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THE 
 
 APOLOGY OF APOLLONIUS ETC. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 OUTLIKES OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 
 
 By HERMANN LOTZE. 
 
 Edited with an Introduction by F. C. Conybeare, M.A. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth^ 2s. 6d. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " To the thinker, of whatever creed or school he may chance to be, 
 who is anxious to bring into a more or less homogeneous body of 
 belief those religious and scientific truths which in our time are press- 
 ing most vehemently for acceptance, I have no hesitation in com- 
 mending this work as one of the most suggestive and enlightening 
 that our age has been privileged to welcome." — John Owen in 
 Acadewy. 
 
 " English students will be thankful to Mr. Conybeare for putting 
 into their hands a synopsis of Lotze's Philosophy of Religion, which 
 has no fear of the disadvantages of a translation. "—C«ar<//a«. 
 
 "An excellent translation of one of the most important works of a 
 prominent philosopher who made an unusually strong impression 
 upon the minds of his contemporaries." — Monist. 
 
 LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. 
 
THE 
 
 Apology and Acts of Apollonius 
 
 AND OTHER 
 
 Monuments of Early Christianity 
 
 EDITED WITH A 
 
 GENERAL PREFACE INTRODUCTIONS NOTES ETC. 
 
 BY 
 
 F. C. CONYBEARE M.A. 
 
 Late Fellow of University College Oxford 
 
 HontJon 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN «& CO. 
 
 NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO. 
 
 1894 
 
 IXlSriVERSITY 
 
X) 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 
 .r?7/v 
 
 Butler & Tanner, 
 
 The Selwood Printing Works, 
 
 Frome. and London. 
 
GALOUST TER-MEKERTCHIAN, 
 Deacon of the Armenian Church, 
 
 IN memory of many pleasant hours passed in his 
 monastery of edschmiadzin. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GENERAL PREFACE i 
 
 APOLOGY AND ACTS OF APOLLONIUS. 
 
 Introduction 29 
 
 Translation of Text 35 
 
 ACTS OF PAUL AND THEKLA. 
 
 Introduction 49 
 
 Translation of Text . ' 61 
 
 ACTS OF S. PHOCAS. 
 
 Introduction 89 
 
 Translation of Text 103 
 
 ACTS OF S. POLYEUCTES. 
 
 Introduction 123 
 
 Translation of Text . 126 
 
 ACTS OF SAINT EUGENIA. 
 
 Introduction 147 
 
 Translation of Text . . . . . . -157 
 
 ACTS OF S. CODRATIUS. 
 
 Introduction , .191 
 
 Translation of Text .193 
 
 ACTS OF THEODORE. 
 
 Introduction . . . . . . . .217 
 
 Translation of Text 220 
 
 vii 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 PA.GB 
 
 ACTS OF S. THALEL.EUS. 
 
 Introduction 239 
 
 Translation of Text 243 
 
 ACTS OF S. HIZTIBOUZIT. 
 
 Introduction 257 
 
 Translation of Text 261 
 
 ACTS OF S. CALLISTRATUS. 
 
 Introduction 273 
 
 Translation of Text 289 
 
 ACTS OF S. DEMETRIUS. 
 
 Introduction 337 
 
 Translation of Text 341 
 
 Addenda 353 
 
 Index of Names and Subjects 355 
 
MONUMENTS OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 GENERAL PREFACE. 
 
 The object of the following translations is to give 
 the reader, in a succession of vivid pictures or 
 glimpses, an insight into the prac- 
 tical working of Christianity during ^i^3°f,^^^"3f 
 the first three centuries of its his- 
 tory. While we freely admire the heroism of the 
 martyrs, we must not suppose that the highest 
 temper of the new religion was displayed in 
 these desperate struggles,^ through which its 
 champions bore witness to the truth, as they 
 deemed it, of their beliefs, and in engaging in 
 which they were, on any view, asserting the rights 
 of fndividual conscience and private judgment 
 against the overbearing weight of a government 
 despotic in its form, and supported in its assaults 
 by innumerable popular forces and scruples, social, 
 religious, and political.^ The best fruits of Christ- 
 
 ^ In the following pages we shall not find any martyr who in the 
 moment of agony prays, Father, forgive them, they know not what they 
 do. The note struck is more frequently one of hatred, defiance, and 
 imprecation. 
 
 ^ Cp. Minucii Felicis Octavius, cap. 37 : quam pulchrum spectaculum. 
 
 B 
 
2 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 ianlty were of course reaped not in these crises, 
 not in these supreme moments of storm and stress, 
 but in the higher religious conceptions, in the 
 wider charity, in the purer social and family life, 
 in the elimination of obscene or cruel religious 
 rites and amusements, which on the whole went 
 with the abandonment of paganism. But these 
 blessings could not be secured for the multitude, 
 could not be secured at all, unless a stand were 
 made against enactments which made the very 
 name and profession of Christian an offence 
 punishable by any, even the most horrible, forms 
 of death. A martyrdom resembled a battle in 
 general history ; freedom from molestation and 
 liberty to enjoy the fruits of peace could not be 
 secured in any other way. 
 
 The originals of these translations are to be 
 
 found in a repertory of select martyrdoms, written 
 
 in the ancient Armenian tongue, 
 
 SylSrTek, ^^^ published at the Armenian 
 
 and Latin monastery of San Lazaro, in Venice, 
 
 texts of 
 
 Martyrs' Acts, in the year 1874. These originals 
 are in nearly all cases themselves 
 versions of still more ancient Greek or Syriac 
 texts. In some cases Latin versions also of con- 
 siderable antiquity are preserved, and will be 
 found in the Annals of Baronius^ or in the vast 
 
 deo, cum Christianus cum dolore congreditur, cum aduersum minas et 
 supplicia et tormenta componitur, cum strepitum mortis et honorem inri- 
 dens carnifici se inculcat, cum libertatem suam aduersus reges et principes 
 erigit, cum soli deo cuius est cedit, cum triumphator et victor ipsi qui 
 adversum se sententiam dixit insultat. 
 
General Preface. 3 
 
 collection of the Lives of the Saints of all ages, at 
 which the Society of the Jesuits has now been at 
 work for over one hundred years, and which is 
 known as the Bollandist Acts of the Saints. I 
 have not chosen to translate the Armenian form 
 of these documents rather than the 
 Latin or Greek without reason ; and The Armenian 
 
 . . , form as a rule 
 
 my reason is this : that as a rule the the oldest, 
 ancient Armenian version gives an 
 earlier form of the narrative than either the Latin 
 or Greek or Syriac manuscripts now yield us. 
 For it is one of the first things which the student 
 of early Christian literature has to learn, that its 
 documents were continually being altered and re- 
 cast to suit every fresh development or change 
 in the dogmatic beliefs, moral conceptions, and 
 discipline of believers, whether 
 orthodox or heretical. What was revision of 
 believed in the first century was texts in each 
 
 age. 
 
 not believed in the same way, and 
 was not all that was believed in the second ; and 
 what was orthodox in the second century was 
 in many cases heterodox, and in nearly all cases 
 insufficiently explicit in the third and fourth 
 centuries.-^ The value of the Armenian versions 
 lies in this, that they often give us access to a 
 more primitive form of a Christian writing than 
 has survived in Greek or Latin. To take an 
 
 ^ Thus the Armenian Acts of Athanagines retain the colophon of one, 
 Hilarion, who states that in composing the Acts he *'on paper made 
 orthodox all that was said " (by the various actors). Athanagines no 
 doubt, like many martyrs of Nicomedia, was an Arian. 
 
4 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 example : the Armenian text of the Acts of S. 
 Eugenia represents her as choosing for her model 
 Thekla, the convert of S. Paul.y Now Thekla, 
 /^even as early as the days of Tertullian, became 
 suspect, on account of her having arrogated to 
 herself the right to baptize. Accordingly we find 
 that in the old Latin version, dating probably 
 from the fourth century, every mention of her 
 is carefully expunged from the Acts in ques- 
 tion, and Paul and his epistles replace her and 
 her story in such a manner as even to make 
 nonsense of the context. So again into the 
 Epistle of the Smyrneans, written about a.u. i6o, 
 and describing the death of Polycarp, there were 
 foisted, as early as the time of Rufinus' Latin 
 translation of it, a series of references to the Holy 
 Catholic Church. Now the latter phrase did not 
 come into vogue until the latter half of the third 
 century, and some critics have in consequence 
 maintained that the letter of the Smyrneans is a 
 forgery of that date. But the difficulty vanishes 
 when we turn to the old Armenian version of the 
 "Church History" of Eusebius, who quotes the 
 letter at length ; for there we find, instead of the 
 obnoxious phrase, the simple and primitive ex- 
 pression which we meet with in the Acts, viz., 
 '' the Churches" in such and such a region. 
 >^ But what the third and fourth century editors 
 most delighted to do, was to em- 
 interpoiation bellish an earlier document with 
 
 ofmiracles. . . .- . c c v 
 
 miracles, if it were tree trom them ; 
 or if it already contained miraculous elements, then 
 
General Preface, 5 
 
 ^ to vary and enhance them. Rationalists have 
 1 impugned the historical character of the New 
 Testament, because it has in it such elements ; 
 / and even orthodox critics, among: ^ , ^ 
 
 / 1 r 1 Early docu- 
 
 rrotestants at least, have tor the mentsnotto 
 same reason condemned in the Wc^auseThef 
 most sweeping manner the so- relate 
 
 called legends of the saints ; so ^^^^^ 
 much so that no serious historian has ventured 
 to use them. Both sets of critics are equally 
 \ unphilosophical. The real miracle would be, if 
 we should find a homely narrative emanating 
 from Galilee in the first century to have originally 
 contained no such elements ; and most of the 
 arguments adduced against the value of the 
 Gospels as a contemporary narrative, would prove, 
 ^ I mutatis mutandis, that S. Bernard's account of the 
 I miracles of his friend, S. Malachi, is spurious. In 
 appraising the historical value of an early Christian 
 document, we ought to condemn it, not in case 
 it contain miraculous elements, but 
 in case it be wholly lacking: in local The true 
 
 1 . , . ^ J tests of 
 
 > colour, m case the sentiments and genuineness. 
 
 [ teachings put into the mouths of 
 the actors and the actions attributed to them be 
 
 - foreign to their age and country, so far as of 
 these we have any reliable knowledge.Vs Here are 
 the true touchstones of truth and genuineness ; 
 and we shall be encouraged to apply them, if we 
 find that in a narrative that on the whole stands 
 well these tests, the miraculous elements vary 
 and are different in the different recensions of the 
 
6 Monuments ef Early Christianity, 
 
 text ; so that like the plus and minus quantities of 
 an algebraical formula, they eliminate one another, 
 and in the net result disappear, leaving behind 
 them a solid residuum of graphic and life-like 
 narrative. This is particularly the case with re- 
 gard to the Acts of Paul and Thekla, as we shall 
 point out in dealing with that history ; in the 
 Acts of Thalelseus we meet, though in a less 
 degree, with the same sort of corroboration of 
 their general truth. So is the old adage con- 
 firmed : €(rO\oi /mev yap ctTrXw?, TravToSaTrw^ Se KaKoi 
 
 There are a few characteristics 
 Character- q( ^^^ Acts of Saints of the first 
 
 istics of early • i • i i i 
 
 Acts. three centuries which deserve to be 
 
 noticed in a general preface. 
 
 I. The most historical element in them often 
 
 lies where we should the least expect to find it, 
 
 namely in the dialogues between 
 
 The dialogue the judge and the accused. This 
 
 most often -n i • i i 
 
 genuine. Will be a Surprise to those who are 
 familiar with the somewhat different 
 method pursued by ancient historians, who put 
 into the mouths of the actors not what they 
 actually said, even where this was readily acces- 
 sible, but what they ought in the judgment of 
 the historian to have said. Thus Tacitus, on the 
 occasion of the admission of the inhabitants of 
 Gallia Comata to the ius honorum, puts into the 
 mouth of the Emperor Claudius a speech which 
 we know he did not make, because the actual 
 words he used are preserved in an inscription found 
 at Lyons, the contents of which were taken from 
 
General Preface. y 
 
 the Acta Senatus, or journal of the Senate. The 
 early Christians must be allowed to have started 
 with a higher standard of truth. yThey considered 
 it of the first importance to register the last acts > 
 and words of a saint, and one of their number f 
 was frequently deputed to fulfil the task. In ^ 
 addition to their own reports they \ 
 
 could draw upon the official reports and often 
 
 r -i -i drawn from 
 
 of the law-courts, though these may official records 
 not have been always accessible to °"cou^tT^'' 
 them before the age of Constantine, 
 when in the archives of many a court the reports 
 of the trials of the third century at least may 
 easily have survived. And in this connection we >y 
 must remember that Christianity was such a grave 
 offence that the proces-verbal of trials would be 
 carefully recorded and preserved by a govern- 
 ment so methodical and observant of precedents 
 as was the Roman. From the time of Domitian, 
 if not at a still earlier date, the very name of 
 Christian exposed a person to the penalty of 
 death. >^ If information was laid against a man to a 
 the effect that he was a Christian, he was sum- 1 
 moned before a magistrate and ordered to sacri- I 
 fice to some god, often to the genius of the / 
 reigning emperor. The usual answer returned / 
 was : '' I am a Christian, and will not sacrifice \ 
 to idols and to foul evil spirits." Tortures were ^ 
 then used to compel submission, and if these 
 failed the culprit was sentenced to death. ^^ 
 ^2. Jesus of Nazareth addressed His teachings 
 to Jews, who needed no inculcation of the truths 
 
8 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 of monotheism ; and accordingly we find very S 
 
 little denunciation in the Gospels 
 Monotheistic of the folly and sin of idolatry. It '-j 
 jtw^lndelr^^ ^^ ^^^ Otherwise with the Epistles ; 
 Christians. of Paul, which are addressed to i 
 converts from polytheism. His 
 polemic, when not directed against those who 
 insisted on circumcision and the sabbath, is [ 
 turned against the worship* of images and of 
 many gods, instead of the One who made the 
 heavens and the earth and created man in His_^ 
 own image. "^ 
 
 / But the protest in Greek literature against idol- 
 atry and polytheism did not begin with S. Paul and 
 with Christianity. Leaving out of account the lofty 
 monotheism, coupled with ridicule of the popu- 
 lar religion, which we meet with in the writings of 
 / a long line of Greek philosophers, beginning with 
 I Xenophanes in the fifth century B.C. ; it is enough 
 / here to note, that the works of a writer like Philo 
 of Alexandria, who died about a.d. 40, at the ad- 
 vanced age of seventy, are a sustained polemic 
 against the worship of any created being, whether 
 \ sun or moon or stars, whether man or beast or 
 the work of men's hands, In an almost prophetic 
 passage this writer makes the proud boast that his 
 I race were destined to be the teachers of true reli- 
 ; gion to the whole of the civilized world ; and there 
 is an aspect of the Jewish monotheistic missionary 
 effort of the first century, of which we may take 
 \ Paul or Philo as the coryphsei, which is in striking 
 ', contrast with the general teaching of the Christian 
 
 i 
 
General Preface. 9 
 
 \ Church in later ages, v Neither Paul nor Philo 
 / believed in the ancient gods, in 
 I Apollo and Artemis, and in the rest. contrast of 
 \ These gods were to their minds PauiandPhiio 
 
 & rill ^^^^ ®^^^y 
 
 mere names, ngments 01 the heathen christians. 
 
 I imagination, mythoplasms, as Philo 
 
 \ calls them ; powerless for good or for evil, just 
 because they were lifeless and spiritless inventions, 
 because they were nothing, f- Philo was inclined to 
 regard the gods and goddesses as personifications of 
 the elements ; so Here or Juno, he tells us, is derived 
 from the word air, and Demeter is a name given 
 to the earth, because the earth is the mother of all. 
 
 i These explanations he borrowed from contempor- 
 ary Stoics like Cornutus, who were apologising 
 for a worn out mythology. But Philo was not 
 apologising, and merely wished to explain and 
 account for the heathen beliefs as the outcome 
 of an allegorising process akin to poetical meta- 
 phor. Between Paul or Philo and the earliest of "N^ 
 the Christian Apologists there is however a change j 
 of attitude. The old gods were nothing but so | 
 much lifeless wood and stone in the estimation of 
 Paul, and therefore he had no objection to his 
 converts eating meats which had been offered to 
 idols. It made no difference in the meats that a 
 senseless form of words had been pronounced over 
 them, and therefore the Christian might partake of 
 them without misgiving. How different is the atti- 
 tude of Justin Martyr, and of the entire Church for 
 centuries after. We are apt to suppose that con- 
 version to the religion of Christ signified and 
 
 ' ^ OF THE ^ \ 
 
 ONIVERSITTi 
 
 K _ OF . / 
 
lo Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 brought with it a disbelief in the gods of pagan- '^\ 
 ism. Nothing could be further 
 Lingering from the truth. The convert con- 
 ^beiief o/*' tinued to believe in the gods as \ 
 Christian firmly as before ; the only difference ( 
 and saints. was that he now came to regard \ 
 them, not as benevolent beings, but J 
 as malevolent ones. They were the fallen angels, / 
 ministers of Satan lying in wait to destroy men, and \ 
 often for that end taking up their abode in, and \ 
 disguising their natural foulness under the most I 
 beautiful statues. Such was the nemesis which in 
 the decadence of Greek thought overtook the faith 
 and art of Phidias and Scopas. It is ever the 
 same with a new religion. The gods of one age 
 become the devils of the next ; and it is to the credit 
 of the northern nations of Europe, that they suc- 
 ceeded in metamorphosing their old gods into 
 elves and fairies, instead of into malevolent demons. 
 Intellectually, then, the early Christians were but 
 a very short remove from the paganism they de- 
 nounced ; and very soon after the age of Paul the 
 I eating of meats offered to idols became the worst 
 / form of apostasy. It was not the appearance of 
 making a concession to heathenism which made 
 the act so heinous ; rather the consecration to 
 idols polluted the food in itself in a mysterious way 
 ( analogous to, but the inverse of, the consecration 
 Vof the elements in the Christian Eucharist. It was 
 as it were transubstantiation turned upside down ; 
 and undoubtedly the belief in the mystical trans- 
 formation of the bread and wine into the body 
 
General Preface. ii 
 
 and blood of Christ grew up, quite naturally, with ^ 
 the belief that the evil demons communicated in 
 some hidden way their own evil properties to the / 
 meats offered to them. The two beliefs were \ 
 closely akin, if not both equally remote from the / 
 monotheistic rationalism of the Jew Paul. " Evil \ 
 demons," says Justin Martyr, ApoL, 55, "in 
 the remote past disguised themselves and com- 
 mitted adultery with women, and ruined children, 
 and wielded terrors over men, so that those who 
 did not take right account of such things were 
 terrified and were carried away by fear ; and not 
 knowing that they were wicked demons, gave 
 them the titles of gods, and gave to each of them 
 the particular name that each of the demons 
 chose to assume." In the same way Augustine in 
 the De Civitate Dei, bk. i., ch. 31, tells us that 
 the gods of the ancient Romans were Noxii 
 Demones. We are thus prepared to find the 
 Christian saints resorting to exorcism against the / 
 gods of the heathen. The Holy Pancrazio, we' 
 read, came to Taormena in Sicily, and went into a 
 temple, where they worshipped the god Falkon. 
 The saint stood facing the image and said : " O 
 Falko, deaf and dumb and blind brute, who art 
 thou, and what doest thou here .-^ How many years 
 hath thou lived here, cajoling the creatures of my 
 God, and having offerings made to thee, thou foul 
 and abominable idol of a devil?" And the devil 
 who was dwelling in the idol said ; '' Two hundred 
 and sixty years have I lived here, and have re- 
 ceived sacrifices and offerings from the city of 
 
12 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 Taormena, each year three unblemished children 
 and seventy and three fat and beauteous oxen and 
 swine and many lambs." Then the Holy Pan- 
 crazio cried out and said : "I adjure you, foul devils, 
 in the name of our crucified Messiah our God, 
 gather ye all hither and lift the deaf and dumb 
 idol of Falkon from the temple and cast it into 
 the sea, thirty stades distant from the shore, and 
 engulf yourselves along with it in the bottom-most 
 depths." So again in Trebizond, at the end of the 
 the third century, the evil spirit, which dwelt in 
 the idol, cried out at the approach of the Saint 
 Eugenius and said : " Eugenius, why dost thou 
 persecute us, and drive us away from our home ; 
 for we are not gods but miserable demons, and we 
 beheld the beauty of these images and were filled 
 with desire and dwelt in them. And now we pray 
 thee, drive us not out from this place, thou holy one 
 of God." But the saint was without mercy, and 
 commanded them to retire into an uninhabited 
 mountain in the Caucasus. The demons thus j 
 ousted from their images were Dia, and Apollo, j 
 and Artemis.^ \ 
 
 si^ 3. This leads us in natural sequence to another / 
 
 * Minucius Felix, the first of the Latin Apologists had the same belief 
 (ch. 27) : Isti igitur impuri spiritus [dsemones], ut ostensum magis et 
 philosophis [et a Platone], sub statuis et imaginibus consecratis delitescunt 
 €t adflatu suo auctoritatem quasi pra.'sentis numinis consequuntur, dum 
 inseruntur interim uatibus, cum fanis inmorantur, dum nonnumquam 
 extorum fibras animant, auium uolatus gubernant, sortes regunt, oracula 
 efiiciunt falsis plurimis inuoluentes pauca uera. A more comprehensive 
 confession by a Christian of his faith in the heathen gods and goddesses 
 cannot be conceived of. 
 
General Preface. 13 
 
 , general characteristic of the early Christians, name- 
 
 I ly, their Iconoclasm. The obvious 
 
 / way of scotching a foul demon was Destruction 
 to smash his idols ; and we find that ^^^^^Snt ""^ 
 an enormous number of martyrs works of art. 
 earned their crown in this manner, 
 especially in the third century, when their rapidly 
 increasing numbers rendered them bolder and 
 more ready to make a display of their intolerance. 
 Sometimes the good sense or the worldly prudence 
 of the Church intervened to set limits to so favourite 
 a way of courting martyrdom ; and at the Synod of 
 Elvira, c. a.d. 305, a canon, was passed, declaring 
 the practice to be one not met with in the gospel 
 nor recorded of any of the apostles, and denying to 
 those who in future resorted to it the honours of 
 martyrdom. But in spite of this, the most popular 
 of the saints were those who had resorted to such 
 violence and earned their death by it ; and as soon 
 as Christianity fairly got the upper hand in the 
 fourth century, the wrecking of temples and the 
 smashing of the idols of the demons became a most 
 popular amusement with which to grace a Christian 
 festival. As we turn over the pages of the martyro- 
 logies, we wonder that any ancient statues at all 
 
 ^escaped those senseless outbursts of zealotry. In 
 India at the present day we meet with the same 
 sort of zeal in the Mahommedan population. The 
 Hindoos delight to embellish the walls of their 
 temples with scenes drawn from their copious 
 mythology; and a Mahommedan, as he passes by at 
 dusk, seldom neglects the opportunity of poking 
 
14 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 out the eye of a favourite divinity with the point 
 of his walking-stick. 
 
 / 4. In very many martyrdoms the saint is made 
 to recite his creed ; and we find on the whole that 
 Early forms of ^^^ ^^^^^^ given in Acts of the 
 Creed in second century are simpler than 
 those given in third century Acts. 
 Thus in the Acts of Apollonius, Christ is merely 
 said to have been the Word of God, made man 
 in Judea, where He taught all goodness to men, 
 and was crucified. No mention is here made of 
 His resurrection or of His miraculous birth. As 
 Apollonius was familiar with Paul's epistles, the 
 omission of the resurrection from his creed must 
 be accidental. But the absence from such profes- 
 sions of faith of references to the miraculous birth 
 from a virgin is so frequent, that we may infer 
 that it was not universally received among Christ- 
 ians of the second century ; as, indeed, we know 
 from Justin Martyr, that it was not. Sometimes 
 we read simply that the Christ was born into the 
 world in an ineffable manner ; e.g. in the Acts of 
 even so late a saint as Demetrius of Thessalonica. 
 In the third century the references to the Virgin 
 Mary become fairly common, though no early 
 martyr ever invoked her aid. Their prayers were 
 ever addressed to Jesus the Messiah. Towards 
 the end of the third century, and not before, do we 
 meet in genuine Acts with the doctrine of the 
 Trinity in Unity. Before that epoch the saints 
 were content with the simpler formula of God the 
 Father, and of His Son Jesus Christ. 
 
General Preface. 15 
 
 5. It is the fashion in the present day, especi- 
 ally with our court divines, to pretend that the 
 teaching of hell-fire and of eternal 
 
 ^ ^ ^1^ • • ^'1 -A-U the saints 
 
 torture therein, is no essential or believed in the 
 orimnal part of Christianity. If we eternal fires 
 i- 1 -1 • 1 A of hell. 
 
 dip but cursorily into the Acta 
 Sanctorum we are forced to come to a very 
 different conclusion. Every saint wvas sure that 
 apostasy would cause him to be cast after his 
 death into the eternal fires of hell, and it was as a 
 means of escape from the terrible destiny which 
 threatened all men, that Christian baptism recom- 
 mended itself to most converts. For the belief 
 was not born with Christianity, nor 
 was it distinctively Jewish. A few took^over^tMs 
 / years before the birth of Christ we belief from 
 
 , , T • 1 • paganism. 
 
 have the poet Lucretius denouncing 
 
 the popular religion for the reason that it affrighted 
 
 its votaries with such teaching : — 
 
 "Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum. 
 
 Nunc ratio nulla est restandi, nulla facultas 
 ^ternas quoniam pcenas in morte timendumst." 
 
 In Vergil we have the same note : — 
 
 " Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 
 Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum 
 Subiecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. 
 
 f The same is the burthen of Plutarch's tract 
 upon superstition. One brief pas- 
 sage is ^no\ig\i—Moralia, p. 166, f. : ^opini^n'^ 
 — " Tear not away the superstitious 
 man from his temples ; for there is he chastised, 
 
1 6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 there he meets with his punishment. Why waste 
 words. For all men death is the end of life ; but 
 of superstition 'tis not the end ; for it overleaps 
 the limits and transcends our life, and lengthens 
 out its terrors beyond this world. It attaches to 
 death a dream of immortal evils ; and just when 
 
 I we are ceasing to toil and sorrow here, it pretends 
 < that we are beginning with anguish that will 
 never cease. Wide open stand the deep gates of 
 hell that they fable, and there stretches a vista 
 of rivers of fire and stygian cliffs ; and all is 
 canopied with a darkness full of fantasms, of 
 spectres mowing at us with terrible faces, and 
 
 s^ uttering pitiful cries." The Christians, to their 
 
 / eternal shame, availed themselves eagerly of an 
 infirmity of the human mind which pagan philoso- 
 
 ; phers had deplored. And so we find the first of 
 the Latin fathers, Minucius Felix, 
 "^FeiS^^ contemplating with satisfaction the 
 fate in store for the heathen and 
 their gods (ch. 35) : "et tamen admonentur homines 
 doctissimorum libris et carminibus saepius am- 
 bientis ardoris . . . et ideo apud eos etiam 
 rex luppiter pertorrentes ripas et atrem uoraginem 
 urat religiose ; destinatam enim sibi cum suis 
 cultoribus poenam praescius perhorrescit. Nee 
 tormentis aut modus ullus aut terminus. Illic 
 sapiens ignis membra urit et reficit, carpit et 
 nutrit. Sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt nee 
 absumunt, sicut ignes ^^tncei et Vesuuii et ar- 
 dentium ubique terrarum flagrant nee erogantur : 
 ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium 
 
 \ 
 
General Preface, 17 
 
 r pascitur, sed inexesa corporum laceratione nutritur. 
 
 Eos autem merito torqueri, qui deum nesciunt, ut 
 
 impios, ut iniustos, nisi profanus nemo deliberat, 
 
 j cum parentem omnium et omniumfdominum non 
 
 Vminoris sceleris sit ignorare quam Isedere." 
 
 / Here we have the medieval hell. But we make 
 
 j a mistake, if we think that this awful shadow was 
 
 not cast across the human mindjpong before the 
 
 birth of Christianity. On the contrary, it is a 
 
 ] survival from the most primitive stage of our 
 
 intellectual and moral development. The mys- 
 
 1 teries of the old Greek and Roman worlds were 
 
 j intended as modes of propitiation 
 
 1 and atonement, by which to escape lastofthe ecoi 
 
 \ from these all-besetting^ terrors, and Xvrripi'oi of 
 
 - ■ T 1 Ti /r • 1 11 1 paganism, 
 
 \ Jesus the Messiah, was the last and 
 the best of the \vTr]pLoi Oeol, of the redeeming 
 gods. In the dread of death and in the belief in 
 the eternal fire of hell, which pervaded men's 
 minds, a few philosophers excepted, 
 
 nu '4-' V u J ji ' u 7' xi • Belief in hell 
 
 Christianity had a pozn^ a appui, fire the fui- 
 without availing itself of which it crum of early 
 
 1 J I - . . Christianity. 
 
 would not have made a single step 
 towards the conquest of men's minds. Its ultimate 
 prevalence over other forms of initiation was 
 chiefly due to the superior speculative truth of its 
 monotheistic conception of the world, inherited 
 from the parent Judaism, and rendered intelligible 
 to the masses by the outward and parallel spec- 
 tacle, which the Roman empire presented to their 
 eyes, of the entire world brought under the sway 
 of a single will. And in this last connection it 
 
 c 
 
1 8 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 may be no mere fancy to say that the Christian 
 
 conception of the relation of the Son to the Father 
 
 was, if not suggested, at any rate brought home 
 
 to the ordinary Christian imagination, by the 
 
 famiHar spectacle of the absolute Caesar adopting 
 
 1 another as his son, to sit at his right hand and be 
 
 v^ co-equal with him in counsel and supreme power. 
 
 r 6. Another point strikes us in reading the Acts 
 
 / of the Saints. It is the extent to which there 
 
 1 Slathered round the personality of a 
 
 \ Older myths ? . , ^ • i • i 
 
 \ gathered lavourite martyr the stories which 
 
 round the \^^^ been believed of the demigods 
 
 y early saints. . ^ 
 
 » and heroes of an earlier age. Thus 
 
 |Callistratus is borne to the shore by dolphins, like 
 Amphion ; and saints innumerable began their 
 careers by destroying a dragon, like Perseus, or 
 / like Hercules, a voracious lion, or like Theseus, a 
 \ destructive bull. And the predicates of one ancient 
 god attached themselves to one saint and of 
 / another to a second. Thus the mariners of Pontus 
 I prayed to Phocas as of old time they had prayed 
 \to Poseidon. X " Mutato nomine de te fabula nar- 
 ratur." A rich harvest awaits any student of folk- 
 lore who approaches the legends of the saints 
 from this point of view. 
 
 7. We should err, if we ascribed to the Christ- 
 ians of the first three centuries as a regular and 
 every-day characteristic, that de- 
 christians ^ tachment from the interests of this 
 renounced world, that readiness to abandon it, 
 
 the world. ... , , . ^ 
 
 which, nevertheless, they so fre- 
 quently displayed in seasons of persecution. We 
 
General Preface. 19 
 
 cannot suppose that in ordinary times the Chris- 
 tians of the second and third centuries were more 
 ready to cast off the ties of family and forego the 
 comforts of life than were the unconverted, v And \ 
 probably they interpreted the Gospel precepts, I 
 '' Let the dead bury the dead," and " Who is My f 
 mother ? and who are my brethren ?y in the same 
 sense in which we interpret them, namely, as 
 advice not so much to neglect the ties with which 
 nature has surrounded us, as to draw closer the 
 ties of charity, which should link us with all about 
 us. Such precepts of course could not otherwise \ 
 than occur to martyrs, when the ties of blood / 
 seemed to stand in the way of the heavenly re- ) 
 wards which they believed to await those who, j 
 rather than recant, suffered tortures and death.j 
 We shall see, for instance, that Polyeuctes casts 
 these precepts in the teeth of his father-in-law in a 
 manner which seems almost brutal. So Perpetua, \ 
 the mother of a new-born babe, in the excess of 
 her devotion to the cause. Is ready to cast to the / 
 winds the instincts of maternity. But in many such 1^ 
 cases we must take into account that the bodily / 
 feelings of the saint had been racked with tortures j 
 before they were brought to utter such sentiments.^] 
 None of our documents here translated, withy 
 the exception perhaps of the Acts . ^. . o 
 
 ^ ^ ^ Asceticism of 
 
 of Thekla, go back to the very Jesusand 
 first stage of Christianity. In those T.fne'^^hTt the 
 earliest times the followers of end of world 
 
 Ji TV /r • 1 • • was at hand, 
 
 esus the Messiah, as it is now 
 
 commonly admitted by all schools of critics, be- 
 
20 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 lieved that their Prophet was going to return 
 and begin almost at once the millennium or king- 
 dom of heaven upon earth. The kingdom was 
 at hand, and no man knew when the heavenly 
 Bridegroom might appear with His angels. The 
 most pressing necessity was therefore to repent. 
 Call there was none to marry and beget children, 
 or to take thought for the morrow and lay up the 
 riches that spoil. How hardly should they that 
 had riches enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 Jesus said, '* Verily I say unto you, there is no 
 man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, 
 or children, or lands for My sake, and for the 
 gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold, 
 now in this time, houses and brethren, and sisters 
 and mothers, and children and lands, with perse- 
 cutions ; and in the age to come eternal life." ^ 
 Nor it would seem were there wanting those who 
 already, in the age contemporary with Christ, 
 and, indeed, long before, had responded to such 
 a summons as this, though from 
 also met with ^he lips of Other unknown prophets. 
 inPhiio's Witness the Therapeutae, of whom \ 
 
 / Therapeutae. y^, ., i i r i • • i 
 
 rhilo has left a description at the 
 very beginning of the Christian era, attesting 
 moreover that they were spread all over the in- 
 habited world. These men and women, he says, 
 give up their goods, and flee without looking back, 
 leaving their brethren, their children, their wives, i 
 their parents, their throng of relatives and ofy 
 
 * See especially Matt, xvi., 27, 28 ; and xix. 27-29. 
 
 { 
 
 V 
 
< 
 
 General Preface, 21 
 
 faithful friends, their native lands in which they ^ 
 were bred and born. And why ? In order that i 
 they might retire into the desert, and there living, 
 men and women together, yet in perfect chastity, 
 devote themselves to prayer and praise, to watch- 
 ing and fasting, and perpetual contemplation of > 
 God, and of His powers and goodness. In remote j 
 regions generations passed away before the \ 
 Christians could resign their dream, and give up ) 
 the old hope that the kingdom of 
 God upon earth was really at hand.y^ "Saibeiief' 
 As late as the beginning of the 
 second century we have such allusions as the 
 following [Neu entdeckte vierte Buck des Daniel 
 Commentars von^ Hippolytus^ Dr. Ed. Bratke. 
 Bonn, 1 89 1, p. 1 57Tr9jl^^ '" 
 
 f '' For I will narrate what happened not long 
 ago in Syria. A certain bishop (irpoea-rm) of the 
 Church, being too little versed in the ^^.^ ^^^^^^^ 
 divine scriptures, and because he in Syria in the 
 also neglected to follow the voice of ^ °^^ ^^^* 
 the Lord, went astray and led others astray also. 
 . . . He persuaded many of the brethren 
 with their wives and children to go out into the 
 wilderness to meet the Christ ; and they went 
 wandering in the mountains and wastes, there 
 losing their way ; and the end was that all but a 
 
 \ few were apprehended as robbers^and would have 
 been executed by the hegemon, had it not been 
 that his wife was a believer, and that in response 
 to her entreaties he put a stop to proceedings, to 
 prevent a persecution arising because of them. 
 
22 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 What folly was it and want of sound instruction 
 that induced them to seek the Christ in the wil- 
 derness; just as in the time of Elijah the prophet, 
 the sons of the prophets looked among the moun- 
 tains for Elijah, who had been taken up into 
 heaven, for the space of three days ! 
 
 "And in the same way there was another in 
 Pontus, who was, like the former, president {irpo^- 
 
 cTTw^) of the Church, a prudent man 
 *^«^^^/°^- and lowly-minded ; yet as he failed 
 
 to read, mark, and understand the 
 scriptures in sound manner, he was more given 
 to trust to the visions which he himself saw than 
 to them. ^ For he fell first into one, and then a 
 "second, and then a third dream, and at last began 
 to proclaim to the brethren that he knew this and 
 that as a prophet knows, and that this and that 
 was about to come to pass. And they listened to 
 his preaching, to the effect that the day of the 
 Lord is imminent (2 Thess. ii. 2), and with weep- 
 ings and lamentations they prayed to the Lord 
 night and day, having before their eyes the ap- 
 proaching day of judgment. And he brought the 
 brethren to such a pitch of fear and trembling, that 
 they abandoned their lands and fields, letting them 
 become waste, and sold, the most of them, their 
 possessions. But he told them thus : Unless it 
 happen as I have told you, then believe ye not any 
 more in the scriptures, but let each of you do as he 
 pleases. So they went on expecting the coming 
 event, and when nothing that he told them came 
 about, he was himself put to shame as having 
 
\ 
 
 Gene7'al Preface. 23 
 
 lied ; but the scriptures turned out to be true after \ 
 
 all ; while the brethren were found to be cast on 
 
 a rock of offence. So that after that the virgins : 
 
 married, and the men went their way to till their / 
 
 fields. But those who had recklessly sold their 
 
 properties, were found afterwards asking to have \ 
 
 them back again. This is what happens to silly 
 
 and light-headed people, who instead of attending 
 
 strictly to the scriptures, prefer to obey the tra- 1 
 
 ditions of men and their own vagaries and their 
 
 own dreams and mythologies and old wives' tales." i 
 
 Yet it was certainly the genuine teaching of 
 
 Jesus which misled these poor people. *' Ye 
 
 err," He had said to those who 
 
 asked Him to which of her seven Jests' repu- 
 diation of 
 husbands a woman would in the marriage as 
 
 resurrection belong, '' because ye ^th^e^urrec- 
 know not the scriptures nor the tionandthe 
 
 r r- J T- • ^L kingdom of 
 
 power of God. r or m the resurrec- God. 
 
 tion they neither marry nor are given 
 in marriage, but are as angels of God in heaven." 
 So Matthew xxii. 29 ; but in Luke the precept 
 that none but the unmarried can inherit the 
 kingdom of heaven is stated without reserve ; 
 for in answer to the same question we read that 
 Jesus said : **The children of this age marry and 
 are given in marriage ; but they that are deemed 
 worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection 
 from the dead neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage. For they can no longer die. For 
 they are equal to angels, and are sons of God, 
 being sons of the resurrection." That is to say, 
 
 
24 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 the question, to which husband the woman would \ 
 belong was quite beside the point, seeing that 
 any marriage whatever was an absolute bar ta / 
 entrance into that new age and life, which He 
 (Jesus) was about to inaugurate *' before this 
 generation shall " pass away." Similar is the 
 teaching ascribed to S. Paul in the Acts of Paul 
 and Thekla, especially in chap. xii. In the same 
 spirit Jesus refers (Matt. xix. 12) to ''the eunuchs 
 who had made themselves eunuchs because of 
 the kingdom of heaven." For these men had by \ 
 their self-mutilation raised themselves above all '^ . 
 temptation to marry.^ St. Paul 
 The same was thus true to the teaching of 
 
 spirit obser- j i i i* 11 --v^y 1 1 
 
 vabie in Paul. J ^^us when he dissuaded 1 hekla 
 
 and others from marriage. In the 
 
 kingdom of Christ '* there can be no male and 
 
 t^' * So in Clem. JRom., Ep. ii. 12, we read that the Lord on being asked 
 
 when His kingdom should come, answered, When the two shall be one,, 
 and that which is without as that which is within, and the male with the 
 female neither male nor female. Justin Martyr, the father of Christian 
 apologists, quotes the precept given by Jesus in Matthew xix. 12 with 
 particular approval in his Apology, I. chap. xv. ; and in chap. xxix. of the 
 same treatise he relates how a Christian, libellum obtulit Alexandria; Felici 
 praefecto rogans ut medico licentiam daret testes ipsi resecandi. The pre- 
 fect refused permission. During the life-time of Jesus we hear of the same 
 precept being followed by Alexandrian Jews or proselytes. Thus Philo 
 writes {Quod detur Pot. Insid., i. 224), l^^^vcux''''"^^^*^ Y* V"^^ 4(uivov 
 f\ irpbs <rvvov<rtas ^Kvdjtovs Xvrrdv. It is curious that modern commen- 
 tators on the N.T. overlook passages so illustrative of Matthew xix. 12. 
 To the Aryan races, like the Greeks and Romans, the practice of 
 eunuchism was somewhat abhorrent, and so soon as the Christian church 
 became in the main a church of the Gentiles, it hastened to discoun- 
 tenance a practice, which however its founder seems to have regarded with 
 approval, and which may even have constituted one of the flagitia alleged 
 again.st the early Christians. (See Origen Comm. on Matt. xix. 12, and 
 Clem. Alexand. Ed. Syllb., p. 229B, 468c, 451 a.) 
 
General Preface, 25 
 
 female" (Gal. iii. '^'^). Marriage was to his 
 mind a second best, just so much distraction from 
 the business of the Lord, whether for man or for 
 woman (i Cor. vii. 34). ''Art thou loosed from 
 a wife ? then seek not one." However it was 
 better to marry than to burn, and if a man found 
 that he could not restrain himself and live on 
 platonic terms with his virgin, then he did best 
 to marry her (i Cor. vii. 36).^ 
 
 The precept not to marry, like the companion >^ 
 precept to possess no riches, was thus originally 
 meant to prepare men for the kingdom of heaven 
 which was at hand. But as the years rolled by, ' 
 the expectation of the second coming and of the \ 
 thousand years reign of Christ on earth, grew dim \ 
 and receded into the background of the Christian 
 mind. And it is an effort to us, as we read to-day \ 
 the apocalyptic passages of the New Testament,. ! 
 to realise that they were written in view of a \ 
 millennium w^hich was to come even during the < 
 lifetime of the hearers of Jesus. 
 
 But although the old apocalyptic dream thus 
 faded away, the belief in virginity as the true 
 state of the elect has survived in 
 \ some churches even to the present superior 'hoii- 
 \ day. With the early fathers vir- ness of virgina 
 
 1 • • ^ T survived in 
 
 I gmity was a never-endmg, never- the Church, 
 '^failing topic for edificatory hymns 
 
 * From this passage we incidentally learn that those platonic marriages 
 between Christians were already common in Paul's day, which Cyprian 
 of Carthage was obliged to interdict on pain of excommunication, because 
 of the frequent abuses to which they give rise. 
 
26 Monu7nents of Early Christianity, 
 
 fand discourses. It was also a fertile source of 
 martyrdoms, and many were the maidens who, 
 being betrothed and their nuptials arranged, took 
 a sudden resolution to remain virgins ; and in 
 such cases the outraged, but ungallant, bridegroom 
 often consoled himself by accusing his mistress 
 of Christianity. In the Acts of S. Peter, which 
 are certainly very old, though of course their 
 attribution to Linus is false, we read that that 
 apostle by his preaching persuaded many women 
 old and young, rich and poor, to take vows of 
 virginity.^ In the fourth century when the Church 
 conquered the world or the world the Church, a 
 1 compromise was effected ; and those who wished 
 \ to practise the tenets of primitive Christian 
 poverty and purity took shelter from the now 
 j all-absorbing world within the walls of nunneries 
 ' .and monasteries, k 
 
 A few words are necessary in conclusion as to 
 the method I have pursued in editing these trans- 
 lations. Where there exist other 
 Method pur- ancient texts besides the Armenian 
 
 sued in these , i t i i i i • r 
 
 translations. translated, 1 nave added m toot- 
 notes the chief varieties of text 
 which they furnish ; in order to give the reader 
 an idea of the development which a text has at 
 various times undergone. In the case of the 
 
 ^ Martyrium beati Petri, cap. i. : ** Unde factum est ut beati Petri ser- 
 monibus magnuspudicitiae apud multas diversoe aetatis ac potestatis seu nobi- 
 litatis foeminas amor exarserit, ita ut pleroeque etiam Romanorum matronse 
 a commixtione uirilis thori seruare munda corda simul et corpora, quantum 
 ex ipsis erat, diligerent." These Acts are an admiral^le commentary on the 
 fitory of Paul and Thekla. 
 
General Preface. 27 
 
 Apology of Apollonius which I have been so 
 fortunate as to detect in the Armenian martyro- 
 logy, I have added many notes illustrative of the 
 text. I have also prefixed to each piece an 
 introduction discussing its authenticity and any 
 other questions of interest which arise in con- 
 nection with it. 
 
 In the martyrology, printed at Venice in 1874, 
 there still remains enough of interest to make a 
 second volume as large as this. I have chiefly 
 translated those pieces which are new and hitherto 
 unknown, e.g. the Acts of Apollonius, a.d. 185, 
 of Quadratus or Codratius, c. a.d. 250, of Hizti- 
 bouzit, a converted magus ; or those which in 
 the Armenian assume such a shape, that the 
 question of their spuriousness needs to be re- 
 argued. Of the latter class the Acts of Phocas, of 
 Eugenia, and of Thekla are the most important. 
 The first of these turns out to be a partly genuine 
 monument of the Bithynian persecution, in which 
 Pliny was concerned. The second has been 
 strangely confirmed by recent discoveries in the 
 Roman catacombs. The third adds a new and 
 genuine chapter to the history of S. Paul. 
 
( 
 
 THE APOLOGY AND ACTS OF 
 APOLLONIUS. 
 
 /OuR first example is drawn from the reign of Commodus. By 
 
 / this time, as Eusebius informs us, the new faith had made 
 
 many converts, not only among the poor of 
 T^ V . .1- • u J u^ Air Evidence of 
 
 1 Rome, but among the rich and noble. We Eusebius. 
 
 I have the statement of Eusebius that Apol- 
 
 lonius was renowned for his culture and philosophy ; it is also 
 
 \ probable that he was a man of exalted and even senatorial 
 
 rank. This alone would explain the circumstance that Perennis, 
 
 before whom he was brought to trial, asked him to defend 
 
 himself before the Senate. The date of his martyrdom is 
 
 known from the fourth century catalogue of martyrs by Liberius, 
 
 also from the Roman and other calendars, to have been 
 
 185 A.D. 
 
 The tone of the martyr's defence then delivered, is full of 
 solemn force and simplicity, and gives the reader a loftier 
 idea of the Christianity of the time than the 
 florid special pleading of Tertullian, whose '^^^^^ij'^^^ 
 Apology for Christianity is later only by a Stoical, 
 
 few years. If the philosopher on the throne, 
 Marcus Aurelius, had been a Christian and had been sum- 
 moned to give an account of his religion, he would, we feel, 
 have given just such a one as this. 
 
 By way of preface it is best to give a translation of the 21st 
 chapter of the fifth book of the history of the Church by 
 Eusebius, which has hitherto ^ contained all that was known of 
 this martyr. It is as follows : — 
 
 ^ That is to say by European scholars. It is significant of the general 
 and undeserved disregard of Armenian literature, that these Acts although 
 
 29 
 
30 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 " And about the same period of the reign of Comodus,* 
 
 our affairs took a change in the direction of clemency ; and by 
 
 God's grace peace came over the Churches 
 
 Text of of the entire world. This was the time when 
 
 HisrEccl ^^^ saving word led the souls of all men, of 
 
 V. 21. * every race, to the reverent worship of the 
 God of all things. So that by this time 
 numbers of those who in Rome were most distinguished for 
 their wealth and family came and received for their own the 
 salvation which was prepared for every house and every race. 
 Now this was more than the demon who hates what is good 
 and is envious by his very nature could endure. So he 
 stripped himself again for the contest, and contrived a variety 
 of fresh plots against us. And in Rome accordingly he brought 
 before the tribunal Apollonius, a man who among the believers- 
 of that day was renowned for his culture and philosophy ; and 
 to accuse this man he incited one of his own servants who are 
 suited thereunto. But the unhappy man went into the suit 
 in an ill-starred way, for, according to the regulation of the 
 Emperor, it was not permitted that those who informed against 
 such as Apollonius should live. And he had his legs broken, 
 for the Judge Perennius pronounced such a sentence upon 
 
 printed by the Mechitarists of Venice as long ago as 1874, were neither 
 noticed nor translated into any European tongue, until I printed this 
 English rendering of them in the Guardian of i8th June, 1893. Yet during 
 the last ten years the notice of Apollonius in Eusebius' history has been 
 discussed and rediscussed, and the loss of the Acts themselves lamented 
 by Gorres and Neumann in Germany, Aube in France, and many others. 
 Upon my drawing his attention to them, Prof. Harnack of Berlin imme- 
 diately contributed a learned monograph upon them to the Royal Prussian 
 hzzA^vny {Sitzung der Phil. Hist. Classe vom z"} Juli^ 1893). He writes 
 of them thus : " Es ist in der That die vornehmste Apologie des Christen- 
 thum, die wir aus dem Alterthum besitzen. Ein edler Sinn, muthig abet 
 nicht trotzig, spricht aus ihr. Die Antworten zeichnen sich durch Festig- 
 keit und Wiirde, Freimuth und Ruhr aus ; sie iiberraschen an einigen 
 Stellen durch ihre Schlagfertigkeit." I take this opportunity of acknow- 
 ledging my indebtedness to Prof. Harnack's prompt monograph, from 
 which he has allowed me to borrow in my notes much material. 
 
 ^ The name Commodus is spelt in the same way in the Armenian Acta, 
 Commodus reigned A.D. 180-92. 
 
The Apology and Acts of the Apollonius. 31 
 
 him. But the martyr so dear to God, after that the judge- 
 had besought him much and earnestly, and asked him to give 
 an account of himself before the Senate, delivered a most rea- 
 sonable defence before all of the faith for which he was being: 
 martyred,^ and then was beheaded, and so reached his con- 
 summation, in accordance, it seems, with the decree of the 
 Senate, for there is an ancient law which prevails among them, 
 that those who have once come before the court and will not 
 change their resolution, shall not be excused on any ground. 
 In the compilation which we have made of old martyrdoms 
 you may learn what was said by him before the judge and the 
 answers which he gave to the questions of Perennius ; and the 
 whole defence which he made to the Senate; this whoever 
 wishes may know from beginning to end." 
 
 Hieronymus does not appear to have had any other know- 
 ledge of Apollonius than is given in the passage of Eusebius 
 just quoted ; for in his catalogue of Christian 
 writers he gives us (c. 42) the following j^ ®^^® ° 
 
 notice : " Apollonius, Romanae urbis senator 
 sub Commodo principe a servo proditus quod Christianus 
 esset, impetrato ut rationem fidei suae redderet, insigne volu- 
 men composuit, quod in senatu legit; et nihilo minus sententia 
 senatus pro Christo capite truncatur, veteri apud eos obtinente 
 lege, absque negatione non dimitti Christianos, qui semel ad 
 eorum indicium pertracti essent." In the above the words "in- 
 signe volumen " are, as Prof. Harnack points 
 out, due to the characteristic exaggeration Inaccuracy 
 of Hieronymus, and the words " impetrato ^^^d want of 
 ut" to mere inability to construe the Greek of Greek^cholar- 
 Eusebius which lay before him. In point of Jerome's 
 
 fact the Apology which the Armenian Church account, 
 
 has preserved to us is very brief, and it was 
 Perennis the prefect who begged Apollonius to defend himself 
 before the Senate, not Apollonius who begged to be allowed to 
 do so. Another statement in the above extract of Hieronymus 
 which goes beyond the account of Eusebius is also merely due 
 
 ^ Or "the faith to which he was witnessing." 
 
32 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 to hasty and inaccurate translation of the Greek. It is that 
 Apollonius was betrayed by one of his own servants. What 
 Eusebius said was that one of the devil's servants who are 
 iilways ready for such jobs/ betrayed Apollonius. No fourth- 
 form boy could have made more errors in translating these 
 twenty lines of Eusebius than does Hieronymus. 
 
 Eusebius makes the remarkable statement that the informer 
 
 was immediately afterwards condemned by Perennis to have 
 
 his legs broken in accordance with an im- 
 
 Addition perial edict. This statement has already 
 
 ^^®*^*^® moved the suspicion of several writers ;i 
 
 Eusebius. ^or is it likely that an informer would be 
 
 punished for giving information which led 
 to condemnation and beheadal of the accused. The Armenian 
 Acts give no hint of such a circumstance, though it may have 
 been contained in them in their complete form. Harnack 
 is of opinion that it was stated in them that the informer 
 had his legs broken, and that Eusebius out of his own con- 
 jecture ascribed this action to an imaginary edict of Marcus 
 Aurelius, which he had just before given in his history (bk. v., 
 ch. 5, § 6). This imaginary edict threatened informers against 
 Christians with death in consequence of the so-called miracle 
 of the Thundering Legion. The entire statement may have 
 arisen out of the fact that in all their histories of martyrdoms 
 the early Christians liked to learn that those who had brought 
 suffering on the martyrs suffered retribution even in this life. 
 This leads up to the question whether 
 
 Trustworthi- these Acts of Apollonius are trustworthy and 
 ness of these , ^^ , • , , 
 
 Acts. authentic. Of this there cannot be any 
 
 doubt, and for these reasons : — 
 
 1. Their tone is thoroughly that of the second century. 
 They are simple and forcible, and there are no miraculous 
 additions. As Harnack remarks : " They bear the stamp of 
 life and genuineness." 
 
 2. Tertullian must have read them, if he really imitates 
 them in his Apology which he wrote a.d. 197. Prof. Harnack 
 
 * E.g. C. F. Neumann. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 2^7) 
 
 thinks that Tertullian has so imitated §§ 19, 38, 41 of Apol- 
 lonius. 
 
 3. In any case the shorthand notes of Apollonius' trial were 
 accessible to the fellow-religionists of the condemned, and 
 these were doubtless used by the writer of these Acts. 
 
 4. Eusebius reckoned these Acts to be genuine, and on that 
 account gave them a place in his collection of old martyrdoms, 
 a work which is now, sad to say, lost to us. This in itself is 
 strong evidence in favour of them. For in other cases where 
 Eusebius mentions particular Acta to be genuine, and where 
 time has preserved to us the documents so mentioned, we 
 never find his judgment astray. 
 
 The close resemblance between § 4 and a passage in the 
 Acts of Polycarp, proves at the best that the second century 
 redactor of the Acts of Apollonius had seen 
 those of Polycarp. But the answer is so Resemblance 
 
 • , . * , r 1 to Acts of 
 
 often met with m Acta, that we may safely Polycarp. 
 
 infer that it was the stereotyped reply which 
 
 Christians were taught to give to magistrates who pressed them 
 
 to recant. 
 
 The simplicity of the Creed which Apollonius formulates has 
 already been dwelt upon in our general preface. It is fresh 
 evidence of the early date of these Acts. 
 We may almost infer that the martyr had of Apollonius. 
 not heard of the legend of the birth of Christ 
 from a virgin. And if he knew of the resurrection he does 
 not think it necessary to allude to it. What attracted him in 
 Christianity was clearly its superior morality, its teachings of 
 I truthfulness, mercy, purity of life, of lofty monotheism far 
 removed from the idolatrous cults around him. 
 
 Taken in conjunction with the passage in the History of 
 Eusebius, the procedure which seems to have been followed 
 in the case of Apollonius calls for a good 
 deal of remark. But on so technical a mat- Procedure fol- 
 . T . u . c .X. J. . .1- lowed m trial 
 
 ter 1 am content to refer the reader to the ^^ Apollonius. 
 
 monograph of Prof. A. Harnack, to which I 
 
 have already referred; and will proceed at once to give a 
 
 translation of the Armenian Acts themselves. In printing 
 
 D 
 
34 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 them I have observed the division into sections which Har- 
 nack has made in his German edition, to which I owe those 
 of my footnotes which are subscribed A. H. 
 
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY APOLLONIUS, 
 ASCETIC. 
 
 Christ, Who giveth all things, prepareth a 
 crown of righteousness for those who are well- 
 minded and stand firm by the faith in God ; for 
 the chosen ones of God are called to this right- 
 eousness, in order that, having fought the good 
 fight with fortitude, they may attain the promises 
 which God, Who lies not,^ hath promised to those 
 who love Him and believe in Him with their 
 whole soul. One of these also was the blessed 
 martyr and goodly champion^ of Christ, Apol- 
 lonius. He had lived a good and ascetic life in 
 the great Rome,^ and, desirous of the earnest * of 
 his heavenly call, he was numbered among the 
 holy martyrs of Christ. The blessed one bore 
 witness before the Senate and Terentius the Pre- 
 fect,^ and gave his answers with great boldness, 
 whose memorials ^ are as follows : — 
 
 ^ The Arm. = d\|/6v8i^s. A. H. notes that this introduction is composed 
 of passages from the Pastoral Epistles, see 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8 ; i Tim. vi. 17; 
 Tit. i. 2. With d\|/cv8i^s comp. the Acts of Poly carp 14, 2 : 6 d«|/€v8'jjs Kai 
 dXT]6ivbs Geos. 
 
 2 d9XT]Ti^s probably stood in the Greek original. 
 
 ^ The expression " in the great Rome " shows that this introduction was 
 not written in Rome. A*. H. 
 
 ^ The Arm. here = Kal o-irovSao-as dppa^wva t>]v dvw kXtJo-iv (? ttjs 
 &v« kXtjo-cus). Comp. Eph. i. 14 ; Phil. iii. 14. 
 
 ^ The Arm. literally = xi^tapx-qs. The Text of Eusebius has Perennius, 
 who was prefect of the Praetorian guard in the reign of Commodus. Per- 
 ennis was the real name. Terentius is an obvious corruption of Perennius, 
 either in an early Greek text or in the Armenian itself. 
 
 ^ Or Acts. /^SE LIBR^ 
 
 35 
 
 OP THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 CALJFORNlA: 
 
36 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 I. Terentius, the Prefect, commanded that he 
 should be brought before the Senate, and said to 
 him — '' O Apollonius, wherefore dost thou resist 
 the invincible laws and decree of the Emperors, 
 and dost refuse to sacrifice to the gods ? " 2. 
 Apollonius said — '' Because I am a Christian ; 
 therefore, I fear God Who made heaven and 
 earth, and sacrifice not to empty idols." 
 
 3. The Prefect said — '* But thou oughtest to 
 repent of this mind of thine because of the edicts 
 of the Emperors, and take oath by the good for- 
 
 § I. The Acts cannot have begun in this way ; for not only do we not 
 learn how the accusation came to be made, though Eusebius must have 
 known in order to write as he does, but the personal details are also lacking. 
 — The expression ** commanded " agrees with the words of Eusebius trans- 
 lated above from the H. E., v. 21, § 4 : iroXXcL Xiirapws iK€T€v<ravTos tov 
 SiKao-TOv Kttl Xd-yov avrbv lirl ttjs ctu-ykXtItov povXTJs alr-^o-avros. — Un- 
 fortunately no reason is assigned for the accused being brought before the 
 senate ; neither is Apollonius called a senator. The hearing of the case 
 as here related takes place before the Prefect and the Senate. — There was 
 no general edict prior to the reign of Decius compelling every Christian to 
 sacrifice. All that is here referred to is the rule allowed by Trajan and 
 then repeatedly insisted upon, especially by M. Aurelius, that every Chris- 
 tian when accused should sacrifice ; see the Acta Carpi et Papyli, 4 : 
 lYvoxTTttt (Toi irdvTws rd irpocrrdYjiaTa twv Avyovotwv ircpl tov Sciv v}ids 
 (T^Pciv Tovs 06OVS TOWS xd irdvTa SioiKOVvras • 80€V <rup.povX€vft) {i|Jiiv 
 irpoo-eXOeiv kuI Svcrai (cf. Texte u. (Inters, z. altchristl. Litt.-Gesch., III. s. 
 454 f.). Acts of Polyc. 8 : t£ -ydp KaK<5v Io-tiv clrrctv, Kvpios Kaicrof , Kal 
 4iri6v(rai, etc. A. H. 
 
 § 3. For the name Comodus see Eusebius. For the fact narrated com- 
 pare Tertull. Apol. 28 ff. and in particular the Acts of Polycarp, 9 : 6 
 dv0uiraTos . . . ^irciSev dpvcio-Oci X^-ywv al8^<r0TiT£ (rov t\v T|XiKiav, 
 Kal ^Tcpa TovTois dx^XovOa, usIBosavTois X^-yciv 6|xo<rov t^v Ka^o-opos 
 TVX1V, (JtcTavoTjo-ov, cf. § 10. In Acta Scillit. (p. 112 ed. Robinson) the 
 proconsul Saturninus says : **et nos religiosi sumus, et simplex est religio 
 nostra et iuramus per genium domini nostri imperatoris, et pro salute eius 
 supplicamus, quod et uos quoque facere debetis." A. H. Compare also 
 Minucii Felicis Octavius, cap. 29 : Sic eorum numen inuocant, ad imagines 
 supplicant, genium id est dcemonem rei implorant ; et est eis tutius per 
 lovis genium peierare quam regis. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 37 
 
 tune of the autocrat Commodus." 4. Apollonius 
 replied — ''Hear with understanding this my 
 answer. He who repents of just and good works, 
 in truth such a man is godless and without hope ; 
 but he who repents of lawless deeds and of evil 
 thoughts, and returns not again to them, such a 
 one is a lover of God, and hath regard to the 
 hope. 5. And I now am firmly resolved in this 
 my mind to keep the beautiful and glorious com- 
 mand of God, w^hich He taught by my Lord 
 Christ, Who knoweth the thoughts of men, and 
 beholdeth whatsoever is done in secret or in the 
 open. 6. It is best to swear not at all, but in all 
 
 § 4. Comp. Acts of Polyc. ii. : d|X€Td9€Tos t|Hiv tj airb t«v Kpcixrdvwv 
 lirl TO, X^^P" fiCTOLVoia* KaXbv 8^ (icTaT^Oeo-Oat aTrb twv xaX,€ir»v lirl tcL 
 SiKaia. Armenian Acts of Eustratius (vol. i. p. 441 of the Venice Martyr- 
 ology) : The duke said : " O Eustratius, unless you repent and turn back 
 from your superstitious folly, expect not to be saved from my hands by 
 reason of the pernicious counsels you have espoused." The holy Eustratius 
 answered : " O Lysias, they ought to repent who drift from things that are 
 good into badness, but not they who spurning evil deeds and designs 
 follow after the truth. Even as I from the beginning have followed after 
 the just laws of my true God." 
 
 § 5. KaXbv Kttl ^v8o|ov. For use of lv8o|ov see I. Clem. 9, 19, 23, 34, 
 43, 45, 58. A. H. 
 
 § 6. Harnack prefers a rendering which is equally compatible with the 
 Armenian : Ich will wahrhaftig schworen bei dem wahren Gott, obschon 
 wir auch den Kaiser lieben und fUr seine Majestat Gebete darbringen. He 
 remarks thus : We may notice the circumspection of the accused ; he 
 recognises that the oath is necessary in this bad world ; but only the oath 
 by God is allowable. He exemplifies the prohibition of swearing from 
 Matt. v. 34 ff. ; Jacob v. 12 ; Justin, Apol. i. 16. Trepl %\ tov (i^ 6|i.vvvai 
 8X«s TdXT]0fi h\ XcYCiv del, otirtos irapcKcXevo-aTO k.t.X. To which I may 
 add the following references. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, bk. ii. ch. 8, 
 Whiston's translation : " They (the Essenes) are eminent for fidelity and 
 are the ministers of peace. Whatsoever they say also is firmer than an 
 oath. But swearing is avoided by them ; and they esteem it worse than 
 perjury. For they say, that he who cannot be believed without swearing 
 by God, is already condemned." op-yfjs ra^iax 8iKaioi, dvp.ov KaOcKTiKoC 
 
38 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 things to live in peace and truth ; for a great oath 
 is the truth, and for this reason is it a bad and an 
 ill thing to swear by Christ ; but because of false- 
 hood is there disbelief, and because of disbelief 
 there is swearing. I am willing to swear in truth 
 by the true God that we, too, love the Emperor, 
 and offer up prayers for his Majesty." 
 
 7. The Prefect said — " Come, then, and sacri- 
 fice to Apollo, and to the other gods, and to the 
 Emperor s image." 8. Apollonius said — ** As to 
 
 irio-Wws irpoo-TaTat, elp'^vt^s virovp'yof. Kal irav yXv rb p-qO^v vir' 
 avTwv lirxvp^Tcpov 6pKov, rb %\ 6)ivv€kv 'ir€pi£<rTavTai xetpov ti tt]S 
 ^iriopKCas vTroXafi^dvovTCS. "JjStj ^cLp Karryvaio-Bai <f>a<rl rb dirtcTTOvncvov 
 S^xtt Ocov. The ordinance not to swear was older than Jesus of Nazareth, 
 for in Philo de x oracuUs 2, 194, we read : KdXXi<rTov 8^ Kal Pi(D<|>€X^<rTa- 
 Tov Kttl ap)i<iTTOv Xo-yiK^^ <)>v(r€k to av(&(iOTov, oiJTws «iXTi0cv€iv c<j>* €Kd<rToy 
 ScSiSa-y^JL^VQ, ws tovs Xo-yovs 6pKovs ctvai vo}iCt<o-6ai. Aevrcpos 84 <|>a<ri 
 irXovs tJ) cvopKctV ^r\ -ydp Ofivvs €ls airnrriav virovoeirat. This is 
 exactly the thought of Apollonius, And the following passage of Philo 
 has a superficial resemblance to the very words of the Gospel. "A^tov 
 liraivckV Kal tovs, oirdrc ^lao-Ocicv ofivvvai., tw (lAXciv Kal Ppa8vvciv Kal 
 diroKVHV luiroiovvras %io% ov |i<ivov rots 6p«<riv, aXXcL koI tois irpo- 
 KoXovft^vois els rbv 6pKov' clwOao-i 'ydp dva(f>dcY|d)Jievok too-ovtov )i6vov 
 " W| T<Jv" \ *' (Jtd Tov," }tT]8^v irapaXap<5vT€S, 4p.<}>do-€i rijs diroKoirTi$, 
 Tpavovv 8pKov ov •ycviJp.cvov {de spec. Legibus^ 2, 271). 
 
 § 7. Since Apollo is here the first of the gods to be mentioned and in- 
 deed the only one mentioned by name, it is probable that the session of 
 the Senate was held in Palatio and actually \v rtj" ' AiroXX«DvC<p, see Momm- 
 sen, Rom. Staatsrechty III. 2 (1888), s. 929, n. 3; Preller-Jordan, Rom. 
 Mythologies i* s. 147 ff. 307 ff. — As regards the Emperor's image see 
 Plinii Ep. ad Traianum (96) : ** . . . et imagini Tuse, quam propter 
 hoc iusseram cum simulacris numinum adferri, ture ac uino supplicarent," 
 etc. See also Acta Carpi : 9vo-aC o-c 8€t* oi^rcus "ydp ^k^cvo-cv 6 avroKpdTup. 
 A. H. 
 
 § 8. •• Bloodless Sacrifice," see Justin, Dial. c. Tryph. 117, 118, 41, also 
 under § 44. A. H. Compare also Minucii Fel. Oct. cap. 32 : hostias 
 et uictimas deo offeram, quas in usum mihi protulit, ut reiciam ei suum 
 munus ? ingratum est, cum sit litabilis hostia bonus animus et pura mens 
 et sincera conscientia. Igitur qui innocentiam colit, deo supplicat, qui 
 iustitiam, deo libat, qui fraudibus abstinet, propitiat deum, qui hominem 
 periculo subripit, (deo) opimam uictimam caedit. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 39 
 
 my change of mind, and as to the oath, I have 
 given thee answer ; but as to sacrifices, I and all 
 Christians offer a bloodless sacrifice to God, Lord 
 of heaven and earth, and of the sea, and of every 
 living being, in behalf of the spiritual and rational 
 images who have been appointed by the provi- 
 dence of God to rule over the earth. 9. Where- 
 fore, according to the command of the God-given 
 precept, we make our prayers to Him Who dwells 
 in Heaven, Who is the only God, that they may 
 justly rule upon this earth, knowing for certain 
 that he (i,e. Commodus) also is established Em- 
 peror, through none other, but only through the 
 one King, God, Who holds every one in His 
 hand." 10. The Prefect said — ** Surely thou wast 
 not summoned hither to talk philosophy. I will 
 give thee one day's respite, that thou mayest 
 consider thine interest and advise thyself con- 
 cerning thy life." And he ordered him to be 
 taken to prison. 
 
 1 1 . And after three days he commanded him 
 
 § 9. *' Divine precept" : Apollonius refers to i Tim. ii. i f. ; Compare 
 the prayer at the close of the 1st Ep. of Clement. A. H. — Perhaps the 
 sense of the original was ** that they {j..e. the spiritual and rational images 
 of God) may be justly ruled " ; for the passive and active forms are com- 
 monly confused in Armenian MSS. — "that he also, etc." The pronoun 
 here refers back to the Emperor mentioned in § 7. 
 
 § 10. Monotheism was favourably regarded as a philosophy, but when it 
 went with refusal to sacrifice it was deemed to be obstinate folly. See 
 Harnack's note on Acta Carpi, 9. In § 23 the Prefect wonders at the 
 "philosophy" of Apollonius ; in § 31 he politely rejects his teaching as 
 unintelligible. 
 
 § II. The "three days" must be an error; for not only in § 10, but 
 also §§ 43, 44 but a single day (night) is spoken of. A. H. — I have 
 rendered "hast thou formed for thyself," or "given to thyself." The 
 literal sense of the Arm. is " have I given to thee ; " but, if we assume 
 
40 Mo7iuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 to be brought forward, and said to him — " What 
 counsel hast thou formed for thyself?" 12. 
 Apollonius answered — " To remain firm in my 
 religion, as I told thee before." 13. The Prefect 
 said — '* Because of the decree of the Senate I ad- 
 vise thee to repent and to sacrifice to the gods 
 to whom all the earth gives homage and sacri- 
 fices ; for it is far better for thee to live among us 
 than to die a miserable death. Methinks thou art 
 not unacquainted with the decree of the Senate." 
 14. Apollonius said — "I know the command of the 
 Omnipotent God, and I remain firm in my religion; 
 and I do no homage to idols made with hands, 
 which have been fashioned of gold and silver and 
 wood, and which neither see nor hear ; because 
 they are the work of men's hands, and they know 
 not the true service of God. 15. But I have 
 learnt to adore the heavenly God, and to do 
 homage to Him alone, Who breathed the breath 
 of life into all men and continually dispenses life 
 
 an infinitesimal corruption in the text, the sense becomes that which the 
 context demands, and which I accordingly print in the text. 
 
 § 13. The sententia or resolution of the Senate is twice referred to ; here 
 it suddenly takes the place of a reference to the Emperor's edict. A. H. 
 
 It is a trite fact that Commodus was greatly influenced by his Christian 
 mistress to be lenient to Christians. Perhaps on that account he left as 
 much as he could of the responsibility of the dealing with them to the 
 Senate, who may have been in this matter more conservative and less 
 lenient than the Emperor. 
 
 § 14. See § 19. Ps. cxv. 135. Habak. ii. 19. Jes. xliv. 9 ff. A. H.— 
 These words and similar came instinctively to the lips of every early 
 martyr. — "And they know." Here "they" must refer to *♦ men " just 
 before. I translate the Arm. as it stands. 
 
 § 15. See Acts xvii. 24 : avr^s 8i8ovs irao-t \vA\yf Kal irvo^v Kal rd. 
 vdvra. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 41 
 
 unto all. 16. And I will not again debase my- 
 self and cast myself down into the pit. For it is 
 a great shame to do homage to vile things, and it 
 is a servile action to adore what is vain. And 
 men sin in adoring such things. Foolish were 
 those who invented them, and yet more senseless 
 they that adore them and honour them. 1 7. The 
 Egyptians do homage to an onion in their folly. 
 18. The Athenians unto this very day make and 
 adore the head of an ox in copper, which they 
 call the good fortune of Athens. And this they 
 have even set up in a conspicuous place near to 
 the statue of Zeus and Heracles, in order that 
 they may pray to them. 19. And yet what more 
 is this than dried clay or a baked potsherd ? 
 
 § 16. The worship of idols is self-degradation (see § 20) ; cp. the ques- 
 tion in Tatian's Orat. 19 : <rt» Tciv ^wwv Kal <J>vTft)v cXoLttwv {nrdpxeis , 
 — "I will not again debase, " or "I will not any more debase." The follow- 
 ing upon § 15, "I have leained," proves that Apollonius was a convert 
 who had been brought up as a Pagan. Philo thus always speaks of the 
 Jews as not simply having learned, but as having learned from birth to 
 abhor polytheistic error, e.g.^ D.V.C., vol. ii. 481, ot Mwvo-cws -Yvcopiftot 
 |X6)j.a6T]K6T68 €K TTpttTTis T|X.iKtas cp^v dXTjOcias. 
 
 § 18. Hr. Michaelis of Strassburg, communicates to A. H. a note upon 
 the Good Fortune of Athens (lit. of Athenians). "I know of no direct testi- 
 mony to such a brazen ox-head. By the 'good fortune' must here be meant 
 either a rvxT *A9Tjvaio)v {rvyj\ rfjs irdXccDS, Athen. Mitth. 1883, p. 288, 
 set up in the Piraeus towards the middle of the second century after Chr.), 
 or an d-yaQ-fj tvx.t) or if the gender permits an d-yaGbs Aaip.a)v. On the 
 other hand I know of a combined cult of Zeus and Heracles, CIA. II., 
 616, line 21 ff. Iiraiv€<ras 8^ Kal tovs eirtiieXTiTds Kal tovs Upoirotoiis t<5- 
 StoTfjpi Kttl T(S 'HpaK\€i Ka\ Tois ScoTTJpo-iv, ctc." It sccms as if Apollo- 
 nius had himself witnessed in Athens the cult which he describes. A. H. 
 Comp. Minucii Fel. Oct. cap. 28 §§ 7-9, and especially the words : item 
 boum capita et capita ueruecum et immolatis et colitis, de capro etiam at 
 homine mixtos deos et leonum et canum multu deos dedicatis. 
 
 § 19. Comp. Tert. Ap. 14 : Socrates in contumeliam deorum quercum 
 et hircum et canem deierabat. A. H. 
 
42 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 Eyes have they, and see not ; ears have they, and 
 hear not : hands they have, but draw not things to 
 themselves; feet have they, and walk not; for the 
 mere form bestoweth not real substance ; and I 
 think that Socrates also was making ridicule of the 
 Athenians when he swore by the poplar tree, and 
 by the dog, and by dry wood. 20. In the first 
 place, men sin against themselves by worship- 
 ping them. 21. In the second place, they are 
 guilty of impiety towards God, because they do 
 not know the truth. The Egyptians, again, have 
 
 § 21. For the cult of the dove cp. Philo, Sermo II. de Provid. Mangey 
 ed. ii. 646. Clem, Al. Coh. ad Gentes, p. 25, is the only other passage in 
 Christian apologists where I have met any notice of its cult. Perhaps 
 Christians were charitable to the cult, because they had themselves inherited 
 from the Pagans the belief that this particular bird was in an especial manner 
 the messenger and indeed the visual embodiment of the Divine Spirit (see 
 Matt. iii. 16, Luke iii. 32). The comparison of the holy Spirit or Reason 
 of God to the <{>iX^pT]|io$ rpvYcuv, ** the desert-loving pigeon " is found in 
 Philo Judseus, vol. ii., p. 491, and elsewhere. The Talmudists so compared 
 the Spirit of God which moved upon the face of the waters to a dove (Gen. 
 i, 2). From Philo the comparison passed to Clenjent of Rome, the friend 
 of St. Paul (see Fragm. 8). Perhaps through Clement or his school it 
 made its way into the Gospels and has become in Luke's Gospel not a 
 mere comparison and metaphor, but a material confusion of one thing 
 with another. See also Carm. Sibyl., vii. 83, where God sends down upon 
 Jesus at the Jordan 6pviv airayyeXTfipa Xd^wv. The gospel story then 
 is compounded out of two pre-existent elements : i. The comparison of 
 the Spirit of God to a Tpv-ywv, which we have in Philo and in the Talmud. 
 2. The belief that birds, especially doves, were messengers of the gods, 
 which was the basis of ancient augury, and still survives among us, e.g.^ 
 in our superstitions as to ravens, magpies, etc. 
 
 § 21. For the Egyptian cult of a mortar cp. Minuc. Fel. Oct., cap. 23 : 
 et deus aereus uel argenteus de immundo uasculo, ut accepimus factum 
 Aegyptio regi, conflatur tunditur malleis et in incudibus figuratur ; et 
 lapideus deus caeditur, etc. Theophilus of Antioch declaims in the same 
 style against the Egyptian superstitions. Philo of Alexandria is the source 
 of all the later and Christian rationalistic invective against the Egyptian 
 cults; comp. for example in Mangey's edition the following passages : 2. 
 193. 2. 570. I. 374. 2. 76, 2. 472. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 43 
 
 given the name of God to the onion, and to a 
 wooden mortar, and to the fruits of the field, 
 which we feed upon, and which enter the belly, 
 and pass out into the sweepings ; these things 
 have they adored ; aye, and they do homage to 
 a fish, and to the dove, and to the dog, and to a 
 stone, and a wolf; and they worship every one of 
 them, the fictions of their own minds. 22. In the 
 third place, men sin whenever they pay homage 
 to men and to angels and to demons, naming 
 them gods." 
 
 23. The Prefect answered — ''You have philo- 
 sophised enough, and have filled us with admira- 
 tion ; but dost thou not know this, O Apollonius, 
 that it is the decree of the Senate that no one 
 shall be named a Christian anywhere at all ?" 
 24. Apollonius answered — *'Aye, but it is not 
 possible for a human decree of the Senate to pre- 
 vail over the decree of God. For so far as 
 men frivolously hate those who benefit them and 
 slay them, just in this wise in many ways men 
 stand aloof from God. 25. But know thou this, 
 that God has appointed death, and after death 
 judgment upon all, over kings and poor men. 
 
 § 22, This passage is indirectly aimed against the worship of the 
 Emperor. 
 
 § 23. There are here two readings in the Arm. MSS. The one = ne 
 omnino christianus ubicunque appareat. The other = ne omnino chris- 
 tianus ubicunque nominetur. The latter is the true reading, for it was 
 penal to call oneself even by the mere name of Christian. But this rule 
 was made by the emperors already in the first century and not by the 
 Senate. Cp. Justin. Ap. i. 4. to 6vo|i.a «s ?\€"yx.ov Xa}j,pdv6T6. 
 
 § 24. Between the first and second propositions of this § it seems as if 
 we must assume a lacuna of some length. A. H. 
 
44 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 rulers and slaves and freemen, and philosophers 
 and ignorant men. 26. But there is a distinction 
 of death (from death) ; for this reason the dis- 
 ciples of Christ do daily die, torturing their 
 desires, and mortifying them according to the 
 Divine Scriptures. For we have no part at all 
 in dissolute desires, nor do we allow impure 
 sights, nor a lewd glance, nor an ear that listens 
 to evil, lest our souls be wounded thereby. 27. 
 But since we live such a fair life, and exercise 
 such good resolutions, we think it no hardship to- 
 die for the true God ; for whatsoever we are, we 
 are because of God, and for Him we endure 
 tortures, that we may not die miserably the 
 everlasting death. 28. And moreover we do not 
 resent having our goods taken from us, because 
 we know that, whether we live or whether we 
 die, we are the Lord's. Fever, or jaundice, or 
 
 § 26. Cp. Minucii Fel, Oct. 30 : nobis homicidium nee uidere fas nee 
 audire. Idem, eap. 32 : At nos pudorem non facie, sed mente prxstamus : 
 unius matrimonii uinculo libenter inhaeremus, eupiditate procreandi aut 
 unam scimus aut nullain. Conuiuia non tantum pudica colimus sed el 
 sobria . . . plerique inuiolate corporis uirginitate perpetua fruuntur 
 potius quam gloriantur ; tantum denique abest incesti cupido, ut nonnuUis 
 rubori sit etiam pudica coniunctio. 
 
 § 26. The Arm. «= dW d<}>opi(r|i<Js ^(ttiv tov 6avdTov. I owe to A. H. 
 a perception of the true sense, which is that there is more than one kind of 
 death, viz. : spiritual as well as bodily death. — By the Divine Scriptures 
 Apollonius here refers to Gal. v. 24 (vi. 14 ; Rom. vi. 6) ; the Pauline 
 Epistles are therefore to him divine writings, see §§ 9, 39. 
 
 § 28. For loss of property cp. Heb. x. 34 : t^v dpira-y^v t»v 
 {nrapxovTuv vfiuv jicrd xapds irpoa-e8^|ao-0e. Perhaps the lost introduc- 
 tion to these Acts referred to confiscation of the goods of Apollonius. Cp. 
 .\thenag., Suppl. i and the enactment of Marcus Aurelius in regard to for- 
 feiture of goods even after death in ease of high treason (majestas); Cod- 
 Just. 9, 8, 6. What follows is word for word from Rom. xiv. 8. A. H. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius, 45 
 
 any other disease can slay a man. I may expect 
 to die from one or the other of these." 
 
 29. The Prefect said— ''Art thou bent upon 
 death?" 30. Apollonius answered — "It is my 
 desire to Hve in Christ, but I have no fear of 
 •death, because of any love of life ; for there is not 
 anything that is more estimable than the life 
 eternal, which is the source of deathlessness for 
 the soul that hath lived here a noble life." 31. 
 The Prefect said — " I do not understand thy 
 meaning." 32. Apollonius said — ''And what can 
 I do for thee ? for the Word of God illumines 
 the heart, as the light gives sight to our eyes." 
 
 33. A certain philosopher who was at hand 
 said — " O Apollonius, thou dost insult thyself, 
 for thou art gone exceedingly astray, although 
 though dost even think to speak profound truths." 
 34. Apollonius said — " I have learnt to pray and 
 not to insult ; but thy dissembling bears witness to 
 the blindness of thy heart, for the truth appears 
 to be an insult only to the senseless. 35. The 
 magistrate said — "Tell me plainly what thou didst 
 mean." 36. Apollonius answered — " The Word 
 
 §30 "Source." The Arm. = mother. For a similar and almost con- 
 temporary use of p-TiTi^p see Galen irepl ^vxi]S ira0«v, 53 : Katroi tovtwv 
 airao-wv ovk &v 6KV'i](rai|xi ({>dvai |j.T]Tcpa irXeoveliav. I have met with 
 the same use in later Acta. — A. H. remarks on the distinction made by 
 Apollonius between tw^ alcovtos and d8avao-ia ; the former is general and 
 causative, the entire future world, the latter like d(t>6ap(ria is a gift there- 
 from to the individual soul. Comp. II. Clem, ad Cor. 20, 5 : apxTlYov 
 TTjs d(j)9ap(rtas, 8t' o5 Kal €(f>avEpa)cr€v rjiiiv t'^v dXi^Qetav Kal t-^v CTrovpd- 
 viov yai\v. 
 
 §32. The Arm. = nam uidens cordis est uerbum Dei, sicut perspicax 
 oculorum lumen. Might the sense be, that the word reaches the seeing 
 heart as light the seeing eye ? 
 
46 Monu7nents of Early Christianity. 
 
 of God, the Saviour of souls and of bodies, be- 
 came man in Judsea and fulfilled all righteousness^ 
 and was filled gloriously with Divine wisdom, 
 and taught a pure religion, such as beseemed the 
 sons of men, and to put to silence the beginning 
 of sins. -^"j. For He taught us to pacify anger, 
 to moderate desire, to abate and diminish ap- 
 petite, to put away sorrow, to take part in pity, 
 to increase love, to cast away vain-glory, to ab- 
 stain from taking vengeance, not to be vindictive, 
 to despise death, not indeed from lawlessness, but 
 as bearing with the lawless ; to obey the laws of 
 God, to reverence rulers, to worship God, to 
 intrust the Spirit to immortal God, to look for- 
 ward to judgment after death, to expect rewards 
 after the resurrection to be given by God to 
 those who have lived in piety. 38. Teaching all 
 this by word and deed, along with great firmness, 
 and glorified by all for the benefits which He con- 
 ferred on them. He was slain at last, as were also 
 before Him philosophers and just men. For the 
 just are seen to be a cause of offence to the un- 
 just. 39. As also the Divine Scripture saith : 
 
 §37. *• To reverence rulers." See i Pet. ii. 17; tov Oedv <|»op€i<r6€, 
 Tov ^ao-iX^ TijiaTt. A. H. — The sense of the passage which I render : 
 ** to intrust the spirit, etc.," is not quite clear. The rendering *' to believe 
 [or intrust] the spirit immortal in God " is rather the sense of the original 
 as it stands. A minute rearrangement of the letters in the Armenian 
 text would give the sense : "To intrust the soul to immortal God." This 
 last is certainly the true sense. Comp. Luke xxiii. 46 : *' Father into Thy 
 hands I commit my spirit." 
 
 §38. A. H. Compares Tertul. Apol. 14: "Propterea damnatus est 
 Socrates, quia deos destruebat, plane olim, i.e. semper ueritas odio est." 
 And Acta Pionii, 17. 
 
The Apology and Acts of Apollonius. 47 
 
 We will bind the just man, because he was a 
 cause of offence to us ; 40. but also one of the 
 Greek philosophers said : The just man shall be 
 tortured, he shall be spat upon, and last of all he 
 shall be crucified. 41. Just as the Athenians 
 passed an unjust sentence of death, and charged 
 him falsely, because they yielded to the mob, so 
 also our Saviour was at last sentenced to death 
 by the lawless : by the lawless who were filled 
 with envy and malice against Him, 42. as also 
 against the prophets who were before Him, who 
 spake beforehand concerning Him thus : He shall 
 come and shall do good unto all and shall per- 
 suade all men by His goodness even to worship 
 God the Father and Maker of all, in Whom 
 also we believe, rendering homage, because we 
 learned from Him pure commandments, which 
 we knew not, and, therefore, we are no longer in 
 error, but, having lived a good life, we await the 
 hope to come." 
 
 43. The magistrate said — 'T thought that thou 
 wast changed in the night from that mind of thine." 
 44. Apollonius said — ''And I expected that thy 
 thoughts would be changed in the night and the 
 eyes of thy spirit be opened by my answer : and 
 
 § 39. The reference is to Isaiah iii. 13. §40. The reference is to Plato, 
 Rep. II. p. 361 seq. A. H. notes that this passage is not quoted elsewhere 
 in the older Christian literature. 
 
 § 42. A free summary of prophetic teaching. A. H. — '* The hope to 
 come " = T^v |i^\\ov(rav eXirCSa. 
 
 § 44. Comp. the passage quoted from Minucius Felix in illustration of 
 § 8, especially the words " qui hominem periculo subripit, deo opimara: 
 uictimam csedit." 
 
48 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 that thy heart would bear fruit, and that thou 
 wouldst worship God, the Creator of all, and unto 
 Him continually offer thy prayers by means of 
 compassion ; for compassion shown to men by 
 men is a bloodless sacrifice and holy unto God." 
 
 45. The magistrate said — " I would fain let 
 thee go, but I cannot, because of the decree of 
 the Senate ; yet with benevolence I pronounce 
 .sentence on thee" ; and he ordered him to be 
 beheaded with a sword. 46. Apollonius said — 
 "I thank my God for thy sentence." 47. And 
 the executioners straightway led him away and 
 beheaded him, while he continued to glorify the 
 Father and Son and Holy Spirit ; to Whom be 
 glory for ever. Amen." 
 
 §45. ''With benevolence." The Arm. = <f)iXav0p«ir«s. The magis- 
 trate might have sentenced Apollonius to be thrown to the wild beasts, or 
 to other equally shocking forms of death. 
 
ACTS OF PAUL AND THEKLA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Among the many apocrypha or uncanonical histories which grew 
 
 up during the first three centuries of Christianity about the 
 
 apostles and their immediate followers, there 
 
 is not one that is so full of human nature as -^^f of Thekla 
 11 1 A r T^ 1 J rr., 1 1 X full of human 
 
 the so-called Acts of raul and Ihekla. In nature. 
 
 this document we read how Paul came to 
 Iconium, and there preached in the house of one Onesimus. 
 A rich maiden named Thekla overheard him from a window of 
 her house and at once resolved to follow his teaching and 
 devote herself to a life of perpetual virginity. Her mother, 
 who had betrothed her to a rich young man named Thamyris, 
 was vexed thereat, and at her instance Paul was by the 
 authorities scourged and cast out of the town. Thekla 
 follows him to Antioch, and as she enters that city a certain 
 Alexander who was giving a show of wild beasts to the in- 
 habitants, meets her and tries to kiss her. She resists, tears 
 his garments and pulls the sacrificial wreath off his -head. 
 For this act of sacrilege she is in accordance with Roman 
 provincial law condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts. 
 At this point she is befriended by a certain Queen Tryphaena, 
 who eventually adopts her. 
 
 The Acts of Paul and Thekla have not hitherto received 
 much credence from serious historians, and Conybeare and 
 
 Howson in their life of S. Paul confine their 
 
 Their 
 mention of it to a footnote, which begins authentieitv 
 
 thus : " It would have been a mischievous 
 
 confusion of history and legend to have introduced S. Thekla 
 
 of Iconium into the text. But her story has so prominent a 
 
 place in all Roman Catholic histories, that it cannot be alto- 
 
 49 F 
 
50 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 gather omitted." And an outline of the story follows in their 
 note.^ But recent archaeological and geographical researches^ 
 
 especially those of Professor \V. M. Ramsay, 
 
 Established have gone far to establish the historical' 
 
 by the re- character of the narrative. First came the 
 
 Mommsenand discovery in Asia Minor of coins bearing 
 
 Ramsay. the name of Queen Tryphaena, coins which 
 
 indicate that she would have been a woman 
 of about sixty in the year 50 a.d., which was the date of Paul's 
 first visit to Iconium. Link by link the evidence has been, 
 added to, till Professor Ramsay is able to give us the following 
 account of her : " Queen Tryphaena was daughter of Polemon,. 
 king of part of Lycaonia and Cilicia, and also of Pontus. 
 She married Cotys, king of Thrace, and became mother of 
 three kings. . . . In a.d. 50 she was nearly sixty. This 
 suits the Acta perfectly well. . . . Tryphaena was cousin 
 once removed of the Emperor Claudius. The apocryph 
 refers to this very relationship to the Caesar." Claudius 
 died in a.d. 54, and was succeeded by Nero, who had scant 
 respect either for the memory or the relations of his prede- 
 cessor. And Professor Ramsay justly observes, that after the 
 accession of Nero, no Roman official in a far-off province 
 would have paid any attention to Tryphaena's kinship with the 
 
 ^ Conybeare and Howson base their rejection of the tale in particular 
 on the statement that Onesiphorus went out along the royal road to 
 Lystra, to meet Paul coming from Antioch. Their objection was just in the 
 then stage of topographical knowledge and with only the Greek text before 
 them ; but this very statement of the route taken by Onesiphorus, es- 
 pecially in the clearer form in which the Armenian and Syriac give it, is, 
 now that Professor Ramsay has shown how the roads ran in the year A.D. 
 50, a clinching proof of the authenticity of these Acts. The old military 
 road of Augustus ran from Antioch of Pisidia to Lystra direct, and threw 
 off half-way a footpath to Iconium, which lay off it many miles to the 
 east. This was so in S. Paul's day. But at a later time a new road was 
 made from Antioch to Lystra passing through Iconium. Thus One- 
 siphorus, in order to meet Paul, would follow the footpath to its junction 
 with the royal road which led to Lystra. It is remarkable how what was 
 in a less perfect stage of knowledge both of text and geography an insur- 
 mountable objection to these Acts, has turned out to be a prime proof of 
 their genuineness. 
 
Ac^s of Paul and Thekla. 5 1 
 
 deceased Claudius, and that the very memory of that kinship- 
 would have speedily passed away from men's minds, even as 
 the very name of the queen was lost. " Our knowledge of the 
 dynasty rests almost wholly on the evidence of inscriptions- 
 and coins ; in literature there occurs hardly any reference to it. 
 It left no mark on the history of the world, and had no place 
 in the memory of posterity." He justly concludes that the 
 basis of the apocryph must be a document almost contem- 
 porary with Paul, written before the recollection of Tryphsena^ 
 of her kinship with Claudius, and of the consequent action 
 of the local Roman official had had time to die out. 
 
 But this is not the only sign of contemporary origin to be 
 found in the story. Professor Ramsay, who has studied the 
 ancient roads of this part of Asia Minor not 
 in books only, but on the spot, avers that Modern 
 
 the story reflects a condition and direction geographical 
 of the high-roads in the neighbourhood of truth. 
 
 Iconium which existed in the year 50 a.d., 
 ^hwX. which ceased to exist before the end of the century. 
 "Onesiphorus went out from Iconium till he came to the 
 point, a few miles south of Misthia, where the path diverged 
 from the built Roman road that led from Antioch to Lystra." 
 Here Professor Ramsay with insight gathered on the spot, 
 dwells on the divergence of the path to Iconium from the 
 royal or built highway which ran to Lystra. 
 
 In the Greek text of the story, which alone Professor 
 Ramsay had before him when he wrote the above words, it is 
 merely related that Onesiphorus went along the royal road to- 
 Lystra. But in the more ancient text, of which I shall 
 presently give a translation, it is expressly said that he went 
 out as far as the Junction of the path with the royal road which 
 came {or ran) to Lystra. Here is an admirable and unde- 
 signed coincidence with Professor Ramsay's account of the 
 movements of Onesiphorus, and also with the lie and 
 arrangement of the roads, which from ancient milestones 
 found in the neighbourhood he conjectures to have existed in 
 the year 50, before the Hues of communication were altered. 
 
 For many other touches of local colour, and of truth to the 
 
52 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 then condition of Iconium and the surrounding country which 
 are exhibited by the tale, we must refer the 
 The difficulties reader to the pages of Professor Ramsay's 
 the Greek and t)Ook on The Christian Church in the 
 Latin texts Roman Empire from a.d. 70-170. His 
 absent from clear and interesting statement of them 
 Syriacand ^^^^ ^^^ y^^ repeated here, where it is my 
 Armenian . , ^ . , . ^ 
 
 versions. ^^"^ rather to pomt out how certam ana- 
 
 chronisms on which he lays his finger in 
 y the story, shrewdly surmisin£_ them to ._ bo __secpn_d ..centiiry_ 
 additions and interpolations, for the most part vanish when 
 we turn to a form of the story earlier by far than that which 
 the Greek manuscripts give us, to the form, namely, in which 
 the tale is told in an ancient Armenian version which has come 
 down to us. 
 
 Let us enumerate these anachronisms and points of diffi- 
 culty. They are the following : — 
 
 I. Iconium was not a Roman colony in 
 ^Sthein^*^^ the year 50 a.d., nor did it become one till 
 a century later. It could therefore not have 
 been governed by a pro-consul of the name Castelius or of any 
 other name. There would have been at 
 The pro- Iconium in the days of Paul no higher 
 
 Castelius. official before whom Paul could be brought 
 
 than a local judge or dikast, assisted per- 
 haps by a council ; and this judge would not have the power 
 of inflicting the penalty of death. • 
 
 2. The charge of being a Christian could not have been 
 brought as early as the year 50 a.d. The charge of being a 
 
 magician, however, and of interfering with 
 
 C^s^ranTty^ others, especially with women, is, says 
 
 Professor Ramsay, ** characteristic of that 
 
 1 early period, and points to an origin not later than a.d. 80." 
 Readers of Philostratus will remember that it was the very 
 charge brought a few years later in the same regions against 
 Apollonius of Tyana. 
 
 3. In the Greek MSS. we read that Paul with Onesiphorus 
 was going from Iconium to Daphne. Now Daphne was the 
 
Ac^s of Paul and Tkekla. 53 
 
 site of a famous heathen grove and temple close to Antioch 
 
 in Syria. Consequently the writer of these 
 
 words considered that the Antioch of the iW)hne° 
 
 story was the Syrian Antioch, distant at 
 
 least 300 miles from Iconium, and not the Antioch of Pisidia^ 
 
 distant only 80. " In the versions preserved to us, Antioch 
 
 of Syria has been substituted for Antioch of Pisidia through 
 
 the misunderstanding on the part of an enlarger and editor, who 
 
 is much older than Basil of Seleucia (5th century)."^ This 
 
 P)asil wrote a poem in Greek on the martyrdom of Thekla. 
 
 4. Alexander is entitled the Syriarch. This title he can 
 only have borne if it was in Antioch of Syria that the events 
 narrated took place. In the other Antioch of 
 
 Pisidia the corresponding title would have Syriarch. 
 
 been Galatarch. 
 
 5. The name Falconilla, says Ramsay, is an anachronism 
 in these regions so early as the year 50 a.d. ; 
 
 it did not come into vogue before the year FalcSaSa 
 
 130 A.D. 
 
 6. The Queen Tryphaena is made to say : There is no one to 
 
 help me ; neither child, for she is dead, nor kinsman, for I am 
 
 a widow. Says Professor Ramsay: "The 
 
 real queen had at this period three sons „ Queen 
 r • 1 • J r 1 1 .• T Tryphaena's 
 
 livmg as kmgs, and powerful relatives. In kindred. 
 
 the long process of alteration through which 
 
 the work has passed, a little additional colouring was liable to 
 
 be added to the cry of the widow." 
 
 7. The words of the governor's act, says Ramsay, setting 
 Thekla free, have not been left uninterpolated by later taste ; 
 at least the epithet God-fearing, Theosebes^ is due to a later 
 age and to the desire of making the governor bear witness to 
 the truth. 
 
 8. Onesiphorus, we read, went out to meet Paul with his 
 children, with Silas and Zeno and his wife 
 
 Lectra. Ramsay objects especially to the Leetra!^ 
 
 name Lectra, as unlikely. 
 
 * Ramsay, p. 381. 
 
54 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 9. Thekla found Paul at Myra ; but Myra is a sea-port in 
 Lycia, distant from Iconium in a straight line some 200 miles 
 over impassable mountains. On the other 
 Mvra ° ^^"^ ^^ context indicates that the place 
 
 where Paul was found was not far from 
 Antioch. Otherwise how could Thekla have heard so soon 
 of Paul's whereabouts, and how could Tryphaena have at once 
 sent clothing and gold ? Moreover, Paul only touched at 
 Myra some years afterwards on his third missionary journey ; 
 but the tale indicates that this was Paul's first visit to Iconium, 
 and that he was a stranger there. It follows that the entire 
 episode, if it be historical, belongs to Paul's first journey, 
 and not to his third. At the same time Myra is a port to 
 which a traveller overland from Antioch of Pisidia might take 
 ship ; while it is inconceivable that anyone going from the 
 Syrian Antioch should arrive there, except by a long sea- 
 voyage. Professor Ramsay concludes that " the Myra episode 
 was inserted before the confusion with the Syrian Antioch had 
 been caused by one who connected the tale with Paul's third 
 journey." His reasoning apparently was that the action could 
 not be conceived as taking place at Paul's first visit to 
 Iconium, for he disappears from the scene of action so 
 quickly ; whereas, according to the Acts of the Apostles 
 Paul remained in the country, and soon returned to Iconium 
 after his first expulsion or flight from it. 
 
 The above are the chief points in the Greek narrative, which 
 
 are difficult to reconcile with the hypothesis that in these Acts 
 
 of Paul and Thekla we have at bottom a document written well 
 
 "before the end of the first century. Professor Ramsay urges that 
 
 hypothesis, and argues that these points of inconsistency with so 
 
 •early a date, are due to the hand of an interpolator who lived 
 
 soon after a.d. 130. It will go far to confirm 
 
 All the above Professor Ramsay's hypothesis, besides prov- 
 
 difflculties jj^„ j^jg remarkable sagacity as a critic, if an 
 
 vanish in the ,. r 1 a u j j r 
 
 Armenian earlier text of the Acta can be produced from 
 
 version. which all these points of difficulty are absent. 
 
 Now in the ancient Armenian language there 
 
 exists a version of these Acta, which was made from a still 
 
Ac^s of Paul and Thekla. 55 
 
 'earlier Syriac version at the beginning of the fifth century;^ 
 from this older text we find that, with a single exception, all 
 the matters conjectured by Professor Ramsay to be interpola- 
 tions of the second century vanish. 
 
 1. Paul is brought at Iconium before a local dikast, and 
 mention is made of a council or geriisia. There is no hint of 
 a Roman pro-consul named Castelius. 
 
 2. The second difficulty is not quite removed by the 
 Armenian text, yet it is minimised. For in the Greek text 
 Demas and Hermogenes are made to say at the banquet : 
 " Bring him before the governor Castelios on the charge of 
 persuading the multitude to embrace the new teaching of 
 4;he Christians, and he will speedily destroy him." But the 
 Armenian has : " This man teaches a new and outlandish 
 doctrine in the name of Christ, and forthwith when one 
 gives ear to it, it destroys him." I think the original text 
 has here, by a very slight change, been made to imply that 
 Christianity was an offence for which a man might be sen- 
 tenced to death by a Roman governor, as was the case at a 
 later time. 
 
 3. The Armenian has no mention of Daphne, and so leaves 
 it to be inferred that the Antioch mentioned was not the 
 Syrian, but the Pisidian Antioch. 
 
 4. In the Armenian Alexander is not called a Syriarch, 
 
 5. The name Falconilla is absent from the Armenian. 
 
 6. Instead of being made to say that she has no kindred or 
 children to help her, Tryphsena says that no one of her noble 
 family is ready to assist her. These words imply that she had 
 at the time highly-placed relatives, and the reference was no 
 doubt to her royal sons, as to whom Ramsay suggests, that 
 they had quarrelled with their mother for dynastic reasons. 
 Thus this point, instead of invalidating the story, turns out to 
 be confirmatory of it. 
 
 7. From the Armenian form of the governor's act releasing 
 Thekla the epithet God-fearing is absent. He simply says : 
 " The God has delivered Thekla and given her to you." There 
 is no reason to suppose that he knew anything of Thekla's 
 religion, or was in these words referring to the God of the 
 
56 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Jews. He probably believed that Thekla was, like many other 
 young Phrygian girls, vowed to the service of the local deity, 
 and thought that that deity had intervened to save her. 
 Thekla herself, it will be remembered, had declared herself to 
 be a slave or hand-maid of the God (in Greek, ^€o8oi'A.os). 
 Meaning no doubt that she was the slave of the true God 
 about whom Paul had taught her, though Alexander would 
 of course have interpreted her words in the conventional sense. 
 
 8. In the Armenian Onesiphorus goes out from Iconium 
 with his household and Zeno and his wife. The names Silas 
 and Lectra are not mentioned. 
 
 9. For Myra in Lycia the Armenian gives a name Meru or 
 Mero, and says nothing about Lycia. The Syriac version also^ 
 of which the Armenian is a very early translation, has the 
 name Merv, and says nothing of the place being in Lycia, nor 
 is " in Lycia " added in all the Greek MSS. Possibly Myra is 
 here a corruption of Merus, the name of a city some miles 
 from Antioch in a north-westerly direction. Perhaps there 
 was some place answering to the name Merv still nearer to 
 Antioch ; from which place Thekla sent out to seek for Paul> 
 and whence also the gifts of money and clothes were sent by 
 Tryphaena. The agreement between the Armenian and the 
 Syriac in spelling the name Merv is notable, because many 
 of the other names in the tale are misspelt in the Armenian, a 
 fact intelligible enough, if we remember that the vowels were 
 not added in Syriac MSS. Thus Thamyris is spelt The- 
 meros in the Armenian, and Tryphaena becomes Triphonia, 
 and Thekla Thekl. It is only the names like Iconium and 
 Alexander, names familiar to the Armenian translator, which 
 are rightly spelt. 
 
 There still remain however in the story, even as the 
 Armenian form presents it, episodes which must be apocry- 
 phal. Such is the story of Thekla's being 
 The burning sentenced to be burned. It was doubt- 
 of Thekla an less not less annoying in Iconium, in the 
 inten)olation, f^^st century than it would be in Oxford in 
 
 but m the .. • . , , . 
 
 Armenian and ^"^ nmeteenth, that a street preacher who 
 
 Syriac. came proclaiming the immediate advent 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. 57 
 
 of the millennium should turn the heads of the rich young 
 ladies, for whom their mothers had just arranged good 
 matches, and persuade them that the only right thing for 
 them was to devote themselves to perpetual virginity. But 
 even if by such teaching Paul did something to merit the 
 being scourged and expelled from Iconium, yet Thekla cer- 
 tainly did not merit to be burned alive, because she was 
 deceived by it. Nor is it in keeping with the attitude of her 
 mother, and of Thamyris ; for this was one rather of embar- 
 rassed affection than of harsh hatred. We know moreover] 
 that it was not part of the original account, for there exists a! 
 Greek homily as old as 300 a.d., dealing with the story of] 
 Thekla, and not only making no mention of this episode, buti 
 replacing it by a different one.^ 
 
 We may thus without hesitation cut out this unlikely 
 episode, and consider that Thekla's references thereto in her 
 later utterances are also the interpolations of a later reviser of 
 the tale. In that case we should not expect these references 
 to be added quite uniformly in all the texts ; and this is actu- 
 ally the case, for we find that in the Greek, Thekla, when 
 relating in chap. xlii. to Paul and Onesiphorus all that she 
 has undergone, mentions the burning. In the next chapter 
 (xliii.), in talking to her mother she says nothing about it ; but 
 in the Armenian it is in chap, xliii., in talking to her mother 
 that she refers to it, whereas in chap. xlii. she does not 
 mention it. This is good proof that these references were 
 added to the tale at a later time, when the episode of the 
 burning was introduced. Were they part of the original text, 
 they would come in the same part of it. A similar want of 
 uniformity among the texts, some giving and some omitting 
 allusions to the burning, is seen in chaps, xxiii., xxiv., xxxi. 
 
 There is no room within the limits of the present paper to 
 
 consider the doctrinal value of the Acts of Paul and Thekla. 
 
 It is enough to point out that the claim of 
 
 -ru 1 1 ^u u ^ \. ^- c c Thekla's claiux 
 
 1 hekla, though a woman, to baptise, far from ^^ baptise 
 
 being minimised in the older Armenian text, 
 
 ^ See the note at end of this introduction. 
 
58 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 is in it presented more strongly and pointedly than in the 
 «»Greek. It is the same with regard to the teaching of virginity. 
 It is therefore certain that this teaching was 
 The inculca- part of the original first century document, 
 virff\rdtvbv instead of being, as Ramsay is inclined to 
 the Acts. think, a Montanist addition of the second 
 
 century, f The teaching of the Acta with re- 
 '^ard to marriage and virginity is consonant with that which 
 Paul addresses to the Corinthians in his first epistle to them, 
 •chap. vii. 25 foil. : "Concerning virgins (/>. chaste men) I have 
 no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment. . . . 
 I think then that by reason of the present necessity, that it is 
 good for a man so to be. Art thou bound to a wife ? Seek not 
 to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife ? Seek not a wife. 
 -. . . But this I say, brethren, the time is short, that hence- 
 forth they who have wives be as if they had them not ; and 
 they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice 
 as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they 
 kept not their property, and they that use the world as if they 
 had no use for it. For the outward show of this world is 
 passing away. But I would have you free from earthly cares. 
 The cares of the unmarried man are fixed upon the Lord, and 
 he strives to please the Lord. But the cares of the husband are 
 fixed upon worldly things, striving to please his wife. The 
 ) wife also has this difference from the virgin ; the cares of the 
 virgin are fixed upon the Lord, that she may be holy both in 
 \ body and spirit. . . . Thus he who gives his daughter 
 \ in marriage does well, but he who gives her not in marriage 
 Vdoes better." 
 
 f Such was of necessity the teaching of one who believed, as 
 \ Paul no doubt believed, that the Messiah would shortly re- 
 i appear on earth, and then and there begin his thousand years 
 
 f reign in Jerusalem, establishing a kingdom in which there was 
 to be no marrying or giving in marriage, and in which, if we 
 may believe the Gospel of Luke, only the unmarried would be 
 deemed worthy to share. 
 
 The Armenian version seems to have kept a touch of local 
 colour in its description of Paul's refuge after the expulsion 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla, 59 
 
 from Iconium. Paul was fasting, himself and Onesiphorus 
 
 and his wife and sons, in a certain house „, 
 
 r \ . J ^ 77 The mention 
 
 of a young man, of which the opened door ^^ ^ sepulchre 
 
 .looks in the direction of the road of Iconium. as Paul's place 
 
 This touch is absent even from the Syriac ofrefugenotin 
 
 the Armenian, 
 version. 
 
 In the following notes I have only added in full the variants 
 of the Syriac text as translated by the late Professor Wright. 
 These variants well illustrate the growth of 
 the tale. The Greek and Latin texts are The Syriac 
 accessible to any one in the editions of and Armenian 
 Grabe, Thilo or Lipsius, and I have not oldest text of 
 incumbered my notes with all their variants, these Acts, 
 but have given only the more important 
 ones they contain. ( The Armenian is a literal version of the 
 Syriac text, but free from certain interpolations already present 
 in Syriac MSS. of the fifth century?) The Syriac again is free 
 from interpolations present in the old Latin version ; and this 
 again is a purer text than the Greek, which more than any 
 other betrays the accretions and changes of various ages. 
 Lipsius is therefore quite wrong in attach- 
 ing so little value to the Syriac texts, which Lipsius' error 
 vc J u .u A • .1- on this point 
 
 as purmed by the Armenian must hence- vitiates his 
 
 forth be taken as the basis of the true text. text. 
 
 Except for the interpolation of the burning 
 
 of_Thekla, the Armenian may very nearly represent the original 
 
 form of the text as it stood in the first century. 
 f The martyrdom of Thekla is frequently referred to in the 
 
 earliest Acts of the Martyrs. Her story it is which inspires 
 1 Eugenia in the reign of Commodus. The 
 j exordium of the Acts of Polyeuctes refers to Influence of 
 \r..y 11 J Ti . :\\^. these Acts on 
 
 Ihekla and Perpetua, and there were cer- later Martyrs. 
 
 tainly many virgin martyrs who drew their 
 first inspiration from the same source. The earlier martyr- 
 doms contain many indications that the History of Thekla was 
 one of the earliest Christian books generally diffused. J Thus, 
 ^S. Eugenia calls it "a divine book about God " (Acts, ch. iii.), 
 .and, " the holy book " {ibidem). S. Eugenius, a martyr of 
 
6o Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Trebizorid under Diocletian, couples Thekla in his prayers 
 with David and Daniel. In connection with the Armenian 
 version it is interesting to note that in the Armenian convent 
 of Edschmiadzin, in the province of Ararat, there is built into 
 the wall of the conventual church an old Greek bas-relief of 
 Paul and Thekla which must belong to the fifth century at 
 latest. 
 
 Note. — Pseudo-Chrysostomi op. Ed. Migne, vol. 2, p. 746. Els t^v 
 dyfav irpcdTOfiaprvpa KaV dirdo-ToXov @^KXav CYKufiiov. Parentes multis 
 earn uerbosisque commonitionibus ad coniugium incitabant. . . 
 Uiderat quippe sponsi [i.e. Christi) pulchritudinem, et ab eius contuitu 
 non avellebatur : instabat mater, quae ad nuptias impellebat. . . . 
 accedebat procus nuptiali earn colloquio titillans . . . confluebant 
 adulationibus captantes propinqui . . . supplicabant serui cum lacrymis 
 . . . terrebant iudices poenis ; at omnes ilia magno animo proculcans 
 clamabat, Principes non sunt timori bonis operibus, sed malis (Rom. xiii. 
 3). Cum uero statuas uirginitatis etiam in uiis erigi martyri oporteret, 
 talis quaedam puellae est exorta tentatio. Liberata iudicio, Pauli praedam 
 sectabatur, et rumorem sequuta ducem, uiis quae ad Paulum ferebant, sese 
 est ausa committere. Porro diabolus puellam obseruabat, et cum iter 
 agentem obseruasset, hostem immittit in puellam procum, uirginitatis 
 tanquam in deserto praedonem. Cumque iam iter perficeret, generosa 
 uirgini admissarius a tergo procus et acer indagator captam eam esse iam 
 inclamabat ; difificiles undique angustiae urgebant ; robustus erat, qui 
 bellum inferebat ; infirma, cui bellum inferebatur. Ubinam aliquod illi 
 a perfugio illo perfugium. Turn uero in caelum conuersa uirgo ad eum, 
 qui omnibus ubique ipsum inuocantibus adest, cum lamentis clamabat, 
 Domine Deus meus, in te speravi (Ps. vii. 2). The Latin version here 
 quoted is that of Fronlo Ducaeus. I have given the title of the fragment 
 as it is read in the Greek. In the horologion of the Greeks Thekla is. 
 similarly entitled lo-airdorroXos. 
 
ACTS OF PAUL AND THEKLA. 
 
 I. Paul was coming on his way up to the city of 
 Iconium after his persecution, and there accom- 
 panied him on the road Demas and Hermogenes, 
 copper-smiths and brasiers ; and these were full 
 of a spirit of mutiny, though in their words they 
 honoured Paul and addressed him as one whom 
 they loved. But Paul was looking unto ^ the 
 grace of the pity of Christ, and was walking 
 with them without any dissembling, and loved 
 them alike. And he so loved them that he con- 
 tinued to relate to them the teaching of the Lord 
 of all, and the explanation and the birth and 
 resurrection, as of one he loved, and was refresh- 
 ing their souls with the greatness of Christ, and 
 was for ever recounting to them how he (or it) 
 was manifested to himself. 2. Now a certain 
 blessed man, of the name of Onesiphorus, heard 
 that Paul is on his way to the city of Iconium, 
 and went out to meet him, taking with him his 
 household and Zenonia his wife ; ^ they went to 
 meet Paul and welcome him. For Titus had told 
 them and had given them the characteristics of 
 
 ^ The Arm. hajzer=vf2iS asking, must be a corruption of hajer=vfas 
 looking. 
 
 ^ The Arm. text B has : " his household, and Zenon and his wife." 
 
 61 
 
62 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 Paul's appearance ; because he — Onesiphorus — 
 did not know Paul in the flesh, but only in the 
 spirit. 3. So he went forth and stood at the 
 cross-ways of the high-road which ran to the 
 city of Lystra,^ and there halted and waited for 
 him. And he was looking at those who came 
 and went, bearing in mind the characteristics 
 which Titus had given him ; when he saw Paul 
 coming along, a man of moderate stature, with 
 curly ^ hair, . . . scanty, crooked legs, with 
 blue eyes, and large knit brows, long nose, and 
 he was full of the grace and pity of the Lord, 
 sometimes having the appearance of a man, but 
 sometimes looking like an angel.^ 
 
 4. When Paul saw Onesiphorus, he was very 
 glad. Quoth unto him Onesiphorus, " Hail to thee 
 Paul, apostle of the blessed one " ; and unto him 
 Paul, " Hail to thee and to all thy house, Onesiph- 
 orus." But Demas and Hermogenes were full of ire 
 and bit their lips with resentment and said to Paul, 
 "■ Were not we also of the blessed one, that thou 
 
 The Syriac has : " went out with the sons of Simon and with Zenon and 
 with his wife to meet Paul." Lipsius reads : ** went out with his 
 children Simmias and Zenon and with his wife Lectra." 
 
 * Syriac : "Stood where the roads meet, on the highway which goes to 
 Lystra." Greek : "he began to walk along the royal road which runs to 
 Lystra." 
 
 » Or "crisp." 
 
 3 Syriac thus describes Paul : "A man of middling size, and his hair 
 was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were project- 
 ing [or far apart) ; and he had large eyes, and his eyebrows met, and his 
 nose was somewhat long ; and he was full of grace and mercy ; at one 
 time he seemed like a man and at another he seemed like an angel." The 
 Greek and Latin texts do not vary materially. No text but the Armenian 
 adds the trait " blue eyes." 
 
Ac^s of Paul and Tkekla. 65: 
 
 didst never give such greeting to us ? " Paul 
 made answer and said to them, " For I see not 
 in you the fruit of well-doing." Quoth unto^ 
 them Onesiphorus, '' Obey me (b. If thou be 
 aught, c. If ye be aught)/ come into my house,, 
 ye also, and rest." 5. And when Paul had come 
 into the house of Onesiphorus and there was 
 great rejoicing therein, they fell on their knees 
 and then rose up and brake bread. 
 
 Paul came forward and began to preach the 
 word of the Lord concerning the truth of souls ^ 
 and the resurrection of the dead, and spake thus : 
 '' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
 see God. Blessed are they that keep themselves 
 chaste, because they shall be called the temple of 
 God. Blessed are they that mortify their bodies 
 and souls, because unto them speaketh God. 
 Blessed are they who despise the world, for they 
 shall be pleasing to God. Blessing unto them 
 who shall have wives, as if they had them not ; 
 for they shall inherit the earth. 6. Blessed they 
 who shall have the fear of God in their hearts, 
 because they shall be called angels. Blessed 
 they who tremble at the words of God, which 
 they hear, for the Lord shall call them. Blessed 
 be they who have received the wisdom of Jesus 
 Christ, because they shall be called sons of God. 
 Blessed be they who keep the baptism, for they 
 
 ^ B and C represent 2nd and 3rd Armenian MSS. of the Acta. The 
 Greek gives the words : " For I see not," etc., to Onesiphorus, and omits 
 the ensuing words : " Quoth unto them Onesiphorus." 
 
 ^ Syriac : " the controuling of the flesh." 
 
64 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 shall rest^ in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.^ 
 Blessed they who shall receive the law of Christ, 
 because they shall be for a great light. Blessed 
 those who for the love of Christ shall leave the 
 flesh, for they shall inherit immortal life,^ and 
 shall stand eternally on the right hand of the Son 
 •of God. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall 
 find mercy from the Father, and in the day of 
 judgment they shall receive the kingdom. Bless- 
 ing to the souls and bodies of virgins, for they 
 shall be pleasing to God, and shall not lose the 
 reward of their chastity : for the working of the 
 Father's words ^ shall be found in them, and they 
 shall inherit life in the day of the Son of God, 
 and rest eternal shall be theirs." 
 
 7. And while Paul was discoursing all these 
 great things of God in the house of Onesiphorus 
 in a great assembly, a maiden named Thekla, the 
 •daughter of Thekla,^ who was betrothed to a man 
 whose name was Thamyris,^ went and sat at a 
 
 ^ Syriac : '* rest in," which is probably the true sense of the Armenian. 
 
 2 All Syriac MSS. omit " and H. S." So Greek. 
 
 3 The Greek has : " because they shall judge the angels." The Latin 
 runs: *' quoniam angelis oequabuntur. " The next clause seems to have 
 originally run : " Kal kv 8e|£<jiT0v irarpis (or tov Gcov) oTa0^<rovTai. " But 
 as it was later on recognised to be the privilege of Jesus alone to stand on 
 the right hand of God, there were substituted the words Kal kv 8. tov 
 XpioTOv (or TOV vlov TOV 0€ov) €vXo7Ti0Vjo-ovTai. Lipsius absurdly reads 
 TOV iraTpbs cvXo-yTiG^o-ovTai, neither one thing nor the other. 
 
 ■* Greek = " For the word (6 Xdyos) of the P^ather shall be to them a 
 work (Ifp-yov) of salvation unto the day of His Son, and they shall have rest 
 for ever and ever." 
 
 * Syriac : " Theocleia." So Greek and Latin texts. 
 
 ® The Armenian spells : Themeros, a mistake natural in a translation 
 from unpointed Syriac. 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. 65 
 
 window which was close to their roof, and there 
 listened to the discourse of Paul which he spake 
 concerning chastity. Nor did she leave the 
 window ever by day or by night, but listened 
 to the prayers of Paul and wondered at his faith ; 
 the more so, because she saw many women going 
 in unto Paul, to listen to the precepts and com- 
 mands of God which he taught. And it was a 
 matter of regret and longing to her, that she saw 
 not his face, but heard only his bare words. 
 8. And she never for a moment departed from the 
 window where she sat. Then her mother sent 
 for Thamyris to whom she had betrothed her as 
 wife. When Thamyris heard that his mother-in- 
 law summoned him, he came at once, and he 
 thought that she would give him Thekla to take 
 her to wife. Thamyris made answer and said, 
 *' Where is Thekla, my wife (or betrothed), 
 that I may see her ? " The mother-in-law 
 answered Thamyris and said : ''I have some- 
 what to tell thee, Thamyris. Thekla who was 
 betrothed to thee, lo, for three days and three 
 nights she quits not a window, she eats not nor 
 drinks nor rises thence ; but she strains her 
 eyes to gaze upon a strange man, and hearkens to 
 his words as if they were pleasing, though they 
 are illusive and vain and disgusting. And I am 
 surprised that a wise maiden should thus run 
 after such wicked and delusive talk. 9. I tell 
 thee, Thamyris, that yonder man has undone the 
 city of the Iconians, and he deceives Thekla, who 
 was betrothed to thee. And many other women 
 
 F 
 
 y^^ OF THE ^ 
 
 UNlVERSITty 
 
66 Momtments of Early Christianity. 
 
 ,and young people have gone in unto him, and he 
 teaches them to worship one God and to Hve in 
 chastity. And Thekla is bound by him, as a 
 spider on a web, and has given herself up to 
 longing and to disastrous works of destruction ; 
 and she never raises her eyes from the window 
 nor forsakes it ; nor does she eat or drink, but 
 the virgin is quite absorbed. But do thou, 
 Thamyris, go in and talk with her, for she is 
 betrothed to thee to be thy wife. 
 
 10. And Thamyris went in to her who was 
 betrothed to him in marriage, because for one 
 thing he loved Thekla, and in the second place 
 he was afraid of her solemn longing. He made 
 answer and said to her, " Art thou not betrothed 
 to me ? What is this that thou doest, and what is 
 this evil destruction that possesses thee .'* Return 
 to me and be ashamed before me." And her 
 mother also spoke and said, '' Why dost thou look 
 down and refuse to answer, nay, and art like 
 unto one that is mad ? " When the household saw 
 her, they all began to weep, and Thamyris wept, 
 for that his wife held aloof from him ; and her 
 mother for that her daughter separated herself from 
 her ; and the handmaids that they were separated 
 from their mistress. And there was great sorrow 
 and grief in the house. But Thekla cared not for 
 all that, but bent down her ear to hear the words 
 of Paul. 
 
 1 1 . Then Thamyris was full of wrath and he 
 ran out into the street and marked the men who 
 came from or went in unto Paul. And suddenly 
 
Ac^s of Paul and Thekla. 67 
 
 he saw two men who disputed one with the other. 
 Then Thamyris came upon them and said to 
 them : '' What are ye, or what is come unto you, 
 or what are the words about which ye dispute ? 
 Who is yonder man who is in there with you, who 
 ensnares the souls of young men and maidens, 
 and who gives the commandment that there be 
 no marriages at all ? ^ I am willing to give you 
 much money, if ye will tell me who and whence 
 is the man, because we are leaders of the city." 
 12. But Demas and Hermogenes, when they 
 saw him, came to him and said : *' Yonder man 
 of whom thou speakest, we know not who and 
 whence he is ; but this we know, that he separates 
 the young men from the virgins and the virgins 
 from the young men, and declares that you cannot 
 rise from the dead ^unless you maintain yourself in 
 chastity." 13. Thamyris made answer and said 
 to them : " Come, my friends, and rest with me." 
 So they went home with him to supper readily, 
 and Thamyris made them a great repast and 
 prepared for them many good dishes. For 
 Thamyris loved Thekla, and wished to take her 
 as his wife on the day appointed by his mother- 
 in-law. And Thamyris said to them as they lay 
 on the couch : " Tell me, my dear friends, what is 
 the teaching which this man teacheth, that I may 
 know it. For there are not a few who condemn 
 
 ^ The Greek has : liva -ydpiok y.^ -yivcovTat dXXd oiirws jJievtoo-iv. The 
 
 Syriac and Armenian show no sign of their Greek original having been 
 here adapted to the language of Paul's epistles. 
 2 Compare on this passage the general preface. 
 
68 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 the same, and I am very grieved for my wife, 
 because she has given herself up to a strange 
 man and foreign, and behold, I am separated from 
 her." 14. Demas and Hermogenes answered and 
 said to him : ** Thou Thamyris, go and inform 
 the judge ^ about him, and thou shalt say thus : 
 This man teaches a new and outlandish doc- 
 trine in the name of Christ, and forthwith when 
 he hears it, it {or he) destroys him. But thou 
 shalt take thy wife, and we teach thee the 
 resurrection of the dead which he teaches." 
 
 15. When Thamyris heard this, being filled 
 with spite and rancour, he rose early at dawn and 
 went to the house of Onesiphorus, himself with 
 the senators,^ with many men bearing rods, and 
 provided as well with a large armed force. He 
 answered and said to Paul, '' Thou destroyest the 
 city of the Iconians, and Thekla who was be- 
 trothed to me thou hast ensnared with thy teach- 
 ing, so that she will not be mine to wife. Come 
 therefore let us go before the judge." ^ And all 
 
 * The Syriac=** Thamyris, bring him before Castelus the Hegemon, and 
 say, ' This fellow teaches the new doctrine and is a Christian, and lo, 
 straightway he will destroy him, and thou shalt take Thekla thy betrothed 
 (to wife)^ and we will teach,' " etc. The Greek text has : *' Bring him before 
 the Hegemon, Castelius, and say, he persuades the multitude to accept the 
 new teaching of Christians, and so he will destroy him, and thou wilt 
 have thy wife Thekla ; and we will teach thee as to the resurrection which 
 he declares there to be, that it has already happened in the children whom 
 we have [and we arise having recognised the true God]. Some Latin 
 MSS. omit the name Castelius here as also below. 
 
 * The Arm-=}i€TA. t«v Ycpdvrwv, which must be right, as Iconium 
 would have had a local senate. The Greek has yxrh. dpx^vrwv Kal 
 8Tf(JL0<r{a)v. The Syriac MSS. differ one from another : one reads, " With 
 the chief men " ; another : '* With the priests." 
 
 » Syriac : ** Come to Castelus the Hegemon." So also the Greek. 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. 69 
 
 the city cried : "■ Drag out the wizard, for he has 
 corrupted and destroyed our women with out- 
 landish teaching." And all the armed men took 
 charge of Paul. 16. When Paul was come witTi 
 those who held him and stood before the judge, 
 Thamyris lifted up his voice and said to the 
 judge :''* This man, we know not who and whence 
 he is, but he suffers not virgins to belong to their 
 husbands ; let him then say before thee wherefore 
 he teaches such teaching." But Demas and 
 Hermogenes, the copper-smiths, who were full of 
 malice, came forward to him,^ and said : " Say 
 that he is a Christian, and behold forthwith he^ 
 destroyeth him." When the judge heard the 
 words of Thamyris and of all the men who held 
 Paul, he said to him : "Tell me, Paul, who and 
 whence thou art and what thou teachest ? For 
 there are not a few who speak evil of thee and 
 accuse thee." 
 
 17. Then Paul lifted up his voice, and said : " I 
 will unfold that which I teach ; hear, O judge. 
 I teach one God, who returneth not evil for the 
 evil which men do ; God, who desireth not any- 
 thing, except that the sons of man should live, 
 sent me in order that I might save them from 
 destruction and purge them of their uncleanness 
 and from all deadly desires, unto the end that they 
 sin no more. For this end hath God sent me, that 
 
 ^ The Greek and Latin omit the words, "The copper-smiths . . 
 to him." 
 
 2 The Greek has, "Thou destroyest him," or: "Thou shalt destroy 
 him." 
 
JO Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 in Him of whom I preach the good tidings may 
 be the hope of all men. Who was greatly desirous 
 to save His people from error, that they should 
 sin no more and not walk in licentiousness ; but 
 that there may be in them awe and fear by 
 means of the faith in God, that they may know 
 the love and fear of the truth. Therefore that 
 which God revealed unto me, that I teach. What 
 do I owe unto these men 1'' ^ 
 
 When the judge heard these words, he com- 
 manded that Paul be bound again, and kept in 
 prison, until there be a good opportunity to hear 
 him. 18. But Thekla on the same night took 
 her bracelet and gave it to the door-keeper of his 
 house ; and he opened to her the door ; and then 
 she went on to the gaoler who kept Paul, and 
 gave to him a golden mirror, in order that she 
 might go in unto Paul. And he took from her 
 the mirror and let her in. So she went and sat 
 at the feet of Paul and heard the great things of 
 God. But Paul was in no wise sad, but was full 
 of assurance and openly rejoiced the hearts of all 
 who were with him with the commandments of 
 
 * The Greek has, ** And Paul lifted up his voice, saying, * If I this day 
 answer what I teach, hear, O proconsul. God living, God of requitals 
 (^KSiK-^o-tttv), God who is jealous, God wanting in nothing, desiring the 
 salvation of men, sent me, to draw them away from destruction and im- 
 purity and from all pleasure and death, that they sin no more. Wherefore 
 God sent His own Son, whose good tidings I preach, and teach men to 
 have their hope in Him, who alone suffered with the erring world, in order 
 that men be no longer under judgment, but have faith and fear of God 
 and knowledge of holiness and love of truth. If then I teach the things 
 revealed to me by God, what wrong do I do, O proconsul ? ' " 
 
 The dogmatic teaching of the Greek text seems more developed. 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. 71 
 
 God. And Thekla with great joy kissed the feet 
 and the chains which bound the feet and hands of 
 Paul. 
 
 19. But when her household sought Thekla 
 and found her not, they thought that she had 
 perished, and they went and sought her in the 
 highways. But there came a comrade of the 
 door-keeper's, who gave information about him 
 and said, " I saw Thekla give her bracelet to the 
 door-keeper and pass by." And when they tor- 
 tured the door-keeper, he avowed it under com- 
 pulsion, and said: "Yea, she came and said, 'I 
 am going to the stranger who is bound in the 
 prison.' " So they went and found her as the 
 door-keeper told them ; they came and found her 
 sitting at the feet of Paul, and saw several other 
 people as well, who were listening to the great 
 things of Christ.-^ And Thamyris went out along 
 wdth several men who were with him, full of anger, 
 and they told the judge all that had taken place. 
 
 20. Then the judge bade them bring Paul be- 
 fore him, and the young men ran and loosed Paul 
 and dragged him forth from the prison, But 
 Thekla threw herself on the ground and wept 
 bitterly on the spot where Paul had sat in bonds 
 and taught her the Commands of God. Then the 
 judge again ordered Thekla to be brought before 
 him ; and Thamyris ran, and many men with 
 him, and took Thekla and dragged her in. When 
 the judge saw her, he was very grieved about 
 
 1 Syriac, " Of God," or : "Of the Most High." 
 
72 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 her ; ^ but Thekla right gladly stood up before 
 him and was in no ways cast down. Then on a 
 sudden all the armed men cried out and said : 
 " Destroy this wizard." But the judge said no- 
 thing to Paul. And then the judge sat down on 
 his throne and called Thekla. And the judge 
 said to her : ** Wherefore art thou not for (or 
 to) thy husband according to the laws of the 
 Iconians ?" But Thekla simply stood there, just 
 as she was, and riveted her eyes upon Paul and 
 gave no answer whatever to the judge. Her 
 mother raised a loud and shrill scream, and said, 
 ** Destroy the senseless one in the theatre, that 
 all women may look at her and forbear to learn 
 this evil teaching." 21. When the judge heard 
 this, he was very distressed about her ; but he 
 ordered Paul to be scourged and cast out of the 
 city. And he gave sentence that they should 
 burn Thekla with fire in the middle of the theatre. 
 The judge rose up to go to the theatre and all 
 the host with him, to see Thekla burned in the 
 fire. And, as a sheep wandering among the hills 
 in search of the shepherd, even so Thekla sought 
 for Paul. And as she looked round on all the 
 men there, she saw the Lord Jesus Christ sitting 
 full opposite her (Syriac, *' beside her ") in the 
 likeness of Paul. Thekla made answer and 
 said : ** Paul came and sat in front of me, as if 
 I could not endure,^ in the vision which has ap- 
 
 * The Greek omits this clause. 
 
 « This is the literal sense of the Armenian, of which the text here seems 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. y2> 
 
 peared to me." And while she kept her eyes 
 fixed upon him, the Lord rose up and went into 
 heaven. 
 
 2 2. But the young men and the women brought 
 wood and laid it in the theatre to burn Thekla, 
 and they brought her naked into the theatre. 
 When the judge saw this he began to weep and 
 raised a lamentation, and wondered at the power 
 wh,ich was in her.. They piled up the wood and 
 undid it, and the youths compelled her to go up 
 on to the fire as it blazed up. And Thekla im- 
 mediately went up atop of the fire.-^ Then the 
 flames of the blazing fire rose and gathered round 
 her, yet not one tress of her hair caught light, 
 because the Spirit of God had pity on her, and 
 a roaring sound went forth from heaven, and a 
 cloud of wet was over her, and hail and heavy 
 rain was poured forth from heaven. And many 
 men who listened and saw were destroyed ; and 
 the fire was quenched and Thekla was saved. 
 23. But Paul was fasting, along with Onesi- 
 phorus and his wife and sons in a house ^ of 
 
 faulty. The Syriac=" As if I were not able to bear whatever may come 
 upon me." For a similar incident, cp. Euseb., II. E.^ v. i, 206, where 
 Blandina having been exposed on the cross, 8id rv\<5 cvtovov TrpotrcvxTis 
 iroXX^v irpoOvfiiav tois d7«vt5o[JL€vois Ivetrotei, p\€ir6vT<ov avT«v €v tco 
 d-ydivi Kal tois ?|cd9€V 6(|>6aX|ji.ois 8id rfjs d8€\<|)fis tov vir^p avrwv 
 co-Tavpwji^vov, iVa ireio-T) k.t.X. Cp. "Translatio Philippi" in M. R. 
 James' Apocr. Anecd., p. 161, 16, «s Kal tov 'Itjo-ovv <J>aCv€o-6ai avTois 
 €v a-yfy^fx.T\. TOV 4>i\tir'irov. The parallel in John xx. 15 will occur to 
 everyone. 
 
 ^ The Syriac adds : " She stretched out her hands in the form of a 
 cross." So the Greek and Latin Texts. Just below the Greek runs, that 
 God had pity on her, and made a subterranean noise, etc. 
 
 * The Syriac has : * ' In a sepulchre which was open by the roadside of the 
 
74 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 a young man, of which the opened door looks 
 in the direction of the road of (or to) the city 
 of Iconium. When they had been there many 
 days a- fasting, the children say to Paul, ** We are 
 hungry." And they would have had nothing to 
 give in payment ; for Onesiphorus had abandoned 
 his house and means of living, and had gone forth 
 along with his friend Paul. Then Paul took off 
 his tunic and gave it to the youth, and said, ** Go, 
 my child, and buy bread as much as it fetches." 
 The youth went to buy bread and there saw 
 Thekla their neighbour. He wondered, and said : 
 '' Thekla, whither goest thou?" She says to 
 him : ** I am going after Paul, because I have 
 been saved from the fire.^ And the youth said, 
 " Come, I will lead you to him ; for he is dis- 
 traught, and sighs and grieves, and it is now six 
 days that he fasts and prays of God for thee." 
 24. Thekla went with him to the house of the 
 young man,^ and came to Paul and found him on 
 his knees in prayer, beseeching and saying, " Our 
 Father which art in heaven,^ I pray thee that the 
 fire may not touch Thekla, but rather quench it 
 from her, for she is Thine." And Thekla stood 
 behind him, and she opened her mouth and said : 
 " Father, which madest heaven and earth, and 
 
 Iconians." The Greek MSS. have 4v )jlvt)|1€C({> dvoiKXip (some 4v |iv. Kaiv«p 
 or Kcv<{>) iv '68(|> ^ h.'Tth 'IkovCov els Ad4>vT]v tropcvovrai. The old Latin 
 and Syriac omit the words els Ad<j>vT]v. 
 
 * One Greek MS. (Lipsius' F) omits the words 4k irvpbs o-wBcio-a. 
 
 * Syriac : ** To the sepulchre." So the Greek and Latin. 
 
 * The Greek MSS. have Ildrcp XpicrroO or similar expressions. 
 
Acts of Paul and Tkekla. 75" 
 
 Thou art the Father of saints/ I thank Thee that 
 Thou hast had pity upon me and hast saved me 
 in order that I may behold Paul." Paul rose up 
 and saw her, and answered and said : '' God, who 
 knowest the hearts of all. Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, I thank Thee that Thou hast saved 
 her, for whom I supplicated Thee, from the fire,^ 
 and hast granted to me, and to those with me, to 
 behold her ; in Thy hands is it to rescue from all 
 afflictions those who glorify Thy name for ever. 
 
 25. And Paul rejoiced exceedingly along with 
 those who were with him.^ And the lad brought 
 five loaves of bread, with vegetables and salt 
 besides, and water ; and they rejoiced in their 
 deeds and were made strong in the grace of the 
 pity of Christ. And said Thekla to Paul : '' JL^wiil 
 cut short my hair and will follow after thee^ 
 whithersoever thou goest." Said Paul : '' 'Tis a 
 hard struggle, and thou art beautiful ; perhaps 
 another temptation may beset thee, even a greater 
 than the first, and thou wilt not be able to bear it." 
 Said Thekla to Paul : '' Give me only the seal of 
 
 ^ Syriac : " Of the Holy (One)." The Greek is yet more developed : 6 
 Tov -TraiSbs tov oc^fxtrtYrov <rov *lT](ro(» Xpicrrov iraTTJp. So the Latin. 
 
 ^ Here the reference to the fire has not made its way into the Greek and 
 old Latin : 6vXoy<<>> (tc Sti 8 i\puiTt\u-<i, €Tdx,vvds (xot Kal clo-qKouorcts (xov. 
 
 They also omit the words of Paul which ensue in the Armenian and 
 Syriac. 
 
 ^ The Greek = " And there was within in the tomb much love " (dydin] 
 iroXX^]. Latin : gaudium magnum). Just below the Greek and Latin 
 texts omit the words : " and salt besides." It was a primitive Eucharist 
 which they celebrated with bread, water, vegetables and salt. See 
 Harnack's tract on the use of water in the primitive Eucharist, and compare 
 Philo, De Vita Contemplativa, ii. 484, where hyssop is the vegetable 
 partaken of with leavened bread and salt and water. 
 
"j^ Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Christ and temptation cometh not nigh me." Said 
 Paul to Thekla : "Be patient, and thou shalt re- 
 ceive that which thou seekest."^ 26. And Paul sent 
 away Onesiphorus along with his household, and 
 they went to their home. But Paul took Thekla 
 by the hand and the men who were with her, and 
 they went and came to the city of Antioch. And 
 as they were entering in, one of the chief men of 
 the city of Antioch, Alexander by name,^ who had 
 done many deeds in Antioch, as soon as he saw 
 Thekla, loved her at sight, and began to flatter 
 Paul and cajole him with promises of much silver 
 and gold. Said Paul : '* I know not the woman 
 of whom thou speakest, and she is nothing of 
 mine at all." For Alexander was violent, and 
 came and constrained Thekla, and put his arms 
 round her in the middle of the market-place. But 
 she would not brook his action, but cried out and 
 sought for Paul with much lamentation, and said : 
 ** Hurt not one who is a stranger, insult not the 
 handmaids of God. I am daughter of leading 
 citizens of the city of Iconium, and because I 
 would not 'be wife to Thamyris my husband, they 
 cast me out of my city. And straightway she 
 attacked Alexander and rent his raiment, and tore 
 off the golden crown of the figure of Caesar,^ which 
 he had on his head, and dashed it to the ground, 
 
 1 Syriac : "Receive the waters (of baptism)." So the Greek text of 
 Lipsius, though some MSS. have rfjv Swp^av tov (or XpwrToO). The 
 Latin has : Signum salutis or lauacrum regenerationis. 
 
 ^ Greek : Dupidpxiis (or Svpos) tis 'AX^avSpos. 
 
 * The Greek and Latin texts simply say " the crown" rbv ot^i^vov 
 without describing it further. See note at the end of these Acts (p. 88). 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. "jj 
 
 and left him naked, destitute and full of shame. 
 27. Now Alexander loved her at sight, but 
 since she had put him to shame by the way she 
 had treated him, he straightway gave information 
 to the judge, to the effect that Thekla did thus 
 and thus to me, and she denies not that which she 
 did ; but do thou judge her and order that she be 
 thrown to the wild beasts. And^ Alexander himself 
 it was, who was giving the show of wild beasts to 
 the city. And when all the citizens heard, they 
 were astonished and they raised a cry before the 
 judgment seat, saying : '' Unjust Is your judgment 
 with which you condemn Thekla."^ And Thekla 
 came and stood before the judge and adjured him 
 and said : ''This favour grant me, that until they 
 cast me to the beasts I may preserve my chastity." 
 And the judge, when he heard these words, said 
 to Thekla : " Go, preserve it where thou wilt." 
 And there was there a certain lady of a royal ^ 
 house and rich, Tryphaena by name, whose 
 daughter had died, and she took her to herself to 
 her house, and she was consoled at the sight of 
 Thekla. 
 
 28. When the wild beasts had come into the 
 theatre, they came to fetch Thekla from the house 
 of Tryphaena, and took her to the theatre, and 
 stripped her, but put around her a linen loin-cloth, 
 and set her there naked. And they let loose 
 
 ^-^ The Greek omits these words. The Latin and Syriac retain. 
 
 2 The Greek and Latin have simply : " A certain rich woman, 
 Tryphaena." On the faith of the Syriac, Lipsius adds Pa(r£\icr<ra in his 
 Greek text. 
 
78 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 upon her a lioness ; and the lady Tryphaena was 
 at the door of the theatre and wept piteously. 
 The lioness came and began to lick Thekla ; and 
 the judge and all his armed men wondered at the 
 /^ power which God gave her. They wrote on 
 boards and showed to all men who sat there this 
 writing : ** Read {or ye called), Thekla the sacri- 
 legious violator of the gods, who dashed the 
 imperial crown from the head of Alexander, who 
 wished to treat her impurely." And all the men 
 along with all their children cried out and said : 
 " We appeal to God against the iniquity that is 
 being committed in the city." And again they 
 sent against her other wild beasts ; and these did 
 not touch her. Then the audience rose and left 
 the wild beasts ; and immediately there came the 
 lady Tryphaena and took Thekla, because her 
 own daughter,^ who was dead came in a dream 
 by night and addressed her mother and said : 
 > " Mother mine, take this Thekla, persecuted and 
 ^ stranger that she is, to thyself in my place, that 
 she may pray for me, in order that I may be 
 worthy to pass into the place of the holy and just." 
 29. And when Tryphaena had taken Thekla to 
 herself, she was full of concern about her ; for one 
 thing, because they would take her on the morrow 
 and cast her to the wild beasts, and next because 
 her daughter ^ who was dead had filled her with 
 pity for her. And the lady said : ** Lo, this second 
 
 » Lipsius in his text adds the name Falconilla, which however is not in 
 all the Greek and Latin MSS. 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. 79 
 
 time affliction and sorrow befalleth my house ; but 
 do thou supplicate and pray for my daughter that 
 she may live ; for thus I beheld in my dream." 
 And at the same time Thekla rose suddenly and 
 raised her voice clearly and aloud, and said : '' God 
 who art in heaven, Father of the Most High,^ 
 grant to the lady Tryphaena according to her 
 wishes, that her daughter, may live for ever and 
 ever." When the lady heard this, she sat down, 
 plunged in grief, and wept piteously and said : 
 "Alas, that thy fair beauty should again be 
 devoured by the wild beasts ! " 
 
 30. And at the break of dawn Alexander came 
 in haste to carry off Thekla, for it was he who 
 was giving the show of wild beasts in the theatre 
 of the city. He made answer and said : '* Behold, 
 the judge is seated, and all the armed men hurry ; 
 give here at once Thekla that we may destroy 
 her by throwing her to the wild beasts." And 
 Tryphaena brake forth into shrill laments ; and 
 from the voice of her sorrow Alexander fled, and 
 said that he was frightened. The lady made 
 answer and said: '*We appeal to God. This 
 second time doth affliction and sorrow come upon 
 my house, and there is not any one to help me, for 
 my daughter liveth not, who is dead ; and no mem- 
 ber of my noble house cometh to my assistance, 
 and I am a widow woman.^ But do thou, Thekla, 
 
 ^ In the Greek Thekla is made to attest the divinity of Christ : 6 0€<Js 
 jtov, 6 "utbs Tov -uxIficTTOv 6 Iv T(3 ovpavo). 
 
 2 The Greek has : Kal ovSels 6 Poi]6(ov oiirc tckvov, dir^Bavev Yap, o^Jtc 
 <ruYY€vifis, X'^IP"' "Y^P ^^H*'" ^*^ ^^ Latin texts. 
 
8o Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 go ; and may thy God render thee assistance." 
 31. Again the judge sent other men to bring 
 Thekla, but the lady would not give Thekla into 
 their hands, but held her fast by the hand and 
 kept her. And she went and led her firmly by 
 herself, saying : " My darling daughter^ I escorted 
 to the tomb ; and thee, Thekla, I escort and lead 
 to be the ravine of the wild beasts." And Thekla 
 broke into loud and bitter lamentations, and was 
 beside herself with grief, and groaned before God 
 and said : " O Lord, my God, in whom I trusted, 
 and who deliveredst me from the fire,^ give 
 recompense to the good Tryphaena, who took pity 
 upon me Thy handmaiden, and preserved my 
 chastity." 
 
 32. And forthwith there was a violent dissen- 
 sion among the multitude, and a breaking forth 
 of loud cries, because the beasts were spurred on 
 and provoked. And half were for letting the 
 wild beasts loose upon her, and many men and 
 women raised a clamour and called her a sacri- 
 legious violator of the temples, and of the gods. 
 But the other half said : ** Woe to the city for the 
 iniquity which ye do ; destroy us all, O judge. 
 Bitter is the spectacle which we behold, and un- 
 just is the judgment with which Thekla is judged." 
 33. And young men came and tore Thekla 
 from the hands of the lady Tryphaena, and led 
 her into the theatre to throw her to the wild 
 
 * The Greek and Latin MSS. add the name Falconilla. 
 ' One Latin MS. (Lipsius' cl) omits this reference to the fire. 
 
Acts of Paul and Thekla. 8r 
 
 beasts ; and they took and stood her in the 
 middle of the arena. They stripped off her 
 garments and put on her a linen loin-cloth, 
 and she stood forth naked as she was, and said : 
 '*0 Lord God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 Thou art the help of the persecuted ; Thou art 
 the protector of the poor ; turn and look upon 
 thy handmaiden who standeth naked and covered 
 with shame, before all this great host. My Lord 
 and my God, remember Thy handmaiden in this 
 season."^ Then they brought and let loose upon 
 her a leopard that was very wicked, and after that 
 they brought a lioness and loosed it on her. But 
 Thekla stood there, and kept her arms stretched 
 out in the likeness of one crucified on a tree,^ and 
 the lioness ran and rushed upon her, but when it 
 reached her it came and crouched at her feet. 
 Then the leopard came up and wished to leap 
 upon her, but the lioness lay before her and forth- 
 with tore it asunder. Then they brought a bear 
 that was very strong, and it ran to throw itself 
 upon Thekla. But the lioness which crouched at 
 her feet rose and took the bear and immediately 
 rent it. And then they loosed yet another lion 
 which was trained to attack men, and which 
 belonged to Alexander himself, and this lion too 
 they set onto Thekla ; but the lioness which sat 
 at her feet met the lion and they fought with 
 one another, and after a while they killed one 
 
 * The Greek and Latin texts omit this prayer. 
 2 Syriac : in the form of a cross. 
 
 G 
 
82 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 \ another. Then all the more did the women, who 
 sat there and looked on, lament, saying that the 
 
 I lioness which helped Thekla was dead. 34. And 
 
 'again they let loose upon her yet other wild 
 animals, and when Thekla saw how many were 
 the wild beasts, she stretched out her hands and 
 stood in prayer. And when she had finished pray- 
 ing she turned round and saw behind her a pool 
 full of water, and she said : '' Lo, now is the time 
 for baptism." She lifted up her voice and said, 
 In the name of Jesus Christ, behold this day am I 
 baptised for (or on) the last day. When the women 
 who sat there beheld this, they broke into laments 
 and said : '' Throw not thyself into yon water, for 
 evil are the wild beasts that are therein." And 
 the judge when he beheld her wept at the thought, 
 tjiat the beasts in the water should devour such 
 beauty and grace. But Thekla straightway 
 plunged into the water and went down ; and the 
 beasts when they saw her, as it were a flash of 
 fire, were destroyed and remained on the top of the 
 water ; and there was round about her, and she 
 was overshadowed by, a luminous cloud, so that 
 
 ^it did not plainly appear that Thekla was naked. 
 35. When the women who sat in the theatre, 
 saw that they were loosing yet other wild beasts 
 upon Thekla, that were more evil than the former 
 ones, they began to scream and say : '' We 
 appeal to God, what do we behold in the city!" 
 Then women came and began to throw spices 
 over Thekla ; some of them threw fruit of nard, 
 and some of them marjoram, and others bal- 
 
Ac^s of Paul and The k la. 83 
 
 sam^ and many other fragrant spices they scattered 
 in the arena. But they brought and let loose on 
 her many other wild beasts ; and the beasts came 
 and sat round her, before and behind, and dozed, 
 and not one of them did harm to Thekla. Again 
 Alexander ran and said to the judge : ''I have two 
 strong and fierce bulls, let us bring them and bind 
 between them her that is thrown to the wild 
 beasts ; perhaps they will become angry and destroy 
 her. And the judge said to Alexander : ''Go and 
 -do as seemeth good to thee." And he sent and had 
 the bulls brought. And they led Thekla and put 
 her between the brutes and took and threw her 
 on her face, and tied her feet tight between the 
 two bulls. And they brought spits and heated 
 them by placing them in the live fire, and when 
 they were kindled they applied them to the sensi- 
 tive parts of the bulls, to infuriate them, that in 
 their fury they might destroy her ; and the bulls 
 were maddened with the pain of the brands. But 
 the flame of the fire caught the bonds with which 
 •the feet of Thekla were bound ; and Thekla leapt 
 up in front of the bulls, as if no harm had 
 happened to her, and as if she had not been- 
 bound at all by the feet. 36. And the Lady Try- 
 phaena was at the door of the theatre, and gave 
 .a sudden scream and fell in a swoon ; for she 
 thought that Thekla was dead. When the slaves 
 saw that she screamed and fell in a faint, they 
 
 ^ This word is not in the lexicons. Another MS has aparusums. 
 .Syriac : tarphuse. I owe the rendering balsam to Prof. Margoliouth. 
 
84 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 began to cry out and tear their garments and say : 
 ** Woe to us, our mistress is dead." And all the 
 city trembled. Then Alexander was overcome 
 with fear, he ran and came to the judge and said : 
 " Have pity on me and the city, and release her 
 that is condemned to the wild beasts ; let her go 
 quite free, that the whole city may not be de- 
 stroyed." Peradventure the Caesar may hear of 
 this which we do, and will destroy the city, for 
 the Lady Tryphaena who tarried at the gate of 
 the theatre is the Caesar's kinswoman, and is 
 dead. 
 
 2^"]. Then the judge said, ''Bring hither Thekla" ; 
 and the young men ran to fetch Thekla from 
 among the wild beasts, and set her before the 
 judge. And he said to her : " Who art thou, and 
 how is it that the animals attack thee not?" And 
 she said : "I am the handmaiden of God ; and He 
 who is with me, He is the son of the living God; 
 in whom I have hoped, because through Him it 
 is that the beasts attack me not. For He is the 
 term of salvation, and the protector of all who are 
 persecuted, and the hope and life of the hopeless. 
 But I say unto thee, O Judge, and to all who are 
 before thee, that he who believeth in God, of 
 whom ye behold the great things w^hich He has 
 wrought unto His handmaiden, he shall live for 
 ever, and he who believeth not in Him, shall die 
 the death everlasting. 38. When the judge heard 
 this from the mouth of Thekla, he bade her bring 
 her clothes. Said the judge to her : '* Take away 
 her loin-cloth and put before her her raiment 
 
Acts of Paul and The k la. 85 
 
 which she gave thee." Thekla made answer and 
 said to the judge : '* He that clothed me with 
 power in the midst of the beasts, the same 
 -clotheth thee^ with life in the day of judgment." 
 And Thekla took off the loin-cloth, and took and 
 put on her clothes. And the judge read a pro- 
 clamation before all the host and said : '' God 
 hath delivered Thekla and given her to you."^ 
 And the women who sat there in the theatre 
 raised a loud cry, and with loud voices began to 
 give glory to God, and said : " Great is the God 
 of Thekla,^ who hath given her life and saved her 
 among the wild beasts." And at the sound of 
 the voices of the women who cried out the whole 
 city was shaken. 39. And instantly they ran and 
 ^ave the news to the Lady Tryphsena, and she 
 running came and found her and took her in her 
 arms and kissed her, and said : '' My daughter 
 Thekla, now I believe that my darling daughter 
 is alive.* But come to my house, Thekla, and I 
 will assign to thee all that is mine." 
 
 And Thekla went with her and entered into 
 her house, and rested there eight days, and taught 
 the Lady Tryphaena all the commands of God. 
 And the Lady Tryphaena believed and many of 
 her handmaidens, and there was there great rejoic- 
 
 1 Syriac : " Will clothe me." Where Wright notes : " We should 
 naturally expect zuill clothe thee, cvSvcrci <re. 
 
 2 Syriac: "Thekla, who is God's, and Thekla who is righteous, I 
 have released and given unto you." 
 
 ^ Syriac : " God is one, and the God of Thekla is one." 
 * In the Greek : vvv irio-Tetlft) 8ti vcKpol l-yefpovTai* vvv irio-TCva) 8ti 
 ^h riKvov H-ov Jf . But the MSS of Lipsius ABF omit the first clause. 
 
86 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 ing. 40. But Thekla, for that she loved Paul, sent 
 to seek him in all directions ; and when they 
 found him, they told her and said : '' Lo, he is in 
 the city of Merou." ^ (And she rose and left the 
 house of the Lady Tryphaena, and she put on 
 male attire and took with her many men and 
 handmaidens of the lady -and she came and 
 entered the city of Merou/) And there Thekla 
 found Paul, sitting and teaching the commands of 
 God. Thekla came and stood befoie him ; and 
 when Paul saw her and the men who were with 
 her, he wondered, (and thought at once that yet 
 some other temptation had come upon her/) 
 Thekla made answer and said to him : *' I have 
 received baptism, for he who commanded thee to 
 preach, the same commanded me also to baptize." 
 41. And forthwith Paul arose and took her and 
 all the men who were with her and led them to 
 the house of Hermes. Paul sat down and Thekla 
 and the other men also who were with her ; and 
 Thekla related to him all that God had done 
 unto her. And Paul wondered exceedingly a_t. 
 the power which was given to her. And all who- 
 were there, and heard what God had done to her, 
 were much confirmed in the truth, and they all 
 with one accord glorified and blessed God, who 
 worketh wonders for all who believe in Him and 
 keep His commandments. They prayed and 
 besought God for the Lady Tryphsena, who had 
 taken pity upon His handmaid and preserved her 
 
 » In theSyriac: '* Merv.'* 
 
Ac^s of Paul and Thekla. 87 
 
 in chastity. Said Thekla : *' I go to the city of 
 Iconium." And Paul said : " Go, teach there the 
 commands and words of God." And when the 
 Lady Tryphaena heard that Thekla was on her way 
 to the city of Iconium, she took much raiment 
 and gold and sent it to Thekla ; and she took 
 the raiment and some of the gold, and sent it 
 to Paul for the service of ministering to widows. 
 42. And Thekla went and entered the house 
 of Onesiphorus, and fell on her face on the spot 
 where Paul sat, and taught the commands of 
 God ; and she wept and said : '' Our God, God 
 of this house in which there dawned on me light 
 from Christ Jesus,^ who helped me in prison and 
 rescued me among the wild beasts before the 
 judge,^ and gave me baptism for ever and ever, 
 that I may come unto the blessedness, which is 
 preserved for me and for those who keep the com- 
 mandments of Christ.^ For He is one, God on 
 high, who sitteth on the throne of the cherubim. 
 For unto Him is glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
 43. After all these wonders which God wrought 
 unto her, she found in the city of Iconium that 
 Thamyris her husband (Syr. betrothed) was dead, 
 [but her mother Theocleia was alive].* Saith 
 Thekla to her : " Mother mine, if thou canst 
 
 ^ The Syriac adds : " The son of God." So also some, but not all the 
 Greek and Latin MSS. 
 
 2 The Greek has : Pot]9J)S eirl Ti-yejJidvwv, Por^Gbs €v irvpl. But two MSS. 
 of Lipsius CK omit the last clause. 
 
 3 The Syriac has : " Commandments of God." 
 
 * I have added the words bracketed from the Syriac. They must have 
 dropped out of the Armenian. 
 
88 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 believe, there is one God on high, my Lord, who 
 is in heaven. But if thou lovest gold and silver 
 and riches which are corruptible, lo, it is given to 
 thee henceforth. If thou wilt believe that there is 
 one God in heaven, and that beside Him there 
 is no other God, thou canst live and keep whatso- 
 ever I tell thee ; for behold I stand before thee, 
 who was rescued from the fire^ and from the evil 
 wild beasts and from the presence of the judge. 
 For the same my God and Lord hath holpen me, 
 who gave me power to endure." All this testi- 
 mony she bore unto her mother and she departed 
 from the city of Iconium, and went to Seleucia, 
 and there she illuminated many men with the 
 word of God, and slept in a quiet place of rest. 
 The book of the blessed Thekla is finished. 
 Glory to God All-mighty and to His anointed, and 
 to the Holy Spirit, who gave power to the trans- 
 lator and writer. May the same God fulfil His 
 pity in both worlds, for ever and ever. Amen.^ 
 
 * The Greek and Latin texts omit this clause and the next. 
 2 This last paragraph is not in the Greek and Latin texts, and is due to 
 the Armenian translator. 
 
 See Note on p. 76. — Mr. G. McN. Rushforth has explained to me the 
 nature of the crown which Alexander as Galatarch was wearing. It was a 
 gold wreath, bearing in front a medallion of the reigning Augustus. The 
 portrait bust in the Vatican Museum, No. 280, miscalled of the aged 
 Augustus, carries exactly such a wreath as these Armenian Acts describe, 
 and is probably a portrait of some provincial president of the Coesar- 
 worship under the Antonines (see Bernoulli, Rom. Ikonog., ii. 30, and 
 Lightfoot, Apost. Fathers, vol. iii. 405 seq.). In tearing such a crown oft 
 the head of the Galatarch, Thekla directly assailed the numen of the reign- 
 ing emperor. There could be no graver offence. These provincial 
 dignitaries were at a later time known as coronati simply. These acts are 
 the only ancient writing in which a description of the crown is given. 
 
THE ACTS OF S. PHOCAS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 The Greek text of the Acts of Phocas is to be found in the 
 Acta Sanctorum^ in July, vol. iii. p. 642 foil. In my transla- 
 tion, however, I have followed the Armenian 
 
 form, which is plainly older than the Greek. J^^® Greek 
 T- 1 .1-^ 1 . . •. .1 J J- Text of these 
 
 For example, the Greek text omits the dedi- Acts. 
 
 cation of the Acts to the faithful who are 
 dwelling in Pontus, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Cappa- 
 •docia, and Armenia, and it also exaggerates the 500 confessors 
 of Pontus and Bithynia into 50,000, and pretends that they 
 are all present in the court of law. So in chap. xvi. the one 
 lamp of the Armenian becomes ten thousand. 
 
 The Bollandist editor rejected these Acts as spurious, mainly 
 because they do not accord with what he knew of the history 
 of Trajan's reign. Africanus, he argues, who 
 was Consul in a.d. 112, was not in Pontus These Acts 
 during his year of office ; nor did Trajan rejected by the 
 ,..,•' , . rr., » BoUandists 
 
 die in the year 112, but in 117. The Acts too hastily. 
 
 however do not necessarily imply this. 
 Africanus, who was Consul in 112, may have been administer- 
 ing Bithynia as legate in 117; and though the last section re- 
 lating the death of Trajan is clearly added in order to satisfy the 
 craving of the Christian reader, who liked to be assured that 
 the persecutor suffered for his sins even in this life, yet we do 
 not know so much of the life of Trajan as to be able to deny 
 point-blank that he was in Asia Minor at the time, and even in 
 Pontus. That in the same paragraph in which the Bollandist 
 editor condemns these Acts, he also condemns the Acts of 
 Thekla as the scum of forgeries, is a warning to us, not to be 
 too ready in our denial of the genuineness of the piece. The 
 following points in the narrative make, I think, for its genuine- 
 
 89 
 
90 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 ness ; not indeed as it stands, but as it may have stood before 
 mythical accretions formed around it in the third and fourth 
 centuries 
 
 I. The fact that the martyrdom is ascribed to the reign of 
 Trajan. On this point it is well to quote the late Bishop 
 
 Lightfoot's remarks, in the second volume of 
 ai^enticitv* ^^^ Apostolic Fathers (second edition), p. i8 : 
 
 " Amidst many spurious and questionable 
 stories of persecutions alleged to have taken place during the 
 reign of Trajan, only three are reported on authority which 
 
 can be trusted. Of these three, two are con- 
 
 1. Ascription cerned with the fate of individual Christians 
 to reign of . ^. ^ , , ^ ^ . 
 
 Trajan. — ^^ Simeon at Jerusalem, and of Ignatms 
 
 at Antioch; the third only, the Bithynian 
 persecution, of which I have been speaking — was in any sense 
 general. For this last alone, so far as our authentic informa- 
 tion goes, Trajan was personally responsible. ... It was 
 as a statesman and a patriot that he conceived himself obliged 
 to suppress Christianity." And just before, p. 17: "It is 
 generally supposed that the historian of the early Church, in 
 order to arrive at the truth with regard to the extent of the 
 persecutions, has only to make deductions for the exaggerations- 
 of Christian writers. In other words it is assumed that the 
 Christians forget nothing, but exaggerate everything. This- 
 assumption however is shown to be altogether false by the 
 history of the manner in which the record of this Bithynian 
 persecution has been preserved. With the possible exception 
 of the Neronian outbreak, it was the most severe of all the 
 persecutions, of which we have any knowledge, during the 
 first and second centuries ; yet no record of it whatever was 
 preserved in any Christian sources. Tertullian derived his 
 knowledge of it from the correspondence of Pliny and Trajan ;. 
 Eusebius from Tertullian ; later Christian writers from Tertul- 
 lian and Eusebius, one or both. The correspondence of a 
 heathen writer is thus the sole ultimate chronicle of this im- 
 portant chapter in the sufferings of the early Church. What 
 happened in this case is not unlikely to have happened many 
 times. Again and again the Christians may have undergone 
 
The Acts of S. P hoc as. 91 
 
 cruel persecutions in distant provinces, without preserving any 
 special record of what was too common an occurrence with 
 them." 
 
 But in spite of the facts here emphasised, Trajan was not 
 regarded by the Church, in later times, as having been a per- 
 secuting emperor. As Lightfoot says, /.<:., p. 2 : " To the 
 Fathers who wrote during the latter half of the second century, 
 as to Christian writers of subsequent ages generally, Trajan 
 appears as anything rather than a relentless persecutor." And 
 in his notes he adds pertinent passages to this effect from the 
 writings of Mehto, of Tertullian, Lactantius, and Eusebius. 
 If then the word was passed round among the Christians, so 
 widely as may be inferred from this list, that Trajan was a 
 friend of the Church, it is in the last degree unlikely that a 
 forger would have sat down in the third century, and have 
 penned the Acts of Phocas, in which Trajan is held up to odium 
 as a relentless persecutor. In the subsequent course of his 
 note, therefore, Lightfoot does not show his 
 usual sound judgment, when he writes thus : f'Tr^vT 
 
 " The usual authors who represent Trajan in Lightfoot on 
 an unfavourable light are chiefly martyrolo- this point. 
 
 gists and legendmongers, to whom this dark 
 shadow was necessary to give effect to the picture." The truth 
 is that no writer would be more careful than a martyrologist 
 to adjust his fictions to the current conceptions of the Church ; 
 no one less likely than he, to lay the scene of his inventions 
 in a reign, which by a general consensus of Christian opinion 
 was free from the stain of persecution. Such a consensus 
 there was in favour of Trajan, and so strong was it that in 
 later centuries Trajan only just escaped canonisation by the 
 Pope Gregory the First. It is inconceivable that the death of 
 Phocas would be so directly attributed to him as in these Acts 
 it is, unless the writer of them had had something to go upon. 
 
 2. If then this martyrdom took place in the province of 
 Bithynia-Pontus, under Trajan, are there any points in the 
 narrative which are confirmed by the solitary notice of this per- 
 secution, which Pliny's letter has preserved to us ? And can 
 we, too, be sure that these Acts were penned independently of 
 
"92 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 that letter, and by a writer who had no knowledge of it? 
 
 These two questions may conveniently be answered together. 
 
 In the exordium of the Acts, chap. 3, we read that : " In the 
 
 times when Trajan was emperor many Christians were snatched 
 
 away from the flock, to sacrifice to vain idols ; at which time 
 
 they made search for the blessed saint." For Phocas, so we 
 
 read in chap. 9, was both learned and famous; so much so 
 
 that the governor, Africanus, was sorry and full of pity for him, 
 
 that he should throw away his life. His fame had already 
 
 reached even the Emperor's ears (chap. 4). In chap. 3 we 
 
 learn very precisely how many persons in the joint province 
 
 had suffered for the faith : " Dost thou not know," says the 
 
 governor to the saint, " that here and in the other province 
 
 there are over 500 men whom thou seducest into not sacrificing 
 
 to the gods?" Now, what forger, writing 
 
 h^^ f either with or without a knowledge of Pliny's 
 
 Confessors in letter, would have been content with so 
 
 the Persecu- meagre an estimate of the numbers of the 
 
 tion of Trajan, Christians affected by the Bithynian perse- 
 according to j j sr 
 
 these Acts. cution ? Pliny wrote to Trajan thus : " Ideo 
 dilata cognitione ad consulendum te decu- 
 -curri. Visa est enim mihi res digna consultatione, maxime 
 propter periclitantium numerum. Multi enim omnis aetatis, 
 omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam, vocantur in periculum et 
 vocabuntur. Neque civitates tantum sed vicos etiam atque 
 agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est ; quae videtur 
 sisti et corrigi posse. Certe satis constat prope iam desolata 
 templa coepisse celebrari et sacra sollemnia diu intermissa 
 repeti pastumque venire victimarum, cuius adhuc rarissimus 
 emptor inveniebatur. Ex quo facile est opinari quae turba 
 hominum emendari possit, si sit poenitentiae locus." It is 
 •certain that a mere compiler of spurious martyrdoms, whose 
 only aim was to edify the faithful of a later age, and who had 
 Pliny's letter in his hands, would not have been content with 
 500 confessors in two provinces. He would have magnified 
 the turba hominum into at least 50,000, as some old Greek 
 copyist of these Acts has actually done ; for in the Greek text 
 we find this passage of the Acts altogether rewritten, thus : 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 93-, 
 
 " Dost thou know that more than 50,000 men stand here (i.e. 
 in the court), and that thou art stirring up and turning away 
 the provinces from sacrificing ? " It is true, but irrelevant, to 
 answer that Eusebius declares the persecutions of Trajan's 
 reign to have been partial and local ; for he, as Lightfoot 
 remarks, is studiously exculpating the memory of Trajan him- 
 self; whereas the writer of these Acts is as studiously assailing 
 it. Were the latter a forger, he would have had every reason to 
 exaggerate the number of the Christians who had refused to 
 sacrifice. That he does not do so, but gives a number so 
 much smaller than Pliny's own account would lead us to 
 expect, is the strongest possible proof that in these Acts we 
 have a genuine memorial of this little known persecution. 
 
 3. We have also herein a proof that the writer of them 
 was ignorant of Pliny's letter; had he known of them, he 
 could not have been content with only 500 confessors. He did 
 not, like the writers of the Roman Acts of Ignatius, and of the 
 Acts of Sharbil, preserved in Syriac, write with the help of that 
 letter. And this very ignorance also argues their antiquity. 
 For Pliny's letter was known, it would appear, to Melito ^ as 
 early as 170; by the end of the second century Tertullian 
 alludes to it ; Eusebius about 300 a.d., and after him Lactan- 
 tius and Sulpicius continued to give it vogue. It was so well 
 known that the later legendmongers, just referred to, men- 
 tioned it, even though they were inimical to Trajan's memory.. 
 If the knowledge of this letter was so widely 
 and so early diffused, both in the East and 3. The writer 
 the West, how shall we account for the fact of these Acts 
 that the writer of these Acts not only betrays puny's letter 
 no knowledge of it, but could not conceiv- to Trajan. 
 
 ably have written as he does, if he had 
 known of it ? Would a third or fourth century romancer have 
 neglected a source of information open and notorious to every- 
 one, and bearing directly on the place and time in which he 
 was pitching, so to speak, the scene of his narrative ? Would 
 he not have seized upon PUny's phrases: "Turba hominum 
 . . . omnis aetatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam . . . 
 
 1 This is doubtful, but see Lightfoot, Ap. Fath., vol. i., p. 2, note 3. 
 
•94 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 periclitantium numerum . . . prope iam desolata templa," 
 and have made the most of them ? There is but one conclu- 
 sion possible, namely, that he wrote before Pliny's letter be- 
 came known to Christendom. But in that case he can hardly 
 have written later than the middle of the second century. 
 
 4. Pliny writes : " Fuerunt alii similis amentiae quos, quia 
 cives Romani erant, adnotavi in urbem remittendos." In the 
 
 same way Phocas is sent on to be tried 
 
 Other indicia directly by the Emperor. Tradition relates 
 ueritatis m , -^ ^ . _. • ,Tr , 
 
 these Acts. ^^^ same of Ignatms. We do not however 
 know that Phocas was a Roman citizen, and 
 Ignatius was sent to Rome in order to supply a spectacle, and 
 not to be tried. But the Acts of Phocas anyhow report the 
 martyr to have been a famous and a learned man, the fame of 
 whom, as a Bishop, had already reached the ears of the 
 Emperor. He may very well have been a Roman citizen 
 also ; for the diffusion of citizenship must have gone with the 
 Hellenism which, as Mommsen says {The Romafi Provinces^ 
 vol. ii. p. 331) : "took a mighty upward impulse in Bithynia, 
 under the imperial period, and the tough Thracian stamp of 
 the natives gave a good foundation for it." According to 
 Mommsen the same progress occurred in Pontus ; and Sinope, 
 of which city Phocas was in life the Bishop, and after death the 
 Patron Saint, obtained from the dictator Caesar the rights of a 
 Roman colony, and beyond doubt also Italian settlers. This 
 renders it extremely probable that Phocas was a Roman citizen. 
 
 5. Trajan says in his rescript to Pliny, that the accused are 
 to be spared if they deny that they are Christians, and prove 
 the same " supplicando dis nostris." So the last word of Phocas 
 is the avowal that he is a Christian and that he will not sacri- 
 fice. This was no doubt the stereotyped answer of all con- 
 fessors, and as such was introduced into innumerable forged 
 Acts of the fourth and succeeding centuries. By itself there- 
 fore such an answer would not prove these Acts to be genuine. 
 But it should be noted that these Acts of Phocas agree in tone 
 with other genuine Acts of the second century. For instance, 
 the magistrate says to the Saint, when he is first brought into 
 court : " Is this the Phocas who denies the existence of the 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 95 
 
 •gods, and reckons not the autocrat Trajan to be a god." So 
 when Polycarp was brought before him, " the 
 Proconsul enquired whether he were the Resemblance 
 man. And on his confessing that he was, Polycarp. 
 
 he tried to persuade him to a denial, saying, 
 "Have respect to thine age, and other things in accordance 
 therewith," as it is their wont to say ; " swear by the genius of 
 Caesar ; repent and say. ' away with the atheists ! ' " Again 
 Phocas, in the same way as Polycarp, is anxious to instruct the 
 magistrate in the truths of his religion. " Hear thou plainly," 
 says Polycarp, " I am a Christian. But if thou wouldst learn 
 the doctrine of Christianity, assign a day and give me a hear- 
 ing." Again Phocas says to Trajan (chap. 11) : "We ought to 
 obey the government, not unto impiety, but unto true religion." 
 So Polycarp says : " We have been taught to render, as is 
 meet, to princes and authorities appointed by God, such 
 honour as does us no harm." 
 
 6. There is yet another point of resemblance with the Acts 
 of Polycarp, which may be noticed. The governor says to 
 Phocas : " How is it that the Christians demean themselves 
 towards thee as towards a God?" And Phocas answers, "that 
 he the unworthy Bishop is honoured not as God, but only as 
 a man of God and as shepherd of the spiritual flock." Simi- 
 larly we learn that Polycarp, when about to ascend the pyre, 
 endeavoured to take off his shoes, though not in the habit of 
 doing this before ; because all the faithful at all times vied 
 eagerly who should soonest touch his flesh. And after his 
 death the heathen besought the magistrate, at the instance of 
 the Jews, not to give up the body of Polycarp, lest the Christians 
 should abandon the Crucified One, and begin to worship this 
 man. 
 
 7. In the Acts of Polycarp it is only the faithful who see 
 the signs and wonders. "When," we read, (Letter of the 
 Smyrnaeans, chap. 15) "Polycarp had offered up the Amen 
 and finished his prayer, the firemen lighted the fire. And, a 
 mighty flame flashing forth, we to whom it was given to see, 
 saw a marvel, yea, and we were preserved in order that we 
 might relate what happened to the rest." There is a close re- 
 
96 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 semblance between this passage and chap. lo of the Acts of 
 Phocas, so close that we can hardly conceive of the two nar- 
 ratives having been written independently. In chap. 14 how- 
 ever, where the voice from heaven bids Phocas be of good 
 cheer, Trajan hears it also and is terrified ; and this is in 
 strong contrast with chap. 9 of the Letter of the Smyrnaeans, 
 where a similar voice is only heard by such of the faithful as 
 were present. In the Acts of Polycarp, moreover, no such 
 miracle as an earthquake with the prostration of the magistrate 
 is related. It looks as if this incident had been imported into 
 the Acts of Phocas as a reminiscence of the great earthquake 
 at Antioch in a.d. 115, when the Consul Pedo was killed in 
 his palace and the Emperor Trajan only escaped by leaping 
 through the window. An earthquake, however, was an incident 
 which almost every writer of Acts of Martyrdom allowed him- 
 self to import into narratives in other respects quite trust- 
 worthy. And in this connection we must remember that the 
 populations of Asia are more familiar with the terrors of earth- 
 quakes than are we who inhabit Western Europe ; they pray 
 daily in their litanies to be delivered from them, whereas we 
 do nothing of the sort. An earthquake therefore was a very 
 small tax on the credulity of the readers of ancient martyr- 
 doms, and they hardly expected the Almighty to vouchsafe 
 any smaller sign of His interest in the cause at stake. 
 
 8. Phocas is baked alive, and when the Emperor enters the 
 death-chamber he finds the body of the martyr fragrant as 
 nard, or, according to the Armenian, as a rose ; like precious 
 myrrh, the Greek adds. The same is related of the bodies of 
 Polycarp and of the martyrs of Lyons, in Acts which are above 
 suspicion. 
 
 9. The exordium of the Acts of Phocas closely resembles 
 that of the Letter of the Smyrnaeans. Just as the latter is 
 
 addressed to the brethren dwelling in Philo- 
 these aSs° nielium and in Asia, so the Acts of Phocas 
 
 are in the form of a letter addressed to the 
 brethren who are dwelling in Pontus and Bithynia, in Paphla- 
 gonia and Mysia, in Galatia, Cappadocia and in Armenia. 
 The resemblance of this dedication to the dedication of the 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 97 
 
 First Epistle of Peter is also very noticeable, and cannot be 
 
 accidental. Yet it is not a case of mere 
 
 imitation, for the Acts of Phocas add Paphla- Pirs^Ep^ 
 
 gonia, Mysia and Armenia, to the list of of Peter and 
 
 provinces enumerated by Peter, but omit also the Letter 
 
 Asia from it. The intention evidently was to „ ^^^® 
 
 notify the facts of the death of Phocas to the 
 
 Churches of all the provinces that lay along the north coast of 
 
 Asia Minor, from the Troad all the way to Trebizond. The 
 
 survival of this dedication in the Armenian form of these Acts 
 
 is very weighty evidence in favour of their 
 
 genuineness : the more so, because the Greek ^if ,^-"^5^° f 
 ° ' genumeiiess. 
 
 form omits it. A forger of Acts would hardly ^ 
 
 have added such a dedication to his forgery. Nor in the third I 
 century was it any longer the fashion to compose Acts in the / 
 form of a letter to certain specified Christian communities.] 
 For the Church had by that time reached such a sense of its 
 unity all over the Empire, such a degree of self-consciousness, 
 that the sufferings and death of a martyr had become a matter 
 to be communicated to the entire Christian world, and was no 
 longer held to be of interest to a certain region only. The 
 omission of these regional limitations from the Greek text is in 
 itself emphatic and clear testimony to the way in which at a 
 later time and under the influence of a later stage of church 
 feeling and custom a martyrologist would write. Nor is it in 
 the Acts of Phocas alone that we meet with traces of this more 
 developed self-consciousness on the part of the Church. In 
 the very Letter of the Smyrnaeans an early hand has inter- 
 polated the phrase Catholic Church no less than four times. 
 The interpolation was extended to Eusebius' citations at such 
 an early time as to figure in the Latin version of Rufinus, 
 made as early as 400 a.d., and also in the earliest MSS. of the 
 older Syriac version. The Armenian version alone, made from 
 a very early copy of the Syriac, is free from the interpolation. 
 So far as I know, the Acts of Phocas and the Acts of Polycarp 
 are the only Acts composed in the form of a letter to particu- 
 lar Churches. 
 
 If we could fix a precise date at which the divisions of the 
 
 H 
 
98 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 Roman provinces corresponded to the enumeration in the 
 dedication, that date would possibly mark 
 date ^ ^^ ^^^t when these Acts were drawn up. 
 It is enough here, without going into so 
 technical a discussion, to indicate sources which should be 
 consulted by any one desirous of forming a judgment. In 
 Prof. W. M. Ramsay's Historical Geography^ pp. 195 and 252 
 ff.,^ will be found some pertinent passages, lists of the con- 
 stituent regions of the province of Galatia so drawn up as to 
 show the official divisions of the Roman province at various 
 
 ^ The following are some of the passages from Prof. W. M. Ramsay's 
 Geog. of Asia Minor. 
 
 p. 195. Ptolemy assigns to Galatia the whole coast of Paphlagonia, in- 
 cluding Abononteichos and Sinope. Pliny proves, ad Tr. 90-92, that 
 Amisos and Sinope were attached to Bithynia-Pontus in a.d. III-3. 
 
 In Trajan's reign Cappadocia, Pontus Galaticus and Cappadocicus were 
 separated from Galatia and made a distinct province. C. I. L. iii. Suppl. 
 No. 6819. 
 
 Perhaps Galatia was at the same time widened to include the Paphla- 
 gonian coast. 
 
 p. 252. In 70 A D. Cappadocia was placed under a consular legatus 
 Augusti, and at some time not later than 78 it was united with the pro- 
 vince of Galatia. This arrangement lasted until the time of Trajan ; but 
 in the later years of that emperor the vast province had been divided, 
 Galatia was entrusted to a praetorian legatus (as before 78), while Cappa- 
 docia was governed by a consular legatus. 
 
 The divisions of the Roman province of Galatia were at different epochs 
 as follows :— 
 
 The inscr. of Sospes 63-78 a.d. (C. I. L. iii. Suppl. 6818) enumerates 
 Galatia, Pisidia, Phrygia, Lycaonia, Isauria, Paphlagonia, Pontus Galati- 
 cus, Pontus Polemoniacus. 
 
 In the period 78-100 the combined province in Galatia, Cappadocia, 
 Pontus, Pisidia, Paphlagonia, Lycaonia, Armenia Minor. (C. I. L. iii. 
 312, 318). 
 
 A.D. 100-140 or 150. An unknown governor of Galatia in second half 
 of Trajan enumerates the countries governed by him as Galatia (Phrygia), 
 Pisidia, Lycaonia, Paphlagonia. 
 
 A further change is under Antoninus Pius. The C. I. L. Suppl. 6813, 
 enumerates only Galatia, Pisidia, Paphlagonia. Phrygia is omitted, be- 
 cause so little of it was included. Lycaonia at this date was given to 
 Cilicia, which now had three eparchioe, Cilicia, Lycaonia and Isauria. 
 
 About end of 3rd cent. Galatia was divided afresh into Paphlagonia, 
 Galatia, Pisidia, 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 99 
 
 epochs. The divisions under Trajan seem to me to accord 
 sufficiently well with the enumeration in our Acts. There 
 is however really no reason why the writers of these Acts 
 should have employed the official designations. It is in any 
 case difficult to believe that a forger of the end of the third or 
 beginning of the fourth century, would have added geographi- 
 cal limits to the range of his forgery. 
 
 10. There are other points of contact in these Acts with 
 genuine Acts of the second century. " Methinks," says Afri- 
 canus to the saint, "thou art more of a philosopher than 
 Aristotle." Phocas answers : " I claim not to philosophise, 
 but I wish to be a Christian." Compare this with the Acts of 
 ApoUonius, § 2>Z' Perhaps we are to understand from the 
 words of Phocas in chap. 9 : " I have forfeited all worldly 
 wealth and riches and possessions in order to possess the 
 single pearl," that he had been deprived of his property. 
 Compare ApoUonius, § 28, with Harnack's note. 
 
 IT. There are very many other points worth noticing about 
 these Acts, not all of them however proofs of their antiquity, 
 though none of them inconsistent therewith. 
 There is the very primitive imagery of the Primitive 
 
 samts prayer m chap. 15. All his meta- prayer of 
 
 phors are those which we meet with in the Phocas, 
 
 earliest catacombs ; e.g. there is the flock and 
 the shepherd, the vineyard, the ark and its pilot. Phocas 
 held the doctrine of the creative Word, and his creed is of a 
 simple and primitive type. "Take in thy 
 hands," he says to Africanus, " the divinely ^re^ed ^^ 
 
 inspired writings ; and know the Creator of 
 thyself and of thy emperor. Then wilt thou know that there 
 is God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, crucified and 
 buried, risen and ascended into heaven, and sitting on the 
 right hand of God." Here there is no reason to suppose that 
 by the scriptures is meant the written Gospel. For in a parallel 
 statement of his creed Paul appeals in the same words to 
 the scriptures, i Cor. xv. 3 : " For I delivered unto you first 
 of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for 
 our sins, according to the scriptures ; and that He was buried; 
 
lOO Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 and that He hath been raised on the third day according to 
 the scriptures." Here Paul cannot be referring to the New 
 Testament, which was not yet written. Phocas was well read in 
 the Epistles of Paul, and the author of these 
 Phocas a ^cts knew the First Epistle of Peter. We 
 Paul's ^^^ therefore justified in interpreting the ex- 
 
 Epistles, pression Divine Scriptures used by him to mean 
 
 the Old Testament. It is likely enough that 
 there was a written Gospel as early as the year 1 15 a.d. ; but it 
 is impossible that it should be referred to in such a manner at 
 so early a date. The Epistles of Paul however may have been 
 reckoned as divine scriptures earlier than one supposes in the 
 second century. ^ But I cannot myself believe that they were 
 so classed as early as the reign of Trajan. It is certain that 
 Ignatius, often as he quoted them and great as was his respect 
 for Paul, never called them inspired writings. That appella- 
 tion he reserves for the Old Testament. Phocas appeals to 
 the divine scriptures in attestation of exactly the same tenets 
 in behalf of which Paul appeals to them. 
 
 12. There are passages where these Acts recall the Ignatian 
 
 Epistles. I have already referred to the words in which 
 
 Phocas disclaims the imputation made by 
 
 Resen^lances Africanus, that the Christians regard him as a 
 to the Epistles , „ ' , „ , ,. 
 
 of Ignatius. g^^. "Not as a god," he replies, "but as 
 
 a man of God. For I am very inferior to the 
 
 apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore they honour 
 
 me, the unworthy bishop whom thou seest before thee, not as 
 
 a god, but as the shepherd of the spiritual flock. . . . All 
 
 the schoolmen of the whole world would not be found worthy 
 
 to reply to a single one of the disciples of the Lord." This is 
 
 the language almost of the sub-apostolic age, when the works 
 
 of the apostles was still fresh in men's minds. In a similar 
 
 way Ignatius refuses to rank himself with the apostles, Rom. 
 
 4 : "I do not enjoin you, as Peter and Paul did. They were 
 
 apostles ; I am a convict ; they were free, but I am a slave to 
 
 ^ Cp. Acta Mart. Scilit. al Ka0* ifJiAas pcpXot Kal at irpAs eirl tovtois 
 'irioToXal IlavXov tov 6<r£ov dv8p6s. Here Paul's Epp. are distinguished 
 from the sacred writings. 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. loi 
 
 this very hour." So Trail. 3: "But I did not think myself 
 competent for this, that being a convict I should order you as 
 though I were an apostle." So Ephes. 21 : "I who am the 
 very last of the faithful," and Magnes. 14 : "the Church which 
 is in Syria, whereof I am not worthy to be called a member." 
 
 13. Perhaps we ought to reckon as a mark of the antiquity 
 of these Acts the statement that the converted soldiers, when 
 they were baptised, fulfilled all the law, chap. 16. This re- 
 minds one of the sayings of Jesus when John hesitated to 
 baptise Him : " Suifer it now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfil 
 all righteousness." 
 
 14. Africanus is the governor before whom Phocas is 
 brought. It is not specified in what province the persecution 
 was taking place ; but we may infer from the 
 
 first and last chapters of these Acts that the Probable date 
 tradition which locates the scene of the tenure of prov. 
 martyr's trial at Sinope is correct. Sinope Pontica. 
 
 was in the province of Pontus, which was 
 governed about the years 111-113 by Pliny the younger with 
 the official title of Legatus Pro-prsetore Consulari Potestate. 
 Pliny had been Consul Suffectus in the year 100. In the con- 
 sular lists we find that Africanus was Consul Ordinarius in a.d. 
 112. It would not be inconsistent with the principles of the 
 Roman provincial administration that he should have been the 
 Imperial Legatus between the years 112 and 117. In such 
 a case he would have succeeded Pliny. It weighs nothing 
 against these Acts that there is no other record of Africa- 
 nus having governed Bithynia Pontus ; for there is not one 
 out of a hundred such appointments of which we know the 
 details. The reference in chap. 3 of these Acts to Trajan, 
 as having conquered in all his wars, points to the end of 
 Trajan's reign as the time of Africanus' governorship ; for it 
 was not till the year 114 that the senate conferred on Trajan 
 the title of Optimus on account of his victories, and in the 
 following year he took the fresh title of Parthicus. According 
 to chap. 19 of the Acts the death of the Emperor followed 
 closely on that of the martyr. And this is perhaps the grain 
 of truth contained in this part of the narrative. But these 
 
I02 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 many traits of probability must not blind us to the large ad- 
 mixture of pure legend which these Acts undoubtedly contain. 
 A great part of the interview between Phocas 
 Yet these ^^^ Trajan has a spurious ring, especially 
 
 Acts contain ^i , r i t- , , /- 
 
 legendary ^"^ alarm of the Emperor at the sound of 
 
 elements, the heavenly voice. The words moreover 
 
 describing the Emperor's death are a mere 
 tag from the Gospel. I therefore incline to the belief that we 
 have in these Acts an early narrative of the saint's death over- 
 laid with the usual mythical accretions. Such accretions are 
 palpable in the Greek form, if we compare it 
 
 And have with the Armenian. As we have seen above, 
 polat'ed'even ^^^ ^oo confessors in two provinces are 
 
 intheAr- turned into 50,000 all in one place; one 
 
 menianform. lamp Ht in the prison, becomes 10,000, all 
 lit miraculously ; the dedication is omitted, 
 and in chap. 17a fresh miracle is added, as if the Armenian 
 did not contain enough. We cannot suppose that the process 
 of accretion which is so palpable in the Greek has not already 
 begun in the Armenian. Perhaps a lucky chance may yet re- 
 veal in some library an old Latin form of these Acts which 
 will aid us still further in clearing away the accretions of 
 legend. Meanwhile it is not too much to say that the Ar- 
 menian version has in the case of these Acts set us upon the 
 track of a genuine monument of a period of persecution of 
 which the only other extant notice is the Letter of Pliny. 
 
 There is one last point to which Mr. Hardy draws my atten- 
 tion, the statement, namely, in ch. 3 of these Acts, that "the 
 enemies of God made diligent search " for Phocas. This at 
 first sight seems to be inconsistent with Trajan's words to Pliny 
 that the Christians conquirendi non sunt. If, however, we could 
 suppose that Africanus preceded Pliny in Bithynia-Pontus, it 
 would be rather a confirmation than not of these Acts ; for 
 Trajan's words imply that until he wrote the Christians were 
 being hunted down. Such a consideration makes it doubly 
 certain that the story of the Emperor's death in ch. xix. is a 
 later and legendary accretion. 
 
SAINT PHOCAS. 
 
 I. Many a time since the coming of the Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, the pitiful and humane, and wise and 
 powerful, our Healer, and Shepherd, and Teacher, 
 and Lord, and God, Christians have received the 
 glorious and ineffable, the holy and spotless mys- 
 tery, and have sealed it by sufferings long and 
 extreme, by fasting and persecution and flight, by 
 banishment and endurance, through degradation 
 and glory, through torture and salvation. And 
 many a time have the apostles, holy and spotless 
 and equal to the angels, been tortured because of 
 the name ^ and of the glorified mystery, and have 
 given us ^Jype of the suffering of Christ, and__ 
 of their own irreproachable and inflexible faith. 
 Wherefore, O brethren, who are dwelling in Pontus 
 and Bithynia, in Paphlagonia and in Mysia, in 
 Galatia and in Cappadocia and in Armenia,^ it has 
 seemed necessary also to us that we should, all of us 
 and everywhere, signify in this writing unto you, 
 the undefiled and beautiful and glorious piety of 
 the blessed martyrs and the memorials of the same, 
 in order that we may become imitators of their 
 good fight, and make ourselves emulous of them. 
 
 II. For we shall remember the sufferings which 
 
 ^ The Greek omits " because of the name." 
 2 Greek omits from " wherefore " down to " Armenia." 
 103 
 
I04 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 they underwent by fire, and thirst, and cross, and 
 wild beasts, and by suffocation in pools of water, 
 and by carding, and by all sorts of tortures, and by 
 divers torments. For we too are taught to press 
 forward to the goal, and it is our hope to be made 
 partakers in great good things by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to whom glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 And above all others was the blessed Phocas, 
 conspicuous for bravery and endurance ; for not 
 only did he face fire and torture, but while he was 
 of this world he ever lived ^ in the fair and spot- 
 less religion, having continually before his eyes 
 the Saviour Jesus Christ. (Tor if it were possible 
 to compose concerning him in these memorials so 
 long a history, it could not fail to strike great dis- 
 may into our readers. M 
 
 Well, then, the devoutness of the holy Phocas 
 was such as this. All through his youth among 
 us here he was not beguiled by the grievous and 
 destructive serpent, but holy and spotless (as) ^ the 
 dove of the Lord, he bore the yoke meekly from 
 childhood, and was full of piety, and was conspic- 
 uous to all. But of those who lacked the means 
 of livelihood he was the help and succour ; to the 
 rich he was ready with reproof, and exhorted them 
 to what is of good report and for the welfare of 
 others ; and in a word he was unto all everything 
 that is good and holy. (But no one among men 
 could relate, as it deserves to be related, his last 
 
 * T^v dpcHky 4iro\iTcv<raTO. 
 
 * The Greek omits this sentence, 
 
 * The Arm. omit the word *• as.' 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 105 
 
 struggle and triumph.j However, unto you that 
 are worshippers of the true God, we will report 
 the little we can. III. In the times when Trajan 
 was Emperor, many of the Christians were 
 snatched away from the flock, to sacrifice to vain 
 idols ; and then were they seeking for this blessed 
 saint as for a gem of much value, which, having 
 lost, the possessor calls his friends and his kindred 
 together, that they may search and find it. In 
 like manner the enemies of God made diligent 
 search for the shepherd, for he was a just and holy 
 and true shepherd of the spiritual flock of the Lord. 
 And having taken the blessed saint, they brought 
 him into court. 
 
 Africanus the Eparch said : ** Is this the Phocas 
 who denies the existence of the gods, and reckons 
 not the autocrat Trajan a god ? Come, tell me, 
 then, have not all wars been won by the might of 
 his hand ? Who then but he can be God ? " But 
 Phocas remained silent. Africanus said : *' What 
 sayest thou to that } Dost thou give no answer, 
 or knowest thou not before whom thou hast 
 come?" Phocas said : *' If thou speakest about 
 my God who is in heaven, well and good ; but if 
 thou sayest of a man that he is God, then expect 
 not at all to hear aught from me." Africanus said : 
 " Are then the autocrats not gods .<* " Phocas 
 said : ** Is this not enough for Trajan that he is 
 called Emperor, but dost thou also give him the in- 
 comparable name ?" IV. Africanus said : " How 
 is it that the Christians demean themselves towards 
 thee as towards a god ? Phocas said : '' God for- 
 
io6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 bid that any one should even entertain such a 
 thought ; for men that are imbrued in blood and 
 assailable by death, and liable to sin, and who 
 must give an account of their lives, and of the 
 deeds they have done here, and of theic reli- 
 gion, and who are brought under the judgment of 
 the unseen God, how can they be competent to 
 bear such an awful name ? " Africanus said : 
 " How is it that the rumour of thee hath reached 
 even the Autocrat ? " 
 
 Phocas said : " Yea, of me not as a god, but as 
 a man of God. For I am very inferior to the 
 apostles of the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ.^ 
 Wherefore they honour me, the unworthy bishop 
 whom thou seest before thee, not as a god, as thou 
 thinkest, but as the shepherd of the spiritual flock ^ 
 of the Lord. But dost thou thyself, because thou 
 hast been entrusted with authority by the Lord, 
 therefore assume the name of god ? " Africanus 
 said : " There should be many schoolmen here, 
 that they might be able to argue with thee." 
 Phocas said : ** Although thou shouldst assemble 
 all the schoolmen of the whole world, they would 
 not be found worthy to reply to a single one of the 
 disciples of the Lord." V. Africanus said : ''Hast 
 thou such regard for the teaching of the Crucified 
 One .? " Phocas said : *' Herein behold even more 
 His matchless wisdom ; for unless He were above 
 and beyond all wisdom, nay, more, unless all wise 
 men derived from Him, it would not have been 
 
 ^ 80€v ovK &iravTO(ioXw Trjs twv diroorrrfXwv tov 6eou «vap«<rTias. 
 2 iroifUva Xo-yiKTjs d"Yc\i]S. 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 107 
 
 written, ' Who giveth wisdom to the wise,' ^ and 
 again, ' Who taketh the wise in the depth of their 
 wisdom V and again, * I will destroy the wisdom 
 of the wise, and I will make a reproach of the 
 skill of the learned.' ^ Dost thou understand that 
 which I speak ? " Africanus said : ''I was not 
 sent to talk with thee concerning laws and prob- 
 lems, but concerning obedience to the edicts of 
 the Emperors." 
 
 Phocas said : " I speak of the one unseen God, 
 and persuade thee not. Wilt thou, then, who 
 speakest about a man * like to myself, who is to- 
 day and to-morrow dies, and is blessed if he die 
 well and not ill, wilt thou be able to persuade me ? " 
 Africanus said : '' Cast from thee this intricate and 
 decorated discourse, and instruct thyself in the 
 lore of thy true life, lest thou compel me to per- 
 suade thee with many tortures." VI. Phocas 
 said: ''When invited to so noble a feast, I de- 
 cline it not, the more so as the hour is far ad- 
 vanced." Africanus said: "Yea, all the more 
 because of thy philosophising, for because of that 
 do I pity thee." Phocas said : ''If thou hadst 
 pity on me, then while I stand before thee, thou 
 wouldst at once do whatsoever thou art going to 
 do. But that thou mayest know that unless I die, 
 I cannot live." ^ Africanus said : " Murderers 
 
 ^ 6 81.80VS (ro<|>£av Tois (ro(f>ois. 
 
 2 6 8pa<r<r6[JL€vos tovs cro<J>ovis €V ttJ iravovpYicj, avTwv (l Cor. 3, 19). 
 ^ diroXco T?|v (ro<j>iav tcSv <ro<|>(3v Kal ti*|v cruveo-iv tc3v (twctcSv dOcTiio-w 
 (I Cor. I, 19). 
 
 ^ The Greek adds the words, "lawless and." 
 
 5 The Greek omits from "yea, all the more," dpwar-td-^'-^L-capnot live." 
 
 'f^ OF THE 
 
 tri^IVERSITY 
 
io8 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 and wizards are not worthy to look on the sun, yet 
 they supplicate for their lives ; but thou, whose 
 much wisdom, according to the saying, hath made 
 thee mad, art so bold and obstinate that thou 
 wishest to die. By the sun, methinks thou art 
 more of a philosopher than Aristotle." 
 
 Phocas said : ** I deign not to philosophise ; but 
 I wish to be a lover of Christ, since I know Him 
 to be my God and my King. For Aristotle 
 taught a philosophy which is vain and ensnaring ; 
 but Christ taught the conversation of God and 
 true religion,^ and wisdom, and fortitude, and hath 
 bestowed immortality on those who believe in one 
 God." Africanus said : ''Thou hast demonstrated 
 thy emptiness of mind and folly in paying so much 
 regard to one crucified." 
 
 Phocas said : "What is it that is a stumbling- 
 block to thee ? For it is written, ' A stumbling- 
 block to Jews and folly to Gentiles ; but to us 
 believing, Christ the power of God and wisdom of 
 God.'" VII. Africanus said : "What, God cruci- 
 fied ? "* Phocas said : " But there are gods, male 
 and female, and made out of stone, by the work of 
 hands. But none that are ungodly and of the 
 flesh can discover the path of Christ." Africanus 
 said : " Cure thyself of thy madness ; awake and 
 look on the heavens, the sun, and moon, and 
 morning star, and the multitude of the other stars, 
 that thou wouldst abandon and die." Phocas said : 
 " Thou beholdest the circle of the earth, and the 
 
 * OcoXoYfav Kttl iroXiTcfav Ivdpcrov, in the Greek. 
 
 * In the Greek, ^o-xlv oCv Stbs ^<rTavp«n^vos ; 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 109 
 
 blazing torch of the sun, and the round globe of 
 the moon, and the positions of the stars ; but their 
 Creator, God, thou beholdest not, neither compre- 
 hendest Him. For neither did the sun create the 
 moon, nor the moon the stars ; but all this appear- 
 ance and show was made by the Word of God."^ 
 Africanus said : "■ Then, on the other hand, thou 
 declarest the heaven and all that is therein to have 
 been made by another, denying that we ought to 
 serve them, and compliest not ? " ^ 
 
 Phocas said : '' God forbid that I should call the 
 elements God." Africanus said : '' Show to me 
 thy God, and I will win over the autocrat." 
 
 Phocas said : '' Did I not tell thee before 
 concerning the unseen God ? For God who sits 
 above the heavens, how can he appear unto man '^ 
 But if thou wouldst know God, yield to me, and I 
 will teach thee. Thou beholdest then the heavens^ 
 the sun and the moon, the stars and welkin. But 
 it is not when they will that they shine, but when 
 they receive the command so to do, 'Tis not be- 
 cause the clouds are gathered into one throng, when 
 and as they will, that they are filled with water ; 
 'tis when they are mustered by the command of 
 the Lord. There comes the summer, not when it 
 wills, but when He thinks good. The sea is at 
 peace or tempest-troubled, not when it so wills, 
 but when it receives the decree from the Lord. 
 Man is healed, not when he wills, but when his 
 Creator bids it. Thou huntest the wild beasts, 
 
 ^ Iv Xd-yw 0eov Kal Xpto-rov ■yc'yevvTjTai. 
 ^ <t>d(rK€is, Kal |j.T)8^ avrois viTTJKeiv. 
 
no Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 not when thou wilt, but when they are delivered 
 into thy hand. The Emperor is victorious over 
 the nations, not when he wills it, but when the 
 Lord succours and defends him. The Emperor 
 rules, not when he wills, but when the Lord gives 
 him power to rule.^ VIII. This God we ought 
 to know and glorify ; and worship Him who said, 
 * I slay and I make to live.' " ^ 
 
 Africanus said : But who is supreme over all 
 this, the God crucified of whom thou spakest } " 
 
 Phocas said : ** How hast thou heard of his suffer- 
 ings and yet considerest not the might of His 
 resurrection '^. How camest thou to acknowledge 
 the Crucified One 1 for this is much for thee. But 
 if thou wouldst know,^ then take into thy hands 
 the divinely inspired writings* and know thy 
 Creator and thy Autocrat.^ And then wilt thou 
 know that there is God the Father,® and His Son 
 Jesus Christ, crucified and buried,^ risen,® and 
 ascended into heaven, and sitting on the right 
 hand of God." ^ Africanus said : " I have heard 
 enough of thy teaching, and methinks Demos- 
 thenes might teach as much.^^ So now obey me 
 
 ^ This last speech of Phocas is somewhat shorter in the Greek. 
 
 2 The Greek has "I will slay and will make to live," ^7*!) diroKT€V(5 
 Kttl ^i]V iroi^o-ci). 
 
 ' In Greek : If thou wouldst believe. * Ocairv^virrovs Ypa4>ds. 
 
 * Gk. =the Creator of thyself and of thy autocrat. 
 
 « Gk. = who is God the Father. 
 
 ' Gk. ^o-ravpcDfUvos ^v KaxcL rb dvOpwirivov, " crucified as regards His 
 humanity," and omits the words " and buried." 
 
 ® Gk. dvOUTTOLS %\ T|) TT^S 0€6tT]TOS avTov 8vvd)i€i. 
 
 ' Gk. \v 8€|fqi ToO irarpis Ka0€?dp.evos. 
 ^0 Gk. TToXX-^v orov ircpCoSov dKtJKoas X6"ywv, «s Tdxa F^l^i rhy 
 AT)(io(r6^vT)v TOtraOra d-n-TiY-ycXK^vai. 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 1 1 1 
 
 and sacrifice, lest thou force me to consume thee 
 with torture and fire. For art thou not aware 
 that there are more than five hundred ^ men here 
 and in the other province, whom thou inveiglest 
 into not sacrificing to the gods." IX. Phocas 
 said : '' And how much better will it be, as thou 
 hast said, for me to die than for all the world 
 to perish because of my impiety. But 'tis with 
 joy that I approach the funeral pyre, lest the 
 whole flock be direfully wounded and scattered. 
 For such are the commandments which I 
 have received from the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Africanus said : ^ '' And I am very sorry for 
 thee, and am full of pity for a man so learned and 
 so famous ; but thou endeavourest to oppose me 
 and raise an angry debate." Phocas said : *' For 
 all thy sorrow thou art about to destroy me. For 
 I despise all thy threatened tortures, nay, I even 
 spit upon them. Therefore do whatsoever thou 
 art minded to do ; for my language or my 
 thoughts thou shalt not control. For the loving 
 care of my Lord is with me, and a confession of 
 faith more profound than tens of thousands of thy 
 Demosthenes."^ Africanus said : ** If thou wast de- 
 ranged, I would say that thou wast raving ; and 
 
 1 Srt irXetw ircvTaKwriivpioi dv8p€S iJoTavTat IvravOa Kal toLs lirapx^as 
 dvarpeireis |j.i^ 6v€iv. 
 
 2 But the Greek continues with : "If thou wast advanced in age 
 (irpoPePiiKws), I should say that thou twaddlest ; and if thou wast poor, I 
 should suspect thee on that point, and so forth." These words are given 
 later on to Africanus in the Armenian, who, for 'irpop£pi]Ka>s, advanced in 
 age, read Trapap€pTiKO)S = deranged. The passage which intervenes i^) to (^) 
 is absent in the Greek. 
 
112 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 if thou wast poor, I should say that on that ac- 
 count thou wast willing to die." Phocas said : *' I 
 have forfeited, all worldly wealth and riches and 
 possessions, if only to possess a single pearl, 
 which neither thou nor the autocrat can ravish 
 from me. But if it please thee to torture me 
 because I sacrifice not to abominations, lo, here 
 I am ; torture me as thou must." Africanus 
 said : ** We sacrifice to the holy and spotless 
 gods, and thou callest them abominations." 
 Phocas said : " Not only abominable, but presump- 
 tuous and cheating and adulterous and temple- 
 robbing ; yea, and devils and lifeless. And not 
 only they, but all who speak of any other god but 
 the one God who is over all and almighty. To 
 whom as Creator be glory and honour through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, for ever and ever." 
 
 X. And when the multitude of brethren who 
 stood there had said ''Amen," there was suddenly 
 a noise like the voice of many waters, and a great 
 earthquake, so that Africanus fell down with 
 fright, and was laid half dead on the floor, speech- 
 less, as well as all the guards who stood around 
 him. Among whom we saw, we to whom the 
 Lord wished to manifest it.^ For a bright light 
 shot from heaven ten times brighter than the sun ; 
 and two angels appeared on steeds of fire. And 
 fear and trembling fell upon us. But they were 
 embraced by the blessed Phocas ^ and then re- 
 
 ^ Iv ols t8o(i£v, ols 6 Kwpios ^PovX-^Otj 8(i|ai. 
 
 * avTol 8i irpocrciirdvTes TCf" )iaKapi(|) 4>ci>k^, and in the Gk. it is ** three 
 angels of fire on horseback " who appear. 
 
The Acts of S. P hoc as. 1 1 3 
 
 ascended to heaven. And after half an hour, 
 Terentina, wife of Africanus, ran up all dishevelled, 
 and with her five sons and all her attendants fell 
 down before the blessed Phocas, and earnestly 
 entreated him to restore to her her husband, 
 undertaking that she would believe with all her 
 ^^ousehold, which she actually did. Then the 
 blessed Phocas called together ^ all the congrega- 
 tion ^ of the church and offered up prayers for his 
 salvation. But he, having escaped in so mar- 
 vellous a way, went and told Trajan of the in- 
 comparable might of Christ and of the great hope 
 of the Christians.^ XI. And Trajan called Phocas 
 and said to him : *' Thou art Phocas." And he 
 said : *' I am." Trajan said : '' And thou knowest 
 not my absolute power. Why dost thou not obey 
 our commands ? In whom art thou exalted,^ or 
 what God dost thou worship? However, me- 
 thinks such rhetors ^ as thyself stand in no want of 
 advice. But put thyself into a fitting mood and be 
 not recalcitrant. For though thou mayest not be 
 in thy right mind ^ thou canst know who is Trajan 
 and who is he whom thou worshippest." Phocas 
 said: ''Is it meet to speak and defend oneself, O 
 Emperor, before thee and even so run in the race 
 
 * But the Gk. = which the blessed Phocas actually did, for having called 
 together, etc. 
 
 ^ Tov K\fipov = the clergy. 
 
 ^ Gk. = But he thus rescued by a miracle went off to lay before the king 
 the wonderful power of the Lord and hope of the Christians. 
 
 ^ Tivt TTfiiroiGftis ; 
 
 ^ Gk. = Such age as is thine wants no counsellor, but should give itselt 
 good counsel and not disobey (irapaKovetv). 
 
 ^ €1 ji^ -yap eavTov -yevg Kal rx\% {nroX-^xj/ews (rov, -yvwctti, tis Io-ti. 
 
 I 
 
114 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 which impends ? " Trajan said : " Yea, it is neces- 
 sary for thee to speak and in particular to say 
 what will help thee." Phocas said : " The power 
 of thy authority, O Trajan, is it given to thee from 
 God, if at least thou hast come to know Him that 
 bestowed the gift on thee ? " Trajan said : *' My 
 empire is given me by the many gods,^ to whom 
 it is right to sacrifice. It is right therefore to give 
 due honour to our saviours, and on that account 
 are we bound to sacrifice because of our salvation." 
 Phocas said : " It is just and right, O Emperor, to 
 sacrifice to Almighty God and to obey His com- 
 mands ; but withal we ought to obey the govern- 
 ment, not unto impiety, but unto true religion." 
 Trajan said : '' Wast thou summoned hither to 
 philosophise, or to sacrifice ?" Phocas said : " To 
 whom hast thou to sacrifice, or to what gods ? " 
 Trajan said: "To Asklepius." Phocas said: 
 "" Where is this god of thine ? Show him to me 
 that I may behold him." XII. And when they had 
 come into the temple of the idols, Trajan said : 
 ^' Lo, here are the gods who preserve all." Phocas 
 said : ** I say unto thee. Ho, thou stock and 
 stone, dost thou desire to eat, dost desire drink, 
 dost desire to dress, dost desire to smell, hast 
 thou need of sacrifices ? Behold thy gods are 
 vain ; they stand erect and sit not down ; they 
 have open mouths and speak not ; we pray and 
 they hear not ; eyes have they, yet see not ; 
 hands, yet they take not up the offerings. Wilt 
 
 ^ In the Greek &irb 0cfiv simply. 
 
The Acts of S. P hoc as. 1 1 5 
 
 thou that I destroy one of them ? yet are they in- 
 capable of exacting redress for the deed ; they 
 grieve not, nor call upon the autocrat to succour 
 them. And were he summoned, then the god is 
 proved to be powerless. A god who needs man- 
 kind to assist him in avenging himself, how can 
 he save mankind? Behold, O Emperor, the 
 emptiness of thy religion." 
 
 Trajan said : " Thou hast astonished us by thy 
 words. Wast thou not a sailor, and didst thou not 
 worship Poseidon?" Phocas said: *' I was not 
 only a sailor, but a captain of sailors, and in all 
 things I am piloted by the Lord and offer up 
 such sacrifices as are meet." XIII. Trajan said : 
 '' We, too, would know to whom thou art will- 
 ing to sacrifice." Phocas said : '' Thou canst not 
 know, for it is written : ''Ho, cast not your 
 pearls before swine." Trajan said : *' Then we 
 are swine as thou sayest."^ Phocas said : '' 'Twere 
 fortunate if ye were dumb beasts, for then ye 
 would not fall under judgment as worshipping 
 yonder stones, for which the dumb brutes have 
 no concern at all. But tell me, which is the better, 
 thou that hast all that power of thine, or they 
 w^ho give no answer to what ye say ? " Trajan 
 said : '' We command that thou be hung from a 
 tree, and we will see what thy vain philosophy 
 avails thee." Phocas said : ''I, if I be hung from 
 a tree, will be above all mountains and winds with 
 the Lord ; but thou along with thy gods wilt be 
 
 1 The Gk. adds Pi«0dvaT€, **thou wretch." 
 
1 1 6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 in hell in outer darkness, and then wilt thou know 
 that the God in heaven is mighty." XIV. So they 
 excoriated ^ his body all over, yet he did not make 
 the denial, nor was any utterance heard from his 
 lips, but only his lips moved in prayer. And 
 when he had finished his prayer and uttered an 
 Amen, there was a noise from heaven, and a voice, 
 which said : ''Be of good cheer, Phocas, for I am 
 with thee. Behold for thee is prepared a place 
 in the garden along with the holy pontiffs and 
 with those who deny not Me and My Father. 
 But Trajan shall go to the place that thou hast 
 portended, there to undergo tortures eternal." 
 Then Trajan was smitten with fear and ordered 
 the saint to be taken off the rack, and commanded 
 four guards to watch him.^ And they took and 
 put him in prison and he was fixed very securely 
 in the stocks. 
 
 But the saint continued to praise and glorify 
 God ; but they shut the doors and kept watch 
 outside the prison. XV. And about midnight the 
 saint fell to praying, thus:^ ''Jesus, Son of God, 
 Christ Lord, whose name is holy. Lord of angels 
 and of every name that is named ; Shepherd of 
 spiritual sheep, keep Thy flock firm, drive away 
 the many-footed wolf, who seduces and ravishes 
 
 ^ <nra0it6|i.cvov Kard irav {liXos. 
 
 ' The Greek adds : "and one centurion by name Priscus." 
 » Gk. Kvpic *lTi<rov Xp^crre, tov (jLcydXov Ocoii vU, xb A^iov Kal &|&pi]Tov 
 Iv dv6p»irots fivofia, th KvPcpvt^TiKOV ^v irtXd'yco-iv 6vo)ia, rb iroifJiavTiKbv 
 kv irofjjico-iv 6vofia, 0€bs dyY^Xwv, Otbs apxa-yY^^v, Ocbs irdvTos 6vd|JtaTos 
 6vopia^o|i^vov, iroi|JLi]v t«v XoYtKwv <rov irpopdrwv, T^pT]<r6v o-ov rb 
 iroCfJiviov do-vXov. 
 
The Acts of S. P hoc as, 1 1 7 
 
 them. Yield not aught to him in Thy labours.^ 
 Let not the wild boar destroy Thy vine planted 
 by Christ ; let it not pollute Thy holiness, as did 
 Nebuchadnezzar. Let not the many-spotted 
 serpent bespot Thy spotless dove. Let not the 
 all-spotted contaminate Thy servants with the 
 parching blast of the south. But preserve Thy 
 vineyard, which Thy all-powerful right hand hath 
 planted.-^ Suffer not thy cross ^ to be destroyed, 
 which with Thy great and precious blood thou 
 didst win. Suffer not Thy ark to be wrecked, 
 of which thou alone wast captain and pilot.^ I 
 thank and glorify Thy Father and Thee, that 
 Thou wilt make me worthy this day to sup with 
 Thee, for I shall come unspotted to Thy couch.* 
 Drive me not without on this day in my coming 
 to Thee. Keep my spirit, as Father, as God, as 
 Lord, as Shepherd, lest there breathe upon ^ me 
 the dragon, and lest his feet dance upon me. 
 For he could not persuade me by gold or silver 
 to lose the precious pearl. But lo, I have 
 abandoned all, that I may possess thee alone, 
 that art all-precious, thee. Lord, the pitiful, the 
 light-giving.^ Bring me near to Thy Father. 
 Lead me in by the narrow door into the temple 
 of the King, and to Thee be glory and to Thy 
 Father and to Thy Holy Spirit.^ 
 
 * €ls Tovs <rovs TOTTovs. What follows as far as *' right hand hath 
 planted " is omitted in the Greek. 
 
 2 dY€\T]v= "flock," instead of "cross." 
 
 '' The Gk. omits this clause. ■* iraorTov. ^ <rup'^(rT|. ^ lirt<|)avT]. 
 
 7 6x1 8id o-ov T| 8o|a tw ixcYdXco 9ec5 Kal irarpl <rvv ofyCw irvcvuaTi vvv 
 Kal els TOVS alwvas. 
 
1 1 8 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 XVI. And when he had said the Amen, the 
 prison was opened and a torch ^ was Hghted in 
 the fortress. When the soldiers saw it, they 
 rushed in, and throwing themselves at his feet, 
 they sought of him the washing of the font.* 
 And the blessed bishop took the men and went 
 y as far as the edge of the sea outside the city, 
 and gave them the seal in Christ,^ to whom also 
 the Lord manifested Himself Having come and 
 having fulfilled all the law, we entered again into 
 the prison.* And at dawn all the multitude of the 
 city mustered in the public place, looking forward 
 to the martyr-struggle of the blessed Phocas. 
 And Trajan called him into the court and said : 
 "Sacrifice to Poseidon." 
 
 Phocas said : *' To demons I sacrifice not." 
 Trajan said : "Are the gods demons, and we too } ^ 
 Tell me then what other god is there left ? " 
 Phocas said : "He that gave thee thy authority. 
 For ye are dumb irrational animals, and know 
 not the benevolent God." Trajan said: "T hen 
 jsacrifi^e^at least to thy God." Phocas said : "My 
 TJod needeth liaught, except only prayer and 
 fasting and holy hearts. For all things that have 
 come into existence are His creatures. He giveth 
 breath to all things that are and to whatever 
 shall hereafter come to be." XVH. Trajan said : 
 
 * The Gk. has : ** more than ten thousand lamps." 
 
 * TO Xovrpov. ^ TTJv 4v Xpto-Tw (r(|>pa7C8a. 
 
 *• irop«v8^vT€S %\ Kttl iroCTi<ravT€S rd KareL tov vdjtov clo-qXGov irdXiv 
 els tAv "A-yiov. 
 
 * Gk. — •• we swine." 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 119 
 
 " Now hast thou begun to philosophise. Sacrifice 
 to the gods, for crucified god there is none." 
 Phocas said : '' Thou hast heard the voice of the 
 Crucified One, and wast terrified. If He should 
 be stirred up against thee, who shall be able to 
 withstand Him.'^ For His threatening consumes 
 the mountains and His wrath dries up the sea." 
 Trajan s^id : '' Thou knowest not to whom thou 
 speakest, or with whom thou hast words." Phocas 
 said : '' Because I know with whom, on that 
 account I sacrifice not. But no word more art 
 thou going to hear from me ; do whatsoever thou 
 wilt. But this I avow to thee, that I am a 
 Christian." 1 XVHI. Trajan said: ''The baths 
 are being heated for thee, and lo, the water is hot. 
 This three days has no one opened them, and 
 into them I bid them throw thee." And Phocas 
 made the Lord's sign upon himself, and entered 
 into the bath, and it was like a brick glowing 
 among gleaming fires. And the blessed one 
 stood there in the midst, and began to praise 
 God and say : *' I thank thee. Lord, Lord, that 
 Thou hast made me worthy because of Thy name 
 to be tormented and imprisoned and bound and 
 subjected to many trials. And now, my Lord, 
 send Thy angel and save me from the hand of 
 Trajan, lest haply the enemy say : ' Where is 
 their God?'" And having finished his prayer. 
 
 ^ The Greek adds a miracle here : " Trajan said : I bid thee be cast 
 into unquenchable fire, and I will see if thy God will take thee out. And 
 when he had been cast in and had made three hours in it, they took him 
 out, and he was just as if they had freshly cast him in." 
 
1 20 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 and said the Amen, he surrendered his spirit at 
 sunset. 
 
 Then Trajan bade open the baths, and having 
 entered in, he found the remains of the body of 
 the holy Phocas like a fragrant rose,^ and like the 
 frozen ice and like fragrant and precious oil. 
 And the baths were cool, just as if they had not 
 been heated at all. XIX. Trajan gazed on the 
 body of the blessed Phocas, and fell to meditating 
 on so long-suffering a faith, and he cried out and 
 said to the soldiers who were with him : '' Truly 
 there is no other God, except the one alone 
 who is in heaven." And he became afraid, and 
 trembling quitted the baths. But Phocas appeared 
 to him on the threshold, and said to the despot 
 Trajan: **Go to thy appointed place, unto that 
 impossible abyss. For to me is opened the 
 garden of delight, but to thee is opened the pit 
 of destruction as for thy idols. But there is not 
 for thee a time of pardoning,^ but only three days. 
 For much righteous blood has been shed in thy 
 lifetime." And Trajan went to his palace in 
 terror, and was in great tribulation, suffering from 
 a violent fever, and betaking himself in pain to 
 his litter, he was devoured of worms and so per- 
 ished.^ 
 
 XX. Such was the uprightness of life and 
 bravery in martyr-struggle which the blessed 
 
 ^ vdpSov eiJirvovv, «s |ivpov iroXvripiov Kal ws KpvoToAXov ireirrj-yrfs. 
 
 Cp. the Apocalypse of Peter, § 3, in which we read of the Blessed that : 
 rd 7dp <r<tf)iaTa avrwv -fiv XevKorcpa irdo-T]? Xiovos Kal cpvOporcpa iravTos 
 ^<$8ov ; and see M. R. James' Apocrypha AnecdotUy p. 150. 
 ' lv8o<ri$. ^ (rKo\i]K6Ppa>Tos 'ycv^p.tvos <|6|n{<v. 
 
The Acts of S. Phocas. 121 
 
 Phocas was the first to display in Pontus,^ and it 
 is related unto this day. A captain of sea-farers 
 and a shepherd of all good sheep was he, and 
 his martyrdom is true, and is glorified and bruited 
 abroad in the regions of Armenia and Pontus and 
 Paphlagonia. ('An apostolic man did he show 
 
 himself to us, and as from some squadron of the 
 saints ^ he took the standard of victory and the 
 earnest of -the life to come as promised by the 
 Lord God.^J To whom glory and power for ever 
 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 ^ irpcoTOS T«v 6V IIovTw XttXciTai ?a)S Tf]S (r^|i6pov T||i6pas YvpcpviiTT]? 
 T(3v va-oTiXdiv, XaXTjTos kv iravrl t<5 Kdo-p.a>. GO rb p-aprvpiov Tf]S 
 d9Xir](re(os XaXciTat 8o|a?6fJi€vov iv tois KXi|ia<ri ttjs *Ap|Jt€vias. 
 
 2 €ls Ti>V XOPOV TWV a^CwV [J.€TaT€0eCs. 
 
 ^ The Gk. has : " by Christ, to whom glory and power and adoration, 
 with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and ever, and for all eternity. 
 Amen." 
 
ACTS OF S. POLYEUCTES. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Greek text of these Acts, of which the Armenian is a 
 translation, has been pubhshed from Paris MSS. of it in a 
 volume called : Polyeucte dans Vhistoire. Etude^ par B. Aube, 
 Paris, 1882. I owe the following remarks on these Acts to 
 M. Aube's introduction. 
 
 There are signs that the text of these Acts, as we have it 
 now, can hardly be contemporary. For example, it is alleged 
 therein that the martyr suffered under the 
 Emperors Decius and Valerian. Now these Date and form 
 Emperors were not together. And the Acts, of these Acts, 
 if they were really contemporary, would 
 hardly contain such an error. In the appendix moreover of 
 the Greek MS. 513, which is mainly followed by the Armenian 
 version, the persecutions of Decius, Valerian and GaUienus 
 are all confused together under the one appellation of the 
 " first persecution in the East." The author of such a con- 
 fusion could not be contemporary. The introductory words, 
 "a certain Nearchus," also militate against 
 
 such a view. It must further strike a reader ^°^ contem- 
 1 T T , XT 1 1 porary m this 
 
 as somewhat odd that Nearchus survived to form. 
 
 tell the tale of his companion's martyrdom. 
 
 But in spite of all these solecisms, these Acts are certainly 
 
 based on an early account sent round, according to regular 
 
 custom, to the churches, to be read aloud on the feast day of 
 
 the saint. On such feast days a homily commemorative of the 
 
 deceased saint's virtues was delivered in church, and it is clear 
 
 that the following piece is such a homily, and that it was so 
 
 read as early as a.d. 363 ; for the exordium suits the years 
 
 A.D. 363-5, when Julian was dead and Christian emblems once 
 
 more figured on the standards of the army. The earhness of 
 
1 24 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 the homily is good evidence of the antiquity of the document 
 embodied and embedded in it ; as is also the care exercised 
 by the old Latin translator of the fifth or sixth century to 
 eviscerate the document. The metaphrast had the same text 
 as we have in the Greek MSS. collated and published by 
 Aubd, but he curtails the homiletic exordium. 
 
 We meet with notices of this martyr in several ancient 
 writers. For example, Gregory of Tours {H.F.^ vii. 6 in fine^ 
 De Glor. Martyr,, § 103) mentions him ; and in the fourth and 
 fifth centuries many churches were dedicated to him, one at 
 Melitene as early as 377 ; another in Constantinople before the 
 end of the fourth century (Gregory of Tours, De Glor. Martyr., 
 % 103) ; a third in Ravenna according to Tillemont, Mem. 
 Eccles., t. iii. p. 426. Sacred lamps have also been dug up 
 bearing the inscription -rov ayiov HoXvokto^ on the site of the 
 ancient Coptos in Upper Egypt, which probably belong to 
 the fifth or sixth century. The ancient Coptos was also called 
 Cana, or Ghana. Perhaps Cana neos = New Cana, and was 
 the place alluded to in these Acts as the city of the Cananeots. 
 
 The last section of these Acts contains the testimony of 
 Nearchus the friend of Polyeuctes, which I believe to be 
 genuine, although the paragraph which precedes it, and which 
 mentions Philoromus, is clearly an interpolation of the fourth 
 century. The homilist in his exordium plainly refers to the 
 original document or Acts which he is about to read out to his 
 congregation ; some of his sentences even quote the letter of 
 the document. This proves that we have here an earlier 
 document embedded in the homily. In the same way the 
 Acts of Theodore the Soldier, along with the testimony of 
 Abgarus his notary, are embedded in a homily, and so pre- 
 served to us. 
 
 The Armenian Text agrees very closely with the Greek MS. 
 513 of Paris edited by Aube. In some places the Greek text 
 explains obscure passages in the Armenian. 
 The Armenian I have translated the latter rather than the 
 version. Greek direct, because I think that the ori- 
 
 ginal document which the Armenian used 
 frequently gave another text than the Greek MSS. preserve ; 
 
Ac^s of S. Polyeuctes. 125 
 
 for I doubt if all the differences of the Armenian are merely 
 due to loose translation. 
 
 The story of Polyeuctes is familiar to many, because it has 
 been dramatised by Corneille, whose tragedy however hardly 
 bears comparison with these Acts in real 
 pathos and dramatic representation. Indeed, Corneille' s 
 : , . . r ^ , -r ^ r drama OH 
 
 m his portraiture 01 the martyr s wiie and 01 Polyeuctes. 
 
 his relations to her, the French dramatist went 
 out of his way to be insulse and offensive. 
 
 The doctrinal drift of these Acts, so far as there can be said 
 to be any, is of a gently heretical type. For Polyeuctes is 
 saved and goes to heaven without having 
 received baptism or any other of the sacra- Doctrinal ten- 
 ments, and his dialogue with Nearchus tends ^^t b 1^^^ 
 to make it clear to the reader that none of orthodox. 
 
 these things are really essential. If a man 
 only have faith, then he will go to heaven like the thief on the 
 cross. Such doctrine was strong meat for a later age, and 
 accordingly we find it toned down in the old Lation version 
 edited by Aube. The dialogue between the saints is largely 
 recast to make it more orthodox, and instead of the passage 
 on page 139, we have the following, — 
 
 Ad fontem autem uitse sic fideliter uenire, salutare probatur, 
 ita etiam non accedere procul dubio creditur. Quibus autem 
 imminet persecutor, nee suppetit facultas adeundi mysterium, 
 sed sub uno et eodem temporis spatio, et conuersionis causa 
 ex divina inspiratione agitur et persecutionis discrimen inten- 
 datur, his profecto fidei anchora arctissime tenenda est, ut, 
 cura defuerit fidei famulatrix aqua, sacramentum baptismatis 
 proprii sanguinis aspersione compleatur. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY POLYEUCTES. 
 
 By now has the bounteous grace of God and 
 likewise His might been manifested unto all 
 through the holy martyr Polyeuctes. Now are 
 the heathen ^ cast down and full of sorrow, and 
 they that put their hope in their soulless idols 
 and went astray after their graven images are put 
 to shame. In so much as they have been com- 
 pelled against their wills by the divine might to 
 become imitators of the holy Polyeuctes, in order 
 that unto God the Creator and Maker of all, in 
 accordance with divine writ, every knee may bend, 
 of them that are in heaven and on earth and 
 under the earth. For the tidings of the divine 
 power have been brought to men, and are in 
 recent events ever more and more praised and 
 glorified. For lo ! the blessed Polyeuctes, who f 
 was esteemed a heathen in life and religion, even '» 
 he on a sudden set himself to confirm the religion / 
 of Christ. He that was soldier of an earthly/ 
 king, in the twinkling of an eye fiouted his humaa 
 warfare and with all zeal elected in place thereoA 
 to bear the armour of Christ, and decked his) 
 brow with the never-fading crown, symbol of his\ 
 struggle bravely borne. ' 
 
 For the Saviour summoned him to His own 
 
 ^ Gk. the HeUenes. 
 
 ia6 
 
Acts of S. Polyeuctes. 127 
 
 ( kingdom by a certain revelation, and bade him 
 doff the earthly cloak of war which he wore, and 
 array himself instead in the martyr's garb of 
 mystery and ineffable honour. Yea, He bade him 
 put off his sordid earthly cloak of unbelief, that 
 he might don that of the holy martyr, which is 
 more honourable and holy and pleasing to God. 
 Then with self-born zeal the blessed one hastened 
 forth at the summons of the Saviour, and by his 
 very readiness forestalled the call, spurning at 
 once and unhesitatingly all that is earthly and 
 human. Him neither wife nor children, nor store 
 of riches nor military discipline, nor honour and 
 high command, nor any human glory and great- 
 ness could^ draw away from the true service 
 of God. (For he esteemed more highly the life 
 and citizenship of heaven, and gave up without 
 delay of one moment the life of foolishness and 
 Idolatry for the true and spotless worship of God) 
 But what Is even more wonderful in the economy 
 of hi*s salvation is this, that the saint Polyeuctes 
 was living with the very daughter of the Perse- 
 cutor. And this Persecutor was inducing all others 
 by his violence to worship idols, but he could not 
 bend the good resolution of the saint. Wherefore 
 he then took his daughter and her children, and 
 brought them to him ; wishing by means of them 
 to humble and ensnare him. But he remained 
 firm and Immovable In the faith of Christ, and 
 spurned the ties of his human kinship and affec- 
 tions ; striving only to follow and serve the 
 heavenly King, who had chosen him out to be 
 
128 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 his own soldier. Nor was it without divine pro- 
 vidence that he was even in this Hfe pressed into 
 the service of the camp, in spite of the many 
 hardships which the life entailed. For God wished 
 from the first to test the martyr's resolution and 
 prove him, as pure and choice gold is proved in 
 the furnace ; and therefore He threw him from the 
 first into a life of warfare, such as many deemed 
 likely to displease him. But instead he was 
 proved by means of this very life on earth to be 
 a faithful and firm servant of God. And, lo and 
 behold, it was just by reason of his good conduct 
 and devotion to arms, that he became a martyr, 
 and passed from the humble army of this earth 
 to yonder greater one. 
 
 O pious martyr, all holy, witness of God revered 
 in all places, of whose memory we all weary not. 
 O Godlike martyr and true, who bestowedst so 
 much more honour and glory on the human race, 
 than thou didst derive therefrom. For thou didst 
 trample on the head of the serpent, even as did 
 also the holy martyr Thekla, and Perpetua^ who 
 ascended along that brazen ladder, which led to 
 heaven, until she reached her Saviour. Unerring 
 are the prophecies in all that they foreshadow. 
 For the prophets knew that the trials of this 
 earthly life are many and wearisome, and that 
 they encompass the race of Christians. And after 
 a long and honourable ^ life on earth a man will 
 
 * The Armenian omits the reference to Perpetua, but retains that to the 
 ladder. There must therefore be a lacuna in the text. 
 
 * The Arm. = dishonoured. 
 
Ac^s of S. Polyeuctes, 129 
 
 yet scarcely be able to reach heavenly honour. 
 Well, along this ladder the blessed Polyeuctes 
 ascended. He likewise smote the head of that 
 same dragon, and spurned idols, mounting up- 
 wards by the mysterious and ineffable ladder ; 
 and thus in miraculous wise he confirmed the 
 utterance of the apostle, who says, that by faith 
 they shall quench the power of fire and shall 
 shut up the mouths of lions. 
 
 O armour of the heavenly faith, which the 
 sword of Satan could not touch! O pupil of 
 Christ, tried by fire, true and genuine soldier ! 
 Thus it is that for his virtue and true faith he is 
 -eternally honoured in deathless memory, as one 
 who is still near to us. Wherefore this day will we 
 celebrate the true festival of his birth, and so reap 
 the fruit of his deeds, in order that he may bestow 
 iUpon each of us his helpful and goodly prayers. 
 
 What gift then shall we offer to the saint com- 
 parable to that which he bestowed on us? How 
 shall we display our gratitude for the love of 
 God manifested unto us, and prove our goodwill "^ 
 Let us dance our customary dances, if it be our 
 pleasure so to do ; and let us recall to memory 
 the deeds of the saint and all that regards his 
 history. Thus we shall ^y. in our minds the very 
 words he spoke and participate in his holiest 
 memory agreeably to the document, and shall be 
 able to establish our souls in the true faith. 
 
 Now the origin of his martyrdom was as 
 follows. A certain Nearchus, for that was his 
 name, and Polyeuctes the blessed martyr, were 
 
 K 
 
130 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 called brethren ; not as being so by blood rela- 
 tionship, but as being so by choice and love of 
 each other. And because of their true friendship 
 for one another they were called comrades and 
 familiar friends, while according to the mysterious 
 will of God they were proved to be sharers of 
 His mysteries. Now Nearchus was a Christian, 
 but the blessed Polyeuctes in matters of religion 
 reckoned himself a Greek, though he was such in 
 name only, for he was not far from the true faith, 
 and was destined to transcend many dubious 
 Christians in his fervour in its behalf. How 
 wonderful is the divine economy ! For before 
 the Saviour came to dwell among us, sent down 
 by God from heaven to earth for our salvation, 
 all men sat in the gloom of idolatry and in the 
 depths of impiety. But at the advent of the 
 Saviour, all on a sudden rose up as it were out 
 of a steep well from their idolatry. My brethren, 
 think of that advent ! Think of the faith of 
 Polyeuctes, of the king coming down from heaven 
 to dwell among us, of His soldier who freely ran 
 to serve Him. What then was the trial which 
 the martyr underwent ? What was the occasion 
 of the call which summoned him from Paganism 
 to bear witness all on a sudden immediately after 
 the advent of the Saviour ? 
 
 Decius ^ and Valerian were abusing the authority 
 
 * I omit here some flowers of rhetoric given in the Armenian and 
 absent from the Greek MS. 513. The passage omitted incidentally states 
 that Polyeuctes suffered on the fourth day after the Lord's appearance to 
 him. 
 
Ac^s of S. Polyeuctes. 1 3 1 
 
 committed to them by God in an impious manner ; 
 and with the cruel violence of despots had enacted 
 a new law, to the effect that those who consented 
 to sacrifice to idols should be advanced in the 
 service, while those who should refuse to sacrifice 
 were to be put to death by beheading. 
 
 Now on the publishing of this iniquitous edict 
 against the Christians, Nearchus the friend of the 
 martyr was in confusion and bitter straits ; and 
 he sighed and wept continually, and shrank from 
 his usual converse with Polyeuctes. The latter 
 was surprised and was moved to sympathise with 
 him ; and several times he went to him and asked 
 him the reason of his sorrow. But the other 
 found it not easy to answer the questions of the 
 holy martyr ; who, after a spell of silence during 
 which Nearchus remained plunged in profound 
 grief, repeated the question as follows : '' What is 
 this mood of thine, so unlike the warmth of frank 
 and open friendship ? Hast thou renounced thy 
 old friendship, that thou dost not deign to answer 
 me ? Have I given thee any cause to sorrow or 
 shrink from me in this wise ? " 
 
 It was only then and with difficulty after re- 
 peated questionings on the part of the martyr, 
 that Nearchus unbent and began to speak and 
 say : '* Because I foresaw the separation between 
 us which this impious and iniquitous edict will at 
 once bring about, therefore, O Polyeuctes, I kept 
 silent, because henceforth we cannot maintain 
 our old friendship for one another." 
 
 Then the holy Polyeuctes answered him and 
 
132 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 said : "O Nearchus, thy words to me are contrary 
 to all that I hoped or expected. For even though 
 we are about to be parted by death, still no one 
 can dissolve the bond of friendship and love which 
 unites us." Nearchus said to him : **Aye, this is 
 just what I was brooding over, that the separation 
 I had in mind is something above and beyond 
 that entailed by human death." But when the 
 holy Polyeuctes heard this, he fell on the neck of 
 Nearchus and prayed and besought him to tell 
 him the reason of the impending separation. But 
 Nearchus, when he received the supplications of 
 the holy martyr, wished to tell him all, but was 
 prevented by the difficulty he felt and by his 
 tears, and full of confusion, he gazed at Polyeuctes, 
 and such was his affliction that he threw himself 
 on the ground. And the holy Polyeuctes could 
 not bear to see this, yet was at a loss how to 
 console him, and he thought that perhaps he 
 had taken offence in some way at his friend ; and 
 accordingly he fell to reflecting thus : " Surely I 
 have not incurred reproach in the blameless life of 
 Nearchus." So after reflection, he said : " Surely 
 no one has traduced Nearchus, and it is not for 
 that or because of any calumny or loss of property 
 that Nearchus is plunged in dejection and tears. 
 I am ready, said the holy martyr, to help him in 
 such case, and to bear accusations and death for 
 my true love of Nearchus. Nay, had I even a 
 child, I would not spare him, if I could indulge 
 my love of Nearchus. Faith, I would reckon it 
 lower than my love of him, and would sacrifice 
 
/■ 
 
 The Acts of S. Polyeuctes. 133 
 
 all to keep my affection for him whole and un- 
 impaired." 
 
 And when Nearchus heard such language from 
 the holy martyr, he rose up, and with difficulty 
 opened his lips, for he was much weighed down 
 with care and sorrow. And he began to speak 
 thus : *' O Polyeuctes, on the morrow are we to 
 be parted from one another } " But Polyeuctes 
 could not believe the words of his friend, but was 
 much perplexed and disturbed at his strange 
 agitation and at his shedding so many tears, and 
 he besought him to say what had happened to 
 him, and what reason he had for speaking in such 
 a manner. And after he had besought him many 
 times, Nearchus began to tell him with many 
 tears about the iniquitous edict against Christians. 
 And when the other heard of these iniquitous 
 edicts, he rallied his spirit, and resolved to become 
 a spectator of God and of heaven. Moreover 
 he recalled the revelation which he had received, 
 and found that it had been concurrent in time 
 with the edict. And forthwith he was filled 
 with grace, and began to tell Nearchus about 
 it. ''This day," he said, '' I beheld, O Nearchus, 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, whom thou worshippest 
 in holy wise and with fear and trembling. He 
 approached me, and stripped off me the filthy 
 human cloak which I wore, and clad me with 
 one far more precious, and bright as light, and 
 flashing with gold ; and at the same time that 
 He thus arrayed me He bestowed upon me also 
 a winged horse." When Nearchus heard this he 
 
1 34 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 rejoiced exceedingly, and said to his friend : " I 
 trow that thou also hast a knowledge of Christ, 
 the God in heaven, who is for ever and ever, 
 and is rich with heavenly riches, and who appor- 
 tions His grace without stint or grudge to all 
 who call upon Him." And in reply Polyeuctes 
 said: ''Yet when did I forget my Lord and 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ ? And whenever thou 
 hast told me about Him, did I not listen with 
 wonder and admiration ? And whenever thou 
 hast read to me the Divine Scriptures, have I 
 not on hearing them forthwith shed tears and 
 trembled ? Although I was not in name called 
 a Christian, yet by disposition and in reality I 
 was eager to range myself among the servants 
 of the Saviour ; for everywhere and always was 
 I anxious to put to shame the vain folly of idols, 
 with their false and crafty deceit." 
 
 And when Nearchus heard this, his soul was 
 filled with rejoicing, and he said to the blessed 
 Polyeuctes : " With regard to the foul and false 
 idols, we are compelled now to sacrifice to them 
 by the iniquitous emperors ; and for those who 
 may refuse to sacrifice, and resolve to serve 
 Christ, it is ordained that they should die by 
 the sword. What then dost thou now say, O 
 Polyeuctes .'* Restrain me not from weeping, 
 and from lamenting on account of thee, for I 
 y am in doubt whether I shall not lose thee on 
 account of my love. For a presentiment came 
 over me that thou wilt submit to the edict of 
 the Emperor /for thou art not yet a perfected 
 
The Acts of S. Polyeuctes, 135 
 
 Christianjand thou wilt be compelled to sacrifice 
 to idols.' 
 
 But when the blessed Polyeuctes heard this 
 there was kindled in his soul an impulse towards 
 God, and with his fleshly eyes he looked to 
 Nearchus, as if he were vexed, and he caught 
 him by the hand, and said : *' These then were 
 Thy apprehensions, O Nearchus ? Were these 
 from the first the opinions Thou entertainedst of 
 me ? How couldst Thou harbour such a presenti- 
 ment about me, Thou who on every occasion 
 wast wont to read to me the divine and ineffable 
 mystery, and I, when I heard it, repudiated the 
 foul and abominable images ? How then, O my 
 comrade Nearchus, have we been content until 
 now with the knowledge of that which is fleshly, 
 while we have ignored all along the spiritual and 
 ineffable through which we converse with God ? 
 Why then do we not carry out our feelings, O 
 Nearchus, or why do we not proclaim publicly 
 and before all the world the faith which is in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ? " 
 
 But Nearchus was aroused as it were from 
 sleep by the words of the blessed Polyeuctes, 
 and rallied his soul, and said to the saint : ''To 
 me, O Polyeuctes, neither wealth, nor military 
 honour, nor the life of this world appears more 
 precious than the life of Christ. Nay, I would 
 fain give the preference to immortality, and salva- 
 tion, and eternity, over life that is human and 
 transitory." But Polyeuctes, on hearing this, 
 resolved to test the faith of his friend, and 
 
136 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 explore his resolution. So he said to him : 
 " And art thou not sparing, O Nearchus, of this 
 honour ? " ^ But the other thinking that he asked 
 this question seriously, and not merely to try 
 him, replied : " If thou only knewest the honour 
 which I have had bestowed on me^ by Christ, 
 and the progress He has vouchsafed to me ! " 
 (For He spoke openly and spiritually with him, 
 and even in accordance with the divine will 
 guided him in his resolutions.^) The holy 
 Polyeuctes said to him : " Thou imaginest that 
 I am ignorant of the progress which thou hast 
 made in Christ, and the honour which awaits 
 thee from Him. But before thee, O Nearchus, 
 have I made progress with the Saviour ; for this 
 very day have I received from the Saviour, 
 through a revelation, a heavenly and royal cloak. 
 But I would fain put to thee one capital question 
 of a spiritual kind ; for I have a fear and sus- 
 picion in my mind, lest if I should come to the 
 Saviour unbaptized,* He should not receive me 
 with the rest into His spiritual host. Is it then 
 possible for those who are not baptized, neither 
 have partaken of the holy mystery, to be found 
 acceptable to God ?" 
 
 But Nearchus, seeing what was in the mind 
 of the blessed Polyeuctes, forasmuch as he was 
 
 * The Gk. runs, Kal o* 4*<^^ <»"o^ ^ N^x*» '*^i« TOMiim|« &((as. 
 
 * The Arm. adds ** at home." 
 
 3 The Gk. MS., followed by AuW, omits the words bracketed. 
 
 * The Arm. — " imperfect." The Greek has Avev tcXctwv xal ftv<rm- 
 pCttv, "without the rites and mysteries." 
 
The Acts of S. Polyeuctes. 137 
 
 not yet actually a full Christian, and had had no 
 experience of the divine mystery, resolved to 
 spur him on to yet greater faith, and he reminded 
 the saint of the divine writings, and exhorted him 
 with still greater urgency to believe. And he 
 began to address him thus : *' Spare thyself," he 
 said, ** Polyeuctes, all apprehension on this point. 
 For God is able, as the divine writings say, tc^ 
 raise up children to Abraham from these very 
 stones ; that is because of a choice and decision, 
 which was neither hoped for nor expected, he 
 can make the very Gentiles soldiers of Christ, 
 For behold, dearest friend, unto all the Gentiles ^ 
 the doors of heaven are opened, and the ap- 
 proaches to deathless salvation are not shut to 
 any one. Although a man may have believed 
 but for a little time, yet for that little he shall 
 receive a great reward, if his faith be genuine. 
 This is why the Saviour also in the gospel com- 
 mands that the same reward should be given to 
 the labourers who had entered the vineyard in the 
 first, and ninth, and eleventh hours ; signifying 
 that even though you come in unto the Lord at 
 a late hour you shall receive the same reward as 
 the rest." And when he heard this Polyeuctes 
 recollected a passage which accorded with what 
 Nearchus had said, and he said : '* In truth I 
 once heard you read from the Divine Book that 
 some of the labourers worked for a single hour 
 
 * The Gk. has irdo-iv ?0v6<riv dv^coKxai, and just before tovs €| €9v»k 
 avOpcoirovs. In the homiletic exordium the words 'EXXtivwrjxos and 
 EXXT]ves were used to denote paganism and pagans. 
 
138 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 only and that to them the Saviour commanded 
 the very same reward to be given as to those 
 who had borne the heat and burthen of the day." 
 And Nearchus said to him: *'Yes, and thou 
 mayest remember yet another history, of a kind 
 to stir and urge thee still more strongly to be- 
 lieve, and this is from the history of the Lord. 
 Bethink thee of the thief ^ who was crucified on 
 the right hand side ; what did He say to the 
 thief who was crucified on the left, and who 
 reviled the Lord ? * We suffer jusdy for what 
 we have done, but our Saviour was guiltless and 
 ■sinless of the cross,' and as he said this he 
 turned and said, * Remember me, Lord, in Thy 
 
 ^ The story of the penitent thief is told in Luke's gospel only, which 
 was therefore in the hands of Nearchus. In Luke, however, the term 
 .xaKovp-yoC is used, not \T]<m^s, whence we may perhaps infer that Nearchus 
 had Mark or Matthew as well. John's gospel simply says &XXovs 8vo. 
 Luke does not add that it was the thief on the right hand of Jesus who 
 repented and that it was the one on the left who scoffed. This is either an 
 addition of the Acta, or drawn from some form of the gospel which we 
 have not got. The Greek text runs, according to MS. 1449 : *I8ov -yap 
 T<^ Xrjo-Tp, Tc3 Ik 8c|i<i>v avrov irpo<niXci)9€VTi Kal X^-yom* 'Hficis fi€v 
 d|ia)S T»v cavTuv dfiapritSv eKTivvvojJLCV SCkus, 6 8^ Swr^p t)|jlwv dvafrtos 
 Av Kttl dvafjidpTT]Tos, 8id t£ lo-xavpovro ; Kal irpbs tovtois elirtiv 
 MvTi<r0TiTi p.ov, Kvpic, €v TT) Pa(riXe£«ji. o-ov, cv6lo)S 6 2a)Tif|p dircKpCvaro 
 irpbs avxbv 2-^p.cpov |X€t tjiou ^o-g kv tw '7rapa8€£(ra>. MS. 513 has a 
 variant &^ia «v lirpd|ap,ev diroXap-Pdvonev, 6 8^, so agreeing with the text 
 of Luke, and also cl-rrdvTOS for tlirwv, and firav ^0t[|S \v t^q Pa<rtX€C<f <rov. 
 The Armenian text follows MS. 513 in the first of these variants, but for 
 the rest follows MS. 1449. Though it is fuller than either text, and 
 corresponds to the following Greek : irpoo-tiire -ydp tw Xtjo-t-jJ tu> Ik Sc^Cwv 
 irpoo-riXctfOlvTi Kal Xlyovri ti5 X-qcrr-g t<5 i% dpicrrcpwy irpoo-riXwOcvTi Kal 
 pXa<r<{>T)p,ovvTi- 'Hjicis p.iv k.t.X. Also after Kal irpbs tovtois tlie 
 Armenian adds words similar to those found in the Codex Bezce, oTpa<|>«l$ 
 -irpbs Tbv Kvpiov, The Textus Receptus of the N.T. has 6Tav IX0t]S Iv t^q 
 ^o-iXc£<;i, but Codex Bezoe and other sources omit firav IXOi^s. The 
 -coincidences of the text of the Martyrdom with the Acta I'ilati are very 
 striking, e.g. the Act. Pil. have OTav ^XO^s, and have utr' lp,ov Iv r. irap. €i. 
 
The Acts of S. Polyetictes. 139 
 
 kingdom.' And then what answer did the Lord 
 make unto him ? For his simple and unpretend- 
 ing faith what great things did He not promise 
 him ? for He said, ' This day art thou with Me 
 in Paradise.' Dost thou see, O Polyeuctes, what 
 great good tidings He bestows in return for how 
 short a spell of faith ? Lo, according to the 
 gospel, if a man possess faith, even though it be 
 small, he is yet able to move mountains." ^ 
 
 And thereat the blessed Polyeuctes cried out, 
 and said : " And is it possible, O Nearchus, for 
 men to attain unto such things without baptism ? " 
 Nearchus replied : ** Everything is holy to the 
 holy, as again the Divine Scriptures say.^ But 
 to those who are defiled in their will nothing is 
 holy, because their mind and consciences are 
 destroyed. Behold, we see the Lord, when they 
 brought to Him the blind that they might be 
 healed, had nothing to say to them about the 
 holy mystery, nor did He ask them if they had 
 been baptized ; but this only, whether they came 
 to him with true faith. Wherefore He asked 
 them, 'Do ye believe,' He said, 'that I am able 
 to do this thing '^, ' With genuine love of man 
 did He manifest His power, and addressing to 
 them a single word he commanded their fleshly 
 eyes to see, and immediately their eyes were 
 opened." 
 
 ^ The Greek has *I8ov •yap ttio-tis dXtiOivTJ, k&v (JiiKpd tvyx^vt], 
 o\6K\T]pa 6pT), Kara to Eva-y-yeXiov, |Ji€6£orTT]<riv. This recalls I Cor. xiii. 
 2, rather than the equivalent passage in the gospel, Matt. xvii. 20. 
 
 2 2 Tit. i. 15. 
 
140 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Then on hearing these things the blessed 
 Polyeuctes rallied and encouraged his soul ; and 
 he forgot all earthly concerns, and said, crying 
 out on a sudden : ^ *' I have been one with Christ 
 from the beginning, and He will care for me 
 and guard me. For I have renounced all mortal 
 things, and henceforth 'tis meet that I should bear 
 witness (i.e. be martyred) for Christ's sake. But 
 the law of the Saviour was made manifest before- 
 hand, which taught us, saying, * Whilst thou wast 
 still being formed in thy mother's belly I knew 
 thee ; and before thou camest forth from the 
 womb I loved thee.' Therefore it is manifest 
 that He has called me into heaven. For behold, 
 the heathen who hate God ^ saw the Lord Jesus 
 appear and standing near me, saw my face shining 
 with the resplendent light of His countenance. 
 Now, therefore, it is time for us to depart ; go 
 and read the unholy edict of the Emperor." 
 
 And when the blessed Polyeuctes read it, he 
 began to make mock of such human legislation 
 as that, and seizing the writing he tore off a 
 portion' of it. And after that, looking in another 
 direction, he saw the idols, referred to therein, 
 
 * The Greek has, "Let us then agree with Christ to be martyred 
 (liOfTvp-fjo-ai), O Nearchus, by whom indeed we are also foreknown («^ S'^ 
 /cal irporYV(>}(rp.€6a). For His code of law teaches, saying, Before I formed 
 thee, etc." irpb tov |j.c irXdo-aC <r« ^v KoiXCq., iirioTajiaC <rc, Kttl irpo toO 
 4(cX0civ 4k lA-^Tpas, ^^laKd <r€. 
 
 ' The Greek texts are here different and confused, but both MSB. omit 
 this reference to the heathen. MS. 513 has ret Ocidrcpa ^vTdto|icvov 
 4avr6v pX^trw k.t.X. ** I behold myself having a vision of diviner things, 
 and I have a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ standing near me." 
 
 • Greek — tore it into bits. 
 
The Acts of S. Polyeuctes, 141 
 
 being borne on high into the temple, where 
 they usually were, and they were decorated with 
 boughs and leaves in order that men might be 
 deceived by such a show, and come to behold 
 the so-called gods. Such were the idols at which 
 the holy Polyeuctes looked, and beholding, he 
 was filled with divine scorn and began to mock 
 at them. And every one voluntarily approached 
 the idols ; but he seized every one of the figures 
 in turn and hurled them to the ground, and in an 
 instant crushed and ground them all to powder. 
 
 And when this happened his father-in-law, 
 Felix, came up, who had been appointed perse- 
 cutor by the iniquitous emperors, and he was 
 dumb-foundered at what had been done by the 
 holy Polyeuctes, and said to him : "I have lost 
 both my children, and now I, Felix, am bereft 
 of children. For I who formerly was proud, and 
 boasted of my children and son-in-law, am now, 
 alas ! childless ; for no one henceforth will take 
 pity on Polyeuctes, not the gods, nor the autocrat 
 emperors, seeing what sort of deeds he has dared 
 to commit, breaking and destroying all our gods." 
 But Polyeuctes said : " Long ago I have spurned 
 them, and now have demonstrated their impo- 
 tence by actual deed. But, O Felix, see if you 
 have any other gods, and, if so, make haste to 
 bring them forth, in order that I, the servant of 
 God, may insult and annihilate them." 
 
 Then Felix turned to the saint, and said to 
 him : *' Concern thyself, O Polyeuctes, to live 
 yet a little while, and seclude thyself quietly, in 
 
[42 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 order that thou mayest behold thy wife before 
 thou diest." But the holy Polyeuctes reasoned 
 according to the divine wisdom, and replied : 
 " What wife or child have I to look upon ^ save 
 only those spiritual and heavenly ones whom 
 Christ has made ready for me ? But if thy 
 daughter would follow me, let her also follow 
 me in my resolve, and display a zeal that is 
 blessed and glorious. But if she has any other 
 intentions, then shall she be overtaken by the 
 same fate as thy so-called gods." But Felix 
 wept when he heard these words, and he saw 
 that Polyeuctes had cast off all human ties as 
 alien. He said to him : '* But thee, O Polyeuctes, 
 the trickeries of Christ have deceived." And the 
 holy Polyeuctes said to him : ** I admit that by 
 His power He has drawn after Him my mind 
 and will. For Christ has such irresistible might 
 that He has brought me under His ineffable sway 
 and detached me from the folly of idols, nor has 
 He disdained to make me His chosen soldier." 
 And as he spoke these words he was himself 
 filled with the divine and heavenly power. 
 
 Then he was given over to the persecutors 
 and their servants, who smote him piteously on 
 the lips with green switches. But the saint cared 
 not at all for this torture, for he beheld Him who 
 was crucified for him standing near him. Then 
 the saint with deep indignation began to say ta 
 Felix as follows : '* O thou foul, and unholy, and 
 
 * voCav 4^4^ YwaUca ij WKva ^vrdloiMu 
 
The Acts of S. Polyeuctes, 145 
 
 abominable mystery-monger,^ who art the minister 
 of kings miserable and of brief span, why dost 
 thou try to cajole me with thy crafty tears, who 
 in thy secret heart art full of guile ; because of 
 my wife and children dost thou try to drive me 
 from the hope of Christ. From this day forth 
 weep not for me, Polyeuctes ; but if thou be- 
 lievest me, 'tis thyself that thou must weep for, 
 who art destined by thy foul and disgusting 
 services to the children of this world to be con- 
 demned to darkness and the eternal fire." 
 
 And when the blessed Polyeuctes had said this 
 much, he dismissed the things of earth and be- 
 took himself to the contemplation of heavenly 
 things alone. And at that time(a certain woman^) 
 whose name was Paulina, ran up in haste, with 
 tears and full of sympathy, and said to the holy 
 martyr : '* Why art thou mad, O Polyeuctes, 
 or who hath befooled thee into such hardihood, 
 and into doing such deeds as to destroy the ten. 
 and two gods .^^ " But the blessed Polyeuctes 
 ridiculed the words of (his wife^nd said to her : 
 '' What if I have destroyed your dozen of gods ; 
 have you not then met with other gods on the 
 face of the earth ? However, if thou wilt obey 
 me, O Paulina, follow me in my resolution, and 
 believe, and have regard for thyself, in order that 
 instead of this transitory life thou mayest receive 
 the life which is eternal and deathless." And 
 after using these words, as well as many others 
 
 ^ (i,v<rTa7a»Y^. 
 
144 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 spiritual and full of mystery, he ceased.. And 
 many unbelievers, when they beheld his un- 
 ^ blenched and inflexible faith, were confirmed in 
 the faith. And then all the body of the perse- 
 cutors met together and decided that the blessed 
 saint should be put to death by beheadal. 
 
 The holy martyr knew of this unholy com- 
 mand, and contemned the tortures of the human 
 body ; nay, he welcomed them as the road to 
 perfection ; ^ and he stood full of joy awaiting the 
 sentence of death, for he was rejoicing with the 
 Saviour in heaven. But because he was full of 
 sympathy, as long as he was in the flesh he con- 
 tinued to converse with us, and actually addressed 
 the brethren who stood by him, as follows : " I 
 see," he said, **a certain youth leading me on, 
 and eager to converse with me, and he teaches 
 me to forget and pass away from human things.^ 
 Therefore it is clear that I am about to die in 
 the Lord, and it seems to me that by means of 
 His precious blood in a mysterious manner the 
 seal both of the divine baptism and of Christ is 
 herein set upon me." 
 
 But Nearchus never forgot his friendship and 
 love. For they were in their bodies twain one 
 spirit and one life. Then the martyr gazed 
 •on Nearchus, and said : ** Farewell to thee, and 
 
 K 
 
 * irpoK<nrds. 
 
 ' The Greek ""The martyr then of Christ, being about to be consum- 
 mated and to receive through His holy i blood in mystical and ineffable 
 wise the divine baptism and the seal of Christ, did not forget his friend- 
 ship for Nearchus." Note the representation of Jesus as a youth. 
 
The Acts of S. Polyeuctes. 145 
 
 forget not, my brother, the ineffable joy that is 
 mine and thine." ^ And these last words he left 
 behind him, as it were a seal set upon Nearchus ; 
 and himself was slain with the sword. Then the 
 brethren buried his precious and holy body with 
 honour in Melitene, a city of the Armenians, and 
 bestowed it on them as it were an eternal heritage 
 of their own. The saint was buried on the fourth 
 day after the Sabbath ; ^ forasmuch as it was also 
 meet that he should end his life on such a day. 
 For in all respects he showed a faith that was 
 four-square in its strength and unshakeableness. 
 And thus they laid to rest his holy body ; but 
 his precious blood Nearchus caught in clean 
 napkins, and took it to the city of the Cananeots 
 (as some precious heirloom, and they treasured 
 it up as a weapon of salvation for all from far 
 and near).^ 
 
 All this was wrought, in the days of Decius 
 and Valerian, in the East, during the first persecu- 
 tion.^ And be it known, the first saint who 
 suffered was Stephanus, in Jerusalem ; and the 
 second was the holy Philoromus, in Alexandria ; 
 and the third saint was Polyeuctes, in Melitene, 
 
 ^ p,VT]|x6v€V€ T«V d'7rOpp'<]T(tfV l^fACOV <rvv9T]Kcov. 
 
 2 6v Ti|J.€p<5t T€Tpd8t, evvoLTT) Tov 'lavovapCov p.T]v6s. 
 
 ^ Greek omits words bracketed. 
 
 * The MS. 1449 has ^v t<S irpwraj 8ia)-y}j.(5 Tfjs dvaToXtis, after which it 
 adds, " in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom glory and might 
 with Father and Holy Spirit now and ever for eternity. Amen." This 
 MS. does not contain the words which follow : " And be it known, etc." 
 These are only found in MS. 513, and in the Armenian. Aube points out 
 that they must be an interpolation of the fourth century, since Philoromus 
 suffered 305 a.d. 
 
 L 
 
146 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 before the fourth of the indiction of the month 
 Aratz/ in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 to whom power and glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen. 
 
 ^And after the holy Polyeuctes had suffered, 
 I, the humble Nearchus, gave the records of 
 the same to Timotheus, the Cananeot, and to 
 Saturninus, and adjured them by the judgment 
 of Christ and by the triumph in Christ of the 
 holy Polyeuctes, that they would year by year 
 keep his day, and read the record with care. 
 But Timotheus received that record, and de- 
 posited it in the church, wherein it is read twice 
 a year, on the fourth day before the ides of 
 January,^ the day on which the holy Polyeuctes 
 suffered, and on the eighth day before the calends 
 of January,* when his holy blood was deposited 
 in the city of the Cananeots. But may the 
 beneficent God who presides over the contests 
 of His martyrs, establish us also and make us 
 the foundation stones of His churches in Christ 
 Jesus, imperishable God, with the Holy Spirit, 
 to whom glory and power for ever and ever. 
 Amen. 
 
 * The Greek MS. 513 has irp^ reo-ardpuv *I8a)v 'Iavovc4>£o»v. The 
 
 practice of reckoning dates by Indictions (or terms of fifteen years) only 
 came into vogue in the reign of Constantine. To import it into the reign 
 of Decius is an anachronism. The Armenian perhaps explains the curious 
 expression of MS. 1449 : ^v rifji^pi;. TCTpdSi, twdrQ tov 'lavovopCov )iiT]v6s. 
 The word ivvdr-g is a corruption of 'IvSiktCwvi. 
 
 ' This paragraph also is only in the Armenian, and in MS. 5^3 > ^^^ '"^ 
 MS. 1449. In the Armenian, owing to a break in the text, it ends at the 
 words "in the Church." This paragraph probably belongs to the third 
 century. ' i.e. January 10. * i.e. December 25. 
 
THE ACTS OF SAINT EUGENIA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The history of Eugenia has never, Hke that of Saint Polyeuctes, 
 been dramatised, though it abounds in characters and positions 
 well adapted to a French stage. In trans- 
 lating it I have followed the Armenian Various Texts 
 version, which gives a more ancient form of 
 the text than either the Greek Acts of the metaphrast or than 
 the old Latin version made probably by Rufinus the presbyter 
 of Aquileia, about a.d. 400. A comparison of these three 
 forms of the text shows that we have in them three distinct 
 stages of its development, of which the Armenian is the earliest, 
 the old Latin intermediate, the metaphrast's the latest. In 
 my notes I have been content to indicate the divergencies of 
 the old Latin version only from the Armenian, for it was not 
 worth while to enumerate the many omissions, amphfications, 
 substitutions and additions by which the metaphrast, after his 
 manner, adapts the older narrative to the taste of his tenth 
 century readers. Similar examples of his method are pre- 
 sented by the Acts of Theodore, of Callistratus, and Demetrius. 
 One palmary proof of the superior antiquity of the Ar- 
 menian form of these Acts of Eugenia lies in their frequent 
 references to the history of Thekla. Eugenia 
 sets herself from the first to copy Thekla, The Armen- 
 whose history, falling by chance into her ' Text ^^ 
 
 hands, leads her to break away from the 
 yf polytheism of her parents, to espouse virginity and don male 
 attire. She refers to the history of Thekla 
 as being an inspired book, and the writer As proved by 
 of these Acts more than once imitates that ^^ Thekla 
 history. In a subsequent age, when the old 
 Latin Version was made, Thekla had become a somewhat 
 
148 Monuments of Ea7'ly Christianity. 
 
 heretical saint, and accordingly all references to her and to 
 her Acts were obliterated, and references to S. Paul and 
 his Epistles substituted. The metaphrast's recension has yet 
 more markedly been freed from references to the heretical 
 saint. 
 
 The poems of Venantius Fortunatus, however, a poet of 
 the second half of the sixth century, juxtapose the names of 
 Eugenia and Thekla in a way that suggests that he had before 
 him the Acts in the same early form as the Armenian, e.g.^ 
 we read, Carmina, Ed. Frid. Leo, Berol., 1881, Monum. Ger- 
 man, historica, tom. iv., pars prior, p. 192 : 
 
 Unde magis, dulcis, hortamur ut ista requiras 
 Quae dedit Eugenise Christus et Alma Theklae. 
 
 Fifty years earlier, Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, in his poem, 
 De laude Cas fifaf is {Migne, Patrol. Lat.^ vol. lix., col. 378 B), 
 gives an outline of the story of Eugenia agreeing in all respects 
 with our text. ^ 
 
 In regard to a history written with so much evident literary 
 
 art as these Acts, the first question that suggests itself is : Can 
 
 any of it be true ? Has it any basis in fact ? 
 
 Credibility of jg j|. ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ rather skilful romance ? 
 
 It must be allowed that there is a basis of 
 fact underlying the story ; for, (i) of one or another of the 
 actors in it, viz: Philip, Eugenia, Protus, Hyacinthus, and 
 Basilla, there is to be found mention in the very earliest 
 catalogues of saints, e.g. in the old Syriac menologion trans- 
 lated by Wright, in the kindred list of 
 Proved by Jerome and in the fourth century Depositio 
 modern dis- Martyrum. 
 covenesmthe / / rr., , , /- t^ j tt 
 
 Roman Cata- (2) The actual tombs of Protus and Hya- 
 
 combs. cinthus were found by Father Marchi, in 1845, 
 
 in the Catacombs of Basilla. It cannot be 
 mere chance which unites all three names both in the cemetery 
 and in the legend. 
 
 • I owe these references to an art. by Dr. Franz Gorres on " Das 
 Christenthum u. der Rom. ^idcaX" in iht Jahrbiicher fur Proiist, Theol. 
 —Leipzig, 1844. 
 
The Acts of S, Eugenia, 149 
 
 How then does the history of Eugenia cohere : i. with 
 itself; 2. with independent records ? 
 
 (i) The internal chronology of these Acts 
 is clearly impossible. Philip is sent as o^^^°^°^2cts 
 Eparch to Egypt in the seventh consulate impossible, 
 of Commodus, i.e. 196 a.d. ; and Eugenia is 
 then aged sixteen. After two years and three months Eugenia 
 is made superior of the monastery. We may allow two or 
 three years to elapse before the charges of Melania bring her 
 before Philip. After that Philip is bishop for one year and 
 three months. When Philip became bishop, the Christian 
 church — there was only one — in Alexandria had been closed 
 for eight years. These are all the indications of date given 
 by the Armenian up to the end of § 19, when Eugenia, with 
 her mother and brothers, returned to Rome after the murder 
 of her father Philip. Such as they are, they agree with the old 
 Latin version, which says that Philip, at the date of his death, 
 had been Eparch between nine and ten years, and that Severus 
 and Antoninus Caesar ordered him to be slain ; for in 205-206 
 these were the reigning emperors. Note that the Armenian 
 speaks of the emperors in the plural, but without naming 
 them. The eight years during which the churches had been 
 shut carry us back just to the date of Philip's mission from 
 Rome. The Armenian text explains that he was sent out to 
 set affairs to rights according to Roman customs; and this may 
 mean that Christianity was to be repressed. The old Latin 
 and the metaphrast explicitly say so ; but they add that the 
 Jews were more rigorously treated by Philip than the Christians, 
 an amplification of this part of the text due perhaps to a vague 
 recollection of the Edict of Severus, issued a.d. 203, by which 
 Jews were forbidden to make proselytes and Christians to 
 make converts. 
 
 So far, the narrative, as given either in the Armenian or in 
 
 the old Latin form, is consistent with itself. 
 
 It ceases however to be so when the heroine /T^P^^iT, 
 
 , . -^ . f. -r that of the 
 
 arrived in Rome, in 5 20. Let us enumerate i^g^ chapters. 
 
 some of the points of difficulty which now 
 
 obscure the narrative. 
 
 •^eSE^UBR^-J- 
 
 OF 
 
1 50 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 1. Avitus and Sergius, sons of Philip, whom the Emperor 
 had just had murdered, are welcomed by the Senate. This 
 is unlikely, seeing that their father had just before been 
 murdered by order of the Emperor. 
 
 2. One of them is made Consul, or Proconsul, in Carthage, 
 the other Vicarius Africae. Now we first meet with the latter 
 title in the Notitia dignitatum, and 409, Codex Theodosii 
 7, 15, T. Of course the title may have existed earlier, and 
 Mommsen {^Das Romische Militarwesen seit Diocletian^ 
 Hermes, xxiv., p. 200), hints that it was earlier than Dio- 
 cletian. It cannot however be as early as 210 a.d. On the 
 other hand we actually find in the consular lists that Pompei- 
 anus and Avitus were both consuls a.d. 209. If Avitus was 
 sent by the Senate to govern the consular province of Africa 
 rather later than 209, which is Hkely enough, we have here a 
 confirmation of the Acts. For if Avitus was about the age of 
 his sister Eugenia, he may have been of sufficient age in 209. 
 The Acts, however, rather hint that he was younger, or anyhow 
 not very senior to her. The mention of a Pompeianus, as 
 Consul, A.D. 209, also agrees with the Acta, for he may easily 
 be the Pompeius to whom Basilla, a kinswoman of the 
 Emperor, was betrothed. 
 
 3. The rest of the chronology is less possible. Basilla, 
 whom the story requires to be a young virgin, is, according to 
 the Armenian, a kinswoman of Callus, and, at the same time, 
 a contemporary of Eugenia. But C. Vibius Trebonianus 
 Gallus succeeded Decius towards the end of a.d. 251, when 
 Eugenia would have reached the age of seventy-one years. 
 Yet the story represents her as martyred in the bloom of 
 youth, and her mother survives her, and her brothers are still 
 young men ! The absurdity is still greater if with the old 
 Latin and the metaphrast we read the Emperors' names under 
 whom they all suffered, as Gallienus and Valerian, who reigned 
 together 254-260. In a.d. 260 Eugenia would have been 
 eighty years old. 4. The Armenian, moreover, hints that one 
 Nestor was bishop of Rome at the time of the martyrdom of 
 Eugenia, of Basilla, and of the eunuchs, and that this bishop 
 hid himself on hearing of the condemnation of Cyprian by 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 151 
 
 the Consul Maximus. Now this condemnation was in 258, 
 on Sept. 14. The Latin substitutes for Nestor, CorneHus the 
 Pope of Rome, who suffered Sept. 14, a.d. 252. 
 
 According to the old Latin version the eunuchs Protus 
 and Hyacinthus are tried before Nicetius, Urbi Praefectus. 
 According to the Armenian, Eugenia is brought before Anictus, 
 Prefect of the City. There is nothing to prevent there having 
 been a Prefect of the City of the name Anicetus or Nicetus, 
 though I can find no trace of him. 
 
 There is but one explanation of the chronological discords 
 
 of the latter half of the piece. It is this : The events narrated 
 
 must belong to the first half of the third 
 
 , Y. ^ V. ^ o ■ r Anachronisms 
 
 century ; but about a.d. 280, a recension of of the story 
 
 the document was made in which it was at- due to a late 
 tempted to connect the martyrdom narrated recension of it 
 in it with the great persecution of Decius; for ^ °280 * 
 the latter was then fresh in men's memories, 
 and eclipsed the recollection of earlier persecutions. In the 
 same way the memory of the persecution of Decius was, in 
 some parts of the Roman empire, eclipsed at a later time by 
 the persecutions under Numerian. Thus we find the martyr- 
 dom of Babylas which Eusebius puts in the reign of Decius, 
 set down in the exordium of the Acts themselves to the time 
 of Numerian. And after every fresh outburst of fury against 
 the Church there was a tendency at work to connect the 
 memory of the older and already popular saints with the most 
 recent of the crises through which the Church had passed. 
 Such an explanation as the above is favoured by the disagree- 
 ment which we find within the interpolated part itself. Thus 
 the Armenian names Gallus as the kinsman of Basilla, so 
 implying that her death took place in his reign ; the old Latin, 
 on the other hand, mentions Gallienus and Valerian in the 
 most explicit way. Again the Armenian makes Nestor bishop 
 of Rome ; the Latin has Cornelius, the well-known corre- 
 spondent of Cyprian. Of Nestor we have no mention in any 
 other source. Perhaps he was an anti-Pope early in the 
 second century. 
 
 Returning now to the first part of the narrative, let us see 
 
152 Monuments of Early Christia^iity. 
 
 if we can trace any of the persons named therein in inde- 
 pendent history. We have no mention by name of a Prefect 
 of Egypt appointed at the end of the reign 
 
 No trace in ^f Commodus and named Phihp. From the 
 general his- , . ,. __^^t^_^ , , .. 
 
 toryofPhiUp, introduction to Part XXIX. (the Inscrip- 
 
 tiones ^gypti) of Boekh's Corpus (tom. iii., 
 P- 3i3)> we learn that about 184 a.d. M. AureHus Papirius 
 Dionysius became Prefect of Egypt, and was, through the 
 enmity of Cleander, the Prefect of the Praetorium, deposed, 
 apparently by Commodus. In 194 a.d. M. Ulpius Primianus 
 was appointed. He was succeeded a.d. 202 by Metius Laetus, 
 and he a.d. 204 by Atianus Aquila, he in turn by Flavins 
 Tatianus a.d. 215. It has been supposed by Labus that 
 Primianus was preceded by an unknown prefect who held his 
 office but for a short time. In the above list there is no 
 room for Philippus, unless the very name Philippus be a cor- 
 ruption of Ulpius. It is possible that Philip was only the 
 name adopted by the prefect, whoever he was, when he became 
 a Christian ; for it was customary to take a new name on 
 being converted, and it is by this new name that a person 
 would be handed down in Christian legend. Another way of 
 surmounting the difficulty would be to suppose that Philip was 
 not prefect of Egypt, but only one of the judges whom the 
 emperors sent out to superintend all judicial processes in 
 Alexandria. The Armenian, however, styles Philip Eparch, 
 and the Latin Prefect. We know from Eusebius, Hist. Eccles.^ 
 Bk. vi., Chap, i, that there was a persecution of the Christians 
 at Alexandria during the reign of Severus, in the first years of 
 the third century, in the course of which Leonides, the father 
 of Origen, perished, along with many others. The focus of 
 this persecution was Alexandria, though it extended to the 
 Thebaid. This may have been the persecution in consequence 
 of which the church in Alexandria had been shut up for eight 
 years ; but no prefect of that date held office for ten years. 
 
 We read that Eugenia was betrothed to Aquilius, son of the 
 Consul Aquilius. This agrees fairly well with the consular 
 lists in which we find an Aquilius to have been Consul in 
 a.d. 168. His son might have been betrothed to Eugenia 
 
The Acts of S. Etigenia. 153 
 
 in the year 195. Of the Bishop Helenus, called in the Latin 
 form, Bishop of HeliopoHs, we know nothing. But our know- 
 ledge of the bishops even of the great sees, 
 like Rome, and Alexandria, and Ephesus is ^^^ some of 
 very fragmentary and incomplete for the Actors" adLit 
 first three centuries. This fact would also of being iden- 
 explain the absence of Philip from the list of tified. in his- 
 the bishops of Alexandria. There seems to °^cords ^" 
 
 have been a question whether he was a pro- 
 per bishop, to judge from the somewhat apologetic language in 
 which the Latin version mentions his appointment. Perhaps 
 the assurance from heaven given in a dream to his wife Clodia, 
 that God had given her husband a place among the sacred 
 pontiffs in heaven, points in the same direction. We probably 
 should read between the lines of such an assurance. It may 
 have been a reason for dropping him out of the list of 
 bishops or overseers of the church of Alexandria, that his wife 
 and family were so prominent in the legend ; whereas the 
 usage of the Church at a very early time required that the 
 Patriarch of Alexandria should be celibate. It has been 
 objected to the entire story of Eugenia, that there were no 
 monasteries in the neighbourhood of Alexandria as early as the 
 end of the second century. Here again the paucity of our 
 records is such, that we must not pronounce dogmatically 
 against the possibility of there having existed in Egypt some 
 such establishments. Philo of Alexandria describes such a 
 colony of pious men and women, living to- 
 gether as monks and nuns, over the Lake Early Mon- 
 Marea near Alexandria, as early as the first ^^^.^° Institu- 
 half of the first century ; and these settlers Alexandria 
 so closely resembled the Christians that probable. 
 
 Eusebius imagined they were converts of St. 
 Mark. There is no mistake so great as those commit who 
 imagine that they have an exhaustive knowledge of all the 
 religious movements that went on in Alexandria in the first 
 century, and who therefore pretend that Philo's description is 
 a forgery of the third century and really meant as an apology 
 for the Christian monastic institutions of the late third century. 
 
154 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 There is nothing to be said in favour of such a view, and it 
 rests on nothing except the assumption, that we know every 
 detail of the rehgious Hfe of Egypt in that age so thoroughly 
 as to be able to impugn the genuineness of any one of Philo's 
 most characteristic writings, which may chance to tell us some- 
 thing which we have not learned from other sources. We may 
 with great plausibility suppose that the community which Philo 
 describes had lasted on and become Christianised, for the 
 transition from the one to the other was easy. To some 
 extent therefore the legend of Eugenia and the description 
 left by Philo confirm one another. There can be no doubt 
 that the growth of such monastic communities was natural in 
 the climate of Egypt, and we know of the existence of similar 
 institutions among the Egyptians as early as 
 Signs of anti- ^^e third century before Christ, 
 quity m these ^, -^ , • . , . 
 
 ^ctg^ There are some other pomts m the Ar- 
 
 menian narrative which smack more of the 
 second century than of the third or fourth. There is first the 
 position accorded to the Acts of Thekla, which 
 e.g. Position are actually called a sacred book. Now the 
 ^^^Acte of ° Church was beginning to suspect these Acts 
 Thekla, as early as the time of Tertullian. Secondly, 
 
 there is the extreme simplicity of the dogmatic 
 teaching, and the stress laid on the moral teaching of Christ. 
 ^^^ Eugenia does not instruct her monks to be- 
 
 Absence of lieve in the birth of Christ from the Virgin 
 dogmatic Mary, or in the Trinity. Humility and ab- 
 
 mg. stention from use of oaths are the staple of 
 
 her teaching. Rufinus, or whoever was the author of the old 
 Latin version, omits the precept against oaths, and evidently felt 
 so much the absence of orthodox dogmatic teaching in the 
 narrative, that he undertakes to supply it ; and in my note 
 on ch. 27 I give a specimen of the way in which at the end 
 of the fourth century older documents were brought up to 
 date. Thirdly we have in the Armenian text a quotation from 
 the Gospel, where Eugenia opened it at ran- 
 
 -«.T^m^ -^^^ ^ dom and read it aloud, so remarkable in its 
 
 N. T. citation. ^ ^ , ' . . ^ 
 
 form as to deserve a passmg notice. I 
 
 print it as it must have stood in the original Greek. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 155 
 
 Iiyo-ovs etTTev rots ^a.drirai%^ otSare on o\ apxovT€<s twv Wvmv 
 KaraKvpLOvrriv, kol ol fxiyaXot Kareiovcnd^ovcnv avToyv. ov\ otJrco? he 
 ecrrat Kat ev vixiv. a\X o? eav ev v/xtv ^cAt; irpuiTOS yevecrOai, ccrro) 
 €cr;)(aTOS i^/xcov Kat StaKOVOS Travrwv. 
 
 This agrees in part with Mark x. 42-44. But notice 
 how vv. 43 and 44 are fused together and juxtaposed with 
 Mark x. 31, where alone we find the saying, that the first shall 
 be last. In Matthew we in the same way find scattered and 
 apart these texts which Eugenia in her gospel found set to- 
 gether in one whole. It looks as if we had here the remini- 
 scence of some older gospel, for the context forbids us to 
 believe that it is merely a bit of inaccurate citation. The old 
 Latin version and the metaphrast conform the citations to the 
 canonical texts. 
 
 In the Philosophumena of Hippolytus, ix. 1 2, we read of an 
 eunuch priest of the name of Hyacinthus, who was a trusted 
 agent of Marcia, Christian concubine of the 
 Emperor Claudius. By her he was sent to Possible testi- 
 Sardinia to release the Christian convicts in polytus 
 
 the mines of that island. 
 
 In the Depositio Martyrum of the 4th century we have the 
 entry : x. Kal. Oct. Basillae Salaria Vetera Diocletiano ix. et 
 Maxim iano viii. Coss. P. AUard {La Persecu- 
 tion de Diocletian) says that this date marks ^,-^^i?^^^®^?^ 
 11,1, 1 r the Depositio 
 
 the burial and probably the martyrdom of Martyrum. 
 
 Basilla. This is inconsistent with the legend, 
 
 which expressly represents the eunuch to have taught the 
 
 faith to Basilla. Probably the date in the Depositio Martyrum 
 
 is not that of the martyrdom of Basilla, but of the transference 
 
 of her remains to the same cemetery in which Protus and 
 
 Hyacinthus were interred. In ch. xix. of these Acts the name 
 
 Perennis is given as that of the prefect who succeeded Philip and 
 
 contrived his assassination. Perennis was 
 
 Prefect of the Praetorium under Commodus, . ,-??-®^*^°^ « 
 . , , . . ' m the Acts of 
 
 and was together with his son assassinated Perennis. 
 
 in Rome long before Commodus ever 
 
 entered on the sixth consulate, during which he sent out 
 
 Phihp to Egypt. The difficulty is not removed even if we 
 
156 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 follow with Baronius the reading of the metaphrast, and sup- 
 pose that Philip's mission was in the sixth year of the reign of 
 Commodus. The simplest way of explaining this anachronism 
 is to suppose that Perennis was introduced into the narrative 
 at the time of its recension, about a.d. 280, by one who was 
 familiar with the name of Perennis as that of the prefect 
 under Commodus who sentenced to death the martyr 
 Apollonius. 
 
 It will be seen from the notes to what an extent the Latin 
 version supphes details not in the Armenian. It adds not only 
 
 names like those of the emperors in chs. 17 
 
 Character- ^^d 18, or of Helenus the uncle of Basilla, 
 
 istics of old . , 1 ^ .. 1 .L u- 1 
 
 Latin version. ^"^ c^- ^5, but it supplies topographical 
 
 details in ch. 29 as regards the cemetery 
 
 of Eugenia. It exaggerates, as when in ch. 4 the multitude 
 
 escorting Helenus is stated to be over 10,000. It also, like 
 
 the metaphrast, introduces many citations from the canonical 
 
 scriptures which are not in the Armenian form. If a conjecture 
 
 may be allowed, I would suppose the Latin form to be a 
 
 version made at Rome about a.d. 400. The text from which 
 
 it was made was in substance identical with that which the 
 
 metaphrast used, and already substituted the Epistles of Paul 
 
 for the Acts of Thekla. The Armenian form is earlier than 
 
 „, . . the text used by the Latin translator and the 
 
 The Armenian , . . , ,. _ 
 
 the earliest metaphrast, but is not the earliest text. I 
 
 text we have, should conjecture also that the earliest text 
 yet only of a y^Qxii only so far as ch. 19 inclusive, for so 
 recension. ^^^ ^^^^ -^ ^^^q narrative fresh and lifelike, 
 and free from chronological inconsistencies. This earliest 
 narrative may have been composed in Alexandria early in the 
 third century. The nucleus of chs. 20-30 may have been also 
 written about a.d. 225, but about fifty years later a recension 
 was made of the last part of the tale, fitting it in awkwardly 
 with the great persecution of Decius. The Armenian is a 
 first draft of this recension of about a.d. 275 or 280, the Latin 
 form and the metaphrast represent a second draft of the same. 
 
ACTS OF S. EUGENIA. 
 
 The martyrdom of the virgin Eugenia, and of 
 her father Philip, and of her mother, and of the 
 brothers whom she had. 
 
 I. In the course of his reign over the great city 
 of Rome, the Autocrat Commodus, in his seventh 
 consulate, despatched the influential and famous 
 Philip to the city of Alexandria to bring back to 
 obedience and submission to government the land 
 of Egypt, in order that all might bow to the power 
 of his edicts, and his alone. This Philip, along 
 with his wife Clodla, and their two sons Avitos 
 and Sergius, and Eugenia their daughter, came 
 from Rome to Alexandria, and he forthwith set 
 in order the province of Egypt in accordance 
 with Roman customs.-^ II. Now his daughter, 
 Eugenia, was sixteen^ years of age, and shone so 
 much on account of her singular intelligence, 
 being instructed in both Greek and Roman letters, 
 that she excited the wonder of philosophers. 
 
 ^ The Latin adds that Philip : " Cunctis quidem magicam curiositatem 
 sectantibus finem imposuit, ludgeos uero nee nuncupationem nominis habere 
 permisit, Christianos autem procul ab Alexandria tantum debere esse 
 constituit. Ipse uero plus licet philosophorum amicus quam fautor idolorum, 
 Romanis tamen superstitionibus, ac si religiosus cultor, instabat, non 
 rationi, sed tradition! concordans." The phrase, "over the great city of 
 Rome," used above, shows that these Acts, at least in their earliest form, 
 wtre not composed in Rome. The Arm. spells Avitus Apitos. 
 
 2 The Greek and Latin Acts say fifteen years. 
 
 IS7 
 
158 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 Now one day her father asked her if she would 
 marry Aquilinus/ a consul. Eugenia answered 
 and said to her father : " The honour of chastity 
 is more choiceworthy than wedlock."^ But they 
 strove to beguile her holy soul by all sorts of 
 promises and tricks. 
 
 Now it chanced that there fell into her hands the 
 history of the holy Apostle Paul and of the blessed 
 Virgin Thekla, ^ and as she read it in secret, day 
 after day, she wept, the more because she was 
 subject to heathen parents. But when she went 
 on reading day by day the history of the holy 
 Thekla, it occurred to her to imitate her conduct ; 
 and having made her choice in the depths of her 
 soul, she set herself to study the teaching of the 
 Christians. III. And she besought her parents 
 to allow her as a favour to leave the city and 
 visit a certain country place ;* and it chanced that 
 as she was on the way in her litter, revolving in 
 her innermost mind the life of the blessed Thekla,^ 
 
 ^ The Latin has Aquilius, son of the Consul Aquilius. 
 
 2 Eugenia's answer in the Arm. is obscure. I have given what I be- 
 lieve to be the sense. The Latin gives it thus : Maritus moribus, non 
 natalibus eligendus est. A husband is to be selected for his character and 
 not on account of his birth and family. 
 
 ^ The Latin and Greek Acts ignore Thekla. The former runs : per- 
 venit ad manus eius beatissimi Pauli Apostoli doctrina. 
 
 "* The Latin has : Et quoniam iussi fuerant Christiani ab Alexandria 
 urbe discedere, rogat parentes ut spectandi gratia permitteretur praedia sua 
 in suburbano Alexandrioe posita circuire. 
 
 The Arm. says nothing of this prohibition to Christians to live in 
 Alexandria. 
 
 ' The Greek and Latin again omit this reference to Thekla, and instead 
 of it introduce the incident narrated in the next §, as if that suggested 
 Eugenia's address to her eunuchs. The Latin and Greek thus transpose 
 § § 3 and 4. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 159 
 
 she said to her eunuchs, Protus and Hyacinthus : 
 '' You must surely know all that the poets invent 
 about the so-called false gods, ^ and all that the 
 philosophers say about the true God ? Do we 
 find even in these such truth as is set forth in 
 this divine book about God ? " 'Tis a very gro- 
 velling and counterfeiting mind which believes in 
 carved stones or seeks aid from wooden images 
 made with hands." ^ But whilst they were in this 
 mind, they began to reflect and speculate about 
 the true God and about divers religions, and 
 they decided in their souls that there is nothing 
 preferable to this power. 
 
 And as they were engaged in such arguments 
 and reflections as these, they heard some Christ- 
 ians who were worshipping say, '' All the gods 
 of the heathen are devils, but the Lord made the 
 heavens." And when she heard these words, 
 Eugenia bade them halt her litter, and for a long 
 while her mind was full of awe, and she said : 
 ''How apt is this testimony to the holy book,^ 
 
 * Literally " no-gods," 
 
 2 This speech of Eugenia's is very different in the Greek and Latin 
 texts : Scio vos mecum litteris eruditos et digna simul et indigna hominum 
 legimus gesta, philosophorutn quoque syllogismos vano labore constructos 
 studio scrupulosissimo transegimus : Aristotelica argumenta et Platonis 
 ideas, et Epicuri sectas, et Socratis monita et Stoicorum, and so forth. 
 
 The Armenian text has much more the tone of a third century document 
 than this. 
 
 ^ Note how for a second time the Acts of Thekla are here referred to as 
 a "holy book." The Latin makes one speech out of this and the pre- 
 ceding speech ; and instead of this reference to the Acts of Thekla, has 
 as follows : Igitur iubet conferre sermonem : et apostolus legitur, et 
 propheta laudatur ; fit concordia fidei, et qua arte ad penetralia sapientias 
 (livinse absque sui separatione perveniant, consilio ardenti definitur. 
 
1 6o Momiments of Early Christianity. 
 
 which we have met with in pursuing our road, and 
 have learned of the vain perniciousness of the 
 harmful and misleading cults. But come, let us 
 carry out what has occurred to me, let us see 
 if we cannot in this way compass so lofty a 
 design. Or how long are we to wander round in 
 the cycle of unsubstantial words, arguing vainly 
 about the true God and about unanimity of faith. 
 Here is a plan by which we will be able to achieve 
 the blessed flight we look for, and repel the 
 savagery of the devil, and embrace the faith of 
 Christ.'* 
 
 Then Eugenia said to her eunuchs Protus 
 and Hyacinthus as follows : '' The honour which 
 springs from man made me your mistress, but 
 wisdom hath made me your sister. Now, there- 
 fore my brethren, with one soul and with all 
 unanimity let us cast away the empty glory of 
 
 Dominam me, inquit, vobis usurpata potestas attribuit, sed sororem sapi- 
 entia fecit. Simus ergo fratres, sicut divina sapientia ordinavit, non sicut 
 se iactat humana temeritas. Pergamus pariter ad Christianos, et sicut 
 ordinavero properemus. Helenum audio dici episcopum, cuius est habitatio 
 ilia in qua die noctuque audiuntur Deo suo cantare, quos etiam nos, quoties 
 transimus, psallentes audimus. Sed hie episcopus variis dicitur ecclesije 
 suae occupationibus detineri. His autem qui in divinis laudibus vacant, 
 Theodorum quemdam presbyterum constituit, cuius tanta miracula nar- 
 rantur, ut etiam caecos suis orationibus illuminet, et doemones effuget, et 
 infirmantibus afferat sanitatem : sane ad diversorium huius congregationis, 
 in'quo Deus canitur, nuUam patitur venire feminarum. Hoc ergo consi- 
 terans, tondere me arbitror, etc. This narrative presupposes an intimate 
 knowledge of the Christians on the part of Eugenia. The Arm. does 
 not ; nor does it mention Theodorus. It moreover represents as her motive 
 for cutting her hair and dressing as a man, the desire to emulate Thekla. 
 The Latin and Greek texts, since they eschew mention of Thekla, have to 
 invent another motive. They accordingly introduce the touch "nuUam 
 patitur venire feminarum. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. i6i 
 
 human honour, and hasten to the service of the 
 true God, that we may not be undone by the 
 opposition of the adversary. But do you divest 
 me of the tresses of my hair and make your- 
 selves ready at dawn. Perhaps this very night 
 will be our departure, in order that our journey 
 to the men of God may prosper. And you must 
 walk, the one to the right and the other to the 
 left ; and so put me down from the litter unper- 
 ceived, and then let the litter go empty. But we 
 three will then hasten to the men of God." And 
 they approved of the plan, and at dawn every- 
 thing was done according to the plan. 
 
 IV. Now Christ gave His grace to reward their 
 faith. For it chanced just as she descended from 
 her litter, the holy bishop Helenus^ was making a 
 progress along the road, along with a multitude 
 that were singing a psalm and saying altogether 
 with one voice : "The paths of the just are straight, 
 the paths of the holy are made ready."^ Then 
 Eugenia said to Protus and Hyacinthus, 
 "Behold ye the might of the psalmists .f^ Con- 
 
 ^ The Latin has : Et quia mos est apud Egyptum, quando circumeunt 
 monasteria Episcopi, psallentium eos sequatur exercitus ; supervenit idem 
 Helenus Heliopolis episcopus, et cum eo amplius quam decem millia 
 virorum. Contrast this with the Armenian, in which the narrator him- 
 self simply says " a multitude," and puts the natural exaggeration, 
 " thousands," into the mouth of Eugenia. In the Latin it is the narrator 
 who is quite definite, "amplius quam decem millia." Gorres, accepting 
 the Latin as the original form of text, finds in this statement an argu- 
 ment against the antiquity of these acts : " Widersinnig ist ferner die 
 Mittheilung, damals waren die Bischofe bei ihren Besuchen in den Klostern 
 von tausenden von Christen ^begleitet gewesen." This argument is 
 abolished by the Armenian text. 
 
 '^ Isa. xxii. 7. 
 
 M 
 
1 62 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 sider if that which ye heard from the Christians, 
 who were singing a psalm to their God, be not 
 intended as a sign unto us ; for just as we were 
 pondering over the true God in our minds, we 
 heard from the men of God, as they worshipped, 
 the words : ' All the gods of the heathen are 
 devils, but the Lord made the heavens.' And 
 lo ! at the very moment when we separate our- 
 selves from the worship of idols, thousands have 
 met us saying with one accord, ' Straight is the 
 path of the just, and ready is the path of the holy 
 ones.' Come then and let us mingle with the mul- 
 titude of them that give praise, and we shall be 
 reckoned to belong to their ranks, and we will 
 enter as participators with them into their truth, 
 t'hough it be late evening." 
 
 V. And so they united with the worshippers 
 and began to ask, who was the aged man who 
 alone in the midst of the multitude sat under an 
 umbrella.^ Then they heard from one of them 
 that he is Helenus, the bishop, who in his child- 
 hood frequented the monastery of the Christians, 
 and who destroyed the wild beasts of the neigh- 
 bourhood.^ '' But," he continued, "why do I 
 
 ' The Latin has : qui solus vehiculo aselli uteretur in medio populi 
 sequentis et precedentis. 
 
 * The Latin has : Helenus episcopus, ab infantia Christianus : qui dum 
 infantulus in monasterio cresceret, tantas sanctitatis virtutibus augebatur, 
 ut si quando missus fuisset ignem e vicino petere, ardentes prunas vesti- 
 mento deferrct illaeso. The very same story is told by Rufinus in the very 
 same words of the monk Helenus in the second book of the Lives of the 
 Saints. This fact only proves (as Rosweyd notes) that Rufinus was the 
 author of the Latin text of the Acts of Eugenia, and does not warrant the 
 argument based on it by Gorres and Baroniu? against their antiquity. That 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 163 
 
 speak of or relate his virtues of long ago, when 
 only a little time back a certain wizard called Iras^ 
 came and tried to turn away the people from the 
 holy books, and ventured to oppose with counter- 
 feit arguments the holy bishop Helenus. And the 
 holy bishop discerned his deficiency of under- 
 standing, but being unable to undo him in argu- 
 ment, said before all the multitude : ' Of what use 
 is it for us to wrestle in argument with this son of 
 perdition and unbeliever?^ He who believes not 
 in that which is set before us in the midst, not 
 only does not raise the fallen,^ but by his vain 
 teaching he ruins and does violence to those who 
 have been so raised. But I will first try to save 
 him (and shew him) that there is a God who 
 governs all things rightly and who by the hand of 
 me, His humble servant, reveals the unspeakable 
 message of His might." And he said : ' Therefore 
 let there be kindled in the middle of the city * a 
 flaming fire, and before your eyes let us both enter 
 it without shrinking, and let him who is not con- 
 sumed be believed to be His true worshipper.' 
 
 the Armenian omits the miraculous incident and gives a different one 
 empties such an argument of all weight. 
 
 ^ The Latin and Greek call the wizard by the name Zareas, and add that 
 he tried to pass himself off as a bishop sent by Christ to teach ; statements 
 barely consistent with the fact which they also relate, that he de Scripturis 
 divinis populum seducebat. 
 
 2 Instead of what follows the Latin has : Et ait ad populum : Pauli 
 apostoli in hac parte monita omnino tenenda sunt ; dicit enim Timotheo 
 discipulo suo, and then cites 2 Tim. ii. Noli verbis contendere ; ad nihil 
 enim utile est, nisi ad subversionem audientium. 
 
 ' Eccl. iv. 10, 
 
 * The Latin has : in media Heliopolis civitate. 
 
^ 
 
 164 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 And the entire people approved of this resolution, 
 for a large part of them believed in the magician 
 and took his side. Now immediately the fire was 
 lit and flamed up, the holy bishop Helenus bade 
 that both enter it without fear. But Iras the im- 
 postor said : ' Not so, but let us each go into the 
 midst of it separately ; and do you go first and 
 foremost, for it is you that proposed it.' Forthwith 
 the holy Helenus raised his hands to heaven, and 
 weeping, said:^ 'Thou knowest, O Lord Jesus 
 Christ, Son of the living God, who didst appear 
 fourth in the furnace to the three children, that I 
 was not covetous of human glory, but only of the 
 salvation of Thy people, unto whom Thou hast 
 made me worthy of praise, and whom the betrayer 
 seeks by means of his minister to lead astray from 
 the just path over a precipice. For the sake of 
 their salvation I willingly enter this fire, trusting 
 firmly that I shall find Thee there shedding Thy 
 dew upon me, so that the fire may not touch me 
 who remember Thee.' And when he had said this 
 he crossed himself, and went into the fire, and 
 stood in the midst of the flame a long while, and 
 was in no wise hurt by the fire. When the multi- 
 tude beheld the superb miracle, they took Iras, 
 and although he resisted, they threw him into the 
 fire, and he began to burn. And the blessed 
 Helenus, although his tortures were well deserved, 
 none the less made haste and rescued him still 
 alive ; and he was insulted by all and left on the 
 
 * The Latin omits the prayer which ensues. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 165 
 
 spot. And he whom ye see yonder continually 
 glorifies God." 
 
 VI. Then Eugenia, with her eunuchs Protus 
 and Hyacinthus, fell on her knees, beseeching the 
 holy Helenus^ to confirm them also in the faith ; 
 and they besought him that through him they 
 might become acquainted with the Lord. But he 
 said to them : " Devote yourselves of a habit to 
 praising Him at dawn, in order that there be 
 granted a joyous vision to thee by His grace." 
 But Eugenia besought him to pray for them. 
 '' For," said she, " we three are Romans by 
 birth, and have abandoned the worship of idols, 
 and in pursuit of thee have come hither." VH. 
 And while they were relating their story the old 
 man was silent, because he had seen in a dream 
 all that they were about to tell him. But while 
 he was meditating, they came to the spot and 
 
 ^ According to the Latin, Eugenia fell on her knees at the feet not of 
 Helenus, but of him that had related to her the story of Helenus. She prays 
 him to bring her before Helenus. He answers that he will do so after the 
 bishop has entered the monastery and rested awhile. Eugenia with her 
 eunuchs then enters the monastery with the rest of the throng. It con- 
 tinues thus, cap. VII.: Perfectis igitur matutinis laudibus, paullulum re- 
 quievit episcopus, et iussit sibi ad sextam prasparari, ut divina mysteria 
 celebraret, ut dum sextam coepisset, nona ad refectionem ieiunantium 
 opportune perveniret. Requiescens autem episcopus, somnium vidit, in 
 quo ad simulacrum feminse ducebatur, ut illi sacrificaret. Tunc dixi, 
 inquit, in somnio his qui me tenebant. Permittite me ut loquar cum dea 
 vestra. Et cum me permisissent loqui, dixi ei : Cognosce te creaturam 
 Dei esse, et descende, et noli te permittere adorari. At ilia his auditis, 
 descendit, et secuta est me, dicens : non te deseram, quousque me creatori 
 meo restituas et conditori. The narrative continues that Eutropius, with 
 whom Eugenia had already spoken, now approached Helenus and told 
 him of the tres pueri fratres who had left their idols and come thither. 
 * ' Christo servientium numero in isto monasterio se sociari desiderantes.' 
 The Latin then continues in fair accord with the Armenian. 
 
1 66 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 found a reverent man, who had been with him, 
 whose name was Eutropius. He said to him : 
 " There are come and stand in our presence three 
 youthful brethren who have denied the worship of 
 idols. They desire to serve Christ the Saviour 
 and pray to be enrolled in the congregation of 
 believers ; who are fain to be made worthy by 
 means of thy holiness of repenting and of being 
 made participators in the pure faith." 
 
 Then the holy Helenus said : ** We thank Thee, 
 Lord Jesus Christ, for having made me worthy to 
 attain unto this and to witness this which Thou 
 lately revealedst to me through grace and by Thy 
 holy will." But they came in to him and offered 
 prayers ; and he, when he had finished his prayer, 
 took Eugenia by the hand along with the others, 
 and said : ** On what pretence chiefly did ye wish 
 to visit the humble servants of God .-^ However, 
 inform me of why ye are come on a visit to me, 
 for I would fain hear, that I may reap the fruit of 
 your proposal." The wise Eugenia made him 
 answer, and said : " We were convinced that the 
 nature of God cannot dwell in wood and stones, 
 and we were discussing among ourselves apart, 
 which is the true religion, in which the worshipful 
 and heavenly God acquiesces, when we heard a 
 sound at this spot ; for you were w^ith one accord 
 singing a hymn and saying : * All the false gods 
 of the heathen are devils, but the Lord made the 
 heavens.' Invited by these wise wyds we aban- 
 doned the service of idols, and came in haste 
 hither along with a multitude. We follow your 
 
The Acts of S. Ettgenia. 167 
 
 reverence, believing in God and desiring to be 
 associated with them in your pious faith and 
 true counsels. But there is one brotherhood 
 between the three of us, and one of us is named 
 Protus and another Hyacinthus, but I am called 
 
 XEugenius." Said the blessed Helenus : ''Well 
 wast thou called Eugenia, for 'tis a noble act of 
 
 y thine to pass through combats achieved to the 
 Lord. But know thou this, that God has already 
 revealed to me concerning thee, Eugenia, whence 
 thou art and whose daughter thou art and who 
 are come with thee ; ^ all this the Lord showed to 
 me, and how these men were encouraged by thee 
 to come to God." And the holy Helenus bade 
 them spend three ^ months in the church and in 
 the convent, and then he made them because of 
 their true faith worthy of holy baptism. And 
 after that he sent them to the convent and con- 
 fided them to the principal thereof, but he told no 
 one the real facts. 
 
 VI IL But now let us return to the time when 
 Protus and Hyacinthus took Eugenia and sent 
 back the litter home empty to her mother. Well, 
 her household thought that Eugenia was come, 
 and they all rushed out full of joy to meet her. 
 But when they did not find her in the litter they 
 
 ^ According to the Latin Helenus turned to the eunuchs and said : In 
 corpore servitutis positi, ingenuam dignitatem animi tenuistis fortiter et 
 tenetis. Unde vobis, me tacente, Christus dominus loquitur, dicens : 
 Amen, amen, 4^o vobis, iam non dicam vos servos, sed amicos (Joan 
 XV.). It is noticeable that this quotation from the canonical N.T. is 
 absent in the Armenian. 
 
 2 The Latin does not specify the time which elapsed before baptism. 
 
* 
 
 1 68 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 with one accord began to weep and lament. And 
 there was a tumult and disturbance all over the 
 city, and there was huge lamentation and violent 
 sorrow, and everyone was plunged in profound 
 grief. The parent mourned for a daughter, and 
 the brothers for a sister, the slaves for a mistress,^ 
 and everyone of the citizens mourned because of 
 the parents' bereavement and of the affliction 
 which had befallen the family. Never before 
 had such a catastrophe befallen them, and they 
 sent about to every government looking for 
 Eugenia, and they questioned the seers, and 
 sought out the ventriloquists and offered victims 
 to the idols, and they all began to declare that 
 Eugenia had been translated by the immortal 
 gods. And the father credited this,^ and ceased 
 to mourn, opining that she was now really num- 
 bered among the gods, and he set up a statue to 
 her of pure gold. But her mother Clodia and 
 her brothers Avitos and Sergius could not cease 
 at all from their grief, but continued to mourn 
 most bitterly. 
 
 IX. But Eugenia disguised as a man remained 
 in the aforesaid monastery, locked in spiritual 
 union with Protus and Hyacinthus. And they 
 progressed so much in the divine love in Christ, 
 that in two years' time they took into their 
 minds the whole book.^ X. But in the third 
 
 * This is imitated from the Acts of Paul and Thekla, ch. lO. 
 
 * This is the germ of the Bishop Helenas' dream as given in the Latin 
 text. 
 
 * Latin : omnes Scripturas dominicas memoria retineret. The Latin 
 
^ 
 
 The Acts of S. Eugenia. 169 
 
 year while they were still pursuing such a life, 
 the elder ^ of the monastery died and passed 
 from this world to his Lord. And after his 
 death it seemed good to all the brethren to ap- 
 point the blessed Eugenia to the principalship. 
 But Eugenia declined, for she was restrained by 
 scruples of conscience and felt that a woman 
 ought not to be head of a congregation of 
 men of God. And yet she feared to become a 
 source of aversion and strife and turpitude to 
 those who invited her to take the post.^ Then 
 they all with one will and accord assailed her, 
 and she returned them the following answer again 
 and again : ''In the congregations of Christians 
 ye said that Christ will of His own accord define 
 that which is to be according to His pleasure. 
 Wherefore, if ye so command, let the gospel be 
 brought forward, and let us open and read it, and 
 whatsoever command first meets the eye, let us 
 give ear thereunto." So they brought the holy 
 gospel, and the blessed Eugenia took it and 
 adored, and they all held their peace and prayed. 
 Then she opened and read the place in which it 
 is written : " Jesus said to His disciples, Ye know 
 that the rulers of the heathen are lords, and the 
 great ones oppress them. But let it not be so in 
 your midst also ; but he that shall among you 
 
 continues with a long and stilted eulogy of Eugenia, not given in the 
 Armenian. 
 
 ^ Latin : abbas qui praserat fratibus in monasterio. 
 
 * The Latin simply has : timens ne omnes unanimiter deprecantes 
 sperneret. 
 
1 70 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 desire to become first, let him be least of you and 
 servant of all." ^ But after she had read this, 
 Eugenia said : '* Make up your minds upon this 
 model that I shall be so."^ 
 
 And all the brethren sharing her persuasion, 
 she assumes the title of principal in order not to 
 grieve them. For they all besought her to remove 
 the anxiety of the convent and she acquiesced. 
 
 But she made herself a pattern of humility ; and 
 herself discharged in excess all the services which 
 the juniors were required to perform for her, such 
 as bringing water from the well, cutting wood, 
 keeping the floor clean and ministering to all the 
 wants of the brethren. But she also made her- 
 self a little room at the door of the monastery, 
 that she might not appear to be better off in any 
 way than the other associates. And when they 
 came to evening service^ they would find her 
 already come, and there was not one of all the 
 brethren who was found to transcend her in 
 humility. At all seasons she devoted herself, and 
 was accessible to the brethren, and would exhort 
 
 ^ Latin : Et revolvens codicem venit ad locum, et coepit legere, dicens : 
 Dixit lesus discipulis suis : Scitis quia principes gentium maiores sunt his 
 quibus dominantur, et principatum eorum gerunt (Matth. xx. 25) Apud 
 vos autem non est sic, sed si quis in vobis vult primus esse, sit vester 
 ultimus : et si quis inter vos voluerit esse dominus, sit vester servus (Lucse 
 XXV. 25). 
 
 * Ecce inquit et vestris iussis obtemperans, decrevi primatum suscipere, 
 et Domini iussionibus obedire, ultimum me vestrze charitati constituo. 
 
 ^ The Latin translator here sees his chance : et tertiie, sextse, nonce, 
 vespertinis vel nocturnis atque matutinis horis tam cautissime insistebat, 
 ut videretur iam perisse Deo, si horarum vel quidpiam spatii absque 
 divinis laudibus aliqua prceteriisset. On the other hand the Latin omits 
 what follows about Eugenia's teaching the brethren not to use oaths. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia, 171 
 
 and advise them continually not to say anything 
 to anyone under oath, but to use sober speech ; 
 and she would say to them : *' Let us learn from 
 His commands how much reverence we the ser- 
 vants of God ought to shew. Let us therefore 
 be careful to have in our hearts all due zeal and 
 enthusiasm, for In no wise ought God to be neg- 
 lected by us ; for It is In this wise that a man 
 denies his Lord, who teaches others to do what 
 He has forbidden." So when they learned from 
 her all this, they were confirmed in the faith, and 
 from morning to night th^ remitted not the study 
 of the divine writings. (^But she was so precious 
 to God that she could cast out devils, and to 
 the sick healing was through her vouchsafed by 
 Go^ 
 
 A I. There was a certain wife of one of the 
 senators whose name was Melani,^ that had 
 suffered a long time from a quartan ague. She 
 came to Eugenia, who made the sign of the Christ 
 on her breast^ and dispelled all the languor of her 
 sickness and raised her up whole. And after 
 that the blessed Eugenia hastened to the convent. 
 Xn. Melani returned and continually called 
 Eugenia, and she in a spirit of pity would go to 
 her. And Melani, not knowing that she was a 
 woman, longed to behold Eugenia from a corrupt 
 
 ^ Melanthia in the Greek and Latin. "Matrona quaedam Alexandrina, 
 caeteris matronis prsestantior, nomine Melanthia. 
 
 2 Lat. " quam cum beata Eugenia oleo perunxisset." In the sequel the 
 Latin represents Melanthia as sending silver cups full of money to EugeniR, 
 which she returns. 
 
 XJNIVERSITT, 
 
172 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 motive ; and not because she had been healed by 
 her intercession, but because she believed her to 
 be a man, she would send to her such unholy- 
 messages as this : '* Why dost thou smite and waste 
 thyself with vain labour, destroying all the bloom 
 of thy youth ? Surely God does not love melan- 
 choly. Does He really bid all men to pass all 
 the time of their life without joy or relaxation ? 
 Not so ; but do thou come and let us enjoy the 
 gifts of God, lest as those who have turned un- 
 grateful, we account ourselves unworthy of the 
 gifts of God. Wherefore for thy own benefit 
 comply with my demands, so that thou mayest be 
 with me and put an end to all this thy hard toil, 
 and that we may enjoy a brilliant and fair time. 
 And thou shalt be lord of all my possessions, yea, 
 and shalt be lord also of my person. For I am 
 of high and splendid rank and of distinguished 
 family, and my wealth is enormous ; ^ and I do 
 not think that I shall offend before God, if thou 
 wilt become my husband, and casting away melan- 
 choly enjoy a good time." 
 
 This and the like was the pleading of Melani, 
 but the holy Eugenia arose to avoid such deadly 
 and destructive words, wishing to save the other* s 
 soul from the suffocation of death, and signifying 
 to her how vile a thing is worldly desire. For 
 
 * The Lat. adds : dignitas generositatis est mihi : hoc anno absque 
 filiis viduata sum, succede pro eis in facultatibus meis, et non solum rerum 
 mearum, sed meus esto iam dominus. The Arm. does not represent 
 Melanthia as a widow, but in this detail the Latin may be more correct, 
 for it would not have lost the opportunity of adding adultery to her 
 offences. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 173 
 
 while a person thinks to gain something by means 
 of temporal desire, he robs his soul of perpetual 
 love and of the delights which pass not away. 
 And it is in no wise right to embrace fleshly de- 
 sires, for by means thereof the traducer flatters us 
 in order to shatter and destroy the spirit of man. 
 But to these words addressed to her by the blessed 
 Eugenia, Melani turned a deaf ear and would not 
 listen to them, for she was possessed by a spirit 
 of bitter shamelessness, as it is written : '' Into 
 the malicious soul wisdom entereth not." 
 
 But Eugenia endeavoured in every way to save 
 her from death and destruction, and shunned her 
 company. But Melani pretended that she was 
 sick in body, and besought the blessed Eugenia 
 to visit her as one sick. And then when the 
 saint had come in and sat down in her chamber 
 with her, Melani ventured to approach her with 
 secret embraces of a shameless kind and began 
 to allure her to impiety with unholy words. Then 
 the blessed Eugenia understood the deceitfulness 
 of the evil demon and the wickedness of the tra- 
 ducer that was in her, and stretching out her right 
 hand she made the sign of the cross on her fore- 
 head, and with a loud cry and violent tears and 
 groaning she began to say : " Right fitly wast thou 
 named Melani, for the blackness of sweaty vice and 
 the filth of wickedness exudes and drips from thee ; 
 for thou art a daughter of darkling sins and a 
 leader of destruction and a darling of Satan, a 
 flame of lust and a sister of unrighteousness, 
 doomed to unending death, a daughter of eternal 
 
1 74 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 Gehenna, a fountain darkened and clouded with 
 shameless desire, an enemy of God, a welcomer 
 of the devil. Away with thy madness from the 
 servants of Christ." ^ 
 
 XIII. But when Melani heard this she flamed 
 up with wrath and she could not contain her 
 shame, and she was afraid lest the rumour thereof 
 should reach many ears and she herself become 
 an object of scorn in the eyes of the multitude. 
 So she went to Alexandria, and in the public 
 court laid her complaint before the E parch ^ Philip 
 to this effect : " I fell in with a certain unbeliev- 
 ing youth, who called himself a Christian. Him 
 I summoned for my health, for it was rumoured 
 that he can assist the sick. But when he was bid 
 come near me, he began to use obscene and 
 shameless language to me and tried to seduce 
 and outrage me. But why should I use many 
 words } For he was the aggressor and dared to lay 
 hands on me as if I were a slave, so that if there 
 had not happened to be in my chamber a certain 
 One of my slaves, who saved me from being over- 
 mastered by his violence, he would probably have 
 carried out his vile desire on my person." 
 
 But when the E parch heard this he was very 
 angry and sent a large force of soldiers, and 
 ordered that Eugenia and all who were with her 
 should be bound in iron fetters,^ and after a few 
 
 * The above narrative is much abbreviated in the Latin. 
 
 * In the Lat., prrefectus. 
 
 * The Latin exaggerates here as usually : Deponuntur itaque onines in 
 vinculis : et quia unius carceris eos non ferebat locus, per diversas custo- 
 dias dividuntur. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 175 
 
 days, the number of which he fixed, be brought 
 into court before the people in the theatre, so 
 that he might hear what they had to say, and 
 then order them to be thrown as food to the wild 
 beasts. So when the time came, the blessed 
 Eugenia and all her associates were brought in 
 iron fetters into the court in the presence of all. 
 (And the multitude, not knowing the righteousness 
 of their cause, cried out against them, especially 
 those who were on the side of Melani. For the 
 multitude had various minds, and some cried out 
 to burn them with fire, and some to throw them 
 to the wild beasts, and others cried out for them 
 to be subjected to all kinds of tortures^ 
 
 XIV. Then the Eparch silenced the crowd, and 
 had Eugenia set before all and interrogated her 
 thus : "What temerity led thee to act so insolently? 
 Thou wast visiting from afar Melani that hath 
 the rank of our national senators and was nigh 
 unto death, and thou didst enter in unto her in 
 the guise of a Christian, as being skilled in the art 
 of healing, and then didst thou invite this free- 
 born woman to acts of wanton iniquity. Surely 
 your Christ does not enjoin on you any such 
 deeds ? or is this the service of your confession, 
 to work the works of perdition ? "^ 
 
 Then Eugenia made answer to the Eparch, and 
 said : ''I have prayed earnestly for this false in- 
 
 ^ The Latin does not give these words from '* Surely your Christ," to 
 '* perdition." In the rest of ch. XIV. the Latin differs a good deal from 
 the Armenian and is more diffuse, but there are no differences of con- 
 sequence. 
 
176 Montcments of Early Christianity. 
 
 dictment which has befallen us. I was resolved 
 to overcome my scruples, and reserve for the 
 future Judge this infamous fiction ; for true holi- 
 ness need not fear aught that malice can bring 
 against it ; nor again can chastity conjoined with 
 holiness lie hid, for it will reap not only the 
 praise of men because of its light and splendour, 
 but also the honour of rev/ard from its God. For 
 the chastity of the wise is kept safe and in inno- 
 cence, by those who have made it theirs by strenu- 
 ous effort, and it nobly guides the soul of the 
 Christian as it were to the love of God. XV. 
 For I will reveal before all that which I have 
 concealed in my bosom. For I am a woman by 
 sex, and because I could not attain my desire and 
 serve God as I deemed necessary and in fair 
 security on account of being a woman, therefore 
 I disguised myself as a man, and in a just and 
 fitting way concealed my charms ; in emulation 
 and after the example of my teacher Thekla,^ 
 fleeing from what is destructible and fleeting I was 
 resolved to attain to the good things of heaven. 
 It was to win such glory and to satisfy my crav- 
 ing after the Divine virtues that I disguised the 
 frailty of my sex under male attire. For this 
 cause and because I was pricked with a longing 
 
 ^ "As before so here the Latin eliminates Thekla: **Tanta enim est 
 ▼irtus nominis Christ!, ut etiam femince in timore eius positae virilem obti- 
 neant dignitatem ; et neque ei sexus diversitas fide potest inveniri superior, 
 cum beatus Paulus apostolus, magister omnium Christianorum, dicat quod 
 apud Dominum. non sit discretio masculi et feminre, omnes enim in Christo 
 unum sumus (Galat. iii.). Huius ergo normam animo fervente suscepi, et 
 ex confidentia quam in Christo habui nolui esse femina. 
 
The Acts of S. Ettgenia. 177 
 
 after Divine worship I took the form of a man, 
 in order that in masculine wise I might bravely 
 keep my virginity intact." 
 
 —When she had said this she rent the garment 
 with which she had attired herself from her head 
 downwards, and exposed her hidden countenance^ 
 and her beautiful virginal breasts. But for one 
 jmoment only, and then she hastily veiled them 
 [again with her rent garment. And, continuing, 
 she addressed the Eparch and said : " Thou art 
 my father after the flesh, and Avitos and Sergius 
 are my two brothers. But I am thy daughter 
 Eugenia, who for the love of Christ spurned the 
 things of earth along with my two servants, who, 
 behold, are here, Protus and Hyacinthus, my 
 eunuchs, who along with me have joined the 
 ranks of Christ's army. And I pray that Christ 
 may draw thee to Himself with such power, that 
 under my teaching thou mayest before all men 
 become in Christ a conqueror of all desires ; even 
 as I myself trust to be kept safe and scatheless 
 even to the end." 
 
 XVI. A nd jhereupon the father recognised his 
 daughter, and the brothers their sister ; and they 
 ran before all and embraced her, and with tears 
 they clasped each other in their arms. And forth- 
 with one ran and told her mother Clodia ; and 
 she on hearing it rushed pell-mell in her hurry 
 and came post-haste into the theatre, and quick as 
 lightning they snatched up a gold-embroidered 
 
 ^ The Arm. is here obscure, and hterally = et incognitos uultus faciei, 
 manifestabant pulchra pectora uirginis. 
 
 N 
 
178 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 shawl and attired Eugenia in it against her will, 
 just to shew to all who she was. And then 
 they raised her aloft and carried her away, and all 
 the multitude shouted out, saying : " There is one 
 Christ, one Lord, one true God of the Christians." 
 But the bishops and elders along with a great 
 congregation of Christians were standing by the 
 theatre and kept a fast until such time as they 
 should be slain, when they hoped to gather up 
 the relics of the saints, that they might wrap them 
 up and bury them. But even they came into 
 the theatre glorifying God, and with one voice 
 cried aloud, saying : " Thy right hand, O Lord, 
 is glorified in its might ; Thy right hand, O Lord, 
 hath scattered ^ Thine enemies." But they lifted 
 her up on high for all to see, that none might 
 ignore her wondrous purity. And while all gazed 
 a sudden fire came down from heaven and con- 
 sumed Melani and all her household. And when 
 they furthermore saw this, great joy mingled 
 with fear filled the multitude, and they opened the 
 
 + church which had been closed for eight years, and 
 the Christians won the confidence of all. More- 
 over Philip the Eparch was baptized, as well as 
 his sons Avitos and Sergius. Her mother also, 
 Clodia, was baptized along with her handmaids, 
 and (an innumerable number of heathen turned 
 Christian.^j And all Alexandria was like a single 
 church. 
 
 * Lit. pulverised. 
 
 ' The Latin adds that Philip restored their privileges to the Christians, 
 et miltit relationem ad Severum imperatorem de Christianis, et memorat 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 1 79 
 
 XVII. Now at that time all the elders were lead- 
 ing and governing the church, because he that was 
 previously chief guardian of the divine laws had 
 departed to the Lord. So they made him {i,e, 
 Philip) bishop and he greatly honoured the 
 church, even as it had become worthy of honour. 
 But he also continued to administer the govern- 
 ment ; for he had the power and authority of 
 E parch, and his successor was not yet arrived. 
 But at once the Egyptians took the cue from 
 him and forsook the folly of idols and turned to 
 Christ, and in all the cities churches were opened 
 and day by day Christianity flourished and 
 increased. 
 
 XVIII. But when all this took place under the 
 guidance of the grace of God, the devil, who is 
 jealous of the good and is teacher of evil and 
 co-worker therein, inspired certain of the heathen 
 who were chief men in the city, and caused them 
 to go and prostrate themselves before the em- 
 perors ^ who were then ruling, and to pour out 
 before them a tale of envy and hatred against the 
 holy church and the god-fearing bishop Philip. 
 
 XIX To supersede Philip was sent an Eparch, 
 whose name was Perinos, who had orders from 
 the emperors, in case things were as reported, to 
 
 satis reipublicse Christiaiios prodesse, ideo debere eos absque persecutione 
 aliqua in urbibus habitare. Consentit relationibus Imperator. Of all this 
 the Armenian knows nothing. 
 
 1 The Latin gives their names : Severo et Antonino Augustis. The 
 Alexandrians complain that Philip has restored their privileges to the 
 Christians, and that cum none anno in fascibus irreprehensibiliter admini- 
 straverit, nunc decimo anno perdidit omnia. 
 
1 80 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 slay Philip. Now Perinos came, but was not 
 able to effect this, because Philip was beloved by 
 all the multitude of citizens. So he sent certain 
 men to him disguised as Christians, who entered 
 the church, and, finding Philip therein engaged 
 in the service of God, they went up to him as if 
 to receive his blessing, and slew him just as 
 Zacharias was slain between the altar and the 
 shrine. But he filled the office of bishop one 
 year and three months, and as a martyr and con- 
 fessor passed away to the Lord.^ 
 ^ But Eugenia took the body of her martyred 
 father and laid it in the hospice, ^ which had been 
 built by her mother Clodia, near to a certain spot 
 called Tiranas, ^ which was a house of prayer of 
 her brothers for the glorification of the Lord 
 Christ, and they had built it in regal style on the 
 aforesaid spot. And when this had been done, 
 all who were near to the blessed Eugenia as well 
 as her mother and brothers with one accord joined 
 together and loosed unto Rome, led by the grace 
 of God. 
 
 XX. Wherefore Avitos and Sergius were wel- 
 comed with joy by the senators, so much so that 
 
 * The Latin omits the reference to Zacharias, and relates that Philip 
 lived three days after being stabbed. The metaphrast gives the name of 
 his successor and assassin as Terentius, probably a false spelling of the 
 name Perennius. We have the same false spelling of the name in the 
 Armenian Acts of ApoUonius. 
 
 * The Latin also relates that Eugenia established on the spot a monas- 
 tery for Christ's virgins. 
 
 » The Latin does not mention the place Tiranas, nor the shrine erected 
 by the brothers. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia, i8i 
 
 the one of them became Consul in Carthage, and 
 the other was appointed Vicarius^ of Africa. But 
 Clodia and Eugenia went on living according to 
 divine counsels, and day by day they would ex- 
 hort others to the life of virtue, and brought 
 many persons to God, and they were marvelled 
 at by senators and virgins and were foremost in 
 zeal for Christianity. And one Basilia, a virgin, 
 who was a kinswoman of the Emperor Gallus, ^ of 
 great intelligence and famous for her wisdom, 
 came privily to Eugenia, and, having heard from 
 her the word of truth, believed so firmly that no 
 one could detach her from the faith. But because 
 she could not continually see the blessed Eugenia, 
 she took and accepted as if it were a free gift 
 from Eugenia her two eunuchs Protus and 
 Hyacinthus ; and in their company early and 
 late she studied the divine hymns and questions 
 and prayers and passed her days therein. Then 
 a certain bishop,^ a man fully perfected in holy 
 and divine precepts, came to Basilia and illumined 
 her with holy baptism as well as all who were 
 with her ; and jmintermittingly he instructed her 
 in the divine writings, confirming her in the 
 faith of Christ. XXI. And thus it was that all 
 
 ^ The Latin and Greek have Vicarius Africas ; also Proconsul, not 
 Consul. The metaphrast makes Avitus Proconsul of Carthage and Sergius 
 to be Vicarius Africse. The Arm. has the spelling Bitaritos. 
 
 ^ The Latin simply says : qusedam ex regis genere virgo, Basilia no- 
 mine, and does not mention Gallus. 
 
 ^ The Latin names him, "Cornelius cum esset in urbe Roma sacrse 
 legis antistes," and just below "Cornelius papa urbis Romse." 
 
1 82 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 unanimously made such progress in the life of 
 virtue, that all were ready for martyrdom.^ 
 
 XXII. But so long as the bishop sat at the 
 head of the church and led it, the Christians were 
 at peace, and there was no hostile agitation against 
 them. But Cyprian ^ when bishop suffered many 
 afflictions for the faith, and one Maximus by 
 name, a Consul, received an imperial command 
 by letter and slew him. But when the bishop 
 Nestor heard of the same he kept in hiding and 
 apart, for he was aware of many highly placed 
 Romans who were Christians in secret. 
 
 But one day Basilia came to Eugenia and she 
 welcomed her with much joy and said to her : 
 *' This day hath the Lord revealed to me, that 
 blood will flow over the rose-coloured image of 
 thy youth,^ which means that thou wilt suffer for 
 the confession of Christ and receive the crown 
 and symbol of victory." And the blessed Basilia 
 on hearing this raised her hands to heaven and 
 rejoiced in God with exceeding joy. And when 
 they had prayed and ended the Amen and were 
 sat down, Basilia said to Eugenia : *' For each of 
 us, as we see, our Saviour has revealed the crown 
 of glory, for as to thee concerning myself, so also 
 
 * The Latin here inserts many lines of commonplace eulogy of Eugenia, 
 Clodia and the eunuchs. 
 
 * The Latin has : Valeriano itaque et Gallieno imperantibus orta seditio 
 de Christianis est, eo quod Cyprianus Carthaginem everteret, et Cornelius 
 Romam. Data est ergo auctoritas ad Paternum proconsulem, ut Cyprianum 
 occideret. Cornelius autem quia a multis Romania etiam illuslribus fove- 
 batur erat in abditis. 
 
 ^ The Latin omits this sentence. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 183 
 
 concerning thy departure from earth hath Christ 
 revealed to me. For I beheld that thou didst 
 receive a twofold symbol of victory from heaven ; 
 partly because of the struggle for virginity that 
 thou didst win in Alexandria, and partly because of 
 the shedding of blood which shall overtake thee." 
 XXIII. Now the blessed Eugenia was delighted 
 to hear thereof and called to her all the virgins, 
 who through her had in holy wise espoused the 
 life of spotless chastity, and invited them to share 
 her victory. And after finishing her prayer, she 
 lifted up her voice and spoke to them as follows : 
 " Behold the time of vintage, when the ripe fruit 
 is gathered in, ^ for ye are my bowels^ of pity and 
 grape-clusters sprung from me. Convoy me first 
 away and then make yourselves ready with watch- 
 ing. For this is the chief proof of virginity, to 
 liken yourselves to the angels and to draw nigh 
 unto God. For this excellence is love of the life 
 to be, and mother of modesty, teacher of holiness, 
 mistress of repose from care and guide to joy ; 
 the goal of virtue and crown of faith, succour of 
 hope and guardian of honour, glory of the soul 
 and rest eternal, inviting us to the goods and 
 leading us on to the kingdom of heaven. There 
 is not therefore any difference in the labour which 
 it will be for us to abide in our virginity and holi- 
 
 ^ In Latin : Ecce vindemise tempus est, quo succiduntur botri, et 
 pedibus conculcantur, sed post heec regalibus conviviis apponuntur. 
 
 2 The Latin has : Et vos palmites mei, et meorum viscerum botri, estote 
 parati in Domino. 
 
184 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 ness.^ For these are the seductions of the world 
 and fleeting joys. By reason of which those here 
 below are encompassed with woes and tears. For 
 they rejoice a man's heart to begin with, but at 
 the last they overtake and thrust him into torture. 
 In the present they lull him into repose, that they 
 may doom him to eternal torments. Wherefore 
 my honourable virgins, who have so bravely run 
 with me in the race of virginity, remain ye firm 
 in the love of God in which ye now stand and 
 enhance it yet more. For that was a time of 
 lamentation, when ye were caught in folly. But 
 ye have been filled with the unfading joy by 
 Almighty God.^ But I will commit you to the 
 care of the Holy Spirit, and I trust that in His 
 kingdom He will prove you perfect and spotless. 
 But keep me ever as a pattern before your eyes, 
 having in mind the teaching of me that am lowly 
 and following the same all your days. 
 
 Such was the tenour of the exhortations which 
 she addressed to them ; and after kissing them all 
 with tears she further said : '' Farewell, my sis- 
 ters, for Basilia and Eugenia depart from you in 
 the flesh." XXIV. And at the same time one of 
 the maids of Basilia came to Pompeius, to whom 
 she was betrothed, and said to him : *' Dost thou 
 know, that my mistress Basilia, who was engaged 
 
 * In Latin : Nihil ita nobis laborandum, nihil ita est enitendum, nisi 
 cum virginitate vivamus, aut quod est gloriosius, pro virginitate etiam 
 moriamur. 
 
 * Tempus flendi temporaliter, sine fastidio et horrore sufferte, ut tempora 
 gaudii eterni cum omni possitis dilectione suscipere. 
 
The Acts of S, Eugenia. 185 
 
 to thee, has been cajoled by Eugenia, and has 
 utterly refused to wed thee ? " ^ XXV. When 
 Pompeius heard that, he was Inflamed with wrath, 
 and he came and wished to enter the chamber in 
 which was Basilia with Protus and Hyacinthus 
 engaged in prayer and praise. XXVI. Then they 
 took Protus and Hyacinthus, and put pressure 
 on them to sacrifice, threatening, if they refused, 
 to give them to the sword. But they sturdily 
 refused to comply, so they inflicted all sorts of tor- 
 tures upon them. And after enduring many tor- 
 ments they suffered the death-penalty by the sword. 
 And so they died in the holiness of martyrdom.^ 
 
 ^ The Latin has : Quia te dominam nostram Basillam novimus ab im- 
 peratore meruisse, sextus et eo amplius est annus quam tu in tenero setatis 
 anno ut postea acciperet distulisti ; sed patruelem eius Helenum scias esse 
 Christianum, et hanc ita factam Christianam, ut tibi omnino non nubat. 
 It goes on to relate that Basilia was wont to kiss the feet of the eunuchs, 
 and that Pompeius on learning of all this statim concurrit ad Helenum 
 patruelem eius, quia et nutritor eius erat et tutor. Helenus replies that 
 Basilia is grown up and must decide herself. After learning of her refusal, 
 Pompeius omni pene senatorum favore usus presents himself before the 
 Emperor and urges that Eugenia has brought novos deos from Egypt, and 
 that the Christians iura ipsius naturae pervertunt, separant coniugium, gra- 
 tiam sponsarum sibi associant ; et dicunt iniquum esse, si sponsum suum 
 sponsa accipiat (a common and well-founded form of complaint against 
 Christian teachers of that time). 
 
 In ch. XX VI. the Latin goes on to relate that decrevit Gallienus 
 Augustus ut aut sponsum suum Basilia acciperet, aut gladio interiret. She 
 replies that her bride is Christ, and is at once put to the sword. Of 
 Basilla's death the Arm. says nothing, though in the Latin it occurs before 
 that of the eunuchs. It should be noticed that the metaphrast has Protas 
 instead of Protus as the eunuch's name, while the Armenian has Proteus. 
 I have adhered, however, to the Latin spelling Protus. 
 
 ' The Latin has iubet eos decollari Nicetius urbis prsefectus, but they 
 were first brought to sacrifice to a statue of Jove, which immediately fell 
 down and was broken. This miracle is not in the Armenian. The meta- 
 phrast also gives the Eparch's name as Nicetius. ^ ^^ 
 
 /^ ^ OF THE *^ ^ 
 
 (UNIVERSlTfi 
 V OF ». y 
 
1 86 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 XXVII. Next they seized Eugenia as well/ and 
 tortured her before Aniktus, prefect (Eparch) of 
 the city. XXVIII. And he commanded her to 
 come and sacrifice to Artemis. But the blessed 
 one came to the spot and entered into the temple, 
 and having come opposite the image and having 
 spread out her hands to heaven, she remained in 
 prayer a long while. And when she had finished 
 her prayers, forthwith the image of Artemis fell 
 down and was broken into such fine fragments 
 that even the dust thereof was not apparent.^ 
 But they did not comprehend the power of God, 
 but thought that such things took place through 
 the arts of wizards, so they commanded that a 
 big stone be hung round her neck and that then 
 she should be thrown into the Tiber. But the 
 moment they threw her in, the bonds were 
 broken and the stone fell from her and sank. 
 And the holy Eugenia remained on the surface of 
 the water. And all the Christians when they 
 saw the miracle were filled with great joy, and 
 
 * In this ch. the Latin puts a long defence of herself into Eugenia's 
 mouth : Polliceor tibi quod ars nostra vehementior magis est : nam magis- 
 ter noster habet Patrem sine uUa matre, et matrem absque patre. Denique 
 sic eum genuit Pater, ut omnino feminam nunquam sciret ; sic eum genuit 
 mater, ut masculum omnino non nosset : hie ipse uxorem habet virginem, 
 quze illi quotidie filios creat . . . quotidie suam carnem eius carnibus 
 coniungit. Oscula eius circa eam sine intermissione sociantur et cet. We 
 then read that: " Audiens hoec Nicetius, obstupuit" — not unnaturally ! 
 The metaphrast concocts a different speech about demons and magic, and 
 attributes it to Eugenia. 
 
 * The Latin is not content with so everyday a miracle, but relates that 
 there was an earthquake and that the temple, foundations, idol and all, 
 sank and vanished, only the altar being left, which was at the door, and 
 before which Eugenia stood. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 187 
 
 uttered hymns of praise, saying : '' This is God 
 who is with Eugenia and saves her from destruc- 
 tion ; the same God who was with Peter in the 
 sea and saved him from being engulphed." But 
 the water bore Eugenia up, and she reached the 
 bank, and she came out and stood on the dry land. 
 XXIX. Then they seized her a second time 
 and put her in prison and ordered the royal 
 baths to be warmed, which were called Tiberian 
 (or *' whose name was Tiberianus") ^ And they 
 heated them so that they glowed like hot iron ; 
 and then they ordered her to be thrown in and 
 consumed by the flame. But the moment she 
 entered, the nre went out, so that they were not 
 able after that to heat the royal baths by com- 
 mand because of the icicles which formed in 
 them. And when the grace of God triumphed 
 over these means and wrought so mightily in 
 behalf of Eugenia, they ordered her once more 
 to be imprisoned. So they threw her into a dark 
 house without bread or water, and all the house 
 was illumined. And the blessed one was in the 
 prison twenty days, and a light shone there every 
 day. Then an angel of God appeared to her 
 and strengthened her, and said : '* Be of good 
 cheer, Eugenia, servant of Christ ; for the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, whom thou servedst with all thy 
 heart, has sent me to thee, saying : ' Be of good 
 cheer and be strong, for on this day I receive 
 
 ^ The I-,atin has : in thermarum Severianarutn fornacibus. The meta- 
 phrast does not give this piece of information. 
 
1 88 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 thee into heaven, when thou hast fulfilled the 
 course of victory.' " ^ And on the very day of 
 the birth of Christ, they sent an executioner, who 
 came and slew her in prison. And when the 
 Christians heard thereof, they gathered together 
 and took the body of Eugenia, and wrapping it 
 up carefully laid it in a special place, not far from 
 the city opposite the road which was called 
 Latina.^ XXX. But her mother Clodia went and 
 (^ sat over the tomb and wept ; but the blessed 
 "^ Eugenia appeared to her ^ and said: "Rejoice 
 and be glad, mother mine, for the Lord Jesus has 
 led me into joy and into the resting-place of His 
 saints. And He has set my father in the ranks 
 of His holy pontiffs ; but thyself He will wel- 
 come in peace on the forthcoming Lord's day. 
 And do thou instruct thy sons, my brothers, to 
 keep safe the seal of Christ, whereby they may 
 be worthy to receive the heritage of His saints." 
 And it came to pass when Clodia had returned to 
 her house, she taught her sons all the commands 
 
 ^ The Latin makes Christ Himself appear, bringing for her in His hand 
 panem nivei candoris et immensae suavitatis et gratiae. 
 
 ^ The Latin has : non longe ab urbe via Latina in prcedio eius proprio, 
 ubi multorum sanctorum ipsa sepelierat membra. The metaphrast simply 
 has : In a place not far from Rome, and the road is called the Roman road. 
 In Kraus' Roma Sotteranea, p. 547, we read that the Cemetery of Eugenia, 
 called also of Apronianus, is situated on the Via Latina. No trace remains 
 of the church which contained her relics, until Stephen VI. (V.) transferred 
 them to the Church of the Apostles inside the city. Boldetti thought that 
 he had found the entrance to her catacomb a quarter of a mile outside the 
 Porta Latina, where the road bifurcates, and where on the right hand 
 under the Casa and Vigna Moiraga there was to be seen an old but ruined 
 catacomb. 
 ' The Latin adds, of course : cum multo populo virginum. 
 
The Acts of S. Eugenia. 189 
 
 which the blessed Eugenia had given. And on 
 the Lord's day at the hour of the completion of 
 the sacrament, while she was in church and was 
 offering prayer, she gave up her spirit into the 
 hands of Christ, the Lord of all spirits.-^ And 
 when she had thus died, her sons Avitos and 
 Sergius took her and laid her beside their sister. 
 But they themselves progressed in zeal for the 
 Lord with all virtue, so as to detach many of the 
 heathen from their unholy sacrifices and turn them 
 to the faith of Christ ; and hallowing them with 
 holy baptism, they were themselves made worthy 
 to imitate the lives of their parents and blessed 
 sister, and mingled in the ranks of the saints. 
 And may we also become worthy to enjoy the 
 kingdom of heaven and praise God, Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. For to Him must all life 
 give glory, and every knee bend of those in 
 heaven and on earth and under the earth, that 
 every tongue may confess Him who is above all, 
 and to Him belongeth glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen. 
 
 ^ The Latin does not relate the death of the mother Clodia, though it 
 gives the daughter's prediction that it will be Die dominico. 
 
ACTS OF S. CODRATIUS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Saint Codratius, according to the Menologium of Basil 
 Porphyrogenitus, suffered in Nicomedia under Decius and 
 Valerian. His festival is celebrated on the 
 ninth day of May, under which in the Bollan- ^he Armenian 
 dist Collection (May 2, p. 362) is to be found ^^^ matted 
 all that is known of him apart from the Ar- 
 menian Acts, which I now translate for the first time. A 
 Greek Synaxarium, translated by the Bollandist editor, gives 
 a meagre outline of what the Armenian contains. The Bol- 
 landist editor remarks as follows : Haec autem elogiorum 
 diversitas reperta in Synaxariis, mutuos defectus quadam 
 tenus supplentibus, omnino persuadet exstitisse olim, quae 
 forte etiam nunc alicubi lateant, prolixiora martyrii Acta, unde 
 Singuli Auctores Synaxariorum diversa ilia Elogio decerpserint. 
 In the Armenian we have probably preserved to us the mis- 
 sing document here referred to. The Latin notices name the 
 Saint Codratus or Quadratus. 
 
 The miraculous element in these Acts is very small and may 
 easily be referred to the subjectivity of the Christians who wit- 
 nessed the martyr's trial and recorded its 
 details. On the whole the narrative seems tirely credible 
 very genuine, and Prof. W. M. Ramsay, in 
 his Historical Geography of Asia Minor (p. 180), refers to the 
 meagre Latin form of the Acts, as given in the Bollandist Col- 
 lection, in support of his contention that the port of Prousa 
 was called Csesareia. 
 
 These Acts contain little that is of doctrinal interest, except 
 the single statement of the martyr that after ten days he will 
 be in Paradise. I cannot find in any other source indications 
 
192 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 of this belief, that the journey occupied exactly ten days ; 
 though it was a common belief that a certain period must 
 elapse. Codratius, like S. Phocas and in similar words, is in- 
 vited to sacrifice to Poseidon. 
 
 The name of the Consul in these Acts before whom Codra- 
 tius is tried is named in the Armenian, Prineos. In the Latin 
 forms the name is spelt Perinius, which must be the same as 
 Perennis, for the Greek spelling was Ilcpci/vtos. This is sus- 
 picious, seeing that Perennis was Prefect of the Praetorium 
 under Commodus, and was murdered a.d. 185. However it 
 may have been a fairly common name. O. Hirschfeld {Rd?n- 
 ischen Venvaltungs-geschichte^ I-j p. 228) notes that the name 
 of a son of Perennis, Legate of Pannonia, has been erased in 
 an inscription of the year 185, but he had perhaps other de- 
 scendants. The Acts of Eugenia, probably by an anachron- 
 ism, refer to a Perennius as having been Prefect of Egypt early 
 in the third century. The Acts of Codratius also mention a 
 judge Maximus, whose position in the proconsular court must 
 have been that of adsessor. A Quaestor is also named; but it is 
 impossible to identify any of these personages, so scanty is our 
 knowledge of the Fasti of the Roman provinces. The date 
 prefixed to the Acts, " under Decius and Valerian," must refer to 
 the whole period of persecution which continued from Decius 
 to Valerian. The same heading attaches to the Acts of Poly- 
 euctes of Melitene. 
 
MARTYRDOM OF SAINT CODRATIUS. 
 
 In the time of Decius the Emperor, and of Vale- 
 rian, the Christians were carried off from many 
 cities and taken to Nicomedia, the metropolis of 
 Bithynia, and were cast into prison. And there 
 they were kept under custody and were dragged 
 before the court. If they consented to eat of the 
 unclean meats offered to idols, they were then re- 
 leased without torture and sent to their respective 
 homes. In consequence whereof great terror fell 
 upon the Christians of the above-mentioned city, 
 and some hid themselves in the mountains and 
 some in the fields. But there were goodly cham- 
 pions and worthy servants of God, who, with good 
 courage, walked about the city with great joy, 
 saying, *' O that we may be worthy to glorify 
 God by an avowal of His love for man ! " 
 
 And there was one of them whose name was 
 Codratius, who was of goodly stature and fair 
 to see, and eloquent, and was held in great dis- 
 tinction by all men, and was the leader of all in 
 his reverence to God, and was ardent in his faith. 
 He approached the turnkey and the soldiers, and 
 gave them much money, that they would allow 
 him to minister to the prisoners, his brethren who 
 were in prison, and to dispense to each of them 
 his due of care. So he went boldly and ceased not 
 
194 Monume^its of Early Christianity. 
 
 from going in unto them ; and thus he encouraged 
 those who were of good heart and willing, to suffer 
 martyrdom for their Lord. And he besought 
 them to remember him without fail ; but the 
 weak in heart, and them that were cast down, 
 he encouraged, and comforted, that they might 
 not have fear, but rather rejoice the more. And 
 he told them that most men do not leave this life 
 at their own good pleasure, but with great trouble 
 and in pain, and yet here in this transitory life 
 they have not met with rest, and they have not 
 forestalled nor made themselves worthy of the life 
 to come. But he who mortifies himself for the 
 sake of God, wins many and great goods both in 
 the temporal life and in the life to come. All this 
 he did as champion of the faith. 
 
 Now the Consul of that province came forward 
 and sat down in public on his throne of judgment, 
 and ordered the servants of God to be brought 
 before him. And when they came and stood be- 
 fore him, the Consul said to them : '' Let each of 
 you tell his name and his race, his rank and his 
 country." But the blessed Codratius could not 
 restrain his enthusiasm and his religious fervour ; 
 but on a sudden, at that very moment, came for- 
 ward to hasten to the Lord. And pushing himself 
 forward in front of all the brethren, because he 
 was last of all, and without anyone constraining 
 him so to do, he leaped forward, fearing lest some 
 one of those who had already engaged in the 
 struggle should faint in heart before the torture, 
 and deny his faith. For he saw some of the 
 
Acts of S. Codratins. 195 
 
 brethren pale and stupefied by the diverse tortures 
 they had undergone, and he feared that they might 
 yield in their resolution. So he came forward to 
 assist them, like a noble champion and knight of 
 Christ that he was. And before they could any 
 of them make answer, he said : '' We are called 
 Christians, this is our name ; but there is one 
 honour for all of us and one freedom ; we are 
 servants of Jesus Christ, our heavenly King, 
 and of the unseen God ; and our city is the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, in which Christ giveth man- 
 sions to His true soldiers. Behold, thou hast 
 heard everything." But the Consul wondered at 
 the man's boldness, and said to the turnkey : 
 *' Bring forward this presumptuous man, let us see 
 what his impudent arrogance will benefit him." 
 But he of his own freewill pushed the brethren 
 this side and that, and boldly stepped forward, 
 and crossed himself, and said to the Consul : '' Of 
 my own free will I stand before thee, O Consul, 
 having made myself the antagonist of thy father, 
 Satan. I am ready to meet all means to which 
 thou mayest resort against me. Therefore do 
 what thou wilt, for thou shalt learn from the very 
 trial of them that the soldiers of Christ are invin- 
 cible ; for we have taken upon us His seal, and 
 are willing and ready to combat thy machina- 
 tions." 
 
 But the Consul said : '' Tell me, thou miscreant, 
 first thy name and thy rank and fortune." 
 Codratius answered, '* Hear first that we are 
 Christians ; but fortune we know not, for we are 
 
196 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 servants of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Consul 
 said : ** It is not meet that thou shouldst call thy- 
 self a Christian, because, if so, the edict of the 
 Emperor slays thee. But since I behold that 
 thou art a clever man, and of fair seeming, where- 
 fore I think that thou must be of great family. 
 Therefore obey me, and I will write about thee to 
 the Emperor, and will win for thee a judicial post, 
 if only thou wilt sacrifice to the gods." But Cod- 
 ratius answered : '' Hold thy barbarous tongue, O 
 Consul ; there are not many gods, but one God 
 our Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord 
 Jesus Christ, through whom is all, and we through 
 Him." The Consul said : " Nay, but there are 
 many gods, and there are twelve chief gods, in 
 whom thou must trust, and to them do homage." 
 But the Holy Codratius made answer by citing the 
 words of Homer (//., ii. 204) : '' 'Tis not a good 
 thing, a many of rulers, let there be one ruler." 
 And the Consul said : '' Aye, but there is another 
 passage which thou hast not seen, so turn thy 
 regard to this further verse." Codratius said : 
 *'What verses?" The Consul replied, ''Those 
 which Homer utters about Poseidon, how that he 
 mustered the clouds, and stirred up the sea with 
 all the winds and canopied it with mists ; and the 
 Father of gods on high thundered frightfully, and 
 Poseidon came and shook the earth and the city 
 of the Trojans and the ships of the Achaeans. 
 Much also did he say concerning Zeus, what deeds 
 of valour he wrought. Dost thou behold his 
 greatness ?" Codratius replied : " Is it all true or 
 
Ads of S. Codr alius, 197 
 
 false, that which Homer said about them ? " The 
 Consul replied, " It is true." Codratius answered: 
 "" And all that he said concerning their foul de 
 sires and adultery, and their filthy and lewd de- 
 baucheries ? Must we believe that all this was said 
 truly, when it is conduct which becomes not the 
 gods, but only becomes madmen and disgusting 
 beings ? And I blush for thee, that thou permit- 
 test thyself to worship the semblance of foul 
 devils, abandoning God. And if thou wilt, I will 
 convince thee from the lips of thy own poet, that 
 they are filthy demons." The Consul answered : 
 " Thou hast begun to scold and abuse, and I fear 
 lest the king may be angry with me, because I 
 have permitted thee in my forbearance thus to 
 speak. But however I will at once make away 
 with this presumptuousness of thine." Codratius 
 said : ** What thou callest my presumptuousness, 
 neither thou nor thy king nor anyone else shall 
 be able to take from me." 
 
 Then the Consul bade them strip him and 
 pinion him upon a board, and beat him with blud- 
 geons, and ask him saying : " Tell us thy name." 
 But he gave them no answer. And the Consul 
 said to the turnkey : '' What is he called ?" But 
 they say : '' Codratius is his name, and moreover 
 he is of a great family." The Consul said : 
 ** Spare him then, and raise him up from the 
 block." And he said to him : " O good fellow, 
 what is this that thou hast done, allowing thy 
 rank to be insulted '^ " And he called him near 
 unto himself, and said to him : *' Consent to obey 
 
1 98 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 us, and do not abase thy rank and family by the 
 superstition of the Christians, by which thou art 
 ensnared." Codratius answered : " I have chosen 
 to be an outcast from the house of God rather 
 than dwell in the tents of the sinful," Then said 
 the Consul : " Obey me, and sacrifice to the gods, 
 since thou art equal in rank to the great Senate 
 of the Romans, that thou mayest not die like one 
 of the evil doers. Thou knowest the edict of the 
 emperors, and of the great Senate, how many 
 thousands they are of good men, that have re- 
 solved that not a single one of the Christians 
 shall live." Codratius replied: '' Blessed is the 
 man who hath not walked in the councils of the 
 impious and in the paths of the sinners ; that 
 hath not stood, nor sat, in the seats of the wanton." 
 The Consul said : " Do not deceive thyself with 
 metaphors, O Codratius, for this edict touches all 
 Christians alike, whether a man be poor or rich, 
 whether humble or of high rank ; the tribunal 
 spares no one." And Codratius replied : *' It is 
 as thou sayest, for the book that is given by God 
 also says : ' neither bondsman nor free, neither rich 
 nor poor, neither Barbarian nor Syrian, neither 
 Greek nor Jew, for we are all one in the Lord.' 
 But I pray thee to carry out upon me the edict of 
 thy emperors and of the Senate ; for I am a 
 Christian, and my family and my rank depends 
 upon my Lord, who keepeth whole my bright 
 renown, and not upon them who are to-day, but 
 to-morrow are not." The Consul said : ** Obey 
 me, and sacrifice, and rejoice in the good things 
 
Acts of S. Codratius. 199 
 
 of life, and in the brightness of this dayHght." 
 And having thus spoken, the Consul wept, and 
 drew deep sighs, and wiped his face with a nap- 
 kin. But the brave Codratius said : " Shed not 
 thy tears, for they are the odious malice of the 
 serpent and of Beliar who slayeth men. O thou 
 ravening wolf, thou canst not devour the ser- 
 vants of God." Maximus the judge said : '' Out 
 on thee, wicked man ; my august master pities 
 thee, and thou revilest him." '' Codratius an- 
 swered : " Let him weep for himself and for the 
 day of his birth, for I am no fitting object for his 
 tears ; but who art thou that speakest in his 
 presence 1 The Consul is enough for us ; but if 
 thou wishest to judge me, the Lord will prevent 
 thee." Asterius, the Quaestor, said : " I swear by 
 thy good Fortune, my lord Consul, if thou thus 
 permittest him, he has no reverence for the Auto- 
 crat and Emperor, but will revile him and insult 
 the gods, and bring upon us great peril." Codra- 
 tius answered : "■ Well saith the scripture that is 
 sprung from God : ' wherefore were the heathens 
 puffed up and the peoples filled with vain thoughts? 
 The kings of the earth were arrayed against me, 
 and its rulers were gathered against the Lord and 
 His anointed.' For behold even now Christ is 
 judged by impious and vain rulers." The Con- 
 sul said : '' Strip yonder boaster and again smite 
 him, that he may obey our lords the emperors." 
 
 But the blessed one in his torment thanked the 
 Lord, and said : '' Glory to Thee, my Lord God 
 Jesus Christ, that Thou hast made me worthy,^ 
 
200 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 who am unworthy and sinful, to bear these tor- 
 tures for Thy holy name, in order that I too 
 may become a partner with Thy servants. I 
 thank Thee, Lord, and falling before Thee I 
 pray Thee, my God, fulfil my career in Thy holy 
 name, and set upon my confession the seal of the 
 grace of Thy Holy Spirit. Bestow upon me an 
 understanding mind, and unswerving faith ; make 
 me wise with Thy immeasurable wisdom ; watch 
 me with Thine eyes. Thou that art on high. 
 Now is the time of my deliverance and of my 
 being holpen ; now is the time of Thy promises. 
 Receive my prayers, that I also may be 
 glorified by Thy holy name. Fulfil my calling, 
 guide aright my desires, bring me near unto Thy 
 father ; avow me as Thine before Him, O my 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 But the torturers helped one another to scourge 
 him, and five times they took one another's 
 places, till the flesh of the back of the holy 
 martyr was raised up a palm's breadth, and the 
 blood flowed down like a river with shreds of His 
 flesh. The Consul said to him : '' Dost thou yet 
 believe then in the gods.^" But the blessed 
 Codratius answered: ''The idols of the heathen 
 are gold and silver, the works of men's hands ; 
 mouths have they and speak not, ears have they, 
 and may not hear ; nostrils have they, but shall 
 not smell ; hands have they, and may not feel ; 
 feet have they, yet walk not ; and their throats 
 shall utter no speech. Like unto them shall be 
 they who make them and all who put their trust 
 
Acts of S. Codr alius. 201 
 
 In them." Then Prenios, the Consul, said : 
 *' Methinks thou wouldest deceive us, since thou 
 utterest such dark words ; but obey me, and 
 sacrifice to the gods." The holy Codratius 
 said : '' Since thy light appeareth to be darkness, 
 and thy truth to be folly, hear a bright and clear 
 saying ; be it known unto thee, that I reverence 
 not thy gods, and do not obey the edict of Caesar 
 and of the Senate. Do then quickly whatsoever 
 thou wilt do, and send me on my way direct to 
 the heavenly King." The Consul said: *'Thy 
 horoscope hath dealt out unto thee a great share 
 of shamelessness. I swear by the gods I will not 
 spare thee; but with new-fangled tortures and| 
 with a cruel death I will destroy thee." 
 
 And then he waited for a day and bade all the 
 Christian prisoners to be cast into prison. And 
 they brought with them the blessed Codratius, 
 and they took potsherds ground small, and 
 sprinkled them on the ground, and stretched out 
 the saint, and placed a single great stone upon his 
 loins, and made fast his feet and hands in the 
 four holes of the stocks, and fastened chains to 
 his neck. And he lay there many days. But 
 the blessed Codratius, like the noble martyr that 
 he was, endured these bitter and pitiless tortures 
 with piety and fortitude, and swerved not from 
 the faith of Christ. And the Consul set out on a 
 journey to the city of the Niceans, and ordered 
 that the holy martyr be brought In his train. 
 And as he entered the city, he had the saint led 
 in front of him. But the saints walked In great 
 
 / ^ OF THE *^ 
 
 (tTNIVERSITT 
 
202 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 joy, among whom was also the blessed Codratius, 
 like a goodly warrior boasting in his strength. 
 So he entered the battle array in the sheen of his 
 armour, and looked sternly on the hideous fray ; 
 and by the mere look of his terrible countenance 
 struck panic into the phalanx of his enemies. 
 Thus also Codratius bore his manacles as if they 
 were a fair badge of honour, and he made merry 
 and was of good cheer and to the fore. So that 
 the Greek philosophers wondered at the fortitude 
 of the Christians and at their endurance, and 
 said : ''Truly this faith of the Christians and this 
 ever-present hope of theirs, is a great thing ; on 
 account of which they thus endure torture and 
 pain." And many of them believed in the Lord. " 
 And when they had set the saints before the 
 magistrate, he ordered them to bring forward the 
 holy Codratius ; and when he was set before his 
 tribunal, the Consul said to him : '* Sacrifice to the 
 gods, O Codratius." But the holy Codratius 
 said : '' I am a servant of Christ, who declares by 
 the prophets that the gods who made not heaven 
 and earth, shall be destroyed." The Consul said : 
 " It is incumbent upon thee to obey the edicts of 
 the emperors, and not of Christ whom thou callest 
 God." Codratius answered : " I believe in my 
 Emperor Christ, and not in men, who know not 
 God ; it is written that we should pray for them, 
 but in no wise at all sacrifice to them. For what| 
 good do ye do to the Caesar, if ye sacrifice to foul 
 idols ; nay, rather ye even do much harm, especi- 
 ally to yourselves." The Consul said : " If thou 
 
Acts of S. Codratius. 203 
 
 prayest for the Emperor, It is right that thou 
 shouldest also listen to his commands and be 
 obedient to them, for it is written for thee, to 
 give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
 unto God the things that are God's." Codratius 
 answered: "All fitting debts upon earth, and what- 
 soever is right, that will I fulfil unto the Caesar ; 
 but unto my God I strive to fulfil every service 
 of reverence which is due to Him. The Emperor 
 has commanded us Christians either to sacrifice 
 or to die ; and we are ready for the sake of the 
 confession which is in Christ to die, not once 
 only, but a thousand times." Then the Consul 
 said : '' Dost thou see how many multitudes of 
 Christians have sacrificed to the gods } " Cod- 
 ratius answered : ** Yea, more than all of them 
 am I good and wise, if I sacrifice not. But, how- 
 ever, where are they who have sacrificed, for I 
 would fain behold them." Then the Consul 
 ordered that they should be led before him ; and 
 when they were come, those who had denied 
 their faith, the blessed Codratius fixed upon them 
 a glance full of passion and Indignation, and said 
 to them : " Ye miserable wretches, wherefore 
 have ye thus fallen suddenly into trangression, 
 and given yourselves over to Satan, abandoning 
 your rank and station, and denying the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who for our salvation became our 
 ransom and bought us with His blood } Have 
 ye not learned the resurrection of the dead, and 
 how that Christ cometh a second time with glory 
 and with hosts of angels, to judge the just and 
 
204 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 the sinners ; and to lead the just into life eternal, 
 but to cast the transgressors into fire everlasting 
 and into outer darkness, where the worm endeth 
 not, and where there is weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth ? What answer will ye give in the peril of 
 that day, when the hosts of the angels will stand 
 before Him in fear and trembling, and will quail 
 at the sight of us and of the dread tribunal ? 
 Open the eyes of your heart and know from what 
 ye have fallen. Ye have abandoned the Eternal 
 King, and have sold yourselves to be worthless 
 slaves, who, finding your Lord without, smite and 
 slay his fellow servant; whom the Lord when He 
 Cometh shall cut asunder and give their portion 
 to the infidels. Learn ye, what ye have done 
 from fear of temporal tortures, how that ye have 
 given yourselves over to everlasting tortures. 
 Look ye to yourselves for that which shall hap- 
 pen to you at the hands of the just Judge. 
 Have ye not heard the voice which said : ' Fear 
 not them who slay the body, but cannot slay the 
 soul ; fear rather Him who is able to destroy 
 soul and body in Gehenna ' " '^ 
 
 When the blessed Codratius said this, they all 
 with one accord began to cry out with loud voice 
 with tears and to say : *' We were afraid, master, 
 of torture, and we were ensnared like the sense- 
 less animals, and like sheep that are hemmed 
 in among wolves. Our sins have found us out 
 and surrounded us ; we wished to live the 
 temporal life, and we have died to the eternal 
 life. But what we shall do now in our wretched- 
 
Acts of S. Codr alius. 205 
 
 ness, this we know not." But the blessed Cod- 
 ratius was filled with great joy over their return, 
 and seeing their tears said to them : " Be of ] 
 good cheer, brethren, for our Lord Jesus Christ 
 is full of noble pity and is compassionate ; He is I 
 free from vindictiveness and merciful. With 
 many tears, cast yourselves before Him ; and 
 stand up even now firm in the confession of; 
 Christ, and by His blood shall each of you be! 
 saved from his sins. Even though once ye re- ] 
 jected Him with the flesh, yet now be valiant in \ 
 spirit and conquer." 
 
 But they raised a great lament and bewailed] 
 themselves for a long time, and cast themselves 
 on their faces on the ground, and poured dust 
 over their heads, and beat their breasts with 
 stones ; and so terrible was the spectacle, that 
 not the Christians only joined in their lamenta- ' 
 tions, but the very heathens and the pitiless j 
 soldiers ; so that one would have thought that 
 the very stones cried out and sorrowed with 
 them. For the whole city was aghast at their 
 lamentations, and there was gathered together to 
 the place a multitude of men and women and 
 of children, of Jews and of heathens, and of 
 Christians, who were in hiding, so that the streets 
 and the alleys and the roofs were filled with the, 
 multitude of them. But the Consul was wroth 
 thereat, and ordered that the blessed Codratius 
 be hung up and flayed, and the torches be applied 
 to his side. But the brave Codratius recked 
 nothing of the torture, but with great boldness 
 
2o6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 exhorted them to be brave, and said : " Thus is it 
 right, brethren ; pray unto the Lord without ceas- 
 ing, for He is merciful and hears you." But they 
 said : " We are not worthy to name the holy 
 name of Christ, because we have offended Him." 
 But he strengthened them, he the holy martyr, 
 and kept saying : " Cry aloud, brethren, cry 
 aloud ; our Lord and God is kind ; He draws 
 nigh to those who cry out unto Him for help. 
 Despair not, brethren, but come near unto me, 
 and ye shall be emboldened and trust in the Lord." 
 And they ran and fell down before him in violent 
 trouble, and the whole multitude of those who 
 were come to see wept. 
 
 But the holy Codratius lifted his eyes to heaven 
 and cried aloud with tears and said : ** O Lord, 
 thou God, who art great and terrible, kind and 
 full of noble pity, who didst send forth Thy only 
 born Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to shine upon 
 us as the Sun of Righteousness, and didst illumin- 
 ate us who were before in darkness, and didst 
 through Him reconcile us unto Thee, and didst 
 call us who were before in darkness to a holy 
 calling ; O merciful One, and compassionate, 
 long-suffering and full of pity, and true, who 
 passest over our sins and wipest out our proud 
 iniquities ; for Thy exceeding love of man, O 
 Lord, cast out him that is first in evil and slayeth 
 man, that hateth the good and is full of envy, Satan, 
 the father of idols, and prince of darkness ; and 
 receive Thy soldiers back, who for a little were 
 seduced by the snares of Satan, but have now 
 
Acts of S. Codratius. 207 
 
 taken refuge in Thy all-powerful goodness. Be 
 not wroth with them, as with rebels. Albeit 
 they were wilful, they stand now unchanged. 
 And if Thou receivest them in Thy loving kind- 
 ness, receive me also as an offering for the sinful, 
 and make them worthy to mingle with Thy 
 heavenly and true host, and shew to them a sign 
 in Thy goodness, that Thou hast not abhorred, 
 but hast pitied and received the repentant. O 
 Lord Jesus Christ, hear me Thy servant, and 
 instead of them take my soul, that Thy holy 
 name may be glorified for ever." And all the 
 brethren with one voice cried out aloud a great 
 Amen. And on a sudden the brands were ex- 
 tinguished, and the hands of the torturers flagged, 
 and a cloud of light appeared over the heads of 
 the 'saints, along with great darkness and grievous 
 smoke which spread itself over the heads of the 
 Consul and of the heathen ; so that the Consul 
 on his seat of justice, and all who were with him, 
 were aghast with fear, because they thought that 
 the city was going to be destroyed. And after a 
 long silence, a voice of angels was heard, who 
 praised and glorified God, so that all the Chris- 
 ians believed that there was great rejoicing in 
 heaven over those who had returned to repent- 
 ance. And after .two hours had passed, little by 
 little the darkness cleared away, and the heathen 
 began to see the light which was around the 
 saints. But those who were in iniquity began 
 with loud voice and lamentation to cry out to 
 God and say : ** We have sinned, O Lord, ex- 
 
2o8 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 piate our sins ; we have transgressed, be propi- 
 tious unto us." And the Consul came to his 
 senses, and ordered them all to be cast into prison, 
 and to be carefully guarded. But he ordered the 
 blessed Codratius to be taken down from the tree 
 and confined along with them ; for all this time 
 the goodly champion was hanging there. And 
 he commanded him to be watched carefully as 
 before. But the crowd of citizens followed after 
 the saint. 
 
 But on the next day the Consul took his seat 
 in the tribunal, and ordered that they should be 
 brought before him ; and he questioned them, 
 and examined them straitly, and having found out 
 their obstinacy and their immutable resolution, 
 he commanded that they should all be bound and 
 taken to their several villages and burnt alive. 
 And the saints went on their way with great joy, 
 glorifying God and thanking Him for their un- 
 looked-for deliverance. But the blessed Codratius, 
 along with certain of his companions, he bade 
 them take in front of him to the Hellespont. But 
 the multitude of the saints, according to the 
 command of the ruler, went to their respective 
 villages and died in Christ. 
 
 But the Consul came to the city of Apamea, 
 and, as he sacrificed to the foul idols, he ordered 
 the holy martyr to be brought before him. And 
 they brought first of all and before all the rest, 
 the blessed Codratius. Then said the Consul to 
 him : " Sacrifice therefore now to the gods, and 
 thou art delivered from the tortures, that await 
 
Acts of S. Codratms. 209 
 
 thee if thou remain obstinate. Codratius 
 answered : "I am a Christian and I sacrifice 
 not to devils." And when the Consul saw all his 
 flesh lacerated, he wondered and said : ''But 
 what more shall I bestow upon this self-mur- 
 derer V But the soldiers hesitated to answer, for 
 they saw that tortures had no longer any power 
 to influence his body. Then he ordered that 
 haircloth should be brought and that Codratius 
 should be wrapped in it, and that a hole should 
 be made, and that he should be cast into it, and 
 there scourged with cords. And after one hour 
 he ordered him to be brought out of the cloth, 
 for he thought that he was dead. But he rose up 
 and stood before him ; and the Consul said to 
 him: ''Do you no longer feel the tortures .f*" 
 But the holy champion thanked God and said : 
 " Glory to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for the 
 arrows of children but wound themselves, and 
 their power is weakened in them. It is Thou that 
 hast given me strength, my God, unto the glory 
 of Thy power." And the Consul was wroth and 
 said to him : " I will tear all thy limbs asunder 
 piece-meal, thou wretch, if thou still trustest in thy 
 wizardry." Codratius answered : " Blessed is the 
 Lord my God." The Consul ordered that he 
 should be again brought before him to Caesareia 
 on the Hellespont. 
 
 And when he came thither he sacrificed there 
 also to the foul devils as he had done at Apamea. 
 He commanded also that the blessed Codratius 
 should be brought before him, and began to 
 
 p 
 
2IO Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 question him what he would have ; but finding 
 that the holy martyr was firm, he said : " Thou 
 hast had enough now of the tortures which thou 
 hast suffered, so come and sacrifice to the gods." 
 But the blessed Codratius said : '* Inasmuch as 
 thou didst mock me with these tortures, dost 
 thou really suppose that I shall obey thee ? " 
 Then the Consul ordered that he should be 
 stretched upon stones, and that they should put 
 upon his hands and feet enormous stones, and 
 beat him for a long time with cudgels. But the 
 blessed one in his torment sang psalms and said : 
 " Many a time they fought with me in my child- 
 hood, but mastered me not. On my back the 
 sinful smote me." And when he had finished the 
 psalm, the Consul said : '' Let him be beaten 
 longer, since he has not felt anything." Cod- 
 ratius replied : " Smite, smite my flesh, which 
 thou thinkest to torture ; for thou makest glad 
 my spirit in a way thou knowest not." Then the 
 Consul said: "Thou hast mastered, O wretched 
 one, an evil demon." Codratius replied : " I swear 
 by my Saviour Christ, that Jesus Christ my Lord 
 hath mastery over one still worse, and not over 
 one only, but over all his host. To Him be 
 glory everlasting." And the multitude of the 
 brethren sent forth the Amen. 
 
 The Consul was very wroth and leaving alone 
 the blessed Codratius, he ordered a certain two 
 of them to be taken and hung up and flayed, 
 namely, Saturninus and Rufinus, and he com- 
 manded that they be hung from one tree. 
 
Acts of S. Codr alius. 211 
 
 Then they tore them with nails, until the inner 
 parts of them began to pour out. But they in 
 their torments uttered no word, but only besought 
 the holy Codratius and all the brethren who 
 stood near to pray for them. And last of all, the 
 blessed ones themselves fell to praying and said : 
 " Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God on high, send 
 unto us also help from Thyself and protect us 
 Thy lowly servants, our God, and give us endur- 
 ance and victory unto the end." And after a long 
 time when they gave no answer, for from the 
 stress of torture they were not even able to 
 speak, then at last the Consul ordered that they 
 be taken to the high road which leads to the 
 Hellespont, and there slain with the sword. And 
 thus did the blessed ones end their life. And 
 God-loving men met together and gave gold to 
 the executioners, and took their relics and bore 
 them to their respective cities, and with great 
 honour placed them in caskets. But the blessed 
 Codratius he ordered to come after him, along 
 with others also, to a temple of Apollo ; and when 
 he had come into the shrine of Apollo he began 
 to constrain the saints to sacrifice to the foul 
 idols. And he said to the blessed Codratius : 
 ''Now therefore obey me, fellow, and forsake this 
 madness of thine. Wherefore dost thou insult 
 thy rank and family ; recognise the gods and 
 live, and I will bid the physicians take care of 
 thee. Offer sacrifice to Asclepius, and he will 
 heal thee ; fear the great Apollo, and the god 
 Hercules, and the king of all, Zeus, and the 
 
2 1 2 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 ineffable Ares, and the ruler of the sea, Poseidon. 
 Didst thou never embark in a ship and know 
 the fear of him ? ^ Do homage to the sun ; 
 surely he is not dead according to thy blasphemy, 
 even though he be not in the heavens." The 
 blessed Codratius answered : "I do homage to 
 the true and unseen God, and to His only born 
 Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. And 
 I dread His menaces, and I quail before His 
 all-powerful Godhead, and I will not deny the 
 name of His ineffable power. In dead idols I 
 believe not, and of devils I have no fear. I 
 despise the works of men's hands, and thee also, 
 who hast but a temporal power. For I, after ten 
 days, go to my Father, but thou wilt end thy life 
 in the bitterness of evil. For thou hast not 
 known the true God, thou son of Satan and 
 brother of Beliar, who sharest with foul devils, 
 more senseless than a hog, mad hound, blood- 
 drinking dragon, fiercer than the wild beasts that 
 devour men. Art thou not ashamed before such 
 a multitude as this, who taste not of anything } 
 The cooks are to be more respected than thy- 
 self, who, in name, are the servants of men ; for 
 they place the flesh of the slain animal in decent 
 manner drest for the benefit of men, and not of 
 devils. You sacrifice to stones, and you tear and 
 bite yourselves. But let one of them come for- 
 ward and take your offering, let him appear and 
 seek it of himself, and let him take and eat it. 
 
 Compare the address of Trajan to Phocas, p. 115. 
 
Acts of S. Codr alius. 21 
 
 o 
 
 Let your gods that are made of stone say what 
 he wishes that anyone should sacrifice to him, 
 whether a goat, or a bull, or a fowl. Blush, ye 
 sons of shame, for ye are mad and think that we 
 are mad." 
 
 And when he had said this, the Consul ordered 
 the executioners to sprinkle vinegar and salt 
 water upon his wounds, and to rub him with a 
 rough cloth, and to bring red-hot irons and 
 plunge them into his sides. But the blessed 
 Codratius bore the pain bravely and fell to pray- 
 ing gently, and his lips alone moved ; and no 
 sound whatever was heard to issue from him. 
 But when the torturers were weary, he ordered 
 them to unfasten him. And on the morrow he 
 first of all bade them carry him to the Helles- 
 pont in a vessel (or basket).^ And after that the 
 Consul made a journey, and came to the river 
 Rhyndacus, where there met him a governor with 
 a crowd of common people, ostensibly to praise 
 him, but really for the sake of the servant of 
 God ; for he longed to see the blessed hero, the 
 fame of whose martyrdom had reached Asia and 
 all the land. And the Consul ordered them to 
 carry him to the village close at hand, which was 
 called the village of the Temple. And there he 
 dressed, and at daybreak he took his seat on 
 the tribunal, and ordered them to bring before 
 him the holy Codratius ; and all the crowd was 
 
 ^ Or translate thus: "he commanded a vessel to be brought to the 
 Hellespont." 
 
2 1 4 Monuments of Early Ch7nstianity. 
 
 gathered round and looked upon the heroic con- 
 test of the holy martyr. But the blessed one 
 shewed to the multitude a face full of joy, though 
 running with blood, according to that which is 
 written. *' The countenance of him that rejoices 
 in heart is joyful." Again he was carried by the 
 torturers ; for from the excess of the tortures 
 which he had suffered, he could no longer walk ; 
 but they bore him along the road in a cart. And 
 when the saint was brought before him, the 
 Consul said : *' Hast thou gained wisdom, O 
 Codratius, or art thou not yet healed of this 
 madness of thine .-^ " But the blessed one with a 
 loud voice replied : '* From my childhood am I 
 sane, and from my mother's womb am I the 
 servant of Christ." 
 
 Then the Consul made them bring an iron 
 brazier and set it upon the fire till it was like 
 fire, and commanded them to set the saint upon 
 it. But the blessed Codratius said : '* Away from 
 me, ye ministers of Satan ; of my own accord I 
 go." And making upon himself the sign of 
 Christ, he rose up. But they sprinkled in the 
 brazier pitch and oil. But the holy Codratius 
 began to sing a psalm, and said : " O God, look 
 upon me to help me, and O Lord, hasten to 
 assist me ; let them be ashamed and confounded 
 who sought my life : let them be turned back and 
 ashamed who will to do me evil." And having 
 finished his psalm, he said to the Consul : '' This 
 fire of thine is more liquid, and the iron of this 
 brazier is softer than thy heart." And when long 
 
Acts of S, Codr alius. 215 
 
 time had passed by, and the fire came not nigh at 
 all unto the holy one of God, the Consul ordered 
 them to take him off the brazier and to bear him 
 a little way outside the village to a certain rising 
 ground, and there to behead him. And as they 
 carried the blessed Codratius, he continued to 
 sing psalms and to say : '' Blessed is the Lord, 
 who hath not given us to be the prey of their 
 teeth." And the brethren who stood by sang 
 psalms and went with him as far as the place 
 where he was to die. And having come thither, 
 and having thanked God, and having prayed for 
 a long time, then he finished his blessed course 
 in Christ. But the brethren took his holy body 
 and laid it carefully in a fitting place. 
 
 Let us continually glorify the Father and the 
 Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and 
 for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 UlSriVERSIT'Sr, 
 
ACTS OF THEODORE. 
 
 In the Bollandist Acta SS, the pieces relative to the martyr- 
 dom of S. Theodore are to be found under February yth (Feb- 
 ruary, vol. 2, p. 23 seq. and p. 890 seq.), where the Bollandist 
 editor calculates the true date of the saint's death to have been 
 A.D. 319, in which year the 7th of February was a Saturday. 
 But we must not try to be too precise in fixing the date, for 
 the earlier Armenian form of the Acts give the 27 th of August, 
 and the old Latin form assigns November 4th. 
 
 In the Acta SS. two forms of the narrative are given ; first, a 
 Latin translation of the metaphrast's recension of the Acts, and 
 then in the appendix of the volume an older Latin version 
 taken from the Codex 79, " Serenissimae reginse Sueciae," which 
 the editor without very good reason considered to be earlier 
 and more trustworthy than the metaphrast's form. 
 
 Both of these forms however agree together in three points, 
 (i) The first six sections, as far as § 7 of the Armenian give 
 particulars of the persecution of Licinius. There were slain, 
 we read, in that time four hundred martyrs and seventy 
 centurions and three hundred in Macedonia. (2) They also 
 relate at great length how Theodore in his youth slew a 
 dragon, which was the terror of his native town Eukhaita. 
 (3) In § 17 the saint is represented as delivering a long 
 sermon to Abgar and the rest of the brethren, in the course 
 of which he gave the instruction that his body be taken to 
 Eukhaita. In the Armenian text, points (i) and (2) are entirely 
 omitted and their place supplied by particulars of the saint's 
 training and promotion in the Roman service, and as to (3) 
 it is simply related that they took the saint's remains to 
 Eukhaita in accordance with instructions long before given by 
 the saint to Abgar. 
 
2 1 8 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 In the Armenian form we have probably a fourth century 
 homily delivered on some feast day set apart to the commem- 
 oration of the saint We gather from the exordium (§2) that 
 the church is still in danger of persecution ; so that this homily 
 was probably composed prior to a.d. 363, when all fears of 
 persecution ceased. The first six § § of the Armenian contain 
 nothing about the dragon, and are altogether more sober than 
 are the corresponding § § of the later forms of the narrative. 
 In general outline the last part of the narrative (§§ 7-18 inclu- 
 sive) is the same in all three forms. A comparison of these 
 § § in all the three forms shows that the Armenian must be 
 nearest to the original form, from which are derived the meta- 
 phrast's and the early Latin form. 
 
 I think that the last part of these sections found in all three 
 forms, from § 13 as far as the words "with a sword "in § 17, 
 may be reckoned an interpolation inserted at an early time by 
 a hagiologist, who after the manner of his class was eager to 
 assure his readers that the persecutors after the saint's death 
 paid the penalty of their cruelty. According to the original 
 narrative the saint died on the cross. The words given to the 
 angel in § 13 : " Why then didst thou say that thou wast aban- 
 doned by me ? " resemble a later hagiologist's corrective to 
 ^12, which has a very genuine ring about it. 
 
 The original Acts, no doubt composed by Abgar, the saint's 
 notary, must have begun about where § 5 of the following 
 begins, and have ended soon after the beginning of § 18, 
 omitting however the interpolation which I detect in §§ 13-17. 
 The document, however, which the metaphrast, the old Latin 
 translator, and the Armenian translator alike had in their 
 hands, already included this interpolation. 
 
 Prof. W. M. Ramsay has identified Eukhaita with the 
 modern Tchorum on the old road from Amasia to Nicomedeia 
 and in easy communication with Gangra and east of the Halys. 
 The Abb^ Duchesne has cited the Latin form of these Acts, 
 in proof of his contention that Eukhaita was west of the Halys. 
 Prof. Ramsay ( Geography of Asia Minor^ p. 318) answers that 
 " the Acta Theodori contain little or no local colour. His 
 history is divided between Eukhaita, Nikomedeia and Hera- 
 
Acts of Theodore. 219 
 
 kleia (Pontica), which is said to be a city near the others." And 
 again (p. 321) the Acta Theodori "is really one of the most 
 contemptible documents in the entire Acta SS. It is quite 
 clear that nothing whatsoever was known about Theodore 
 except his name and a tale that he had slain a dragon." To 
 this criticism it is sufficient answer that the Armenian Acta, (i) 
 mention no dragon, but give instead thereof very probable and 
 sober details of the saint's life ; (2) say nothing of the proximity 
 of the three cities to one another, but on the contrary imply 
 that Herakleia was a very long way from Nicomedeia. The 
 saint could not spare the time from the affairs of his province 
 in order to visit his Emperor at Nicomedeia. Nor would the 
 latter have made the conduct of the war a pretext for visiting 
 the saint in Herakleia unless it had been a long distance. 
 Lastly, the Armenian proves Herakleia in Cappadocia to be 
 the city in question. 
 
 Thus the Armenian text rather supports Prof. Ramsay's 
 geographical views than not, and constitutes one more proof of 
 the danger of condemning a document until you have got back 
 to something like its original form. 
 
 I have supposed that the Armenian text is a fourth-century 
 homily in which are embodied the original Acts, just as the 
 Acts of Polyeuctes are embodied in a similar homily. Now in 
 the last § 19 the words: "Writing down the history of his 
 martyrdom and handing it on to future generations," seem 
 to imply that the Acts were being then for the first time 
 written down when the homily was composed. However these 
 words do not really preclude the view that the homilist made 
 use of an already existing record of the saint. He is simply 
 insisting on the general necessity of keeping alive the memory 
 of the martyrs by copying and distributing the records of them. 
 This last § 19 is absent from the metaphrast's recension and 
 from the earlier Latin form. It is anyhow inconceivable that 
 § 12 should be anything but what it pretends to be, namely 
 the personal narrative of the slave and notary Abgar. It is a 
 passage instinct with genuine feehng, such as no hagiologist 
 ever composed in cold blood long after the events narrated. 
 
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY THEODORE 
 THE SOLDIER. 
 
 1. Unsearchable and wonderful are the heavenly- 
 gifts which the Creator has freely bestowed in 
 miraculous wise on the ranks of His holy martyrs. 
 Unspeakable is the patience with which they en- 
 tered and won the struggle, and too varied are 
 their virtues for it to be possible to relate them, 
 even for those who loved them and fought beside 
 them. Nor is it easy to tell even in metaphor of 
 the fair seeming and brightness of the richly bur- 
 geoning wreaths and of the unfading and varied 
 chaplets which they wove. It is hard to relate 
 how, by their strength in martyrdom, they 
 locked together and surrounded themselves with 
 the shields of the Spirit, and were tried like gold 
 which is tried in the fire. Thus they crossed over 
 the dark sea and turbulent of this wicked life, 
 and displayed their victory over the antagonism 
 of the devil. None of those who are in the 
 flesh can worthily commemorate their excellence ; 
 for the Divine Spirit alone is able to describe it. 
 
 2. Yet although it is beyond the compass of man 
 to relate it, we must not be altogether silent. 
 Nay, let it be told as according to the apportioning 
 of the divine grace of the Spirit one has ability to 
 publish it to pious souls. In order that by means 
 
Acts of Theodore. 221 
 
 of the recollection of the valiant and spiritual 
 soldiers of Christ, the children of the church may 
 be awakened, and may aspire to enter into the 
 pavilion of rest to which they are called, armed 
 with the armour of God ; in order that in the 
 time of persecution, and when trials arise, they 
 may be able to participate with those who were 
 found to share the cross of Christ. 3. Let us 
 then begin the commemoration of this noble mar- 
 tyr of Christ, the holy Theodorus, albeit we are 
 not able to do full justice to his bravery and excel- 
 lence. Yet we may tell a little out of much. We 
 can say who he was, whence he came, and how 
 his martyrdom began and ended, and we will re- 
 late the story of the time of his persecution. For 
 he was not the Theodorus the Tiro,^ whose com- 
 memoration is held on the first sabbath of the 
 forty days' fast ; but our saint was his nephew, 
 and was held in high honour by the emperors 
 from whom he received a command in the army. 
 For he (i.e. the Tiro) was martyred under the 
 King Maximlanus, in the city of Amasia in 
 Cappadocia ; so that they were not far from one 
 another, either in point of time or of family. 
 
 4. But in the times of the lawless and impious 
 Emperor Licinius, a blazing storm of cruel perse- 
 cution swept over the church of God, and every- 
 where the altars all over the Roman empire were 
 heaped up with the molten images of devils, and 
 
 ^ The Armenian spells Tyrion, Theodore the Tiro, or recruit, was a 
 saint much celebrated in Cappadocia. His Acts are not, so far as I know, 
 preserved in Armenian. 
 
222 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 in all places the edict of apostasy was circulated, 
 and commands of the following kind posted up in 
 every village and city with all sternness, to the 
 effect that they should do homage to stones, and 
 to trees fashioned by the hands of men, and that 
 they should offer up holocausts and sacrifices to 
 the so-called gods, and should content themselves 
 with foul food. And those who obeyed this edict 
 received honour and promotion from the Em- 
 peror, but those who refused to do so were com- 
 pelled, and were subject to stripes and to torture, 
 and punishment by sword and fire. For an inex- 
 tricable mist of darkness and disturbance encom- 
 passed us all, for they took many of those who 
 believed and gave them over to the judges, that 
 they might confine them in dark places, and sub- 
 ject them to cruel and pitiless tortures, and after 
 long tribulation die by the sword. 
 
 5. At that time there blazed forth a star of 
 dazzling brilliancy, a lamp that scattered its radi- 
 ance far and wide, and illuminated the mist and 
 darkness of idolatry, appearing victorious over all, 
 I mean the brave champion and soldier of the 
 King Christ, the holy Theodorus. For when this 
 edict of the impious and lawless Emperor Licinius 
 went forth, that all who believed in Christ should 
 be taken and thrown into prison, and bound and 
 subjected to intolerable privations and tortures ; 
 then the blessed and famous witness of Christ, 
 Theodorus, had been born of Christian and re- 
 ligious parents, in the village of Eukhaita. He 
 was brought up and trained in all good discipline 
 
Acts of Theodore. 223 
 
 In Christ, and grew in stature and wisdom, and was 
 schooled in the teachings of religion. While he 
 was still in the flower of youth and prime of life, fair 
 to look upon and filled with all wisdom, he became 
 on that account the friend and intimate of the 
 kings and princes of that day. For in the wars of 
 the barbarians, the saint was ever victorious and 
 won all praise ; for which reason he received the 
 very highest honour in the army, and was pro- 
 moted to the very highest grade of command. 
 6. Now some malignant satellites of the devil 
 obtained the ear of the Emperor, and laid inform- 
 ation that the saint was a Christian, and not only 
 he, but his whole country and city ; " for under his 
 influence," they said, '' they have been perverted 
 by him along with your army, and have turned 
 away from the worship of idols, and have dis- 
 obeyed your commands ; they no longer keep the 
 mysterious festivals of the gods, nor do they taste 
 of their holy sacrifices." 7. When the Emperor 
 heard this, he was dumbfoundered ; and, though he 
 was full of wrath, he wavered in his counsels, and 
 did not know how he would be able to take in his 
 deadly net so conspicuous a man. He did not 
 think it suitable to write and summon him to come 
 before him, for he feared that he would see through 
 his crafty designs, and be afraid, and disregard his 
 commands. So he formed this plan, that he would 
 make the conduct of the war a pretext for his com- 
 ing to those regions, and so take him in the city 
 itself. And having formed this design, the lawless 
 prince determined to send some of his nobles to- 
 
2 24 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 gether with a force to Heraclea, a city of Cappa- 
 docia, where the saint dwelt. And he wrote to 
 him a letter in complimentary terms as follows : 
 " If it should be pleasing and acceptable to you, 
 come and see us, and do homage to our gods in 
 the city of Nicomedia, and come with a great 
 suite and with much pomp. But if there is any 
 reason to prevent you, it is meet that we should 
 come and see your district, and the city in which 
 you dwell, for we are very desirous to see you and 
 enjoy your good will." And when the captains 
 came to him, and brought the letter of command, 
 Theodorus took and read it, and was delighted 
 and thanked God ; for he had thought already in 
 his heart of declaring himself for the true religion, 
 and of becoming a witness of Christ ; and now 
 on a sudden the goodwill and pleasure of God 
 was about to be really accomplished. So on that 
 occasion he received the king's men with great 
 honour, and made them presents ; but he excused 
 himself from going to meet the king on the score 
 of the requirements of the province, and begged 
 them, and promised them riches, if they would go 
 and persuade the Emperor to come to the city of 
 Heraclea, bringing with him the full number of 
 his gods. "You will behold," he wrote, "all the 
 population of the town and country, and they will 
 be glad and rejoice, and will hold a great festival 
 with sacrifice and adoration." So the men went 
 back to the Emperor, and gave him the answer 
 which had been despatched to him. And this the 
 ruler took and read, and was deceived and taken 
 
Ac^s of Theodore, 225 
 
 in by it, like an unreflecting child ; for he deter- 
 mined to set out for those regions, thinking in 
 his wickedness that all his designs were already- 
 accomplished. So forthwith he took a number of 
 cavalry, and arrived at the city of Heraclea. And 
 when the holy Theodore heard of the arrival of 
 the Emperor, he went out to meet him with great 
 pomp and rich suite. 8. But on that night, as 
 he slept in his house, the saint beheld in a vision 
 that the ceiling of his house was lifted up, and a 
 shower of corruscating sparks of fire descended 
 upon him ; and a voice was heard saying to him : 
 *' Be strong, and of good cheer, Theodorus, for I am 
 with thee." And when the saint woke up, he told 
 his dream to those who were nearest to him, and 
 said : " God is pleased that in this place my blood 
 should be shed for the name of Christ." And 
 then he arose and knelt down, and prayed ; and 
 when he had finished his prayer and wept, he 
 thanked the Lord. 
 
 9. And then he arose, and washed the fair glory 
 of his countenance, and put on precious raiment of 
 byssus, and he ordered them to equip his horses in 
 gold trappings. And then he rode out with his 
 horses and met the Emperor. And when he be- 
 held his ruler, he did homage to him, and after the 
 manner of kings, he wished him well, saying, " Hail 
 to thee, most powerful and autocratic Emperor, sent 
 by God." But the Emperor, when he heard this, 
 and saw the magnanimity of the saint, instantly 
 embraced him with much tenderness, and wel- 
 comed him fondly, and kissed him, and said : 
 
 Q 
 
2 26 Monuments of Early Ckristianity, 
 
 " Hail to thee, O prince, fair as the sun to look 
 upon, for it is meet that thou also shouldst reign 
 along with me." And they entered together into 
 the city along with the multitude of their men, 
 who had gone out to meet the king ; and he pre- 
 pared a resting-house in the royal quarters, deco- 
 rated after the manner of the palace, with canopies 
 and imperial throne. And when the Emperor 
 saw this he was overjoyed, and praised the city 
 and the citizens, and he bade Theodorus sit down, 
 and said to him : '' Behold, according to the prayer 
 that thou hast written to me, O Theodorus, I have 
 come as the guest and recipient of thy hospitality 
 to visit thee and thy city ; and I have brought with 
 me the most precious and the most illustrious of 
 our gods, in order that thou mayest worship them, 
 and offer sacrifice to them." The holy Theodorus 
 made answer, and said : *' O victorious and great 
 Emperor, thou hast done well in fulfilling the re- 
 quest of thy servant, by making us glad with thine 
 advent ; and yet more hast thou honoured us by 
 bringing with thee thy gods, in order that all may 
 behold them, and may be confirmed in the ordi- 
 nances of religion. But I pray thy highness to 
 rest a little from the labour of the journey, and to 
 give me thy most illustrious gods, all of them, in 
 order that I may take them to my house, and 
 anoint them with fragrant oil, and offer frankin- 
 cense to them, and cense them, and in order that 
 I may prostrate myself and offer sacrifice in my 
 own private house, and then after that may bring 
 them out into public before all, and sacrifice ; in 
 
Ac^s of Theodore. 227 
 
 order that all men, marking and beholding this, 
 may be encouraged to emulate me in my piety." 
 And when the Emperor heard this, he was very 
 satisfied and pleased with the words of the saint, 
 and believed that which he had said. And he 
 ordered them to bring and give to him all his idols 
 fashioned of gold and silver. And the saint took 
 them, and carried them to his palace to put them 
 to rest. But he arose that night, and he broke 
 and ground to powder all those gods, and then he 
 took the bits and distributed them to the poor and 
 needy. 
 
 10. But after three days had passed, the prince 
 commanded that they should summon before him 
 the great Theodorus, and he said to him : '' O 
 most honourable and illustrious of the princes who 
 were before myself, and thou who hast been still 
 more promoted and honoured by my own majesty, 
 now therefore give proof of thy enthusiasm 
 and love which thou hast towards my gods and 
 towards us. Bring a sacrifice and offer it to them 
 before the whole people, in order that they may 
 all behold thee, and may fulfil our edict with all 
 readiness." But whilst the saint was on the point 
 of making answer to the Emperor, a certain man 
 stood forward who was a person of authority, 
 and whose name was Maxentenes,^ and said : '* O 
 noble prince, thou hast not known and understood 
 the treason of this impious general, nor how he 
 hath falsely deceived thy majesty in respect of 
 
 ^ Maxentius in the Latin for 
 
2 28 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 thy all-victorious gods ; for yesterday night, going 
 forth from my quarters, I beheld a certain poor 
 man, who was going along full of joy, holding in 
 his hand the golden head of our great queen 
 Artemis." 
 
 When the Emperor heard this, he was much 
 enraged, and stood agape and could not believe 
 what he heard ; but he said to the saint : *' Is this 
 that they said true?" The saint made answer 
 and said : " Yes, it is true and just, I deny it not ; 
 for I have done justly what I have done. For 
 surely if thy gods have not been able to help 
 themselves, how will they be able to help thee ? " 
 Then the countenance of the Emperor changed 
 colour with rage, and filled with wrath he said : 
 " Woe to me, for I have been deceived like a 
 little child, and have been turned to ridicule before 
 the eyes of all. And now I know not what I 
 shall do or how I shall act ; for I who am emperor 
 and ruler of all these forces and of the world, have 
 come along with all my forces to be deceived at 
 the feet of this miscreant ; I have become the 
 shame of the province and of the city, losing all 
 my victorious gods." And when the holy Theo- 
 dorus saw the Emperor filled with such folly, he 
 laughed in his soul, and said : " O thou senseless 
 demon, filled full with all lawlessness, didst thou 
 not take note beforehand, that I was a Christian 
 and a servant of Christ ; how could I be deceived 
 by thy deceitful and pernicious edicts '^. But in 
 order that thou mayest know that thou art truly 
 tricked like a simple child, therefore have I shown 
 
Acts of Theodore. 229 
 
 unto thee the weakness of thy gods, In order to 
 put to shame thy impiety. Thou art puffed up 
 with thy empty and transitory greatness, and thou 
 hast not any hope or expectation of the greatness 
 which passes not and of the Hght which is eternal, 
 and thou knowest not Him who gave thee thy 
 temporary greatness ; but thou art infatuated by 
 the crafty illusion of the devil, and darkened so 
 that thou mayest not see the light of the glory 
 of the only-born Son of God, and in the pre- 
 sumption with which the evil one inspires thee, 
 thou dost not know what thou sayest. But I 
 hold vain all this glory of created things, which 
 estrange a man from God, in order that I may 
 inherit immortal life, which eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, and which God has prepared for those 
 who love Him. But for thee and for thy material 
 gods is reserved the fire eternal, which is made 
 ready and kept for Satan and his hosts." 
 
 The Emperor said : " O insolent miscreant, 
 Theodorus, I could tolerate thy insults to me, 
 for as regards obedience to myself, thou shalt be 
 reformed ; but why hast thou insulted the gods ? " 
 The saint made answer and said : " Herein is the 
 very demonstration of thy want of wit, for thou 
 beholdest the nothingness of thy molten images 
 of demons, and yet after this thou hast the rash- 
 ness to give them the name of gods, who are like 
 horses and mules, for there is no understanding 
 in them, hewn out by the hands of mechanics." 
 II. And the Emperor was filled with wrath, and 
 said : '* Henceforth I will not tolerate thee, but I 
 
230 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 give thee over to miserable torture." And he 
 ordered the executioners to strip the saint, and to 
 stretch out his hands on fourfold pinions, and to 
 scourge him with green switches, without spare, 
 upon shoulders and chest and stomach ; and 
 they scourged the blessed one, so that the god- 
 less torturers were wearied and faint. And they 
 carded the flesh of the saint with their cruel 
 blows, and the blood poured forth from him. 
 And then the Emperor ordered him to be smitten 
 without spare on the neck with leaden hammers. 
 And as they smote him, he ordered that all that 
 was remaining of the body of the holy martyr 
 should be scraped with iron needles, and then 
 that fire should be brought and that they should 
 burn all the wounds in his body. So they burned 
 and roasted his whole body according to the 
 command of the Emperor. But the holy martyr 
 shewed yet more patience than before amid the 
 throes of his cruel anguish, and thanked God that 
 his desires were fulfilled ; and as if he reckoned 
 for nothing all this intolerable torture, he said 
 to the Emperor : " O thou minister and servant 
 of Satan, and enemy of all righteousness, dost 
 thou not see that thy torturers flag, and that thy 
 foolhardy pride is humbled, and thy violence 
 overcome, and thy father the devil Satan is put 
 to shame ; and however much my outer man is 
 destroyed by thy torture, so much the more is my 
 inner man renewed unto eternal life } " 
 
 But the Emperor was very wroth, and ordered 
 his soldiers to take the saint to prison, in order 
 
Ac^s of Theodore. 231 
 
 that he might deliberate about him, by what death 
 he should slay him. And when they had cast 
 him into prison, after a few days he ordered him 
 to be brought before him ; and he tempted him 
 with many words and questioned him, but yet 
 could not persuade the blessed one. So then he 
 ordered them to crucify him, and he made the 
 entire number of his army shoot at him with 
 arrows. But the martyr of Christ with great 
 gladness went after the soldiers, and when he 
 came to the cross they bound his hands and feet, 
 and took and fastened him upon the tree. And 
 a number of soldiers shot at him with arrows, 
 and hit the face and eyes of the saint. But the 
 champion of Christ endured it patiently, and gave 
 thanks to God, and reckoned for nothing all the 
 anguish and pain. And after that they came 
 and mutilated his manhood, and all the multitude 
 that stood round wept, all of them. 12. And I 
 Abgar, the slave and secretary of the saint, who 
 had received his command to write down all, 
 point by point, when I beheld such cruelty, I 
 threw away my paper from my hands, and I went 
 and fell at his feet, weeping bitterly ; and the 
 saint, when he saw my tears, said to me in a 
 gentle but weak voice : " O Abgar, grieve not, 
 nor be remiss in thy task, but accomplish that 
 which thou hast begun, and obey me yet a little 
 longer that thou mayest see the end of my con- 
 summation, and write it down." And when he 
 had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven, and 
 said : '' Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, my God, 
 
232 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 who in Thy unspeakable goodness dost control 
 and arrange all things ; who also by the hand of 
 Thy only-born Son, and true and Holy Spirit, hast 
 bestowed upon me strength to bear ; for Thou, 
 Lord, didst erewhile make promise to me, saying: 
 *' I have not abandoned thee, but for all time I 
 will be with thee, and will save thee ; and now, 
 
 my God, wherefore hast Thou forsaken me, 
 and hast withdrawn from me Thy pity ? For the 
 wild animals have torn my flesh because I loved 
 Thy name ; the pupils of mine eyes have been 
 put out, and my flesh has been consumed with 
 fire, and my fingers have been crushed, and my 
 face has been altered so that it is no longer like 
 that of a human being, and my soul reels and 
 trembles with the fear of the tortures of the cross. 
 And now, O my Lord and my God, for Thee have 
 
 1 borne all this, being given up to fire and sword, 
 and to all anguish. Wherefore I beseech Thee re- 
 ceive my spirit forthwith, and refresh me according 
 to Thy good pleasure, for Thou art all powerful." 
 
 And when he had said this he was silent, for 
 all the members of the flesh of the martyr were 
 weak, and the hollow of his stomach was lacerated 
 and crushed because of the harrowing and of the 
 tortures inflicted. But the lawless and impious 
 Licinius, thinking that the saint was dead, ordered 
 his guards to remain there, in order that for a 
 whole day and a night his body might be exposed 
 upon the cross. 13. But in the first watch of the 
 night, an angel was sent from God, and took 
 him down from the cross and made whole all his 
 
Ac^s of Theodore. 233 
 
 body, and said : " Rejoice and be strong, for the 
 Lord was with thee and is with thee, and shall 
 be for ever. Why therefore didst thou say that 
 thou wast abandoned by Me ? Forasmuch as the 
 course of thy martyrdom is accomplished, and 
 thou comest to the Saviour Jesus, and shalt receive 
 the indestructible crown in the kingdom of the 
 just." And when he had said this, the angel rose 
 up to heaven ; but the holy Theodorus, beholding 
 his body entirely healed of its wounds, lifted his 
 hands to heaven, and magnified the Lord and 
 said : " I magnify Thee, my God and my King, 
 and I bless Thy name for ever and ever." And 
 after praying for a long while, he uttered the Amen. 
 14. And at dawn early the Emperor called a 
 certain twain of his nobles, and said : '* Go ye 
 along with a force of men, and take down from 
 the cross the wretched body of yonder ill-starred 
 impostor, and drag it before me, in order that I 
 may command it to be placed in a coffin of lead 
 and cast into the depths of the sea, lest the 
 Christians should snatch it away, and take it and 
 honour it according to their custom." And when 
 the captains had gone, and while they were yet 
 afar off, they beheld the cross empty and void 
 of the body of the holy martyr, and they began 
 to gape with astonishment. Antiochus said to 
 Patricius : *' Verily it is true, that which the Christ- 
 ians say, that Christ after three days arose from 
 the dead, for now we behold this word of theirs 
 literally fulfilled." But Patricius ran to the cross 
 and beheld the holy martyr Theodorus sitting 
 
234 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 near to the cross with his body entirely healed, 
 and he began to tell the multitude of the great 
 miracles of God which had happened unto him, 
 so that both cried out with a loud voice, and said: 
 ** Great is the God of the Christians, and there is 
 none other God but He." And they came and 
 threw themselves at the feet of the saint along 
 with the soldiers who were with them, in number 
 eighty and two, and they said : " We too are 
 Christians, and servants of Christ ; we beseech 
 thee, receive us who have gone astray through 
 ignorance from the path of truth, and pray in our 
 behalf to God the Creator, in order that He may 
 make us too worthy of the compassion of His 
 grace." 15. When the Emperor heard this, he 
 was exceeding wroth, and ordered the Consul ^ 
 whose name was Cestus, to take three hundred 
 of his soldiery, and to go and behead them. But 
 when they had gone, they too, by the favour of 
 God, beheld the miracle of God, and believed 
 like the others in Christ. And there was there 
 a crowd and great multitude who all cried with 
 loud voice and said : " Great is the God of the 
 Christians ; He that hath done such wonders, He 
 alone is God. Come then, let us stone the lawless 
 Licinius ; for God is our Emperor, the God whom 
 Theodorus preached." And when this disturbance 
 arose, they began to raise a tumult one with 
 another, and there was much shedding of blood 
 in the conflict of the rabble. But a certain evil- 
 
 * The old Latin has Anthypatos, Pro-consul. I tind no Consul of the 
 name in Clinton's lists. 
 
Acts of Theodore. 235 
 
 doer whose name was Leander drew his sword 
 and rushed upon the holy Theodorus ; but the 
 Consul saw this and drew back his hand, and 
 delivered the saint from him, and slew the lawless 
 Leander. But another, whose name was Merpas, 
 came forward amidst the crowd, and threw himself 
 upon the Consul, and drawing his sword slew 
 him. 16. But the blessed saint, when he saw the 
 disturbance and riot of the crowd, went into the 
 midst of them, and by his entreaties he appeased 
 the crowd ; and the multitude took the saint with 
 them and returned to the city with great joy. 
 And as they passed and came near to the doors 
 of the prison, in which were confined all who were 
 in bonds, these all cried out from prison and said : 
 *' Pity us, servant of God on high." But the 
 crowd, when they heard it, said : " Command us 
 that we at once pull down the doors of the prison, 
 and set free them that are confined therein." But 
 the saint restrained them from carrying out their 
 counsel ; and he himself approached the door and 
 prayed to God, and made upon it the sign of the 
 cross. And of its own accord it opened wide, and 
 their bonds were loosened, and those who were 
 confined came forth and threw themselves at his 
 feet, and gave thanks to God and to His saint. 
 But he said to them : " Go ye in peace each to 
 his own place " ; and many other miracles did God 
 accomplish by means of him, for the sick and the 
 suffering and they who were possessed by devils 
 were healed by his prayers. 
 
 17. And when the impious Licinius saw that 
 
236 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 all the people of the Greeks repudiated and cast 
 from themselves the worship of the gods, and 
 believed in Christ, he was very wroth, and sent a 
 force of soldiers, that they might go without the 
 knowledge of the multitude and cut off the head 
 of the saint ; and they went and at once executed 
 his command, cutting off the head of the blessed 
 one with a sword. And thus ended the victorious 
 and mighty champion of Christ, the holy Theo- 
 dorus, in the month of August, on the twenty- 
 seventh day thereof, to the glory of God. 
 
 But after the martyrdom of the saint, Abgar, 
 his slave, according to his command as he had 
 been aforetime commanded to do, took the body 
 of the saint and wrapped it in clean linen with 
 fragrant spices, and they laid it in a coffin and 
 took it and laid it to rest in his paternal inherit- 
 ance in the village of Eukhaita. 18. And the 
 multitude of the people of Heraclea followed the 
 relics of the saint with lighted tapers and fragrant 
 incense and spiritual songs, according to the 
 custom of the Christians, and laid it in its resting- 
 place. And many miracles were accomplished 
 by God by means of the tomb in which reposes 
 until to-day the relics of the saint, for those who 
 approach it with faith. For on the day of the 
 commemoration of the martyr, there comes a 
 multitude of people of all races, who keep his 
 memory with great honour and with offerings, for 
 God glorifies those who glorify Him. 19. For 
 this saint outshone the sun in splendour and with 
 inextinguishable brilliancy lit up a life of virtue 
 
Ac^s of Theodore. 237 
 
 by his unblemished and correct faith, and repulsed 
 the lawless ruler with all his servants. He kept 
 his confession unshaken in the sure hope, and 
 in his own life glorified the living God. He as 
 martyr shared in the cross and in the death of 
 our Lord, who of his own free will submitted to 
 torture and death, and, following Him, offered up 
 his life as a fragrant offering and pleasing to Him. 
 For his true death was an expiation for angels 
 and men, a lifting of the curse and an act of 
 reconciliation to God. By the shedding of his 
 blood he extinguished the folly of the idolaters 
 and became a pillar of the faith, a seal of the 
 Church, a door to those who would enter into 
 heaven. He It is whom we honour by bearing 
 him In memory and by conducting his festival 
 with splendour ; writing down the history of his 
 martyrdom and handing it on to the generations 
 to come, that we may be ourselves witnesses to 
 him who bore witness, until we all come to Christ 
 who appoints the lists of martyrdom [ay wvoQeTr}<i). 
 He In our behalf for ever Intercedes with the 
 merciful God, that unto us also may be opened 
 the door of pity, so that we may enjoy with him 
 the goods which have no end. Those then who 
 In faith and fear and with all goodwill keep the 
 commemoration of the martyr of Christ, what- 
 soever they ask of the Lord, It shall be unto 
 them ; and they shall be partakers of the reward 
 of their works along with all the saints in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power, 
 for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
ACTS OF S. THALEL^US. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Acts of Thalelaeus are given in vol. 5 of the month of 
 May, in the Bollandist collection, p. 178; where there will be 
 found printed a shorter and a longer Greek 
 form of these Acts. The longer form is These Acts 
 quite worthless; but the shorter form, which ^^^ elenSnts' 
 is printed from a MS. at Florence (Cod. 
 xiv., PI. ix. of the Laurentian Library), agrees closely so far as 
 it goes with the Armenian ; and the Bollandist editor rightly 
 concludes, in view of the simplicity of the Greek and general 
 brevity which characterises it, that this form of the Acts was 
 composed with the help of the Proconsular Acts themselves. 
 The subscription of Tanebus given in the Armenian is not 
 contained in the Greek. 
 
 The Bollandist editor supposes the martyrdom to have 
 taken place during the reign of Carinus and Numerianus, be- 
 tween November 283 and March, 285 ; but we shall see that 
 there is good reason to set the date as early as the reign of 
 Hadrian. 
 
 In view of the graphic character of the exordium of these 
 Acts, as well as of the attestation at the end of the Armenian 
 form of them, of the slave Tanebos, it seems 
 hasty to deny to them any historical value. They belong to 
 The first question, which follows on the the reign of 
 
 J • • r \ 1 u- . • 1 u • r Hadrian,notof 
 
 admission of an actual historical basis tor Wumerianus. 
 
 them, is whether the martyrdom took place 
 under Hadrian or under Numerianus, more than a century 
 later. The Greek Acts begin thus : " In the consulate of 
 Numerianus the king." On the other hand, in the body of the 
 piece the martyr is invited to acknowledge the Emperor 
 Hadrian ; it is in the temple of Hadrian that the magistrate 
 
240 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 holds his court, and it is hard by the temple of the same 
 emperor that Tanebos buries the remains of the saints. It 
 is therefore certain that the events related took place under 
 Hadrian, if at all; and that some editor at the end of the 
 third century or early in the fourth prefixed the mention of 
 Numerianus. In the same way we have the date of the 
 martyr Babylas, who suffered under Decius, shifted in the 
 exordium of his Acts to the reign of Numerianus. Such a 
 falsification is most likely to' have taken place at the end of the 
 third century, before the persecution of Diocletian had effaced 
 in Antioch the memory of Numerianus. I have before noticed^ 
 the tendency there was to defer the death of a popular saint, 
 so that he might appear to have suffered in the persecution of 
 which the recollection was uppermost in men's minds. Not 
 only is the later date incompatible with the mention of Hadrian 
 in the Acts, but the detailed account which Thalelaeus gives 
 of himself agrees best with the earlier date, ^gse or Aigai 
 was a seaport and arsenal of the Romans in the second cen- 
 tury. It lay opposite the modern port of Iskanderun, and 
 is to-day called Ayash (see Prof. Ramsay's Hist. Geog. of 
 Asia Minor, p. 385, who notes that there was there a temple 
 of Asklepius, which was destroyed by Constantine). In the 
 reign of Hadrian there would of course have been in so im- 
 portant a station of the Roman fleet a temple of the reigning 
 emperor, in which the governor would naturally hear a case of 
 majestas. But it is the hint which the piece gives of the re- 
 lations between Edessa and Aigai, which is decisive against 
 the reign of Numerian as the date of these Acts. The city of 
 Edessa was brought under the sway of the Romans in the 
 year 1 1 5 by Trajan, who struck commemorative medals with 
 the words on them : " Armenia et Mesopotamia in Potestatem 
 P. R. Redactse." Hadrian, we read in Spartianus : " Toparchas 
 et reges ad amicitiam invitavit, ... a Mesopotamia non 
 exegit tributum quod Trajanus imposuit " (Spart., Adrian^ 13, 
 17, 21). 
 Older numismatists believed that Hadrian actually struck 
 
 * See page 151. 
 
Ac^s of S. ThalelcEits. 2\i 
 
 money in Edessa. But although M. Ernest Babelon has 
 shewn that this was not so, yet there is no doubt that during 
 his reign the Roman influence was paramount in Edessa, and 
 that a Roman resident of some sort was kept there. The 
 native prince Manou was the faithful friend and ally of the 
 Romans. These native princes were not called by the Romans 
 kings, but dynasts, phylarchs, or toparchs. 
 (Suidas, s. voce Phylarch.\ Procop., Bell. Under 
 
 Persic. 2, 12.) It is more than probable Numerianus 
 ^, ^ . , , . c \j A • there was no 
 
 that m the reign of Hadrian a common Ro^anautho- 
 
 policy was pursued in regard to the Christ- pity in Edessa. 
 ians all over the empire, in the dependent 
 client states as well as in the regularly organized provinces. 
 It is thus quite conceivable that a fugitive from justice at 
 Edessa might be arrested at Anazarb and brought before the 
 Roman magistrate at Aigai. Whether the judge Tiberius or 
 Tiberianus of Edessa was a Roman officer or a servant of the 
 client prince of Edessa we do not know. Edessa is httle over 
 fifty German miles due east of Aigai, and there was a high- 
 road thence to Aigai by way of Zeugma, Castabala, and 
 Anazarb, which lay a little north of Aigai, among the moun- 
 tains of Cilicia. The concerted action hinted at between 
 the authorities of Edessa and Aigai was possible under 
 Hadrian, but under Numerian it was impossible ; for Edessa 
 had finally passed under the sway of the Parthians more 
 than thirty years before, when at the end of 259 Valerian was 
 taken prisoner on his way to relieve it. Such close administra- 
 tive connexion between Edessa and Aigai as these Acts re- 
 veal would be still more intelligible at the beginning of the 
 second century, after the year 216, when Caracalla turned 
 Edessa into a Roman colony. But this date would not suit 
 these Acts for a different reason : Abgar the Eighth who ruled 
 thirty-five years, from a.d. 179 to 214, was no doubt a firm 
 ally of the Romans, but inasmuch as he was a Christian the 
 apprehension and torture of Thalelaeus can hardly have fallen 
 in his period. 
 
 The Greek Acts published in the Acta Sanctorum are briefer 
 than the Armenian form, and give quite a different set of 
 
 R 
 
242 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 miracles. The story of the magistrate's throne sticking to his 
 hinder parts is peculiarly grotesque, and is absent from the 
 Armenian. The incident of the executioner hanging up a bare 
 tree occurs in both forms, and is very curious and wears a 
 Docetic air. The introduction of wizards to contend against 
 the martyr in magic is a not unusual motive in ancient Acts. 
 
 Anazarbos or Anazarba is called the metropolis in these 
 Acts. According to Smith's Diet, of Geography^ it acquired 
 this title from the time of Caracalla on, and was the chief town 
 of Cilicia Secunda. W. M. Ramsay gives some clues about 
 the place, Geog. Asia Minor^ p. 387. Lightfoot has a note on 
 it in \\\% Apost. Fathers^ iii. p. 138. FromA.D. 1 17-138 Cilicia, 
 including Tracheia, was an imperial province under a Praetorian 
 Legatus Augusti (W. M. Ramsay, Geog. Asia Minor ^ p. 376). 
 Under the reign of Hadrian Aigai took the title of Hadriana 
 in honour of a visit which that emperor paid it. 
 
 There are two Armenian MSS. of these Acts in Venice, 
 
 which supplement one another, the one containing the first 
 
 half, the other the last half of the text. They 
 
 Armenian overlap for about two pages in the middle 
 
 ^^ Acte^^^^ and give slightly different texts. The 
 latter part of the Acts, including the list of 
 the names of the fellow-martyrs of Thalelaeus and the sub- 
 scription of Tanebus his slave is wanting in the Greek. If the 
 notice of Tanebus be part of the original Acts, then the 
 final words beginning, "Who truly," etc., must be a later in- 
 terpolation added probably by the same editor of the late 
 third century who, at the beginning of these Acts, introduced 
 the name of Numerian. This editor must have made his 
 recension before the year 310, otherwise on the same principle 
 on which he ascribes the martyrdom to Numerian, he would 
 have ascribed it to Diocletian. 
 
MARTYRDOM OF S. THALEL^US. 
 
 In the reign of Numerlus,^ and when Theodorus 
 was judge, in the city of JEgd^, nine days before 
 the kalends, in the month Hori, which was the 
 twenty-third day of the month, the judge^ took 
 his seat in the Temple of Hadrian in the city of 
 ^gse, and said : *' Summon hither the violator of 
 religion." The guards say : " Behold, here he 
 stands, we pray thee." Theodorus the judge 
 said to them : *' Where did ye take him, for I see 
 that his beard just begins to shoot, and that he is 
 resplendent with the bloom of youth ? " Denesius,^ 
 the chief executioner, said : " As we were coming 
 to the metropolis Anazarb,* and were still distant 
 by fifty ^ stades, we saw him running in an easterly 
 direction ; ® and when he saw us, he hid himself 
 in the middle of a grove of trees. But we knew 
 he was a Christian, so we invoked the gods and 
 halted in the grove for forty days and forty 
 
 ^ 6V viraTiltf. Tov Nov|j.cpiavov tov Pao-iX^ois 'q7€[J.ov€vovTOS ©coSwpov twv 
 AiyaCav irrfXcws, rfj irph ivvia KaXavSwv "Zirmii^plov, \iii]vhs vinp^ipiraCov 
 ciKoLSi Tpfrg. But the month Hyperberetasus began Aug. 24 in each year. 
 
 2 The text here has Thallos. 
 
 Judge: 'f\yi\id>v may = Consul. The Greek adds that this officer had 
 apprehended many because of Christ, whom he had scourged, drowned, 
 sawn asunder, beheaded or otherwise slain. 
 
 ^ The Gk. omits Denesius and simply has r\ Td|is. 
 
 * *Ev TTJ *AvatapP<tf iroXet. Arm. may mean ''from the city of A." 
 
 ^ 4>' = 500. ^ aub dvaroXwv. 
 
 343 
 
244 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 nights,^ till we found him hidden in an olive-tree ; 
 and when we took him in order to bind him he 
 began to fight with us, but we beat him with 
 bludgeons and broke his bones, and then we put 
 manacles on his hands and feet,^ and have brought 
 him to thee." 
 
 Theodorus the judge said to him : *' Of what 
 religion art thou, or of what rank, or of what city, 
 and what is thy name ?" Thalelaeus said : ''If 
 thou wilt learn of what religion I am, I am named 
 a Christian ; but if thou wilt learn how men name 
 me,^ I am called Thalelaeus, and I am from Leb- 
 anon,^ and I have believed in the Galilean, and I 
 am a friend of those of Jerusalem. My mother 
 is Romaniana, and my father Becosianus ; and I 
 am by profession a physician, and have become a 
 deacon of John the Bishop. And when there 
 were persecutions of the Christians, they all fled,* 
 and they took me alone and brought me before 
 Tiberianus ^ the judge of Edessa. And he sub- 
 jected me to cruel tortures,^ and three times he 
 had me scourged publicly and without mercy, 
 thinking that he would turn my mind and make 
 me deny God ; ^ but I called upon the Father, and 
 
 * The Gk. om. words "we knew" down to "gods," and for "forty 
 days and forty nights " have merely ^(i^pas iKavAs. 
 
 ' The Gk. omits these details. ' ri Koivbv 6vo|ia. 
 
 * The Gk. runs : I am from the Lebanon, and as to my parents, my 
 father was called Berekkokius and my mother Rombyliana, and my 
 brother John. But he is also an underdeacon (inroSidKovos), and I 
 learned the physician's art, having been handed over to Macarius the 
 arch-physician. 
 
 * Gk. omits "they all fled." * Tiberius in Gk. 
 7 Gk. omits from " three times " to " God." 
 
Acts of S. ThalelcEus. 245 
 
 the Son, and the Holy Spirit/ and He saved me 
 from his lawless hands ; and now I have come 
 and am brought before thy court, by which it is 
 allotted to me to die for the name of my God. 
 Do with me what thou wilt, for Christ is near 
 who helps me."^ 
 
 The judge said : " Out upon thee, thou runa- 
 way; think not that thou art able to escape from 
 my hands." Thalelseus said : '' I believe in God, 
 that is Ruler of all, that He putteth not to shame 
 those who trust in Him in Christ, and those who 
 for His name, come to bear this testimony." 
 The judge said: With an awl do ye bore ^ 
 through his ancles and pass cords through them, 
 and drag him over the city ; since he is a runa- 
 way, and lest he escape from the emperors." 
 
 And they began to do so, but they wearied 
 and w^ere not able to. Then came the chief 
 Lictor and said : ''We pray thee, O Lord, from 
 dawn until now^ have we laboured, but have been 
 able to do nothing." The judge said : "Begin to 
 work afresh, to see if ye can bore them through." 
 And Asterius the carpenter came, and said : " As 
 thou didst command, we have bored through his 
 ancles, and have fastened them with thongs." 
 Theodorus the judge said : " Bring hither the 
 runaw^ay."^ And they brought him in. Then said 
 
 ^ Gk. adds '* the true God, the unerring, the creative, the good." 
 2 Gk. — " For 'tis right to die for Christ, whom I have to help me, the 
 heavenly God, " . 
 
 ^ TpT]0-OV €V TpVirCLVT). 
 
 "* Gk.=from the third hour to the sixth. 
 
 ^ The Greek omits from " Bring hither " as far as **my God." 
 
246 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 he to him: "Come and sacrifice to the gods 
 according to the command of the emperors, that 
 thou mayest be saved from the tortures that await 
 thee." Thalelseus said : ** I am a Christian, and 
 I do not worship idols, lest I should lose the 
 rewards promised me by God." The judge 
 said : '* Come, hang him head downwards, like one 
 of the mad knaves." But the servants of Satan 
 hung up the mere tree ; and the disciple of 
 Thalelaeus, Timotheus,^ said : " vSee what the min- 
 isters of Satan do." Thalelseus said : " Hush, 
 brother, for it is Christ who helpetbus, and maketh 
 their labour in vain." The judge said : " O wretch, 
 what is it ? did I not command you to hang 
 yonder man, and you have hung up and tortured 
 a mere tree,* and turned to ridicule the royal 
 commands." Asterius the carpenter said : "He 
 liveth, the Lord God of yonder believing man. I 
 do not transgress nor turn to ridicule your com- 
 mands ; but I too acknowledge Christ as king of 
 heaven and earth, in whom he also has his hope 
 and belief." 
 
 But Alexander the chief Lictor said : " Truly 
 we have seen a great glory by reason of this 
 blessed man, and we are not able to lay hands 
 upon him, because we too have believed in 
 Christ and are Christians, by whom receiving 
 the knowledge of the truth, we will become fellow- 
 sufferers of the holy Thalelaeus." But when the 
 judge saw this he was very wroth with them, and 
 
 ^ Gk. has Theotimus. ' (vXov iKpc)id(raT« simply. 
 
Acts of S. ThalelcBMS. 247 
 
 he roared like a lion and gnashed his teeth upon 
 them. But Asterius and Alexander fell to pray- 
 ing, and said : ''Lord God of the Christians, suffer 
 not that Satan should take captive and snatch 
 away the souls of Thy servants, who make their 
 confession to Thee." And when they had said 
 this, they fled from the presence of the judge. 
 But a certain Midos, from the court, came upon 
 them and slew them ; and then he came and 
 told the judge, saying : *' O Lord Judge, I came 
 upon them in the mountains, and took and slew 
 them with the sword, and cast forth their bodies 
 on the mountain, and the multitude saw all." ^ 
 
 The judge said : '' Which dost thou prefer, O 
 Thalelaeus, to sacrifice to the gods and be saved, 
 or to die a miserable death ? " Thalelaeus said : 
 '' Thou canst not persuade the servants of God to 
 sacrifice to vain demons and to their images ; 
 and I have no fear of thy tortures, for Christ is 
 near to me, who is my hope, and He will snatch 
 me from thy tortures." ^ Then the judge was 
 wroth, and rose of himself to torture the blessed 
 one ; but his hands were withered. Then the 
 ruler prayed and said : '' I beseech thee, servant 
 
 * This episode is much shorter in the Gk., which has Medius. It 
 however adds that the mountain where Asterius and Alexander were- 
 captured was fifty stades from the city and was the same on which Thale- 
 laeus had been taken. Asterius and Alexander are called speculatores. 
 
 '^ Here the Gk. adds a miracle and relates that the judge rose up to bore 
 through the saints' ankles (as if that had not already been done), but his 
 throne stuck to his hinder parts and only fell off because of the saint's inter- 
 cession. Undeterred, the judge again rose up in wrath to bore through 
 the saints' ankles, and then his hands *6|T]pdv0T]<rav. 
 
248 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 of the true God, pray for me that my hands may 
 be healed." And when Thalelaeus prayed, his 
 hands were healed ; and all wondered and began 
 to say : ** Great is the God of the Christians." 
 The judge said : ** Let a ship-captain be called." 
 And when he came, he said : " Cast yonder man 
 into the ship and carry him to the city of Siprus,^ 
 and there let him die, but let him not die by my 
 hands." Thalelaeus said : *' Thou didst make a 
 beginning, and from thee I receive my consumma- 
 tion " ; but they took him and threw him into the 
 ship. And as they were going on their way and 
 rowing, Thalelaeus said : *' Christ is able to turn 
 back the ship to the place where Theodorus 
 smote me." And as they went on their course, 
 there was a violent wind against them in the middle 
 of the sea ; and it turned back all the ships along 
 with that one in which was the holy Thalelaeus. 
 And when they came near to where there was 
 the tribunal, Thalelaeus cried out to the judge 
 and said : "Where then are thy gods, or where 
 is thy boasting 1 Behold, Christ hath turned 
 against thee and conquered thee, and hath 
 blunted the sting of Satan thy father."^ 
 
 The judge said : '' Behold, how that he hath 
 bewitched us and caused the ships to flee." ^ And 
 
 * The Gk. does not name any city. According to it the judge simply 
 orders the saint to be taken out to sea and thrown in, " that he may not 
 die by my hands " («ls toLs x^'-P^'* H^o^)* 
 
 ' Ace. to the Gk. the 8tJ)jiioi, or executioners, took Thalelaeus out to sea 
 as far as the judge ordered and then threw him in and returned. But the 
 saint shortly after presented himself before the judge, clad in a white robe. 
 
 ' TcL ircXdY^ i^irfkww Kal Vjf&ds Xoi8op«k. 
 
Acts of S. ThalelcEMs. 249 
 
 he ordered wizards ^ to be brought before him ; 
 and when they were brought in, Theodorus the 
 judge said : " What are we to do with him, for he 
 hath vanquished us with his wizardry ? Urbicus, 
 the wizard, answered : " This race of Christians 
 is full of sedition, and worthy of an evil death. 
 But do thou do that which I tell thee, and 
 quickly wilt thou destroy him. Make boards and 
 set sharp nails around as with a compass, and 
 nail the boards against the hair of his head ; and 
 then let him be dragged through the midst of the 
 city into the arena, and in that way the force of 
 his wizardry is broken. And thereafter let them 
 throw him to the wild beasts, that they may tear 
 his flesh." And then the judge in haste ordered 
 them to make a machine of nails and boards ; 
 and when they had made it they brought in the 
 holy Thalelaeus.^ And having spread out his 
 hands, he stood in prayer, and said: "O Lord 
 God, draw nigh to Thy servant, and vanquish the 
 evil designs of Satan, that Thy name may be 
 glorified in me, and that they may know the 
 impiety of their wickedness, and that it is no 
 wizardry, but the ineffable might of Thy God- 
 head." And when he had said this, they threw 
 him upon the tables and nailed them, and having 
 bound him, they dragged him through the middle 
 of the city to the arena. And the judge took his 
 
 ^ Md-yovs. 
 
 2 The Gk. omits all mention of the machine of torture. Urbicus 
 merely advises that Thalelaeus be thrown to the wild beasts. 
 
250 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 seat in the Arena,^ and said : ** Let it be pro- 
 claimed, that this is he who hath joined the evil 
 cult of the Christians." The guards say : ** But 
 we think that he is dead." The judge said : 
 " Warm a brand and make it like fire, and pierce 
 his side, for fear that he trick us." But the blessed 
 Thalelaeus made upon himself the sign of the holy- 
 cross of Christ, and moved himself and leaped up, 
 and broke all the bonds with which he was 
 fastened to the nails ; and he stood up amidst 
 them, and spoke to the tyrant and said : '' Blessed 
 is God, who has raised me from the dead and 
 hath put to shame the worshippers of the idols." 
 
 Then the judge commanded that they let loose 
 upon him wild beasts ; and a lioness came, but did 
 him no harm. And next he let loose upon him 
 a leopard, but the wild beasts came and lay at his 
 feet and fawned upon him.^ And the holy Thale- 
 laeus with a loud voice said : " Blessed are they 
 who believe in Christ ; blessed are they who with- 
 out looking back shall offer themselves to make 
 confession of Him. Blessed are they who shall 
 
 * The Gk. uses the Latin word Arena. It says nothing about Thalelaeus 
 arriving at the arena dead. On the contrary, the moment he arrives there 
 he is brought before the judge, who says : " Wilt thou now sacrifice, or shall 
 I give thy flesh to the wild beasts ? " The saint in reply quotes the psalms 
 of David. 
 
 * At this point, according to the Gk., the judge rises and declares that 
 Thalelaeus has bewitched the wild beasts, but the audience rise and cry : 
 •' Great is the God of the Christians," and demand that Urbicus be thrown 
 to the wild beasts, which is promptly done. Then the saint goes to «ls 
 T<Sirov 4ir{<rn|M)v 6v6}iaTi "ESto-o-av f^ris e'oTt t»v Al'yaCwv ir<$Xcws ; on 
 arriving there, he falls to praynig, an earthquake supervenes, the multitude 
 rush to be baptized, and the saint dies. Of what follows in the Arm. 
 text the shorter Greek Acts contain nothing. 
 
Acts of S. ThalelcBus. 251 
 
 give themselves to the torture for Christ's sake, 
 because they vanquish Satan." And when the 
 judge heard this, he said : '' How hath he be- 
 witched the wild beasts, by calling upon the name 
 of Christ." And he ordered them to bear him to 
 the wall of the arena, that all the population of the 
 town should stone him. 
 
 Then Thalelaeus cried out and said : " Al- 
 mighty Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, turn 
 away from me the threats of men, that they may 
 know that Thou alone art God, and that, besides 
 Thee, there is no other, and that I am Thy ser- 
 vant." And when he had said this and prayed, 
 the stones were turned back, and wounded many 
 of the impious ; but the saint was not wounded, 
 for he was overshadowed by the grace of Christ. 
 And the judge ordered him to be taken down, and 
 said to him : " Offer now sacrifice to the gods, for 
 by them art thou helped ; wherefore I also have 
 been patient with thee : but if thou wilt not, then 
 I swear by Asclepius,^ I will order thee to be put 
 to still more bitter torments." Thalelaeus said : 
 '* I am a Christian, and to demons I cannot sacri- 
 fice ; do as thou wilt, I have no fear of thy tor- 
 ments, since it is Christ who helpeth me." 
 
 Then the judge said : " Mix bitumen and rosin 
 and sulphur, and put it into an iron caldron, 
 and when it is boiling hot, then pour it over his 
 head." Thalelaeus said : *' I believe in my Lord 
 Jesus, who has helped me and will help me ; and 
 
 ^ Note that there was a temple of Asclepius in Aigai. 
 
 XTNIVERSITlT 
 
252 Monuments of Ea7^ly Christianity. 
 
 He it is who vanquishes thee through me ; but 
 thou art lawless, and blinded by impiety, so that 
 thou dost not see the help which Christ renders 
 me." Then they brought the caldron while it 
 was still boiling, and poured it over his head ; but 
 it was like cold water, and did not subdue him. 
 The judge said : '* By thy exceeding wizardry thou 
 dost conquer all men, and I have fears lest thou 
 shouldst bewitch us also, or persuade us." And he 
 bade them call Urbicus the wizard, and through 
 him he contended against the saint with all manner 
 of charms. But when Urbicus was vanquished in 
 all, the judge said : " Summon hither the enchan- 
 ters,^ Ilithopus and Karticur." And when they 
 were come before him, the judge said, *' What 
 shall we do with this Christian, for he will boast 
 that he has conquered us } Throw him therefore 
 among the wild beasts." But they said : *' Whole 
 days the wild beasts are here and have not tasted 
 him." Then said the judge : " Spare him not, but 
 cast him to the wild beasts that they may destroy 
 him." When they had cast him into the pit, the 
 wild beasts ran and fell at his feet, and licked his 
 feet and did him no harm. And there were in the 
 pit vipers and basilisks and horned snakes. And 
 the saint remained in the pit for three days and 
 for three nights and was ever glorifying God. 
 Then after three days the judge called the en- 
 chanters and asked them if the wild beasts had 
 
 ' Another MS. has Lydus. At this point a second MS. used for the 
 last half of the Armenian printed text begins. It varies a little in its text 
 from the MS. from which the first part of the Acts is printed. 
 
Acts of S. ThalelcBus. 253 
 
 destroyed that wizard. But the enchanters said : 
 ''We pray thee, according to thy command, we 
 cast him Into the pit, and he has lain among the 
 wild beasts for three days and three nights, but 
 they have not touched him. And meanwhile he, 
 without ceasing, day and night, continued to praise 
 the name of the Lord his God." 
 
 Then the judge wondered, and ordered him to 
 be brought In ; and when he came In before him, 
 the judge began to try to catch him by words, and 
 said : '* Come hither, good man, sacrifice to the 
 gods, acknowledge Hadrian, the autocrat, and I 
 dismiss thee." Thalelaeus said : ''Even before I 
 told thee, and now I tell thee again, I am a 
 Christian, and I deny not my God, and I sacrifice 
 not to stone Idols that are senseless and to foul 
 demons. And as to Hadrian, an impious man, 
 why dost thou constrain me ; because I acknow- 
 him not, but that I say which I know, that he Is aj 
 lawless, and impious, and unholy and crafty^ 
 man." Theodorus the judge said: "Thou 
 dost not escape from my hands, till I have exacted 
 from thee vengeance for the gods whom thou hast 
 blasphemed and Insulted, contemning our judg- 
 ments." Then he ordered a furnace to be heated, 
 and they heated It to excess. And there came one 
 Claudlanus ^ from the court and said to the judge : 
 " The oven hath been heated until It glows with 
 the white radiance of fire." Then the judge 
 ordered them to cast Thalelaeus into the furnace 
 
 * The other MS. here omits the name Claudianus. 
 
2 54 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 together with his seven companions who bore the 
 name of Christians, and whose names are the fol- 
 lowing : Narcissus,^ Thetius, Acastasia, Philadus, 
 Macarias, Theodula, and Anastasia. And the exe- 
 cutioners took Thalelseus and his companions who 
 had suffered many tortures for the name of the 
 Lord, and threw them into the furnace ; but they 
 continued to praise and glorify God, who made 
 them worthy thus to die and attain to the heavenly 
 crown. And they embraced one another, man 
 with man, and woman with woman, and they cried 
 out and said : " O Thou who wast the Protector 
 of the three children in the furnace, preserve us 
 that we remain scatheless in this fire, and receive 
 our spirits, O Thou that art holy and true ; and 
 set us in the ranks of Thy saints in the tents of 
 light, in order that we may without ceasing glorify 
 Father and Son and Thy Holy Spirit, now and 
 for ever. Amen." And having said all this, they 
 gave up their souls into the hand of the Lord. 
 And on a sudden there was a sound of thunder 
 and lightnings and heavy rains, and the fire was ex- 
 tinguished. But the judge fainted from fear, and 
 called out, saying : ** Woe to me, a sinner, because 
 I have offended God, and done ill to His saints." 
 And in a few days He was removed from life ; and 
 many believed on the Lord. 
 
 I, Tanebus, the slave of the Holy Thalelaeus, 
 took the bodies of the saints, and I laid them in a 
 
 * The other MS. gives Macarius, Thestus, Astenus, Philidus, Macaria, 
 Theodula, and Acastis. The MS. ends here from which the first part of 
 these Acts is printed. 
 
Ac^s of S. ThalelcBus. 255 
 
 tomb at the head of the circus, near to the Temple 
 of Hadrian. Whereby God is continually glorified 
 in the sufferings of His holy martyrs, and bestows 
 healing upon spirit and flesh, to them that build 
 up the memorials of the saints, who truly glorify 
 the Lordship of the Three Persons and the single 
 Godhead, now and for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
ACTS OF S. HIZTIBOUZIT. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 The following piece is in the main historical and preserves an 
 
 interesting picture of the condition of the province of Ararat 
 
 during the last years of Chosrow. The 
 
 martyrdom of the saint fell in the forty-third these Acts 
 
 year of Chosrow, son of Kavat, or Kobad, as 
 
 Gibbon spells the name. This king reigned a.d. 531-579, so 
 
 the saint's death fell in the last part of the reign, about a.d. 
 
 574. 
 
 The opening statement, that during this reign the confession 
 of Christ was more than ever persecuted, is not altogether borne 
 out by the subsequent course of the narrative. 
 The two fellow-prisoners of the martyr answer Condition of 
 the judge that they were Christians by birth under Chos- 
 and upbringing, as if that were a sufficient row the First, 
 defence. We do not hear of their death, so 
 we may almost conclude that they were liberated after a further 
 short term of incarceration. The two men crucified with the 
 saint are declared to have been malefactors, and therefore did 
 not suffer as Christians. Indeed one is a Jew, whose offer, 
 when about to be crucified, to embrace Magism, is no indica- 
 tion that the Persian authorities were putting him to death 
 because he refused to become a fire-worshipper. If the touch 
 be anything more than a bit of spite against the Jews on the 
 part of the Christian narrator, it simply proves this, that con- 
 version to Magism earned for a Jew, condemned for some other 
 offence, a title to clemency. It is not clear from the narrative 
 why the executioners did not understand him. Probably it 
 was because he did not speak their tongue. The whole inci- 
 dent is likely enough, for the Persian realm was full of Jews. 
 
258 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 It is clear that the triple crucifixion of the three condemned 
 
 men on a hill, with their faces to the sun, was by way of a 
 
 sacrifice to the god of light and warmth. 
 
 Significance There was, it is true, a tendency on the part 
 
 of the triple r ,^ •. r . ^ . 1 
 
 crucifixion. °^ °^^ writers of martyrdoms to make a 
 
 saint's death resemble as much as possible 
 the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. This tendency has been 
 noticed by Lightfoot in his book on the Apostolical Fathers as 
 at work in the narrative of Polycarp's death. In the story of 
 the death of S. Theodore the Soldier the same tendency has 
 clearly led to the addition of some fabulous details. But we 
 need not therefore reckon as fabulous the triple crucifixion of 
 these Acts, for it was quite in accordance with the old Persian 
 custom of human sacrifice. Thus in Ctesias (frag. 36) we read 
 that the Egyptian usurper Inarus was crucified by Artaxerxes 
 the First between two thieves. Similarly Masabates (Plutarch, 
 Artaxerxes) the Eunuch, who cut off the head and right hand 
 of the usurper Cyrus, was by order of the latter's mother 
 crucified on three crosses. The number three was specially 
 efificacious in human sacrifices. Thus the Athenians before 
 the battle of Salamis sacrificed to Dionysus three Persian 
 prisoners of royal blood. ^ And in the legend of S. Pancrazio 
 of Taormina, the demon Falco whom the saint expels, has 
 had offered up to him by the city three spotless children every 
 year for 260 years. The Acts before us prove that such triple 
 human sacrifices were in vogue among the Persian fire-wor- 
 shippers as late as the end of Khosrow's reign. In stating 
 therefore that the martyr was offered up as a sacrifice the 
 narrative probably states no more than the truth. It is even 
 possible that this martyrdom was a survival of the festival of 
 Sakaea, of which we read in Arrian and Dio Chrysostom and 
 
 * I owe these parallels to my friend Mr. W. R. Paton who has suggested 
 with much probability that the crucifixion of Jesus was intended by the 
 Syrian soldiers, who performed it, as an expiatory sacrifice to a triple god. 
 His arrayal in a royal robe and diadem makes this almost certain, for such 
 was the regular ritual of oriental human sacrifice then and earlier, as we 
 know from Strabo, Arrian and Dio Chrysostom. 
 
•*: 
 
 Acts of S. Hiztibouzit. 259 
 
 Strabo, at which it was usual to select some prisoner who had 
 
 been condemned to death, to surround him 
 
 for a short time with the insignia of royalty, , Ritual of 
 
 , . , ° . ^ . human sacri- 
 
 settmg a crown on his head and arraymg fice in Persia. 
 
 him in purple. When the hour of death 
 came he was deprived of his royal vesture, was scourged and 
 buffeted and crucified. It was very natural to select as a 
 piacular offering to the god a priest of the fire-worship who 
 had apostatised to Christianity. Perhaps even the vision of 
 the saint in prison, wherein some smote the saint on the head 
 with a rod till the blood flowed down over his eyes, while 
 others, three in number and radiant with light, set a crown of 
 jewels on his head, is a reminiscence of some similar ritual 
 procedure having been followed in regard to this saint. Per- 
 haps however this is to force a narrative which has the air of 
 being faithful and trustworthy in all respects. The city of 
 Twin or Dwin lay in the basin of the Araxes, not far from the 
 present monastery of Edschmiadzin. In the sixth century it 
 was the chief religious centre of the Armenians, and the seat 
 of their Patriarchate. We gather from this narrative that they 
 there enjoyed complete freedom of worship. It was however 
 an arch offence for a priest of the sacred fire to become a 
 Christian. 
 
 The details of the fire-ritual are very correctly given in these 
 Acts, as will be seen by a comparison of it with the following 
 description which I quote freely from the 
 work of Madame Zenaide A. Ragozin on Persian Fire- 
 Media : " The athravan or fire-priest stood ^^ c^tury.^ 
 in flowing white robes, the lower part of his 
 face veiled with the paitidana or penom, to keep his . breath 
 from polluting the sacred fire. He stood before the atesh-gah 
 or fire-altar, which was a metal vessel placed on a low stone 
 platform and filled with ashes, on the top of which burned the 
 fire of dry and fragrant wood-chips. ... In one hand he 
 carried the khrafstraghna, an instrument of unknown form for 
 illing snakes, frogs, and ants ; in the other the baresma, a 
 undle of twigs, uneven in number — five, seven, or nine — prob- 
 ably divining rods, without which the priest never appeared 
 
26o Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 in public." These rods were originally from the tamarind or 
 pomegranate tree ; and the modern Parsee priest has prosaic 
 ally substituted for them a bundle of rods of brass wire. The 
 offering made to the fire was a little wine, along with a few bits 
 of meat, and at the present day a little milk is offered in a cup 
 with cakes and fruit. The offering which the priests were 
 making in these Acts must have consisted of butter, probably 
 of ghee or clarified butter ; ^ otherwise the flames could hardly 
 have leapt up to the roof of the room in which they were cele- 
 brating their ritual. The picture of the fire-worship preserved 
 in these Acts is all the more interesting on account of the 
 scarcity of contemporary Persian records of the cult. The 
 name which the Parsee assumes upon conversion is Persian, 
 and Hizti the first syllable is the same as the familiar Yezid, 
 the Persian for God. 
 
 ^ I owe this suggestion to the Rev. Dr. Mills, of Oxford. 
 
MARTYRDOM OF SAINT HIZTIBOUZIT. 
 
 During the reign of Khosrow, son of Kavat, the 
 King of Persia, the confession of Christ was more 
 than ever persecuted ; and not a few were martyred 
 in Persia and at the royal court. At that time 
 there was a certain man Makhosh, a Magus of 
 that same land, from the region which is called 
 Bershapouh, from a village of the name of Koun- 
 arastan, whose parents were ministers of the fire- 
 worship, and who was himself from childhood 
 trained in Magism. And he was strong in counsel 
 and learned in all the lore and wisdom of the 
 fire-worshippers. He by a certain chance came 
 to the camp of the king, and witnessed the suffer- 
 ings of a certain holy martyr, whose name was 
 Gregorius ; and he marvelled at the boldness of 
 the champion of faith, and was emulous thereof, 
 and said, in his heart : '' O Lord God of the Chris- 
 tians, look upon me and shew me a path on 
 which to set my feet, and open to me the door of 
 pity along with Thy champion ; in order that I 
 may become worthy of Thy kingdom, who art 
 Lord of heaven and earth." But on the same 
 night a wondrous vision appeared to him ; for he 
 was as it were in a holy church, and a certain 
 man robed in white appeared to him and said : 
 
 " Blessed art thou, that thou hast become worthy 
 
 261 
 
262 Momiments of Early Christianity. 
 
 of the light-giving church ; for thou shalt believe, 
 henceforth in God the Creator of heaven and 
 earth, and in His Son of like power with Him, 
 and in the Spirit who shares His works, and thou 
 shalt learn thereof from the tradition of the holy- 
 gospel." And he marvelled and understood the 
 dream, and believed with whole heart and said : 
 ** The God of the Christians is a true God " ; and 
 thenceforth he repented of his magism. 
 
 He went thence into the land of Siuni, devoting 
 himself to the hearing of the holy scriptures ; 
 and after being there a few months he came to 
 Armenia ; and having come into the region of 
 Ararat, he dwelt in the chief town of the Ar- 
 menians in Dvin, accompanying a certain Ar- 
 menian who believed with^ the Magi and whose 
 name was Khosrow Peroz. But he (the saint) 
 treated his Magism with contempt and neglected 
 it. And it was in the winter time, in Mehekan,^ 
 at the beginning of the Persian month, and ac- 
 cording to their custom, they were offering fatty 
 sacrifices to the fire in the palace of their co- 
 religionist. And the blessed Makhosh was stand 
 ing with them at the spectacle, with his mouth 
 closed with a mask. But the flame leaped up 
 from the fat and reached the roof of the house 
 and blazed up. Then the Magi gathered up the 
 
 * I have so rendered the word "hamakar." But I am not sure that I 
 have given the true sense of this sentence. Khosrow Peroz may have 
 been a convert to Magism from Christianity. His wife was anyhow a 
 Christian. 
 
 * Mehekan was the seventh month in the Armenian calendar. 
 
Acts of S. Hiztibouzit. 263 
 
 sacrifice, and tried to extinguish the fire, but could 
 not ; and then they ran out and told what had 
 happened. But he that was governor of the Ar- 
 menians, when he heard the sound of the tumult, 
 came in haste to the door of the church, and 
 began to urge the officiating priests to take the 
 Holy Cross and bear it to the palace, if, per- 
 adventure, the fire might be driven back ; for he 
 in his straits believed against his will. Then the 
 ministrants took the symbols of the holy cross 
 and came quickly to the spot ; and when the cross 
 was come opposite the palace, the flame had 
 spread and was dying out everywhere. This 
 great sign was wrought by the precious holy 
 cross in the land of Armenia, to the joy of the 
 true worshippers and confusion of idolatry. Now 
 the wife of the co-religionist, when she beheld, 
 sent a great thankoffering to the attendants of 
 the wonder-working holy cross. But the blessed 
 Makhosh took to heart such wonders and broke 
 the rod^ wherewith he divined and cast it away, 
 likewise, also, the mask for his mouth ; and he 
 took and placed his censer in the hands of the 
 deacon and scattered incense before the holy 
 cross, so making manifest the faith which he had 
 in Christ. And he followed the attendants of the 
 cross and said : '* Pray to God for me, because I 
 too am a Christian." But when the Magi saw 
 this, they said to him, '' Why hast thou dared to 
 do this ? " The blessed one said : '* For a long 
 
 ^ The Armenian signifies a bough or bundle o ftwigs. 
 
264 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 time I have confessed to the Christians, and was, 
 with reluctance, a Magus ; but now I openly preach 
 the faith which is in Christ ; and I will not any 
 longer minister to fire, now that I have seen all 
 those wonders." 
 
 The next day at dawn the Magi came before 
 the governor of the Armenians, who was called 
 Nikhorakan, and accused the saint. And when 
 he was brought before him, the judge said : " Woe 
 to thee, wretch, why dost thou forsake the Magism 
 of thy forefathers to become a madman and a 
 breaker of vows ? " The blessed one made answer 
 and said : '' I tell thee truly, O judge, concerning 
 myself, that during twenty-five years I have pro- 
 fessed a vain heresy ; but now I have come to 
 learn of the true God, and have put away the 
 polytheism of my forefathers. Wherefore, hence- 
 forth, the deceits of life shall not part me from 
 this faith, for I am ready to bear the appointed^ 
 tortures." Then the governor was angry and 
 ordered the blessed saint to be scourged twelve 
 times over ; and he shaved off his beard and hair 
 and wrote out his sentence,^ and, binding him 
 hands and feet, he cast him into prison. But in 
 the prison the saint found a sharer of his plight 
 in one whose name was Nerses, who had been 
 bound for a long time in the prison because of 
 God. And from him the blessed one learned the 
 holy faith and twenty psalms ; and thus he wor- 
 shipped without ceasing and prayed to God. 
 
 * Apostasy from the fire-cult was therefore a recognised offence. 
 ' The Arm. =:** quest ion," but I have given what must be the sense. 
 
Acts of S. Hiztibouzit. 265 
 
 After a little time one named Nakhapet^ suc- 
 ceeded to Nikhorakan ; and when he had taken his 
 seat in the court of judgment, they brought Mak- 
 hosh before him. Said the Nakhapet : " How 
 hast thou dared to abandon the god of thy fathers 
 and to put thy faith in the unknown Christ ?" The 
 blessed one replied : " There is one Creator of all, 
 who hath regard to all doers of good works ; 
 Who saw that my soul was weary of the cere- 
 monies of polytheism, and guided me to a know- 
 ledge of the true God." Then the Nakhapet was 
 wroth and ordered him to be violently scourged, 
 and they bound him with iron fetters and cast him 
 into prison. And he remained in prison for an- 
 other three years, and he besought the priest that 
 he might receive of him the seal of the Lord (i.e. 
 baptism), and that he might be named Hiztibouzit, 
 which is, when translated. Given by God : that 
 is to say, saved by God, which name the Holy 
 Spirit pictured to them. By the which Spirit also 
 he was strengthened in prison, and he took and 
 gave his garments to the poor, and himself wore 
 goatskin and coarse sandals. And thus he con- 
 tinued to watch with prayer and fasting, singing 
 without ceasing the psalms of his fair religion. 
 But after the lapse of another three years, the 
 Nakhapet was succeeded by one whom they called 
 Knaric. A certain scribe of his came to the 
 prison and tried to ensnare the blessed one, and 
 said to him : '' For thee alone the land of the 
 
 ^ Nakhapet is old Armenian for "prince." It is here less a proper 
 name perhaps than an official designation. 
 
 ttniversitt) 
 
266 Monuments of Ea^^ly Christianity, 
 
 Arians was not sufficient, that thou hast gone 
 astray from Magism, driving thyself a captive 
 from the whole land, and straying from thy re- 
 ligion." The saint gave answer and said : '' All 
 who lack knowledge by nature wait upon the 
 craftsmen who have it, and the animals are the 
 slaves of their owners. Even so men ought to 
 serve God alone, their Maker. Wherefore I, 
 also, in my negligence have been the servant of 
 vanity ; but when God took pity on me, He took 
 my thoughts and enchained them with the love 
 of His commandments, and bathed them in the 
 hope of His grace, which the temptations of life 
 will not avail to change." But when the scribe of 
 the court heard this, he leapt to his feet with rage, 
 and began to beat him mercilessly with a club. 
 And he inflicted many other tortures of various 
 kinds upon the saint, that he might persuade him 
 to keep his Magism. 
 
 At that time the king heard of the much violence 
 and sufferings which his officers inflicted upon the 
 land of the Armenians, and he sent three rulers, 
 trusty men, to inspect the country ; the name of 
 one was Nati, which is called Drowandacan, and 
 of the second Peroz, who was chief Magus of the 
 district Rei, and of the third Choyap, who was a 
 royal minister ; and these came into Armenia and 
 worked many reforms. But on a certain day 
 they held a public assembly, and were sitting in 
 the court of justice about the edict of the king. 
 At that same time some impious men gave in- 
 formation to the rulers, saying : " There are three 
 
Acts of S. HiztiboMzit. 267 
 
 men in prison who have abandoned our religion 
 and have embraced Christianity ; one Nerses, a 
 Rajik, and one Sahak, from Atropatacan, and Hiz- 
 tibouzit, a Persian." And they commanded that 
 they bring them before them. The chief Magus 
 said to Nerses : " Why hast thou become a Chris- 
 tian ?" The saint answered : " My mother was a 
 Christian, and from my childhood I was brought 
 up in the Christian faith ; I know not your religion 
 at all." Then they put the question to Sahak, and 
 he said : " From my childhood I had become a 
 Christian." But the blessed Hiztibouzit stood be- 
 hind, and in a weak voice he was singing the 
 sixth Psalm : ''O Lord rebuke me not in Thy anger, 
 neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure." And 
 the judge separated them, and said to Hiztibouzit : 
 " Woe to thee, wretch, why hast thou abandoned 
 the religion of light and believed in the dark and 
 obscure faith of Christianity, and that after thou 
 hadst zealously sacrificed to fire ?" The saint re- 
 plied : "Aye, after sacrificing, and I know Magism 
 better than thyself; and if thou command me to 
 speak and make it clear, thou shalt learn how 
 much better is Christianity than all the ceremonies 
 which I have explored and clearly comprehended. 
 Christianity alone has the power to save from the 
 terrible death." And when the chief Magus heard 
 this, he ordered his servants to rend the saint's 
 tunic and to tear off his cowl ; and they beat the 
 head of the blessed one and tore out his beard 
 by the roots. And once more they ordered that 
 the three blessed ones be kept safe for three days ; 
 
2 68 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 and after that they brought them up, but could 
 not persuade them. Then they confined them in 
 a single house without food ; and the chief Magus 
 gave orders to send up smoke all the night. ^ The 
 saints, in their torment, cried out and said : " O 
 God, look upon us to help us, and, O Lord, hasten 
 to assist us." And thus they continued to sing 
 hymns until the dawn. And they remained in 
 the prison ten days ; but on a certain night, on 
 the Lord's day, on the which Hiztibouzit was to 
 suffer martyrdom, a vision appeared to him. A 
 certain man had in his hand a rod, and touched 
 him on the head therewith ; and the blood flowed 
 down between his eyes. And then there appeared 
 three radiant men, who drove away the man who 
 struck him, and bringing a crown of choice pearls 
 set it on his head. But he was overjoyed and 
 told his companions ; and they knew^ that his hour 
 was come. And at early morn there came trusty 
 men to take the saints to the prison, and the 
 chief executioner came to the prison to lead him 
 away, and he bade farewell to his brethren and de- 
 parted. But as he went he continued to sing the 
 fourth Psalm, beginning it as he left the prison, 
 and going on till he came to the place where was 
 the court : "When I cried out Thou didst hear 
 me according to Thy righteousness, from my tri- 
 bulation didst Thou give me peace." And having 
 finished the psalm he came to the place of the 
 
 * Whether by way of torturing the confined saints or simply as a 
 religious function is not clear, nor is it clear who sent up the smoke. 
 Presumably the Magi with their censers. 
 
Acts of S. Hiztibouzit, 269 
 
 court. And when the Christians heard, they all 
 ran together to behold the combat and victory of 
 the saint. But the holy HIztlbouzIt stood up 
 before the four judges. And they prepared three 
 crosses for those condemned to death. And when 
 these were brought forward, the chief Magus said 
 to the saint : " Dost thou behold yon trees, upon 
 which thou art about to die ? Have pity on thy- 
 self, neither persist In thy obstinacy." The saint 
 made answer : " Nay, all the more am I set firm In 
 Christ, who Is my hope ; but do thou fulfil that 
 which Is commanded thee concerning me." And 
 he ordered him to be crucified ; and the saint 
 with ready heart and joyful mind went to the 
 cross, and they took from him and deprived him 
 of what poor raiments he had. The blessed one 
 said : " This is as It should be, for my Lord's Son, 
 the only-born Saviour, when by His own will He 
 was crucified, was nailed naked upon the Cross, 
 in order that He might put on the nakedness of 
 our first father, who will give me also strength to 
 overcome In my body the deceits of Satan." And 
 having stretched himself out upon the tree he be- 
 gan to say the forty-third Psalm : " Arise, O Lord, 
 and help us and save us because of Thy name ; we 
 were numbered as sheep for slaughter." But when 
 the cross was set up the chief of the Magi sent 
 to him. In the hope that he might be converted. 
 But the saint spurned his message and gave no 
 answer ; and remained tied to the cross in the 
 crowded court, and they pierced his side with 
 arrows (or javelins). 
 
270 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 It chanced upon the same day that they crucified 
 two men condemned to death, and these they 
 crucified along with him. One of them was of 
 the tribe of Khoujik ; and he when he was brought 
 to the cross kissed the feet of the holy martyr, 
 and taking up the clay mixed with the blood 
 which trickled from the martyr, he plunged it in 
 his bosom. But the chief executioner struck him 
 on the head with his fist, and they crucified him 
 on the right hand of the martyr, and into him 
 they drove the javelin^ and so he yielded up his 
 spirit. But the other one was a Jew, who when 
 they brought him to the cross, cried out to the 
 judges : " Destroy me not, I embrace Magism." 
 But the judges did not understand him, and they 
 hung him on the tree to the left of the saint. 
 And the blessed one was thus offered up as a 
 sacrifice between two malefactors on a hill top, 
 opposite the sun and before all the multitude. 
 
 And therein lay a wonderful mystery ; for there 
 was remembered unto him the word of the Lord, 
 according to the true promise which says that : 
 *' He who belie veth in Me, the work which I do, 
 he also shall do, and still greater things than that." 
 And the apostle says : '* Whom Thou foreknewest, 
 Thou didst predestine to be sharers of the likeness 
 of the image of Thine own Son." And thus the 
 holy Hiztibouzit bravely suffered martyrdom in 
 the forty-third year of King Khosrow, on the 
 second day of the month Kalotz, on the Lord's 
 
 ^ Cp. Jno. £v., 19, 34, and the Introduction, p. 258. 
 
Acts of S. Hiztibouzit. 271 
 
 day, at the third hour. And it was ordered that 
 they should keep the body of the blessed one 
 upon the tree. But the faithful, by the help of 
 God, took the body of the saint and wrapped it 
 in precious raiment and deposited it in a resting- 
 place with brilliant honours, celebrating as a 
 festival with great joy the day on which the light 
 thus shone and rejoiced the souls of orthodox 
 believers ; inasmuch as it is meet to render 
 to the Saviour of all, Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 together with the one Almighty Father and Holy 
 Spirit, glory and honour now and for ever. 
 
ACTS OF S. CALLISTRATUS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The following martyrdom has hitherto been known through 
 the text of the metaphrast alone ; of which the Latin form 
 published in the Acta Sanctorum under 
 Sept. 26th (Sept. vii. 190) is no more than These Acts 
 a translation. From a comparison of the taiiedbv^Wie 
 Armenian text with that of the metaphrast metaphrast. 
 we are able to learn how much of its local 
 colour and freshness, as well as of the actual history and doc- 
 trine which it contained, might disappear from an earlier docu- 
 ment, when it was revised and cut down by the tenth-century 
 editor. The metaphrast's recension moreover seems to have 
 effectually supplanted all earlier texts ; for an early eleventh 
 century codex in the Bodleian library (Cod. Or. Baroc. 230) 
 merely gives the metaphrast's form just as it is printed in the 
 Migne's Patrologia Grceca. Nor is there any trace of an early 
 Latin form, though the Armenian text states that it was 
 originally written in that language. 
 
 There is a homily of Basil the Great (Migne, Patrol. Gr. 
 xxxi., p. 149) entitled : cis tov<^ ay iovi reaa-apaKovTa />iapTvpa9, 
 which some have referred to Callistratus and 
 his companions. But Calhstratus and his I^ot known to 
 r 11 4. jir^ J r • Basil the 
 
 fellow-martyrs were fifty and not forty m Great. 
 
 number, nor is there a single feature in 
 common between the very vague and rhetorical account of 
 Basil and these Acts. Basil does not mention a single name, 
 and all that we can gather from his homily is that forty soldiers 
 were, under some emperor who is not named and in some city 
 which is not specified, marched out naked on a cold winter's 
 night across a frozen lake, were exposed to the tortures of cold 
 
2 74 Monuments of Early ChHstianity. 
 
 and then marched back and burned alive ; the mother of one 
 of them urging her son, who shrank back, to share the fate of 
 his comrades. It is clear that Basil's forty martyrs were not 
 those to whom our Acts refer. 
 
 There are many points of interest in this piece to which we 
 will now briefly allude. There is first the curious story of the 
 martyr's ancestor, Neocoros as the Greek 
 Allusion to calls him, or Ocorus according to the Ar- 
 Tradition as menian, who had been at Jerusalem an eye- 
 opposed to r y ^ -i \ • r 
 
 books. Witness of the death and resurrection of 
 
 Jesus, and then returning to his city had 
 
 bequeathed his testimony and teaching to his descendants. 
 
 Though we may rightly put aside as fable such a story, yet it 
 
 seems to indicate that in many regions, down to even late in 
 
 the third century, the Christian tenets were passed on from 
 
 father to son not through books, but by oral tradition.^ Had 
 
 this not been the case, such a story as the above could not 
 
 have found its way into our narrative ; for the idea of private 
 
 oral tradition as opposed to the written gospel must have been 
 
 familiar to the minds of the readers to whom these Acts were 
 
 addressed. Nor are there wanting signs of 
 
 Evidence of j.j^g j^j-g promulgation in some parts of the 
 
 earlv Acts to * 
 
 proves the ancient world of our present gospels. In 
 
 general dif- Africa, for example, we have the admission of 
 
 fusion of Cyprian that the apostolical teaching of the 
 
 anomca ^^^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^ Jesus in the last Supper was 
 
 have been late, not known in the diocese of Carthage until 
 
 his own generation. This implies that the 
 
 synoptic gospels were not known in Africa before the third 
 
 century. Callistratus refers to the Gospel of John, but not to 
 
 the synoptics. In the Acts of Indus and Domna we hear that 
 
 the Acts of the Apostles and of the fourteen Epistles of Paul 
 
 were in the hands of the martyrs in question, but not it seems 
 
 ^ Clem. Alex., Strom., lib. i. p. 275, ed. Paris. 'AXX* 01 ft^v Tf|v dXri^ 
 Tfjs (laKopCas <rwtovT€S 8i8acrKaX£as irapdSoo-iv, €v0vs ciiro II^Tpou tc Kal 
 'laKwpov, 'ludwov n Kal IlavXov, rdiv clyCwv dirooToXwv, irais irapd 
 irarpos 4k8cx<$H^vos (oXC-yoi h\ ol irarpdo-iv 8p,oioi), tJkov 8f| <rvv 0€«{i Kal 
 </< i\^hs rd irpcyoviKd <K«iva Kal d-iroflrroXiKd KaTaBrjo-dficvoi <nr<pp*iTa. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 275 
 
 any written gospel. And it may be remarked that these two 
 saints celebrated their Eucharist with water, as did the Cartha- 
 ginian churches, until Cyprian promulgated among them the 
 " apostolical " teaching as to the use of bread and wine. The 
 hero of the Acts before us, Callistratus, seems in the same way 
 to have used water in his Eucharist ; so we may infer from the 
 passage on p. 292. All the passages relating to the diffusion 
 of the N. T. Scriptures which are contained in trustworthy 
 martyrdoms need to be carefully collected and the results 
 tabulated ; so as to gain an idea of what writings were diffused 
 and where. It would seem as if the martyrs often had the 
 apocryphal gospels. For example, Callistratus certainly had 
 the Descent into Hell and the Gospel of the Infancy, preserved 
 to us in Arabic and Armenian. S. Polyeuctes of Melitene 
 similarly must have had the Acts of Pilate or some such Scrip- 
 ture, which he called " the history of Christ." S. Eugenia at 
 Alexandria about 200 a.d. had a gospel, but her citation does 
 not agree with our existing gospels. And to speak generally, 
 it must strike every reader of the older martyrdoms that the 
 writings best known to the saints were not the canonical 
 gospels, but the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms. Of the 
 canonical gospels, that of John seems to have been diffused 
 before the others. 
 
 The statement met with in chap. III. (p. 293) of these Acts as 
 to the language in which they were first written presents dififi- 
 culty. The Latin words in which the cap- 
 tain addresses Callistratus are transliterated "Were these 
 
 in the Armenian, and the fellow-soldiers of 4-f *^ origm- 
 ^ „. ' • c ^ cr ally written 
 
 Callistratus answer the question of the officer ^^ Latin ? 
 
 as to who is the delinquent also in Latin : 
 "bonus miles." Then the narrative continues; "which is 
 translated Callistratus. And the captain commanded him to 
 be brought before him, and said to him in the Roman tongue, 
 for the captain could not understand Greek, because the 
 Romans cannot at once speak Greek on account of the rich- 
 ness of the tongue. And he said to him : Quid dicunt socii 
 propter te, celerius die. Which is translated : What do thy 
 companions say about thee, quickly say. This history," the 
 
 mriV^ERSITY 
 
276 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Acts proceed, " was written in the Roman tongue, et cet." 
 From the whole passage we learn — 
 
 1. That the captain only spoke Latin and did not under- 
 stand Greek. 
 
 2. The rank and file could answer the captain in Latin. 
 
 3. These Acts were originally written in Latin. 
 
 But we are left in doubt as regards the following points : — 
 
 1. Did the rank and file talk Greek among themselves, only 
 answering their officer in Latin ? 
 
 2. Was the language into which the Acts were " learnedly " 
 translated Greek ? 
 
 3. Who are the " we " for whom the Acts were translated 
 and who, on receiving them, disseminated them, retaining how- 
 ever the Latin words which still appear even in the Armenian ? 
 
 Question (2) must certainly receive an affirmative answer. 
 Question (i) is not so easy of answer. The use of the singular 
 verb: "for the captain did not understand Greek," perhaps 
 implies that the common soldiers did understand Greek and 
 were Greeks. Their names given in chap. VIIL are for the 
 most part Greek names. It is supposed by the BoUandist 
 editor that they came from the Greek city Chalcedon, oppo- 
 site Constantinople, and that the city of Rome where the 
 martyrdom took place is Constantinople. The Arm. reads 
 Chalcedon. 
 
 On the other hand, if so, why were the original Acts written 
 
 in Latin ? The statement that they were so, points rather to 
 
 Carthage as the region whence these recruits 
 
 WasCallis- ^^^ y^^^^^ \qV\^^ against their will, and to 
 tratus a 
 Carthaginian? Rome in Italy as the scene of the martyr- 
 dom. The metaphrast reads Kapx'i^<^»'- 
 Nor are we helped to a decision by the notice near the end 
 of the Acts to the effect that "a scribe of the court listened 
 to the words of Callistratus during the night, and wrote them 
 down on paper in shorthand and gave them to us and we 
 arranged truly the history of the meditation (? = ^irtriyScv- 
 /xaro?)." Is this " we " the same as the former '* we " ? Pro- 
 bably not. Rather it must be the author of the Latin Acts 
 who "arranged the history"; and the former '•^we'' must refer 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 277 
 
 to the persons who got these translated into Greek and dis- 
 seminated them among the faithful. 
 
 I am inclined on the whole to think that the Carchedon of 
 these Acts was Carthage in Africa, and that the martyrdom 
 was in Rome. If the original Acts were in Latin, then 
 Callistratus must have spoken in Latin, and the shorthand 
 writer who took him down must have taken him down in 
 Latin. But this is unlikely to have been 
 the case in Constantinople. It is true that The Scene of 
 Callistratus in chap. v. is cast into the sea, t> ^^ ^^ q^ 
 and that this could have occurred at Con- stantinople? 
 stantinople, but not in Rome. But firstly, 
 this entire incident is so mixed up with fable, that we are 
 probably entitled to regard it as an interpolation absent from 
 the original Latin text ; and, secondly, the forty-nine fellow- 
 sufferers of the saint are thrown into a lake, columbethra or 
 piece of artificial water, which was called Oceanus. There is 
 nothing to prevent there having been such a columbethra in 
 Rome, though I can find no trace of it in the works of 
 archaeologists. Could one identify this detail either in Rome 
 or Constantinople the whole question would be settled. 
 
 There is one statement which favours the view that 
 Constantinople was the scene of the martyrdom, namely that 
 " we built in Rome in the name of the Holy CaUistratus a 
 place of expiation for sinners and a meeting-house of union 
 for angels and men." For we hear of no Church of Callistratus 
 in Rome, but we do hear of one in Constantinople. 
 
 The above discussion has a bearing on the date at which 
 
 these Acts had assumed the form in which the Armenian 
 
 presents them. If Constantinople was the 
 
 scene of martyrdom, then as Constantine Date of these 
 
 Acts A D 
 did not invent the title of New Rome till 300-350.' 
 
 A.D. 325, these Acts must be subsequent to 
 
 that date. On the other hand if the old Rome was the scene, 
 
 then they may have been composed a little earlier. The 
 
 extreme importance attached to a right understanding of the 
 
 dogma of the Trinity indicates that they were composed 
 
 between a.d. 300 and 350. But one does not know whether 
 
278 Montcments of Early Christianity, 
 
 or not to attribute the whole of these lengthy dogmatic 
 
 disquisitions to the martyr about to die. They impress me 
 
 personally as the genuine discourse delivered by him, merely 
 
 arranged and touched up by a second hand. 
 
 However this may be, these Acts still retain their value as a 
 
 picture of the mind and character of an early fourth-century 
 
 saint. Of peculiar interest is the admixture in his creed of 
 
 elements drawn from apocryphal gospels with those taken from 
 
 the canonical gospels, especially that of S. 
 
 Early doctrine John's. Of still higher interest is the early 
 of Purgatory . , ^ ^ 
 
 in these Acts. representation we here get of a purgatory 
 
 of souls. The Mechitarist editor prefixes 
 thereto a note to the effect that it is not orthodox, and that he 
 only adds it because it is part of his old literature. It seems 
 indeed to be akin to Origen's beliefs, and it makes room for 
 the conversion after death of infidels by the grace of God 
 acting in response to the tears and prayers of their Christian 
 kinsfolk. I do not know of any other similar sketch of the 
 same age of the condition of the souls of the departed. Even 
 if it was not actually delivered by Callistratus, it yet has a 
 lasting value for the history of Christian opinion. We may 
 indeed say of these Acts as a whole what a great teacher, who 
 has lately passed from our midst, says of the Phaedo of Plato : 
 "How far the words attributed to Socrates were actually 
 uttered by him we forbear to ask ; for no answer can be 
 given to this question. And it is better to resign ourselves 
 to the feeling of a great work, than to linger among critical 
 uncertainties."^ 
 
 For these Acts are, like the Phaedo, "a great work," and 
 express for us the genius of fourth-century faith as the Phaedo 
 
 expresses the genius of Athenian speculation 
 
 Their resem- \^ ^^ j^ge earlier by seven centuries. In 
 
 blances to .° ., ,.^1 . . ^, 
 
 Plato' sPhsedo. ^P^^^ ^^ ^'^^ ^'^"^ difference m time there is 
 much in common between the two works. 
 The scene is laid in both within the walls of a prison, and 
 
 * See Dialogues of Plato, translated by Jowett, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 
 428. 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 279 
 
 the shadow and awe of impending, but undeserved, death 
 invests with a solemn earnestness the discourse in which each 
 teacher hastens to impart to a band of eager disciples his 
 last thoughts concerning the soul and the mysteries of the 
 life after death. The irony of Socrates has its counterpart 
 in the humility of the Christian Saint, in his distrust of his 
 own power to adequately set forth his saving truths. Neither 
 is the substance and net result of their teaching so very 
 different in the two cases, if we make abstraction of certain 
 intellectual peculiarities due to the diversity of their ages. 
 Yet there is one great difference. 
 
 In Socrates we listen to the voice of a fellow-explorer, to the 
 voice of one who speaks to us not with an air of authority, but 
 with arguments, in order to persuade us 
 and win our rational assent. His appeal lies Contrast in 
 to our private judgment, as does the appeal spirit between 
 r ^ 1 .u- 1 • . A Greek Philoso- 
 
 01 every real thmker ancient or modern. phers and 
 
 But in Callistratus' addresses we seem to Christian 
 
 listen to the voice of a church that is willing Church, 
 
 to enlighten us, but not to argue with us ; 
 that has truth to impart, but only in a dogmatic fashion; that 
 demands our assent, but only as a despotism demands obedi- 
 ence from its subjects. 
 
 For the appeal of a fourth-century theologian lay not to the 
 free reason and judgment of men, but to their submissive 
 faith. And if it be borne in mind that the 
 
 pagan cults of the third and fourth century Secret of the 
 
 , . . , . , success of the 
 
 were, as theories of the universe and as early Church. 
 
 moral systems, far inferior to Christianity, 
 
 that they were losing their hold on the best minds and 
 
 were everywhere crumbling to decay, it will be seen that the 
 
 authoritative and infallible air and attitude assumed by the 
 
 Catholic Church was not only warranted by the intrinsic 
 
 superiority of its moral and theoretic teachings, but was better 
 
 calculated than any other to lead to success and conquest of 
 
 the world. Men in doubt, who felt the insufficiency of their 
 
 inherited paganism, drifted naturally towards a church which 
 
 allowed of no doubts, and which by professing to be divine 
 
28o Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 and always the same, still seems to offer a ttov o-tC) to all who 
 wish to act and must act; but who do not think, either 
 because the cares of life press on them and leave no leisure, 
 or because they are too timid to face the problems of the 
 Infinite. 
 
 In conclusion, a few words may be allowed in regard to the 
 tortures inflicted on martyrs. The punishment of laying a 
 man down on his back and pouring water down his throat 
 
 through a funnel, which we hear of in these 
 
 The torture ^^^^ ^^^^ j.^^^ ^^ jg^g|. j j^^^g ^^^ ^^^ ^j^j^ 
 
 inflicted on . , , . rr^, , , - r 
 
 early martjrrs. ^^ '" ^"X other Acts. 1 he whole question of 
 
 the rationale of the punishments and tortures 
 
 to which the Christian confessors were subjected is an obscure 
 
 one and has not been fairly worked out, mainly owing to the 
 
 assumption made by nearly all writers, that Christians were 
 
 treated in an exceptional manner and not merely as other 
 
 criminals. The ancient Greeks, who were 
 
 Superior more humane than the Romans in these 
 
 humanity of matters, never tortured free citizens. Even 
 
 ancient Greeks ^h^ thirty Tyrants at Athens, who were in 
 
 to Romans . ^ ■' . / , , 
 
 and Christian ^ subsequent age notorious for cruelty and 
 
 Church. usurpation, were restrained either by their 
 
 own humanity or the public feeling of 
 Athens from inflicting any other penalty on their most hated 
 opponent Socrates, than painless extinction by a cup of hem- 
 lock. Had Socrates suffered as a Christian martyr at the 
 hands either of the Roman Government or of any of the so- 
 called orthodox Christian Churches of a later day, he would 
 probably have been first subjected to the most revolting tortures 
 and at the last burned alive. None but slaves could be 
 tortured in ancient Greece, and they under restrictions which 
 must have mitigated their treatment. For example, the party 
 claiming to torture a slave had to make good to his owners 
 any harm done to him. 
 
 Now the end aimed at in torture was to make a slave give 
 the evidence wanted by one or the other of the parties in a 
 lawsuit. It was purely judicial and it was only applied to 
 slaves who might be called on to give evidence in a law 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 281 
 
 court. They were tortured just as we have oaths admin- 
 istered to us, and their evidence was not 
 supposed to be of any value unless given End of 
 
 under torture of some kind. It was usually torture was 
 first applied in a private chamber, before the evidence°from 
 slave was produced in the open court. It witnesses. 
 
 is proof of the extraordinary hold which this 
 belief had on the mind of the best of the ancients, that 
 Aristotle and Cicero held it firmly. 
 
 During .the republican epoch of Rome and under the early 
 emperors free citizens were never subjected to torture ; but 
 under the worse emperors who succeeded, 
 
 their exemption ceased, at least in the case ■'■* "^^^ ^* 
 
 ^ . J r • ^ u • u .u first confined 
 
 of those accused of majestas or high-treason. ^^ slaves. 
 
 But the torture was only for the purpose of 
 extracting evidence from them. The idea of torturing men 
 by way of punishing them for their religious opinions was 
 alien to the Roman mind. It was the Christian Church that 
 first instituted religious persecution in the true sense of the 
 phrase, i.e.^ as punishment of purely speculative tenets. 
 
 Now there can hardly be a doubt that Christians were 
 tortured for the same reason that slaves were tortured, namely 
 in order to extract evidence required of them, 
 and to force from them certain admissions. Torture of 
 
 That this is so is clear from Pliny's letter ^f-^^^ Chris- 
 (96) to Trajan asking for guidance in regard ^ judiciuL ^ 
 
 to "cognitiones de Christianis." He writes 
 thus: "Interim in iis qui ad me tanquam Christiani deferebantur 
 hunc sum secutus modum. Interrogavi ipsos an essent Chris- 
 tiani. Confitentes iterum ac tertio interrogavi, supplicium 
 minatus : perseverantes duci iussi. Neque enim dubitabam, 
 qualecunque esset quod faterentur, pertinaciam certe et inflex- 
 ibilem obstinationem debere puniri." Later in the same letter 
 he writes: "Quo m.agis necessarium credidi ex duabus ancillis, 
 quae ministrae dicebantur, quid esset veri et per tormenta 
 quaerere. Nihil aliud inveni quam superstitionem pravam 
 immodicam." Trajan answers that the Christians "puniendi 
 sunt, ita tamen ut qui negaverit se Christianum esse idque 
 
282 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 re ipsa manifestum fecerit, id est supplicando dis nostris, 
 quamvis suspectus in praeteritum, veniam ex paenitentia 
 impetret." Hence it is clear that the torture applied by 
 Pliny was simply judicial, in order to extract a statement from 
 the accused adverse to Christianity, a denial of their faith, or 
 else to get at the truth about so obscure a religion. These 
 Christians therefore suffered as witnesses in the strict sense. 
 The design of the judge was to make them say what they were 
 wanted to say. They were not tortured as Christians, but as 
 witnesses called on to give evidence in a law-court. It was an 
 easy and natural mental transition from the conception of a 
 Christian suffering as a judicial witness to that of him as wit- 
 nessing by his suffering to the truth of the faith. 
 
 It is not easy to say when the word fxaprvp acquired the new 
 
 sense of a Christian confessor, who had shed his blood for the 
 
 faith. It seems to bear this sense in Acts 
 
 The word xxii. 20 ; Rev. xvii. 6, and perhaps Ep. to 
 
 martyr got its ^^5 ^ii. i. In Rev. iii. 14 fxaprvs bears 
 
 sense about ^^^ sa.n\e sense. Perhaps the Acts and 
 
 A.D. 100. Revelation and Hebrews were not written 
 
 till the end of the first century, and that is 
 why this use occurs in them when it occurs nowhere else in 
 the N.T. The apostles are witnesses of the resurrection (Acts 
 ii. 32), and Jesus is Himself the witness to God. And the 
 latter use seems already to have been so long and so generally 
 recognised as the sense Kar' i$o)(r}v of the word that the martyrs 
 of Vienne, in Euseb. 5. 2. i, in their humility disclaimed the 
 title. 
 
 The tortures inflicted on martyrs were in the main those of 
 which we hear in earlier times as inflicted on witnesses, espe- 
 cially on slaves. In Cicero we hear of the candentes lamime 
 or red hot plates, which we often read of in the martyrdoms. 
 The eculeus or horse-rack was also used to martyrs. The 
 magistrates as a rule threatened their Christian victims before 
 applying torture, and the prisoner could always escape the 
 penalty by conforming to the pagan rites, by sacrificing to the 
 statue either of the emperor or of the gods. In all cases the 
 objection of the Christians to do what was demanded of them 
 
Acts of S. Callistrahis. 283 
 
 seems to have been dictated by their monotheism. The Jews 
 
 all over the empire would have had the same scruples and 
 
 would certainly have died rather than violate 
 
 them. Hence it is clear that the persecution The command 
 
 of the Christians had nothing to do with ^° sacrifice 
 , . 1 • . . . r ^ , r ^ mere test of 
 
 their monotheistic rejection of the cult of Christian 
 
 the emperor and of pagan rites in general, opinion. 
 
 and the command to sacrifice and swear by 
 the emperor's genius was chosen by the authorities as an easy 
 and convenient test of the sincerity of their convictions. If 
 their refusal to sacrifice and to conform to the state religion 
 had been the real gravamen against them, then the Jews would 
 have been equally liable to prosecution and martyrdom. 
 
 In what then did the offence of the Christians lie, if not in 
 their haughty rejection of popular cults ? What was it about 
 the new religion which made even the pro- 
 fession of the name of Christian a capital For their 
 
 offence? Here is a question which seems offence lay 
 
 , , ^ - . not m their 
 
 never to have been answered quite satis- monotheism 
 
 factorily. Jewish monotheism was from the 
 first recognised and tolerated by the Romans as a respectable 
 cult. "Judaeorum sola et misera gentilitas unum et ipsi deum, 
 sed palam, sed templis, aris, uictimis coerimoniisque coluerunt," 
 says the opponent of Christianity in the Apology of Minucius 
 Fehx (ch. 10, 4). 
 
 I believe that the original prejudice against Christianity was 
 purely social and popular and well-merited. It sprang from 
 the flagitia of the Christians, and these con- 
 sisted of the many actions and abstentions -^^^ ^^ their 
 r .• u T--U.U r\.. anti-social 
 
 from action by which they were felt to menace tendencies • 
 
 the whole structure and permanence of so- 
 ciety and of recognised social institutions. Let us enumerate 
 some of them. 
 
 I. There was first that rejection of family ties and relation- 
 ships which accompanied the belief that the world was speedily 
 and any day coming to an end. Young men and maidens 
 were taught not to marry, husbands and wives not to co- 
 habit and beget any more children. Eunuchism, because of 
 
284 Monuments of Eaidy ChHstianity. 
 
 the kingdom of heaven, was even tolerated by the very 
 
 founder of the reh'gion. And all this just at a time when the 
 
 most thoughtful and patriotic of the Romans 
 
 e.g. their ^^g^e deploring the decay of population all 
 
 family ties ^^^^ ^^ empire, and were even making laws 
 
 against celibacy and holding out rewards to 
 
 married men with families. 
 
 2. There was the interference with family relations. The 
 
 first duty of the convert was to the body of ecstatic religionists 
 
 with whom he had been induced to ally himself All the most 
 
 sacred duties of the old world were to yield to the necessities 
 
 of that body : " Another of the disciples said 
 
 in their unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and 
 
 wit^h^fa^r ^"^y ""y ^^^^^^- -^"^ J^^^^ ^^'^^ ""^^ ^'"^' 
 relations Follow Me ; and leave the dead to bury 
 
 their own dead." That is to say, none but 
 those who believed in His Messiahship and in the imme- 
 diate inauguration by Him of the kingdom of heaven, were 
 really alive. The rest of mankind were dead and the convert 
 had no duties towards them. " Think not that I came to send 
 peace on the earth : I came not to send peace but a sword : 
 For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the 
 daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against 
 her mother-in-law : and a man's foes shall be they of his own 
 household. He that loveth father and mother more than Me 
 is not worthy of Me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more 
 than Me is not worthy of Me." 
 
 Even if this open trampling on the oldest and most sacred 
 of human instincts and affections was not actually inculcated 
 by Jesus of Nazareth, it was certainly urged by the millenarist 
 society which He founded, or it would not be so prominent 
 in all the gospels. It must have excited sorrow and indigna- 
 tion in thousands of hitherto happy and united households. 
 Unfortunately the Church has destroyed the works of profane 
 observers like Celsus, from whom we could have formed an 
 idea of the havoc wrought. In the story of Thekla, who in 
 response to the new teaching throws over her betrothed lover, 
 abandons her sorrowing family and unsexes herself by leaving 
 
Acts of S. Callistj-atus. 285 
 
 her home disguised in male attire, we have recorded what must 
 have been a typical case. 
 
 3. Nor did the Christian nihihsm destroy the ties of senti- 
 ment and affection alone. The early Church was a com- 
 munistic society, and those who joined it handed over into 
 the control of its officers whatever private means they pos- 
 sessed. We to-day are not slow to resent the action of 
 brothers or sisters who joining some re- 
 ligious society, with whose methods and comm^Tsm, 
 creeds we have no sympathy, make over to 
 
 it property which in the natural course of things would have 
 benefited ourselves and our children. Parallel cases there must 
 have been by tens of thousands between the years 50 and 
 150 A.D. 
 
 4. Along with the rejection of family ties and affections 
 there went a refusal to fulfil the leading duties of citizenship. 
 The converts to Christianity refused to bear arms and defend 
 civilization from its external enemies. Their refusal to take 
 oaths in itself prevented them from serving as soldiers ; for the 
 armies took the sacramentum afresh with the accession of each 
 new emperor. It also prevented them from entering the 
 public courts of law either as judges or parties to a suit. 
 
 5. A modern divine has said that a modern state which 
 should attempt to regulate its external policy purely according 
 to the precepts of the gospel, that should 
 
 turn the other cheek to the smiter and re- in their 
 
 resist not evil, could not endure even for a . elevation of 
 ' . T 1 improvidence 
 
 short time. Justice and morality however and poverty- 
 is not of one kind for a state and of another into virtues, 
 for the individual; and if we have to-day 
 achieved a level of prosperity and comfort for all classes, far 
 short, it is true, of what is desirable, yet much above anything 
 the world has yet witnessed, it has certainly not been achieved 
 by a following of the gospel precepts to take no thought for 
 the morrow and to imitate the lilies of the field, which toil not 
 neither do they spin. On the contrary, the latter phrase is ap- 
 plied nowadays by democratic leaders in reproof of an indolent 
 aristocracy. The early Christians dreamed that the morrow 
 
286 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 would bring the millennium ; there was therefore no need to 
 take thought for it, no necessity to lay up riches on earth. 
 Such teaching must quickly lead to misery and destitution 
 among those who literally practise it, and the saints of Jeru- 
 salem, who perhaps strove to do so longer than did other 
 congregations, soon became a burthen on the Christians of 
 other regions. 
 
 6. Repudiation and ridicule of other religious cults was of 
 course no less characteristic of the Jews than of the Chris- 
 tians. But then in the Jews it was not part 
 in their more of a general moral and social nihilism. The 
 propaganda, J^"^^^^ monotheistic progaganda moreover 
 could not make way like the Christian, be- 
 cause it imposed circumcision on the proselyte; for which 
 reason, as Renan has pointed out, it spread more among the 
 women than among the men. This explains how it was that 
 the Jews, hated as they were by the populace, were yet never 
 the objects of penal legislation. Their religion was never put 
 under ban and a systematic attempt made to extirpate it. 
 They were dreaded less, because their propaganda was slower, 
 and still more because its missionaries did not preach that the 
 end of the world was at hand, and persuade people to behave 
 as if it were really so. The Jewish religion moreover was more 
 open and public, and in its sacrificial system resembled other 
 cults. The Christians on the other hand 
 
 o'i'thtirrTtes^ ^"^PP*=d "P 'heir rites in mystery. They 
 met by night and were pledged not to re- 
 veal the secrets of their religion. A long catechumenate 
 was necessary in order to baptism, and one who was not 
 initiated could no more witness their rites or join in their wor- 
 ship than an Englishman can at the present day enter a 
 Hindoo temple. As late as the middle of the third century 
 Babylas, bishop of Antioch, endured martyrdom rather than 
 allow the Emperor Decius to enter the church when the con- 
 gregation was met therein. 
 
 The teaching of early Christianity was thus altogether sub- 
 versive of ancient society. So it would be of modern society, 
 and any one set of people who should literally carry it out in 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 287 
 
 their conduct would very soon come into conflict with estab- 
 lished law and morality, and would certainly descend sooner 
 or later into beggary and destitution. A system of ethics in- 
 spired by the belief that the existing order 
 of things is shortly to succumb and by an Early Chris- 
 abrupt peripety give way to a kingdom of tianitywas 
 , . ^ , . , / , ° , subversive of 
 
 neaven, m which angels and superhuman society. 
 
 agencies will supersede the slow and arduous 
 methods and industry of this earth, — such a system will not 
 much avail us until the promise is fulfilled ; we shall be fortu- 
 nate if it does not put us into much useless conflict with the 
 old and permanent constitution of things. Into such conflict 
 the early Christians fell. They were regarded, and rightly, as 
 enemies of the human race. If it is possible to endorse any 
 judgment of the past we may endorse this one of the authori- 
 ties of the Roman empire. 
 
 The Christians waited and waited for the heavenly bride- 
 groom who was to come like a thief in the night. Gradually 
 the form of their enthusiasm changed, when 
 the world continued its course undisturbed It was soon 
 
 as before and yet no signs of the second ^°^^®^ *° °°^- 
 , All,, . promise with 
 
 advent. And then they began to compromise ^i^e world 
 
 with the world which was after all so stable, 
 
 and they laid up their old millenarist system of faith and 
 
 morality " like a pattern in the skies." They recognised it to 
 
 be an ideal too good for the earth, and " the virgins began to 
 
 marry, "^ and the men to accumulate riches, and to serve in the 
 
 armies of the Empire, and in time they forgot all about the 
 
 precept "Swear not at all," and frequented the law courts like 
 
 other people, and left to posterity the entire Corpus iuris 
 
 ciuilis,^ 
 
 But the early period of Christianity had lasted long enough 
 
 for it to become the fixed and justifiable belief of ancient 
 
 society that a Christian was a perverse being who believed the 
 
 ^ In this connection we may note how the phrase "to leave the world 
 (Koo-fJtov)," which in an earlier age simply meant to become a Christian, 
 came in the third or fourth century to denote the monastic life. 
 
288 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 end of all things to be imminent, and was therefore ready to 
 subvert and sweep away every institution, 
 yet not before social and political. Dynamite and ex- 
 it had estab- plosions apart, the Christians of this first 
 reputation for ^g^ resembled the most extreme of the 
 Flagitia. Russian nihilists, and it cannot be denied 
 
 that the Roman government had as good 
 grounds for trying to eradicate them as the Russian has 
 for trying to make an end of nihilists. Of the history of 
 Christianity between a.d. 40 and 120 we have few direct 
 monuments, because people who thought the end of the world 
 was at hand did not want to write history.^ They did not look 
 forward to posterity ; indeed they did not believe in it. All 
 their care was to get themselves ready for the imminent crisis. 
 When a conviction is once ingrained in a society and in a 
 conservative bureaucracy that a particular set of people are 
 dangerous, it is difficult to remove it. The Christians little 
 by little parted with their early dreams, and began to com- 
 promise with the world and live like sober citizens. But it 
 needed generations to pass away before the belief died out for 
 which they had at first given ground that they were enemies of 
 the human race. 
 
 ^ Another reason why so little of the earliest Christian literature has 
 survived is, that it was too impregnated with wild Chiliastic dreams to suit 
 post-Nicene readers, who therefore took no trouble to make copies of it. 
 Even Papias on this account seemed to Eusebius to be <r4><$8pa (r|i.iKp6s 
 Tov vovv. The Greek Irenoeus has vanished for a similar reason. Paul's 
 letters and the gospels have remained, because they were saner than other 
 writings of the first age. 
 
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY CALLI- 
 STRATUS, AND THE FORTY AND NINE 
 MARTYRS THAT WERE WITH HIM. 
 
 I. In the times when Diocletian was emperor, 
 there was much fury on the part of the heathen ; 
 and not only did they, because they knew not 
 God, work destruction to their own selves, but 
 they tried to seduce all men to conform to their 
 unholy cult. And those who did so conform, 
 especially those who were in high places, not only 
 received honours from the Emperor, but also 
 made much parade of themselves in the great 
 army. But those who avowed their faith in 
 Almighty God, and in His word, and in the Holy 
 Spirit, were subjected to interrogatories, and to 
 torture, and so received the speedy crown and the 
 honour of the glory ; but, humanly speaking, 
 their flesh was consumed with evil and cruel 
 tortures. 
 
 II. In that time, first and alone, the brave 
 athlete of Christ, w^hose name was Callistratus, 
 in the city of Rome, took unto himself the crown 
 of victory ; and in solemn and sturdy combat he 
 raised the standard of victory for them who had 
 believed in the Lord. For this Callistratus was 
 a soldier of the band which was called Chalcedon ; 
 because these came after the band of the 
 
290 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Acombiti,^ which was In Chalcedon, men whom 
 they brought against their will to Rome, according 
 to the law of conscripts. But Callistratus was of 
 the district of Chalcedon, of free family, and of 
 one that was benevolent and was filled with divine 
 wisdom ; and his great-grandfather, Okorus,^ had 
 been in Jerusalem in the days of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, under Pilate the judge. This Okorus had 
 
 * Acombiti is a barbarism for Accubiti. 
 The metaphrast reads here : — 
 
 KciXX£<rTpaTos, 8s rfjs KapxilSoviwv [x^v <S)pfi.T]TO, onreipa tjj twv XoXev- 
 8(3v X€"YO|x^vx] KarciXtYlvTos, cv 'Pwjji-g, -y^vo^icvos %\ <rvv oXu tw rd'yjJLaTi, 
 Kop.i8f| veoXcKTos wv. 
 
 Under the Earlier empire every Roman citizen was liable to military service 
 and could be forced to serve, unless he found a substitute or vicarius (Trajan 
 ep. to Pliny, 30). There was thus no special law making every man liable 
 to service. From the age of Diocletian onwards, there was a growing 
 tendency to substitute a money payment for the levy of recruits which a 
 province had to supply, and to take as soldiers only such men as desired to 
 serve. So Mommsen {Hermes, vol. 24. art. : " Die romische Militarwesen 
 seit Diocletian " ) remarks, that the words of Ammianus, 21. 6. 6 : Sup- 
 plementa legionibus scripta sunt indictis per provincias tirociniis were true 
 under the old system ; under which, however, professors and doctors 
 were exempted (Modestians, Dig. 27, i, 6, 8 : |Jif| els oTparefav 
 KaToX^-yeorOat dKovras). The reference to the law of conscripts may thus, 
 in these Acts, be retrospective and glance at a system of compulsory military 
 service which was gradually falling into disuse, as in the fourth century it 
 actually did. In the inscriptions of an earlier period (second century) 
 there are references to several Cohortes Chalcidenorum (see Mommsen, 
 Observ. Epigr., Berlin, 1884, pp. 19;?, 194). But there is only one inscrip- 
 tion (C. /. L. 2, 2,103) which mentions a Cohors Chalcedonen. In it 
 Mommsen would change the reading to Chalcidensis. These Acts confirm 
 the inscription in question. Of a Cohors Carthaginensis after the meta- 
 phrast's reading nothing is known. In what sense this Cohors " came 
 after" the Accubiti I do not understand. I presume that the Accubiti were 
 a cohort privileged to attend on the person of the emperor, a bet! chamber 
 force, as the term implies. The word occurs in the inscription of Diocletian 
 regulating prices. Bread and bacon were the regular rations of a Roman 
 soldier in that, as in earlier epochs. The reading XoXcvSmv or XaXav8MV 
 for Accubiti I do not understand. ' N«<i>K6pof in the metaphrast. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 291 
 
 seen the Saviour on the cross, had witnessed His 
 death and burial in the tomb, and His resurrection 
 from the dead, and He beHeved and was baptized 
 on the day of the holy Pentecost, at the descent 
 of the Holy Spirit on the holy Apostles, and 
 He had believed with the Galileans ; and he had 
 come to his city and there taught his children and 
 his grandchildren to put their hope in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; and they learned one from the other 
 and kept up the lore^ in which their great-grand- 
 father instructed them, right on to the blessed 
 Callistratus. He alone was a Christian in his 
 band ; and at every hour he would glorify the 
 Lord by means of the words of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 \\\. Now on a certain night Callistratus arose 
 and offered prayers to God ; but certain of his 
 fellow-soldiers noticed this, and began to say to 
 him : " It is not fitting that thou alone shouldst 
 be childish among us all ; be persuaded therefore, 
 and come to the image of Zeus, and take frank- 
 incense and blood, and sprinkle them upon it, and 
 become along with us dear to the gods. But if 
 thou wilt not, then blame us not, because we must 
 needs inform our captain of all that thou doest." 
 But the holy Callistratus made answer and said : 
 " My brethren, why hath Satan filled your minds } 
 I have not harmed any one of you, nor have I 
 oppressed any one of you ; in war I am along 
 with you ; in the register of names I am perhaps 
 classed before you, but on parade I do not 
 
 ^ ((JLTTOpeviiaTOS. 
 
292 Monume7its of Early Christianity. 
 
 separate myself from you, nor in the squadron do 
 I pass you by. What reason then have ye now 
 to speak evil of me, this I know not ; but this I 
 know that ye have not power to cut me off from 
 the unspeakable benevolence of Jesus my Saviour 
 and from His orthodox worship ; not only have ye 
 no power to do so, but not even many more like 
 unto you can do so. Let Christ who bore witness 
 before Pontius Pilate, and of whom my great- 
 grandfather Okorus was an eye-witness, testify 
 unto this for me." 
 
 When they heard this, they rose at dawn and 
 informed Presentinus the captain, saying : *' One 
 of the number of thy soldiers who are under thy 
 control, rebels against the worship of the gods, 
 and calls a certain one who is named Christ His 
 King and God, and he acknowledges Him 
 crucified ; but he also takes upon himself to 
 pray and fast, and all his rations of pork and of 
 good bread he gives to them that need it, and 
 he himself once a day eats dry bread, dipping 
 it in water ; but lest he should inspire many of 
 thy soldiers to revolt with him, therefore we 
 have laid information before thy serene Majesty." 
 But Presentinus said : ** Who is he, and what is 
 his name?" And they said: "Bonus Miles," 
 which is, being translated, Callistratus. And 
 the captain ordered them to bring him before 
 them ; and he said to him in the Roman tongue, 
 for the captain did not talk Greek, for the Romans 
 cannot at once talk Greek, because of the richness 
 of the tongue. And he said to him : "Quid dicunt 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus, 293 
 
 socli tul, propter te, celerius die." Which, being 
 translated, is : ''What do thy comrades say concern- 
 ing thee,quickly tell us." This history was written 
 in the Roman tongue, and thus it is that they 
 pronounced the words, who knew the language 
 and translated them, and gave them to us ; and 
 we, without altering them, sent them on to all 
 places, which have Christ before their eyes in 
 faith and holiness. 
 
 Callistratus made answer and said : Let them 
 say, O my Lord, what more they have to say con- 
 cerning me ; for I know of nothing wrong to impute 
 to myself." Presentinus said to the slanderers: 
 " What do ye know concerning Callistratus, boni 
 militis '^. " But they said : " Nay, rather let your 
 serene Majesty command him to sacrifice to the 
 great god Zeus, and thou shalt know then his per- 
 verse disposition." So the captain said : " Sacrifice^ 
 
 Callistratus, to the god Zeus." Callistratus said: 
 " I offer the sacrifice of praise to the great God 
 who made heaven and earth and everything in His 
 wisdom ; who fashioned man out of dust, and 
 fixed his destiny eternal and inviolable ; for I 
 know not the gods made by hand, but I walk as 
 
 1 have learned. For it is written : ^ ' All the idols 
 of the heathens are demons, but the Lord made 
 the heavens ; ' and this also : ^ ' The idols of the 
 heathens are gold and silver made by the hands of 
 the sons of men.' I therefore, O lord Count, do 
 not worship or pay homage to the work of men's 
 
 * Ps. xcv. 5. 2 ps, cxiii. 4. 
 
294 Monumeftis of Early Christianity. 
 
 hands ; but since I am thy enlisted soldier, and 
 am under thy hand, I have obeyed thee in war 
 and in drill and in all service ; surely thou hast 
 not authority over my soul also, that it should 
 serve thee ? God forbid!" IV. Presentinus said : 
 "Here, O Callistratus, there is no need for rhetoric, 
 but we have to talk about obedience ; wherefore 
 comply and sacrifice, that thou mayst not compel 
 me to destroy thee in a cruel manner. But I 
 think that thou too knowest, that when I arrest 
 any man by force, before torturing him, I consume 
 him with my roarings." Callistratus said : " Thy 
 roaring and thy threatening is but transient ; but 
 the wailing and the gnashing of teeth is eternal.^ 
 For if I deny my Lord Jesus Christ before men, 
 He will shut me out. He the Master of the house, 
 and there shall be weeping of eyes and gnashing 
 of teeth." 
 
 Then the captain ordered that he should be 
 pinioned and beaten with clubs, until eight men 
 had taken their turn at it. And as they beat him, 
 the holy Callistratus said : " I have sworn and have 
 resolved to keep the judgments of thy righteous- 
 ness, O Lord.^ We were very faint, but do thou 
 revive me, according to Thy word,^ nor suffer the 
 destroyer and the many-headed beast to rejoice 
 over me ; but strengthen me, Christ, and be unto 
 me a tongue, in order that I may answer, and a 
 physician, in order that my wounds may be healed ; 
 
 * Matt. viii. 12. * Psal. cxviii. 106. 
 
 • Psal. cxviii. 107. 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 295 
 
 for many pangs have I in my flesh because of 
 these torments." 
 
 But when the captain saw his blood gushing out 
 in rivulets upon the earth, he ordered them to 
 cease from beating him ; and he said to him : 
 ''Sacrifice, O Callistratus, to the gods, in order that 
 thou mayest be saved from instant tortures ; for I 
 swear by Artemis, crowned with rays, and by all 
 the company of the gods, unless thou obeyest me, 
 I will cut thee into bits, and the dogs shall devour 
 thy flesh and the lions lick up thy blood." Callis- 
 tratus said : "I hope in the King of Heaven, in 
 God, that He will bring me out of the mouth of 
 the lions, and save my helplessness from the hands 
 of the dogs, in order that not I alone of this thy 
 band may praise Him ; for I have expectation that 
 by opposing Him, and going out against Him, I 
 shall raise the standard of victory over the Devil, 
 who incites thee against me. V. Then the captain 
 ordered them to pound up potsherds and to scatter 
 them beneath him, and to stretch the saint on his 
 back, so that the potsherds might lacerate his back 
 and his wounds. And they placed a funnel in his 
 mouth, and he ordered them to pour water with a 
 jug into his mouth. But the brave champion of 
 Christ suffered these tortures with courage. And 
 when he had risen up, he said : " O God of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac and Jacob, give me strength to meet the 
 artifices of the devil ; and save me from him, lest 
 he destroy me, and lest he find a vantage-ground 
 against me." 
 
 The captain said : '' Sacrifice, O Callistratus, to 
 
296 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 the gods ; otherwise I will take away thy life, 
 that others of this band be not also lost through 
 thee." The holy Callistratus said : " Unworthy 
 man, and shameless, thou art eager to do combat 
 for the flock of Satan, thy master, not knowing that 
 this flock belongs to my Christ. But I hope in 
 the King of Heaven, in my Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that however much thou mayest struggle in behalf 
 of the Devil, yet I shall take him captive, and shall 
 snatch them from the number of thy forces, and 
 illuminate them, and establish the Church of Christ 
 in the middle of this city." But the captain said : 
 * * Out on thee, unholy one, and thrice miserable ; 
 behold my command is urgent before thine eyes. 
 This instant my government orders me to cast 
 thee into a sack, and to seal up its mouth, and to 
 take and throw thee into the middle of the sea. 
 How then canst thou establish the Church of 
 Christ, or when wilt thou illuminate any of the 
 number of the bands of my soldiers ? " And he 
 ordered them to bring a linen sack, and to throw 
 him into it, and he sealed the mouth of the sack 
 with lead, and he gave it into the hands of the 
 crew, and the crew bore it into the middle of the 
 sea, about forty furlongs, and threw it into the sea. 
 And the captain stood on the shore of the sea, 
 until the sailors came. But the sack went down 
 and was caught in a hollow of the rocks ; and 
 even while he was under the sea Callistratus 
 offered up prayers, saying : ** O God, invisible and 
 unsearchable, unattainable and unutterable, whose 
 throne of glory cannot be declared, before whom 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 297 
 
 all things tremble and quail, whose threats consume 
 the mountains, and whose name and title cleaves 
 asunder the abysses, before whom the sea shrinks 
 abashed along with the rivers and the whales, who 
 didst search out the heart of Jonas and didst 
 receive his prayers when he came forth on the 
 land, even though he was imprisoned as it were in 
 everlasting bonds, and didst rescue his life from 
 destruction ; now also receive the prayers of me, 
 who am a sinner, and in distress, and let my 
 prayers come to the temple of thy holy glory ; 
 save me from this present oppression, for thou 
 hast known my works even from my childhood. 
 Thou knowest, O Lord, that I desired to establish 
 Thy Church in the midst of this city ; be my 
 fellowworker for good, because Holy is Thy 
 name forever." 
 
 And after he had offered his prayer, the sack 
 chanced upon a narrow passage between rocks, 
 and was torn asunder, and a certain fish^ of the 
 dolphin tribe took him and bore him upwards 
 from the depths to the shore of the sea, and laid 
 him down upon the sands, and then it turned 
 round and fled back into the sea. But when the 
 soldiers and their captain beheld him, they were 
 much dismayed. But Callistratus began to sing 
 a psalm and said, " I descended into the depths 
 of the sea, and the cataracts engulphed me ; ^ but 
 I was not disquieted, and cried out,^ for Thou 
 hast heard the voice of my prayer ; Thou hast 
 
 1 According to the metaphrast two dolphins. 
 
 2 Ps. Ixviii. 3, 4. 3 Ps. XXX. 23. 
 
298 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 torn asunder my sack, and hast established me 
 in gladness."^ VI. Then forty and nine of the 
 soldiers fell down before the blessed Callistratus, 
 saying : " We pray thee, servant of God on High, 
 save us from the vanity of this world, for we also 
 are Christians ; for great indeed is the God of the 
 Christians, who hath brought thee out of such an 
 abyss ; He is able also to help in battle whomso- 
 ever He will, for He alone is God." The holy 
 Callistratus said : '' My Lord Jesus Christ shall 
 deliver you, and henceforth ye shall see the king 
 of Heaven." 
 
 And he prayed thus : " Lord, who hast Thy 
 dwelling for ever in unapproachable light, look 
 upon this Thy flock which is in Thee, and pre- 
 serve them, because Thou art merciful, continually, 
 and for ever." VH. But Presentinus said, ''I 
 swear by the sun, by the Emperor, this fellow is 
 full of exceeding wizardry, for he hath cloven 
 asunder the sea, and hath tricked these men." 
 And he said to him : '* I will oppose this wizardry 
 of thine ; grant me a little while, and thou shalt 
 know who is Presentinus, and who is the God 
 whom thou servest." And he sat down upon his 
 judgment-seat, and ordered them to bring rods, 
 and he caused the forty and nine men to be 
 scourged one after the other. But they said, 
 ** Lord Jesus, this torture we endure for Thy 
 sake ; help us, O God, the Saviour, and give us 
 strength to bear it ; preserve also our shepherd, 
 
 * Ps. xxix. 2. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 299 
 
 Callistratus, in order that he may teach us per- 
 fectly, for we are as it were dumb animals, and 
 have not the knowledge of Thy will. Look 
 graciously upon our salvation, for blessed is Thy 
 name for ever." 
 
 VIII. But thereupon the unholy captain ordered 
 them to be put in prison, in order that he might 
 think about them : for he was very grieved at 
 having lost fifty men out of the number of his 
 soldiers. And when they came into the prison, 
 the holy Callistratus began to establish with prayer 
 the forty and nine men, whose names are the fol- 
 lowing:^ Acacius, Domnasius, Bibianus, Basiliscus, 
 Bemarchus, Dorotheus, Gerontes, Alpius, Anthi- 
 mus, Aragseos, Anictus, Bitalius, Grigorius, Geor- 
 gius, Gigandius, Genadius, Domninus, Dulcimius, 
 Dometianus, Dedalius, Dalmatius, Eusebius, 
 Evagrius, Elsiidius, Eutolius, Evarestus, Eva- 
 grius, Tharasimides, Theodorus, Therasius, Ly- 
 simachus, Lambliricus, Liminus, Constantinus, 
 Canditianus, Heliages, Hysicus, Heliodorus, 
 Memnus, Milinus, Madrinus, Marcianus, Nicatius, 
 Nicolaius, Olombrius, Utripeus, Olipeus, Xan- 
 thius. All these fell down before the holy Callis- 
 tratus, and sought of him the knowledge of Christ. 
 But the holy martyr of Christ spread out his 
 hands to heaven, and spoke thus : " O God, who 
 hast made everything, who art the all-wise Lord 
 of all, who art praised by the numberless hosts of 
 angels, who art perfect Creator ; O God of our 
 
 ^ The metaphrast omits the names. I give the Arm. spelling. 
 
300 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 fathers, look down upon this Thy flock ; come 
 unto us, and be among us ; fulfil, O Lord, Thy 
 faithful promise, that where two or three are 
 gathered together in My Name, I am there in 
 the midst of them.^ Hear us, O King of eternity, 
 scatter, O Lord, the flame of the devil. Remove, 
 O Lord, the furnace of fire, that it may not rise 
 higher than forty and nine cubits ; ^ in order that 
 all the heathens may see Thy glory, and may 
 glorify Thee, O King of eternity. Vouchsafe 
 unto me, O Lord, wisdom and knowledge, in 
 order that I may cause Thy servants to believe, 
 and bring them before Thee ; for blessed is Thy 
 Name for ever." 
 
 And they all with one accord uttered the Amen ; 
 and one of them, whose name was Dalmatius, 
 arose, and said to the holy Callistratus : '* I pray 
 thee, my lord Callistratus, make us Christians, and 
 teach us the word of God, that we may not be 
 ever in doubt. Show us our hope and our future 
 help. Recount to us all the wisdom of God, in 
 order that we too may, by the grace of Christ, 
 be glorifiers of Him along with Thee. For our 
 fathers did not ever teach us the paths of right- 
 eousness." Then said unto them the holy Callis- 
 tratus, *' Children mine, and dear brothers, may 
 the Lord give you grace and pity, and may my 
 God bring to light your desire. May the God of 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 • In the descent of Christ into hell (see Tischendorf, Evang. Apoc), the 
 Saviour causes the flames to retreat. The passage in the text may refer to 
 some such legendary belief. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 301 
 
 heaven and earth fill you with all goodness ; for I 
 know that ye have an exceeding desire to hear 
 the commandment of God. Now, therefore, 
 since ye are athirst for righteousness, may the 
 Lord fill you and intoxicate you and satiate you 
 with the all-good and sufficing grace of the Holy 
 Spirit, and with all the hope which ye have in the 
 Lord Christ. But yet, my friends, I am unworthy 
 and weak to tell of the unapproachable depths of 
 the thoughts of God, but let each of you ask what 
 he will, and make prayer for me ; because I 
 hope in the Lord Jesus Christ that, through your 
 prayers, the Lord may give me speech to open 
 my mouth boldly, and to speak clearly as an in- 
 terpreter the plan of the economy of Christ." 
 Then Bemarchus fell down before him and asked 
 him, and said : *' I pray thee, sir, tell me, how God 
 is understood and known, and in what way He 
 begot Christ, or for what reason and why the 
 Jews crucified Him and slew Him." 
 
 IX. The holy Callistratus said, " God is light 
 without shadow, invisible and unapproachable ; 
 He hath neither beginning nor end ; life without 
 term, eternity without change, this is He. He 
 has neither limits nor place, but in all things He 
 is everywhere, and there is nowhere a place in 
 which He is not. No one is before Him, nor 
 after Him, nor yet beside Him. He is an un- 
 knowable, an unintelligible nature. But for our 
 weakness He is called light and life, reality, im- 
 mortality, eternity, might, wisdom, mind, and 
 whatsoever other names are heard in the holy 
 
 X '^^^ OF THE *^ > 
 
 Ctj:£ftvEHsiTY; 
 
302 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 books. Father and Son, spotless birth and un- 
 searchable ; the Word from the heart of the 
 Father, and indivisible from the Father, Offspring 
 inseparable, as is the light from the sun ; Son, but 
 not created, nor yet fashioned, and not in a lower 
 degree, nor subservient, but sharer in reality and 
 in being, and sharing in His quality of being 
 without beginning. For ever in the bosom of the 
 Father, according to the holy John, the evange- 
 list, who saith, ' From the beginning was the Word, 
 and the Word was God ; He was from the be- 
 ginning with God. Everything was through 
 Him, and without Him was nothing which has 
 been made. Through Him was life, and the 
 life was light unto men, and the light was ashine 
 there in the darkness, and the darkness appre- 
 hended Him not.' And ag^ain, 'God hath no one 
 seen at any time, except the Only Born, who is in 
 the bosom of the Father,' and the Holy Spirit, 
 who emanated and proceeded from the Father ; 
 though not born, as is the Word, but an emana- 
 tion and an effulgence of the eternal light ; not 
 made, nor yet lower than Father and Son, but 
 coequal with them, and sharing their substance 
 and partaking equally with the Father and Son. 
 All substance of the Father is of the Son, except 
 that He is not begetter, but begotten ; and all 
 substance of the Son is of the Holy Spirit ; ex- 
 cept that this is not begotten, but emanation ; yet 
 not that which sends forth the emanation, but 
 that which has emanated ; and through unity, by 
 reason of His Godhead, He is equal in honour 
 
Acts of S. Callistrahis. 303 
 
 with Father and with Son, and there is one glory 
 and one Godhead of the Trinity, one beginning- 
 less eternity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit ; 
 three Persons in their completeness, one self-hood 
 and rule, one will and one counsel. It is wholly 
 vision, it is wholly light, it is wholly hearing, 
 wholly life, all this and whatsoever name and title 
 else, by which we who are made of clay, call Him 
 according to our weak understanding. One they 
 are and equal, and on a level ; except that there 
 is Father, and there is His Offspring, the Word, 
 and the emanation likewise of Him, the Holy 
 Spirit, in three perfect persons. 
 
 " Therefore the holy and co-equal Trinity willed 
 and established everything. The Father, by 
 means of the Word, through the Holy Spirit, 
 made heaven and earth, and divided the heavens 
 with fire and the earth with water ; He made also 
 the light, according to which He also created the 
 heavenly host ; and parted waters from waters, 
 and shot out the foam-flakes of His firmament. 
 And the earth He adorned with things which 
 blossom and grow, and the firmament with the 
 sun and moon and stars ; the earth, too, with 
 four-footed animals and creeping things and with 
 fishes did he fill, and the air with birds, according 
 to the command which He gave to earth and 
 waters to bring forth the breath of life. 
 
 "And when He had established all things by 
 the power of His awful Godhead, which hung the 
 heavens from nothing, and laid the earth upon 
 nothing, and made all the elements real out of 
 
304 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 nothing ; then at last He fashioned man out of 
 dust, according to the image of His own Immor- 
 tahty, and gave Him free will to rule withal over 
 all creatures which are below heaven. And He 
 gave him a dwelling in the sinlessness of the 
 garden of delight, and promised to advance him 
 to yet greater glory, if he would be obedient to 
 His law in a little thing. But Satan was an angel 
 formed first, and created in the heavens ; and be- 
 cause he was full of pride, and rose up in spiritual 
 revolt against the Omnipotent God, therefore he 
 fell from his glory. And he was jealous of man, 
 and in his guile he sowed polytheism by making 
 him taste of a fruit ; and because man desired to 
 be equal to God, God deprived him of his glory, 
 and cast him out of the paradise where he was 
 cherished by God. But forasmuch as he was the 
 image of immortal God, Satan was not able nor 
 had strength to efface him, and utterly destroy 
 him ; but, by reason of his free will and of his 
 craft, he fought against the race of men, and 
 polluted them with all kinds of evils, with murder 
 of their brothers, and with lawless unions. And 
 the first race who did not obey the preaching of 
 the just Noah, were therefore destroyed by a 
 fiood ; and there only remained Noah and his 
 children, eight souls. After that, by reason of 
 their building the tower, their tongues were sepa- 
 rated one from the other, and race by race, so 
 that they were seventy and two races in number 
 over the whole earth. And after that, Satan 
 prompted them to worship idols, and to pollute 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 305 
 
 themselves with the worship of everything, as 
 you now behold — worship which the Lord will 
 remove and destroy from among us. And thus 
 he sowed the first seeds, and made the beginning 
 of polytheism, when he said to Eve, ' Ye shall be 
 gods ' ; so leading men to vain worship ; and the 
 whole earth was in great sin. 
 
 "■ And the great God was moved to pity them, 
 and He chose the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and 
 Jacob ; and their seed He took to Himself as 
 His chosen people. And them He brought out 
 of Egypt by the hand of Moses, and gave them 
 laws, which laws also Satan destroyed, for they 
 made a calf in the desert, and polluted themselves 
 with abominations. And the second time in pity 
 He gave them priests and prophets ; but they 
 believed not in them either, because of the 
 promptings of Satan ; neither were they schooled 
 or corrected by tribulation or slavery, or invoca- 
 tion by name of the angels ; ^ and the whole earth 
 with one accord was perverted, and followed after 
 Satan, seeking from him the fulfilment of their evil 
 wishes. But God, in His noble pity, had com- 
 passion on the race of men, and sent His only- 
 begotten Word into the world, who hallowed the 
 virgin Miriam, and dwelt in her, and (she) con- 
 ceived inviolate without the seed of man, and 
 without concupiscence, of herself fashioned an 
 incorruptible body, according to the leader of the 
 
 ^ =l'iriKXiri<r€i a^Y^Xwy. The Essenes bound themselves by oath not to 
 reveal to unbelievers the names of the angels. Comp, Paul, Ep. to Eph. 
 
3o6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 angels, Gabriel, who said, ' The Holy Spirit shall 
 come upon thee, and the power of the Most High 
 shall overshadow thee ; for that which shall be 
 born of thee is holy, and a Son of God ; and they 
 shall call His name Jesus, because He shall save 
 His people from their sins.' AndHe was conceived 
 incorruptible, and was born incorruptible, yet was 
 wrapped in swaddling clothes, and was laid in the 
 manger of the brutes as if He were man ; by the 
 magi He was honoured with sacramental gifts, by 
 the shepherds He was glorified, who sang with 
 the angels ; ' Glory in the highest to God, and 
 on earth peace, good will to men.' He was cir- 
 cumcised as man, He was presented in the temple 
 as man, but the aged Simeon besought^ Him as 
 from God. He was driven by persecution into 
 Egypt, and there He turned the city of idol- 
 worshippers to a knowledge of God.* Thence 
 He returned, and dwelt in Galilee in the city of 
 Nazareth.^ 
 
 * Probably the original reading here meant " regarded him." 
 
 * This incident is related in the apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy. 
 
 ' This entire chapter IX. is by the metaphrast compressed into a 
 single page. The Incarnation is also set forth rather differently. God 
 sends His only-born Son, and arranges that Me should become man like 
 ourselves, without, however, giving up His essential divinity (avrd ri 
 ctvak 6€<Js) ; in order that He might by the screen of flesh and human form 
 deceive the devil who had deceived us, and that the latter, supposing that 
 He was only attacking man, might be drawn into a conflict with God. (tvo 
 Tip Tqs cropKos-irpopXTinaTi Kal tx) &vdp(i>iriv|] p-opil)-!] rhv i^fids dira-Hja-avra 
 8<Xcd<rQ, Kal dv6p<tfir<(> oUficvos irpoo-paXciv, 6«p 7r(pkir^<rg. 8 8^ KalY^ov<.) 
 This explanation of the Incarnation as a divine ruse to catch the devil was 
 very common. We meet with it again in the Acts of Eustratius (Migne, 
 Patrol. Gr.y ii6, p. 493). There the Divine Word ^Wx^ '»< •")« cfyCat 
 irapO^vov p,^ rpaircls t^ 6«i6tiiti, dXXd (^op^<ras tJ|v toO irpopdrov Sopdv 
 8td t9|v toO XvIkov irp6o8ov, i.e.. He dons the sheepskin to lure the devil on. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 307 
 
 '* But let not one of you stumble and say that 
 Christ took His origin from the Virgin ; for, ac- 
 cording to the flesh, He appeared from the Vir- 
 gin, but according to His Godhead, He is equal 
 to the Father, as I said above. And let not one 
 of you say that He brought His flesh and body 
 from heaven, for He derived it from the Virgin. 
 Nor let any one of you say that He was merely 
 God or merely man, but rather that He is God 
 and man, God in the flesh, and man in His God- 
 head, not confounded nor changed. For He says 
 in the Proverbs : ^ ' The Lord acquired Me the 
 beginning of all paths in His works, before that 
 the abysses were, before the fountains of the 
 waters, before all the hills He hath begotten Me ; 
 when Pie made ready His throne, I was with 
 Him. I it was with whom He was rejoicing.' 
 But with regard to the flesh. He says that the 
 mystery of the incarnation of Christ was, before 
 the world came into being. However, He was 
 fashioned incorruptible from the Virgin. This 
 same only-begotten Word of the Father, who was 
 incarnate by the holy Virgin, was silent for thirty 
 years ; but after that He was baptized by John in 
 the river Jordan. And as He went up out of the 
 water, the heaven was opened to Him, and the 
 
 "For if," continues Eustratius, "God had simply struck down the devil 
 with His heavenly might, as He might have done, but as I cannot, then 
 He would have enabled the devil to explain his defeat by saying, ' I con- 
 quered man, and was conquered by God.' " Kal evairoXd-yilTos fl-v tiirT^pxev. 
 The devil is assumed to be too stupid to penetrate the divine disguise. 
 ^ Prov. viii. 22 seq. 
 
3o8 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 Holy Spirit descended in the visible form of a 
 dove upon Him ; and the Father from on high 
 bore witness to His body that could be seen, 
 saying : ' He is My beloved Son, in whom I am 
 well pleased.' This John saw and marvelled, and 
 hesitated to baptize Him ; but the Lord said to 
 him : ' Grant this now, for thus it is meet that we 
 should fulfil all righteousness.' As the sinless 
 John, son of the high priest Zachariah, bore wit- 
 ness to Christ, and said : ' Behold, Christ, the 
 Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the 
 world.' For He was named Jesus from His 
 birth, whom the angel heralded to Mary, but 
 Christ from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, 
 which came down into the Jordan in the likeness 
 of a dove. And after this. He was tempted by 
 Satan, but vanquished the tempter in a threefold 
 manner ; for He was for forty days without food, 
 and the God who was united and joined in Him 
 with man, enabled the man to triumph over vain 
 glory and pride, and avarice and love of wealth. 
 He walked among us yet another three years, 
 and preached the good tidings of the kingdom of 
 heaven. On the blind He bestowed sight, the 
 lame He made to walk, the lepers He cleansed, 
 demons He cast out, the legion He gave to the 
 deep sea, the dead He raised, and healed all 
 other pains and diseases ; and many other works 
 of power and greatness He wrought. But they 
 did not receive Him, neither did they believe in 
 Him, as saith the holy evangelist John, namely : 
 ' He came to His own, but His own received 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 309 
 
 Him not,' and in all ways mankind went out after 
 nothing and found nothing. 
 
 *' But our Lord Jesus Christ for this reason 
 came to suffer, in order that He might break the 
 power of Satan. Sitting upon a young ass. He 
 entered into Jerusalem, after He had summoned 
 from the grave, where he had lain for four days. 
 His loved Lazarus. He preached beforehand 
 the destruction of hell, and therefore also the 
 young men of the Jews went before Him with 
 branches of palm and sang : ' Hosanna in the 
 highest, blessing to the son of David, peace upon 
 earth and glory in the highest." And He, even 
 before this, had upon Mount Tabor, given a fore- 
 type of the mystery of His resurrection, with the 
 testimony of Moses and Elias. And He came to 
 Jerusalem on the great day of the Passover, an 
 old and lawful festival, and on that day He also 
 washed the feet of the disciples, and made them 
 sharers of the holy mystery, and dispensed to His 
 disciples His body and His blood. And having 
 come to the cross. He was nailed upon it by the 
 lawless Jews, and confirmed the word of the 
 prophets who foretold concerning Him in their 
 preachings. But at His crucifixion the sun was 
 darkened and the rocks were riven, the earth was 
 shaken, and the veil of the temple rent in twain. 
 And at the same hour in which Adam went forth 
 from the garden, in that same hour He gave the 
 robber entrance into the garden, saying to him : 
 ' This day shalt thou be with Me in the garden.' 
 He went down into hell alone, but went forth 
 
3IO Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 thence with a great multitude ; He loosed them 
 that were bound by Satan, but him He bound in 
 darkness with bonds that shall never be loosed, 
 and He brought to light the treasures of dark- 
 ness. He rose from the dead on the third day. 
 With the same incorruptible body He ascended 
 into heaven, and with the same body He sat 
 down on the right hand of the Father ; and He 
 Cometh with the same body to judge all crea- 
 tures.^ 
 
 ** But then, O my brethren, those who were 
 taken in madness were miserable ; but now, by 
 means of the cross of Christ, they have been 
 raised to ineffable glory. But he who shall deny 
 Him before men, is given over into the hands of 
 hell. But think ye not that they are few who 
 believe in Christ, but many those who worship 
 the work of men's hands ; for I hope in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ that this faith of ours will be so 
 multiplied, that it will be rather spread abundantly 
 
 ^ All the extra-canonical details in the above are omitted by the meta- 
 phrast. 
 
 For the binding of Satan op. the Descensus Christi, pars II. ch. viii. 
 (xxiv.) ; Et Ecce dominus lesus Christus . . . catenam suis deportans 
 manibus Satan cum cello ligauit, et iterum a tergo ei religans manus 
 resupinum eum elisit in Tartarum et cet. 
 
 I cannot find in any apocryph the detail that the crucified thief entered 
 Paradise at the very hour in which Adam left Paradise. The entry of the 
 thief into Paradise is described in the Descensus Christi. These legends 
 are all to be found in the Testaments of the Patriarchs (Test. Levi, itj') : 
 KaC-yc avrds d,vo£|ci toLs Ovpas tov mxpaStfo-ov, Kal o-T-Zjo-ti Tf|v dir€iXov<rav 
 ^op.<|>aCav Kard T0v'A8d|i, Kal Swo-ci rots d^Cois <|>a'YCiv ^k tov ^vXov rt)s 
 |^o>f)S, Kal irvcv^ia d'ytwo-vvrfs {(rrai lir' avrois. Kal h B<XCap 8c6V]<rcTai 
 wit' avTow, Kal 8(d(r€i ^^ovcrCav tois t^kvois avrov tov iraTciv kitX t4 irovT|pd 
 irv(v|xaTa. 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 311 
 
 over the face of the whole earth. But do ye, 
 my friends, stand strong in this faith, which I 
 have taught unto you, with candid heart, as to 
 genuine brethren." 
 
 X. And when the saint had finished the sum- 
 mary of his argument, Heladorus^ rose and asked 
 him and said : " I pray thee, my lord Callistratus, 
 when a man dies, what becomes of his soul, where 
 does it go, or what does it do, or where does it 
 dwell, whether in torment or in repose ? " The 
 holy Callistratus said : '' As Christ rose from the 
 dead, so also must we rise and stand before His 
 judgment-seat ; and each of us will have to give 
 answer according to his works, according as they 
 are good or bad, in the day of reckoning. But 
 the garden is made ready for them that are 
 worthy of Him. Now when his last day comes 
 upon a man, angels come to him ; and when they 
 see the soul of the man, if he is just, they rejoice, 
 and they take it with psalms and hymns, and 
 carry it eastwards,^ and they carry it past six 
 
 * Heliodorus in the Greek. 
 
 2 For the belief that the soul went eastwards cp. Eusebius, H. E. , 430. 
 19, where a martyr puzzles the judge Firmilianus by saying that he was 
 going to the heavenly Jerusalem, the country of the pious (tTarpiSa t«v 
 evcrcpuv) and that this K6i(r6ai irpbs avrais dvaroXais Kal irpbs dvi<rxovTt 
 
 TJXlo). 
 
 For the belief in the seven heavens consult the Testamentum Levi, 
 chs. p' and y' and the Vision or Ascension of Isaiah, passim. In Origen, 
 de Principiis^ 83, we read : Denique etiam Baruch Prophetse librum in as- 
 sertionis huius testimonium vocant, quod ibi de septem mundis vel coelis 
 evidentius indicatur. 
 
 Origen also seems to have believed in an intermediate stage of existence 
 or purgatory, as an interval between death and day of judgment such as 
 CaUistratus taught. In it the soul is not yet rejoined with the body, and 
 
3 1 2 MonuTuents of Early Christianity, 
 
 spheres (or circles), past the storehouse of hail 
 and snow, past the streams of rain, and past all 
 the regions of storehouses, and past the spirits of 
 wickedness which there are in the air ; and they 
 carry it in to the seventh circle, and set it down 
 full opposite the glory of God, and he adores God 
 in the seventh circle below the firmament ; accord- 
 ing to the preacher, who saith, that the flesh shall 
 return to the dust whence it was created, but the 
 spirit shall return to God who gave it. And the 
 spirit, having returned by means of the provi- 
 dence of the angels of God, beholds the garden 
 and the reward apportioned to its good works, 
 and is glad with the hope of what is to come. 
 However, without the body the spirit cannot re- 
 ceive its reward ; but remains there and glorifies 
 God in silence. But the places of their abode 
 are below the firmament, above the sun. For 
 when Christ died and descended into hell. He 
 veiled His Godhead with His spirit ; for His 
 Godhead remained inseparable and undivided of 
 body and of soul. But when He had robbed hell, 
 and liberated the spirits which were in prison, 
 and given them over into the hands of the Father, 
 then He gave them a dwelling-place in the air, 
 below the firmament, in a place which was put 
 
 is escorted by angels who ** leftd the soul " (\|n;x°''Y<^<'^^)- Cp. Origen, de 
 Princ, 105 : Ut etiamsi quis ex hac vita minus eruditus abierit, probabilia 
 tamen opera detulerit, instrui poterit in ilia Jerusalem sanctorum civitate, 
 id est, edoceri et informari, et effici lapis vivus. See E. R. Retlepenning's 
 note on the above passage, and for the transition to this class of belief from 
 the earlier millenarism cp. Martineau's Seat of Authority in Religion^ p. 
 570. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus, 313 
 
 high and lifted out of reach of the power of Satan, 
 and of the wickedness of the air. For the evil 
 powers of the air fight for our spirits, and for that 
 reason our spirits are transmitted by means of 
 angels and issue forth into regions high above the 
 dwelling-place of the devil and of his host. But 
 just as a good spirit is conveyed by means of 
 good angels, so also an evil spirit is conveyed by 
 means of bad angels ; not that angels are bad, for 
 the devil alone is bad, and the demons who com- 
 ply with his bad wishes ; but because men are 
 evil doers and because of their impure courses, 
 their angels also are in name called bad. Thus 
 let us understand it : one soldier is sent by the 
 king, to praise and do honour to the good and 
 virtuous, but to slay and torment the evil-doers. 
 Now in one and the same way, the angels of 
 some men are good and of others bad, because 
 of their respective actions. Thus the angels 
 are good and fond of man, and minister to the 
 complete fulfilment of the will of the benevolent 
 God, being holy and pure. When therefore the 
 sinner dies, the angel takes this spirit, and bears 
 it away in sorrow and grief, being ashamed of 
 its works. Then at once there come upon him 
 the demons of the air dancing, and they raise a 
 war, and they name him as their own, and they 
 clap their hands and leap. But the angel drives 
 them back and murmurs fiercely against them, 
 and so passes by them, and brings the spirit up 
 to the seventh circle, underneath the water-borne 
 firmament, and stations it there full opposite the 
 
 ^^ OFTHE _. 
 
314 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 glory of God, and then does homage in reverence 
 before God. As it is written also in the psalm : 
 * All the races which Thou hast made shall come 
 and prostrate themselves before Thee, they shall 
 make Thy name glorious for ever.' And by 
 means of the angel the spirit beholds the place of 
 judgment and the reward of his works, and he is 
 grieved and perpetually laments the destruction 
 of his soul. For when the spirit is separated 
 from the body, it comprehends and beholds the 
 future more clearly than if it were before its eyes. 
 But until the judgment comes, the spirits re- 
 ceive not their rewards nor their torments ; how- 
 ever, they know from their own deeds what they 
 are going to receive, and apart by themselves 
 they rejoice or sorrow, and with still voice they 
 praise God in security. But the just are filled 
 with desire to see the day of requital ; but the 
 sinners look at the deeds they have done, and 
 they sorrow and lament, knowing full well what 
 torments they are going to suffer in the day of 
 judgment. But by the Divine goodness, patience 
 and rest is bestowed on both sides until the day 
 of reckoning. But to the Christians there is 
 great hope even after death ; for if there are any- 
 where parents or brothers, or children, or relatives, 
 or anyone at all who is a Christian and who is 
 compassionate, and who offers up prayers or con- 
 secrates oblations and alms, so gaining the inter- 
 cession of the saints, they can thus consign to 
 this great place of rest him who looked forward 
 to torments. For God is propitiated and remits 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus, 315 
 
 the sins of them who have fallen asleep by means 
 of the offering of Christ, which is sacrificed upon 
 the holy table for the salvation and for the life 
 and for the pardon of the living and the dead. 
 But, my brethren, deceive yourselves not in your 
 hearts, nor suppose that at the time of death the 
 just man has received the rewards of his right- 
 eousness, or the sinner the sentence of his re- 
 quital. For how can this be ? For our bodies 
 remain here, but the soul passes alone and by 
 itself into the afore-mentioned place. For if there 
 be no resurrection, and if our bodies do not rise 
 from the tombs and stand before the awful tri- 
 bunal, and receive each according to its works, 
 how would it be possible for the sinful flesh to be 
 destroyed, and the soul alone judged. Perhaps a 
 man might string together reasons, putting upon 
 the body the harm of a man's sins. The just 
 therefore cannot receive their reward, nor the 
 sinners their torments, until the coming of that 
 day, concerning which Paul saith : * The trumpet 
 sounds, and the dead shall arise in the twinkling 
 of an eye.' For, as Christ died, so He also arose 
 with the same incorruptible body ; not that it 
 became incorruptible after His resurrection, God 
 forbid ! for rather He put on Himself incorruptible 
 from the Virgin, the sinful body of Adam, and 
 absorbed and sunk its corruptibility in His God- 
 head, and with the same body thus made Divine, 
 He died and rose. Even as my great-grand- 
 father Okorus accurately heard and learnt in 
 Jerusalem from the holy apostles, who, with their 
 
3i6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 own eyes, saw Him upon the Cross, saw Him 
 laid in the sepulchre, saw Him risen from the 
 sepulchre ; and when He came to His disciples in 
 the upper chamber, wherein He made good the 
 deficiencies in faith of Thomas, my great-grand- 
 father Okorus saw him ; and when the Holy 
 Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost he be- 
 lieved and was baptized by the holy apostles. I 
 therefore learnt this from his tradition, and from 
 the holy evangelists, and from the apostles, and 
 from the prophets before them. But that which 
 I teach you I say truly in Christ, and lie not, that 
 as Christ rose, so we shall rise with the same 
 body incorruptible, and shall stand before the 
 tribunal of Christ, and shall enjoy the fruits of our 
 respective works, according to the just and im- 
 partial award of Christ. 
 
 '* But this also I. teach you, brethren, that when 
 they rise from the dead, after that there is not 
 any expiation or remission of their sins, nor any 
 intercession, for the door of the kingdom is shut 
 to them who have not entered here in the body. 
 As therefore ye henceforth know all this, my 
 brethren, be ye zealous in good works, and hasten 
 to enter before the door be shut." ^ 
 
 XI. Domitianus made answer and said: "What 
 dost thou say, my lord Callistratus ? Surely, 
 then, those who sin are not judged at all in this 
 world, and receive not here their requital, but for 
 
 ' The entire § X is in the metaphrast compressed into a section of twenty 
 lines. 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 317 
 
 all the day of judgment is reserved to the other 
 world ?" The holy Callistratus replied : '' God is 
 long-suffering and very compassionate, He desires 
 not the death of a sinner who repents of his sins, 
 and who is conscious of his transgressions, and 
 acknowledges them, and falls down in prayer be- 
 fore God, lamenting, and saying from the bottom 
 of his heart : " O God, expiate my sins," and who 
 thenceforth does righteousness. Though his sins 
 be many, he is able to wipe them out by means of 
 prayer, and fasting, and almsgiving ; to him God 
 remits them, God who is benign and not revenge- 
 ful, and who desires that every man should live, 
 and come to a knowledge of the truth. But if 
 any one pollute himself for a long time in many 
 sins, and blaspheme God, if he shall rob and stint 
 the orphans, and oppress the widows, swearing 
 falsely, and ridiculing them, adding extortion to 
 extortion, and usury to usury, and if he grow rich 
 out of his injustice, and treasure up his own dam- 
 nation ; if, in addition to all . this, he also should 
 soil himself with adultery, and with the abomina- 
 tion of all kinds of fornication, then the benevolent 
 God looks upon him to see if he lingers and 
 tarries over his evildoings, and after that He will 
 apportion unto him in remembrance of his evil 
 deeds, w^hen he can no more be turned away from 
 evil. And the life of such a one shall be de- 
 stroyed, and his goods shall be plundered, and his 
 body shall be destroyed, and taking with him his 
 evil deeds alone, he shall pass miserably out of 
 life, unburied in his own land ; his orphans shall 
 
3 1 8 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 be plundered, and his life shall leave no trace of 
 itself. This is the portion of them that are 
 puffed up by their riches which they have gained 
 by injustice, and who have not walked according 
 to the commandments of God. But if a man be 
 poor, and walk in the like evil path, he is troubled 
 with miserable woes, being full of sin during his 
 life, and the might of God is in no way a help to 
 him ; for God hates evil-doers, who return not 
 from their evil paths. And such a one is found 
 to have lost his riches, and to have forfeited all 
 the good things of life, and even his bare wants 
 of the body are not supplied to him. And if his 
 life be prolonged, it is still more pitiable ; and 
 unless he devote himself to prayer, and do right- 
 eousness, he is miserable beyond all men. For 
 straightway there come upon him tribulations and 
 afflictions from which there is no escape, anguish 
 that is intolerable, and all the means of life fail him. 
 And frenzy, and care, and many other troubles 
 befall him, and consume his flesh like a viper, and 
 like a basilisk suck his blood ; and he is the prey 
 of detestable woes, leprosy and scurvy, and he 
 shall desire only his daily fare, and shall not find 
 it, and he shall be hateful and despicable to all, a 
 laughing-stock, and source of scoffing, an eyesore, 
 and a butt to all beholders ; ambushes shall come 
 on him whence he knows not, and he shall be 
 smitten with unforeseen accidents. Yea, and 
 many such take their own lives, and mercilessly 
 massacre themselves on account of the woes that 
 they cannot endure, and their memory is miserably 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 319 
 
 effaced from their life. So is it for the poor man 
 who soils himself with many sins, and regards 
 not the commandments of God. But there is 
 also another fate which may befall both classes, 
 both those who live in evil doing and are rich, 
 and also those who are poor. For God is merci- 
 ful, and may grant them on earth long spell of 
 health, and to suit His ends, even bestows un- 
 broken prosperity in all directions ; bodily health, 
 fruitfulness of lands, fecundity of animals, respect 
 and honour from great and little alike, life alto- 
 gether without care, and long and glorious, an old 
 age of pomp and honour, glory and praise, and a 
 blessed death, and a great and famous funeral. 
 And yet one who lives such a life as this, and does 
 not walk in the commandments of God, which are 
 light, and give light to the eyes ; who rather con- 
 taminates himself all his time with savagery and 
 cruel actions, and does not thank God nor glorify 
 Him with good actions, nor recognise Him as the 
 Giver of good things, fearing Him as is right and 
 lawful to do, but who is ungrateful to God, and 
 when he has good things vouchsafed to him by 
 God's grace, reckons it to his own merit ; let not 
 such a one have any rejoicing, for all the more 
 will he be tortured in Gehenna, like the rich man 
 who heard Abraham say, ' Thou hast received thy 
 good things in thy lifetime, and a great gulf is 
 between me and thee.' But David also says, 
 ' Requite to my neighbours sevenfold into their 
 bosoms their insults with which they have insulted 
 Thee, O Lord ; ' and again, ' I saw the impious 
 
320 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 man growing up and overtopping, all like the 
 cedars of Lebanon ; I passed, and he was not ; I 
 sought, and his place was not found ; ' for their end 
 is seen in the bottom of the pit, according to Him 
 who talks in parables. This is the lot of every 
 sinful man. whether he be rich or poor, who 
 enjoys the good things of God, but doeth not His 
 will. And, moreover, because of them there is 
 tribulation upon the earth, either the onset of 
 enemies, or sudden death, or famine, or hail, or 
 any other of the afflictions on account of sin which 
 befall all men at once, like the flood or the fire 
 which consumed Sodom. For when a sinner in- 
 flames the wrath of his Creator, then the Divine 
 anger descends upon him, like an involuntary re- 
 pentance of sin. 
 
 '* And now, since ye are new in the faith, and 
 have not read the holy books ; for it is written in 
 the Book of Kings about Achab and Jezebel, 
 because they inflamed the wrath of God, the 
 Creator of all, by their idolatry, and extortions, 
 and robbery; they slew His prophets, they de- 
 stroyed His altars ; one prophet alone was left, 
 Elias by name, who was consumed with the zeal 
 of the Almighty God, and he, by his prayers, 
 curbed the clouds that they should not give rain, 
 and hindered the dew from heaven, that no shoot 
 might rise from earth according to its nature ; for 
 the word went forth from Elias, and shut up and 
 closed the boundaries of the eternal, so that for 
 three years and six months there was no rain, 
 neither did the fountains play and spring up, 
 
Ac^s of S. Callistratus. 321 
 
 because they were dried up. All creeping things 
 also dwindled, the four-footed animals and the 
 birds, for the Lord was wroth ; and all blossoms 
 and plants which were upon the earth were dried 
 up. All the beauty of the earth was consumed, 
 the earth was rent asunder to its depths by the 
 drought, and all the kings and mighty ones of the 
 earth staggered. The heavens rang like brass, 
 and the earth roared like a heifer, and all living 
 things repented against their wills because of the 
 exceeding famine. But the word of a single pro- 
 phet had command over all this, who built an altar 
 to God, and brought down water from heaven, 
 and cut off the false prophets of Baal, eight hun- 
 dred and fifty men, and so appeased God's wrath, 
 that after that the door of His pity was opened 
 upon the earth. Such were the afflictions which 
 happened because of the sins of men ; for they are 
 chastised, even though they do not understand ; 
 for God acquits not the impious, because He is just 
 and powerful. But He does not destroy them at 
 once, because He is pitiful and long-suffering, and 
 He is indulgent to the wickedness of men, in the 
 hope that they will return to repentance. But 
 if they continue in their sins without turning. 
 He destroys them utterly, as He did Rehoboam 
 and Bassa and Achab, the princes of Israel, who 
 with their families were effaced with dishonour. 
 But those who turn from their wickedness and 
 repent, to them He vouchsafes remission of their 
 sins, as He did to Manasses, King of Judea, and 
 to Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Babylon. But him 
 
 Y 
 
322 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 who insults God, God destroys ; as He did Sene- 
 cherim and Antiochus, the kings of Assyria. 
 Thus, then, it is that God chastises some of us 
 here, and some of us in the future. Therefore, 
 my brethren, let us follow after virtue, in order 
 that we may be glorified with Christ, both here 
 and in the future." 
 
 Then Evarestos made answer, and said : "My 
 lord Callistratus, is it according to the number 
 of days that God terminates the world, or is it 
 according to chance ? Otherwise, how is it that 
 men die unexpectedly, either by hunger or thirst, 
 or on the sea, or in rivers, or in the fire, or by any 
 other of the accidents which may bring about dis- 
 solution of the lives of men ; or it may be that 
 one comrade slays another, or a man dies by the 
 agency of a demon, or suddenly } But when a man 
 dies either in his youth or in old age, is the tale of 
 his days fulfilled ? And so, too, with those who 
 fall in war, for, behold, many of our host fell in 
 the war with the Persians ? " The holy Callis- 
 tratus said : *' Learn ye also concerning this, my 
 brethren ; for at the beginning God said to Adam, 
 * Dust thou wast, and to dust shalt thou return.' 
 And at the same time the edict of death went 
 forth upon men from their birth, even to their old 
 age. And not only is death ordained unerringly 
 by nature, like other things that are weighed and 
 calculated ; but the knowledge thereof is in the 
 hands of God alone, who is the Lord of life and 
 death. Not that it is ordained that all should 
 reach to old age ; for many a time a father has 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 323 
 
 died in his youth, but his sons have reached an 
 extreme old age ; and the sons have died In 
 youth before their fathers, as happened in the 
 very beginning, for Adam lived nine hundred and 
 thirty years, and Seth, his son, nine hundred and 
 twelve, but his other son had not yet arrived at 
 even a hundred years when he was slain by Cain 
 his brother. But death Is appointed for all ; not 
 but what there are some who are given a long life 
 because of their just works, while to others God 
 shortens life because of the excess of their sins ; 
 and In the case of some He pities their tears, and 
 adds to their life, as in the case of Hezeklah, and 
 for others He lengthens life because of the prayers 
 of widows and orphans, and sometimes parents be- 
 cause of the tears of children, and children because 
 of their parent's tears, have been brought back 
 from death. And there are many requirements ^ 
 of the world, on account of which He adds to the 
 life of men, both adds and takes away. But the 
 blow of death also falls upon men because of 
 their sins, sometimes by the sword, sometimes by 
 fire, sometimes by water, or in some other way of 
 those in which the blow can fall. But a man may 
 contend against us in argument, and say that he 
 will not die because his day has not yet come, 
 and for that reason he will boldly venture to 
 go upon the sea when it Is stormy, or Into a 
 river that is in flood, or on a snowy mountain, or 
 
 ^ There is something wrong here with the Arm. text, of which I make 
 sense as I can. 
 
324 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 on a scorched plain, or among wild beasts, or he 
 will take harmful food ; in such cases death comes 
 not as a surprise and ambush, nor is it accidental, 
 but it is a wilful dissolution of life, and they who 
 so act are reckoned with those who die by their 
 own sin. But there are also other forms of death, 
 from the temperament of the body, from cold, or 
 bile, or blood, or some other of the accidents by 
 which life is dissolved. But as I said before, 
 death is appointed to that life in man which he 
 shares with the plants, and therefore, the Lord 
 said, * Pray that ye be not led into temptation,' for 
 ye must at all times pray diligently, and say, * Lead 
 us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil 
 One.' For many are the snares which are set by 
 the Evil One ; for throughout our lives he lays 
 deadly ambushes in rivers, in fields, in mountains, 
 on the plains, in the fire, at the hands of a wicked 
 man, by a man's own act in strangling himself 
 through his irascibility, as in the case of Judas 
 and Achitophel ; and in many other ways he lays 
 deadly snares, and death is fated for him that is 
 caught. But we must pray to God continually to 
 preserve us from evil accidents, and in His grace 
 bestow upon us a good end. There are also 
 other forms of death, as when a stone should fall 
 from a wall through ignorance, or the branch of a 
 tree may fall upon us, or we may be butted by an 
 ox, or thrown from a horse, or we may tread upon 
 a sword, or meet a wild beast, or be bitten by a 
 viper ; all these are evil accidents, and they occur 
 because man is puffed up with his strength, so 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 325 
 
 that God remits His aid, and then man becomes 
 ridiculous, and falls into all kinds of deadly snares ; 
 wherefore It Is necessary that ye should be watch- 
 ful, and pray to God, for he who prays to God 
 with all his heart, to him the very snares become 
 a source of good, as Paul said : ^ 'He will with 
 the temptation also make the way of escape, in 
 order that we may be able to suffer It.' But there 
 is not allotted to Satan any foreknowledge, but he 
 knows very little of the time of man's death. 
 However, he abides continually in the evil man, 
 and If the pity of God did not prevent him in the 
 case of each man, he would destroy all men to- 
 gether. And on account of this the Lord says, 
 ' Be careful, lest your hearts be weighed down 
 with dissoluteness, or drunkenness, or worldly 
 cares, and that day come suddenly upon you, as 
 an ambush is sprung upon all men who dwell 
 over the vj^hole face of the earth. Be watchful, 
 and for ever make prayers, that ye be accounted 
 worthy to escape from all that which Is to come, 
 and to stand before the Son of man ; ' but death 
 In war is open and not secret, for every one who 
 takes a sword in his hand and goes Into war, 
 either slays another or himself dies ; but If he 
 survives and Is left whole, the providence of God 
 has intervened. All the time of man's life, there- 
 fore, is destined, but all sorts of snares beset him 
 during his life. But if a man humble himself, and 
 prostrate himself before God, he Is delivered from 
 
 ^ I Cor. X. 13. 
 
326 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 them ; for although even his body be exacted of 
 him, yet his spirit goes rejoicing to its Creator, in 
 the way in which I before described. 
 
 " But let us, brethren, stand firm, for I trust in 
 Christ, that by His hope we shall all overcome the 
 machinations of the devil, and receive the emblem 
 of victory. Listen to me, my brethren, in case it 
 befall me to die before you. Forasmuch as ye are 
 intimate with me, I would have you know that 
 many a time Satan fought with me in my youth ; 
 but I hope in my Lord that now he will be worsted 
 by me ; for much alms have I given, and was 
 proud as if I had won the whole realm. For 
 when a man gives alms, he saith not, ' I have 
 proffered but of that which God gave me,' but 
 rather, is puffed up, as if he had given what was 
 his own, and declareth that he hath done some- 
 thing great. Nay, rather have we received the 
 command to minister to the poor, and we ought 
 so to give, that what our left hand doeth our right 
 should not know. That is to say, let not the devil 
 on the left hand steal away the grace that the bet- 
 ter hand wrought. But do ye, my dear friends, 
 be on your guard, because all this is of the devil, 
 for he opposeth everything that is good. For 
 many a time hath he been able to filch away my 
 mind, when he saw that I was praying with tears 
 to God my Helper. At such times he would dis- 
 tract my mind, and would agitate all kinds of 
 earthly cares, and intrude them on my soul, and 
 would prompt me to gape and yawn. But I 
 spurned him, and thus the adversary was not able 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 327 
 
 to steal me away. For God takes account, not 
 only of those who sing hymns and pray in the 
 churches, but also of the very steps and foot-prints 
 of those who, with sincere faith, enter into the tem- 
 ple of God. And whatsoever a man wishes to ask 
 he knows beforehand, and vouchsafes the prayers 
 which are according to His will ; and wheresoever 
 there is a man who bends the knee, and prays 
 with his whole heart, unto him God hearkens, and 
 will give all that he needs with free grace. For if 
 thou sayest, ' Have pity upon me, O God,' He 
 knows thy meaning, and understands that which 
 thy words represent. Therefore, dear friends, it 
 profits the adversary nothing when he desires to 
 snatch away our understanding, and intrudes all 
 sorts of thoughts among our prayers. But who is 
 there of men who knows not this : that man is 
 prompt to sin, and wearies not therefrom, and is 
 eager to transgress ; but in prayer he is weak and 
 idle, and remiss, and is faint and drowsy, and 
 thinks that all this is a natural affection, instead of 
 being an invention of the devil ? But understand 
 this, my brethren, that all these things are inspir- 
 ations of the evil one, from which we must flee, and 
 with faithful diligence, glorify God, who made the 
 heavens and earth, the sea, and all that is in them." 
 
 Lysimachus made answer, and said : " My lord 
 Callistratus, did God really make the heavens and 
 earth, the sea, the moon, and the stars ? " 
 
 The holy Callistratus said : ''Did I not tell you 
 that, even while ye learn or pray, ye slumber ? 
 Did ye not apprehend what I said before, in an- 
 
328 Momiments of Early Christianity. 
 
 swer to the question of our brother Beniarchus ? 
 But come, do you tell me, then ; How did you learn 
 about them from your fathers ? or how did ye 
 reverence those things made with hands which ye 
 used to call God ? " They made answer all at 
 once, and said : " We learnt thus, that the heavens 
 came into being of themselves, and so also the 
 earth, and that the sun is the god of gods, because 
 he gives light, and that the stars are images of the 
 gods." 
 
 The holy Callistratus replied, '' Learn also con- 
 cerning this, my brethren, lest Satan trip you up. 
 All this world which is visible is the creation of 
 the heavenly and single and beginningless and in- 
 create Holy Trinity, and of the single Godhead. 
 For it founded heaven and earth. It drew the 
 heavens across like a tent, and stretched them out 
 like curtains, and by its word, fixed and made 
 sure the watery firmament, and vaulted it, so that 
 it was round like a ball ; and established the earth 
 above the waters, and the waters upon nothing at 
 all. And the earth trembles and is afraid at His 
 presence ; for He made rifts in the firmament and 
 above the illimitable expanse of the torrents of 
 ocean, which has under itself all the elements, the 
 upper and the nether ones. Likewise He made 
 also the stars, and set them in the vault-like firma- 
 ment to illumine the darkness. But the sun, by a 
 law which never ceases, runs his courses ; for he 
 goes forth from the region of the portals of the 
 east, and he travels along the south, revolving like 
 a wheel, till he comes home to the west, and there 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus, 329 
 
 he enters the portals of the west ; and then forth- 
 with darkness covers all things as the night is 
 drawn over them. 
 
 "But when he has entered, and sunk below the 
 vast prison bars of the south, in the nether firma- 
 ment, he runs in the direction of the right hand, 
 until he reaches once more the portals of the East, 
 and masks the darkness with his light. So, also, 
 the moon fulfils her courses according to the same 
 law, waxing and waning as she approaches the 
 sun, or goes away therefrom in her period of thirty 
 days. And how can your teaching be true that 
 the sun is God '^ If he were God, how would he 
 obey the law, and be enslaved by it ? How could 
 he suffer, and be subject to affections, as when he 
 is sometimes covered with clouds, and sometimes 
 darkened .^ In the same way, also, the moon and 
 the stars likewise fulfil their courses according to 
 command. In one and the same manner, they all 
 leap up from the east, and they travel to the set- 
 ting of the sun, and they return to the right of the 
 north without entering the gates of heaven ; but 
 they revolve themselves in the firmament, and ful- 
 fil their entire courses by day according to the 
 order of each of them, until they reach the east 
 by way of the south, wherein are seen by us the 
 vestiges of their paths. But many concoct fables, 
 and say that the heavens revolve, whose words are 
 vain ; for the firmament is immovable. But many 
 of the stars run in a circular path, and some of 
 them are fixed, and have the rest of the stars to 
 turn round themselves ; as is the c^fssvtDBR>l^J^ 
 
 V%NIVERSITT 
 
 CAUFORHi^ 
 
330 Momiments of Early Christianity. 
 
 northern stars, which are, by some, called Arcturus, 
 but by some Hephtasagiron ; but by the farmers, 
 it is called the Wain, and by sailors Bazmojth, 
 for these stars do not alter from their path, but 
 revolve where they are. But other stars have 
 a period of their own, in which they fulfil their 
 courses, as, for example, Aruseak (Venus) and 
 Mazaroth, and the Alosounk (? the Pleiades), and 
 Haik (Orion). Each of these obeys its period, 
 according as it was appointed to do ; as it was also 
 written : * The moon and the stars which Thou 
 hast established.' But the prophet, in speaking of 
 the firmament, does not mean that it is immovable, 
 and in that sense speak of its immovability ; but he 
 alludes to its strength, because they are subservient 
 to an invincible and unerring command before 
 their God. And now, my brethren, cast away the 
 vain preaching ; for God made all creation, but 
 He honoured man alone with His image, and 
 made everything subservient under his feet. And 
 it is meet for man to know Him, because, for his 
 sake, all creation was established out of nothing ; 
 for his sake the sun fulfils his unerring command, 
 and the moon her course, according to her com- 
 mand ; for his sake all the most ancient stars were 
 set in order, which men of vain understanding 
 called gods, giving them the names of animals, 
 as for example, of the Ram and the Bull, of 
 Capricorn, and the Virgin, and the Yoke, and so 
 forth. And they go on thence to conduct re- 
 searches of a kind, and profess to derive from them 
 seasons of plenty and famines ; and they also de- 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 331 
 
 clare that the fortunes and the terms of men's lives 
 are ordered by them, in order that they may de- 
 ceive men with empty words. But these constel- 
 lations are appointed to make clear to us the 
 various seasons, and to indicate to sailors their 
 path over the sea. For man's sake were 
 made the rivers and the mountains, and every 
 blade of grass, and every plant. By the word 
 were they manifested upon the earth ; but man 
 alone, on the earth, was honoured with the image 
 of the immortal and benevolent God who made 
 him. But he yielded to deceit, and fell into sin, 
 and became mortal, and was ensnared by the out- 
 ward appearance of the evil one, and by his false 
 and empty flattery. And now, brethren, it is a 
 great task all over this earth for man to save his 
 soul. But let us labour to receive the token of 
 victory in war, wherever there is contention with 
 the devil, and let us boldly defy the evil warrior, 
 and let us be found to have conquered his lawless 
 pride, and he shall be worsted by us, and fall, 
 never to rise again ; but we, having escaped from 
 the delusions of life, shall receive the crown of un- 
 dying glory from our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen." ^ 
 
 XII. And when he had said this, he was silent 
 for a while, for it was late even-tide ; and the 
 whole night long he remained in prayer until the 
 dawn. But there was a certain scribe of the 
 
 ^ The metaphrast abridges § XI. into 40 lines. 
 
332 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 law-court, who was near to the prison, and he 
 listened to the discourse of the holy Callistratus, 
 and wrote it down in shorthand on paper, and 
 gave it to us ; and we set in order with all ac- 
 curacy the record and outline of his thought.^ 
 But at dawn the captain Presentinus took his seat 
 upon the throne of judgment, and commanded 
 them to be brought before him. And they 
 brought them into the great court in which were 
 set up many images of idols. There were 
 mustered together not only the captains of the 
 force, but the whole number of the soldiers. The 
 captain said : *' How is it, O Callistratus, hast thou 
 schooled thyself and those of the king's soldiers 
 that were inveigled by thee 1 Hast thou in- 
 structed them to sacrifice to the gods, and save 
 themselves from the torture "^ " The holy Callis- 
 tratus said : '' As to myself, I have given this 
 answer and adhere to it, that nothing shall 
 persuade me to forsake Christ my hope ; but as 
 to them, they are themselves grown up, and of 
 full age, so ask them." The captain said : " What 
 do ye say, who have been deceived, and have 
 assented to this babbler.'*" They made answer 
 and said : *' O unworthy man, and shameless, if 
 thou wilt still keep us on the list of thy band, we 
 shall not resist ; but as to our worship and 
 religion, we believe in the King of heaven and 
 earth, in the God of all, and in His Offspring 
 Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, for He is 
 
 ^ The metaphrast omits these details and says nothing of the scribe. 
 
Acts of S. Callistratus. 333 
 
 God in three persons, a Trinity, but one Godhead, 
 and one power ; without flaw is He, and full of 
 wisdom, which is and was and abides for ever, as 
 our teacher Callistratus taught us." XIII. But the 
 captain commanded that they should be scourged 
 with green switches ; and after the scourging he 
 ordered them to be bound hand and foot and 
 dragged all of them to the edge of a lake,^ and 
 said to them : '' Sacrifice to the gods, for if not, 
 ye shall be drowned in the waters." But they 
 said : " We believe in the true God, do thou what 
 thou wilt." But when they were about to be 
 thrown into the great lake, which was called 
 Oceanus, the holy Callistratus fell to praying and 
 said : '' God eternal, who art unapproachable and 
 all-powerful, who didst establish the heavens by 
 Thy might to be Thy throne immoveable for 
 ever, and the earth to be Thy footstool ; look 
 upon this Thy flock, and be among us and save 
 us from destruction, and grant that these waters 
 be unto these men for the baptism of regeneration. 
 Make them worthy to be washed with the eternal 
 and pure baptism, unto the casting away of the 
 vanity of the old man, and unto their participation 
 with those who labour for Thy cross. Grant us, 
 O Lord, to come unto Thy treasuries, by means 
 of this washing, in order that we may be fellow- 
 workers with Thy Holy Spirit in these waters. 
 For glorious is the name of Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 ^ Gk. has : KoXv^jL^-qOpav wKcavbv oiiro) Ka\ovfj.£VOV. 
 
334 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 But when they had said with one accord Amen, 
 they threw them bound into the water ; and in 
 the same moment the bonds of the saints were 
 loosed, and they came to the top of the water and 
 passed on to dry land, resplendent with the grace 
 of the Holy Spirit. And as they came out of the 
 water, there went forth a voice from Heaven 
 saying : '* Be of good cheer. My loved ones, for 
 I am with you ; be ye glad, for, behold, I have 
 made ready for you a place in My kingdom. 
 Rejoice, for I have written your names in My 
 record in the Book of Life." And there was 
 terrible thunder and a great earthquake, so that 
 the images of the idols fell down and were broken. 
 But when we saw^ the light which shot forth 
 over the heads of the saints, and heard the blissful 
 voice along with the earthquake and the breaking 
 of the idols, we believed, — we, the soldiers, a 
 hundred and five of us. Then the lawless 
 Presentinus was taken with great fear, and he 
 ordered them to be led into prison. And when 
 they had entered into prison, the holy Callistratus 
 again taught them, and said : '* Men and brothers, 
 behold the Lord hath summoned us to Himself. 
 For I received baptism from my very youth, but 
 now He has called you also ; arise, therefore, and 
 let us pray." So they raised their hands and he 
 began to say : '* Lord, Lord, how wonderful is 
 Thy name for ever, who, before all things didst 
 with Thy infinite word establish all things ; who 
 
 * The metaphrast has *• They saw," depriving this part of the narrative 
 of its personal character. 
 
Ac^s of S. CallistratMS. 335 
 
 art the Lord of indestructible and invisible and 
 flawless treasures ; preserve this Thy flock, and 
 deliver it from the mouth of the lion, and lead 
 it into eternal salvation. And make us worthy 
 to die in Thy confession. Save us spotless and 
 pure from the sin-loving life. Bring us in at the 
 narrow gate into the royal temple, that we may 
 praise with holy and unresting voices the all- 
 blessed name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
 now and for ever." 
 
 XIV. But the lawless and impious captain, 
 Presentinus, took counsel with a vir ducenarius,^ 
 and sent into prison and beheaded them, for the 
 soldiers of Christ were fifty in number. And the 
 saints died in the month Hori,^ on the twenty- 
 seventh day thereof But we soldiers who be- 
 lieved when we saw the vision of the wonders, 
 and were baptized in the name of Father, Son, 
 and Holy Spirit, we came privily in the night, 
 and we took up the relics of the saints, and laid 
 them in a proper place. ^ Wherefore the Lord 
 
 ^ The metaph. has 'Ytpto AovKivapio) i.e. Uiro Ducenario. Ducange 
 [Glossarium] explains Ducenarius thus : Dicitur qui duobus militum centuriis 
 praeerat, sicut uni centurio. The Armenian has " vir pholarius " which I 
 cannot explain. I have therefore followed the Greek text. 
 
 2 The metaph. has September. 
 
 ^ The conclusion runs thus in the metaphrast : **And they raised a 
 temple to them, with which few can compete in splendour ; and it stands 
 in the middle of Rome, the most queenly of cities. But they also found 
 a paper {\a.pTr\v) in the prison, on which the teaching and forthshadowings 
 of the martyr Callistratus were written down. And after his death Marinus 
 also was martyred, a man of great eminence and fame and culture. He 
 shewed the most manly fortitude to the end, to the glory of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, whom befits all glory, praise and worship, now and ever, world 
 without end. Amen." 
 
^^6 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 made us worthy to establish His church in Rome 
 in the name of the saints, and we built in the 
 name of the holy Callistratus a place of expiation 
 for sinners, and a meeting-house of union for 
 angels and men ; for the glory and worship of the 
 All-holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
 
ACTS OF S. DEMETRIUS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I HAVE chosen this piece as the last of my collection, rather 
 on account of the interesting letter of the Bishop of Thessa- 
 lonica which accompanies it in the Armenian 
 text, than for its own merits. Not that it is inThese^A^s 
 without a certain interest of its own ; for it 
 has a good deal of local colour, and the outline of the teaching 
 of Demetrius w^hich it contains has about it a noble simplicity 
 and directness which reminds us of the Apology of Apollonius. 
 The date of the saint's martyrdom cannot be earlier than 305 
 A.D. ; and it is therefore a matter for surprise that the Acts 
 contain no reference to the doctrine of the Trinity, as is usual 
 in martyrdoms of this date. Still more re- 
 markable is it, that in the brief outline of the Primitive 
 saint's dogmatic teaching, Christ is merely their Chris- 
 said to have been born in an ineffable tian teaching, 
 manner without reference being made to the 
 Virgin Mother. Such a silence is rare except in Acts of the 
 second century. The combat in the arena between the strip- 
 ling Nestorius and the giant gladiator Lygeos may have been 
 modelled on the legend of David and Goliath ; and the pro- 
 phecy ascribed to Demetrius is sufficiently quaint, as coming 
 from the lips of a saint. The story is perhaps an allegory 
 destined to convey to the reader the disgust with which the 
 gladiatorial games inspired the Christians, one of the first-fruits 
 of whose triumph under Constantine was the abolition of these 
 degrading spectacles. The learned Tillemont, however, was so 
 shocked at the idea of a saint inciting his pupil to do combat 
 
 337 "7 
 
^^S Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 with a gladiator, that {Monument. Ecdes.y p. 639) he argues 
 the incident to be an invention later than the ninth century. 
 The Bollandist editor (Ada SS., ad diem 8 Octobris Tom iv.) 
 admits it to be an invention, but points out that a history of 
 the saint at least as old as the eighth century and probably of 
 the seventh already contains it 
 
 There is a slight historical error in the appended letter of 
 
 the Bishop of Thessalonica, in which the Emperor Justinian is 
 
 spoken of as the father of the Emperor 
 
 Their con- Maurice. For the latter was no kinsman of 
 
 demnation of , .• • j 1 u -l • • o 
 
 relic- Justmian, and only began to reign in 582, 
 
 mongering. seventeen years after Justinian's death. The 
 phrase however may be honorific only, and 
 mean nothing more than " your majesty's predecessor." It is 
 in any case not enough to discredit the authenticity of the 
 letter. In an age which set so much store by the relics of 
 saints, no one would have invented so dignified a rebuke to a 
 relic-mongering emperor ; much less have inserted it in the 
 history of a martyred saint. We do not know who is the 
 writer who thus inserts the letter of Eusebius in his narrative ; 
 nor can we be certain that the Acts of the martyr Demetrius 
 which precede his narrative are from the same pen. 
 
 In the Armenian martyrology the narrative of the miracles 
 wrought through the dead saint is continued through two 
 more chapters, which I have not thought it 
 ab t^eioW) necessary to translate. These two chapters 
 which I give do not recount anything later 
 than the reign of the Emperor Maurice. It is therefore prob- 
 able that the writer of the narratives lived either in his reign, 
 which terminated in the year 612, or soon after, and that the 
 entire narrative which is in the form of an address to the faith- 
 ful, was composed early in the seventh century for delivery on 
 the feast day of the saint. What is remarkable about it is the 
 admission, that at that early date the true place of interment 
 of any one of the many martyrs who had suffered under Dio- 
 cletian in Thessalonica was unknown to any one, and the 
 memory of them lost, with the sole exception of the saint 
 Mamrinus. 
 
Acts of S. Demetrius, 339 
 
 In Migne's Patrologia Graca (vol. 116) much space is 
 
 allotted to the Acts of this saint, and the lengthy dissertation 
 
 of Byaeus is reprinted from the Acta SS. 
 
 The Acts are found in two forms, namely, Genealogy of 
 
 , ^ the texts of 
 
 that of the metaphrast of the tenth century, these Acts. 
 
 and in an earlier recension by some anony- 
 mous writer, to whom in my notes I refer as Gk» Anon, The 
 relations of the three forms of the Acts, viz., the Armenian, 
 the Gk. Anon., and the metaphrast, are worth examining, for 
 they present in a very striking way the power of growth in- 
 herent in a hagiological writing. Thus the Gk. Anon and 
 the metaphrast contain the following miracles absent from the 
 the Armenian : — 
 
 1. That of the scorpion (see note on § VI.). 
 
 2. The cure of Leontius (see note 3 on § XVI.). 
 
 3. The miraculous passage of Leontius over the Danube in 
 the §§ added in the Greek forms. 
 
 4. Lupus and the royal ring. The Armenian quite ignores 
 Lupus (see note 6 on § XIII ). 
 
 Byseus thought that the Gk. Anon, made his recension in 
 the seventh century, and that the metaphrast's form is a simple 
 amplification of the same. This is certainly the case as regard 
 nine-tenths of the metaphrast text \ but it is not the case all 
 through, and in one passage (see note 2 on § XV.) it is the 
 metaphrast and not the Gk. Anon, who retains the text which 
 we find in the Armenian. A diligent comparison of the three 
 texts reveals the same phenomenon elsewhere, but less 
 markedly. We are thus precluded from supposing that the 
 metaphrast used the Gk. Anon, and that alone as the basis 
 of his form. He must have had a document which closely 
 resembled it, and like it contained the miracles which the 
 Armenian omits ; yet in some few points truer to the original 
 document than is the Gk. Anon. The following diagram 
 therefore brings before the eye the genealogical relations of 
 the three forms : — 
 
 TERSITY 
 
340 Monuments of Early Christianity 
 
 A. Original Acts. 
 
 B. Armenian Form 
 of 5th or 6th century. 
 
 C. Transitional form of unknown 
 date, with miracles added. 
 
 D. Greek Anonymous, 
 probably of 7th century. 
 
 E. Metaphrast's recension 
 of loth century. 
 
 Of these B is by far the simplest and nearest to A. C is a 
 hypothetical form necessary to explain the existence of D and 
 E. I have not put B in the direct line of transmission because 
 it omits some very probable details, such as that Lyaeus was a 
 Vandal by birth, which we find in D and E. The Armenian 
 translator may easily have omitted such a point, as also certain 
 topographical details which are contained in D and E^ because 
 they were not of a kind to interest or edify his countrymen. 
 
S. DEMETRIUS. 
 
 I. At this time there was much wickedness in 
 high places, and Maximianus the emperor, the 
 enemy of God, was in the city of Thessalonica, 
 where the ministers of religion were subjected to 
 every kind of torture. For he was sunk in the 
 depths of idolatry ; so that he made strict search 
 and enquiry after those who had embraced the 
 religion of God, and imprisoned and tortured 
 them. But of the Christians who were in the 
 city, some took the advice of the wise Paul, and 
 bowed their heads before the storm, and hid them- 
 selves for a season ; but others were more cour- 
 ageous, and publicly avowed their faith in the 
 middle of the crowded city. II. Of the latter, 
 there was one whose name was Demetrius,^ a 
 brave and virtuous man, who had no fear of the 
 death allotted by nature to us. He spurned the 
 terrible threats of the Emperor, and openly avowed 
 himself to be a Christian ; and in and out of season 
 with the greatest boldness he taught the saving 
 Name, which he upheld in his own soul, to all who 
 came near him, in accordance with apostolic com- 
 
 ^ According to the Gk. Anon, and metaphrast, Demetrius was €k 
 •ylvovs T<3v ircpiSoltov, Kal tt[s <rvyK\i\TOV PovXt|S vrrdp\<av, cKO-KeirTtop 
 TO irpwTov <rTpaT€vard|X€vos Kal dvOviraros yiyovcos ttjs *EX\d8os, Kal 
 viraTov wpaCwva ^Xa^ev vtrh rov Pao-iXe'ws Ma|nxiavov. 
 
 341 
 
342 Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 mands. Now this saint was very learned in the 
 divine scriptures ; and would expound before all 
 the life-giving mysteries which were hidden in 
 them, and this, too, was part of his teaching — 
 that it was his disobedience which caused the first 
 man to go astray from the truth ; wherefore also 
 we became liable to death, and idolatry entered 
 into the world. For this cause, also, the allwise 
 Word, God, born in ineffable wise of God the 
 Father, came into the world, having put on flesh } 
 and He shone forth as the light of the world. He 
 lifted up the fallen, and raised up the sunken, and 
 found the lost, and made us pure from all the filth 
 of sin. And not only did he do these good 
 works, but he also taught unto all who received his 
 word, the righteousness of holiness, gentleness 
 and tranquillity, love and peace, to despise what 
 is transitory, and, in the hope of what is to come, 
 to welcome the earnest of life that is eternal, and 
 passes not away. HI. With such language the 
 saint would comfort all who came to him ; and in 
 consequence many came to him because his fame 
 was spread abroad in many places. At that time 
 
 * Vj irdvo'o<f>os Tov Otov Ad-yov Kard <rdf Ka mtpovcrCa. The outline of 
 the saint's teaching, as given in the Armenian, is almost identical with that 
 of the (ik. Anon. ; the metaphrast garbles it, introducing more pro- 
 nounced dogmatic, and omitting the moral elements, e.g. t«^S dprov. . . . 
 Tw irarpl orvvdvapxos Xo-yos, oCt€ -His Otd-rriTos Airoo-rds Kal (rdpKa Xa^wv 
 «K irapO^vou. . . . Kal t| <|>^(Jut] iravraxov t6v &v8pa iraptTrcfi-irc K-qpvTTOvra 
 T^v TpidSa. 
 
 The Gk. Anon, adds that Demetrius taught €v -rn ^^^r* {i.e. in 
 Thessalonica) xaXKcxn-iKfJ Xcyopi^vi] o-rod, ?v6a Kal clwOti rds o-vvd8ovs 
 vouur6ai inrb rds tov ky^v'i &T]p.o(riov XoxrrpoO (nro'yaCous Kajidpas. Such 
 details evince an early and close knowledge of the city. 
 
Acts of S. Demetrius. 343 
 
 then, the officers of the Emperor went about in 
 search of the Christians ; and having taken the 
 blessed Demetrius, they brought him before Maxi- 
 mianus the enemy of God, as if they had taken 
 some great quarry. IV. Now it happened that 
 the Emperor just then was going forth to take his 
 seat in the arena of the city, in order to witness 
 the gladiators, who were going to exhibit in the 
 sight of all the common people ; and the place of 
 the arena was fitted up with scaffolding, and was 
 itself built of cut stone, in order to contain those 
 who came and sat therein. ^ And there was there 
 a man by name Leos, strong of limb, and power- 
 ful as a giant. ^ V. He was the terror of all when 
 he fought in the shows ; but in his life he was 
 reckless and murderous, and was therefore a special 
 favourite in the eyes of Maximianus, who reckoned 
 him among his foremost champions, because in 
 that land there was none found like him. When 
 therefore the Emperor entered the circus, the exe- 
 cutioners set Demetrius before him. VI. And 
 the Emperor, after asking him if he were a 
 Christian, commanded that they should take him 
 close up to the portico of the baths, where a red- 
 hot fire was kindled ; for the baths were close to 
 the Court of Justice.^ VII. Then he bade them 
 
 ^ Gk. Anon, and metaphrast say nothing of the cut stone, but the 
 former has as follows : Ikci ■ydp avT<3 7rap€(rK€ija(rT0 8ia tivwv <rav£8<«)V 
 'n'epiir€<{>paY(tcvos KVKXcp kv {{xl/ei Kpe|JLdp.€vos, 6 84x.€(rdai ixeXXcov tovs Iv 
 avTw €lo-i6vTas. The metaphrast gives similar particulars later on. 
 
 ^ The Gk. Anon, spells the name Avatos, and says he was a Vandal, 
 who in the ludi had slain many both in Rome and Sirmium. 
 
 ^ Here the Gk. Anon, and the metaphrast, add a miracle. As the 
 
344 Momiments of Early Christia^iity. 
 
 bring Leos into his presence, and a herald made 
 a public proclamation, asking who was willing to 
 engage in combat with him, and promising great 
 rewards. Then there rose up in the middle of 
 the court a young man, whose name was Nestor, 
 a Christian, who had formerly gone to the blessed 
 Demetrius, to ask him to pray for him ; and he 
 had blessed him, and prophesied : *' By the name 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ thou shalt conquer Leos, 
 and by reason of Him art thou martyred."^ VIII. 
 The young man laid aside his garments, and 
 binding round himself a single loin-cloth, he 
 leaped into the level of the arena, full opposite 
 Maximianus, and championed Leos to do combat 
 with him. 
 
 But when the Emperor saw his tender age, he 
 wondered, and called Nestor to himself, and 
 began to give him good advice, saying : " I know, 
 little son, that because you would fain be rich and 
 because of your poverty, you are so eager to lose 
 your life at the hands of Leos, a man mighty and 
 strong of limb. But I am sorry for the come- 
 liness of your youth, which is graced with all 
 beauty ; and therefore I give you much wealth ; 
 only give up this desire of yours to do battle with 
 
 saint sits confined under the portico (K04iiOLpa) of the baths, he sees a scor- 
 pion about to sting him. He makes the sign of a cross over it, and it 
 instantly dies. Then an angel appears and crowns the martyr with a 
 crown, saying : " Peace to thee, athlete of Christ, be strong and of good 
 courage. " 
 
 * The Gk. Anon, and tlie metaphrast have : Kal rbv Avatov viK-f|<rciS, 
 Kal inrip Xpurrov (Jtctprvp^o-cis. The metaphrast elaborates this incident. 
 The Anon, agrees better with the Armenian. 
 
Acts of S. Demetrius. 345 
 
 one who is powerful as a giant, and who conquers 
 all ; and depart rejoicing in your own fair looks." ^ 
 IX. Then the stripling, Nestor, was in no wise 
 deceived by the promises of the Emperor, nor in 
 any way took his advice, nor had any fear because 
 of the praise bestowed upon Leos. For he trusted 
 alone in the prophecy of Demetrius, and he 
 drew his strength from the might of Christ, and 
 he therefore answered the Emperor thus : " I, O 
 Emperor, am not come hither for the sake of 
 wealth, or of the life that passes, but that I may 
 prove myself a choicer man than Leos, and be- 
 cause I shall attain to the better life." And when 
 the Emperor and all his great men of state around 
 him heard this, they were filled with anger, and 
 considered that the words of Nestor were mere 
 braggadocio ; so they incited Leos to fight with 
 him, and to give him a death blow, so that he 
 might die at once. X. And then when they met 
 one another face to face, the stripling Nestor, made 
 strong in spirit,^ hurled himself at Leos, dashed 
 him to the ground, and in a moment slew him.^ 
 XL But the Emperor, seeing this, was very 
 wroth, especially when he ascertained that Nestor 
 
 ^ The Gk. Anon, and metaphrast have : Kal Xapoiv &iri0i hctA tov t^v 
 diroXavcov Kal t«v xPIH'-^twv. 
 
 ^ The Gk. Anon, has : iroi^o-as rbv twoTrotbv o-ravpov €v tt} KapStc;.. 
 
 The metaphrast omits. 
 
 ^ The Greek § is much longer, for a prayer is put into Nestor's mouth : 
 " O God of Demetrius Thy servant, and Thy loved Son Jesus Christ, who 
 didst subject Goliath the alien to the faithful David, do Thou Thyself cast 
 down the boasting of Lyaius and of the tyrant Maximianus." The meta- 
 phrast gives a similar prayer, but does not mention Demetrius. 
 
34^ Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 was also a Christian ; and instead of bestowing 
 upon him the rewards which by proclamation he 
 had beforehand promised to any one who would 
 fight in the arena with Leos, he ordered the youth 
 to be beheaded as a Christian.^ Thus the Em- 
 peror was very vexed at what had taken place, 
 for he was sorry for the death of both ;* and he 
 accordingly rose from his throne with a sad coun- 
 tenance, resolved to go to his palace. XII. Then 
 some evil speakers came and maligned Demetrius 
 to him, saying that he was the origin of it all ; 
 whereat the Emperor was so incensed, that he 
 became like a wild animal, and commanded the 
 saint to be transfixed with a javelin, there in the 
 very Court of Justice.^ And thus died the saint, 
 making a goodly confession of Christ, on the 26th 
 day of the month of October.* XIII. But Maxi- 
 mianus the enemy of God, ordered his holy body 
 to be thrown out to feed the wild beasts and 
 birds ; and then some brethren, who were 
 reverent, and loved the martyrs, came in the 
 
 * In the Gk. Anon, the Emperor accuses Nestor of YOT^reCcu Nestor 
 replies that an angel really wielded his sword. He is then beheaded, ^v 
 TOis 8\»TiKOis Tf]S ir^Xcws nip€<riv ^v Tg ^irovofiatofiivr) yj^wrix^ irvX^, 
 by the hand of Menutianus, a protector (TrporcKTopos), and so receives 
 the crown of martyrdom. The metaphrast gives a similar, but more 
 elaborate, account of Nestor's death ; omitting, however, the topographical 
 details supplied by the Anon. 
 
 ' The Gk. Anon, omits this touch, which being favourable to Maxi- 
 mian's character, may be genuine. 
 
 ^ The Gk. Anon, and metaph. say in the vaults of the baths. 
 
 * The Greek omits the date, but adds a § about Lupus, the saint's ser- 
 vant, who took T^ 6pdpiov of the saint and cauglit his blood in it ; also 
 dipt in the blood a royal ring, which then wrought cures. Lupus also is 
 martyred. Similarly the metaphrast. 
 
Ac^s of S, Demetrius. 347 
 
 night and stole his body, and bore it away,^ and 
 buried it in a certain house in the city, there to 
 wait for a while until the Lord should visit and 
 reveal the relics of His saints. 
 
 But after a little while great signs and acts of 
 power began to occur unto those who called upon 
 the holy martyr to help them ; and thus the cures 
 which were wrought in the name of the saint 
 came to be known far and wide. XIV. Then a 
 certain Leontius,''' a God-fearing man, who be- 
 longed to the land of Illyria, a bishop, came to 
 Thessalonica ; and he acquired the house in which 
 were the relics of the saint ;^ and finding it narrow 
 
 ^ The Gk. Anon, says they buried the body deep down under the 
 rubbish heap on which it had been cast. The metaph. that they buried it 
 on the very spot where the saint was executed. 
 
 ^ According to the Gk. Anon, and metaphrast Leontius was tis dvi^p 
 Tovs eirapxiKOvs tcov ' IXXvpCwv KaTaKocrp,<5v Opovovs. 
 
 ^ According to the Gk. Anon. Leontius, being miraculously cured of 
 his di.sease. threw down the porticoes or vaults (Ka^Jidpas) of the furnaces 
 (Toav Ka(JLivft)v), as also of the hot baths ; and cleared away the public 
 entrances and shops (STip-oo-itov cjjlPoXwv Kal irpoirtvcov), and raised a 
 solemn house (irdvo-cirTOv oIkov) to the martyr. It is in the metaphrast 
 that we here find the original of the Armenian : Kal tov (xiKpov oIk£o-kov 
 OS TO tepbv €lx€ TOV (xdpTvpos o-«(xa cirl Ppax^os KOfiiSfj Kal ottcvov 
 TOV crxif||xaTOS 6vTa, tois TrcpipdXots t€ tov Xoon-pov Kal tw o-Ta8i<p dirct- 
 XT)[ip.€vov, KaTao-Tpe\j/as avTos, ds vabv avTw tw do-Tti 0€a-o-aXoviKT]S k% 
 avTwv l8€tp,aTO t«v KpiririScov 6s Kal vvv opaTai. The metaphrast in the 
 loth century could not have seen the original church, which was burned 
 down in the 7th century. 
 
 The Greek forms add two §§ relating how Leontius took a garment 
 (xXap.v8a) drenched in the saint's blood, and returned homewards to 
 Dacia. But he could not cross the Danube because of the wintry weather. 
 Then he had a vision of the saint, after which he mounted his chariot and 
 drove across the Danube, dryshod, to Sirmium, where he deposited the 
 relic in the church of Demetrius, near the shrine of Anastasia. 
 
 In the above the geography is confused, for, though Dacia was across 
 the Danube, Sirmium was not. Vehicles can cross the Danube when it is 
 frozen, but Leontius possessed the car of Neptune. 
 
34^ Monuments of Early Christianity, 
 
 and confined, he threw it down, and enlarged 
 the place, and sanctified it, and built a magnificent 
 temple in honour of the saint's name, wherein 
 great acts of healing were wrought, to the glory 
 and praise of the All Holy Trinity, and of the 
 consubstantial nature of the Father, and Son, and 
 Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 II. A history of the wonders which took place through the 
 holy Demetrius ; how that after a long time, in the days of 
 Justinian and Maurice, emperors of the Greeks, search was made 
 for his relics. 
 
 Let us now, dear brethren, glide over a long 
 period of time, and relate the miracles which took 
 place through the God-clad martyr Demetrius. 
 In order that a little attention to a few details may 
 give you an understanding of many ineffable works 
 wrought by the almighty power of Christ through 
 His saints. Now on every occasion when the 
 saints died, the Christians, who loved the martyrs, 
 were careful to take their bodies and inter them in 
 a secret spot, in order that the foul smoke of the 
 sacrifices of the heathen might not come nigh 
 them to pollute them. And for this reason their 
 tombs are sometimes certainly known, but some- 
 times not so ; even though we see beautifully 
 decorated shrines erected in their memory by 
 certain pious people. So it is in Thessalonica, 
 where although a great many martyrs lie hidden 
 and although their shrines are shown, and among 
 the rest that of the blessed Demetrius, celebrated 
 
Acts of S. Demetrius. 349 
 
 for its miracles ; yet their real tombs, and the 
 spots consecrated by the relics of these same 
 saints, are not anywhere to be found, with the sole 
 exception of the holy virgin Mamrinus. But in 
 the time of the pious emperor Maurice, by his 
 reverent and devout wishes, search was made for 
 many saints who had died in Thessalonica, and 
 especially for the holy Demetrius, because of the 
 great fame of his miracles ; and a letter was 
 written to the blessed Eusebius, who was at that 
 time Bishop of Thessalonica, asking him to send 
 to the Emperor some part of the relics of the 
 blessed saint Demetrius. On which occasion 
 Eusebius wrote the following letter in answer to 
 the Emperor: "We know full well, O Emperor, 
 that your request is dictated by the true faith 
 which you have in the holy martyrs of Christ. 
 But while informing your reverence of the faith of 
 the Thessalonicaeans, and of the miracles wrought 
 among them, I must yet in respect of this request 
 of yours, say that the faith of this city is not of 
 such a kind, as that the people desire to worship 
 God and to honour His saints by means of any- 
 thing sensible. For they have received the faith 
 from the Lord's holy testimonies, to the effect that 
 God is a spirit, and that those who worship Him 
 must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And 
 for this cause there are hidden in this city all the 
 bodies of the saints, so as to be altogether out of 
 the ken of man. And this is what your pious 
 father, Justinian, who was filled with the same 
 devout zeal as yourself, found to be the case by 
 
350 Monuments of Early Christianity. 
 
 actual trial. For he in martyr-loving mood wrote 
 a letter to my predecessor in the bishopric of the 
 city, such as your worship has written to us, ask- 
 ing for some part of the relics of the holy martyr 
 Demetrius, which it was his pious and royal 
 desire to enshrine. So they went and dug into 
 the shrine of the holy martyr, and dug into the 
 floor of the church, where they thought had been 
 laid the remains of the saint. And the bishop 
 entrusted such a work to God-fearing priests, of 
 whose merits he was well assured. But when 
 they had made the hole deep enough, and others 
 stood round w^ith psalms and hymns, and lighted 
 tapers, and fragrant incense, they wanted to dig 
 still further, when suddenly a fire issued from 
 within and filled all the hole they had dug, and 
 enveloped without burning them ; and they heard 
 a voice which said : ' Cease henceforth from any 
 more tempting the power of Christ, which is united 
 with the bones of the saints.' But they were 
 filled with fear and trembling, and took clay from 
 the hollow, and sent it to the Emperor, and ac- 
 quainted him in writing with the wonders which 
 had happened. 
 
 ** This then, O Emperor, took place in the reign 
 of the pious Justinian, your father. And we in 
 the same way have sent to your devout majesty a 
 portion of the same blessed clay, which was laid 
 in the chest in this church with a view to the 
 healing of the sick. This we pray your majesty 
 also to welcome gratefully, and to receive it without 
 misgiving ; as if therein you had with you the 
 
Ac^s of S. D erne trills. 351 
 
 entire martyr, as beseems your faith. And by 
 trial of it, you will learn its wonderful properties, 
 and will not deem us to have been disregardful of 
 your pious majesty. Glory be to Christ for ever 
 and ever. Amen." 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 Note to page 30. — In the Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift, vi. 
 Jahrgang, 10 Heft, October, 1893, Professor R. Seeberg has 
 republished the Apology of Apollonius, using the German 
 translation made by M. Burchardi for Prof. Harnack. His 
 notes contain much useful matter. 
 
 Page 36, line i. — Prof. Seeberg remarks that the prede- 
 cessor of Perennis was named Tarruntenus, and that a remin- 
 iscence of this may underlie the Armenian reading " Terentius." 
 It is noticeable in this connection that the metaphrast's text 
 of the Acts of Eugenia in the same way gives the name 
 Terentius as that of the successor of Philip the Martyr, in 
 the eparchate of Egypt, where the Armenian and old Latin 
 have Perennius, the Greek form of Perennis (see page 180). 
 Tarruntenus shared with Perennis the office of Prefect until 
 the year 183. He occupied a position so subordinate to that 
 of Perennis, that he is not so likely as the latter to have tried 
 Apollonius. But if he did, Apollonius must have died two 
 years earlier than is usually supposed. 
 
 Prof. Seeberg's conjecture that Terentios is a mistake for 
 Tarruntenus, who was prefect under Commodus, a.d. 182-3, is 
 confirmed by an uncial Armenian Codex of the Xlth. century, 
 No. 88, of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, in which the 
 name is transliterated Tarrintinos. Apollonius must therefore 
 have suffered at the very beginning of the reign of Commodus. 
 
 Page 40, § 13. In regard to the edict of the senate, referred 
 to in this section, and again in § 23, it is to be noticed that in 
 the Acts of Codratius (page 198) there is a similar reference to 
 " the edict of the Emperors and of the Great Senate, that not 
 a single one of the Christians shall live." On § 23 of the Acts 
 
 353 A A 
 
 . r^^ OF THE A 
 
 •oniveksitt; 
 
354 Addenda. 
 
 of Apollonius, Harnack and Seeberg, compare TertulL, Apol. 
 4 : " definitis dicendo : non licet esse nos^ et hoc sine ullo 
 retractu humaniore praescribitis." 
 
 Page 41, § 18. Prof. Seeberg explains the references in 
 this § from Pausanias i, 24, 2 : Kcivrat 8c c^s SXKai re ctKovcs 
 Ktti HpttKXcovs. . . . *A6r]va. tc icTTLV dviovcra c/c t^s 
 K€<f>a\rj^ Tov Aios. lo-rt 8c koI Tavpo<s avdOrjixa tt}? ^ovXrj<: rrjs 
 €V Apcto) Trayu) c^* otu) 8c av€Or)K€V rj fiovXrjy ttoXXol av Tts c^cAwv 
 
 ClKtt^Ol. 
 
 Page 76. In addition to other references explicatory of the 
 nature of Alexander's crown, I owe the following to Mr. Rush- 
 forth, viz. Suetonius Vita Domitiani, ch. 4 : " Instituit et quin- 
 quennale certamen capitolino lovi triplex, musicum equestre 
 gymnicum, et aliquanto plurium quam nunc coronarum. . . . 
 Certamini prsesedit crepidatus purpureaque amictus toga Grae- 
 canica, capite gestans coronam auream cum effigie lovis ac 
 lunonis Minervseque ; adsidentibus Diali sacerdote et collegio 
 Flavialium pari habitu, nisi quod illorufti coronis inerat et ipsius 
 imago. Therefore the priests of the worship of the reigning 
 Caesar had his imago or medallion fastened in their wreaths. 
 The offence committed by Thekla becomes quite clear, and the 
 severity of the sentence passed upon her intelligible. It can 
 hardly be denied that the Armenian and Syriac texts in pre- 
 serving this detail about Alexander's wreath, which the other 
 texts omit, have kept a proof, no less convincing than those 
 which Prof. Ramsay has discovered, of the authenticity of 
 these Acts of Thekla. The more closely they are examined, 
 the more clearly does their value as a contemporary record 
 reveal itself. 
 
 Page 146. That the memorial feast of S. Polyeuctes was 
 kept on Dec. 25 is good proof that this homily was delivered 
 before a.d. 400 ; for after that date Dec. 25 was reserved to 
 the newly instituted festival of the birth of Jesus Christ. 
 
INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 
 
 N.B. — Italics signify that the reference is to the introductions; n. 
 at foot of page. 
 
 : notes 
 
 Abgar, notary, 217, 219, 231. 
 
 — King of Edessa, 24i. 
 Acombiti or Accubiti, 290. 
 
 Acts of Saints, the Dialogue in, 
 often genuine, 6, 276 ; read pub- 
 licly at their Festivals, 103, 123 ; 
 in early times addressed to special 
 Churches, 97, 103 ; continually 
 re-edited, 151. 
 
 Adam, hour of his leaving the gar- 
 den, 309. 
 
 Africanus, loi, 105 foil. 
 
 Aigai, 2JiO foil., 243. 
 
 Alexander, 76 foil. 
 
 — Martyr at Aigal, 246. 
 Allard, P., 155. 
 
 Alexandria, Church in, 1^9 ; Mon- 
 asteries near, 153. 
 Anastasia, M., in Aigai, 254. 
 Anazarb, 24I, 242, 243. 
 Angels, Good, 313. 
 Anicetus Prefect, (or Nicetius), 186. 
 Apamea, 208. 
 Apollonius of Tyana, 62. 
 
 — M., his creed, I4, 46 ; his Stoic- 
 ism, 29 ; form of his trial, 33 ; 
 on Sacrifices, 39 ; his Acts com- 
 pared with those of Phocas, 99. 
 
 Apparitions of Jesus as Paul, 72, 
 73 and n. ; to Polyeuctes, 133, 
 136, 140, 142, 144; to Hizti- 
 bouzit, 268. 
 
 Aquilius Consul, 152, 158. 
 
 Ararat, 262. 
 
 Arians, Land of, 266. 
 
 Aristotle, 108. 
 
 Armenian Martyrology, 2 ; age of 
 the Arm. texts, 3, 69, 89, 97, 
 102, 124, 147, 156, 242, 339, 
 360. 
 
 Armenia, Christianity in, 267 foil., 
 
 261 foil. 
 Arrian, 268. 
 Artemis, worship of, in Asia Minor, 
 
 228 ; in Rome, 186, 295. 
 Asterius, M., at Aigai, 245. 
 Astrology, condemned, 330. 
 Athenians, worship ox- head, 41 
 
 and n. 
 Atropatacan in Persia, 267. 
 Aube, B., his edition of Greek 
 
 Acts of Polyeuctes, 123 foil. 
 Augustine, Saint, half a heathen, 
 
 11. 
 Avitus, his Poems, I48. 
 Avitus Consul, son of Philip M., 
 
 150, 157. 
 
 Babelon, Ernest, 24I. 
 
 Babylas, M., of Antioch, his date, 
 161. 
 
 Baptism provided escape from Hell- 
 fire, 17 ; of Thekla, 67, 82, 86 ; 
 Thekla demands it of Paul, 75 ; 
 a fulfilment of the law, 101, 118 ; 
 not essential to salvation, 125, 
 136 foil. ; of companions of Cal- 
 listratus, 334. 
 
 Baresma, 269, 263. 
 
 Baronius, Annals of, 2. 
 
 Basil the Great. Homily on the 40 
 Martyrs, 273. 
 
 l^asil of Seleukia, 63. 
 
 Basilia or Basilla, M., 181 foil. 
 
 Becosianus or Berekkokius, 244. 
 
 Beliefs, Early, about Paradise, 115, 
 191, 192, 311 foil. 
 
 Bemarchus, M., 301. 
 
 Bernard, S., his miracles, 7. 
 
 Bezse, Codex, i^Sn. 
 
 355 
 
356 Index of Names and Subjects. 
 
 Bithynian Persecution under Trajan, 
 
 90 foil., 105, III. 
 
 Bollandist Acts, 3\ reject Acts of 
 
 Thekla, 89. 
 Bread, Salt, and Water, 75 {.see 
 
 Eucharist). 
 Burchardi's German version of Acts 
 
 of ApoUonius, see Addenda. 
 Burning alive of Thekla, 56, 73 ; 
 
 of Phocas, 120. 
 Byceus on S. Demetrius, 33d. 
 
 Caesar's genius, to be sworn by, 
 
 95. 
 Ca;sar-shaped crown worn by pre- 
 sidents of Caesar worship, 76 and 
 
 «., see Addenda. 
 Caesareia on the Hellespont, J9J, 
 
 209. 
 Callistratus, 213 foil. ; his Church 
 
 in Rome, 336. 
 Cananeots, 12Jt, 145. 
 Carthage, 276. 
 Castelius, pro-consul, 52. 
 Catacombs, Roman, IJfS. 
 Catholic Church, the phrase not in 
 
 Poly carp's Acts, -^ 
 Caucasus, ancient gods exiled 
 
 thither, 12. 
 Chalcedon, the Cohort, 289, 290. 
 XaXav8«v, 290. 
 Chosrow, son of Kavat, 251, 261, 
 
 266. 
 Choyap, a Persian, 266. 
 Christian, the name penal, 43 and n. 
 Christians and Ancient Art, 10 ; 
 
 their iconoclasm, 13, 141, 227 ; 
 
 attitude towards sacrifices, 39 ; 
 
 hunted down under Trajan, 102, 
 
 105 ; in Persia, 257 foil., 261 ; 
 
 true reasons why they were per- 
 secuted, 283 foil. 
 Chrysostom,Pseudo-, onThekla,57, 
 
 60 n. 
 Chrysostomus Dio, 258. 
 Claudius' Speech on Gallia Comata, 
 
 6 ; kinsman of Tryphaena, 51. 
 Clodia, 157 foil. 
 
 Codratius or Quadratus, 191 foil. 
 Commodus, 37 foil., llfi. 
 Communism of Early Christians, 
 
 2J&5. 
 Conscripts, Law of, 290 n. 
 Conybeare and liowson on Thekla, 
 
 Ji9, 50. 
 
 Coptos or Cana in Egypt, 12J!^. 
 
 Corneille's Polyeucte, 125. 
 
 Cornelius, bp. of Rome, 151. 
 
 Cornutus and Philo, 9. 
 
 Creed, Early forms of, IJ^, 33, 46, 
 99, 154, 337, 342. 
 
 Crossing, Practice of, 119, 344 n. 
 
 Crucifi^ God, 108, 119. 
 
 Crucifixion, Triple, its significance, 
 258 ; its details imitated in Mar- 
 tyrdoms, 258. 
 
 Ctesias, 258. 
 
 Cyprian, 182, 274. 
 
 Cyrus, 258. 
 
 Dancing among Early Christians, 
 
 129. 
 Daphne, Grove of, 52, 53. 
 Decius, and Valerian, their edict 
 
 against Christians, 131, 193. 
 Demas, 61 foil. 
 Demetrius, S., his creed, I4, 337, 
 
 342. 
 Demons of air, fight for a dead 
 
 man's soul, 313. 
 Demosthenes, no. 
 Denesius' executioner, 243. 
 Depositio Martyrum, 155. 
 Descensus Averni, Gospel of, 310. 
 Devil, The, 326, 327. 
 Dio Chrysostomus, 258. 
 Diocletian, 289, 338. 
 Domitian, Name Christian became 
 
 punishable under, 7. 
 Dove-worship and Holy Ghost, 
 
 42 n. 
 Ducenarius, Vir, 333 n. 
 Dwin or Twin, 259. 
 
 Earthquakes in Martyrdoms, 96, 
 
 112. 
 Edessa, 24O foil., 243. 
 Egypt, Prefects of, 152 ; early 
 
 monasteries in, 153. 
 Egyptian Superstition, 42 and n. 
 Elias, 320 
 
 Elvira, Synod of, 13. 
 Eucharist, Primitive form of, with 
 
 bread and water and salt, 75 and 
 
 n., 274. 
 Eugenia imitated Thekla, ^, 59, 
 
 147, 154, 161, 176. 
 Eukhaita, 217, 222. 
 Eunuchs as Priests, 155 ; as 
 
 Martyrs, 160. 
 
Index of Names and Subjects. 357 
 
 Eunuchism inculcated in Gospel, 
 
 2J^ ; by Philo, 2J^ n. ; by Justin 
 
 M., 2J^n. 
 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., 4 ; on Apol- 
 
 lonius M., 2d \ on Firmilianus 
 
 M., 311. 
 
 — bp. of Thessalonica, 337 foil. 
 Eutropius, 166. 
 
 Faith alone needful to Salvation, 
 
 137. 
 Falconilla, name late, 53, 55. 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
 
 formula used, 48, 244, 262. 
 Felix, Minucius, on Hell, 16 ; on 
 
 Sacrifices, 38 n. ; his teaching 
 
 compared with Apollonius, 44 n. 
 
 — father-in-law of Polyeuctes, 141. 
 Fire-worship, 259, 261 foil. 
 
 Galatarch, 53. 
 
 Galatia, the Province, 98. 
 
 Galilean, the {i.e. Jesus), 244. 
 
 Galileans, 291. 
 
 Gallienus, Emperor, 150. 
 
 Gallus, Emperor, 150, 181. 
 
 Gladiatorial Games, 337, 343 foil. 
 
 Gorres, Dr. Franz, 148. 
 
 Gospel, in what sense anti-social, 
 
 19, 283 foil. 
 Gospels, Apocryphal, 138 and n. ; 
 
 early, 155, 169, 278, 306, 309, 
 
 312 ; their diffusion in early 
 
 times, 274, 275. 
 Greeks, the ancient, their humanity, 
 
 280. 
 Greek Ail and Early Christianity, 
 
 10. {See Iconoclasm.) 
 Gregory of Tours, 124. 
 Guardian Newspaper, 30 n. 
 
 Hadrian, 239 foil., 253 ; temple of, 
 
 in Aigai, 243, 253, 255. 
 Hardy, G. E., 102. 
 Harnack, Professor A., 30 n., 32, 
 
 Helenus, bp. of Heliopolis, 152, 
 161 foil. 
 
 Heliopolis. 152, 161. 
 
 Hell, the Spoiling of, 310. 
 
 Hell-fire, Belief in, pre-Christian, 
 15 ; how made use of by Chris- 
 tians, 17. 
 
 Heracleia in Cappadocia, 219, 225. 
 
 Hermogenes, 61 foil. 
 
 Hieronymus quoted, 31. 
 
 Hindoos, 13. 
 
 Hippolytus, Com. on Daniel, on 
 Millenarism in Pontus and Syria, 
 21, 22; Philosophumena, 155. 
 
 Hiztibouzit M., 260, 265 foil. 
 
 Holy Ghost compared to dove in 
 Philo, 42 n. 
 
 Homer quoted, 196. 
 
 Horoscopes, 201, 323. 
 
 Human Sacrifice, 258, 270. 
 
 Hyacinthus, 148, 159 foil. 
 
 Iconium, 52. 
 
 Iconoclasm of Early Christians, 13, 
 
 141, 227. 
 Idols, 41, 114, 159, 200, 226 foil. 
 Ignatius, his epp. compared with 
 
 Acts of Phocas, 100. 
 Incarnation, a divine ruse, 306 foil. 
 India, Paganism of Modern, 13. 
 Indictions, 146 and «. 
 Indus and Domna, 374. 
 Iras or Zareas, a wizard, 163. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, addressed his 
 teaching to Monotheists only, 7 ; 
 represented as a youth, 144 ; a 
 human sacrifice, 258. 
 
 Jews, Christian spite against, 257, 
 270 ; why not persecuted like 
 the Christians, 286. 
 
 John, the bp., 244. 
 
 Josephus on Oaths, 37 n. 
 
 Justin Martyr, his imperfect mono- 
 theism, 9, 11 ; on oaths, 37 n. ; 
 on name Christian, 43 n. 
 
 Justinian orders a search for the 
 relics of S. Demetrius, 349. 
 
 Lapsed, Treatment of the, 203. 
 Latin Acts translated into Greek, 
 
 276, 293. 
 Latin Version of Acts of Thekla, 
 
 59. 
 Latin Version of Acts of Eugenia, 
 
 156, 159 foil. 
 Latina, Via, 188. 
 Law fulfilled in Baptism, The, 101, 
 
 118. 
 Lectra, The Name, 53, 56. 
 Leontios, a bishop of lllyria, 347. 
 Licinius, 217, 224 foil. 
 Lightfoot on Bithynian Persecution, 
 
 50 foil., 258. 
 
35^ Index of Names and Subjects. 
 
 Lioness defends Thekla, 8i. 
 Lipsius, his text of Acts of Thekla 
 
 criticised, 59. 
 Lucretius on Hell, 15. 
 Lyaeos or Laus or Leos, a gladiator, 
 
 337 foil. 
 Lystra, 62. 
 
 Macarius M., in Aigai, 254. 
 Magism, -?59, 261 foil. 
 Mahommedans, 13. 
 Manou, king of Edessa, J?^2. 
 Makhosh, M., 261 foil, {see Hizti- 
 
 bouzit). 
 Mamrinos M., of Thessalonica, 
 
 349. 
 
 Marcia, 155. 
 
 Marriage, repudiated by Jesus, 23 ; 
 by early Christians, 283 ; by Paul, 
 24 ; in Peter's Acts, 26 ; Platonic 
 among early Christians, 25. 
 
 Martyrs upheld right of private 
 judgment, 1 ; deprived of their 
 goods, 44, and «., 112 ; relics of, 
 venerated, 145, 178, 236, 271 ; 
 nature of tortures inflicted on, 
 279 foil. ; meaning of word, 281. 
 
 Martyrdoms, re-edited in each age, 
 151. 
 
 Maxentius, 227. 
 
 Maximianus, 341 foil. 
 
 Maximus, Consul, 182. 
 
 Mary, Virgin, 14, 305 foil. 
 
 Maurice, the Emperor, asks for 
 relics of S. Demetrius, 338, 348. 
 
 Mehekan, the mouth, 262. 
 
 Melani or Melanthia, 171 foil. 
 
 Melitene, 145. 
 
 Metaphrast, j^^ Simeon. 
 
 Military wService refused by Chris- 
 tians, 285. 
 
 Millenarism of Gospel, 19 foil., 
 286 ; and marriage, 23, 58, 287. 
 
 Mills, Dr., 260. 
 
 Miracles in Acts often interpolated, 
 
 4 ; how to be regarded in N.T., 
 
 5 ; of St. Bernard, 5. 
 Miracles of Healing of the Blind 
 
 (Matt. ix. 28), 139. 
 Mommsen on Bithynia, 94 ; on 
 
 Cohors Chalcedon, 290 n. 
 Monasteries in Egypt, 153, 162, 
 
 168 foil. 
 Monotheism of Jews, 41 n. ; no 
 
 offence in Roman Empire, 283. 
 
 Monotheistic Propaganda of Paul 
 
 and Philo, 8. 
 Montanism, 58. 
 Myra or Merou, 54. 
 Mysteries, Ancient, Relation of 
 
 Christianity to, 17. 
 Myths, Pagan, related of Christian 
 
 Saints, 18, 297. 
 
 Nakhapet, a Persian governor, 265. 
 Narcissus M. at Aigai, 254. 
 Nati called Drowandacan, 266. 
 Nearchus, 129 foil. 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 117. 
 Neocorus, 274 (or Ocorus), 290, 
 
 315. 316. 
 Nerses M., 264 ; a Rajik, 267. 
 Nestor, bp. of Rome, 150, 182. 
 Nestorius of Thessalonica, 337 foil. 
 Nicseus, 201. 
 
 Nicomedeia, 193, 218, 224. 
 Nihilism of early Christians, 284 
 
 foil. 
 Nikhorakan, a Persian governor, 
 
 264. 
 Numerianus, Emperor, 151, 239, 
 
 243- 
 
 Oaths forbidden, 37 and «., 285. 
 Oceanus, name of a Columbethra in 
 
 Rome, 333. 
 Onesiphorus and Paul, 61. 
 Oral tradition, 274, 290, 315 {see 
 
 Neocorus). 
 Origen on Seven Heavens, 311 «. 
 Orthodoxy, Standard of, fluctuated 
 
 in early Church, 5, 14 (5^^ Creed). 
 
 Pancrazio, S., 11. 
 
 Parable of Vineyard and Labourers, 
 
 137- 
 
 Paradise, 192, 311 foil. 
 
 Paton, W. R., 258. 
 
 Paul, addressed his teaching to 
 Polytheists, 8, 9 ; inculcates 
 virginity, 25, 58, 34, 67 ; be- 
 lieved in approaching end of 
 world, 58 ; his personal appear- 
 ance, 62 ; his beatitudes, 63 ; on 
 marriage, 63 ; on baptism, 63 ; 
 accused of wizardry, 52, 68 ; his 
 defence, 69 ; appears to Thekla 
 as Jesus, 72, 73 «. ; his creed, 
 99 ; his epistles, early diffusion 
 of, 275. 
 
Index of Names and Subjects. 359 
 
 Paulina, 143. 
 
 Perennis, prefect, 155j 35 n. , 30 ; 
 
 (or Perinos eparch of Egypt, 
 
 179) ; (or Perinius consul in 
 
 Bithynia, 192, 201. 
 Peroz, a Magus, 266. 
 Perpetua, S., 128. 
 Persian Fire-worship, 259^ 262 
 
 foil. 
 Peter's First Ep., 97. 
 Phsedo of Plato, 278. 
 Philadus M. in Aigai, 254. 
 Philip eparch of Egypt, 149. 
 Philosophers and Christianity, 45, 
 
 106, 108, 202, 279. 
 Philo as missionary of Monotheism, 
 
 5, 9 ; his Therapeutae, 20, 76 n. 
 
 153 ; on oaths, 38 n. ; compares 
 
 Holy Spirit to a dove, 42 n. 
 Phocas, 89 foil. ; his prayer, 99 ; 
 
 his creed, 99, -i 10 ; his Acts 
 
 addressed to certain Churches, 
 
 96 foil., 103. 
 Pilate, Acts of, 138 w. 
 Pliny Z'^n., 90 foil. ; his letter to 
 
 Trajan unknown to author of 
 
 Acts of Phocas, 93 foil., 281. 
 Plutarch on Hell, 15 ; on crucifixion 
 
 of Masabates, 258. 
 Polyeuctes, Acts of, their heterodox 
 
 tendency, 125, 137 foil. 
 Polycarp, Acts of, and phrase 
 
 Catholic Church, 4 ; resemblance 
 
 of, with Acts of Apollonius, 33 ; 
 
 with Acts of Phocas, 95 foil., 
 
 258. ^ 
 Polytheism and Paul, 8. 
 Pompeianus (or Pompeius) Consul, 
 
 150, 184. 
 Pontus-Bithynia, 98. 
 Poseidon, 118, 212. 
 Prayers for dead, 314. 
 Prefects of Egypt, 152. 
 Private Judgment, right to, upheld 
 
 by martyrs, 1 ; attitude to it of 
 
 later Church, 279. 
 Presentinus, a captain, 292 foil. 
 Prophecies of Jesus, 47. 
 Protus M., U8, 160. 
 Prousa, port of Caesareia, 191, 
 Psalms, use of, 159, 265. 
 \j/vya-y«Yo£, Angels, 313. 
 Purgatory, 3 14 foil. 
 
 Ragozin, Zenaide A. , 259. 
 
 Ramsay, W. M., 50 foil., 98, 191, 
 240, 242 ; on position of Eu- 
 khaita, 219. 
 
 Rajik, 267, see Nerses. 
 
 Rei, a district of Persia, 266. 
 
 Relics of Martyrs venerated, 145, 
 178, 211, 233, 236, 271, 336, 
 
 338, 347, 349. 
 Resurrection of the body, 315. 
 Rhyndacus, river, 213. 
 
 Roads in Asia Minor, 50, 51, see 
 
 Ramsay. 
 Roman Empire, stimulated growth 
 
 of Monotheistic belief, 17. 
 Rome, ' 'the great city of," 35 «., 1 57. 
 Romeliana or Rombyliana, 244. 
 Rufus, M., 210. 
 Rushforth, G. McN., 76 «., see 
 
 Addenda. 
 
 Sacraments not essential to Salva- 
 tion, 136 foil. 
 
 Sacrifice, human, 258, 270. 
 
 Saksea, Persian festival, 258. 
 
 Satan bound by Jesus, 310. 
 
 Saturninus M., 210. 
 
 Seal of Christ = baptism, 75, 118. 
 
 Seeberg's edition of Acts of Apol- 
 lonius, see Addenda. 
 
 Seleukia, 88. 
 
 Senate, Roman, Acts of, 7 ; Apol- 
 lonius tried before it, 2>^ ; its 
 decree against Christians, 40, 43 
 and Addenda. 
 
 Sergius, 150, 157. 
 
 Seven heavens, 311 foil. 
 
 Severus, baths of, in Rome, 187. 
 
 Simeon, Metaphrast, 147, 217, 273, 
 
 339, 340. 
 Sinope, 101. 
 
 Socrates ridicules Athenian re- 
 ligion, 42 ; compared to Jesus, 
 47 ; death of, 278. 
 
 Son, relation of, to God the Father 
 suggested by Roman institutions, 
 18. 
 
 Syriarch, 53, 55, 76 «. 
 
 Tacitus, 6. 
 
 Talmud, 42 n. 
 
 Tanebus, 239, 254. 
 
 Temple, Village of the, on the 
 
 Rhyndacus, 213. 
 Terentius or Perennis, 35, 180 and 
 
 Addenda. 
 
36o 
 
 Index of Names and Subjects, 
 
 Tertullian on Thekla, 4, 154!. 
 Testaments of XII. Patriarchs, 310, 
 
 311- 
 
 Thaleloeus, 239 foil. 
 
 Thamyris, 64 foil. 
 
 Thekla, her Acts, a divine book, 
 59, 15i, 159 ; has relief of her 
 and Paul at Edschmiadzin, 60 ; 
 her rank as an Apostle, 60 n. ; 
 her Acts, 61 foil. ; asks Paul for 
 baptism, 75 ; her modesty, 81 ; 
 baptises herself, 82, 86 ; visits 
 Seleukia, 88 ; dresses as a man, 
 86 ; her Acts rejected by Bol- 
 landists, 89 ; referred to, 128, 
 154!, 158, 176; her Acts imitated, 
 168 ; her folly, 284. 
 
 Theodore M., 258^ 216 foil. ; the 
 Tiro, date of his festival, 221. 
 
 Theodorus, Hegemon in Aigai, 243. 
 
 Theodula M. in Aigai, 254. 
 
 ecoo-£pf]S, 55. 
 
 Thessalonica, Theatre at, 343; the 
 brazen Stoa, 342 n. ; the baths, 
 347 n. ; the golden gate, 346 n. ; 
 shrine of its saints, 348. 
 
 Thief, penitent, 138 and n. 
 
 Tiberianus or Tiberius, Roman 
 judge in Edessa, 241, 244. 
 
 Tiberian (or Severian) baths in 
 Rome, 187. 
 
 Tillemont, 337. 
 
 Timotheus, a Cananeot, 146. 
 
 Tiranas, a Church in Alexandria, 
 180. 
 
 Titus and Onesiphorus, 61, 62. 
 
 Tombs of Martyrs, lost in the sixth 
 century, 348 foil. 
 
 Torture of Martyrs, 280 ioW., 294, 
 295- 
 
 Tradition, Oral Christian, its trans- 
 mission, 274, 291. 
 
 Trajan, conflicting views of his 
 attitude towards Christianity, 90 
 foil. ; his edict that Christians 
 were not to be hunted out, 102, 
 105 ; worshipped, 105 ; tries and 
 condemns Phocas, 113 foil. ; his 
 death, 120. 
 
 Transubstantiation, origin of belief 
 in, iO, 11. 
 
 Trebizond, Dia, Apollo and Arte- 
 mis worshipped there, 12. 
 
 Trinity, a late dogma, 14, 64 and 
 «., 277, 302 foil. ; the formula 
 used, 255. 
 
 Tryphsena, 50, 53, 55, 77 foil. 
 
 Twin or Dwin, in Armenia, 259. 
 
 Urbicus, wizard at Aigai, 249. 
 
 Venantius, Fortunatus, 148. 
 
 Vergil on Hell, 15. 
 
 Vicarius Africas, 150. 
 
 Virgin Mary, 14,' t,o$ foil., 337. 
 
 Virginity, 25, see Paul, 58, 64, 67. 
 
 Wizards, 72, 209, 249, 252, 298. 
 Word of God, made universe, held 
 
 by Phocas, 109; by Demetrius, 
 
 342. 
 World, approaching end of, belief 
 
 in, 18 foil., see Mdlenarism. 
 — Renunciation of, 18 foil., see 
 
 Gospel. 
 Wright, Prof., his translation of 
 
 Syriac Acts of Thekla, 59. 
 
 Zacharias, 180. 
 Zenonia, 61. 
 
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