Ten Thousand Crucified On Mount Ararat
Acta Sanctorum, June 22
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https://actasanctorum.org/june/day-22/ten-thousand-crucified-on-mount-ararat.html
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ON THE HOLY TEN THOUSAND CRUCIFIED ON MOUNT ARARAT, AND ON THE 1480 MARTYRS

UNDER CHOSROES KING OF THE PERSIANS IN PALESTINE.

UNDER THE EMPEROR HADRIAN.

CRITICAL COMMENTARY.

The Martyrs crucified on Mount Ararat. The Samaritan Martyrs in Palestine under Gosroes.

D. P.

The order of the Martyrology, especially the Roman,
proposed for this work to follow,
permits no one to pass over
any of those who are there referred to,
much less so many as are contained
in the two classes placed in the title,
without our bringing forward the contexts of the Acts pertaining hereto, as ancient
as we can, and at the same time examining
whether any older authority can render them
credible to the learned Reader. [What the criticism intends] This did in his Notes on the
Martyrology Cardinal Baronius: did I
also not only second, but even first.
You ask with what success? [concerning the Saints here proposed] There will answer for me
the Acts themselves, examined article by article, and demonstrated to the eye
such; that, if the cult of those Martyrs described in them
rests on no other foundation
than the credulity given to them in the course of a few centuries,
it altogether seems able to be doubted whether
such ones really existed in the nature of things. While I do this
most unwillingly, let no one say that I, a private
man, am acting as censor or reformer of a work approved by the public
authority of the Church for the common use of the faithful,
so long as the same church judges that labor should be applied to its repeated
revision. The Mistress of truth admits even a private
counselor, provided he so propose the documents and monuments
found by him that he himself wishes nothing defined,
whatever phrase he uses, except what she herself
at last shall have determined. Indeed I had thought to refer the aforetitled
Martyrs, exempted from the common order of others more
certain, by way of an Appendix
to the end of this 22nd day: but because that in St. Meletius
and his companions was done by me on the 25th of May, although
most have approved it; [as less certain.] I hear nonetheless that it is disapproved
at Rome by some as if it were an express reprobation
of a cult approved in the Roman Martyrology:
which I certainly by no means intended. Lest even
hence an occasion of carping be given,
those of whom now it is treated I refer in their order; now, as
also then humbly subjecting myself and my writings
to the judgment of the Apostolic See, and so I begin
to give to the press what after Henschen I have, having commented
on this argument, gathered onto paper.

PART ONE

On the Saints crucified on Ararat.

The Martyrs crucified on Mount Ararat. The Samaritan Martyrs in Palestine under Gosroes.

BY D. P.

§. I. How little ancient to the Western peoples, and to the Eastern not even now known outside Armenia, is a passion of this kind.

[2] Armenia, a region of Asia most well known among Writers,
called by the Hebrews Ararat: of which
word the etymon there is Aram, which means high and lofty.
And Armenia is a very high region:
on whose mountains the ark of Noah after the flood is indicated to have settled, [Armenia called Ararat,]
in Genesis chapter VIII, verse IV:
where, while it is said to have settled on the mountains of Armenia,
in Hebrew it is "on the mountains of Ararat," and thence commonly
the name began to be taken not for Armenia, but for some particular mountain
of Armenia: of which, thus,
among other ancient writers no mention is found
nor even among more recent ones, except that Tavernier
in Baudrand says it is now by the natives called Mesesousar,
that is, the mountain of the ark, and says that it is part
of the Caspian mountain near Media between
Artaxata and the marsh Arsissa. [taken here for a mountain:] And hence
the first occasion of controverting the truth about this Martyrdom
is taken. The revisers of the Roman Martyrology under
Gregory XIII ascribed it to the
22nd of June with these words: On Mount
Ararat, [to which 10,000 crucified Martyrs are attributed] the passion of the holy Martyrs ten
thousand. In the Notes the Martyrology of Bede is cited.
This we published genuine before volume 2 of April,
from very many codices of the best note: and
there it is treated only of St. Alban, Martyr in Britain
[nor anything about such a Martyrdom in his Additamenta
to Bede has Florus; nothing Ado, Usuard,
Rabanus, and Notker, nor anyone more ancient than the 11th
century]; only in the Martyrology, under the name
of Bede thrust into the light (which is nothing else
than a compendium of Ado, somewhat increased by Saints added from elsewhere
in the 12th or 13th century), toward
the end are read these words: The passion of the holy
ten thousand Martyrs. Which words however
our Heribert Rosweyde deleted, because they were lacking
to the manuscript codex of the monastery of Richeberg in
Bavaria, with which he had collated the whole. Martène,
in "On the Ancient Rites of Monks," book 4, chapter 6,
cites the Customs of the Dionysian Monastery in which
is read the Feast of the 10,000 Martyrs
of three Lessons, and the Colbert Codex and
the Customs of St. Cornelius of Compiègne where 12
Lessons are prescribed: but in the Lérins Calendar
three Lessons of St. Acacius and his Companions, which
all are not of great antiquity and authority.

[3] Some eulogy of these same Martyrs was published
by Peter de Natalibus, in book 5 of his Catalogue, chapter 137,
which Catalogue he completed as Parish-priest of the Church of the holy
Apostles at Venice; therefore before the 16th of May
in the year 1371, [by Peter de Natalibus] in which Peter was created Bishop
of Equilio. This author very many followed
in their Martyrologies, both manuscript (which it does not please
to bring forward) and others printed. Among these
can be reckoned the Martyrology of Bellinus, according to
the custom of the Roman Court printed at Venice in the year 1498,
where these things are read at this 22nd of June:
At Alexandria on the mountain, which is called
Ararat, the Passion of the holy ten thousand crucified.
There soon followed other Martyrologists, [and others more recent.]
Greven, Maurolyco, Felici, Galesini, Canisius,
and in the same words as Bellinus Molanus in
his Supplement to Usuard: who toward the end of his Annotations
adds these things: "To the Passion of the Ten Thousand a manuscript is inscribed
as to the version of Anastasius the Librarian.
Yet to the learned some things displease in
it."

[4] Under this general title of certain Doctors,
seems to be comprehended Radulphus de Rivo, Dean
of Tongeren; [The history of such a Martyrdom] who wrote at the end of the 14th century a book
on the observation of the Canons: where in Proposition
XI he enumerates the apocryphal Acts of various Saints,
and by no means to be read in the Church; namely the Passions
of SS. Barbara and Catherine; And, he says, of
the ten thousand Martyrs, in which (I will say fabulously,
until I see otherwise) are feigned all kinds of the passion of Christ to have been endured on Mount
Ararat near Alexandria: nor is their
passion noted in any authentic Martyrology,
nor could I find their day at Rome in any
Calendar. It is said indeed that
Anastasius the Librarian translated that Passion from
the Greek; [it is not found in Greek] but deservedly we doubt, whether
truly: for hitherto Acts of this kind in Greek nowhere
have we been able to find, nor have we been able to detect even the least
indication or trace of them lying hidden anywhere or seen by anyone.
But that such things ever existed in Greek, how shall we believe, who
in so many Menaia or Synaxaries of the Greeks, of the Arabs,
even of the Copts and Ethiopians, see those Martyrs wholly passed over, [nor is there an epitome in the Synaxaries,] and also by any
other Greek historians whom all, especially
the collectors of Synaxaries, who would say abstained from them
because they judged the Acts fabulous? since
they everywhere exhibit as legends the Epitomes of Acts equally
fabulous, as are the Acts of St. Meletius and his
eleven thousand two hundred and eight companions, which
in Greek-Latin we gave by way of an Appendix
to the 24th of May; and the Acts of the twenty thousand
citizens of Antioch, who are feigned to have been
gathered in the church on the night of the Lord's birth,
and together with it itself burned by Diocletian. Both
on the faith of the Greeks into the Roman Martyrology
the reformers of it, [in which however the fabulous Acts of others are not lacking.] aforesaid, received, that both
had been omitted would have been better; which in Meletius I have demonstrated
sufficiently, in the Antiochenes posterity will easily demonstrate,
if they only attend to this alone, how little
credible it is, that the Christians had, while the persecution
raged, a church capable of so enormous
a multitude; or that Diocletian, more cautious and provident than was fitting,
in the same city, where the accidental
burning of his own palace, imputed to the Christians,
he had pursued with such severe inquisitions,
would of his own accord have kindled so vast a pyre, whence
the whole city or a great part of it could have been consumed,
especially in winter, when stronger winds reign.

[5] These things and others more absurd than these, since without scruple
the compilers of the Synaxaries received them; we ought
not to think that they abstained from the ten thousand Crucified,
because of the fabulousness of the Acts; [But neither is it known to the Armenians except from Latin writers.]
but only because they had no
knowledge of them; consequently it must be believed to have been born among the Latins,
among whom alone such a narration was known, which
Latins communicated this in the 12th and 13th centuries to the Armenian Christians
on the occasion of the holy wars in Syria, joined for the union of the Roman Church,
to whom, destitute of almost all literature, the same
to be now most celebrated asserted to us a certain
Archbishop of theirs in the year 1699 making an excursion to Antwerp:
thus Clemens Galanus makes us think:
who, occupied almost from adolescence in the Apostolic
Mission among the Armenians, and imbued with knowledge of the Eastern languages,
Turkish, Iberian, Colchian, and Armenian,
strove by the study of many years to excerpt the Ecclesiastical history
of the Armenian nation, from its
Codices sought from everywhere.
For he in that work, which at Rome he published
in both languages in the year 1650 under the title of the Conciliation
of the Armenian Church with the Roman, at chapter 2, number
3, treating of the Martyrs of whom that nation had knowledge
before St. Gregory, who suffered under Constantine the Great;
in the first place indeed those ten thousand Martyrs
he puts; but on the sole faith of the Roman present-day Martyrology,
as if destitute of every other support for corroborating their Martyrdom.
But as for the interpreter
Anastasius praised by Baronius in his Notes;
not easily will anyone believe him truly produced,
whoever shall consider, that neither in this passion, nor
in another of St. Peter of Alexandria, which to the same Anastasius
Baronius ascribes, is found any similarity
of style, with the Lives of the Pontiffs Gregory IV,
Sergius II, Leo IV, Benedict III and Nicholas
I, which, in the judgment of John Ciampini, in his Examination
of the Liber Pontificalis, are without doubt his. Since therefore
from a Greek Author about the veneration of those 10,000
we cannot fish out anything; we are forced to confess
that among the Latins alone is found knowledge of them, nor
received from elsewhere than from the Acts, on every side as
will soon be shown, wavering.

[6] In Laurentius Surius, who died in the year 1578,
in the first and second edition of the Lives of the Saints,
nothing at all about such Martyrs was published. [The original passion is found in the 3rd edition of Surius] But
at last in the year 1618 some Acts were published
from a manuscript codex of the Cologne College of the Society of Jesus,
with a long apology, such as also exists in the Notes
of Baronius: which all there can be seen. Meanwhile
it pleases to indicate the places, in which the said Acts
are found. William Camden, who flourished in this 17th century,
and in the year 1606 with his learned pen
published Britannia illustrated at London; asserts
that he found the Passion of the ten thousand Martyrs, [and receives it in various manuscripts.]
crucified on Mount Ararat, and transmitted it
to Heribert Rosweyde: for he in the year
1607 had published the Calendars of the Saints, whose
Lives he had found in the Belgian Libraries, and by his
own silence about them sufficiently indicated, that not yet
had he seen a Passion of this kind. We it, as it was sent by
Camden, afterward collated with a remarkable manuscript
codex submitted to us by Nicolas Belfort: and likewise
with our codices acquired from elsewhere, from the month
of May to the end of December containing various Lives
of the Saints. And in these three manuscript
places of "Anastasius" it is said that "Athanasius
the Librarian of the supreme and Apostolic See" translated it from the Greek; [which one is said to have rendered into Latin]
but it seems to be a copyist's blunder: certainly
John Ciampini, after the examination of the Liber Pontificalis
published at Rome in the year 1688, in a Catalogue gathering
the names of all the Librarians of the Holy Roman Church who
could hitherto be found, found no Athanasius anywhere.
The same or similar Acts had
once James Sirmond, and offered them to us. They exist
also in the manuscript codex 79 of the Queen of Sweden, as
also at Rome in the Vallicellan Library of the Fathers
of the Congregation of the Oratory in Lectionary A. and at Soest
in the Marches of Westphalia among the Father Preachers.

[7] But in the manuscript codex the Prologue of the venerable
Anastasius the "Armarista," [Anastasius or Athanasius the Librarian.] that is, the Keeper of the books
of the Apostolic See, to the venerable Father
the Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church,
upon the Passion of the ten thousand Soldiers and Martyrs
crucified, concerning whom Jerome
in his Martyrology on the 10th day before the Kalends of June. But
in vain is the Hieronymian Martyrology cited, [and is said to have dedicated it to Peter Bishop of Sabina or Gabii:]
since in the four copies, now openly extant,
no mention of them is found; as neither in
other primary Martyrologies, or (as Radulphus
calls them) authentic, that is, venerable by some antiquity and
authority.

[8] Moreover he who in the aforesaid Osnabrück manuscript,
with the title of "Father" is indicated as Bishop of Sabina,
elsewhere called Peter; [but there was no Peter of Sabina before 1216,] but without mention
of the Cardinalate, is found neither in Ciaconius nor in
Oldoinus. Ferdinando Ughelli, for volume
I of Italia Sacra and its Appendices, on every side
having searched out the names of the Bishops of Sabina;
and having pursued them quite happily from the time in which lived Anastasius the Librarian,
without any notable
gap, found no Peter before the year 1216;
to whom in the same and the following century soon six others
of the same name succeeded. To one of these this Version
could be believed dedicated, if then any Athanasius
or Anastasius were found, who had made it. Baronius,
while he mentions those same Acts, as found by him
in the monastery of St. Cecilia across the Tiber, [but of Gabii none at all.]
says that there is read "Peter of Gabii": and so too
John Mabillon testifies to have found, in his Musaeum Italicum,
page 80, lest you should think a typographical error had crept in
at the place aforecited of Baronius. There was Gabii, before
Rome was founded an opulent city, and under the Tarquin
Kings midway between the City and Praeneste,
as Appian describes it: but they had so failed,
already long since dissipated by Tarquin, that in the time of Augustus Caesar,
in which Dionysius of Halicarnassus lived, not
the whole of their city was inhabited, but only that
part which along the road is frequented with inns.
That they afterward rose again so far, as to deserve to have a Bishop,
is shown by no argument: but now
the memory has so vanished, that where that city was
is controverted among the learned. It is found
indeed in the body of the Councils, under Hilary
the Pope in the year 465, "Asterius of Gabii," and likewise
in the year 501 under Symmachus, "Mercurius of Gabii";
but since "of Sabina" among those there named nowhere appears,
who does not see that it could have happened that in
the first letter the copyist erred? Especially since
that the Bishopric of Sabina is most ancient
is established, while "of Gabii" is nowhere else named.
Besides the Compendium, which I said was related by Peter de Natalibus,
there exists one, two hundred years ago
published by Boninus Mombritius; [Some Acts have only 1480 martyrs.] but three others
we have copied from the Utrecht Codex of St. Saviour,
the Trier of St. Maximin, and of the
Richeberg Monastery. We have also copied, from the codex 6075
of the Vatican library, the Passion of the holy
one thousand four hundred eighty Martyrs,
as many as are precisely reported to have seized the faith of Christ, and,
accused to the Emperors, as Christians made by the idols being rejected:
and this number is noted in the manuscript
Vatican, number 3 and 4; yet there, number 18
and thereafter, are mentioned ten thousand Martyrs.
Whence the said variety arose, is not established.
What if the Acts be said to have been received from various manuscripts,
of which some had only the Passion of the holy
one thousand four hundred eighty?
Such a number certainly and no greater is found in
the Sacramentary, of which, as written about seven hundred years ago,
Mabillon makes mention, page 69, where these things
he noted to be found; "In the month of June on the 22nd day of the holy
Martyrs One Thousand 1480." The same number
likewise is had in an older Cassino manuscript,
in the same Mabillon, page 80.

§. II. What kind of authority accrues to a passion of this sort
from the present-day Roman one even after the silence of the ancients
about it has been considered, and the fabulousness of the Acts themselves acknowledged.

Godefrid Henschen, before in the year
1680 in the month of October he was seized by paralysis,
had somewhat commented on these Martyrs, [Thus far Henschen had begun to comment,]
from the more recent Martyrologies, where he had found
their memory; dissembling what he himself about
the whole matter thought. But afterward when,
somehow restored to himself by the clemency of spring, in that very infirmary
he was revising the remaining Acts of the latter half of May,
prepared for the press by his and my labor; and had vehemently
approved my plan for the 24th day, about the Acts of St.
Meletius and his companions to be deferred to the end of that day
and refuted; he judged that something of the same kind here too should be done by him,
if ever, some faculty of walking recovered,
he should return to the Museum. But in fact what he had proposed
he began, ten or twelve days before
his death, writing some part of the former Paragraph,
but which was of little use to me, having many other things not yet
observed by him. [wishing to reject the whole matter as apocryphal to the Appendix:] But there remained the chief
labor, by which it might be demonstrated that the Acts themselves which
already he had acknowledged to be by no means ancient, but
always unknown to the whole East, were fabricated by some Latin
writer, under the falsified title of an Interpreter under the name of Anastasius, as if from the Greek; and that so licentiously,
that he seems to have wished to surpass by many parasangs the figments of the Greeks
about the passion of Meletius. Thinking on this
he was touched by a new attack of paralysis, and made an end almost
at once of writing and of living, an octogenarian
old man, as in his life I explained before the last volume
of May, number 34, handing on moreover to me the torch to be borne.

[10] Having entered upon the matter, before all things I judged
that I should read what Cardinal Baronius in his Notes on the Roman
Martyrology heaps together, [I resume the writing from the beginning] to introduce some appearance
of probability to such a Martyrdom,
already received into the tables of the aforesaid Martyrology.
And first I greatly wondered, when I read,
that "the Greeks also treat of those ten thousand Crucified
in the Menology on this day." For I knew
that nothing of the sort is had, not only in any
Greek Menologies which I saw all at Rome and at Milan;
but nor in that which William
Sirleto had quite hurriedly composed in Latin,
for the use of those who were going to augment the Roman
Martyrology, being ignorant of the Greek language; [being certain that there is no treatment of those crucified in the Greek Menology which Baronius] which
Menology Heinrich Canisius afterward caused to be printed,
in the year 1602 in volume 2 of the Antiqua Lectio, from
Sirleto's autograph. There was cited also by Baronius, besides
Maurolyco, the learned Pietro Galesini:
of no great authority otherwise with him, having often
experienced his excessive confidence in asserting:
yet I wished to see what Galesini in his Notes
here had, and I read; "Of SS. Acacius and the 10,000
Martyrs, as it stands written in Greek in the Horologion."
Galesini published his Martyrology
at Venice in the year 1578, therefore that will have been older,
if any Horologion he saw, either written by hand or printed.
We have seen no such: but, [nor in the Horologion which Galesini cites;]
if it be permitted to argue from this that there too was printed
in the year 1607, equally gratuitously is cited by Galesini
the Horologion, as by Baronius the Menology,
and neither of them saw with their own eyes. For indeed
in that which we have, as I said, the Horologion, twice are recounted
the Saints of the several months, and in both places
St. Eusebius of Samosata is found alone on this day.
But books of this kind, as often as they are reprinted, are wont to be increased
rather with Saints than diminished. Deservedly therefore we shall suspect,
that Galesini, lapsed in memory, wrote there not what he had read,
but what he falsely imagined himself to have read.

[11] From producing Authors (of whom the scanty
number Baronius begins with the supposititious Beda) in the aforecited
Notes one proceeds to Radulphus and his words
above, number 3, cited are quoted, [that there was also no Roman Martyrology in which this passion was referred to,] asserting,
(until he sees otherwise) that what is held about
the ten thousand Martyrs is fabulously feigned, and adding
that their Passion is "neither in any authentic
Martyrology noted, nor their
day at Rome in any ancient Calendar found."
To which Baronius; We wonder, he says,
that a man otherwise learned and grave, so hastily
about these Martyrs uttered a sentence,
who at least by the authority of the Roman Martyrology ought to have been
restrained; nor in vain to make exception about the Roman
Calendar: since one is the reason of the Martyrology,
another of the Calendar, where only those Saints
are wont to be written, whose ecclesiastical Office
is recited. Hasty indeed here this very
Baronius might be called, [when he died, Radulphus de Rivo reprobating these very Acts in the year 1403.] saving the reverence due to him.
In the year one thousand four hundred third, on
the day of St. Humbert, namely the third day of the month
of November, died Master Radulphus of Breda,
otherwise de Rivo, Dean while he lived of the church
of blessed Mary of Tongeren, of the fatherland and diocese
of Liège; as in the Calendar of the church of Tongeren
is found, by the witness of Melchior Hittorp,
who inserted that very book of Radulphus at Paris in the year 1610 into
the Collection of ancient writers on the divine
Offices and Mysteries of the Catholic Church. He wrote
therefore in the 14th century. But then no
Roman Martyrology was yet named: but throughout the whole
City was read Usuard, increased at the discretion of each transcriber, [all used Usuard,]
in whose copy however in none does Radulphus assert that those
Martyrs were found by him; and
in this a learned and grave man (which his works testify)
altogether deserves to find credence: nor in vain
also did he name the Calendars. For just as various
churches at Rome then worshipped some Saints proper
to themselves, not yet inscribed in the Martyrology of Usuard;
so too some could have inscribed in their Calendars the 10,000
Martyrs, if any Office about them they had made
at Rome, such as we shall see below the Poles somewhere assumed.

[12] First Bellinus of Padua the Augustinian,
having obtained from some Master of the Pontifical Chapel (which office
then was, and is even now, among the Augustinians) a copy of that Martyrology, [which under the year 1498 Bellinus caused to be reprinted according to the use of the Roman Court] which perhaps
then that Chapel used; reprinting Usuard about the end
of the 15th century, prefixed the title of the Martyrology
according to the use of the Roman Court; but whether
to it he added nothing of his own, is not clear to us:
this we know, that from such a beginning began to be named
the Roman Martyrology, which was nothing else
than Usuard moderately and by private authority only
interpolated: in which, since many things were faulty,
more lacking, everywhere grieved all the most renowned
churches throughout Italy, and by the decree of Trent, desiring to conform themselves
to the use of the Roman Breviary and indeed also the Martyrology;
it pleased Gregory
XIII to mandate to certain learned and pious men,
of whom almost the chief was Baronius, that they should not only revise
the Martyrology hitherto in use, [and which by the authority of Gregory XIII greatly increased,] and
purge it from errors if any were found; but
also supply Saints of great name that were lacking.
This they did indeed liberally, from Sirleto's
manuscript Menology, from Molanus's Additions to Usuard,
from the Tables of particular Churches; nay
even they assumed many, of whom hitherto no
cult had existed in any Church, nor was the day of death
known; but whose virtue and singular holiness was found
commended by the sacred scriptures or the holy Fathers.

[13] The work thus composed, and for the narrowness of the time,
in which it was permitted to attend to it, accurately diligent,
the Roman Pontiff sanctioned to be published; [it is not free from many errors that can still be corrected;] just as before
he had ordered to be published in like manner the revised and increased
Breviary; testifying to the diligence applied for the time,
which he could truly testify; but of the certitude of the individual
histories there touched, nothing:
otherwise there would have been no place for so many corrections afterward made in
both, nor would there be so many new ones, which
the Cardinal Presidents of the sacred Rites, and their Secretaries,
not unwillingly acknowledge still remain to be made.
A whole and perfect correction, the most learned Florentinius judged was then at last to be hoped for,
in his Admonitions prefixed to the older Martyrology of the Western
Church, page 51, when,
the work being completed which we are endeavoring to undertake, after one
century namely, [nor can it be held as a rule of the history to be maintained about the Saints,] another most wise Pontiff
will again mandate the Roman Martyrology to be emended and
enriched. And so by the authority of this which now we use,
we are so far from being forbidden, if there be any
doubtful or false things, to note them; that we are even the more spurred
to strive with all our strength in aid of so desired
a correction. And let these things be said to those, who
by excessive weakness either of mind, or by pertinacity in defending
their own prejudices, grieve, that not all
whatever in the Martyrology and Breviary are now
read, are received with closed eyes, and held as it were canonized,
against the known and often-indicated mind of the
Roman Pontiffs, favoring our endeavors.

[14] Now while thus on every side the pretended antiquity
of the witnesses falls, [while the examples brought forward to prove the number do nothing,] asserting the 10,000 Crucified;
nothing greatly, to confirm the probability of the number,
does that multitude of Jews, of whom
daily five hundred the Romans crucified, during
the siege of Jerusalem; or the two
thousand of them, by their own King Alexander; or
as many thousands of Tyrians, by Alexander the Macedonian;
or finally the six thousand slaves, by Augustus
Caesar, if we believe Orosius, ordered to be fixed to crosses.
For who would believe Orosius, a writer of the 5th century,
about so great a butchery, ascribed to the mildest of Princes,
in the silence of so many writers near him and treating the affairs of Augustus
most accurately. Of the Jews under Titus so great a number,
yet successively, to be crucified;
appears a far different cause; the rest, and those
perhaps much exaggerated beyond the truth, are only
a fifth part of those, who are said to have been crucified on Mount
Ararat. [especially in a history so doubtful as this is:] But that ten and more
centuries after the time of the Emperor Hadrian, the history of such a Martyrdom
first published into the light, to anyone might seem credible
for the number, if not precisely that, yet some
great one; ought it not at least to be
such, as, consonant in other circumstances to the more certain
history of that time, would have nothing
besides the number about which one could doubt? But
not even Baronius himself dares to deny, that in these Acts
there are some things which need some emendation,
but slight, says he, "which in almost all others
happens." This therefore let us see whether by him
who shall attentively read each thing, which to the hurrying Baronius
perhaps there was no leisure, it could prudently be so esteemed,
that those things are such, as need only a slight
correction.

[15] The chief parts in this tragedy are played by Hadrian
and Antoninus the Emperors, having nothing
in common between themselves, [where Hadrian and Antoninus are badly joined] much less the Empire, except that
the former adopted the latter, six months before his death, undergone
in the year 138, as Caesar with the right of succession.
Against these are said to have rebelled the Gadarenes and the people of the Euphrates,
of whom these held the last province of Syria toward the North,
otherwise Commagene; those the first
toward the south in Coelesyria; that is,
by the interval of almost all Syria, and indeed by a space
of almost eighty leagues, or 200 and more miles, separated
from one another. [The Gadarenes and the people of the Euphrates:] Against these with nine thousand
the Emperors advanced, and at the unexpected meeting of a hundred
thousand terrified, with seven
only men took to flight, nine
thousand remaining in the field; and
after taking up the faith of Christ, preached to them in that very place
by an appearing Angel, attacking the enemy intrepidly
and routing them. And such
and so dangerous a war, by so few
so quickly finished, should have merited no place in the Roman
histories in Dio, [about whom a hitherto-unheard victory is miraculously related,] Xiphilinus,
Capitolinus, namely the same who the victory
divinely reported over the Marcomanni, under Marcus
Aurelius the successor of Antoninus, so magnificently described;
although they dissemble that it was obtained by the prayers
of the Christians, of whom one whole Legion consisted,
from the event called the Thundering? as at length
pursues Baronius himself at the year 176.

[16] Victory thus won, the Angel of the Lord led
the Saints to the summit of Mount Ararat, which
towers above all the mountains of Armenia, and is distant
about five hundred stadia, that is, hourly leagues
about 24, from the city of Alexandria. This space distant is Alexandria of Syria from Taurus, the mountain
of lesser Armenia, which thence, by ridges continued through Greater
Armenia, is connected to Caucasus or
the Caspian mountains, where is believed to have settled the Noachic
ark. Moses in Genesis VIII wrote "the Mountains of Ararath"
in his own language, which the Vulgate reading turns "the Mountains
of Armenia"; [by the 9,000 afterward led to Mount Ararat by the Angel:] so that not of a mountain but of a region the name
that seems to be, and indeed by the sole Sacred Writer
used 14 centuries before Christ
was born: but afterward known to none of so many of the ancient
Geographers of the gentiles, nor even to Christian
Authors, except insofar as they take that passage of Scripture
to be explained by them, and seek the place of the Ark
resting, from which the aforesaid Alexandria
is distant not by stadia, but by five hundred miles.
Plainly so that the Author seems to have affected a foreign name,
in naming the roots of the mountain Taurus near Syria,
ineptly altogether and out of time. But
let this be reckoned among the lighter matters.

[17] Graver it is, nor to be digested by any stomach however
iron, [against whom the five Kings summoned brought 5,000,000 within 30 days.] that Hadrian and Antoninus
the Emperors, against their soldiers sought and found
to be Christians, and unbending from the religion taken up,
by written letters summoned five other Kings;
namely Sapor the Greatest, Hadrian,
Tiberian and Maximian. These
within the thirtieth day, from which the Saints had ascended
the mountain, gathered and brought an army,
in which were numbered Soldiers with a rustic
band a hundred thousand fifty; to whom,
besides the Kings themselves, there were Prefects ten, Patricians
fifty, Counts and Masters of soldiers
and Tribunes two hundred. For an insipid
writer indeed, who in so short a time, which would scarcely have sufficed
for bearing letters into diverse kingdoms, believed
so great a multitude gathered! more inept,
that with such great forces prepared close at hand the Emperors
led out only nine thousand, against the rebels'
hundred thousand. The other faults, not to say falsehoods, of the inelegant
fiction, the Reader will easily judge for himself;
nor do I doubt that, all things weighed, he will judge
the whole fiction emendable by no correction, so as to put on some appearance
of probable history.

[18] But since there is almost no fiction, which has not
some foundation elsewhere; nor hitherto am I able to divine,
why to the aforesaid Crucified the day
of June 22 was assigned, [The fable seems taken] nowhere in the Acts
of whatever kind expressed, but only in the title; it pleases me to suspect
that some Companions of that St. Acacius or
Agathius the Soldier, of whom as having suffered at Byzantium
we treated on the 8th of May, were brought into Italy; and since
of them and of their Leader no Acts existed
(for those which we now gave in Greek-Latin seem by no means ancient,
and composed indeed with greater judgment, but with knowledge
in no way more certain, as most Greek ones)
since, I say, no Acts existed, of that St. Acacius,
that there was one who would invent certain things of his own, so
unhappily as we have seen; encouraged perhaps by the success
of the Acts of St. Meletius, [from the Acts of St. Acacius, 8th of May.] everywhere received though most fabulous
they be. With these certainly each Acacius has in common
the Emperor Hadrian and Maximus
the Leader or King; visitations and heavenly voices,
and the burial of all cared for by Angelic ministry.
It can also be, that just as that Acacius
suffered with his companions at Byzantium; so another with
a retinue of many suffered in Armenia; and the Relics
in the time of the holy war were carried to Europe to Squillace
in Calabria; and there (for it was a town of Greek
language and rite) were written in Greek such absurd
Acts which some impostor under the name of Anastasius
or Athanasius the Librarian translated into Latin
in the 13th century.

§. III. How the cult of these so doubtful Martyrs was propagated among various peoples,
nay how even Relics were believed to be had:
and how most were drawn to Spain.

[19] Whoever was the Author of the Acts hitherto ventilated,
used a most apt invention for moving popular
devotion, [Therefore the things which they are feigned to have prayed when dying,] in that he made the pretended Martyrs
(as also the other Saints are feigned to have done,
whom we commonly call Helpers) ask of God, about
the time of their passion, that whoever should celebrate the memory
of their passion with fasting
and silence, might merit … health of bodies
and of souls, and in their houses an abundance of all
goods, and that the day of that fast
might conclude one penitential year
for those observing it. But this, since it was greatly esteemed
at that time, in which the use and zeal for seeking similar Indulgences
prevailed; had credulous faithful everywhere,
there being added probably the approval of some
Pontiff. Thus in a Sacramentary of years,
if not seven hundred, certainly five hundred,
which at Rome Mabillon asserts he saw, and other Calendars
it is written at this 22nd day that their Vigil,
(namely of one thousand 1480, where the number
ten before "thousand" could by the carelessness of copyists have dropped out)
with fasting and silence is to be celebrated;
and it was granted to those, who should so celebrate, or
to the very Martyrs praying for it, to remit
one year of penance.

[20] These privileges thus asked and obtained (as was presumed),
since others added many other things,
about which below, through almost all the Churches of the West
of them equally as of others, [The 10,480 Martyrs are reckoned among the Helper Saints] whom Helpers
from a similar cause I have already indicated to be called, prevailed a most renowned
cult, even into Denmark and Sweden.
Thus we understand that the feast is celebrated, and indeed under
the rite of a double with an Office of 9 Lessons, in Poland
at Cracow and at Włocławek; thus at Paris in the church
of the Celestine Fathers, these things are read in French:
"The Reverend Father in God, Lord Charles
de Bourbon Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon,
laid the first stone of this church,
in honor and reverence of the ten thousand
Martyrs, whose feast is celebrated before
the Vigil of St. John the Baptist." Thus Jacques du
Breul in book 3 of the Antiquities of Paris, page 918,
relating consequently two Distichs thus written, in
the Chapel of those very Saints, whose Dedication
is recalled on the 10th of October:
"Of the worthy Pontiff Louis of Paris,
      the fabric which you behold, dedicated by his mouth, shines,
1482.
This divine chapel, to the ten thousand Crucified,
      from the gifts of the people freely was built."
This is Louis de Beaumont, ordained in the year
1473, deceased in the 92nd of the same century:
Bourbon from the year 1470 to 88 governed the Church
of Lyon.

[21] [they began in various places to be more solemnly worshipped;] I have also a fragment of a Missal anciently printed,
where among several other sequences is placed
the proper of the ten thousand Martyrs, and that
quite long with this beginning:
"The harmonious voice of jubilee, solemnizing the kingdom
of God,
      let it penetrate the heavenly things."
and, after their Passion described in a similar rhythm,
at the end it thus concludes:
"Like sheep they are made victims, they are spat upon,
they are scourged,
Bound, they are crowned with thorns, the balsam of charity:
Crucified, pierced with a lance, glad to suffer the death of death,
The Spouses born without a father hasten into the bridal chamber.
Whatever they wish to obtain they can with
the Saving One, [with a proper sequence,]
to give to their suppliants the protections sought.
O you who are partakers of so many triumphs of the heavenly
court,
us, intent on your feasts, deliver (for
you can)
      from all destruction:
Lest we endure a repulse, when the last day is at hand,
Lest with the guilty we be exiled, but with the worthy obtain
      the choice of glory. Amen."
From another Missal our Rosweyde received two proper
Masses, one for the Vigil, the other for
the feast: and in this the first Prayer is such: "May
the glorious supplication of the holy Martyrs help
your Church, O God: [with a proper Mass.] and may we feel the intervention
of those whose wonderful triumph we receive on this present
day, with your clemency." Then for the Preface, after "Almighty
eternal God," it is prescribed to be added: "Who
the pious contests of your holy Martyrs
to a copious victory you lead, and a perpetual
triumph you bestow on them, that to your Church
they may always be for an example. Grant us,
O Lord, eternal King, that through the intercession
of those, whose feasts today we celebrate,
we may feel the gifts of your piety, through Christ
our Lord. And therefore." Finally after the Utrecht
Compendium this Collect is read: "O God,
who to imitate the example of your holy Passion,
made the ten thousand Martyrs undergo the gibbet of the cross;
grant propitiously, that we
who venerate their passion, may obtain the remedies of your
passion."

[22] Moreover from the conjectures placed above it nearly appears,
what can be answered to various Churches which
think they have the Relics of St. Achacius or Acacius and his Companions,
and religiously venerate them; [What further is to be thought about the Relics at Prague?] namely,
either that they are of another Acacius, or of other
Anonymous Martyrs, handed over and received under that
nomenclature, in good, but all too simple
faith; and that such a cult, without injury to anyone
and with the certain praise of God and the Saints, may be continued
even for this day. At Prague, in the Metropolitan
church of St. Vitus, its Dean writes that there is had
one head and some fragments, tied in a little bag;
and two notable parts. Likewise
one reliquary of wood gilded, full
of their bones of notable quantity:
another also of wood with glass, full of the Relics
of the same Saints. Among those of Karlstein
also diverse parts, and one specifically
from the jawbone. Our College of Emmerich
has among those Relics, of which only from the name
affixed it is established, nor is it known whence or by whom
they were brought, a bone from the hip, broad, and another
almost whole from the Company of St. Achacius; and these,
enclosed in a copper chest skillfully made, it sets forth
on the altar on this day. At Avignon too we have heard, in
the Metropolitan church of St. Mary of the Gifts, there is had
an arm of one of those, and therefore an Office
double is made. Likewise at Rome in the Gallican church
of St. Louis, and at Bologna in various sacred buildings,
by the witness of Masini: [at Emmerich, Vienna and elsewhere] also at Abbeville in Normandy,
and at Cologne Agrippina on the Rhine. Nay at Vienna
in Austria at the Cathedral Basilica four
Bodies are believed to be had, as became known to us
from a Lipsanography sent thence. The same one may opine
about the Church of Le Puy in which a double feast is celebrated
on the 23rd of June. And that one indeed and another
perhaps several not yet known to me, suffer
those, whose Relics it holds, to be Anonymous. But the people of Sutera
in Sicily, by the witness of Rocco Pirri, volume 2, page
150, [likewise in Sicily,] glory that they have of St. Achirio, one
of the ten thousand Martyrs, two bones,
and some of his fingers. But I, treating of St.
Pulinus their fellow-patron, at the Life of St. Paulinus
of Nola, judged that Achirio and his two companions,
there named, have nothing in common with
Acacius, the Primicerius of the aforesaid 10,000, as
the Acts call him; just as neither with St. Paulinus of Nola.

[23] About the Spaniards I have already said, at May number 10,
before the Acts of St. Acacius of Byzantium: that they believe,
that his Relics are those, which they have in the churches
of Avila and Cuenca: but the Portuguese, as it is
in Cardoso, [and in Spain,] think that they have the Relics of that Acacius,
who is worshipped on this day: whence in his Notes
he writes thus. In the church of the Holy Trinity of Lisbon,
there was had once a part of him so notable,
that the Religious celebrated the feast under the rite of a Double;
which part afterward was translated though by a pious theft greatly diminished, into
the chapel of All Saints. But also at Barrauci,
in the Bishopric of Coimbra, is kept
and renowned for various miracles, with great
concourse it is honored, on the first Octave of the Easter
of Flowers, on account of the Jubilee which the Prior of the place
obtained from Rome; [and in Portugal.] and on account of a public fair.
Where the Easter of Flowers seems to be called, what
to the Italians is the Easter of Roses, that is, Pentecost: for
Palm Sunday, otherwise also wont to be called
"the flowery Easter," what Octave can it have? Cardoso
goes on: Of St. Eliodus too, the leader next
after Acacius, the head is had in the convent
of the Poor Clares of Cetrobriga, together with an indulgence
for this day granted by Paul V, under
the date of the year 1607. But whence then was it known that he
pertains to this day, when twenty years before,
writing of that Convent, Francisco Gonzaga, then
General of the Order, says page 1014, [Not content with these, the Pseudo-Dexter and his followers] that there is kept
the head of a certain unknown Martyr of Christ,
as very many wish, or of the Divine Eliodus, who shed his blood
for the Catholic faith. But the companion
of Acacius in the Acts is called not Eliodus, but Eliades.
Finally the Nuns of Celas, says
the same Cardoso, in the territory of Coimbra,
are most devoted to those holy Soldiers, from
time immemorial celebrating this their
feast; on account of the many which they continually
work miracles through their Relics, together
with others of other Saints kept in an elegant
silver case, which in the year 1532
the Lady Abbess of that place, Eleonora Vasconcellos,
took care to have made.

[24] It had escaped the Author of the whole fable, to name
the fatherland of so many and such Martyrs; and so not to be omitted
seemed that occasion to the compilers of the Dextrine figments, [they feigned that most were Spaniards,]
and that something should be dared by which either all
or part of them they might draw into their Spain.
Since therefore in the Palencia, and some other Spanish
old Breviaries, was read a certain Epitome of the Acts
published under the name of Anastasius;
where besides, nay against the very sense of the Acts,
it was said, that there suffered with those ten
thousand, St. Hermolaus the Bishop (the Codex of Rebdorf
says Archbishop) who had baptized the holy
Martyrs; whom also their proper Hymns mention,
published from the Compostela Breviary
by Tamayo; since, I say, these things there
were read, [and instructed by Hermolaus Archbishop of Toledo] their Pseudo-Dexter was ordered thus
to write, at the year 134: "Ten thousand Martyrs
on Ararat, their Master and Companion Hermolaus
Archbishop of Toledo": to which added
equally the Pseudo-Maximus, "These holy Soldiers were
for the greater part Spaniards"; and the Pseudo-Julian,
"of whom he had converted a good part by his preaching
to the faith, or had baptized in Spain:
wherefore, leaving Aulus
Pelagius Agrippa successor of his diocese, he follows to Rome,
and thence to Armenia."

[25] All these things, that he might reconcile them with the Acts, Tamayo
feigned, that that youth, who promised to those about to enter the battle
victory, if they should embrace the faith of Christ, [and that the bodies were buried by Audentius the successor.]
and who after the victory more fully instructed those led back into
the mountain, confessing himself an Angel; was Hermolaus:
who "as the Angel of the Lord stood
among them." Then, the pseudo-chronicle of Julian going before him,
Tamayo adds that, after much time,
Audentius, Bishop of Toledo (I know not
who), having followed the exiles into Armenia, knowing that
his (Hermolaus's) relics lay buried without honor
(when yet in the Acts it is feigned that
the Relics of all alike there by Angelic hands
merited burial) caused those to be honorably
placed, in the year 396. And hence perhaps
Sancho Davila Bishop of Avila so firmly
believed, that in his Oratory he had two heads and
something of garments, namely brought by Hermolaus,
returned to Spain: which the same one could have estimated
about the rest, which under that title throughout Europe were had,
as other Relics. Meanwhile nothing about Hermolaus,
nothing about the ten Thousand knew the ancient Armenians
(as I have said); which alone almost could suffice to hold the whole matter at least
suspect. Yet lest you only suspect it,
but also know it; behold for you the very Acts.

ACTS

From our parchment manuscript, once of Vaucelles, collated with various.

The Martyrs crucified on Mount Ararat. The Samaritan Martyrs in Palestine under Gosroes. BHL Number: 0020

AUTHOR D. P., FROM MANUSCRIPTS

HERE BEGINS THE PROLOGUE

of Athanasius (or Anastasius) Librarian of the Apostolic See. On the Passion of the ten thousand (otherwise one thousand four hundred) Martyrs.

To Peter, distinguished Bishop of the holy Church of Savina, Anastasius, Librarian of the supreme and Apostolic See, greeting in the Lord.

[1] After I had translated, at the request
of your Holiness, the Passion of the chief
Doctor and Martyr d) Peter, Patriarch of the City
of Alexandria, it pleased You to command
me, that the Passion of the holy e) many,
of whom among the Greeks there is a remarkable record,
we should hand over in Latin speech. But considering
the inexperience of my little knowledge, first
indeed I did not presume to undertake this;
but afterward, [The Interpreter, after rendering into Latin the Life of St. Peter of Alexandria] avoiding to appear to your Paternity
disobedient, I obeyed; and what you commanded,
helped from heaven, I fulfilled; preferring among the learned
to be reprehended for ignorance, than before
your Paternity for disobedience to be shown
culpable: especially since your Holiness, burning
in love of these Martyrs, does not attend to the rusticity
of a foreign tongue, transformed
into Attic speech, of which the Apostles
before their calling were not without, as is manifest;
but their triumphs, which from that
less urbane skill they can somehow know, [undertakes to turn this passion also.]
they are able to consider, in what manner
to the multitude of these holy ones they may show the greatest veneration,
who desire to be partakers of them in the kingdom of heaven.
May your Paternity long well prevail
in the Lord, and may he deign always to pray
for us. Amen.

Receive, Father, kindly, the deeds of many
pious ones:
which a rustic pen from the Achaean volume f) has turned.

NOTES OF D. P.

a) "Athanasius" in ours, "Anastasius" in the Vatican manuscript. Here only 1400, there 10,000 are reckoned: and the same number, in both is repeated under the same diversity, before the beginning and after the end of the Acts.

b) Our manuscript wrongly "from the region"; elsewhere too for "Peter" is "to the distinguished Father," what if it should be read "to Father Gregory"? which name the writers may have corrupted. Such certainly among the Bishops of Sabina are found in four centuries consecutively, namely in the year 826, 929, 1078, and 1163.

c) In our manuscript "Savinensis," in the Vatican "Gavinensis," in both with u in place of b, according to the use of the Middle Ages in which these were first written or feigned.

d) The ancient Greek Acts of St. Peter Francis Combefis published, quite different from those which commonly are had in Latin, and he doubts whether those are which Anastasius says he translated: which can be examined on the 26th of November; meanwhile I already warn that the published Latin ones differ in style from those Lives of the Pontiffs, which it is established are those of Anastasius the Librarian.

e) In the Vatican here only is written "of the holy four hundred eighty Martyrs," the thousand also being omitted.

f) These verses are had in the Vatican alone, but the Greek volume nowhere hitherto could be found; and whether any ever existed, is deservedly doubted.

CHAPTER I.

The victory won by the Saints instructed in the faith: and their prayer, when they understood the coming of seven Kings against them.

[2] Therefore, our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord,
the Son of the eternal and true God, appearing
in the world, as the Psalmist sang, "Truth
has arisen from the earth, and great Justice has shone
from heaven" upon the earth-born, rousing the just
to piety: of whose number were
the most blessed men Acacius a) the Primicerius, and
Eliades the Leader, and Theodore Master of the Soldiers
and Carterius b) the Camp-instructor, with their other
nine thousand comrades, who on
one day for the name of Christ were slain. [Ps. 84. 12]
But how they suffered, and in what order also
they merited to come to the heavenly seats, the following discourse
hastens faithfully to set forth. c)

[3] When Hadrian d) and Antoninus governed the reins of the Roman
Empire, the Gadarenes and
e) the people of the Euphrates, withdrawing themselves from their dominion,
began to rebel. When this had been made known to the aforesaid
Emperors, [The two Emperors with 9,000 having set out against the rebels,] moved with excessive
anger, immediately against the enemies they pitched camp,
having in their army nine
f) thousand men, of the greatest valor and robust,
whom the secular warfare held strenuous
in warlike affairs. So came the day of battle:
and behold, both armies for fighting came into the field.
Now the said Emperors had
with them images of Apollo and Jupiter,
by whom they trusted that they could obtain victory over their enemies. [coming into the field against 100,000 they take to flight.] But when they perceived the very great multitude
of the enemies (for they were a hundred
thousand) struck with strong faintness, and inwardly
stricken with excessive fear, with seven
g) men only they take to flight.

[4] [Their army also flees,] The Emperors turned to flight, the Primicerius
named Acacius and Eliades the Leader, turned
to the nine thousand, said: O brother men,
what seems good to you, either to take to flight
or to stand as brave soldiers? Come therefore and let us sacrifice
to our gods, that through them over the enemies
we may be able to obtain a triumph. And as they sacrificed
a kid of a she-goat, with more abundant
fear they were dismayed, so that the rush
of flight they seized. But when into flight
they were turning, there is present the Angel of the Lord before their
face, running like a young man: who said
to Acacius: Why has fear invaded you, sacrificing
to your gods, so that you were forced into flight,
making a great laughingstock of yourselves?
But hear me, men; and this, which to you
I lay open, [but admonished by the Angel to invoke Christ,] quickly fulfill. Try to invoke the heavenly
God, who stretched out the vault of the heavens,
and founded the earth upon its stability;
who also through his Angel a hundred and eighty-
five thousand, of the army of Sennacherib
King of the Assyrians, slew, and put him to flight.
Therefore believe, that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, the immortal King; and he himself
will fight for you, and will make you safe.

[5] When these words the Angel had conferred in their ears;
Acacius said to Eliades and the rest of his
comrades: What then, Brothers, seems good
to you? Eliades said: Let us try the experiment
of this counsel; and, as this youth
has spoken to us, let us do. Then all with
one mouth cried out, [he wins the victory.] saying: We believe
in you, Lord, and those things, which to us this youth
has set forth, we promise that we will do in your
name. But the Saints believing in the Lord,
and making an assault on the enemies, all
their adversaries, his Angel bringing help,
fell, and many perished in a lake
which was near, [Translated by the same to Mount Ararat,] but others perished by a precipice.
The adversaries being consumed by diverse
deaths, the Angel of the Lord receiving the Saints,
led them to the summit of the mountain which is called
Ararat, glorying in the power of the Lord: but distant
is Mount Ararat from the city h) of Alexandria
about five hundred stadia i).

[6] But the Angel sitting in the midst of the Saints, the heavens were opened, and there descended seven
Angels among them: [and he is confirmed in faith.] whom when the Saints had seen,
with great terror they were dismayed. But the Angel,
who first had appeared to them,
strengthening them; Do not fear, he said: for they
are Angels. Then for the first time that Angel too,
who spoke to the Saints, was recognized by
them; but those Angels took care so to manifest themselves,
as the fragility of the human condition is able
to grasp. And teaching them and saying:
Blessed are you, who have believed in the living
God: we announce therefore to you, the things which are about to be.
After the third day you will be sought and into
the sight of Kings led: but do not fear,
because God is with you: for he keeps
the bones of those, who believe in him. When
the Angels had finished these things, from their eyes they were taken away.
Then, seized with terror, the Saints, with a great
voice confessed their sins.

[7] But three k) days having passed, the Emperors sought
them, [The Emperors, this being heard,] saying: What
do you think those soldiers have become? For we, fleeing,
in no way prevailed. What therefore
shall we say? or what shall we do? After
these things they sent certain soldiers to seek
them. Who, going, came to the mountain,
on which the Saints were: and beholding them,
they recognized that they were Christians: for they heard
them glorify and bless the Lord:
and descending from the mountain, they reported
to the Emperors. When they had heard this,
dismayed with excessive grief, they put ashes
and dust upon their heads, [they summon five other Kings,] and for five
days took no drink, wasted away with dire mourning.
But five days having passed, they treated
among themselves, to convoke five other Kings,
and before seven Kings there should be an examination
of those Saints. And as they sat,
they wrote a letter, containing this
sense: To the most invincible Kings Sapor, Maximus,
Hadrian, Tiberian and Maximian, the Augusti
l) most renowned of the Romans, Hadrian and Antoninus,
greeting. We make known to you, that
we had a war against the Gadarenes and the people of the Euphrates,
in which nine thousand of the strongest
we had: but when we beheld the multitude
of the adversaries, greatly terrified, the protection
of flight we seized with seven soldiers;
m) but there remained in the contest nine thousand
fighters: and joining battle, [letters being sent to them about the deed done.]
which is marvelous to hear, a hundred
thousand of the adversaries being laid low, the victory they obtained.
We hearing these things, great victims poured out
to our gods, for so great a victory celebrated, and with great
joy rejoiced. But afterward we fell
into the worst straits, hearing that
they had become Christians, and on a high mountain
dwell, which towers above the other mountains
of Armenia. Come therefore to us, and thence
deliberate with us what is to be done. Farewell.

[8] The letters being received, therefore, the five Kings
and read, with great sadness were beset:
and gathering a very great n) army of strong
men, they came to the aforesaid o)
city, in which were the already-said Emperors. [They are present with a very great army.]
First indeed victims to the gods they immolated,
and afterward they dined, and then
to seek the new soldiers of Christ they busied themselves.
But those who were sent, ascended the summit of the mountain,
on which the Saints dwelt entreating the Lord.
But when they perceived them coming to them,
Acacius said to his comrades,
Rise, brothers, and let us give heed to prayer:
for the devil has directed to us his own
army.

[9] Bowing therefore their necks, they prayed
with bent knee, saying; O incomparable God
and incomprehensible, who formed man from the clay
of the earth, and conferred on him the honor
of your image; [he directed your Holy Spirit
to the virgin Mary, that it might overshadow her, in order that from her might be born the dearest
Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Hear us, omnipotent God, who to us
deigned to send your holy Angel,
that he might show us the way of truth: through
whom also over our enemies, your servants,
you granted victory, and led us out onto this
summit of the mountain, and nourished us with heavenly food
through the circle of thirty days. Do not permit
us to fall under the servile snare of the enemy, [The Saints understanding that they are sought] lest
his audacity be able to conquer the constancy of your servants;
that, insulting, he may by no means be able to say
against us, "I prevailed against them." Come,
Lord Jesus, and share with us
in our passions, and snatch us from disturbance
and fear, and extinguish the ferocity
of the wicked Kings. You, Lord, who deigned
to say and pronounce through your Angel,
that we are to be judged before seven Kings.
From now and unto the age,
praises and ineffable thanks, to you God omnipotent
we render. Amen. As the Saints
said these things, a voice came down from heaven, saying to them:
I the Lord, [and they are encouraged by a heavenly voice.] glorious in the council of the Saints,
have heard what praying you have asked: and do not fear
those who kill the body, but to the soul
they can by no means make an impediment:
for I the Lord am with you, comforting you.
But the Saints hearing this voice given them
from heaven, with great joy rejoiced and
exulted in the Lord.

NOTES OF D. P.

a) In the Vatican always "Acatius," or "Acacius."

b) About the Camp-instructors see Du Cange in his Glossary: they err who think it should be written "Camp-leaders": although these too are known in ancient writings.

c) The beginning of the Vatican manuscript is in a few words thus completed: "Our Savior Jesus Christ appearing, great justice arose, rousing the just to piety. But I shall say how the holy Martyrs suffered; on what occasion too they merited such grace." And so more often through the course is found contracted that manuscript; and therefore ours, though more recent, I preferred to follow.

d) Although one year before his death, in the year 138 of Christ, Antoninus adopted Hadrian; yet he was not of such health, being grievously dropsical, as to be able to set out to war, about which see Aelius Spartianus.

e) Only the people of the Euphrates names the Vatican manuscript: in number 7 are prefixed to them the Gadarenes, whence it appears by the carelessness of the copyist they were here omitted.

f) The same: "They chose one thousand four hundred eighty men, powerful in strength," and yet Acacius is said soon below to address nine thousand.

g) There: "With seven thousand": and this too below, number 17, is repeated, and it would be more congruous to nine thousand, led out into the field.

h) The same: "But the mountain is distant from the city Aratha," of which city there is nowhere any knowledge. But Alexandria, how far it is distant from Armenia (namely the nearest Syrian one, for others are farther off elsewhere) I have already premonished.

i) The Vatican "about five stadia"; and certainly the author, wishing to indicate the situation of the mountain, ought to have named the nearby city: but in Armenia there is no Alexandria.

k) The same "four," less congruously to the number prenoted.

l) More ineptly is read in the Vatican manuscript "to the most renowned Augusti," and the names of the writers contrary to custom are omitted. It is not however foreign to the reign of Hadrian for Kings to be named: for Aelius Spartianus in his Life names various, with whom he cultivated friendship, and "left all things beyond the Euphrates and Tigris by the example of Cato, who pronounced the Macedonians free, because they could not be held … to the Armenians he permitted to have a King. The Albanians and Iberians he held most friendly, because he pursued their Kings with largesses. The Kings of the Bactrians sent legates to him for the sake of seeking friendship." But it is ridiculous, that to all are given Latin names, except the first of them, Sapor.

m) Here again, and thereafter several times, in the Vatican it is "with seven thousand"; and those who remained are said to have been one thousand four hundred eighty.

n) Below, number 12, "a hundred thousand fifty": but the Utrecht Compendium says that the army of the Kings was 30 thousand.

o) The Vatican "into the city Aratha," as above.

CHAPTER II.

The Saints, having steadfastly professed the faith before the tyrants, are scourged and crowned with thorns.

[10] Then there came to them the soldiers of the Kings,
saying: The Emperors sent us to you,
and the Kings who are with them, [The Saints are exhibited to the Kings:] that coming
you may descend to them. And descending
from the mountain, they stood before the standard of the King, having
whole hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But the Kings seeing them wept.
And Hadrian said to them: Why, good soldiers,
did you wish to do this? Make plain to me,
who persuaded you to forsake the Gods, and
believe in the Crucified? Do you not know that we have power
to put you to death today? [whose Leader Acacius,] Blessed Acacius
answered: Well, King, have you spoken, that
to you power is given of putting to death: for truly
the death of the body you can inflict; but the soul
no one can put to death except Christ,
who has the power of putting to death and of making alive.
But if you wish to know, how in Christ
we believe, now to you all the truth of the matter
we make known.

[11] As we were going into battle, Hadrian
and Antoninus, fearing the multitude of the adversaries,
took to flight together with seven
soldiers: but we, [he explains how they were converted to Christ.] having images of Jupiter
and Apollo, sacrificed to them one kid,
thinking that their help would be present to us:
but it profited us nothing, so that, invaded by greater
fear, we took to flight. But the Angel
of the Lord, appearing to us in the likeness of a man,
chid us, why we should fear sacrificing
to idols. To whom answering we said, that no
help from them could we find. Who
said to us, Believe in the God of heaven, who is powerful
in battle. And when he had evangelized to us
Christ the Son of God, we believed in him:
and at that very hour fell our enemies: and
they fell into a deep lake, and some
of them by a precipice perished: and all
the enemies being taken away, the Angel of the Lord lifted us up
into Mount Ararat. [and he scorns their threats.] But as we stood on
the summit of the mountain, we saw the heavens opened, and
there descended into our midst seven Angels.
And as we feared, the Angel who was with us
said: Do not fear: for they are
Angels, my brothers. For these said
to us: Blessed are you, who have believed in the living
God. We prophesy therefore to you the things which
afterward you are to suffer. After three days the Emperors will seek
you; and in the sight of seven
Kings you will be judged. But do not fear them,
because God omnipotent, your helper in all things
will be. These things the Angels having spoken, departed
from us, and ascended into heaven.
But we were sustained with heavenly food on this
mountain. This is the certain knowledge, by which we have known
the heavenly God: and thence is that we
about your threats and torments by no means care.

[12] Hadrian the Emperor said to Acacius: O
enemy of our gods, [The same insult Eliades.] how greatly have you philosophized,
so that into our ears to inflict deafness
you have not feared, who are reckoned to be lords
of heaven and earth. Acacius answered:
You seven Kings, to seven foxes you are likened,
lording it over hens, who, always placed
in ambush, do nothing else but, by the stumbling-block of frauds,
seize whomever. For he who
of heaven and earth has power, of all his
creation the Lord and King of the ages and Judge of the living and the dead is. Hearing
these things the Kings were troubled against the Saints. Then
Eliades said: O Kings, why are you troubled in vain,
over the truth uttered? But Hadrian, kindled with fury,
said to the Saints: I call to witness all my gods,
that you will not escape my hands: [and Pharetrius.] and because
you all believe in Christ, without doubt his
punishments you will endure. But one of the company
of the Saints, Pharetrius by name, the Camp-instructor,
answered: Blessed shall we be, if we be worthy
to be purified by such torments, because we shall merit
to share in the passions of Christ. Now there was
a very great multitude which then was gathered together;
that is, seven Kings, ten Prefects,
fifty Patricians, Counts and Masters
of soldiers and Tribunes two hundred, but soldiers
with a rustic band a hundred thousand fifty;
who all with one voice cried out, saying,
Let these be taken from the midst with their tricks.

[13] Silence being made, Hadrian the Emperor said
to St. Acacius: Acacius, did you not hear
the cry of the multitude? [The 1,050 thousand crying out against them,] Go and sacrifice to the gods,
that there be no longer a cry of this people against
you. Acacius said: The cry of this people does not
disturb us: but hear, Kings, the vision
which I saw. I saw in a vision as it were
nine thousand eagles, flying in the air;
and I saw also a copious multitude of birds
on the earth: but the birds, when they perceived the eagles,
strove to take to flight; but until
they flee, they must be disclosed and torn to pieces
by the eagles. But the Kings hearing these things, said:
O what a wicked company, which
seven Kings, [and casting stones in vain.] not only foxes, but even
hens does not fear to call! Hadrian
the Emperor, kindled with anger at these things, ordered the Saints
to be overwhelmed with stones, saying: The vengeance
of Jesus Christ, that Nazarene, I will bring
upon you. But the Saints when they were stoned,
the stones turned back upon the faces of those stoning. And
Hadrian said to the Saints, What will this vanity profit you?
sacrifice to the gods, and be freed from
torments. But standing, Minas the most noble
Standard-bearer and Acacius the Primicerius said:
O enemy of God, and contrary to all truth,
does it not suffice you and Antoninus to judge us?
But five Kings with their armies provoking,
you have reckoned to terrify us, and to make us deviate from
the way of Christ? whether in many, or in few,
we will hold the same faith which we have received.

[14] Antoninus said, O enemies of all religion,
do you think, or those who are with you,
to escape our threats? [The Saints are scourged] And immediately he ordered the Saints
to be gathered. And as they approached he said to them:
Boys, sacrifice to the gods. Speusippus the Count,
the greatest among the four who were in
the army of the Saints, said to the Emperor: Withdraw
from us, wicked man, because your desire
is diabolical; eating the bread of hanging
and drinking the cup of treachery, you dare not utter
a sentence against us. But hearing
these things the Emperor, raged in anger against
the Saints, and ordered them to be scourged. And as
the holy Martyrs were beaten, a certain one said, Drachorius
by name, a) who was the brother of SS.
Acacius and Cliades: Pray, [at whose prayers] holy men, for
us, because grievous are the torments which we suffer.
To whom Acacius said, Persevere, Brothers,
in this confession, in which now you stand: for he
(as the Savior says) who shall persevere even
to the end, he shall be saved. And he prayed the Lord,
saying: Lord God, great and
eternal, judge of the living and the dead, who
do not despise those who hope in the wonderful
name of your knowledge: who broke the strength
of the devil on the cross, [the earth trembling,] who stopped the mouths
of lions and rescued your servant Daniel;
hear us sinners, Ruler Lord,
and rescue us from the hand of the wicked: because we are your handiwork,
the works of your hands. You
grant us perfect perseverance, and
hasten us in your mercy, because you are
our blessed God, through all ages
of ages. Amen. This prayer being finished, there was
an earthquake, and immediately were withered
the hands of those scourging the Saints.

[15] There was there in the army b) of Maximian
the King, a certain Master of soldiers, by name
Theodore, having under him a thousand soldiers: [Theodore is converted with another 1,000]
who, struck with amazement at this miracle, cried out
to the Lord, saying: Lord God,
King of heaven and earth, who the aid of your mercy
conferred on nine thousand, Lord,
with whom is mercy without envy; deign
to number us sinners with your
Martyrs. Saying these things and raising his voice
and his insignia, with his thousand soldiers,
he transferred himself to the Saints: and so omnipotent
God completed his vine of ten thousand
branches. When the Emperors had seen this they were troubled.
[and so now the full number of 10,000] Maximian said to Hadrian and
Antoninus: O Emperors, how great an injury
I suffer from you! For behold my army
has departed from me. To whom Hadrian said: Patiently
bear, Lord King: for he who took my army
away, the same has taken yours also.
Yet let not your heart fall by this:
for if it please your highness, I am ready to give you
a thousand pounds of gold: but if not, a thousand
men I give you. Hearing these things Maximian, his fury mitigated,
was silent, and orders to be presented to him
the whole company of the Saints.

[16] But as the Saints went, there were present with them
Angels of the Lord accompanying. And as they
stood by, Maximian said to Theodore; [they are forced to walk barefoot over iron caltrops:] What have you gained,
Theodore, by deserting me? Theodore
answered: Many goods have I gained,
by knowing the true God. Maximian, turning
to the rest, said: Hear me, ten
thousand, lest you think that you can lightly be finished off: therefore
I exhort you, that you sacrifice and live; and escape
my anger, lest you perish badly. Acacius
said: A gnat's fury does not prevail against
a bull's neck: for having the living God
we care nothing for you. Kindled therefore with excessive fury
c) Maximian ordered to be made a multitude
of triangular sharpest nails,
and scattered through thirty stadia, that the army
of God should walk over them with bare soles.
But as they were prepared to walk over this
kind of torment; the Angels sent by God, going before,
walked, making a mound out of the fixed
nails, plucking them up and heaping them
into one, [but the caltrops are scattered by the Angels.] lest they be driven into the feet of the Saints.
But the Saints seeing this, rendered
praises to God, saying; We give you thanks,
omnipotent God, who on us your servants deigned
to confer various and so unheard-of prodigies of miracles
in all ages. But when
the Kings had recognized this miracle, they said:
Our gods wished to do this by
their providence, that they might manifest themselves to the ten
thousand, that they are omnipotent gods. Blessed
Eliades said to the Emperors: O without heart
and without understanding, whom Satan has blinded,
that they can by no means recognize the works of the Lord.

[17] Caesar Maximian, troubled by the constancy
of the Saints, said to the ministers: I have heard
of Christ crucified, whom these call God,
d) that on his head he bore a crown of thorns, and
that his side with a lance, or as others wish e)
to assert with a reed, was opened: in like manner
we command, [The Saints crowned with thorns] that these wicked ones suffer the same
penalty. Then the ministers composed
as many crowns of thorns, as had been ordered them …
f) Holding therefore in their hands
sharpest reeds, they opened the sides of the Saints,
and placed on each the thorny crowns
on their heads. Afterward they took the ten thousand
men, and twice through the whole city,
beating them with whips, g) and excessive injuries.
But the holy Martyrs, patiently sustaining
the injuries inflicted on them, rendered praises
to God, saying; Glory to you, Christ: because
though we were unworthy, you have made us worthy to receive
your passions.

[18] Led therefore to the Emperors in the palace,
h) they began to insult them, and all the crowd,
saying: [they insult the tyrants.] Hail Kings of the Jews: what has
Christ profited you? Can he rescue you
from the tortures and injuries inflicted on you? To these things
the ten thousand Saints, as with one mouth to the Emperors
said: O images of God, but sons
of the devil, petty and importunate flies!
O thought of Satan, which daily separates
you from God! O greatest net of malignant error,
in which you are daily bound! O work
of God, dissolved by idols! O great crowd,
which the devil deceives! O numerous people,
and violated by the greatest sins! O wicked
harvest, from which are germinated tares, and the fruit
of Gehenna sprouts! O most insane and vain
Emperors, and numerous and heavy people,
who by no means recognize the true God, but worship
stones and wood, the works of the hands of men.
As the Saints said these things, their blood flowed down
to the earth from their sides. Which they taking
in their hands began to anoint their bodies
and their heads, saying to the Lord: Ruler
Lord God: may this blood be to us here
the mystery of baptism, unto the remission of sins.
And there was a voice in the same hour saying:
As you have asked, my dearest friends, so let it happen
to you. But the Emperors hearing
and the crowds this voice, said: An earthquake
has happened with thunder.

NOTES OF D. P.

a) The Vatican "Germanus and Drachorius said."

b) So the Vatican manuscript; in ours both above number 7 and here and thereafter it is always written "Maximus," and so are placed two Kings called Maximus: it pleases us more that the names be distinguished, that the persons be distinguished.

c) There, "Emperor": and here below, number 17, he is called "Caesar," but in the Vatican again "Emperor."

d) The Vatican adds: that he was clothed in purple.

e) How ridiculous in this place in such a person is the accuracy, which would scarcely fall to a lay Christian man, however knowing of the Gospel history.

f) I expunge these words which disturb the sense of our manuscript: "Because the adorned army of the Saints seemed in persons."

g) In the Vatican "with pomps they mocked them."

h) The same: "But loosing them from the pomps, they came to the Emperors. But the Emperors seeing them, bowed their heads with the crowds, saying, Rejoice Emperors of the Jews and of the whole world."

CHAPTER III.

The crucified Saints ask many things for their worshippers: the dead are buried by Angels.

[19] [Carterius exposes the vanity of the idols,] But the space of one hour passing,
Sapor said to the holy Martyrs: Repent
of your wicked deeds, and be converted
to the true most omnipotent Gods, through
whom all things were created a). To these things a certain youth,
named Carterius, the Camp-instructor, said: If
our elders bid me, I will dispute with you.
Said St. Acacius: Speak, youth, for it becomes
you to preach the word of God. To these things Carterius
thus began to speak, saying: O wisdom
of the King which is horror and perdition! Have you not heard
the Scripture saying, The idols of the nations are silver
and gold, the works of the hands of men, may those who make them
become like them? Tell me,
King b), which is made first, the house or the man;
Sapor the King said: O madman, first indeed a man is born, and then the house is made. Carterius
answered: If therefore the man is judged
to be prior to the house, it is manifest that likewise
also to the shrine. For just as the house is made by the man,
so also the images by the art of men
are made. Behold how the wisdom
of the wicked is swallowed up c)! For Christ coming into
this world, was born of a Virgin, that
the things which were lacking in the old Testament, he might fulfill:
for he himself is the fullness of the Law, who made both
one, who also into the abyss will condemn
the impious. Man therefore is from God, and from him
received that he should be good, and that his will
he should always do.

[20] Hearing these things King Sapor, against the holy
man of God Carterius boiled with dire fury, [and all are condemned to the cross:] and
with grim countenance busied himself to exterminate him, for
these answers. To whom Blessed Carterius, a youth
indeed in age, but in morals aged,
answered saying: The speech which I have brought forth, in
dead ears has sounded, since into a malevolent
soul wisdom will not enter. Sapor
the King, over words of this kind blazing
with fury, persuaded the Emperors and Kings
and the armies, that the bodies of the ten thousand
men of the Saints should be crucified together into one.
But the sentence being given, confidently the Saints
the way to the passion, as if invited to a bridal chamber,
with exultation and gladness of heart receive:
and with them the crucifiers, twice ten d) thousand,
innumerable crowds being sent ahead, flocking to the spectacles
of so many Martyrs, up
to Mount Ararat, [Led therefore to Mount Ararat,] where they had been ordered to be crucified.
Coming thither they bound them to stakes
fixed to the rocks, until all should be crucified.
Now the mountain itself is rough and
most harsh. But the soldiers crucifying the holy Martyrs,
guarded them, as had been ordered
them.

[21] Now there were in their army Primicerius
one, Leader one, Masters of soldiers
four, Counts five, Tribunes nine,
Princes eleven, Camp-instructors two, Domestics
and Cornicularii twenty. Opening
his mouth St. Eliades: [and more fully instructed in the faith by Acacius,] after they had been crucified,
said to Acacius the Primicerius: Since on the Cross
of Christ triumphing we exult, I beseech
you, to expound to us something about the faith. St. Acacius
thus to all began his discourse
saying: Vessels sacred and purified, hear
the utterance of my faith. For just as each one
faithful in heart ought to believe, so
also that interior credulity of the heart
with the mouth outwardly he ought daily by saying to set forth.
I believe in God the Father omnipotent,
and his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ,
the redeemer of the world; and in the Holy
Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, because
from the substance of the Father it shone forth. The Word of the Father
was sent into the earth, and he who sent it is God
the Father, and he who was sent is the Son of God. He
was born of Mary the Virgin; clothed with flesh,
recreated carnal man: who both through the Prophets
was announced and through the Apostles was demonstrated
and crucified, died and was buried.
In the tomb thus he rested, that rising on the third day
he might loose the pains of death and resurrection
demonstrate to the dead. He ascended to the heavens
sits at the right hand of God the Father omnipotent.
The same coming in the second advent to judge
the living and the dead and the whole age, and
to render to each according to his work. He who
possesses this faith through good operation,
his shall be the portion with the Angels of God. As he
said these things there came to them a voice from heaven saying: Well
have you said, Acacius: for so the truth has it.

[22] But at the sixth hour of that day an earthquake
was made great: and the earth and the rocks were rent.
But the holy Martyrs, pouring out to the Lord
a prayer, e) said: Lord God,
remember us on this gibbet of the cross, and
receive our petition, [they pray for those who will celebrate their Passion,] and the things which from you
we ask; that whoever shall celebrate the memory of our
passion with fasting and silence,
may merit to obtain from you a fruitful reward,
bestowing on them health of bodies and
medicine of souls; and in their houses
of all goods abundance grant,
and let the day of the fast of our Passion conclude one
penitential year for those observing it.
This we ask of you Ruler Lord God.
Scatter, Lord, every occupation of Satan
and every unclean spirit, and every
infirmity expel because glorious and
praiseworthy is your name through all ages
of ages. And as all answered, Amen,
there was a voice from heaven saying: The things which you have asked,
most beloved of God, know that you have obtained: rejoice
also and be glad, knowing that your prayers,
before Christ the immortal King,
are heard.

[23] But about the ninth hour the souls of the Saints
were translated to the heavenly palaces, and the heavens were opened
and a great light over the bodies of the Saints
shone forth. [and likewise the dead]
But soon the Lord, the light of heaven being sent before,
Was present, surrounded duly by Angelic throngs,
Standing in the midst of the Saints on the summit of the mountain.
The Saints rejoice, encompassed by so great solace,
Whose souls he gives to the heavens, and their bodies to the earth f) g) …
And again there arose an earthquake, on the mountain
itself, so that the bodies of the Saints from the gibbets
were loosed, by the Lord's command; and the Relics
merited
to receive burials there by Angelic
hands, [they are buried by Angels.] whose souls likewise with
God and the Angels glory in the heavens. To omnipotent
God the Father, with the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be praise, honor, glory, power, virtue
and victory, through all ages of ages,
who advances his soldiers assiduously and honors them.
Amen.

NOTES OF D. P.

a) The Vatican makes Sapor speak thus: "Looking to the splendor of power and to the greatest Gods, because theirs are all things. For heaven Jupiter made, but the earth Apollo; the figment of men is Aesculapius's, and the sun Artemis's, and the moon and stars Venus's: the beasts of burden and the wild beasts and the birds of heaven Serapis possesses. If there is one wise among you, let him answer me to these things." Carterius the Camp-leader said &c.

b) The same thus continues: "Behold, King, first is the man and afterward the images: how do you say, The making of men is Aesculapius's, so also the Manichees say man is from Ascalon. Be confounded, wicked ones, mourn and weep and be converted, you who were first sons of Gehenna, then Manichees. Tell me King, A house is &c." But how ineptly here are introduced the Manichees, whose name first began to be heard a century and a half after the Empire of Hadrian?

c) There "of the Pagans," and there follows: "But I will speak also to the Manichees. They say man is from Ascalon. Ascalon is an inconstant demon. Hear, Manichees, what the Prophet says: I the Lord am the firstborn: and after these things: For Christ &c."

d) There "nine times ten thousand": but in the Utrecht manuscript is added that while they were being crucified, the enemies cut down a whole forest: and at last one cross was lacking, and an Angel carried a cross that it might likewise be crucified.

e) This prayer, and the hearing of the prayer, in the Vatican is placed a little before the close of the whole Legend, in this manner: "But do you wish to know the merits of the Martyrs? I will tell you also the prayer with which the holy Martyrs prayed to the Lord at the hour of their end: Lord God &c."

f) All these things in prose and in few words has the Vatican manuscript, and is added at the end: "But thus the holy Martyrs finished their passions, and went on to the Lord: for him it becomes &c." In the English and Utrecht manuscripts the verses are continued.

"Again the mountain trembled, shaken utterly from its
foundations:
The holy bodies fixed to the stakes are loosed:
By Angelic hands the earth is made firm with sepulchres;
And all in their own little tombs are laid in the mountain.
Now they hold the heavenly kingdom, you Christ being their leader."

PART II.

On the 1480 Martyrs in Palestine under Chosroes.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION.

The Martyrs crucified on Mount Ararat. The Samaritan Martyrs in Palestine under Gosroes.

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

[1] In our Chronological History of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem,
published before Volume III
of May, the Reader will find how in the year of the Lord
614, [the Persians invading the holy places in the year 614] the Persians the places of Jordan, Palestine,
and the holy city, by force of arms subjected;
and by the hands, as some assert
of the Jews, to ninety thousand Christians
slaughtered, by the witness of Theophanes. There will be found
the Letter of St. Modestus, on behalf of Zacharias, carried away into Persian
captivity, sitting amid the ruins of the overthrown city,
and cherishing the remnants of the citizens; in whose
beginning when he had shown, that those left there almost more grievously,
than those who had been led away captive, [90 thousand Christians slaughtered,] grieved;
when namely the saving buildings to the ground
demolished they beheld with their eyes, and themselves of the Cross, the Shepherd,
the Flock, at once and in almost one moment destitute
saw; nor that only but also the multitude
of corpses in the city, and the stench which they
exhaled, not lightly tortured them,
especially those whom they could know.

[2] These things being premised, "Of these things, he says, which we have said,
a renowned witness is, our younger Nicodemus,
and his wife, so to speak, Magdalene, [and are buried in heaps.] a distinguished
pair and zealous: who indeed a deed,
worthy plainly of memory and of the monuments of letters,
brought forth. Let those who wish
interrogate these; and they will clearly learn the things then done at Jerusalem.
These namely, these worshippers of virtues
and of God, when the enemies had gone out and into Persia
had departed, surveying the whole city round about and the villages,
and so beholding the remains of the Brothers lying,
prepared for themselves a reward, to be consecrated by eternal
memory. For the corpses cast scattered
everywhere together heaping, in a cave
they deposit, which is before the gate, to sixty-
five thousand. If anyone therefore, the things which for certain
they know wishes to know, let him inquire of them: and openly
they taught and will say the things which we too have beheld,
namely in what form and condition were lying
the Blessed laid on the ground, [That horrible slaughter.] who about the same time
at Jerusalem merited to be slain. One
from the head to the heart had received a sword wound,
another from the shoulders to the belly. Another
had five or ten blows in his intestines;
another was cut in the middle and divided into two.
Others, the belly pierced through with a sword, all the intestines
were poured out; another, like a sheep in the shambles,
the dire executioners had cut into several pieces.
But what of other more miserable things? Others in the streets
lay as a spectacle, others in oratories were killed:
others, when into the Holy of Holies for the sake of help
they fled; one holding the Lord's Body,
another the Cross of Christ. One into the baptismal
Font having entered was butchered, another
hiding under the altar, was made a victim."

[3] All these things, not in a great part of the year,
nor in a whole month, but within a few days happened,
says the compiler of the Chronicle, commonly called Alexandrian,
ending in the year 632, [wrought within a few days] and so nearest
to the deed done: but he says it happened "About
the month of June" about the month of June; perhaps the 22nd
of May, for it is established that the forty-four
Monk-Martyrs of the monastery of St. Sabas were slaughtered
on the 16th of May, one week before the holy city
was occupied, as Antiochus the Monk says then living and writing. To the number of this day therefore
some may have added a week of days and
to the 22nd of May ascribed the Jerusalem disaster. [it seems to have been ascribed to the 22nd of May.]
Then the next month, and the same day, the Author of this fable
may have taken, on which the constancy of the Samaritan
Christians by the ministers of Chosroes was tried,
and they at last led to Jerusalem,
as if to the tyrant then reigning there; although from
what has been said it is now established that he made no stay there,
except as much as was needful to gather the treasures and captives
which into Persia he might transport and lead away. [Hence are feigned, one month later, the Samaritans led into Jerusalem,]
I call it a fable, for although it is probable
that the Persians acted no more mildly in Samaria, and through
the rest of Palestine, than they had acted at Jerusalem,
Heraclius vainly attempting through Legates sent to obtain,
that they should spare human blood; yet the matter
could not be more reduced to the appearance of a fable,
and clothed with more inept circumstances, than this Martyrdom of the Samaritans
he palliated, who the aforetitled
Legend compiled, such as from a manuscript Legendary
of Orvieto found at Rome, we have taken under this title:
In the month of June on the twenty-second day, [as 1484 having suffered similar things;] the Passion
of the holy Martyrs 1484: and likewise
a transcript sent thence from elsewhere, preserved in
the Vallicellan Library, volume X, where the Passion of many
Martyrs, who in the context are said to be of promiscuous
sex, in number one thousand four hundred eighty:
and they not of the holy City, but inhabitants of Samaria
and indeed recently to the faith of Christ
converted, which is incredible.

[4] Moreover the Author did not conceive the matter, as accomplished in a few
days by military fury: but by a slow progress,
legates being sent once and again, who the Samaritan
people to defection from Christianity should solicit:
but when these too had given their names to Christ, [and that under Maxentius the son of King Chosroes, such as he did not here have.]
and had received baptism, by the miracles
of a few Priests there caring for the Catholic cause
and by reasons overcome; at last Chosroes himself, with
his son, not Mardesanes who it is established came as companion to his father,
but Maxentius they bring in, after the occupation
of Jerusalem, brought there from elsewhere judging the Christians
before his tribunal, and altercating with them in that
manner almost, in which commonly the contests of the Roman Martyrs
are described, in certain Acts of inferior note and
of lesser faith. But the whole narration has nothing
in common with that tragedy, which is said to have been enacted
on Mount Ararat, except that likewise the Samaritans,
about whom here it is inquired, [Yet from such a narration] are feigned before death to have made vows
for those who shall have fasted their vigils,
and celebrated the feast day: and likewise a voice
from heaven was heard, saying to the Athletes of God, "Heard
are your prayers." Meanwhile in the Roman
Martyrology, after those ten thousand on
Mount Ararat crucified, finding in the Roman Martyrology
noted these words, "Of Samaria, of the holy
one thousand four hundred eighty Martyrs,
under Chosroes King of the Persians": I am compelled, under the same
caution with which I examined the former Passion, to undertake to examine
their Passion also, namely that,
which Baronius in his notes asserts exists in
the same most ancient manuscript codex which about the ten thousand Crucified he had said he read, [found in one manuscript or another]
placed in the monastery of St. Cecilia across the Tiber, and that more briefly
it is had narrated with him. If something more
Baronius had found, to establish their truth
without doubt he would have cited it: but I moreover the Orvieto codex
have already noted: and in the preliminary commentary to
the Acts of the 10 thousand, number 8, I indicated that of these too
the Passion in more than one place sets forth that lesser
number of one thousand four hundred eighty: nay even
from Mabillon I taught that this same number
seven hundred years ago in an old Sacramentary
is exhibited, and also in an older Cassino one. And
hence first I note that it is done without any mention of Chosroes or
of Samaria, so that an old knowledge of such a number
for the day of June 22 alone seems to have shone forth before
to the later composers of both Acts, of whom
the former, on account of their greater admirability which they set forth,
more widely scattered, found credence even with
the more recent, as I have said, Martyrologists; the others by them were not
received before the Gregorian revision of the Roman Martyrology, [there were referred 480 into the present-day Roman one.] those Acts which Baronius
showed being studied. But it is marvelous that those doing this
so perfunctorily read them, that to Samaria
they ascribed a Passion which those Acts, number 19, ascribe
to Jerusalem, where all at last had been ordered
to be led bound neck to neck, and shut up in the pool
of Siloah: but with what probability,
or rather with what evident falsity, that their reading alone
could teach. And so it seems worth the labor
to exhibit this composition too to be read, and
to leave to the sacred Congregation to estimate whether
it is worthy on whose faith so many other unknown Saints should have augmented
the Martyrology. Whatever errors of this
kind the brevity of the time conceded and expended on the aforesaid
revision easily excuses: but
could not the same not only excuse but rather vehemently
commend the zeal of the Church of those, who
through one whole century (for Heribert Rosweyde applied himself to this
before Us for several years) roll this stone
that for a new revision of the Martyrology they may supply material
just as Alexander VII
desired them to do "with all diligence and faith"?
With this confidence therefore according to this examination I proceed.

ACTS.

From the manuscript Passionary of Orvieto.

FROM MANUSCRIPTS

[1] In the times of Chosroes the most impious tyrant,
he and his son, by diabolical
fury against the holy city Jerusalem [kindled, [Chosroes about to destroy all Christians,] began] to persecute those, who serve the most sacred
sepulchre of the Lord, and in the temple
of the Lord are: and to destroy the wood of the Holy Cross,
and to blot out the name of the Lord from the earth they set forth.
For when he had subjugated every kingdom to his
Empire, he began to go round all the cities,
mandating [by] a letter with the seal
of his ring, to seek out the Saints, that they should adore
his gods, Jupiter, Apollo b) and Diana:
and whoever should not come to his aid
to destroy the Christians, and the name
of Jesus the Nazarene from the earth, alive to be burned, or
sawn with a saw, or with a sword: he commanded to be slain. And
they came indeed into Samaria c) the city,
where were all those trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ.

[2] Then the Governor said to them: Chosroes,
our most pious Emperor, has directed me to
you, that you may come to his aid the Christians
to destroy, and the Nazarene name to destroy,
whom [the Jews] a little while d) ago
crucified, [he asks aid for this from the Samaritans:] and a crown of thorns upon his head
placed, and with a lance his side
pierced, and dead buried, and his disciples
stole him, and said that
he rose. There answered him e) Arthios the Priest, and
said: Why did you not say? that he whom the Jews
crucified, did many wonders among them,
the blind he enlightened, paralytics he cured, the deaf
he made hear, Lazarus four days in the tomb
having been, he raised: There answered Saton
the Governor and said: If those wonders among them he did,
why did they crucify him?

[3] There answered the Priests Arthios, Messias,
Sophyr, Manuel, and Adonas; and they said
to Saton the Governor: Those and many other
signs among them did he, [The five faithful Priests,] who once for them ten
plagues to Egypt gave, and for them through the Red Sea
a way made, and Pharaoh and his army
into the sea cast. Forty years
in the desert from heaven manna rained on them, and
innumerable miracles for them he worked:
but after many times, as John the Evangelist
testifies, into his own he came, and his own
did not receive him. The Son of God came into the womb
of a virgin, and his own parents did not believe in him:
because they are blind in mind. For also your gods,
whom you worship and adore, are vain: about whom
we have it written in the Psalm, Like them
may those become who make them, [they dispute with the Governor sent for this] and all who trust
in them. There answered Saton the Governor, and
said to him: Well have you said, that like them
we are, by sharing with them: There answered
the Priests: O Saton the Governor, why do you not
recognize the living and true God? Do
penance, because you have come to destroy holy things;
and you will rejoice in the heavenly kingdom, where are
Angels and Archangels, and where the Saints and the Just;
where is an inestimable odor, and glory without end.

[4] But that very night Saton saw heaven opened
in sleep, and the holy city Jerusalem,
and the wood of the holy Cross of the Lord, [who, having seen a horrible thing, terrified,]
which the impious Chosroes wished to destroy: and
from his mouth a horrible fire went forth, and a fiery
iron chain on his neck he held,
and round about him dragged. Seeing this the Governor
trembled, and awakened sent to the Priests,
and with great fear said to them:
By God I conjure you, who was crucified
and rose again; that whatever law you have received,
such you give me: because in sleep heaven
opened I saw, and his judgments God to me
deigned to reveal. Prostrating themselves the Priests
on the earth, they adored; glorifying God
and saying; God who gather the scattered, and
the gathered preserve, who sent your only-begotten Son
into the earth, who the gibbet of the cross
for us endured, [he is converted to the faith of Christ:] and us to free deigned
from the hand of the devil; who founded the earth, and
to the sea set a limit, and the heaven stretched out;
who sent your sleep upon Adam, and
Eve from his rib formed, and from his origin
separated all men: deign
to send your heavenly love into us, that
we may all know that you are the true Lord,
who with your only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit,
live and reign through the immense ages of ages.
Amen. And there answered all the men and women
with great joy: Amen.

[5] In that hour the Priests began to give thanks
to God, who deigned to join the impious
among the choirs of the Saints: [together also the people of Samaria,] and there came Arthios,
Messias, Sophyr, Manuel, and Adonas the Priests,
and said to the people, Hear us,
men and women, little ones and elders. Be
prepared, because we all have one God. Watch
in prayer, watch in fasting, in chastity,
in silence: because our God like
a thief in the night so will come. And they fasted together
twenty-five days in the Lord, and the Priests
began to inquire among themselves, what
law they should receive. Answering Sophyr
and Manuel, said: f) The Lord said to
Nicodemus; [who are likewise baptized to the number of 1484] Unless one be born again of water
and the Holy Spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom
of God. And they began to consider what baptism,
and came to the river Excutius, g) which proceeds from one cistern: and there is a deep lake,
and they blessed the water, and all together
believing gave their names, and were baptized
in the Lord. Then the Priests offered
the Body and Blood of the Lord, and
all communicated, and in the Lord were comforted:
and there were baptized of promiscuous sex in number
one thousand four hundred eighty-four,
and with glory returned to their own homes.

[6] Then Julius and Marciscus, John and Agapitus
prayed to the Lord: Lord Jesus
Christ, [and brought to Maxentius in Jerusalem,] good Shepherd, who to your disciples
said; Do not think, when you stand before
Kings and Governors, how or what you shall speak,
because the Spirit of your Father will speak in
you. Give, Lord, your counsel and your knowledge
upon us, do not permit us to err,
like sheep not having a shepherd. Therefore
the most impious Chosroes commanded and Maxentius
his son, that Saton the Governor should come with all
his army, both upon Jerusalem and upon
Samaria, and should blot out the Nazarene from the earth.
Saton the Governor, with the Priests and with
all the people, said: May God blot him out of
the book of life, who wishes to blot out the name of the Lord from
the earth. For let the wicked Chosroes consider, that he is a Companion
of Annas and Caiaphas, of Judas and Herod,
because what was done concerning them, this concerning him shall be done:
and behold they are buried in hell. There answered
the wicked peoples and said to the Princes:
Let some be punished with beheading, and others alive to burn
make: because if these live, every kingdom
to themselves they will subjugate.

[7] And words most sweet they spoke to Saton
the Prince: [they steadfastly profess the faith] Senseless one, foolish you have become, because
you have departed from the kingdom of glory, and to destroy you wish the flower
of your youth: come and adore the gods
who can save you, and depart from a man
dead. There answered the Priests, Arthios
and Messias, and Saton the Governor, and said:
Well have you said, that we should believe in God the Savior
of the world, and the vain and deaf idols spurn,
which neither to themselves nor to others profit. There answered
Marcius h) and Marcellianus, who were sent by
Chosroes the Emperor, and said to the people:
What wonders among you did he do, that you
believe in him? The peoples said, many wonders
the Lord did, the blind he enlightened, the dead
he raised, and to us great wonders he showed,
when into our breasts to reveal he deigned
his holy wisdom. [and they make a two-year-old boy speak for them.] Now there was
a certain Stephen, by his widow mother
named Theones, whom they made speak, and
the word of life preach, who was of two years
and three days.

[8] Marcius and Marcellianus, when they saw him so much
say and such things, smiling at him
said: Speak to us, you, Boy. Stephen
answered: In the holy Gospel the Lord says, [The Governor obeys and confounds the King's ministers:]
Walk while you have the light, that
darkness may not seize you. And he said: Little children,
do not let yourselves be seduced, but believe in us, and
be baptized, and accept penance, because you have blasphemed
the true and living God. Marcius and
Marcellianus patiently listened to his words,
and ingeniously pretending, said: Stephen,
if you, a boy, believe us, and cease so to act,
gold and silver, and inestimable garments
we will give you. Stephen answered them, saying:
If you believe in my Lord Jesus
Christ, gold and silver to you I will give, and
a perpetual kingdom to you I promise. Then
they began to circumvent him, how they might
catch him out; and the more they
disputed with him, the more knowledge and wisdom from
his mouth were heard.

[9] Marcius and Marcellianus seeing such wonders
in Stephen, [and he converts them,] ran to the feet
of the Priests, and with weeping began to ask,
that they would baptize them. Then Saton the Governor, with
Arthios and Messias the Priests, gave glory
and said, We give you thanks, omnipotent
God, that to us through your mercy
you have granted, that men who in demons
believed you make them return to themselves. Sons, let us fast
and pray to the Lord, that he
may receive us among his servants. And they fasted six
days: but on the holy Lord's day were baptized
Marcius and Marcellianus, with others of promiscuous
sex twenty-five. Their eyes lifted up to
heaven, Marcius and Marcellianus saw the Lord
sitting on a throne, two crowns indeed
on their heads bearing, and a most sweet odor
was in the crowns, and they saw King Chosroes
with his army, like horrible flies, among
the feet of the Saints going round about.

[10] When Chosroes had heard that Marcius
and Marcellianus had believed, and been baptized;
exceedingly angry and inflamed against
the Saints, he sent through all his armies, [which Chosroes hearing,] and
directed them to that city, that all
with the sword should be punished; "because all dwelling in
it I know that they believe and adore the Nazarene,
and with them let perish Saton the Governor,
together Marcius and Marcellianus: greater and
lesser, all with the sword let them be struck." Which hearing
Arthios, Messias, Sophyr, Emmanuel
and Adonas the Priests, Marcius and Marcellianus,
Julius and Marciscus, John and Agapitus,
gathered together that whole city; and
said to them: Sons and Brothers and Sisters,
be prepared; because behold the time has come, in which
you are to receive the crown of martyrdom. Comfort
yourselves, and stand in faith; [he decrees death for all,] and do not fear those who
kill the body, the soul and the body they cannot
destroy in Gehenna. There answered
the peoples and said: Behold the glory, which always
we have desired: we have no confidence
and hope, except in God and the Lord
Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth.
For all we are prepared to the palm
of martyrdom to enter. Behold we daily have wished
to come to that glory.

[11] Therefore the most impious and most wicked adversary
came, Chosroes, [and coming to Jerusalem] with his army:
and entered into the holy city with his son
Maxentius: and filled with excessive fury they seized
the whole people, and their hands turned,
all bound they strike with blows: and angry they said
to them, Behold you are blinded, senseless ones;
and foolish, because you adore the dead Nazarene,
and have forsaken the God Jupiter and Apollo:
and the King's commands you have despised. But the Saints
cried out: Christ, help us, because we do not
adore except the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit; the vain idols, mute and deaf we spurn,
made by hands, [he commands the boy Stephen to be cudgeled:] they help neither themselves nor others, but
damn; and the King's commands we will by no means do.
Blessed Stephen with a clear voice said, Do not
cast your pearls before swine, Brothers,
because they trample them with their feet. Then Maxentius
full of fury said: Therefore are we also swine?
And he ordered them at once with violence with cudgels
to be beaten.

[12] His mother Theones, when she had seen Stephen
her son with the rest of the Saints with cudgels
beaten, [Theones his mother encourages him:] raising her hands to heaven, her breast
striking with her fists, her head beating to the earth,
at once kissing said: I give you thanks, Christ
the savior and Ruler, because my son
I see to be your servant and a partaker of the kingdom
heavenly. I beseech you, Lord Jesus Christ, that
I be not separated from my only son, neither in this
age nor in the future. But at once Theones
before the governor was brought: to whom the Governor said:
You see deluded by the magic art the son and mother,
the gods aforesaid they despise, nor do they fear
the precepts of the Princes nor keep them. Then
Maxentius at once and the governor said: At once
bring the boy to the temple of Mars outside;
and if he refuse to sacrifice, with beheading let him be punished.
Theones with the rest of the Saints with one voice said:
Do not be afraid, son, because today you will receive
the crown of life. Then with stones the mouth
of Theones striking, they sent her away; and Blessed
Stephen was led outside the city that he might adore.

[13] The Emperors ordered bears and
lions to come into the amphitheater, that they might make an assault
on Theones and the rest of the Saints. Theones
when she saw was afraid. But Blessed Stephen said i):
Do not fear the fury of the beast, mother, because
the Lord will crush the teeth of the beasts, [and with him she is led to the beasts:] and reproves
the counsels of the Princes. But when to the temple
Blessed Stephen the Martyr had come, he said:
Why, wretched ones, does the devil constrain you, who say
to a Christian man, that he should forsake
the Lord his creator, and adore
stone statues both deaf and dumb. Then the holy
Priests, and Saton the Governor in secret
prayed: Lord Jesus Christ, who
upon the sea walked, and it made be silent
and rest, permit these lions and bears
and their furies to be quiet and silent; that
these may know, who are proud and swollen,
that you are living and true, [both remain unharmed.] who reign in the ages
of ages. Amen. But there were released bears
two and lions three. Stephen and Theones
his mother in the midst stood. There ran
the bears and lions to the feet of Blessed Stephen and Theones
his mother, and licked and kissed
their feet. But the Kings inflamed against
them, ordered the lions and bears to be killed.
Seeing this deed the Christians, comforted
in faith, cried out: Blessed be the Lord,
who has comforted his servants. But the peoples standing by
and recognizing the power of the Lord,
believed in the Lord, twelve men; awaiting a place
that they might enter to the Saints.

[14] Then by the command of the Emperors father and son
were seized Arthios, and Messias, Sophyr, [These and the Priests being led elsewhere,]
Emmanuel, Saton the Governor and Marcus, Julius
and Marciscus, John and Agapitus, Stephen
and Theones: and these were separated from the rest
of the Saints. But the people seeing these from themselves segregated
began to lament, and they kissed
one another, and said: Behold you go
to eternal life, and we wretched what shall we do?
There answered Arthios and Messias the Priests,
and said to the people: Sons,
do not weep, because we are not separated from you, but
we go to prepare for you heavenly mansions. Behold
the time which we always desired, and wished
to come to that glory.

[15] There approached the most impious King where was the whole
congregation of the Christians, [the people are solicited to defection:] and with a clear voice he said
to them: Behold fools, why do you not depart
from your madness, and what I command you
do, as your Priests? They consented to me,
and fulfilling my commands forsook you,
and the propitious God Jupiter
adored; their possessions they received, and
safe were made and our friends, they enjoy
goods with us. Do also you
my will, and adore our God,
and enjoy likewise your goods: because
if you do not believe me, by the God Jupiter you

I will cause to be burned. To whom holy Verillus answered:
Impious tyrant, why do you not blush to say so great
evils, [Verillus answers for all,] for such are your brows
like a dog that does not blush? for you say that
we should forsake our author the Lord Jesus
Christ, and adore a stone statue
made by hands. Angry, Chosroes at once ordered
the tongue of blessed Verillus to be cut off; which holy
Verillus gladly suffered: and when
long he was beaten, lifting his eyes to heaven, he said:
I give you thanks, omnipotent Lord,
because you have deigned to join me among your servants. But the people, when they saw the wonders which
were done, blessed the Lord, who saves
those hoping in him.

[16] But those twelve, who believed in
the Lord, began to ask of King Chosroes,
that he would give them into their custody: [and he converts some of the gentiles.] because if
they refused to sacrifice, they would undergo the capital sentence.
Hearing this the King was made glad,
and ordered at once to seize the Priests
and to send them into their power. And when they led
them into their house, washing and kissing
the feet of the Saints, he said: We adjure
you by the omnipotent God, that you give us
your Law, because it is great; and your God
great and glorious we have known to be.
There answered the Saints and said: Great
and true is the Lord Jesus Christ,
but we have such a law, to believe in
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that
you be baptized and forsake the devil and
his pomps. There answered George and Sergius,
Donatus and Peter the Exorcist, k) and Marcellinus
his brother: We all believe in
the living God, that he may deign to receive us through
his mercy.

[17] There answered the Saints: We know that merciful
is the Lord and does not wish the death
of sinners, [These too being baptized,] but that they be converted and live;
and he did not come to call the just, but sinners
to penance. There answered George
and Sergius: We have known that he is true, bears
and lions he overcame, and without a tongue a man
made speak. The Saints of God said: Concerning
our Lord we read, Upon the asp and basilisk
you shall walk, and you shall trample the lion and
dragon, for if you believe in the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit with your whole heart, you can
obtain eternal life and the remission of sins.
George and Sergius said, We have always
desired to receive the sacred baptism
in the name of the holy Trinity, with a free mind.
Arthios and Messias the Priests prayed to the Lord,
and said: We give you thanks,
omnipotent God, because to us you have given your grace
to overcome the devil, and Chosroes the adversary
who desires to destroy us. Look upon
us, Lord, according to your mercy.
And at once they catechized them: and water being taken
they blessed it, and said to them: Do
you believe in God the Father omnipotent, creator
of heaven and earth? They answered, We believe.
And in Jesus Christ his Son, the only
our Lord, born and suffered?
They answered, We believe. And in the Holy
Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the resurrection
of the flesh? They answered, We believe.
And they received l) names, and were baptized, in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Their eyes lifted up, George and Sergius to heaven,
beholding the glory of God, said: We give you thanks,
omnipotent eternal God, because
you have deigned to join us among your servants,
because you have demonstrated to us your mercy.

[18] But King Chosroes mandated to George
and Sergius, saying, that to the palace they be brought
to sacrifice to the immortal gods. George
and Sergius said to Arthios m) and
Messias, [and freely confessing the faith of Christ,] Saton the Governor and Marcius and
Marcellianus: Chosroes the most impious has mandated,
that you to the palace we bring. There answered
the Saints and said: Sons, be prepared,
because behold the time of receiving eternal life.
There answered George and Sergius,
Why do we not cry out, that we are Christians?
The Saints of God said: Sons, do not
let the blandishments of this age seduce you, but be
prepared in the Lord, and when we shall call
you, come to us; and be solicitous when
we shall die, and bury us, and afterward glorify
the name of the Lord. Then George and
Sergius received the blessing from Arthios
and Messias the Priests, and took food
with exultation, and came to the King saying:
Behold those whom you gave us. Chosroes
said: Have they sacrificed to the immortal gods? There answered
George: Speak you with them. Said
the King to Marcius and Marcellianus, Sacrifice to the
immortal gods, and be our friends, and let rejoice
your soul, and you will live forever.
There answered the Saints: Why does the devil constrain you,
that you say that we should forsake the God
living and true, who made heaven and earth?
This being heard the King, angry said. By the God
most invincible Jupiter and Apollo and Diana,
that no one will rescue you from my hands,
but alive I will cause you to be burned with fire. There answered
the Saints of God: What you say, impious one, do,
because we will by no means fulfill your commands.

[19] [Chosroes having attacked Jerusalem] At once the impious King ordered the Saints to be bound
neck to neck, that to the city of Jerusalem
they should bring them, and shut them up in
the pool of Siloah, and they bound them there. Chosroes
began the holy city Jerusalem to surround,
and with deceit a false peace made, and there entered
his soldiers into the holy city, and laid it waste,
and there was made a great desolation:
and he seized the gold and silver of the temple
of the Lord, and the wood of the holy Cross, and
precious stones. [in it deceitfully occupied he wishes to be adored as God.] And he ordered a tower to be built
of gold and silver and precious stone which from
the temple of the Lord he had taken: and on the summit of the tower
a glass heaven to be constructed, n) and water there
through a pipe to ascend he commanded; of horses
at once and of swine he made the course there,
and as it were thunders of voice were heard. To be bound
near himself the wood of the holy Cross he appointed; crowned
he sat, to pour out waters from that glass
heaven by art he commanded with voices and thunders.

[20] Seeing these things the Peoples said: That
there is no other God except Chosroes, who rain
gives and thunders makes. To whom the Saints said,
O fools, why are you blinded, who forsake
the God true and living who made
heaven and earth; [Which madness of his the Saints exploding,] and adore a man
who is dung and a worm, and to God you him
liken. For if he, as you pretend, God
is, either let him heal a sick man, or raise a dead man.
This hearing the King, exceedingly angry, ordered
that the Saints of God with cudgels be beaten. And while
long they were beaten, a voice from heaven was heard: Come
to me all who labor, and are burdened,
and I will refresh you. The Saints hearing
this, said: We give you thanks, Lord
Jesus Christ, because you have deigned to console
your servants. Then Marcius and Marcellianus
said to Chosroes: Fool and senseless one, why
do you not recognize the life-giving and Holy Cross's wood,
which after you you have, in this age;
but damnation to you will be in the future, and prepared
for you will be eternal punishment.

[21] Then the King with his son Maxentius ordered
for themselves a seat to be prepared before the temple o)
of Mars, and the Saints of God to be presented bound,
to whom they said, [and despising the threats of the tyrant,] By the power of the God Apollo
and Diana, if you do not sacrifice, soon by my
sword you will perish. Blessed Stephen said: Wind
is your anger, King, and nothing will harm us: because
from our God prepared we have a kingdom
and glory without end. Angry the impious King sent,
and ordered to come the gladiator soldiers, and that
all they should pierce through the Saints far from himself. There came
to the appointed place Arthios
and Messias, Sophyr and Emmanuel, and Saton,
Marcius and Marcellianus, Julius and Marciscus,
John and Agapitus, [they offer themselves to death,] and began to adore
to the Lord saying; Lord Jesus Christ,
send upon us your mercy: and
do not confound us, but make us to your mercy
to come. But we beseech you, omnipotent God;
that whoever shall fast our vigils,
and celebrate our feast day,
write them, Lord, in the book of life, and
blot out their sins, and from whatever tribulation
they shall cry to us, Lord hear
them, who live with the Father and with the Holy
Spirit in the ages of ages; and there answered
the Saints, Amen. And a voice from heaven was heard,
Athletes of God, heard are your prayers.

[22] Then the Saints of God stretching their necks to the cruel
executioners, shedding their blood,
were beheaded, and a great crowd of Saints
was beheaded. [and with the rest they are beheaded.] By the command of the most impious
Kings Chosroes and his son Maxentius
the tyrants, by the sword suffered men and women,
in number one thousand four hundred eighty-four:
but the bodies of the Saints, by dogs to be eaten,
and by beasts and birds to be torn, in
those very places were left; and no one dared them
to bury; but throughout the whole day they were guarded.
But George and Sergius by night, with twelve
men who by the saints of God were baptized,
gathered the bodies of the holy Martyrs, and
put them on litters: and where baptism
they had received, with the utmost diligence they buried them,
where their prayers p) flourish up to the present
day. But of the blessed martyr Stephen, son
of Theones, the hair being made, every year
the locks of the head q) are shorn, up to the present
day. The holy martyrs of God were beheaded
by the sword, on the tenth day before the Kalends of July, reigning
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, through the infinite ages
of ages. Amen.

NOTES OF D. P.

a) The son of Chosroes below "Maxentius," in reality called Mardesanes.

b) These were gods of the Romans, not of the Persians: and so another manuscript bids the Sun be adored.

c) Our transcript "the Holy [city]"; but another manuscript suggests "Samaria" which was anciently called Sameron; and the necessity of correction is plain below, number 6, where Jerusalem and the Holy [city] are named as distinct cities: and again number 19 where the Saints are bidden to be led from their city into Jerusalem.

d) Nay, almost six hundred years before.

e) Why not rather Zacharias, then Patriarch?

f) As if indeed not yet all were Christians and baptized.

g) Another manuscript "Abanna," in 4 Kings 5 Abana and Pharphar are called rivers of Syria; but these, watering the Damascene territory, are twice as far from Samaria, as Jerusalem itself.

h) At least Persian names this fabler would have imposed on these Legates.

i) How was he here present, already led outside the city?

k) These seem mutually taken from the 2nd of June, on which are worshipped Marcellinus the Presbyter and Peter the Exorcist, Martyrs at Rome under Diocletian.

l) As if it were the universal custom to receive new names in baptism.

m) Here was written "Arthemius," which would please more if it recurred more often.

n) These things are transferred hither from Cedrenus, who in the 13th year of Heraclius narrates how Heraclius took Gazacum a city of Media, where the treasure of Croesus had been laid up by Cyrus; and there he found the simulacrum and effigy of Chosroes, in the form of a globe representing the dome of the palace, as if residing in heaven. Around were the Sun and Moon and Stars, by whom that unhappy one made himself worshipped as God, Angels bearing sceptres standing about him. Moreover the impious one had prepared machines, which from that place would emit drops like rain, and render a sound rivaling thunder. Where while in Greek is read "to whom as Gods he served," which would be "to whom as Gods he served"; I think it altogether an error, and that it should be read "by whom as God he was adored."

o) Who, unless wholly delirious, would conceive that in the time of Chosroes a temple of Mars existed at Jerusalem?

p) This is a formula common to most Legends, written long afterward, which how unfittingly it is here adapted, gather from the preceding.

q) That even on the dead hair has sometimes been seen and read and heard to grow: but not so, that once shorn it should grow again; and indeed repeatedly; whether that of any Saint be true, whence it could have been received, I do not know.
