ON ST. QUODVULTDEUS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE AND CONFESSOR, AT NAPLES IN CAMPANIA,
ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Quodvultdeus, bishop and confessor, at Carthage. (S.)
BY J. V. H.
§ I. The authority of the History of the Vandal persecution, written by St. Victor of Vita, is vindicated.
Before we treat of St. Quodvultdeus, it will be worth while to inquire into the authority [Various objections are made, which lessen the historical credit of Victor of Vita:] which the book on the Vandal Persecution, written by St. Victor, bishop of Vita, must claim for itself, since it has preserved for us the few things that we know of the holy bishop of Carthage. For there are those who say that the writer was unjust beyond measure toward the Vandals and that he exaggerated their savagery. Let there be compared, they say, the words of Victor, bk. I, ch. 4, with Possidius, the biographer of St. Augustine, chs. 28 and 29; indeed, since Possidius himself is rather severe, let St. Augustine himself be consulted in epistle CCXXVIII to Honoratus
Louis Marcus, Hist. des Wandales. Notes p. 1.. More jestingly than truly they declare that credit must be denied to a history put together by orthodox priests alone, who bring in God as Θαυματουργον, without his ever effectively helping the Catholics Ibid. p. 238, notes p. 44.. They also charge Victor the historian with manifest error in certain particular facts, inasmuch as other writers contradict them, or are silent about them Ibid. p. 322. Notes p. 65.. Finally they point to the rigour of ecclesiastical discipline as the greatest obstacle to winning minds Ibid. p. 342.. All these things we shall bring back in order to the balance, and we shall vindicate the credit due to St. Victor of Vita.
[2] 1st, he disagrees with Possidius, Since in the first place there is opposed to the narrative of Victor of Vita the authority of SS. Possidius and Augustine, it may indeed be asked which opinion ought to prevail over the other. For on each side there is the same doctrine, the same rank in the Church, equal sanctity, celebrated in the ecclesiastical calendars, which record the memory of St. Augustine at the 28th day of August [Acta SS. vol. VI of Aug. p. 441; cf. Dom Ceillier, Hist. des Aut. eccles. vols. XI and XII throughout.], of St. Possidius at the 17th day of May Acta SS. vol. IV of May pp. 27 and 799. Ceillier, vol. XII p. 261., of St. Victor of Vita at the 23rd day of August Acta SS. vol. IV of Aug. p. 628. Ceillier, vol. XV p. 206.. But if these men are equal, the authority of that one seems to be preferred who, composing a special history, was obliged to search more accurately the sources from which a true narrative springs. But for those who consult the text both of Possidius and of Augustine, each says in brief what the historian of Vita unfolds at length. Possidius sets forth the devastation of the Vandals in these words in ch. 28 of the Life of St. Augustine Migne Patrol. vol. XXXII col. 57.: In the short time following it came about by the divine will and power that a huge force armed with various weapons and exercised in wars, of the savage enemy Vandals and Alans, having mingled with itself the people of the Goths and persons of various other nations, flowed in by ships to Africa from the parts of Spain across the sea and burst upon it; and throughout all the places of the Mauritanias, passing even to our other provinces and regions, raging with all cruelty and atrocity, it laid waste all that it could by spoliation, slaughter, various tortures, burnings, and innumerable other unspeakable evils: sparing no sex, no age, not the very ornaments of churches or their furnishings or buildings. Possidius then reports in ch. 29 an epistle of St. Augustine, who, replying to the consultation of Honoratus, bishop of Thiabe, does not approve of bishops deserting their own flocks, inasmuch as they were then in the greatest need of the solace and counsel of their own pastors.
[3] and with St. Augustine, In his epistle St. Augustine in a few words supposes rather than sets forth the African calamity, as being most familiar to both. Nevertheless, when Honoratus excused flight, saying Migne Patrol. vol. XXXII col. 61.: If we must remain in the Churches, I do not see what benefit we shall be to ourselves or to the people; unless that before our eyes men fall, women are defiled, churches are burned, we ourselves fail in torments. This objection St. Augustine does not charge with exaggeration, but simply replies Ibid. l. c.: God is indeed able to hear the prayers of his household, and to avert these things which are feared: and yet not on that account, for the sake of these things which are uncertain, ought there to be a certain desertion of our duty, without which there is certain ruin for the people, not in the affairs of this life, but of that other, which is to be cared for incomparably more diligently and anxiously. But in that St. Augustine says the calamity was so far uncertain, that looked to Africa: for he openly admits that the Vandals had laid waste the Spains. Certain holy bishops, he says Ibid. l. c., fled from Spain, after their peoples had first partly slipped away by flight, had been partly slain, partly consumed by siege, partly dispersed by captivity. These things show abundantly how great was the devastation of the Spains, which reduced cities to a solitude, on account of which, as St. Augustine says, the bishops had not to remain Ibid. l. c.. Next, the epistle seems to have been written at a time when the Vandals had not yet set foot in Africa: for Possidius teaches Ibid. vol. XXIII col. 47. that when the said enemies, that is, the Vandals, were threatening, (St. Augustine) was consulted by letter by the holy man, our fellow bishop of the Church of Thiabe, Honoratus, as to whether at their approach bishops or clerics ought to withdraw from the Churches or not; and that he indicated to him in his reply what was to be feared from those subverters of Romania. The epistle was therefore written before the arrival of the Vandals, and so before it could be certainly determined how great ruins were threatening Africa. Let no one be surprised, then, that St. Augustine did not describe them.
[4] who could scarcely see the beginnings of the persecution. But if anyone should wish that Bishop Honoratus wrote at the time when the Vandals were occupying Africa, and should object that the epistle was given, as the Maurist editors note Ibid. vol. LXXIV col. 718., in the year 428 or 429, we reply that the Vandals first crossed the sea in the month of May of the year 429, on the testimony of Idatius, above all exception, as one who, while these things were happening, had already been three years in the episcopate. Gaiseric, he says Ibid. col. 776., king, from the shore of the province of Baetica with all the Vandals and their families in the month of May passed over to Mauritania and Africa, leaving the Spains. Now according to the chronology of Idatius this month of May belongs to the common year 429, as our Jean Garzon rightly observed, who prepared a new edition of Idatius Ibid. vol. LI col. 594.. Most place the beginning of the Vandal invasion of Africa in the year of Christ 427, deceived by the Chronicle of Prosper, who says that in the consulate of Hierius and Ardaburius, that is, in the year 427, the people of the Vandals crossed from Spain to Africa Ibid. vol. LI col. 594.. Further, Prosper in his Chronicle, says Garzon Ibid. vol. LXXIV col. 776., swarms with frequent chronological errors, and greater credit is to be given to Idatius, who, living among the Vandals in Spain, is to be held a witness not only contemporary, but an eyewitness. These things being so, when St. Augustine was writing to Bishop Honoratus, scarcely a year could have elapsed between the migration of the Vandal people and the writing of the epistle: wherefore it is given to be understood that St. Augustine could not have set forth the deeds of the Vandals with such severity, if indeed, as we said before, the epistle to Honoratus was written after the irruption, which is less likely. From what has been said so far it is clear that SS. Augustine and Possidius, while they say little of the persecutions of the Vandals, in no way detract anything from the credit due to Victor of Vita. It will be of use to note in passing that the learned blunder when they write that Victor finished the book on the Vandal Persecution in the year of Christ 487 [Migne Patrol. vol. LIV col. 181. Ceillier, Hist. des Aut. eccles. vol. XV p. 208 etc.]. The cause of the error lies in this, that they attach the arrival of the Vandals in Africa to the year 427: and hence, since Victor says Migne vol. LIV, col. 187. that it was the sixtieth year since that cruel and savage people of the Vandal race reached the borders of Africa, the Vandals having fallen upon it in the year of Christ 429, it follows that Victor wrote his book in the year of Christ 488 or 489.
[5] 2nd, the frequency of miracles; Next a second cause is alleged for withdrawing credit from Victor of Vita, namely the frequency of miracles. This is not the place to show that God, who created the natural order, can interrupt it at his will: which is shown by many powerful arguments by those who have written for the truth of the Christian Religion Cf., if you please, Le Canu, Dict. des Prophet. et des Miracles, vol. I, p. 38.. Further, if even one certain miracle be shown, there is no reason why the authority of any writer should be weakened on this head. And most happily Victor of Vita presents to us such a prodigy in bk. V, ch. 6 Migne, Patrol., vol. LVIII, col. 215.. When the citizens of Tipasa, which is a city of Mauretania Caesariensis, had fled to Spain for fear of the Arians, there were left a very few who had found no means of sailing. These the Arian bishop had tried by every art to draw to his side, but they, strong in the faith, assembled in one house, began publicly to celebrate the divine mysteries … When this became known to the king, directing a certain count in anger, he ordered that in the middle of the forum, the whole province being gathered there, he should cut off their tongues and right hands by the roots. And when this had been done, by the gift of the Holy Spirit they so spoke and speak as they spoke before. But if anyone wishes to be incredulous, let him go now to Constantinople, and there he will find one of them, the subdeacon Reparatus, speaking polished discourses without any stumbling. For which reason he is held exceedingly venerable in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and especially the queen venerates him with wonderful reverence.
[6] on which occasion there is an inquiry Behold a most certainly prodigious fact, which happened not in some one person, but in several (the Greeks in their Menaea at the 7th day of December have sixty ἑξακουστα: the punishment was publicly inflicted, in the middle of the forum, the whole province being gathered at Tipasa; then, dispersed through various provinces of the empire, sifted and considered on every side, they made the miracle openly attested. And we have as guarantor of the prodigy not only Victor of Vita, a man of the highest sincerity, but also other contemporary eyewitnesses. Yet since they have already often been brought forward publicly, we forbear to cite them [Cf. Zaccaria, Raccolta di Dissert., vol. XVII, p. 171; Terwecoren, Collect. de Précis Hist., year 1853, p. 37.]. We omit, then, Aeneas of Gaza, in his Theophrastus, who examined the miracle Migne, Patrol. græc., vol. LXXXV, col. 1002.; Marcellinus the count, in the Chronicle, who saw at Byzantium most religious men with tongues cut off and hands cut away speaking with an unimpaired voice Ibid. lat., vol. LI, col. 933.; Procopius, On the Vandal War, bk. I, ch. 8, who testifies that there survived at Byzantium in his age men whose tongue had been cut away down to the throat, ἀπ᾽ ἀυτης φαρυγγος, who spoke distinctly, ἀκραιφνει τῃ φωμῃ Vol. I, p. 345. Bonn edition.: Victor also of Tunnuna, bishop in Africa, who says that the royal city attests that the confessors with tongues cut off spoke perfectly to the end, and that their bodies lie at Constantinople Migne, Patrol., vol. LXVIII, col. 946.. I should judge that the law of Justinian too should be omitted, were it not that certain things occur there which need explanation.
[7] into the prodigy of Tipasa So law 1, Code, On the Office of the praetorian prefect of Africa (I, 27), runs thus: Many bounties indeed we have merited from God even before, and we confess his innumerable benefits toward us, for which we know that we have done nothing worthy. Yet above all this, which now almighty God through us for his praise and for his
name has deigned to show, exceeds all the wonderful works that have happened in the age, that Africa through us in so short a time should receive liberty, having before been held captive for ninety-five years by the Vandals, who had been enemies at once of souls and of bodies: for souls which could not bear the various torments and punishments they transferred to their perfidy by rebaptizing: and bodies, illustrious by free birth, they subjugated most harshly to the barbarian yoke: the very sacrosanct churches of God also they stained with their perfidies; and some of them they made stables. We have seen venerable men who, their tongues cut off by the roots, were pitiably speaking of their punishments. It will be worth while to set forth in what way some haters of miracles have tried to weaken these last words.
[8] and the objections of the Acts of Leipzig are refuted, In the Acta Eruditorum of Leipzig of the year 1714 there is reviewed the Decas of Historico-theological Dissertations of Johann Andreas Schmidt, who, a Lutheran, nevertheless bore the title of abbot of Marienthal. Among these is Dissertation VII, in which Schmidt defends the truth of the tongueless men, and adduces the testimony of contemporary writers. But, says the Scholar of Leipzig Acta Erudit., of the year 1714, p. 338., with the leave of the very celebrated man we add that there are most judicious men who refer all there is of this little tale to the class of fables. And indeed the testimonies brought forward on this matter seem capable of being shaken, if anyone should be willing to apply critical labour. Certainly, for that prize testimony of the emperor Justinian to appear to be irrelevant, a moderate attention of the mind is needed. For the emperor, using a sharp kind of speech, signifies that those deprived of the use of the tongue as it were spoke of their misery with pitiable voice. Whence he neither says that they spoke of the Trinity, but that they spoke of their punishments, nor that they spoke distinctly and clearly, but pitiably. Using a like figure of speech Cicero says in the Oration for Milo, ch. 20: “The matter itself speaks.” The same in another place, namely in the Divinatio against Verres: “Why they are unwilling, even if they are silent, they say sufficiently.” So also Ovid, Tristia II, 453: “He has often spoken with fingers and nod.” That is, in the same manner those mentioned by Justinian, by no miracle, but by a rhetorical figure. Thus far the Leipzig Critic, to whom we reply.
[9] as if the people of Tipasa had spoken by nods: In the first place the critic would have made his literary probity attested if he had named one or another of the most judicious men who refer the miracle to the class of fables: if indeed they have judiciously put forward their opinion, there is no reason for a name perhaps of great moment in judging the matter to be kept silent. Wherefore from the silence about the name of those who hold the opinion I vehemently suspect that the critic himself has veiled his own judgment under the mask of most judicious men, in case it should be rejected by the learned. Next, granting for a little while that the words of Justinian can bear such an interpretation as the critic suggests, it would then only hold if the words explaining the matter stood alone: but for those who consider the remaining witnesses, equally contemporary, equally eyewitnesses, it is certain that the words of Justinian are to be so understood that the tongueless men spoke with a clear voice. Evagrius Scholasticus, contemporary with Justinian, as one born in the year of Christ 536 Migne, Patr. gr., vol. LXXXVI, col. 2407., in the Ecclesiastical History, bk. IV, ch. 16 Ibid., col. 2727., says that their tongues were indeed cut out by the roots, yet that they had an articulate voice, and spoke distinctly, by a new and unusual miracle. Mention is made of these also in the Constitution of Justinian. Evagrius, then, the contemporary, did not interpret Justinian after the manner of the most judicious men: nor does he say that the Confessors as it were spoke, but truly spoke, that is, distinctly and had an articulate voice.
[10] as if the people of Tipasa had spoken by nods: Further, the examples they borrow from ancient writers truly have no bearing on the matter. They would certainly prove it if Justinian had said, “the mutilated limbs speak of the cruelty of the Vandals”: for then the matter itself or the mutilation would speak; then too even if they were silent the wounds would speak; then finally without any miracle they could have spoken with fingers and nod. But to one who knows the history, the words of Justinian can be nothing else than that the tongueless men miraculously spoke clearly and distinctly. From his own store too the Leipzig scholar draws forth that the confessors as it were spoke, because, that is, they were speaking pitiably: Tillemont indeed would have it to be read they were speaking wonderfully [Mém. pour serv. à l'hist. eccles. vol. XVI, p. 579. Cf. the Notice of Aeneas of Gaza. Migne Patrol. Gr. vol. LXXXV, col. 868.]. But leaving aside this reading, supported by no document, let it suffice to have observed that the words pitiable, pitiably do not signify a certain imperfection, but what is worthy of commiseration: So Titus Livy, Hist. bk. III, ch. 52, says: Their wives and children attend them, pitiably asking to whom they were leaving them in that city in which neither chastity nor liberty was sacred, that is, with a tearful voice composed to arouse commiseration. Nor do I know of any lexicographer, not even Du Cange in the Glossary of Middle and Lower Latinity, who interprets these words otherwise than in the sense of commiseration. And in the sense of commiseration aroused it is clearly understood in what way the Confessors pitiably spoke of their punishments. For nowhere have I read in the ancients that they spoke of the Most Holy Trinity as Schmidt would have it. Yet this is true, that the Catholic doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity was confirmed by the miracle: that is, having suffered a most bitter torment for the Catholic faith, the tongueless men promulgated the Catholic dogma by their testimony.
[11] or that Catholics alone, These things being so, we have a miracle whose truth cannot be denied without all historical credit being wholly destroyed, and the widest door being opened to scepticism. In no way, then, is the authority of Victor of Vita shaken on this head; and consequently, when he reports other miracles, credit is by no means to be withdrawn from him in these. But as to what is said, that the narrative of the persecution derives from Catholic presbyters alone, that is, from those who living among the Vandals had suffered most bitter torments Marcus. Hist. des Wand. p. 238., that too is less accurate. For those are rightly held to be witnesses of the greatest moment of all who personally beheld the miseries and were sharers in them: let such a witness be Victor, bishop of Vita. But besides him, there is not to be reckoned among the Catholic clergy Marcellinus, the Illyrian count Migne, Patrol. vol. LI, col. 914., who writes Ibid. col. 933.: Through all Africa a cruel persecution of Huneric, king of the Vandals, was brought in against our Catholics. For more than 333 bishops of the Orthodox having been exiled and driven away, and their churches closed, the people of the faithful, subjected to various punishments, completed a blessed contest. There follows the miracle of the tongueless men. Certainly Marcellinus the count in brief but sinewy words sketches the persecution which Bishop Victor describes in detail.
[12] and not pagans also, attested the miracle. The same must be said of Procopius, who, far from being a Catholic presbyter, seems to some not even to have been a Christian [Alemanni, Dissertation at the head of volume III; Procopius, vol. XX. Bonn edition; cf. Papencordt, Geschichte der Vand., p. 424.]. Nevertheless he depicts the Vandal persecution in such colours that Victor the historian could scarcely have exaggerated it. No one, he says, On the Vandal War, bk. I, ch. 8 Procop., vol. I, p. 344. Bonn edition., so cruelly and so unjustly harassed the Christians of Africa as Huneric. For when he compelled them to the Arian sect, whomsoever he found not sufficiently ready to comply he killed, tormented by fire and other punishments etc. The emperor Justinian was by no means a presbyter or cleric, who yet in the law cited above at number 7 affirms the matter. Those, then, are mistaken who pour back on Catholic presbyters alone all the atrocity of the Vandal persecution, since there are others, alien from all party spirit, who report the same things. Nor, finally, is credit to be withdrawn from anyone because he is a bishop, because he either personally witnessed the matter, or learned it from witnesses above all exception, or finally because he sets out the whole series of the matter more minutely. But doubtless at the time when these things were being written, in the year 1836, it was the custom that whatever was touched with a Catholic colour, or written by a faithful cleric, should be held of no account.
[13] The testimony of the miracle benefited both the Africans On this count too the miracles reported by Victor of Vita are attacked, that they brought no advantage or support to the Catholic religion: for from that time Christianity perished in those provinces of Africa for the greatest part Marcus, Hist. des Wand., p. 238.. But who has known the counsels of God, whose it is to work wonders. Certainly he works miracles for the benefit of men, without their being obliged on that account to profit the Africans. For, says St. Augustine, City of God, bk. XXII, ch. 9 Migne, Patrol., vol. XLI, col. 771.: To what, unless to this faith, do these miracles attest, in which it is preached that Christ rose in the flesh and ascended into heaven with the flesh? For the Martyrs themselves also were Martyrs of this faith, that is, witnesses of this faith, who, giving testimony to this faith, endured the most hostile and cruel world, and conquered it not by resisting but by dying. For that faith they died who can obtain these things from the Lord, for whose name they were slain. And the miracles reported by the bishop of Vita did profit to keep a great part of the Catholic Africans in the true faith and to animate them to undergo a most atrocious death: and then the very report of the miracles, carried over to other provinces, was a new argument to Christian peoples, that they might be bound the more tightly by the bond of the true faith. But that the Christian religion was thereafter abolished in Africa may be attributed to a double cause. For in the first place almost the whole Catholic clergy was forced into exile, as is sufficiently established from Victor the historian: and the clergy having been destroyed, the religion itself must perish among the people. Next, the African people, if credit is to be given to Salvian, was the most corrupt of all peoples. He indeed in bk. VII of the Government of God, ch. 13 Ibid., vol. LIII, col. 141.: Among almost all the Africans, he says, there is nothing of these things that pertains to both, that is, good as well as evil, because the whole is thoroughly evil. So completely has the sincerity of original nature been shut out, that vices have made in them in a certain manner another nature. It is no wonder, then, that such people turned wholly away from the Catholic religion, that is, in the Africans those words of Christ are fulfilled, Matthew XXI, 43: because the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof.
[14] and the other Catholics: Although, then, the miracles reported by Victor did not profit the inhabitants of Africa or the incomers, that is, the Vandals, yet they did not lack their usefulness. For these miracles above all confirmed in the faith not only the faithful who themselves also were experiencing the persecution, but those also who, dispersed through the whole empire, were witnesses of the glorious confession. But those natives or Vandals who remained in Africa freely shook off the yoke of religion and, the Arabs occupying all Africa about the end of the 7th century Morcelli. Afric. Christ., vol. I, p. 29 and vol. III, p. 393., fell away into the sect of Mahomet. And the Vandals, in war with the Romans
and the natives, being worn down, almost all vanished, leaving scarcely a trace of themselves. Yet Felix Papencordt in his History of the Vandals Geschichte der Vand. p. 322 and following. judges that remains of the race lie hidden among the Kabyles, since at the Aurasian Mountains (today Aurès) there is, on the testimony of Procopius, On the Vandal War, bk. II, ch. 13 Procop., vol. I, p. 466. Bonn edition., a certain race of men whose skin is not black, as with the Moors, but white, and whose hair is yellow. Which form of body agrees excellently with the Vandal race, in so far as it is Germanic. Yet Mr. Marcus does not admit this conjecture, because no Teutonic element exists today in the present language of that people Hist. des Wand. p. 401..
[15] 3rd, in reporting historical facts What in the third place seems to weaken the authority of Victor of Vita is this, that he sets forth historical facts less accurately or even erroneously Marcus. Hist. des Wand. pp. 320 and 322, note p. 65.. In the first place the narrative of Victor of Vita is convicted of falsity because it places the martyrdom of Laetus, bishop of Nepte, a few days before the assembly of Catholic bishops, appointed for the Kalends of February; for this Huneric, king of the Vandals, had ordained by a decree given on the 13th before the Kalends of June (the 20th of May Migne Patrol., vol. LVIII, col. 213.). And so Laetus must have undergone martyrdom in the month of January. But behold Victor of Tunnuna in his Chronicle teaches us that Bishop Laetus was crowned with martyrdom on the 8th before the Kalends of October, the 24th of September Ibid., vol. LXVIII, col. 946.. But nowhere does the bishop of Vita say that Laetus was burned a few days before the assembly: indeed to one weighing the text of the bishop of Vita it becomes manifest that the passion could have happened between the 20th of May and the 1st of February, and consequently that the bishop of Tunnuna and the bishop of Vita are in no way contrary. Behold the words of the bishop of Vita Ibid., vol. LVIII, col. 217.: There was now approaching that coming calumnious day of the Kalends of February, appointed by the same man: there came together the bishops not only of all Africa, but also of many islands, worn out with affliction and grief. There was silence for many days, until he might meanwhile separate (otherwise thereupon overcome) all the skilled and most learned men; to be done to death with calumnies brought against them. For one of that very choir of teachers, named Laetus, a vigorous and most learned man, after long squalors of prison he burned in a fire, thinking that by striking terror with such an example he would crush the rest.
[16] the diligence of Victor is shown, in the martyrdom of St. Laetus; From these words it by no means follows that St. Laetus underwent punishment a few days before the Kalends of February or in the course of January; rather the contrary is intimated, when it is said that there was silence for many days, in order that he might either separate from the rest or overcome all the skilled and most learned men. Then, in order to strike terror, Laetus was condemned to the flames; by which punishment, whether it was inflicted in the month of September or in January, Huneric could hope to crush the rest. But if anyone should wish, without any suitable argument, to elicit from the words of Victor of Vita that Laetus underwent martyrdom a few days before the Kalends of February, there would remain another question, namely to which Victor, of Vita or of Tunnuna, greater credit is to be given. In one or the other there would certainly be an error, to be attributed more probably, when there are no other reasons, to the one who was further removed from the times of which he writes. Now Victor of Vita in all likelihood paid the debt of the flesh about the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth; while the bishop of Tunnuna, as is established from the chronicle Ibid. vol. LXVIII, col. 962., prolonged his life even past the first year of Justin the Younger, that is, 565 of Christ: and so, until we are better taught, Victor of Vita's authority would stand.
[17] in the epistle of the Catholic bishops Another narrative also of the same Victor is called in suspicion of falsity, namely that of the conference of the Catholic bishops with the Arians, appointed for the day of the Kalends of February by King Huneric Marcus Hist. des Wand. p. 122, note p. 65.. To me indeed the narrative seems the most candid of all Migne Patrol. vol. LVIII, col. 218.: for when the Catholic bishops had seen Cyrila the Arian occupying a most proud throne in a lofty place, they said that a conference is welcome in which the proud elation of power does not dominate; and they asked who was to be the judge, who the examiner, that with the balance of justice he might either confirm things well put forward or refute things wrongly assumed. The king's notary replied that the patriarch Cyrila would be the judge. The Catholics asked by whose grant Cyrila had assumed this name for himself: but the Arians, stirring up an uproar, carried the controversy so far that all the sons of the Catholic Church who were present were beaten with a hundred blows of clubs each. And when the Catholic bishops had asked Cyrila to set forth what he had in mind, he replied: I do not know Latin: But the Catholics said: We know manifestly that you have always spoken Latin; you ought not now to be excused, especially since you have stirred up the fire of this matter. Yet Cyrila was unwilling to give a hearing: so they offered to King Huneric a profession of the Catholic faith, which they had written before the Kalends of February. Behold the summary of the affair on which the mark of falsity is branded. But if anyone weighs the frauds which the sect of the Arians has had attested of it, for example in the Life of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, in various councils both of Catholics and of Arians, there is no one who does not see that the same arts were employed by the Vandal Arians as by the heretics of other provinces.
[18] to King Huneric It seems suspicious also that the Catholic bishops first offered their booklet of faith, written before the Kalends of February, as Victor of Vita has it, bk. II, ch. 18 Migne, Patrol., vol. LVIII, col. 219., to King Huneric in the month of April, that is, on the 17th (otherwise the 12th) before the Kalends of May Ibid., col. 234. Marcus, Hist. des Wand., p. 322.. But the objection is of no weight: for even if no reason could be given why the booklet was not offered immediately after the dissolution of the assembly of Carthage, I do not see what would be lessened thereby of the authority of Victor the historian. Too often it is unknown why something was done sooner or later, without our calling the sincerity of the writer into controversy on that account. Yet if we accurately consider the text of Victor, he himself will afford us an easy reply. By his decree given on the 6th before the Kalends of March, that is, the 24th of February (the year 484 was bissextile), Huneric teaches us that to the Catholic bishops present at Carthage for the Kalends of February he gave also another delay of some days Migne, Patrol., vol. LVIII, col. 235.: so that the assembly ran on into a smaller or larger part of the month of February; yet to no advantage. For the Arians wished simply to bring the Catholics over to their side.
[19] the time of which is determined: Further, it is likely that the Catholic bishops directed the profession of faith to King Huneric in the course of the month of February, and so by the fault of copyists May crept into the text of Victor for March, and consequently that it should be read: The booklet ends, directed on the day 12th (otherwise 17th) before the Kalends of March instead of May Ibid., col. 234.. So judges Felix Papencordt in his History of the Vandals, bk. II, ch. 2 Geschichte der Vand., p. 115. Cf. Morcelli, Afric. Christ., vol. III, p. 206.: and indeed rightly, since it shines forth from Victor himself that the offering of the profession of faith was the cause of Huneric's promulgating his edict. When, he says Migne, Patrol., vol. LVIII, col. 233., our booklet was read, the madmen could by no means endure with their blind eyes the light of truth offered … And immediately, lying, they suggest to the king … who … hastened to do what he wished. And having a decree already written … in one day he closed all the churches of Africa etc. So the profession of faith was offered on the 13th or 18th day of the current month of February, according as one reads the 17th or 12th before the Kalends. And hence the argument falls to the ground by which tardiness in offering their booklet to King Huneric is objected against the Catholic bishops.
[20] [4th, the rigour of ecclesiastical discipline in no way hinders the sincerity of the writer.] I shall not delay in refuting the fourth objection, by which the authority of Victor is assailed, namely that the rigour of ecclesiastical discipline was the greatest obstacle to winning minds Marcus, Hist. des Wand., p. 342.. For such is the character of the Catholic Church that from those things which pertain to the doctrine of faith she never swerves even a nail's breadth. For she has a deposit, which may not be violated, that is, says Vincent of Lérins in the First Commonitory, ch. 22 Migne, Patrol., vol. L, col. 667., what has been entrusted to you, not what has been found by you; what you have received, not what you have thought out; a matter not of wit, but of doctrine, not of private usurpation, but of public tradition; a matter brought to you, not brought forth by you; in which you must be not the author, but the guardian; not the founder, but the follower; not leading but following. Such certainly has been at all times to this day the method of acting of the Catholic Church, which in the doctrine of faith has never been willing to undergo a transaction of any sort. When on the contrary the matter was of discipline, which grows up from human laws, nothing has been kinder than mother Church. There exists an excellent, domestic, contemporary monument of this kindness, when, as St. Augustine testifies in the book on the Proceedings with Emeritus, number 6 Ibid., vol. XLIII, col. 702., the bishops of the African Church, that the Schism of the Donatists might be abolished, showed themselves ready to lay down the episcopate for the unity of Christ.
§ II. The time of the Saint in the episcopate of Carthage; his exile from Africa; his residence at Naples; his death, cult and burial.
St. Quodvultdeus, Let what has been said so far be enough to show that the authority of St. Victor of Vita is in no way shaken by the animadversions of certain persons, who have not compared his writings either with historical monuments or with contemporary writers. Now let us come to St. Quodvultdeus. The Roman Martyrology adorns the Saint with these words: On the same day (namely the 26th of October) of St. Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage, who together with his clergy was placed by the Arian king Genseric in broken ships without oars and sails, and beyond hope reached Naples, and being placed there in exile, died a confessor. Ado on the 28th day of November, having announced the cruel passion of the holy bishops Papinius and Mansuetus in the time of the Vandal persecution, adds: at which time also other holy bishops, namely Quodvultdeus of Carthage, Valerian, Urban, Crescens, and the one called Habetdeum, and Eustachius, Crescentian and Cresconius and Felix and Hortulanus and Florentian, for the same truth of preaching, condemned to most grievous exile, completed the course of their life in the confession of piety. Usuard wholly omits Quodvultdeus; but some of his Auctaria record our Saint. That of Centula, of Greven and of Molanus have the same, if you look to the substance, as Ado.
[22] [the day of whose burial is to be referred to the 11th before the Kalends of March,] From these words of Ado, writing that various African bishops were renowned for confession at the same time, it is sufficiently clear that the birthday was by no means indicated. But in the Calendar of Carthage, edited by Mabillon Vet. Analect. p. 167., there is read:
6th before the Ides of January, the burial of Quodvultdeus, bishop; nor is there any doubt to the learned man that the matter here concerns our prelate of Carthage, who is said to have died on the 8th day of January. And indeed I should hold the birthday to be the 8th of January as altogether certain on the authority of the Calendar of Carthage, as being domestic, if St. Quodvultdeus had died in his own see. But as an exile, namely at Naples, the holy prelate closed his day: and the Neapolitan Calendars refer his death to the 19th day of February or the 11th before the Kalends of March. Certainly the Old Marble Calendar of the Church of Naples, on which Alessio Mazzocchi has learnedly commented, and which was put together in the ninth century, already advanced beyond the middle Mazzocchi, In Vetus marmoreum Kalendar. p. XV and following., places at the 11th before the Kalends of March: DP Quodvultdei Epi Burial of Quodvultdeus, bishop Ibid. p. 63. Cf. Mai. Scriptt. Vett. Nov. Collect., vol. V, p. 60.. Gratitude must be had, says the said Mazzocchi Ibid., l. c., to this marble, by whose aid the true day of the burial of St. Quodvultdeus, in agreement with other Old Neapolitan Calendars, is held as ascertained. In agreement, I say, with the old Calendars: for in later ones this feast is either anticipated by one day (as in certain parchments of Otterio, excerpted by Tutini, in which it is marked on the day before) or postponed by one day (as is read in the manuscript Calendar of the Neapolitan Ritual among the Schedae of Tutini), where on this day indeed is noted in red letter: “Barbatus, bishop,” but on the twentieth is thus written “Quodvultdeus, bishop.” From which you see that the feast of Barbatus has ejected Quodvultdeus from his place in the more recent Calendars.
[23] exiled from Africa, he reaches Naples; The few things we have of the deeds of St. Quodvultdeus Victor of Vita reports, bk. I, chs. 4 and 6, in these words Migne. Patrol., vol. LVIII col. 186.: Gaiseric held and entered the very great city of Carthage itself, and reduced that ancient free-born and noble liberty to servitude. For he also took captive no small multitude of the senators of the city. And thence he set forth a decree, that each should bring whatever of gold, silver, gems and precious garments he might have; and thus in a short time by such industry the rapacious man carried off ancestral and paternal wealth … Moreover he by no means hesitated to order the Vandals to drive out bishops and noble laymen from their churches and seats wholly naked. And if, the choice having been offered, they delayed to go out, they would remain slaves in perpetuity. Which also was done in the case of many: for we know that many bishops and laymen, illustrious and honoured men, are slaves of the Vandals. Then indeed he ordered the bishop of the said city, that is, of Carthage, manifest to God and men, named Quodvultdeus, and a very great crowd of clerics, to be placed on broken ships and driven out naked and despoiled. Whom God in the mercy of his goodness deigned to bring by a prosperous voyage to the city of Naples in Campania.
[24] the see of Carthage After these things, which are certain, it remains for us to indulge in conjectures; inquiring first at what time St. Quodvultdeus was chosen bishop and how long he held the helm of the church, and then what cult he obtained among the Neapolitans, to whom he had fled for refuge. The first question, on the time of the episcopate, is most intricate. The succession of the bishops of Carthage of that age is excellently known. Aurelius, the friend of St. Augustine, was succeeded by Capreolus, who was followed by our Quodvultdeus, who himself obtained as successor Bishop Deogratias. But as certain as the series of these bishops is, so uncertain is how long each occupied the chair of Carthage. Concerning Aurelius the learned dispute, some determining the year of his death as the common year 429 [Pagi. Crit. Baron. at the year 430, § XXVI. Morcelli. Afric. Christ., vol. III, p. 129.], others as the year 426 Schelstrate, Eccles. Afric. p. 274.. But these things we omit, as we are going to speak of them more accurately at the foot of this Commentary, where we shall give the Acts of St. Aurelius, omitted by our predecessors at the 20th day of July Acta SS., vol. V of July, p. 3., although the very ancient Calendar of Carthage edited by Mabillon celebrates his memory Vet. Analect. p. 164.. That Capreolus occupied the see of Carthage already in the year 431 is established from his epistle directed to the Fathers of Ephesus, in which he excuses his absence on account of the state of all Africa disturbed by the Vandals Labbe, vol. III, Conc. col. 529..
[25] he occupies after Capreolus, before the year 439: It is uncertain, then, when Capreolus began his pontificate, and no less obscure when he ended it, leaving the see vacant to St. Quodvultdeus. Morcelli records the death of Capreolus, and so the election of St. Quodvultdeus, under the year 437, without alleging any guarantee of his chronology. This one thing is certain, that when Genseric on the 14th before the Kalends of November 439 seized Carthage by a pretence of peace Migne, Patrol., vol. LI, col. 598., St. Quodvultdeus was already occupying the see: from which he was driven either in this very year or in the following, for, says the bishop of Vita Ibid., vol. LVIII, col. 186., he by no means hesitated to order the persecution of the bishops. Baronius in his Index judges that our holy prelate is the same as Quodvultdeus, deacon of the Church of Carthage. That deacon, namely, was of such authority that he was able to persuade St. Augustine to the writing of the book on Heresies, which he also addressed to Quodvultdeus Ibid., vol. XLI, col. 21., and alluding to his name he says: Since I confess that no one has pressed me with entreaty as you have; in that very so troublesome urgency of yours I paid attention also to your name, and said: I will undertake it, and do what God wills. It would not be surprising, then, that a deacon of great authority, as being one to whom many had recourse for the sake of obtaining a book, as Quodvultdeus himself testifies in epistle CCXXI among the Augustinian ones Ibid., vol. XXXI, col. 999, was substituted as successor when Capreolus had died: very frequently, especially in that age, the deacons of Churches succeeded their bishops.
[26] and dwelling at Naples, he pursues a solitary life, In the same year in which he was exiled, St. Quodvultdeus reached Naples in Campania, enjoying, namely, says the bishop of Vita Ibid., vol. LVIII, col. 187., a prosperous voyage. So our Saint was one, as the Roman Martyrology has it at the 1st day of September, of those priests who in the persecution of the Vandals were variously afflicted for the Catholic faith and, placed on an old ship, reached the shores of Campania from Africa, and, dispersed in those places and set over various Churches, wonderfully propagated the Christian religion. What further St. Quodvultdeus did at Naples is wholly unknown to us. This is certain, that the Saint passed his days at Naples, obtained burial there, and is by no means to be reckoned among the bishops of Naples, whose Catalogue, composed in the ninth century, we have. Now in it there occur Timasius and Felix, who occupied the see for the whole time that St. Quodvultdeus could have dwelt at Naples Mazzocchi. De SS. Neapolit. cultu. p. 24.. The Saint seems to have spent his remaining days in cultivating solitude in the monastery built by St. Gaudiosus, likewise an African bishop.
[27] until the middle of the fifth century: How long St. Quodvultdeus lived there is hidden from us. Certainly in the fifty-fourth year of the fifth century Deogratias was ordained bishop of Carthage. For at the entreaty, says the bishop of Vita Migne Patrol. vol. LVIII, col. 191., of Valentinian Augustus, a bishop was ordained for the Church of Carthage after a long silence of desolation, by name Deogratias. Further, that this ordination is to be referred to the year of Christ 454 is established from the Roman expedition of Genseric, who, that bishop having been appointed … in the fifteenth year of his reign took Rome Ibid. l. c., or, as is agreed among all, in the year of Christ 455. Finally Prosper Tiro in his Chronicle says Biblioth. Max. Patt. Lugd. vol. VIII p. 200.: In the consulate of Aetius and Studius (that is, in the year 454) Deogratias is ordained bishop at Carthage in the basilica of Faustus, on Sunday the 8th before the Kalends of November. But by a fault of the copyist one stroke is lacking in the number of the Kalends: for in the year of Christ 455, marked with Dominical letter C, Sunday fell on the 9th before the Kalends of November, that is, the 24th of October. From these things it is in all likelihood deduced that St. Quodvultdeus died about the middle of the fifth century, which time, since we cannot obtain one more certain and closer, we have assigned at the head of this commentary. Stefano Morcelli by divination says that the Saint's year of death was 444 Afric. Christ. vol. III, p. 152.: The Church of Carthage, he says, was perhaps now mourning her Quodvultdeus as dead, whom six years before (rather five) she had wept as snatched away. But he brings no argument for his divination.
[28] after his death the cult That the cult of St. Quodvultdeus among the Neapolitans was very ancient is shown by the marble Calendar which we brought forward above at number 22: that it persevered in the Church is most likely from other Calendars cited there. Certainly Decio Carafa, Cardinal and archbishop of Naples, when in the year 1619 he celebrated a diocesan Synod, decreed in it Mazzocchi. De cultu SS. Neap. p. 51. that the former cult due to the Saints, for many years interrupted through the injury of the times, should be rendered with fitting devotion; for he himself says Ibid. l. c. that some Saints, whose whole bodies or notable parts of bodies are at Naples, are honoured with no worship of sacred office, as is fitting and was customarily done of old, and he compiled a new calendar, which all who are bound to the recitation of the divine office were to follow. And indeed that our St. Quodvultdeus was among those whose names had been deleted through the injury of the times is likely to us, because in the Neapolitan Proper, under the title: Office of Saints Januarius and the other patrons, published in the year 1425, there is no mention of our holy prelate. When, therefore, Archbishop Decio revised his calendar, he wrote at the 26th day of October Ibid. p. 67.: Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage. Semidouble. All from the common of a Confessor Bishop. Mass from the common without Credo.
[29] he obtains in the Church of Naples, But the Decian Calendar was restricted within fixed limits by his successor Cardinal Francesco Buoncompagni in the year 1628, as is clear from his decree Ibid. p. 72., in which, because many by importunate prayers had obtained that the Offices of various Saints be recited outside the aforesaid (Decian) synod, beyond the form of the Roman Breviary and of the bull of Pius V of happy memory, whence the recitation of the divine office of the Sunday and the continuation of the ferial psalter were many times interrupted, he therefore reduced all the Offices added to the ancient Neapolitan Calendar from the year 1619 onward to the ancient and former form. Whether the festivity of our Saint was then expunged from the Calendar of Cardinal Buoncompagni, I should not dare to assert, since the calendars of the following years are lacking to me. Yet in the liturgical directories of the present century I find no trace of a universal cult through the diocese of Naples. But the said Mazzocchi observes Ibid. p. 73. that the feasts which Buoncompagni took away, prescribed for the whole diocese, were not rooted out, but only to those churches
were they restricted in which their Relics were preserved. And so we judge that the cult of St. Quodvultdeus persevered in the church where his body was laid up.
[30] and his body was laid in the monastery of St. Gaudiosus. For the body of the Saint was preserved in the church of St. Gaudiosus at Naples, having first been buried in the suburbs: the translation was celebrated by Stephen II, bishop of Naples, as Mazzocchi reports from the monuments of the church of St. Gaudiosus De cultu SS. Neapol. p. 67.. Now Stephen was the bishop who sat from the year 764 to 798, a lover, says Ughelli Ital. sacr. vol. VI, col. 62 and following., of holy Relics. This monastery of St. Gaudiosus is treated by Francesco de Magistris in the book published in 1678 under the title On the State of the City of Naples Page 329.. The monastery over which St. Agnellus once presided, whose Acts will be set forth at the 14th day of December, in the course of time passed to nuns of the Order of St. Benedict, who were there to the number of eighty with eight priests serving the church. We shall have to treat of this monastery at the 28th day of October, when we shall give a notice of St. Gaudiosus and of the monastery founded by him. Today it has been turned into a Surgical-Medical College.