THE POPES OF THE SECOND CENTURY

 

SAINT EVARISTUS A.D. 100-109

 

SAINT EVARISTUS was born at Bethlehem, in Palestine. He was created pontiff in the year 100 of the Christian era. It has not been said of him that he prided himself on his birthplace; and even if he had done so, few Christians would blame him for it. Leaving Bethlehem at a very early age, he went to Rome to study, and distinguished himself there by both his piety and his erudition. When he became sovereign pontiff, he ordered, according to the apostolical tradition, that marriages should be celebrated publicly and with the priestly benediction, and that no bishop should preach without the assistance of seven deacons. Chacon says that this order was given to prevent their rivals from imputing error to them; but Bianchini, in his notes ad Anastasium, supposes that the object of it was that those deacons should feel the truth in the ministry of preaching. Evaristus distributed to the priests the titles, that is to say, the churches of Rome, whence some authors have inferred that this pontiff instituted cardinal-priests. To the rite of the consecration of churches, passed from the Old to the New Testament, Evaristus added some ceremonies. In three or four ordinations he created five bishops, six, or according to some authors seventeen, priests, and two deacons.

He governed the Church nine years and three months, was martyred A.D. 109, and buried in the Vatican. The two decretals attributed to Evaristus, one of which was addressed to the bishops of Africa, and the other to all the faithful in Egypt, are now considered to be apocryphal. Under his pontificate the Church was attacked from with out by the persecution of Trajan, and torn within by divers heresies. But one of the consolations of this pontiff was the courage of Saint Ignatius, a disciple of Saint Peter and of Saint John.

Evaristus had maintained his correspondence with Palestine and Syria. He knew that Saint Ignatius, surnamed Theophorous, or God-bearer, had been ordained Bishop of Antioch in the year 68, after Saint Enodius, the immediate successor to Saint Peter. Ignatius governed that see with the zeal that was to be expected from a pupil and an imitator of the apostles. Nothing could exceed the ardor of his charity, the vivacity of his faith, and the depth of his humility. All those virtues appeared in great brilliancy in the third persecution to which Christianity was subjected, under the reign of Trajan. Ignatius appeared before the emperor, and spoke with all the earnestness of a Christian, and received from that prince's own lips- the sentence of a barbarous death; yet Trajan is constantly held up to our view as a model of justice and humanity. Sent from Antioch to Rome, there to be thrown to the wild beasts, Ignatius saw Saint Polycarp at Smyrna, visited many churches, and wrote to those that he could not go to. He encouraged the strong, and gave strength to the weak. When he reached Rome, whither he went of his own accord and without guards, because he had pledged his word that he would not turn aside from his direct road, he resolutely opposed those of the faithful who would fain have saved him from a terrible death.

On the day appointed for his execution he heard the roaring of the hungry lions; he said, "I am the wheat of Jesus Christ, to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts into a perfectly pure bread". Being exposed to two lions, he saw their approach without trembling, and was devoured by them amidst the plaudits of the multitude. He yielded up his soul to God in the year of Christ 107, while Evaristus was in secret praying for so noble a martyr. In one of his epistles, Ignatius ex claims: "Now I begin to be indeed the disciple of Christ; having found Christ, I no longer desire anything that is to be found here below; let fire, the cross, or the wild beasts assail me, it signifies nothing, provided that I enjoy Jesus Christ". "That heroism," says Caesarotti, "is so superior to humanity that we cannot think the religion that inspired it aught but divine". Nothing confers greater glory upon the Christians of Rome and their head than that letter of Ignatius. He makes the most edifying eulogy of that church, bestows copious praises upon the faithful of the city, and expressly says that he recognizes it as worthy of the primacy in authority, as it so eminently held the primacy in virtues.

 

SAINT ALEXANDER I A.D. 109-119

 

IT is said that this pontiff pursued his studies under the direction and advice of Pliny the Younger and Plutarch. There are attributed to him two decrees and three decretal letters; the first addressed to all the orthodox, the second to 311 the bishops, and the third to all the priests. Modern critics have decided those pieces to be apocryphal. They find in them no trace of the system of composition of the two great writers above mentioned. Novaes credits what is said of Saint Alexander's connection with Pliny. As regards Plutarch, he himself confesses that during his travels in Italy he could not command sufficient leisure to acquire a profound knowledge of the Latin language, occupied as he was with the public business which was intrusted to him, and with the conferences with the learned men who came to consult and listen to him. In all probability Plutarch could not give lessons in Latin literature to Alexander; but the painter of the virtue of the Greeks, who was born A.D. 66, in the little town of Chaeronea, in Boeotia, could instruct the Christian in the art of meditating upon the Greek literature. This a pontiff could not neglect, as he necessarily had to maintain correspondence with so many illustrious cities which spoke the language of Homer and Herodotus. It is unfortunate that we have no letter or other document from the pen of Alexander containing any expression of a feeling of gratitude towards such masters, as it might have enabled us to learn something as to the various sentiments of Pliny and Plutarch upon the great question of religion which at that period divided the pagans. The letter that Pliny wrote in favor of the Christians is justly famous, and does credit to his enlightened tolerance. The virtues of that friend of Trajan, who was then proconsul and governor of Bithynia, induced, it is said, some persons to reckon him among them, and to assign him a place in their diptychs. Unfortunately, however, those partisans of Plinius Secundus have confounded him with another Secundus, a true Christian, whose name was quite properly placed on the Christian roll.

Alexander was still young when he arrived at the pontificate. Some say that he was only twenty, and others that he was thirty, when he became pope. On that point Novaes says: "Alexander was young in years; but in morals, knowledge, and virtue, he was a veteran." It was he who ordered that the priests should celebrate but one Mass daily, which rule was observed until the papacy of Saint Deodatus, in 615. Alexander converted to the faith: Ermes, prefect of Rome, that officer's wife, and numerous illustrious citizens. Being thrown into prison for those glorious efforts, he converted the tribune Quirinus and his daughter Balbina. Alexander, in three ordinations, created six bishops, priests, and two or three deacons. He suffered martyrdom under Adrian, who had not sufficiently weighed the plea which Pliny the Younger had addressed to Trajan.  

PLINY TO THE EMPEROR TRAJAN

"I feel my duty, my Lord, to make known to you all my doubts; for who can better decide for and instruct me?

I have never been present at the trial and sentence of any Christian, so that I know not the particulars of the information against them, or to how great a degree of punishment they should be consigned. I feel great hesitation on the subject of different ages. Should Christians be subject to punishment without any distinction being made between the older and the younger? Ought those to be pardoned who repent, or is renunciation of Christianity useless when it has once been professed? Are they punishable for the mere name of Christianity, or for the crimes connected with that name? The following is the rule by which I have governed myself in the cases which have been brought before me concerning the Christians. I have questioned a second and even a third time those who have avowed their Christianity, and I have threatened them with punishment should they persist, and I have sent to execution those who did so persist; for no matter what may be the nature of that which they confessed, I felt that I must not neglect to punish their disobedience and their inflexible obstinacy. Others, though confessedly guilty of the same folly, I have sent to Rome, because they are Roman citizens. Subsequently this crime, or accusations of it, having spread, as is usual in such cases, charges were made in great variety. An anonymous memorial has been placed m my hands, accusing of Christianity many persons who deny that they are or ever have been such. In my own presence, and to terms that I dictated to them, they have invoked the gods, and offered wine and incense to your image, which I expressly ordered to be brought with the images of the gods. They have even indulged in furious imprecations against Christ, which I am assured no real Christians can be made to do, I therefore deemed that they ought to be acquitted. Others, accused by an informer, at first admitted that they were Christians, but immediately afterwards denied it, declaring that indeed they had been, but had ceased to be so, some for three years and others for more, even to the extent in some cases of twenty years. All of this class have venerated your image and the statues of the gods, and have also cursed Christ. They protested that their error or their crime had been confined to the following particulars: On appointed days they assembled before sunrise, and sang by turns verses in praise of Christ, as being God; that they engaged themselves on oath, not to any crime, but that they would not be guilty of larceny, theft, or adultery, or of breach of promise or denial of deposit made with them. That afterwards it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to eat in company inocent food: and that they had ceased to hold those assemblies when my edict was published, in obedience to your orders forbidding such assemblies. This made me feel it all the more necessary to get at the whole truth, by dint of torture, from two young slave-girls, who confessed to ministering in this worship: but as I ascertained only that they earned to excess a stupid superstition, for that reason I suspended further proceedings until I can receive your orders.

"This business appears to me to be worthy of your consideration, on account of the multitude of those that are placed in this peril; for a great number of persons of all ages and ranks, and of both sexes, are and will be implicated in this accusation. This contagious evil has not only diffused itself in the cities and towns, but also in villages and in the open country. I believe, however, that it can be remedied and arrested. What is certain is that our temples, which were almost deserted, are now frequented, and sacrifices long neglected recommence. Victims are now everywhere in demand, which formerly found no purchasers; whence we may infer what numbers of persons would be redeemed from their errors if repentance would procure pardon."

Trajan replied in the following terms:

"You have taken the right course, my dear Secundus, as to the cases of Christianity that have been referred to you; for it is not practicable to establish a certain and general form of procedure in a business of this kind. Inquiry and search should not be ordered; but those who are accused and convicted should be punished. If, however, the accused denies his Christianity, and authenticates his denial by his conduct —I mean, by invoking the gods—his repentance should obtain his pardon, whatever the suspicions under which he has formerly labored. In no kind of accusation should anonymous denunciations be received, for they set an evil example, and suit not our age."

Fleury, after transcribing this letter, makes the following judicious observations:

"That reply of the emperor in some sort put a stop to the persecution which threatened the Christians, yet left their enemies no less pretext to annoy them. In some places the populace and in others the authorities set snares for them; so that without any declared general persecution, there were individual persecutions in every province."

The persecution in which Pope Saint Alexander perished had not been expressly ordered by the emperor, but the sycophantic governors, hoping to please him, and often without any orders, or under misinterpreted orders, sent Christians to execution.

Saint Alexander governed the Holy See ten years, five months, and twenty days; he has the title of martyr in the  Sacramentary of Pope Gregory the Great, in the old calendar published at Verona in 1733 by Father Fronteau, and in all the martyrologies. After several centuries his body was removed to Saint Sabina, and placed beneath the high altar erected by Sixtus V.

 

SAINT SIXTUS I

A.D. 119

BORN of the senatorial family of the Colonnas, Sixtus was created pontiff on the 2gth of May, 119. He was the first to direct that the chalice and the paten should be touched only by the sacred ministers. Caesarotti remarks that if the pagan philosophers held in honor the names of the Eumolpuses, the Orpheuses, and the Numas, because they originated or added to the pomp of the worship of their fantastic deities, into which those pagans introduced superstitions and absurd ceremonies, we ought to contemplate with respect the pontiffs who, like Saint Alexander and Saint Sixtus, successively, and in accordance with the Christian spirit, labored to render more venerable the most august of all our mysteries.

Under the reign of Saint Sixtus there was less persecution. A proconsul still more courageous than Pliny represented to the Emperor Adrian how unjust it was to inflict cruel tortures, without examination and trial, from mere prejudice against a class whose only fault, in the estimation of all reasonable Romans, consisted in the name of Christian. That proconsul was Serenius Granianus. History should display in letters of gold the name of that minister who ventured to expose himself to the hatred of the prince in defence of truth and justice. The emperor was moved, and the apologies which were presented to him by Quadratus and Aristides completely appeased him. Adrian wrote a memorable letter in favor of the Christians, strictly forbade denunciations of them, and ordered that those who offended in that wise should be punished. This showed that if he had not already learned to worship Jesus, he had at least learned to venerate him. Ere long, however, the inconsistent prince suffered persecution to begin again. Sixtus was its victim.

Full of generous and considerate ideas, Sixtus had ordered that no bishop having been summoned to Rome, and subsequently returning to his bishopric, should be received there, except on his presenting to his people apostolic letters called formatae. These recommended the unity of the faith, and a mutual love between the head of Catholicity and the children of Jesus Christ. Besides the letters called formatae (the formatae formed were so named on account of the seal or of the especial form used in writing them) there were others termed canonicals, which were delivered to the bishops when they were about to return to their dioceses. Still more explicit than the formatae, they tended to strengthen and render unalterable the unity of the faith, obedience to the Holy See, the charity of the pope, and that of the members of the Church. The word canonicals well explains the sense of those letters. To prevent all system of fraud, those letters were sanctioned by the first Council of Nice, which prescribed their tenor, and in some sort even the cipher in which they should be written; for their language was not intelligible to all. There were letters called pacifies, or communicatives. These letters were given to pilgrims, and testified to their Catholic faith and to their communion with the church in which they lived. Letters commendatory served pilgrims in their travelling expenses.

There were already letters dimissory, by which a cleric could prove that he was absent from his diocese by permission of his bishop. There were also memoriales, or letters commonitory; they contained instructions to the legates for the fulfilment of the commissions with which they were intrusted. And there were synodals, which were issued on various occasions. They were called encyclicals or circulars, and catholicals, when they were addressed to all the churches. They were called decretals when the Roman pontiffs issued them in response to various questions, or to prescribe the performance or the omission of some act. Pastoral letters were those of the bishops to their flocks. Letters confessory were those given to the Christians who, in times of persecution, were imprisoned for the sake of Jesus. They recommended to the bishops those weak-minded men who in their terror of torture had denied the faith; and served afterwards to admit these uncourageous Christians to penitence and rehabilitation. Apostolic letters were those which emanated from the Roman pontiffs, in virtue of the apostolic authority. These were of various kinds. Some were called briefs, by which name the ancients understood the documents which described the ecclesiastical property, or what we should now call inventories. The name of brief has become a generic term, and is applied to all the missive letters of the Roman pontiffs. There were, still further, letters that were called clericals, which were issued by the clergy during the vacancy of sees. Saint Augustine speaks of letters termed trattatory, by which princes invited the bishops to attend councils. The same name was given to those letters by which bishops communicated to other bishops what had taken place with respect to any business or question of importance. Letters not noted by a title or other public sign were termed private. It has been maintained that Saint Sixtus styled himself bishop of bishops. But this assertion rests only on an apocryphal letter, as Marca and Baluze observe. Tertullian, who flourished at the commencement of the third century, adopts that style and title in speaking of the Roman pontiffs.

Saint Sixtus created four bishops, nine priests, and three deacons, and governed the Holy See during nearly nine years.

 

SAINT TELESPHORUS A.D. 127

SAINT TELESPHORUS was a Greek by birth, though some authors say that he was born in Terranova, in Calabria. It is by some affirmed that his father was an anchorite, and that Telesphorus himself was Roman by birth. Some say that by his decrees he confirmed the observance of Lent; and others affirm that the quadragesimal fast came down by tradition, as stated by Saint Ignatius, Saint Jerome, and Theophilus. At any rate, he is credited with having introduced the "Gloria in Excelsis"; in the Mass. This holy pope suffered martyrdom, A.D. 139. In his four ordinations Telesphorus created thirteen bishops, fifteen priests, and eight deacons. Some pious Christians removed his body after execution, and placed it near that of Saint Peter, in the Vatican. It is said that this pope ordered that all priests should celebrate three Masses on Christmas day. However, this observance was followed under Saint Gregory the Great. Saint Telesphorus presided over the Holy See during eleven years, eight months, and eighteen days.

 

SAINT HYGINUS A.D. 139

SAINT HYGINUS was born at Athens, and was raised to the papacy by the clergy and the people in A.D. 139. He settled the order of priority among the clergy, which has led to the supposition that he was the founder of the College of Cardinals. The custom of having a godfather and a godmother at the baptismal font, which some have attributed to Hyginus, is stated by Novaes, on the authority of Tertullian, to have been in use prior to the reign of that pontiff.

Hyginus excommunicated Cerdon, the author of that heresy which afterwards was known as the Marcionite. This heresy taught that there were two Gods, one good and the other cruel. Cerdon denied that Jesus Christ had ever lived in the flesh, averring that he was only a shadow. This sentence of Hyginus was almost universally approved.

Novaes affirms that this pope suffered martyrdom, but Eusebius and Saint Cyprian say that, though he endured much for the sake of the Church, he did not, strictly speaking, suffer martyrdom. He governed the Holy See during three years, eleven months, and twenty-nine days. Saint Hyginus was buried at the Vatican.

We have spoken of the clergy and the people as having elected the pope. The clergy were divided into three classes priests, heads of the clergy, and the inferior clergy. The priests were the seven suburbicans (afterwards named cardinal- bishops), and the twenty-eight priests who were also called cardinals. The principal clergy, or primates of the Church, were the Primate of the Notaries, or archdeacon, the deputy archdeacon, the treasurer, the Protoscrinarius, the Chief of the Defenders, and the Nomenclator. The rest of the clergy consisted of subdeacons, notaries, and acolytes. The people were divided into three classes the citizens, the soldiery, and the rest, though they were Christians, were not recognized as either citizens or soldiers.

In the eleventh century, under the reign of Nicholas II, the elective faculty was limited to the principal priests and vicarial bishops of Rome, who were then generally called Metropolitan Cardinals, Cardinal-bishops, and Cardinal-deacons.

SAINT PIUS I. A.D. 142

 

PIUS I was born at Aquileia. He was created pontiff A.D. 142. Like Saint Hyginus, he condemned the followers of Cerdon and his successor in that heresy, Marcion.

"Marcion", says Fleury, "recognized two principles, the good and the evil, and he claimed to be justified by these words of the Scripture : The tree which beareth good fruit is not evil; and the tree which beareth bad fruit is not good. He also availed himself of the parable which advises that we mend not an old garment with new cloth, nor put new wine into old bottles. He repudiated the Old Testament, as having been given by the evil principle, and he composed a work which he entitled Antitheses, or "the Contradictions between the Old Law and the New Testament". His followers abstained from animal food, and used only water in holy communion. They carried their abhorrence of flesh-meat so far as to suffer death as martyrs. This heresy had a great number of believers, not only in many places, but also during many centuries. The condemnation pronounced by Saint Pius I added weight to the excommunication pronounced against this heresy by Saint Hyginus.

Pius I had also to combat the heresy of Valentinus, whose origin is not known. "Valentinus at first preached the Catholic faith in Egypt, where he is said to have been born, and afterwards in Rome", says Fleury, "but it was in the isle of Cyprus that he became perverted from the faith. Possessing both ability and eloquence, he hoped for a bishopric, but being disappointed, he, in his anger, undertook to combat the doctrine of the Church. He had studied the writings of the Greeks, and especially the Platonic philosophy".

Justin Martyr composed an Apology for the Christians in the year of Christ 150, and placed the following address in the beginning of it : "To the Emperor Titus Elian Adrian Antonius, pious and august Caesar, and to his son Verissimus, philosopher; and Lucius, philosopher, the son of Caesar by nature, and of the Emperor by adoption, lovers of science; and to the sacred Senate, and the whole Roman people; Justin, son of Priscus Bacchius, a native of Flavia or Naples of Palestine, one of the persecuted, presents this memorial.

"Reason teaches us that those who are truly pious and philosophers esteem and love only the truth, and not old opinions if they are unsound. You are everywhere called pious and philosophical; the effect shows how that really is.

"We do not intend to flatter you in this writing, but to ask you for justice, in accordance with the most sound reason, and to entreat you not to listen to prejudices, nor to adhere to superstitions, nor to passion, nor to give credence to the false reports that have long been circulated, so as to render judgments which must be injurious to yourselves. For ourselves, we are persuaded that no one can do us harm so long as no one can convict us of being evil-doers; you may have us put to death, but you cannot injure us; and in order that this discourse be not thought rash, we beg for an exact inquiry into the nature of the crimes that are imputed to us. If such crimes be proved against us, let us be punished even more severely than such crimes merit! But if we be found blameless, sound reason forbids that you should maltreat the innocent on account of false reports; or rather that you wrong yourselves in punishing in passion and not in justice.

"The legitimate form of justice is that subjects give a faithful account of their life and conversation, and that princes judge not by violence and tyranny, but in piety and wisdom. It is for us, therefore, to make our life and conversation known to all the world, lest we have imputed to ourselves those crimes which are charged against us in ignorance; and it is for you to show us that you are unprejudiced judges. For if, after receiving this information, you do not act justly, you will no longer have any excuse before God".

Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, explains the doctrine of the Christians, saying that they adore, first, the eternal God, the author of all things; in the second place, his Son Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and in the third place, they honor the prophetic Spirit. Saint Justin proceeds to say that Jesus Christ is the sovereign reason who entirely changes the heart of his worshippers. Jesus is the supreme reason who changes his followers. The discourses of Jesus were the word of God, brief and exact. They have convinced us. The Christians are the only people who are punished for their creed and worship, while all other religions are tolerated. Some adore trees, flowers, cats, rats, and crocodiles, and generally animals. Moreover, all do not adore the same things the worship is different, in accordance with their gods; so that each sect is impious in the estimation of all the others.

"Nevertheless", he continues, "the only complaint you make against us is that we do not adore the same gods as you do, and that we offer to the dead neither libations, nor crowns, nor sacrifices. Yet you well know that the others do not agree as to what they shall hold to be gods, or brutes, or victims".

He goes on to complain that there is no order taken with the impostors who, after the ascension of Jesus, set themselves up as gods, as Simon the Samaritan, of the city of Gitton, who, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, performed divers magical operations, and was recognized at Rome as a god; Menander, a disciple of Simon, who seduced so many at Antioch; and Marcion, who even at that very time taught that there was another God greater than the Creator. Justin Martyr then explains all that took place in the Christian assemblies, and ends by laying before the eyes of the princes the copy of the letter of Adrian to Minutius Fundanus.

To Saint Pius I is attributed a decree ordering the celebration of Easter Sunday; but that celebration had already been ordered by the apostles. The same pontiff directed that converts from Judaism and from the sect of Cerinthus to the Catholic faith should be received and baptized. At the solicitation of Saint Praxedes, daughter of the senator Pudens, he erected in the palace of that Christian, in which Saint Peter had lodged, the title of the Shepherd, and founded there a church, now known under the name of Saint Pudentiana, sister of Saint Praxedes.

In five ordinations Saint Pius I created twelve bishops, eighteen priests, and eleven, or, according to some, twenty-one deacons. He governed the Church about fifteen years.....

 

SAINT ANICETUS—A.D. 157-168

 

ON the 25th of July, A.D. 157, Saint Anicetus, a Syrian priest, son of John, was created pontiff. Between that pope and Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, there was a great controversy, which divided them in opinion, but did not disturb their friendship. It was upon the subject of the celebration of Easter. Anicetus followed the tradition of Saint Peter, in celebrating Easter on the Sunday following the fourteenth day of the moon of the vernal equinox. Saint Polycarp, on the contrary, preferred the tradition of the Apostle Saint John, celebrating on the day of that full moon, which sometimes fell on a week-day. The bishops of Asia did not agree upon that subject with the Roman Church. That question was subsequently decided, as we shall relate in the life of Saint Victor I. This difference of Opinion did not cause any breach of friendship. On one occasion, Anicetus even yielded to Polycarp the honor of offering up the sacrifice of the Mass. Anicetus had the ability to preserve his flock from the poison of error, and to keep the great trust of the faith in all its purity. By his vigilance he suppressed the heresies of Valentinus and of Marcion.

Saint Anicetus suffered martyrdom in the year 168. In five ordinations he created nine bishops, seventeen priests, and fourteen deacons. He governed the Church nearly eleven years. His remains, which for fourteen hundred and twenty-nine years had rested in the cemetery of Calixtus, are at present venerated in the chapel of the Altemps palace at Rome, where they were deposited on the 28th of October, 1504. This favor was granted, by the Pope Clement VIII, to the prince, John Angelo, Duke of Altemps.

 

SAINT SOTER—A.D. 168-177

 

FONDI, near Naples, was the native place of Saint Soter, also in his life called Concordius. He was created pontiff AD 168. Critics are not agreed as to the authenticity of the decretals published under his name. Novaes here repeats the warning which he had already given, that all the decretals up to those of Saint Ciricius, the thirty-ninth pope, who was created AD 384, should be examined with the most scrupulous attention. By the testimony of Saint Denis, we know that Saint Soter fulfilled his duties with an unfailing zeal, and that he, like his predecessors, who had to use great circumspection, delighted in aiding distant and indigent Christians. He inquired into the sufferings and needs of these who were persecuted for the faith. He sent without delay consolation and provision to those whom the emperor’s orders condemned to work in the mines. The more prosperous Christians were called upon to give large alms, by means of which such sufferings of Christians in the most distant parts of the earth could be diminished and alleviated. At the same time, this pontiff opposed the heresies which gnawed the vitals of Christianity. By means of an affectation of extreme strictness of life, the heretics deluded the multitude: they pretended that the time had arrived which they called the millennium.

The zeal of the sovereign pontiff obtained the important concession that Christians, merely as Christians, should not be condemned—that unless charged with some distinct crime against the state, their Christian creed should not be imputed to them as a crime.

In five ordinations Saint Soter created eleven bishops, eighteen priests, and nine deacons. He governed the Church nine years and a few months. From the cemetery of Saint Calixtus, where his body was at first buried, it was removed by Sergius II, in 845, to the Church of Saints Sylvester and Mart in a'i Monti, and then to the Appian Way, to the Church of Saint Sixtus, belonging to the Dominican Fathers.

To thins reign belongs the miracle of the thundering legion. The following account is given of it by Bossuet:

“In an extreme scarcity of water that was endured by the army of Marcus Aurelius in Germany, a Christian legion obtained rain sufficient to quench the thirst of all the troops, and accompanied by thunder that terrified the enemy. This miracle caused the legion to receive, or to have confirmed to it, the title of the thunder legion. The emperor was touched by that miracle, and wrote to the senate in favor of the Christians. Subsequently his false priests persuaded him to attribute to their prayers and to their false gods the miracle for which the pagans had not even presumed to express a wish”.

Evidence of this miracle is to be seen in the bas-reliefs of the Antonine column. The Romans are there represented with weapons in hand against the barbarians, who are seen extended upon the ground with their horses, while a torrent of rain is pouring upon them, and they seem to be prostrated by the thunderbolts. On that occasion, in fact, Marcus Aurelius, in his letter to the senate, declared that hjs army had been saved by the prayers of the Christian soldiers.

 

SAINT ELEUTHERUS—AD 177-193

 

ACCORDING to several writers. Saint Eleutherus had the surname of Abondio; he was a Greek, and born at Nicopolis, now called Prevesa, in Albania. Others, however, say that he was a Neapolitan, born in Calabria. (It must be remembered that all that part of Italy was also called Magna Graecia.) At the request of Lucius, king of that part of England which was subject to the Romans, this pope sent Fugacius and Damian into that island, to endeavor to convert it to the Catholic faith. It must be remembered that previous to this many Christians were in England, but this was the first organized missionary effort.

Marcus Aurelius was succeeded in the empire by Commodus, and, by a strange but welcome contradiction, the Church, which had been persecuted during the reign of a good prince, was left in peace by a monstrous one. Elected AD 177, Saint Eleutherus governed the Church during fifteen years and a few days. In three ordinations he created sixteen bishops, twelve priests, and eight deacons. He was buried in the Vatican.

 

SAINT VICTOR I—A.D. 193-202

 

WHILE Victor I sat in the chair of Saint Peter, especial attention was paid to the question about the celebration of Easter, of which we have already spoken. The dispute was on this question: whether the celebration should take place on the fourteenth day of the March moon, as the Asiatic Churches maintained, or on the Sunday next after that fourteenth day, as was customary at Rome and among the Western Churches. This latter opinion, conformable to the tradition of Saint Peter, prevailed in the council which was assembled in Rome by Pope Saint Victor. However, those who preferred the contrary practice were not condemned until the question was decided by the Council of Nice. But the first decision proves what power Victor then had in the Church. Some excitable persons wanted Saint Victor to excommunicate the Asiatic bishops; but, at the persuasion of Saint Irenaeus, Victor did not pronounce the decree of separation. Novaes gives the names of the authors who believe that fact; but he also gives the names of the authors who, contrariwise, believe that the excommunication actually took place. Among these latter he mentions Baronius, Pagi, Schelstrate, the Bollandists, Basnage, and others. Pierre de Marcas, while he adopts the opinion of the latter authors, adds that Saint Victor, at the urgent request of Saint Irenaeus, subsequently admitted the bishops to communion. Father Zaccaria, with Dumesnil and Daude, believes that Victor deprived the Asiatics of his individual communion, by depriving them of his Pacific Letters (which were given to pilgrims, testifying to their faith and to their communion with the church in whatever place they might reside), and that, at length, he showed himself indulgent and patient, in order that he might conciliate many bishops who disapproved of vexing churches so illustrious, when their docility and obedience might be better left to the work of time.

Saint Victor I decided that common water might, in case of actual necessity, be used in baptism.

In several councils he excommunicated those heretics who maintained that Christ was man and not God, and others who maintained that the body of Jesus was celestial. He condemned Praxeas, who maintained that the Father and not the Son had suffered on the cross, and who denied the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

At this period flourished Saint Clement of Alexandria. His name was Titus Flavius Clemens; some call hi, Athenian, which has led to the belief that he was born at Athens. He was deeply learned n literature and philosophy, especially in that of Plato. He was well versed also in the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the gospel. At the commencement of his Stromates, he thus informs us of the pains that he took a studying them: “I have not composed this work for ostentation: it is a treasure of memory for my old age, an artless remedy against oblivion and malice, a slight sketch of lively and an mated discourses, and those blessed and truly memorable men whom I have had the advantage to hear”.

Victor, in two ordinations, created twelve bishops, four priests, and seven deacons. He governed the Church about nine years. Saint Nicholas, who was pope in 858, says that Victor was truly, as well as in name, a Victor, or conqueror, because he was martyrized for the traditions of the Church.

Saint Victor I was buried in the Vatican.

He left some books on points of religion. They are lost, but they had obtained the praises of Saint Jerome, who also says that Saint Victor was the first among ecclesiastical authors to use the Latin language, all before him having written in Greek.