Caius

ON ST. CAIUS, BISHOP OF MILAN AND CONFESSOR,

IN INSUBRIA.

Probably in the year LXXXV.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On his cultus, deeds, the time of his episcopate, the day and the manner of his death.

Caius, bishop of Milan, Conf., in Insubria. (S.)

BY C. S.

On the XXV day of this month of September we published St. Anathalon, the first bishop of the most celebrated church of Milan; He is announced today in the Roman Martyrology today his next successor in the episcopate, St. Caius, comes to be commemorated. The Most Eminent Baronius announces him thus in the Roman Martyrology: At Milan, of St. Caius the bishop, disciple of blessed Barnabas the apostle, who, having suffered many things in the persecution of Nero, rested in peace. The same is read in the same Martyrology, published by the Most Holy Lord

Our Benedict XIV, Supreme Pontiff, lately deceased, enlarged and corrected in a new edition. Peter Galesinius had gone before Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, in which at the same day he exhibited an elogium of him, which, because it is somewhat longer, and agrees almost in the very words with the proper Lesson which I shall recite below from the Ambrosian Breviary, I shall here pass over. Peter Paul Bosca adopted Baronius's words in the Milanese Martyrology, yet in such a way that at the beginning he inserted: Who baptized SS. Gervasius and Protasius. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology followed, after his manner, today's Roman.

[2] Philip Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy recites on the same day an elogium of him drawn up, as he says in his Annotations, from the Breviary and monuments of Milan. and in some others; in the Spanish one of Tamayo also, Constantine Ghini has the like in his Natales of the holy Canons, among whom he liberally numbers him. Further, for all these the same Life of St. Caius, or History of the first bishops of Milan, or things drawn from it, went before as their light. John Tamayo also had like things; but since he had read in these nothing of St. Caius's deeds before his episcopate, adding the first part of his Life from his own Spanish writings, he makes him a Spaniard by origin and the son of that centurion of Capharnaum whose faith Christ the Lord praised in Matthew chapter 8, and whom Tamayo calls Cornelius; and makes him also that same centurion who in the same Gospel, chapter 27, is said to have acknowledged the Divinity of Christ dead upon the Cross in these words: Indeed this was the Son of God. I subjoin the words in which Tamayo announces him.

[3] At Milan, he says, in Insubria, of St. Caius Oppius, a Spaniard by origin, but with fables. bishop of that city, who, having first followed the soldier's calling and been thereupon adorned with the title of centurion, was the first, seeing at the Lord's death the crash of rocks dashing themselves one against another, and, an eclipse coming on beyond the bounds of nature, the failing of the sun and moon, to confess that Christ was the true Son of God. At length, having put off the sword-belt and joined himself to the Christians, and being invested with the mitre of the city of Milan, he flew thither to the powers above with the title of confessor. Then in his Annotations he exhibits his Acts, compiled, as I have noted, from Spanish and Italian writers, and indeed (if we believe him) entire and genuine, so that nothing more may be desired hereafter. It is not worth while to refute his fables; but let it suffice to have said that they are drawn from the spurious and most fabulous Chronicle of Flavius Dexter and from the Poems of Halus, bran of the same sort. For the rest, Placidus Puccinelli, deceived by the same pseudo-Chronicle, adopted these same fictions in the Zodiac of the Milanese church; but Peter Paul Bosca in his annotations on the Martyrology more rightly rejected them.

[4] At Milan he was formerly honoured on the 26th, but now on the 27th of September Of the ancient cultus of St. Caius among the Milanese I have found nothing in the more ancient monuments. The Antiphonary of all the festivities of the year's circuit of the church of Milan, in Mabillon tom. 1 of the Museum Italicum, written in his judgment in the XIIth century, makes no mention of St. Caius; yet mention is made in the Milanese Kalendar II, which Dominic Georgi reviewed, from an Ambrosian Breviary drawn up, as he says, at the beginning of the year 1465, in the edition of the old Roman and Adonian Martyrology made after Rosweyde. In this, but at the day XXVI of September, there is read in the last place thus: And of saint Gaius, bp. and conf. Bosca in his annotations on the Martyrology writes that his memory is celebrated on the same day in the Ambrosian Missal published in print in the year 1482; but in another notable Missal, likewise Ambrosian, printed at Milan in the year 1522, which we have in our Museum, on the XXVII day of the same month is read: Of saint Gaius archbishop of Milan; yet no proper Mass is assigned to him. Likewise on the same XXVII day he had an Office from the Common of a confessor bishop in the Ambrosian Breviary printed at Venice in the year 1539, which I have in my hands.

[5] with a Mass and Office After these things, in the year 1582, St. Charles Borromeo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and archbishop of Milan, published a new Breviary of the Ambrosian rite, and Federico Borromeo, likewise Cardinal and archbishop of the same see, ordered it, when revised, to be reprinted in the year 1625, a copy of which, published in a repeated impression in the year 1635, is extant in our Museum. In this the Office of St. Caius from the Common of a bishop confessor with a solemn rite, with a third proper Lesson after the Ambrosian custom, is prescribed at the XXVII day of the said month. And this Lesson has thus: Caius, a Roman citizen, disciple of Barnabas, succeeding Anathalon in the episcopate of Milan, suffered many things for the cause of the faith, together with Clateus bishop of Brescia, by command of the prefect Anolinus. He instructed in the doctrine of the faith and baptized Gervasius and Protasius, citizens of Milan, brothers german, whose martyrdom was afterwards famous. And burning with desire of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, he undertook a journey to Rome: and while he was on the way, by a certain divine presentiment of the spirit he saw that they had undergone martyrdom by command of Nero.

[6] And when he came to Rome, he learned that what he had foreseen had in fact been done; in the Ambrosian and Roman rite. but he was for some time with blessed Clement and the rest of the disciples of the Apostles, with whom he shared the preaching of the Gospel. But returning to Milan, when in that onset of the Neronian persecution he had done many things bravely and divinely for the faith and for the church committed to him, at last, famous for the praise of sanctity, he rested in the Lord. These things are taken from the Life to be examined below. Further, because it is not granted to all to use the Ambrosian Liturgy, Cardinal Cæsar Monti, successor of Federico Borromeo in the archbishopric, published in the year 1642 a Proper of the Saints for the use of those who in his archdiocese follow the Roman rites, and in it prescribed the Office of St. Caius under a double rite, the Lesson, which in the Ambrosian is single, being drawn out into two, namely the fourth and the fifth, while the rest are taken from the Common of a confessor pontiff. Lastly, in the Breviary of the nuns of the Order of the Humiliati (concerning which see what was said at the XXV day of this month in St. Anathalon, num. 7) the Saint is honoured on this same XXVII day with a double Office with three proper Lessons of the second Nocturn, which, however, are the same as the single one of the Ambrosian Breviary, save that at the end they add: And his body is preserved and honoured at the high altar of the basilica of the saints Nabor and Felix.

[7] As regards the relics of the same Saint, the author of the Life to be published relates His body in the church of St. Francis at Milan that his sacred body was buried in the garden, or in the cemetery, which in his lifetime the Christians had made in the garden of a certain Philip whom he had himself brought to the faith of Christ; whence the Milanese agree that it was brought into the church of SS. Nabor and Felix, which has long since belonged to the Franciscan Fathers and is called saint Francis's; but of the time nothing is established. For as to what Puccinelli says in the Zodiac of the Milanese church, part 1, page 85, that this was done five hundred years after the first burial, when it was found incorrupt, I do not know on what authority it rests; unless perhaps it is to be read in the instrument of the translation in the chancery of St. Francis, which he then cites in the margin, and in which he asserts that it is read: The Translation of St. Caius, XIII April, double. That an annual memory of that event is wont to be kept on the same day by the said Fathers of the Order of St. Francis, Charles bishop of Novara, or John Francis of the Basilica of Peter, writes in book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Milan, on St. Caius, in these words: The Brethren dwelling at that basilica solemnly celebrate his translation on the XIII of April; as likewise the feast on the XXVII of September, as does also the church of Milan.

[8] Concerning these same relics of his, recognized by St. Charles Borromeo, the said bishop of Novara had premised in the same place: he is honoured, where his body was recognized by St. Charles. Certainly his relics are still honoured in the basilica of the Franciscans in the chapel of St. Bonaventure, and Charles the archbishop recognized them, however small they are, on the XIV day of September MDLXXI. Occasion for the recognition was given by the translation of the relics of St. Barnabas and of SS. Nabor and Felix the martyrs, and of St. Maternus bishop of Milan, which in that year and on that day the most praiseworthy St. Charles Borromeo solemnly performed. On this Papebroch may be consulted in St. Barnabas, tom. 2 of June, page 454 and the following, where it is related from Puccinelli, and, so far as pertains to our argument, the following may be read: On Wednesday, the XII of the month (September of the year 1571) the same men (whom St. Charles had deputed for that business) having returned to the aforesaid church of Francis, in the chapel of St. Bonaventure, now called of the Conception, adjoining the high altar towards the public road, recognized the bodies of SS. Felix and Fortunatus the martyrs, and of St. Gaius the archbishop. Of the same translation of the head of St. Barnabas and of the bodies of SS. Nabor and Felix, made by St. Charles, the Milanese Martyrology treats at the said XIV day of September, but makes no mention of St. Caius's body, recognized on that occasion.

[9] [The Acts to be published. It is uncertain whether he was the disciple of St. Barnabas:] The deeds of the same holy Bishop were written by the anonymous author of the little Work On the Site of the city of Milan, or On the Lives of its first prelates, whom Papebroch judged to have flourished about the VIth century, but whom Ludovico Muratori, in tom. 1, part 2 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, in the Preface to the same Work, threw back only to the IXth or Xth century. See what we have said at the XXV day of this month in the preliminary Commentary on St. Anathalon, §1, whose Life we there published from a Milanese Manuscript, collated with Muratori's edition. From the same codex marked P. 246 we have the Acts of St. Caius, written by the said anonymous author and likewise published by Muratori in the place cited, with some discrepancy of words, which, where it shall seem worth while, we shall note. That anonymous writer, so many centuries later than St. Caius, cannot procure himself authority from antiquity, nor do we know whether, and what, ancient monuments he followed, although it is most likely that at least some went before him as his light. However it be, we shall give them from our Manuscript, after we have somewhat examined the chief heads of the matter after our manner. Whether St. Caius, whom he makes a Roman by country, was together with St. Anathalon a disciple of St. Barnabas depends on the preaching of that Apostle in Italy, on which consult the preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Anathalon, §2.

[10] he succeeded St. Anathalon in the episcopate, That he next succeeded St. Anathalon in the episcopate of Milan is related, along with our anonymous author, by all the Catalogues of the bishops of that see also, in the more ancient of which St. Anathalon is reckoned in the first place of all and St. Caius in the second; but in the more recent St. Barnabas the apostle is set before them both; which last we have said in the place already cited is indeed not sufficiently approved by us. In the ancient Catalogue which Papebroch illustrated before tom. VII of May, it is read of him thus: S. Gaius sat XXI years; he was deposed on the VI Kalends of October; but Papebroch in the same place, page LXXXIII, added that for XXI years is to be substituted XXII years; for so in the transcript

it was written in his own Milanese copy, from which the typesetter strayed. On the time of his see the Catalogue published by Mabillon in tom. 1 of the Museum Italicum, part 2, agrees, whether it was transcribed from the same codex from which Papebroch's was, as Papebroch suspected, or from another. Now this has thus: Gagius sat XXII years; he was deposited on the VI Kal. of Oct. at the Councils of the Saints.

[11] The other Catalogue also agrees, which Muratori published in tom. 1 of the Italian Affairs, part 2, page 228, where it is read: Saint Gayus sat XXII years. Deposited on the VI Kal. of October at saint Nabor's. To these I add another Catalogue also, printed by the same Muratori in tom. 4 of the said Work, page 141, in which it is likewise said: Caius the bishop sat XXII years, he died on the sixth Kal. of October, buried at the Councils of the Saints. The anonymous author of the Life to be published added, besides the years of the see, some other chronological notes. According to our division, at num. 15 he says: Caius, having completed in the episcopal ministry the courses of two [\] and twenty years, … departed from the world… And he passed away on the day before the Kalends of January, when the dawn was giving an end to the night and a beginning to the Lord's day. Then at num. 16 he subjoins: And he remained in the episcopate until the fifth year of Domitian Cæsar.* which from the chronological notes is shown Lastly he had premised at num. 5 that St. Caius, having set out for Rome in the fifth year of his episcopate, was on that journey divinely warned of the glorious martyrdom of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. Let us now compare these chronological notes.

[12] Domitian began to reign in the year of Christ 81 on the XIII day of September, on which Titus died; more probably to have held it from the year of Christ 61 and therefore he entered upon the fifth year of his rule on the same day and month of the year of Christ 85. The last day of this year was a Saturday, as is gathered from the Dominical letter B; and thus the day of death asserted by the anonymous author agrees exactly, if St. Caius be said to have passed to a better life at the twilight which ended the last night of the year of Christ 85 and was the first of the year 86. But as these things stand rightly, so they cannot stand with the time of the death of St. Anathalon, which at the XXV day of this month in the preliminary Commentary §2 we judged should more probably be referred to about the XXV of September of the year 61. For if to the year of Christ 61 we add the twenty-two years which are assigned to St. Caius in the episcopate, only the year 83 will come forth, in the month of September of which, on the XXV day, only the third year of Domitian's rule had begun some days before. To dissolve this difficulty our Papebroch, in the Exegesis on the bishops of Milan before tom. VII of May, page LVIII, opportunely observed that in the ancient Ambrosian Manuscript, from which Henschen transcribed the Acts to be published, it is noted in the margin in the same ancient hand that for the courses of two and twenty years is read elsewhere four and twenty, etc.; and so indeed did Henschen note in our Manuscript.

[13] All the Catalogues mentioned above have indeed only XXII years for his see; until the end of the year 85. but occasion for this error could easily have been given by some more ancient instrument, which, with the last letter of the Roman numeral XXIV mutilated or partly worn away, presented XXII years rather than XXIV, and so deceived incautious copyists. Indeed a mutilation of numbers of this kind is by no means unusual nor without example, and once committed in a more ancient Catalogue it could easily have passed into the more recent. But this is certain, that when the correction which that old codex suggests is admitted, the aforesaid chronological notes agree rightly both with themselves and with the chronology of St. Anathalon. For Anathalon is said by the same anonymous author in his Life to have reached the eighth year of Nero; which we there interpreted not of the eighth year already begun, but of the one just about to begin; and therefore we showed that the death of that Saint is to be referred to about the XXV day of September of the year 61. To these, then, add 24 years completed some months since, and you will come to the end of the year of Christ 85, in the month of September of which, on the XIII day, Domitian had begun the fifth year of his rule. The last day of the same year was a Saturday, at the end of whose last night we have observed that St. Caius died according to the anonymous author's opinion.

[14] From this day of death, however, the Catalogues adduced above and the Milanese writers may seem to dissent, It may be doubted whether he died in the month of December, who fix St. Caius's deposition on the XXVI day of September, on which day also we have said that his sacred memory was formerly wont to be kept at Milan, which for about three centuries now is celebrated on the XXVII day of the same month. Galesinius too, in his Table of the bishops of Milan, put his death back to the XXVII of September. One only, so far as I have seen, Andrew Alciati, in book 2 of the Milanese History, agrees with our anonymous author, saying this of St. Caius: Ambrose is the author that he perished on the day before the Kal. of January, and every year on that day the Insubrians celebrate his memory. But I do not know what Ambrose he here cites: and Bosca in his Annotations on the Milanese Martyrology denies that this is found in any Kalendars of that church, or that he was ever honoured at Milan on any other day than the XXVII or XXVI of September.

[15] or in September. Further, it is unknown to me what is the cause of this discrepancy in the day and month between our anonymous author and the compilers of the Catalogues; unless perhaps some translation of the sacred body made in antiquity gave occasion that he who had died in the month of December should be honoured in September. That we should suspect something of this sort to have intervened is caused, on the one hand, by the constant agreement of the Catalogues and liturgical books for September; and on the other by the anonymous author's so exact assertion for the last day of December, so that it is most likely that he learned those notes of time from a more ancient monument. Besides, those very Catalogues, if you except one, do not say that St. Caius died on the VI Kalends of October, but that he was deposited; which word, taken in a broader manner, may designate the deposition of the sacred body in some translation made under the Christian emperors. If, however, anyone prefer to interpret it of the day of death or of the first burial, the rest of the anonymous author's assertions will be safe, provided that instead of 22 years of his see 24 be admitted, which the old Milanese Manuscript praised above assigns in the margin. For my part, that correction being applied, I judge that we must stand by the rest of the anonymous author's statements, until more certain things be brought forward.

[16] Another chronological note is explained, There remains another note of time added by the anonymous author, concerning which, since I have already said much at the XXV day of this month in St. Anathalon §2, I shall here repeat only a few things. The anonymous author says, namely, that St. Caius, while in the fifth year of his episcopate he was going to Rome for the sake of visiting SS. Peter and Paul, was divinely taught of their martyrdom. Now those two princes of the Apostles suffered, by the common opinion of Henschen, Papebroch and Pagi, on the XXIX day of June of the year 65; at which time therefore St. Caius must already have begun the fifth year of his episcopate. But on the contrary he must be said to have numbered only the fourth, if his predecessor St. Anathalon departed this life in the year of Christ 61 about the XXV day of September, as we have said. That these things may be reconciled, it is to be observed that St. Caius was ordained bishop and his successor by Anathalon himself while he was still alive, on the same anonymous author's witness. But at what time this happened is not added. Let us suppose, then, that he was initiated into the episcopal order about three months before the death of St. Anathalon, that is, in the month of June of the year 61; thus the fifth year of the same episcopal ordination would already have been in course on the said XXIX day of June in the year 65, on which he is narrated to have divinely understood the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul on his Roman journey. Consult also what was said in the preliminary Commentary on St. Anathalon, num. 30 and the following. For the rest, according to these things there will have to be attributed to St. Caius twenty-four years and a half of his episcopate or ordination, if he died on the last day of December, as the anonymous author has it; or twenty-four years and three months, if his death is to be bound to the month of September.

[17] Some other assertions of the biographer Let us pass on to the biographer's other assertions. He reckons among the many brought to the faith and baptized by St. Caius St. Vitalis and his holy wife Valeria and their sons Gervasius and Protasius, whom he says also to have been crowned with a glorious martyrdom while the same holy Bishop sat. Of SS. Vitalis and Valeria Papebroch treated at the XXVIII day of April, where he deferred a more accurate inquiry into the time of their martyrdom to the XIX of June, on which SS. Gervasius and Protasius are honoured. But here too the studious reader will understand how uncertain are the things which are narrated of those holy martyrs, and which cannot be confirmed by the authority of our anonymous author. The same anonymous writer writes that a certain Philip, an illustrious man among the Milanese, was with all his household washed at the sacred font by St. Caius, and this the Milanese writers relate with great agreement, who commonly will have it that he was surnamed Oldanus. Some add that he died with a reputation of sanctity, and that he was buried in the cemetery which he had made in his own garden for the burial of martyrs, and in which St. Caius and others had been laid.

[18] Besides, they say that the same place was situated where afterwards the Ambrosian church and that of saint Nabor, of the biographer. which is now called St. Francis's, were built. John Castiglione in the Milanese Antiquities, part 1, fascicle 3, recites certain verses which he asserts to have been inscribed on a marble tablet in that same church of St. Francis, in which the body of the same Philip is reckoned among the bodies of the Saints resting there, in these words:

Bright shines the hall, renewed by pious worshippers, Which in a little time the Friars Minor set up. This place was once a garden and the house of Philip, Hiding the bodies of martyrs that suffered for Christ.

Then, after some lines, follows:

Here Nabor, here Felix, here Fortunatus is held, And with Maternus Gayus, and he that is called Philip.

This Philip, whom I have found inscribed in no Kalendars of the Milanese, is beyond doubt the same whose spurious little book on SS. Gervasius and Protasius is recited in the epistle, equally falsely ascribed to St. Ambrose, which you have in our Work at the XIX day of June in the Commentary on those same holy martyrs, §3 and 4.

[19] Concerning the death which St. Caius underwent, the Milanese writers do not agree, Some have believed St. Caius crowned with martyrdom, some judging that he was taken from among the living by a natural death, others by a violent one, that is by martyrdom. John de Deis, in his little book On the Successors of St. Barnabas in the church of Milan, writes thus on this subject: At last, when he had done many things and had sustained grievous struggles for the faith of Christ in the onset of the Neronian persecution, being accused before the proconsul Paulinus of burying the bodies of martyrs, he obtained the palm of martyrdom, and by Castritianus and Philip

his brethren he is buried on his own estate. Andrew Alciati also makes him a martyr, in book 2 of the Milanese History, saying this: Fearing Nero's edict and the savage executions of Anolinus his prefect, he had fled from the city. When the death of the prince followed, he returned and daily attempted better things; until, being ordered by the order of decurions to be beaten with scourges by the temple-keepers as guilty of impiety towards the gods, he was slain. He had roused the magistrates to that ambitious decree because Caius had drawn even certain decurions to his own opinion.

[20] In the same opinion was Joseph Ripamonti, book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Milan, but he must be said to have died a confessor, saying: His bones and relics the Franciscan house has, certain of his sanctity, doubtful of his Martyrdom. For my part I should not hesitate to affirm Caius a martyr, either because the times were of such a sort that he could not have escaped, or because writings of the greatest weight testify that he endured many savage things together with Clateus, pontiff of Brescia. On the contrary, the anonymous author in the Life to be published, with whom others commonly agree, relates indeed that he suffered many things under the prefect Anolinus and from the temple-keepers of the gentiles, but signifies not obscurely that he departed by a natural death. Yet this very writer seems to have given Alciati occasion for thinking otherwise, when below, at num. 15 of the Life, he says of St. Caius: For he had both been openly beaten with cudgels by the keepers of the idols, and very often violently dragged from the walls of the city by the unclean hands of the pagans. But Alciati, not rightly interpreting these words, believed that St. Caius, having returned into the city, was beaten with scourges by the temple-keepers and killed; whereas from the whole context it is clear that the word mactatus is used by the anonymous author not for killed, but for grievously beaten.

[21] though perhaps he suffered many things for Christ The Martyrologies, Kalendars and Breviaries which I have produced above likewise acknowledge him a confessor, not a martyr; nor have I anywhere read that he was celebrated with the Office of a martyr. It must nevertheless be confessed that it may seem strange that he was withdrawn from a violent death, if all be true which the anonymous author narrates of his deeds, and which impelled Ripamonti to pronounce for his martyrdom. But I prefer to believe that the holy Bishop prudently lay hid while the persecution raged, that he might secretly succour his flock; and that the anonymous author added many things which he judged likely in calamities of such times and glorious to the holy Prelate. How weak is the argument which the said Ripamonti fetches from the martyrdom of St. Clateus may be estimated from what our Henschen briefly reviewed and observed of that same holy bishop of Brescia in tom. 1 of June, page 376 and the following.

[22] from the gentiles. The studious reader will there see besides that Anolinus's prefecture of Milan under the rule of Nero, under whom the anonymous author sets it, and under whom they say St. Clateus was crowned at Milan, is not placed beyond all doubt. Yet let us suppose that there was some prefect of that name at Milan under Nero: you will not hence hammer out St. Caius's martyrdom; for from what has been said we do not doubt that he reached the times of Domitian. John de Deis, who wrote that St. Caius consummated his martyrdom under the proconsul Paulinus, in all likelihood so conjectured from the spurious little book of Philip mentioned above, in which St. Vitalis is said to have been slain under the judge Paulinus. Consult tom. III of June, page 821 and 825, on SS. Gervasius and Protasius. The rest we shall illustrate in the Annotations.

\. of two*

LIFE

By an anonymous author.

From a Milanese Manuscript, collated with the edition of Ludovico Muratori.

Caius, bishop of Milan, Conf., in Insubria. (S.)

BHL Number: 3231, 79

By an Anonymous author.

Substituted for St. Anathalon in the episcopate Caius, then, the most blessed ^a, that I may go back a little, amid the perils of this unspeakable time ^b, like a most excellent sailor, strove — supported by heavenly protection and by the oarage of a holy manner of life — to steer towards the predestined path of everlasting life the newly launched skiff of the holy Church which he had undertaken to govern, and manfully to defend it, with what strength he could, from the impending whirlwinds of a most grievous persecution. Him therefore St. Anathalon ^c, while he was still alive, had advanced to the priestly summit, lest perchance, when he himself passed to the Lord, the state of so raw a church, being deprived even for an hour of its own pastor, should begin to totter; imitating in this the most illustrious example of the most glorious Prince of the Apostles and his own master, who at about the same time, having laid the eternal foundation of the Roman Church, appointed in his own place Clement, a man of the highest sanctity, of whom I made mention above, and substituted for himself a vicar fully fit, with vigilant care, to carry out the ministry of sacred preaching ^d.

[2] But, to follow what I have begun, the man most devoted to God, Caius, as soon as, chosen beforehand by the judgment of his predecessor and afterwards by the love of all the holy people, he was appointed to the office of preaching, urgently pressed on with frequent exhortations and prayers to turn the hearts of the unbelieving to the rule of the faith, he converted many to the faith, among whom were and busied himself to lead to the eternal liberty of the sons of God those whom the enemy of the human race had made captives. But because the hand of God, which receives the sacrifice of a good will, is never barren of a gift, the divine Majesty at once came to his aid as he toiled, and afforded him joy from the increase of his sons — him whom the death of his patron and master had not a little disturbed. For although the savage and exceedingly fierce complaint of the pagans against the faithful of Christ rose more and more, nevertheless daily losses were inflicted on the envious enemy and gains made for Christ Jesus out of the clients of idolatry; and now not merely ordinary men, but the consuls themselves and those whom the glory of the world had made more famous, hastened in haste to the service of Christ.

[3] For in the preceding days St. Vitalis, a man distinguished [\*] indeed and noble by the origin of his flesh, but nobler by the height of his mind, greatest of the citizens of Milan and not moderately honoured among his own, St. Vitalis with his wife and sons, and Philip, together with his most religious wife and sons ^e and all the household of his house, was joined to the faith of Christ; and with him likewise very many of the elder citizens, among whom also Philip ^f with his own, a man most illustrious both before the world and before God. And when the most learned Caius saw this — namely that many even of the senators, having renounced the worship of idolatry, were flowing together most devoutly to the service of Christ — catechizing them, he bade them give their labour together with him in continued fastings and vigils, that at the coming of the Paschal solemnity they might be found candidates, to be consecrated by the laver of sacred Baptism; foretelling to them and protesting that a little after some of them were to be crowned with martyrdom through the glorious confession of Christ, and to be led to the inestimable glory of the heavens.

[4] And there is even today, not far from the walls of that city towards the Southern quarter, beside the road that leads to the city of Pavia ^g, a certain spring, pouring forth glassy and healthful waters. whom he baptized there at a famous spring. To this, then, when the course of the fastings was completed, the venerable Prelate came with all who had been signed, and bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, the presence of the holy Spirit being invoked after the custom, solemnly blessed that spring, and dipping all the catechumens in the name of the one Trinity, sanctified them by the imposition of hands. Lastly, the divine Mysteries being poured out in common and prayer again offered, he commended his sheep to God their Founder and governor. From that time it was the custom both for the clergy and for the people of the faithful, during the whole time of his episcopate, to meet there for the celebration of the heavenly Sacraments, because a sacred house for the assembly of the church could not be built on account of the tumult of the opposing pagans. And the abundance of that blessing has preserved its pristine grace to the present; so much so that many of the sick, if any burning with the force of fevers have chanced to drink the water of the aforesaid spring, have rejoiced that they drew (with no delay) a most complete healing ^h.

[5] Meanwhile the most reverend prelate of God, Caius, led, as is reported, by the greatest love of visiting the magnificent prince of the Apostles, Peter, and the colleague of Barnabas ⁱ his own sometime master, and the light of the gentiles, [and] Paul ^k; or also for the sake of conferring about his preaching with the most holy Clement and the rest of the followers of the Apostles, On the Roman journey the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul is reported, in the fifth year of his episcopate, which was Nero's last ^l, to have directed his course to the Romulean city, that is, to his native country. When, behold, at about the middle of the journey he perceived in spirit that those for whom he longed most eagerly had lately been destroyed by the most monstrous atrocity of Cæsar. He fell down at once, and with tears springing up groaned heavily; and when he was asked by his companions [\] for what cause he wept so, Alas, for grief! he said, the Roman soil cuts off the twin lights of the whole world, quenched by Neronian madness; and unless the Majesty of almighty God come to our aid, the most impious Cæsar will now begin to inflict most diverse calamities on all the worshippers of Christ throughout the world.*

[6] he learns by divine means: Let us hasten therefore as quickly as we may, and, if perchance their remains lie unburied, let us carry them into worthy sarcophagi; but if they have been laid away, let us at least weepingly render the last honour to their venerable tombs. And would that the enemy's sword, finding us over their most sacred graves, might not delay to cut us down, that we may be found perhaps partakers even in the last of their triumph. Having spoken thus, he bedewed his burning lips with abundance of tears, remembering no longer the long labour, nor the journey on foot. On the eighth day at last he reached Rome with his companions, where, being greeted again by the brethren, he began at once to inquire about the glorious departure of the Apostles, and with a heart exceedingly anxious to ask what they had done with the most sacred pearls of their bodies: and forthwith he learned the tenor of the deed; how the most unspeakable Cæsar had condemned one of them to the cross and the other to the executioner's sword; nay, that their spoils, dedicated to God, had been carefully laid away on the day on which they chanced to depart from this life.

[7] At Rome he confers with St. Clement: in the Neronian persecution, Conferring, therefore, with ^m Clement and the other vicars of the blessed Apostles about the tenor of his own teaching, he was with them for some time; who, though secretly, on account of the snares of the faithless, were persuading by Evangelical preachings whomsoever they could, snatching the souls of many from the demons [\*] of the prince of darkness, and making them thenceforth sons of light. But that I may add a few things about Nero's cruelty, to heighten the greatness of his impiety: he had directed through every province the governors of his own wickedness, that they might scatter, destroy and utterly kill the worshippers of the Christian name with various kinds of punishments. Among these he had commanded Anolinus ⁿ, as a capital plague, to be second to himself, giving him a consular sop against the Christians, that, receiving power over the parts of Italy, he might tear up by the roots both the name of the Christian sect and scatter its seed; so that not even a trace of it should remain under the stars. For as soon as he entered Milan, the metropolis of the Italians, he ordered diligent inquiry to be made whether any masters of this superstitious sect had come thither.

[8] in which many And it was answered him by the temple-keepers that there were many, even of the leading men, who would cease neither by day nor by night from teachings of that kind, persuading the people that, forsaking the worship of the gods, they ought to believe in a certain Jesus who is called the Nazarene; so much so that no small a number both of the nobles and of

the common people had consented. Wherefore unless thy industry, they said, most excellent governor, call them back, they will stir up whole regions of Italy to their own faithlessness. And who hereafter will come to the aid of the gods of our fathers and of the divine laws? Sending out his officers, therefore, they straightway seized men of noble character and bright with the bloom of youth, delivering some to the strictest custody, butchering others with unheard-of savagery. There was no pity of human bowels, no distinction of sex or age; everywhere they tore all the confessors of Christ's name indiscriminately with iron, with flames, with scourges, with the rack, and left the half-burnt corpses under the naked sky as food for the beasts.

[9] Now among the many who in those times contended even unto death in the army of Christ, are crowned with martyrdom, I have learned that there were the most blessed brothers, namely Protasius and Gervasius, the most sacred martyrs of the Lord. For their father, of whom I made mention above, St. Vitalis, the bravest athlete of Christ, had long since obtained the triumphal palm through diverse torments for the confession of Christ. Their mother too, Valeria, most devoted to God, by a like end had exchanged death for glory. Of these most blessed parents, then, as I had begun to say, the sons, in nothing degenerate, following their noble [\*] example, were made most constant victors in the Neronian battle. Nor was it enough to be beaten with leaded scourges, nor to be tortured on the rack, unless they gladly offered their head also to the executioner for Christ the Head of martyrs. At about the same time very many others also, already then soldiers of Christ, even of the nobles of the city of Rome, contending at Milan as in a royal city, were crowned with martyrdom; among whom the magnificent witness of Christ, Nazarius, with his little follower named Celsus, after manifold kinds of torments which the savage Nero had inflicted on them for the Christian faith.

[10] For they were both most atrociously beaten with cudgels and plunged into the waves of the sea [\], and given as food to wild beasts; and when on the contrary they had bravely stood firm and had wonderfully in all things carried back the trophy to Christ their King, at last, beheaded, they could not lose Christ the Head of all ^o. Set in these and such whirlwinds, the aforenamed prelate of the Lord, Caius, held firmly the seat of the pontificate he had undertaken, and ruled it laudably; and now, sharply rebuking the idolaters out of zeal for the most high God, living and true, he would go forth in public [p]; now, having compassion on the still weak and tender members of the Church, he would make his way into hiding places, in this deed consulting not himself but the necessities of his sons, who [\] gaped for his presence, so that they could not with equanimity bear to be without a sight of their Father even for the brevity of a fleeting moment [q]; while in him they pointed out with the finger openly to all, with radiant faces and honeyed throat, the unfailing beam of the new light and the most pure fountain of their salvation.

[11] Wherefore, fattened with the banquets of the divine preachings as with abundant dishes, and inebriated with the most sweet cups of assiduous reading and most instant prayer as with bowls of foaming wine, he converts the unbelievers and these, they counted bodily food as nothing, thinking it better to undergo with him or for him the loss of death, and the ruin [r] of every kind of want, than to enjoy dainties [s] fragrant with the favour of ambrosia, or to receive the yearly bounty of the unspeakable king [\]. Nor indeed only the believing people, but even some of those who had not yet tasted the rights of the faith, very often sought with panting spirit for the holy Man, borne abroad [t] with every kind of praise. And he, like a prudent chief physician wishing to restore health [\] by healing with diverse poultices those worn out with the most diverse ailments, used a varied plaster of doctrine, inviting some, oppressed by the darkness of blindness, to the true light; and busying himself, like a careful craftsman, to bend others, who bore a heart hardened by unbelief, with the fire of divine charity; some of whom applauded, after the manner of the blind, that the rays of the sun had come along with him, while they themselves, their eyes covered as before, were wholly without experience of the golden light and of the true Sun [u].

[12] But some, whose mental gaze was more distracted, when he was held by some for Apollo, beholding, even with the eyes of the heart [\], the astounding cures of diseases wrought by him in the name of Jesus Christ, cried out that Delphic Apollo had appeared true among men [x]. But he, as I had begun to say, accusing their most empty madness, diligently admonished them that the God of heaven is to be adored, who by his own decree bestows both rays upon the sun and the desired salvation upon all mortals in the world. That idols must be denied as monstrous images of wretched men, and that the illusions not only of Apollo, but of any other — a demon rather than a god — avail nothing where the name of Christ has been invoked by his worshippers. Why, I pray, he said, does it not please you to notice more prudently that they are frivolous metals [y], deaf, dumb and void of all sense, and not gods, before whom you bow your necks in submission? Are you not ashamed, O noble citizens, of so great blindness and madness, that you, senseless men, should pay a pitiable homage to those things which were made for human service [z]?*

[13] he teaches better things. Nero after many crimes But to confess a truly wretched servitude: having forsaken your own [\] and the most excellent Founder of all things, and having laid liberty aside, you willingly subject yourselves to the dominion of the demons, which [aa] will cause you to be burnt together with itself in eternal fire.* With these and such words now confuting those who came to him with rebukes, now also soothing them with honey-flowing admonitions, he changed very many, their minds being converted, into an admiration for better things. It was a marvel to see the bail suddenly given by a divine gift, so that those who, long corrupted by the sluggish root from the thickets [bb] of idolatry, had come as fruitless trees, presently by the most ample power of Christ were made olives of a new planting, which, rendering the richest fruits for sacred use, stood at last far unlike among their own turf-plots. For indeed the heavenly compassion, aiding its own faithful, deigned to grant to the holy Prelate a very little leisure for carrying this out more urgently; while at that time the wild rage and monstrous impiety of the incestuous Nero was seen to be ended by an execrable death.

[14] kills himself; the Church breathes a little. He at last — that I may bring in a few things out of many — being surrounded on every side by inextricable evils, and after countless wicked and impure crimes, which he had conceived in his ill-omened mind even against [\*] the very injury of the Divinity and had perpetrated by most wicked deed, being besides deserted by all, as many as he had had in his service as accomplices and ministers of his crime, because he was not only an unspeakable murderer towards strangers but also a most bitter parricide towards his own, fled from the City, greatly dreading the hatreds and conspiracies of his army; and fearing lest he might be betrayed by anyone, he pitiably destroyed himself by his own punishment [cc], obtaining an end of life worthy of his deserts. Wherefore that very small dripping of heavenly dew, flowing down into the midst of the burning conflagration, made the flames of the fires raging round about to be for a time quenched and cooled. And just as any traveller, scorched by the long heats of the noonday sun, if perchance he meet, panting, at about the middle of his journey a drop of water trickling from the living rock, and being refreshed a little by drinking it, straightway begins to discharge the remainder of the way and the loss from the heat more swiftly and more strongly, however faint-hearted he be; not otherwise did the broad mildness brought again and again by the Neronian downfall rouse the steadfast among Christ's faithful, from the persecution stirred up by Neronian ferocity, and by the present gentleness of the times did it not a little knit together the feeble and the weak also for the bearing of greater and harder things.

[15] The Saint, having suffered many things, dies a confessor But, to leave these things which tend another way and let our discourse return to what was proposed: the oft-to-be-named prelate of the Lord, Gaius, having completed in the episcopal ministry the courses of two [dd] and twenty years, in which he carefully and strenuously bestowed pastoral care not only on the peoples of Milan but also on those of the cities lying round about, after the various sweats of victorious contests (for he had both been openly beaten with cudgels by the keepers of the idols [\*], and very often violently dragged from the walls of the city by the unclean hands of the pagans) — while he himself, lifting up his palms on the other hand to heaven, continually besought Christ the Lord for them, and if he saw any seized by some calamity, straightway succoured them in what ways he could: at last, the course of his contest being fulfilled, he departed from the world, to possess the estates laid up for him in the heavens. And he passed away on the day before the Kalends of January, when the dawn was giving an end to the night and a beginning to the Lord's day; and he was buried in the garden of Philip, whom we mentioned above, and most diligently laid away by his care, in which place he himself, while he lived, had made a burial-ground for the little Christian flock [ee].

[16] And he remained in the episcopate until the fifth year of Domitian Cæsar [ff], in the fifth year of Domitian; who, having exercised much cruelty and towards many throughout the whole border of the Roman frontier, was made in a manner the heir of Nero's war against God and impiety. For that other emperor, edicts being issued, ordered the seed of the Christians to be utterly torn up everywhere in the whole world: some, namely, to be thrust far away into exile in the uttermost bounds of the earth; others to be punished with the most atrocious and refined kinds of penalties; but the revenues [gg] of all their goods to be smitten with the fine of the exchequer. This thing was thought to bring the greatest peril to the progress of the Church, since, the imperial sanction being promulgated, the prelates and all the masters of almost all the churches were scattered into exile and were slaughtered wherever they were found: but by the Lord Jesus disposing far better, who speaks, saying, "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone," the more they were divided through the climes of the world, the more abundant were the gains they heaped up for the Lord's granaries. Nay more, by the vigour of their spirit and the alacrity of their faith they not moderately encouraged those who seemed weaker.

[17] For this cause of persecution, therefore, after the death of Caius, confessor and bishop of blessed memory, the seat of the aforesaid church [hh] remained for a long interval of time widowed of the priestly blessing, his see is long vacant. and destitute of the care of its own pastor [ii]. For the rivals of the Christian people, having found an opportunity most fitted to their envy, raging over as many as they could find under this proscription, in insolent fashion cut down some with swords, while with beastly rage they consumed the living bodies of others either with wild beasts or with fires: but of all who persevered even unto death in unfeigned faith, Christ, who was the cause of the contest, plainly stood forth also as the giver of the eternal prize.

ANNOTATIONS.