειρὸς Κυρίου ἐδέξαντο.
According to the Menology of Sirleto [a].
The 16th day of April, of St. Felix, bishop, Januarius, presbyter, and Septiminius, Diocletian and Maximian being emperors.
[1] St. Felix refuses to hand over the sacred books; When all these were ordered by an imperial decree to hand over their books to the pagans, the most holy bishop refused it in these words: It is written, he said, governor: Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine.
[2] he is sent to the prefect of the praetorium; For these reasons, bound, they were brought out of prison and sent to the governor of the praetorium.
[3] he is ordered to sail after the emperors; Whom, after fourteen days [c], brought out of prison, he put on board a ship bound at the feet of the horses. And when the holy men were being rolled about at the feet of the brute animals, fasting and not tasting even water, they gave thanks to God himself. And when they had reached the city called Tauromene, brought into Lycaonia, they made the city of the Æluli [e].
[4] he is beheaded with two companions. Then the governor, loosing those holy men from their chains, gently and blandly asked that they hand over the books they had; and when they replied that they were willing neither to give up the books nor to sacrifice to idols [f], the prefect ordered them to be cut down. And when this sentence had been delivered, they sent up prayers to God, from whose hand they received heavenly crowns.
ANNOTATIONS.
α a. Indices of several manuscript Greek Menaia are at my hand; in the Chifflet ones alone, of which mention often falls in the Acts of the Saints, is indicated the memory of SS. Felix, Januarius, Fortunatus and Septiminus. It is to be noted that in those which guided Cardinal Sirleto the name of Fortunatus is omitted. Compare Preliminary Commentary §3.
β. Compare the annotations above, ε e.
γ c. Compare the annotations above, θ h.
δ. This city is Agrigentum according to the Surian edition.
ε e. Lycaonia in place of Lucania; Æluli in place of the Rhegians.
ζ f. St. Felix is not read in the better Acts to have been pushed to sacrifice; nor did the first decree of Diocletian require this.