Pamphilus

ON ST. PAMPHILUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES.

Perhaps in the fourth or fifth century.

Pamphilus, bishop and confessor in the kingdom of Naples (S.)

BY J. S.

From the Hieronymian Martyrologies we have today claimed for the city of Capua St. Sinotus the martyr, whom we also showed to be probably numbered among the bishops of that city. St. Pamphilus added to the Roman Martyrology as bishop of Capua, Another Saint as bishop of the same city Baronius inserted in the Roman Martyrology at this day, writing thus: At Capua, of St. Pamphilus the bishop. He adds in his annotations: Of him the monuments of that church, of whose Saints we have received a little index sent to Rome. Hence our Predecessors in the Prætermissi at the XI day of May noted these things about Pamphilus the bishop, who is had on that day in the Vatican codex 5949: Of what church he was is not added. But since the said manuscript was of the church of Benevento, perhaps he might be the bishop of Capua reported on VII September. The conjecture is uncertain: for there may equally be designated Pamphilus, bishop of Sulmona and Corfinium in the Abruzzi, of whom there was treatment among us at the XXVIII of April. Further, what monuments of the church of Capua Baronius saw I cannot certainly know. But I suspect that they were not such that St. Pamphilus's episcopate at Capua could be clearly proved from them. For the things which Michael Monachus brought forward in the Sanctuarium Capuanum do not make the Capuan episcopate of Pamphilus certain: nor does the most Eminent Bellarmine, when as prelate of Capua himself he enumerated the bishops of that church, seem to have found suitable monuments by which he might number St. Pamphilus among the bishops of his own church. I gather this from Monachus: for he in the Sanctuarium, page 213 and following, enumerates the bishops of Capua, and everywhere praises Bellarmine's catalogue, excepting very few, among whom is Pamphilus.

[2] Yet what Baronius followed I somewhat suspect I perceive:

on the same day he is announced as bishop in two Calendars of Capua, and his opinion I judge indeed not sufficiently certain, yet not improbable. Five Calendars of Capua Monachus inserted into his Sanctuarium. Of these the second has it thus at this day: Of St. Pamphilus, bishop and confessor. The fifth, which is also prefixed to the Breviary of Capua printed in the year 1489, has, after St. Regina virgin and martyr, concerning Pamphilus: And of Pamphilus, bishop and confessor. These Calendars, I suppose, Baronius followed; and believed from them that St. Pamphilus was bishop of Capua, both because he is announced as bishop in the Calendars of that city, and because no other city attributed to itself any bishop Pamphilus on that day. This reason makes the Capuan episcopate of St. Pamphilus probable; but not altogether certain: for Monachus confesses that Pamphilus lacks ecclesiastical cult at Capua, and on page 73 says that his name is noted in the Calendars as the name of some foreign Saint, and not as of a Saint who was specially venerated at Capua. This is most true of the fifth Calendar, in which he is placed only in the second place after a Saint of Gaul. But in the second Calendar he alone is announced on this day, and therefore that one favors Baronius's opinion the more.

[3] To the same opinion some weight is added by the traces of an ancient cult of St. Pamphilus among the people of Capua which the praised Monachus subjoins. and various traces of his ancient cult are found in the diocese of Capua: But I, he says, have only this to add; namely, that in the territory of Cales near Monte Massico there was a church of the name of St. Pamphilus, a cell of Monte Cassino, and assigned by the men of Cassino to the monastery of the nuns of St. John as it were from the time of its foundation. I know moreover the name Pamphilus to be in use among the people of Capua, which we ought most piously to judge to have been derived from devotion to the Saint. At length I read in a certain instrument of the Treasury which was written in the year MCCLXXXIV; I read, I say: "Which land, and holding, and house, and land and empty holding are within this city of Capua in the parochial church of St. Pamphilus, and it likewise," etc. And in a tax-roll of tithes of the year MCCCLXXV in the time of archbishop Stephen there is read: "The rectory church of St. Pamphinus at two tarins". Upon these words he observes that the name Pamphinus is corruptly written for Pamphilus: and so he goes on: And in the Martyrology of the nuns of St. Mary I saw and read the name of St. Pamphilus added in the margin in red characters. Because the ancient parochial churches within this city were translated hither from old Capua, I myself do not doubt that St. Pamphilus lived while that old city was standing: nor shall I affirm that he was bishop of any other city than Capua.* Thus far Monachus.

[4] probable therefore is the Capuan episcopate of St. Pamphilus; But now, if we weigh the arguments of ancient cult adduced by him, it will seem very probable that St. Pamphilus is owed to Capua; whose episcopate from the praised Calendars becomes the more likely, the more certainly it is established that in the catalogue of the prelates of Capua there are many gaps, not only in the second and third century, but also in the fourth and fifth, although some have been inserted into the catalogue who do not seem to have been prelates of Capua. Since therefore the memory of many prelates of Capua has dropped out, it is easy to suspect that Pamphilus is among these, for whose episcopate and ancient cult among the people of Capua probable arguments have already been adduced. Wherefore I agree with Monachus that Pamphilus was probably bishop of ancient Capua. And that his memory, as also that of many other Saints, dropped out at Capua, and that the cult was gradually intermitted, could have its cause in the destruction itself of the ancient city, and in the frequent change of the lords of that city. What nevertheless prevents me from attributing St. Pamphilus the bishop certainly to the people of Capua is the lack of certain arguments.

[5] [although Nicolino also ascribes a holy Pamphilus on the same day to the people of Chieti.] But this lack renders me the more doubtful, because Jerome Nicolino in the History of the city of Chieti in the Abruzzi, written in Italian, page 104, reckons on the same day a certain holy Pamphilus a bishop among the bishops of Chieti, adducing for his opinion some Calendar of Chieti, from which he enumerates eight bishops of uncertain date, whom he conjectures to have presided over the church of Chieti before the year 500. Ughelli indeed in tome 6 of Italia sacra* was unwilling to insert into the catalogue of the prelates of Chieti the bishops lately adduced by Nicolino, although he makes mention of them on page 671 of the reprinted Work. Nor do I myself think that so much authority is to be attributed to that Calendar that I should believe all the bishops produced from it must be held for men of Chieti, especially since the very words of the Calendar have not been recited, and among the bishops enumerated by Nicolino there are found three or four who are of the same name as holy bishops venerated elsewhere on the same day. For hence arises a strong suspicion that not all whom Nicolino enumerated are bishops of Chieti. Nevertheless even that improbable assertion instils a suspicion, because the arguments of the people of Capua are not certain either. Further, I can scarcely doubt that it is the same Pamphilus whom Nicolino attributes to the people of Chieti, but Monachus with Baronius to those of Capua. Wherefore, although I readily admit that the arguments of the people of Capua are more probable than those of Chieti, yet since the matter seems in some degree doubtful, I have judged that St. Pamphilus the bishop should be ascribed broadly in the title to the kingdom of Naples, to which both cities belong.

* hither

* Chieti