NOTE A.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS MENTIONED IN THE LECTURES.
The Crucifixion Passover, 29 A.D. Martyrdom of St. Stephen 33 A.D. Accession of Claudius January 24, 41 A.D. Imprisonment of St. Peter Passover, 42 A.D. St. Peter's 1st visit to Rome Summer, 42 A.D. Death of Herod Agrippa Spring, 44 A.D. Prophecy of Agabus 44 A.D. Famine in Judaea 45-46 A.D. Queen Helena in Jerusalem 45 A.D. St. Mark's Gospel written at Rome 44-45 A.D. St. Peter with St. Mark leaves Rome 45 A.D. St. Peter at Jerusalem Spring, 46 A.D.
Barnabas and Saul bring alms from Antioch to Jerusalem (visit of Gal. ii. 1-10) Pentecost, 46 A.D.
Barnabas and Saul with Mark sail from Antioch to Cyprus Spring, 47 A.D.
St. Peter makes Antioch the centre of his missionary work 47-54 A.D.
Barnabas and Saul return from their missionary journey Autumn, 49 A.D.
Encounter of St. Peter and St. Paul at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11-14) 49 A.D. Council at Jerusalem late 49 A.D.
Jews expelled from Rome by Claudius St. Paul starts from Antioch on his 2nd Missionary Journey with Silas after Passover, 50 A.D. St. Barnabas and St. Mark go to Cyprus ? " ? ? " ? 50 A.D. St. Paul at Corinth
Summer, 51 A.D.-Spring, 53 A.D. Gallio arrives in Achaia April or May, 52 A.D. St. Paul at Jerusalem Passover, 53 A.D. Accession of Nero October 13, 54 A.D. St. Peter and St. Barnabas at Corinth late 54 A.D. St. Peter and St. Barnabas in Rome and Italy early 55 A.D.-56 A.D. St. Paul at Ephesus Autumn 53 A.D.-Spring A.D. 1st Epistle to the Corinthians from Ephesus Autumn 55 A.D. St. Paul in Greece
early summer, 56 A.D.-Passover, 57 A.D. Epistle to the Romans from Corinth early in 57 A.D. St. Paul at Jerusalem Pentecost, 57 A.D. St. Paul's imprisonment at Caesarea 57 A.D.-59 A.D. St. Luke's Gospel 58 A.D.-59 A.D. St. Paul arrives in Rome February, 60 A.D. St. Paul's captivity in Rome 60 A.D.-62 A.D. The Acts of the Apostles before 62 A.D. Death of Festus Summer of 62 A.D. St. Peter in Rome (3rd visit) 63 A.D.-65 A.D. The Great Fire of Rome July, 64 A.D. Persecution of the Christians by Nero Spring, 65 A.D. The Vatican fete May, 65 A.D. 1st Epistle of St. Peter June, 65 A.D. Martyrdom of St. Peter Summer, 65 A.D. Apollonius of Tyana in Rome 66 A.D. Epistle to the Hebrews late in 66 A.D. Martyrdom of St. Paul 67 A.D. Death of Nero June 9, 68 A.D. Burning of the Capitol and storming of Rome Dec. 19-21, 69 A.D. Domitian in power at Rome January-June, 70 A.D. Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians February, 70 A.D. St. John exiled by Domitian to Patmos, where he writes the Apocalypse Spring, 70 A.D. Destruction of the Temple by Titus September 7, 70 A.D. Nerva consul January to April, 71 A.D. St. John released from Patmos Spring, 71 A.D. Anencletus succeeds Linus as 2nd bishop of Rome 80 A.D. Domitian becomes emperor September 13, 81 A.D.. "The Shepherd" of Hermas about 90 A.D. Clement becomes 3rd bishop of Rome 92 A.D.-101 A.D. M' Acilius Glabrio consul 91 A.D. M. Arrecinus Clemens consul suffect 94 A.D. T. Flavius Clemens consul 95 A.D. Domitianic persecution 94 A.D.-96 A.D. Assassination of Domitian September 18, 96 A.D.
NOTE B
AQUILA AND PRISCA OR PRISCILLA
In 1888 G. B. de Rossi discovered in the Coemeterium Priscillae a crypt belonging to the Acilian gens dating from the first century, but in a very ruinous condition. Among the broken inscriptions of many members of this noble family one finds the names of Acilius Glabrio and of Priscilla. Both Priscus and Priscilla or Prisca are cognomina used by this family, as may be seen by a reference to Pauly's Real-Encyclopaedie' under Acilius. The existence of this elaborately decorated burial-place containing a large number of sarcophagi seems to point to M' Acilius Glabrio, the Consul of 91 A.D. who was accused of atheism and Jewish manners' and put to death by Domitian, having been a Christian. It has been conjectured therefore that the Priscilla after whom the cemetery is named, and who must have been the owner of the property beneath which the excavations were made (property which was part of the extensive possessions of the Acilii Glabriones) was a near relative--aunt or sister--of the victim of Domitian. In this cemetery, according to the witness of the Liberian Calendar,' of the Itineraries' and of the Liber Pontificalis,' reposed the bodies of Aquila and Prisca (Marucchi, Elements d'Archeol. Chret.' ii. p. 385) with many other saints and martyrs. The biographical notice of Leo IV (847-55 A.D.) in the Liber Pontificalis' states that that Pope removed many bodies within the walls to save them from possible desecration by the Saracens (Duchesne, ii. p. 115), among these the bodies of Aquila and Prisca.
The supposition that these two companions of St. Paul were freedmen of the family of the Acilii Glabriones or connected with them by ties of clientship is highly probable. Prisca or Priscilla appears to have been a Roman and by the precedence of her name over that of her husband, as already stated, it has been assumed that she was of higher position and that the house at Rome was her property. This suggests that she may have been a daughter of a freedman of the Acilian Priscilla who was the founder of the cemetery. The Priscilla of the Acts was so named after her. Aquila was a Jew and a native of Pontus. Of his Jewish name we are ignorant. He may have been taken to Rome as a slave and been a freedman of one of the Acilii. Quite possibly, however, he may have settled in Rome, like so many others, as a craftsman and trader, and his connexion with the powerful family, perhaps through the influence of Priscilla, have been one of clientship. As to the name Aquila, the following quotation from a poem of Ausonius with the title Acilio Glabrioni, grammatico Jun. Burdigalensi' [214. 3. 4] may explain its origin:
Stemmate nobilium deductum nomen avorum
Glabrio Aquilini Dardana progenies.
The contention of De Rossi, Marucchi and others that the ancient church of St. Prisca on the Aventine covers the site of the church in the house of Prisca and Aquila will not bear serious investigation. Of the St. Prisca, virgin and martyr, who gave her name to the church nothing is really known, but she was a different person from the Prisca of the Acts and the Pauline epistles. From the fourth to the eighth century the church is always described as titulus Priscae (Duchesne, Lib. Pont.' i. 501, 517). It was not until the Pontificate of Leo III (795-816 A.D.) that the name titulus Aquilae et Priscae first appears (Duchesne, ii. p. 20): fecit in titulo beatis Aquile et Priscae coronam ex argento pens. lib. VI.,' but in this same notice of Leo III occur the words basilica beate Priscae' and Duchesne remarks that Prisca was still ordinary at this time (p. 42).
In a MS. preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (Cod. lat. 9697 p. 78) an account is given of the discovery in 1776 of the ruins of a Roman house and Christian oratory close to St. Prisca with frescoes of the fourth century, but this ruin was unfortunately destroyed and no trace of it remains. In Bianchini's edition of the Liber Pontificalis' (P.L. cxxvii. col. 1315) mention is made in the notice of Pope Zephyrinus (198-217) of a Christian glass' [495] found intra antiquae ecclesiae rudera prope S. Priscam' (de Rossi in Bull. di Arch. Crist.' 1867, p. 48). These things prove the existence on this spot of a very ancient Christian place of worship, but nothing more.
[495] The words of the Lib. Pont. itself Et fecit constitutum in ecclesia et patenas vitreas ante sacerdotes in ecclesia, et ministros supportantes, donec episcopus missas celebraret, ante se sacerdotes adstantes, sic missae celebrarentur,' are an interesting reference to the rites attending the celebration of the Mass at Rome in early times: Duchesne, L.P. i. p. 140, makes the comment la mention de patenes de verre est a remarquer; elles n'etaient certainemeut plus en usage a la fin du V^e siecle,'
NOTE C
THE PUDENS LEGEND
The name of a certain Pudens occurs in St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy (iv. 21): Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens and Linus and Claudia.' He is not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, but a large number of traditions have grown up about him, which connect him with St. Peter rather than with St. Paul; and in these traditions there is in all probability a basis of historical fact. In modern times the theory met with strong support, especially among English writers, that Pudens was the husband of Claudia. They were identified with the Pudens and Claudia of Martial's Epigrams' (iv. 13, xi. 53), and Claudia was held to be a British maiden and a daughter of a British chief named Cogidubnus (Martial, xi. 53, CIL.' vii. 11). But it is needless to discuss this hypothesis, for it has been conclusively shown that the Epigrams' were not written until many years after the death of St. Paul. The name Claudia moreover was then not uncommon, and the fact that the names Pudens and Claudia in the salutation are not coupled together, but separated by the name Linus, is a strong objection prima facie to their being husband and wife. [496]
The ground document for the Pudens Legend is the very ancient Acts of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedis,' or as it is sometimes called the Acts of Pastor and Timothy.' [497] These Acts' consist of a letter from a presbyter named Pastor (this Pastor appears in the Liber Pontificalis' as brother of Pope Pius I) to another presbyter named Timothy and the reply of the latter. The letters are followed by a short appended narrative. The date of these Acts' is uncertain, and the letters in their present form are undoubtedly fictitious, but they embody, as can be proved by existing memorials, a genuine tradition treated as to its details with the usual inventive freedom and chronological inexactitude.
The story as told in these Acts' is as follows: a certain Pudens, whose mother was named Priscilla, a Christian of property, who had shown great zeal in entertaining Apostles and strangers, after the death of his wife consecrated his house as a church of Christ. This church in the house of Pudens in the Vicus Patricius was erected into a Roman parish under the name of titulus Pastoris (the Pastor who wrote the letter being the presbyter placed in charge of this parish). Here with his two daughters Praxedis and Pudentiana, who as chaste virgins spent their lives in prayer, fasting, and charitable deeds, Pudens passed his remaining days. The daughters after his death not only obtained the consent of Pope Pius to the building of a baptistery adjoining the church, but the bishop drew the plan with his own hand, and frequently visited the church and offered there the sacrifices to God. On the decease of Potentiana the letter of Pastor informs us that he and the surviving sister Praxedis placed the body by the side of that of her father in the Cemetery of Priscilla [498] on the Via Salaria.
Here begins what in some MSS. is called the Acts of Praxedis.' Many noble Christians including Pope Pius came to console Praxedis on her loss, among them a certain Novatus, described as the brother of Timothy, but nowhere in these Acts' as the brother of Praxedis and Pudentiana. This is an important point to remember, for most modern writers following later Martyrologies describe Novatus and Timothy as sons of Pudens. [499] Novatus having fallen ill, Praxedis and Pastor visited him in his sickness, and the issue was that he left to them the whole of his property. The letter containing all this information was sent to Timothy to know what he would wish that they should do in the matter of his brother's estate. Timothy replies that he is rejoiced at what his brother has done, and leaves the entire disposition in the hands of Praxedis and Pastor. The contents of these letters in fact make it absolutely clear that there was no relationship between the sisters Praxedis and Potentiana and the brothers Novatus and Timothy.
After the letters comes a narrative by the hand of Pastor of what followed, Praxedis asked Bishop Pius that the Baths of Novatus, which at that time were not in use, should be consecrated as a church. Pius consented and dedicated in the name of Praxedis the Baths, as a church, within the city in the Vicus Lateranus and he erected it into a Roman parish, titulus, and consecrated a baptistery to it. That this is the true meaning of the original and that the words in brackets are a later gloss interpolated by the writer to explain the existence in his days of a church of St. Pudentiana in the Vicus Patricius as well as a church of St. Praxedis in the Vicus Lateranus is almost self-evident. It runs thus: Quod et placuit Sancto Pio Episcopo; thermasque Novati dedicavit ecclesiam sub nomine beatae Virginis [Potentianae in vico Patricio. Dedicavit autem et aliam sub nomine sanctae Virginis] Praxedis infra urbem Romam, in vico qui appellatur Lateranus.' The Acts' had already given an account of the dedication of the church in the Vicus Patricius at a much earlier period before the death of Novatus. The Acts' conclude with an account of the burial of Praxedis by Pastor in the cemetery of Priscilla by the side of her father and sister.
The mistake, which led to the interpolation above mentioned caused the following note to he appended to the biography of Pope Pius in two MSS. (and their derivatives) of the Liber Pontificalis': Hic [Pius] ex rogatu beate Praxedis dedicavit aecclesiam thermas Novati in vico Patricii, in honore Sororis suae sanctae Potentianae, ubi et multa dona obtulit; ubi saepius sacrificium Domino offerens ministrabat'; Duchesne commenting on this writes: L'auteur de la note parait avoir mal compris le texte des Acta, car il ne parle que de l'une des deux eglises, rapportant a celle du Vicus Patricius ce qui est dit de l'intervention de Praxede et des thermes de Novatus' (Duchesne, Lib. Pont.' i. 133). This note has also misled most modern writers on the subject. [500] The two Churches of St. Pudentiana and St. Praxedis are at this day two of the most interesting churches in Rome, and undoubtedly stand on the sites of those mentioned in the Acts,' and there is a record of St. Pudentiana having been restored by Pope Siricius (384-398 A.D.). It is quite certain, however, that this church was not named after a daughter of Pudens but after Pudens himself. An inscription Hic requiescit in pace Hilarus Lector tituli Pudentis' bears the date 528 A.D. and shows that this was the correct style. Another inscription of 384 A.D. is Leopardus Lector de Pudentiana and in the mosaic of the apse (the oldest mosaic in a Roman church) the Saviour holds an open volume with the words Dominus conservator ecclesiae Pudentianae.' As Lanciani remarks (Pagan and Christian Rome,' p, 112): In course of time the ignorant people changed the word Pudentiana, a possessive adjective, into the name of a Saint; and the name Sancta Pudentiana usurped the place of the genuine one. It appears for the first time in a document of the year 745.' An inscription of 491 A.D. speaks of certain presbyters Tituli Praxedis.'
The existence, however, of both sisters receives substantiation from the fact that their tombs and that of Pudens are mentioned in the Liberian Calendar' and in the Pilgrim Itineraries' as existing in the fourth and fifth centuries in the Cemetery of Priscilla, where according to the Acta' they were buried. Paschal I in his great translation of the remains of saints from the catacombs into the city in 817 A.D. brought the sarcophagi of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedis from the catacomb to the Church of St. Praxedis, and the names of both are recorded on a catalogue inscribed on a marble slab to the right of the altar and their portraits appear in the mosaics of this date, which adorn the Church (Marucchi, Elem. d'Arch. Chret.' iii. 325-332).
It is thought that Justin Martyr, when on his trial in 160 A.D. he declared, being interrogated by the Judge as to his dwelling place, that he lived close to the baths called the Timotine,' may have been referring to the baths of Novatus as the place where he was accustomed to worship. As Timothy was the brother of Novatus it is a possible supposition.
The question now arises, was this Pudens of the Acta' identical with the Pudens of the 2nd Epistle to Timothy. The Bollandists say No. De Rossi, Marucchi, and many others say Yes, and they get over the chronological difficulty by urging that Pudentiana and Praxedis may have lived to a very advanced age. But the probabilities against such a view are almost insuperable. It is much more likely that the Pudens of the Epistle and the Pudens of the Acta' were father and son. At one time it was the opinion of De Rossi and his school that the first-century cemetery of Priscilla was the property of the family of Pudens. He and his daughters were buried in the cemetery and his mother's name is given in the Acta' as Priscilla. But the discovery of the crypt of the Acilian gens in this catacomb seemed to render it almost certain that the cemetery must have belonged to the family of Acilius Glabrio, the Consul of 91 A.D., in which the names of Priscus, Priscilla and Prisca are found. De Rossi therefore suggested that Pudens may have himself been an Acilius. I have however already made another suggestion, i.e. that Priscilla the mother of Pudens according to the Acta' was an Acilia, and perhaps the aunt or sister of M' Acilius Glabrio.
The traditions which connect the name of Pudens with the early history of the Church in Rome are persistent and numerous quite apart from what is recorded in the Acta' that we have been considering. It is said that the house of Pudens (the elder Pudens mentioned by St. Paul) was during his stay in Rome the home of St. Peter. The sella gestatoria, or St. Peter's chair, the oak framework of which is of great antiquity, is said to have been originally the senatorial chair of Pudens. The wooden altar at the St. John Lateran again has been in continuous use there since the fourth century, when it was removed from St. Pudentiana, and that despite the fact that Pope Sylvester in 312 A.D. ordered that all altars should henceforth be of stone. Many indeed had been so before, for the word titulus which signifies a consecrated parish church implies its possession of a stone altar. In the Church of St. Pudentiana at the present time there is preserved within the altar a single wood plank reputed to have been left at that church as a memorial when the altar itself was removed. When Cardinal Wiseman was titular cardinal of St. Pudentiana he had the plank examined and found that the wood was identical with that of the altar at the Lateran Church. The reason of its preservation was the tradition that this altar had been used by St. Peter when he celebrated the Eucharist in the oratory in Pudens' house. When St. John Lateran replaced St. Pudentiana as the Cathedral Church of Rome the bishop and the altar moved there together. [501] These traditions have historically small value in themselves, but it may safely be said that they could never have arisen and obtained the vogue which we find them to have had in comparatively early times, had not the Pudens of Apostolic times and his family after him been active and leading members of the primitive Christian community in Rome. [502]
THE FAMILY CONNEXION OF CLEMENT THE BISHOP.
A Tabular Statment of the Scheme of Relationship (set forth in Lecture VIII) between the Arrecinian and Imperial Flavian Families.
[497] Bollandist Acta SS. Maii, iv. 297-301.
[498] It is evidently intended that the Priscilla who gave her name to the cemetery was the mother of Pudens.
[499] A note in the Bollandist Acta SS. Maii, iv, p. 301, states for instance: Colitur S. Novatus 20 Iunii etiam Martyrologio Romano adscriptus et dicitur filius S. Pudentis Senatoris et frater Sancti Timothei Presbyteri et Sanctarum Virginum Praxedis et Potentianae, qui ab Apostolis eruditi sunt in fide,' quorum nihil probamus.
[500] See De Rossi, Bullettino di Arch. Crist. 1867, pp. 49-65; Marucchi, Elements d'Arch. Chret. ii. 364 ff.; Mem. degli Apost. Pietro e Paolo, pp. 110-116; Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, pp. 110-115; Barnes, St. Peter in Rome, pp. 72-78; Spence-Jones, Early Christians in Rome, pp. 263-7, &c.
[501] Concerning the term titulus, Barnes (St. Peter in Rome, p. 75) writes: A great deal has been written on the origin and use of this word, but it is probable that it is really derived from its occurrence in the Old Latin version, in the account of the setting up by Jacob of the altar at Bethel after his wonderful dream: an account which to this day is read in the service for the consecration of an altar in a church. "And Jacob said: How terrible is this place; this is no other but the house of God and the gate of heaven. And Jacob arising in the morning took the stone which he had laid under his head and set it up for a title (erexit in titulum), pouring oil upon the top of it." A "title' therefore, in early Christian usage, came to be nothing else but a stone altar duly consecrated, and, in a wider sense, the church that contained that altar and drew its own sanctity from it.' In the Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne, torn. i. p. 126) of Evaristus, the successor of Clement as bishop in 101 A.D., it is recorded hic titulos in urbe Romae dividit presbyteris.'
[502] Bianchini in his Anastasius Bibliothecarius (edn. of Liber Pontificalis in 1718) made the suggestion that Pudens was a member of the Gens Cornelia. In 1778 in the primitive Christian oratory discovered in immediate proximity to the Church of St. Prisca (supra, p. 243) a bronze tablet was found to one Caius Marius Pudens Cornelianus offered to this man by a town in Spain expressing gratitude for services rendered during the time when he filled the office of legate, and stating that he (Pudens) had been chosen as patron' by the citizens. The date of this tabula patronatus is 222 A.D:, and its presence gives strong grounds for assuming that the house containing the Christian place of worship was his property. The following inscription is of great interest as it belongs to the reign of Vespasian and contains the names of an Amaranthus, a T. Flavius, a Q. Cornelius Pudens, and a Chrestus. Marucchi (Rom. Sott. N.S. i. p. 30) states that immediately adjoining the Cemetery of Domitilla excavated beneath Flavian property lies a property known as Tor Marancia from a certain Amaranthus; on this are a number of pagan sepulchres belonging to the Bruttian family; while Eusebius tells us that he derived his information about the Flavian Christians from an historian named Bruttius [see Note D, p. 256, and Note F, p. 279).
HILARITATI PVPLIC . ? . ? .
IMP . CAES . VESPASIANI . ? . ? .
SACRVM
TRIBVL . SVCC . CORP . IVN *
. ? . ? . ? . ? . ?
T : COMINIVS AMARANTH : : : .
T : FLAVIVS . T : F : LVSCV : : : .
Q : CORNELIVS . Q : F : PVDENT : : .
CVRATORES : LIBEROR : TRIB : SVC : COR : IVNIOR : : . . On the other face occur the words:
PONEN . CVR .
C . NYMPHIDIVS . CHRESTVS .
. ? . ? . ? . ? . ? .
DEDIC . XVII K . DEC .
L . ANNIO . BASSO .
C CAECINA . PAETO . ? ? ^COS . (i.e. 70 A.D.) * Tribules succussani. Corpus juniorum.--Muratori, tom. i. p. cccviii.
From Tac. Hist.' iv. 68 it appears that this Prefect was so much beloved by his troops that his son's appointment as Prefect in 70 A.D. was hailed with joy in the camp, because the father's memory after so long an interval of time was still held in regard. Suetonius (Titus' 4) tells us that his name was Tertullus, that he belonged to the Equestrian order, and that his daughter Arrecina Tertulla was the first wife of the Emperor Titus. An inscription CIL.' vi. 12355 gives his praenomen as Marcus.
(2) Plautia. The name of the wife of (1) is actually unknown. The reasons for assigning to him, as his wife, a sister of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, are stated in Lecture VIII. Plautia would be the sister-in-law of Julia Pomponia Graecina, and a relative of Plautia Urgulanilla, the second wife of Claudius.
(3) M. Arrecinus Clemens, son of (1), described by Tacitus Hist.' iv. 68 as domui Vespasiani per adfinitatem innexum et gratissimum Domitiano, Praetorianis [Domitianus] praeposuit, patrem eius, sub Caio Caesare, egregie functum ea cura, dictitans, laetum militibus idem nomen.' The relationship with the Imperial Flavian House may be traced back to (8) Tertulla, the grandmother of Vespasian, by whom from childhood he was brought up. Tertullus Clemens (1) the Prefect was probably Vespasian's cousin and the companion of his boyhood. Arrecina Tertulla (5), daughter of (1) and sister of (3), married Titus (19). She died while Titus was quite young.
M. Arrecinus Clemens (3) was Consul Suffectus in 73 A.D. (CIL.' vi. 2016 and xiv. 2242) and a second time with L. Baebius Honoratus (CIL.' xii. 3637). This second consulship appears to have been most probably in 94 A.D. The Fasti Consulares are admittedly imperfect with regard to the names of the consuls suffect. But the names of both the ordinary Consuls Collega and Priscus and of the three suffects for 93 A.D. have been preserved. In 94 A.D. Asprenas and Lateranus were ordinary consuls. [503] In some lists Arrecinus Clemens appears, however, as the colleague of Asprenas (see Dion Cassius, ed. Lipsiae, 1829, iv. p. 84). The Chronicon Paschale' (extract given in Lightfoot, Clement of Rome,' i. p. 110) has the following entries: 93 A.D. Domitian Augustus XIII and Flavius Clemens, 94 A.D. Asprenatus [Asprenas] and Lateranus, 95 A.D. Domitian Augustus XIV and Flavius Clemens II. This is an instance of that confusion of Arrecinus Clemens with Flavius Clemens which has been the fruitful source of difficulties. Flavius Clemens was consul only once and in 95 A.D., Arrecinus Clemens for the second time in 94 A.D. He was a member of the Imperial Council from 82 A.D. and also Curator Aquarum. His name appears CIL.' vi. 199 xi. 428 and xv. 7278. He was put to death by Domitian 94 A.D. or 95 A.D. (Suet. Domitian,' 11.)
(4) Plautilla. The Acts of Nereus and Achilles' represent these martyrs as at first servants of Plautilla, the sister of Clement the Consul, and afterwards of her daughter Domitilla the virgin. The Acts of Petronilla,' which are incorporated with those of Nereus and Achilles, state that these three saints were all buried in the crypt of Domitilla. That they were real historical persons has been proved in recent years by the discovery by De Rossi [504] of their memorials in the cemetery of Domitilla. It is at least possible, therefore, that Plautilla is likewise an historical person, and the presumption is increased by the fact that she is definitely in these Acts represented as the sister of Clement the Consul. De Rossi himself believed in her real existence, and many others have followed him in the assumption, which I have adopted, as also his suggestion that her mother's name was Plautia. I differ, however, in my interpretation of the words sister of Clement the Consul' in making her the sister not of Flavius but of Arrecinus Clemens. If the historicity of the statement of the Acts of Nereus and Achilles about Plautilla be accepted, it should be accepted as a whole. Now stress is laid on the fact that the Plautilla of these Acts died in the same year as St. Peter suffered martyrdom. The words are explicit: eodem anno dominus Petrus apostolus ad coronam martyrii properavit ad Christum et Plautilla corpus terrenum deseruit.' Plautilla therefore could not well be the sister of Flavius Clemens, the younger of the two sons of Flavius Sabinus, as these sons are described as children at the time of their father's murder in December 69 A.D. The hypothesis that she was the daughter of M. Arrecinus Tertullus Clemens the Praetorian Prefect of 41 A.D., and therefore sister of M. Arrecinus Clemens the Consul of 73 A.D. and 94 A.D., and that she was the wife and not the daughter of her cousin Flavius Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, and that, through her, T. Flavius Clemens, her son, Consul in 95 A.D., obtained his cognomen, has about it impress of verisimilitude.
(5) Arrecina Tertulla.--The first wife of the Emperor Titus. She died quite young. See CIL.' vi. 12355, 12357.
(6) Clement the Bishop.--In the Clementine Homilies' and Clementine Recognitions,' which are in reality Petrine romances derived from a common original and dating from the beginning of the third century, Clement is represented as a Roman by birth and of the kindred of Caesar. His father is a relative and foster-brother of an emperor, and his mother likewise connected with Caesar's family. The name of the father is Faustus (Homilies'), Faustinianus (Recognitions'), Faustinus (Liber Pontificalis'), of two elder brothers Faustinus and Faustinianus (Homilies'), Faustinus and Faustus (Recognitions'), of the mother Mattidia. Now these names belong to the period of Hadrian and the Antonines. Faustina (died 141 A.D.) was the wife of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and her daughter of the same name (died 175 A.D.) was the wife of his adopted son and successor, Marcus Aurelius. Mattidia was the niece of Trajan, and her daughter Sabina the wife of the Emperor Hadrian. As the romances throughout make Clement to have been the disciple and companion of St. Peter and he is spoken of as being already grown up at the time of the Crucifixion, it will be at once perceived that the compilers of this Clementine literature were, in the use that they made of tradition, absolutely indifferent to chronological considerations. That they gave voice to a genuine tradition both as regards Clement's discipleship to St. Peter and his relationship to the family of the reigning Caesars is rendered in the highest degree probable from the fact that the Clementine story is merely a framework for the Ebionite or Helchasaite version of Peter's travels, preaching and controversies with Simon Magus, which forms the real subject-matter of this literature. [Hort, Clementine Recognitions.'] M. Arrecinus Tertullus Clemens was the kinsman of Vespasian, and as that emperor was brought up not in his paternal home but by his grandmother Tertulla, it is quite possible that they were actually foster-brothers. Tertullus was one of the Flavian cognomina. Q. Flavius Tertullus was consul suffect. in 133 A.D. (CIL.' vi. 858). Plautia was a relative of Plautia Urgulanilla, the second wife of Claudius, her daughter Arrecina Tertulla the wife of Titus.
In the Acts of Nereus and Achilles' Clement the Bishop is addressed as the nephew of Clement the Consul: patris tui fuisse germanum.' In the Clementines he is represented as considerably the youngest of his family. It is for various reasons more probable that he was the younger brother than the nephew of M. Arrecinus Clemens, and such I have assumed him to be.
(7) T. Flavius Petro.--The name of the famous saint, Petronilla, who was buried in the Flavian cemetery of Domitilla, was probably derived from this Flavian cognomen. A crop of legends grew up around her name, as being a daughter of St. Peter. It is possible that she may have been a spiritual daughter of the Apostle, as having been converted and baptized by him.
(8), (9), (10). Titus Flavius Sabinus and his wife, according to Suetonius, left Italy to live among the Helvetii; their son Vespasian was educated by his grandmother Tertulla upon a family estate at Cosa in the Volscian territory. (Suet. Vespasian,' 2, 3.)
(11) T. Flavius Sabinus, the elder son of (9) and (10). After serving the State in thirty-five campaigns with distinction (Tac. Hist.' iii. 75) and having been Governor of Moesia for seven years, Sabinus was appointed in 57 A.D. Prefect of the City. He held this important office for twelve years continuously save for a brief interval in the short reign of Galba. As Prefect of the City he must have taken part (perhaps passively) in the persecution of the Christians in 65 A.D. and been the witness of the courage with which so many martyrs faced torture and a horrible death. Some have supposed that in his latter years he may to a greater or less extent have fallen under the influence of the Christian Faith. His whole career proclaims him to have been during the greater part of his life a man of action. Tacitus speaks of his being invalidus senecta' and describes him at this stage as mitem virum abhorrere a sanguine et caedibus' (Hist.' iii. 65). When the Vitellians stormed the Capitol, Flavium Sabinum inermem neque fugam coeptantem circumsistunt' (Hist.' iii. 73). And again after his murder, in fine vitae alii segnem, multi moderatum et civium sanguinis parcum credidere' (Hist.' iii. 75). All these traits do not prove much in themselves, but the fact that several of his descendants and relatives were undoubtedly Christians lends a certain probability to the supposition that this mildness, sluggishness, and unwillingness to resist arms in hand may have been due to the acceptance of Christian principles. Sabinus apparently did not marry till late in life, possibly not till after he settled at Rome in 57 A.D., as his children were quite young at the time of his murder in December 69 A.D. If Plautilla were his wife, she died four years before her husband, leaving two sons and a daughter, the younger son receiving his grandfather's cognomen Clemens.
(12) The Emperor Vespasian appears to have been in considerable poverty at two periods of his life. His eldest son, Titus (19), was born December 30, 39 A.D.: prope Septizonium sordidis aedibus cubiculo vero perparvo et obscuro.' (Suet. Tit.' 1.) Yet a few years later we find him being educated in the palace with Britannicus. It is suggested that this change may have been partly brought about by the influence on behalf of his kinsman of the Praetorian Prefect Arrecinus Tertullus Clemens. At a later period, before he went as Proconsul to Africa in 61 or 62 A.D., he was in such bad circumstances that he had to mortgage his entire property to his brother in order to raise money. (Tac. Hist.' iii. 73.) His wife (13) and his daughter (22), both named Flavia Domitilla, predeceased him. His younger son Domitian (25) seems when Vespasian was abroad in Africa and Judaea to have lived with his uncle Sabinus and to have been under his care. Titus (19) was, while still a youth, married to his relative Arrecina Tertulla (5). Domitian (25), born October 25, 51 A.D., was twelve years younger than his brother. From the end of December 69 A.D. to the following June as Praetor with full consular power he with Mucianus exercised in the absence of Vespasian in Egypt and Titus in Judaea the imperial authority at Rome.
(15) Flavia Domitilla, spoken of by Eusebius, Chronicon' (Jerome's Lat. vers. ed. Schoene ii. p. 163), thus:--Scribit Bruttius . . . Flaviam Domitillam Flavii Clementis consulis ex sorore neptem in insulam Pontianam relegatam, quia se Christianam esse testata est.' A similar reference derived no doubt from the same source is found in Hist. Eccl.' iii. 18, where the meaning of the word neptem is made clear: Phlauian Dometillan . . . ex adelphes gegonuian Phlauiou Klementos, henos ton tenikade epi Rhomes hupaton. Eusebius states that this took place in the fifteenth year of Domitian, but, as I have pointed out in Lecture VIII, it is almost certain that Eusebius has here misread his authority and that the Consul to whom Flavia Domitilla was niece was Arrecinus Clemens the Consul of 94 A.D., and not Flavius Clemens the Consul of 95 A.D. The family of Flavius Sabinus (11) were children in 70 A.D.; it is scarcely possible therefore that this Flavia Domitilla should have been old enough to occupy such a position of importance as is here assigned to her, and still more so in the Acts of Nereus and Achilles.' In those Acts' she appears as the daughter of Plautilla, sister of Clement the Consul, and is clearly a woman of property with chamberlains of her own. In the Chronicon Paschale' the same passage of Bruttius, about the persecution of the Christians by Domitian, as Eusebius quotes is referred to, but the notice of it appears under the fourteenth year of Domitian, which began in September 94 A.D. The banishment of this Domitilla to the island of Pontia I believe to have taken place at the end of 94 A.D., after Arrecinus Clemens was Consul and before Flavius Clemens entered on his consulship. The fact that Eusebius neither in the Chronicle' nor Ecclesiastical History' makes any mention of the execution of Flavius Clemens or the banishment of his wife seems to me inferential evidence that his authority Bruttius did not here record an event which Eusebius could scarcely have overlooked in one or other of his two historical works. In my Table of the Flavian Family I have made Flavia Domitilla [the virgin] the daughter of FIavius Sabinus (15) and of Plautilla (4), the sister of Arrecinus Clemens (3). I have further suggested in Lecture VIII that after the murder of Sabinus, Plautilla being already dead, the maternal uncle (3) undertook the charge of the orphan children. The two sons as they grew up would in due course be cared for by the Emperor Vespasian, as being the nearest male representatives of his family, his own two sons having no male heirs, the daughter remaining still in the wardship of the maternal uncle who had brought her up. It would be only natural therefore in such circumstances for Bruttius to speak of her as the niece of Arrecinus, rather than as the sister of Flavius.
The sudden condemnation to death of Arrecinus Clemens by Domitian, as recorded by Suetonius (Domit.' 11), may well have been connected with the same causes which led to his niece Domitilla's banishment, i.e. her profession of the Christian faith and her contumacy in refusing to marry at the Emperor's bidding.
(22), (23), (24) Dion Cassius (lxvii. 14) relates that Domitian put to death his cousin Flavius Clemens while consul [Suet., Domit.' 15, says almost before his consulship had ended] and that he sent his wife Flavia Domitilla, also a relative, into exile on the island of Pandateria. Suetonius does not mention the wife's banishment, but remarks that this violent act--i.e. the execution--very much hastened his own destruction' and then tells us of the tyrant's assassination by Stephanus the steward of Domitilla. Philostratus (Apollonius,' viii. 25) in his account says that Stephanus was the freedman of Flavius Clemens' wife. Quintilian, who was the tutor of Flavius Clemens' young sons (of very tender age, Suet. Domit.' 15), makes it clear that their mother was the daughter of Domitian's sister: cum vero mihi Domitianus Augustus sororis suae nepotum delegaverit curam' (Inst. Orat.' Prooem. 2). This sister of Domitian died before her father Vespasian became Emperor in 70 A. D. For epigraphic evidence of the existence of this Flavia Domitilla, wife of Flavius Clemens, see CIL.' vi. 948, 8942 and 16246. The first of these as restored by Mommsen stands:
Flavia Domitilla FILIA.FLAVIAE.DOM.ITILLAE.
Imp. Caes. VespasiANI.NEPTIS.FECIT.GLYCERAE.L.ET.
. ? ? . ? ? . ? ? . ? ? . ? ? . ? ? .
The name of the NEPTIS is given in CIL.' vi. 8942:
FLAVIAE.DOMITIL VESPASIANI.NEPTIS
There were thus four Flavia Domitillas: the wife of Vespasian (13), her daughter (22), her granddaughter (24), and her niece (15).
[504] De Rossi, Bull. di Arch. Crist. 1874, pp. 5 ff., 68 ff., 122 ff. &c. Roma Sotterranea, tom. i. pp. 130 ff. See also Lipsius, Apokryphen Apost. Geschicht. II. i. p. 205.
THE TOMBS OF THE APOSTLES ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL
If thou wilt go to the Vatican or to the Ostian road thou wilt find the trophies of the Apostles who founded this Church.' These words of the Roman presbyter Gaius (identified by Dr. Lightfoot [505] with the well-known Hippolytus bishop of Portus) in his treatise against the heretic Proclus are a positive testimony to the existence at the end of the Second Century of trophies or memoriae--i.e. small oratories--over the graves of the Apostles Peter and Paul. It further indicates in what localities these visible monuments were to be found. Eusebius, to whom we are indebted for the preservation of this piece of valuable evidence, makes the further statement that the names of the Apostles were to be seen in the cemeteries of Rome in his day. [506]
The Liber Pontificalis' contains what appears to be an authentic record of the construction of one of these memoriae. Of bishop Anacletus (Anencletus) it is said Hic memoriam Beati Petri construxit et composuit.' The erection of these monuments may therefore be placed in the early years of Domitian's reign.
The evidence from traditional sources as to the exact position of the spots where the two Apostles were martyred and afterwards buried is very detailed and complete, and, as is usual in topographical references, is accurate, even though the narratives, in which these references occur, are in the main apocryphal fictions of a late date.
The principal authorities in the case of St. Peter are as follows:
Liber Pontificalis': [Petrus] sepultus est via Aurelia in templum Apollinis, iuxta locum ubi crucifixus est, iuxta palatium Neronianum, in Vaticanum, iuxta territorium Triumphale.'
Jerome, De Viris Illustribus': Sepultus est in Vaticano iuxta viam triumphalem totius orbis veneratione celebratur.'
Martyrium Beati Petri Apostoli': Ad locum qui vocatur Naumachiae iuxta obeliscum Neronis in montem.'
Acta Petri': Apud palatium neronianum iuxta obeliscum inter duas metas.'
Liber Pontificalis': [Cornelius] posuit iuxta locum ubi crucifixus est, inter corpora sanctorum episcoporum, in templum Apollinis, in monte aureo, in vaticanum palatii neroniani.'
De locis S.S. Martyrum': Petrus in parte occidentali civitatis iuxta viam Corneliam ad milliarium primum in corpore quiescit.'
From these notices it will be seen that three roads are mentioned--the Via Aurelia (Nova), the Via Triumphalis, and the Via Cornelia. These three roads met at a point close to the Pons Neronianus or Triumphalis. Between the Via Aurelia Nova and the Via Cornelia stood the Circus of Nero, between the Via Cornelia and the Via Triumphalis the Vatican hill. The Circus of Nero was the scene of the Games at which a multitude of Christians perished by horrible tortures in the spring of 65 A.D., and here according to the Acta Petri' suffered St. Peter iuxta obeliscum inter duas metas'--that is on the spina at a point equidistant from the two goals, where the obelisk stood, the same obelisk removed in 1586 to the front of the Basilica. The palatium Neronianum and the Naumachia were appellations given in later days to the remains of the Circus, which was destroyed when Constantine built the first Basilica above St. Peter's tomb. The Mons Aureus (a corruption of Aurelius) was so called from its proximity to the Via Aurelia Nova, later the name was extended to the Janiculum also, the southern part of which is still called Montorio. [507]
Templum Apollinis. Duchesne writes (Lib. Pont.' i. 120): Quant au temple d'Apollon, il y a, clans cette designation, un souvenir du celebre sanctuaire de Cybele, qui s'elevait tout pres du cirque et de la basilique, et qui fut, jusqu'aux dernieres annees du iv^e siecle, le theatre des ceremonies sanglantes du taurobolium et du criobolium . . . Le College des xv. viri sacris faciundis, qui etait charge du culte de cette deesse, etaient aussi directeurs du culte d'Apollon.' In any case there was a building on this spot popularly known as the templum Apollinis, witness the notice in the Liber Pontificalis' of Pope Silvester (314-335 A.D.): eodem tempore Augustus Constantinus fecit basilicam beato Petro apostolo in templum Apollinis.' (Duchesne, Lib. Pont.' i. 176.)
The body of St. Peter then was buried in a small cemetery on the Vatican hill close to the place where he was crucified. Over this tomb Anencletus erected his memoria, and in the immediate vicinity the first twelve bishops of Rome, with the exception of Clement and Alexander, were according to the Liber Pontificalis' laid to rest--in each case the phrase recurs sepultus est iuxta corpus beati Petri in Vaticanum.' In time the entire space available was filled up. Zephyrinus was the first to be buried in 217 A.D. on the Appian Way, and his successor Calixtus created the crypt in the great subterranean cemetery called after his name, where he himself and a number of his successors were interred. The crypt of the Popes was discovered in 1854 by De Rossi, and the inscriptions on the broken coverings of the Sarcophagi of several of the bishops may still be seen. Excavations made near the Great Altar of St. Peter's in the early seventeenth century by Paul V and Urban VIII revealed many interesting facts. A large coffin was found made of great slabs of marble containing a mass of half-charred bones and ashes, pointing to the probability that Peter was interred close by the remains of the martyrs who had perished as living torches at the Neronian Vatican fete. All round the Confessio' in which the Apostle's relics were supposed to rest were placed coffins side by side against the ancient walls, containing bodies swathed in Jewish fashion. On the slabs that covered them were no inscriptions, save in one case where the name Linus could be deciphered. [508] Whether these were the bodies of the earliest bishops of Rome it is impossible to say, but the discovery, taken in conjunction with the statements of the Liber Pontificalis' which topographically are so often correct, makes the supposition credible. The evidence is far from complete, but it is weighty. The historical character of the notices relating to the Vatican interments in the Liber Pontificalis' is borne out by the remarkable omission of Clement and also of Alexander. The legend of Clement's martyrdom in the Chersonese is fictitious. It may be taken as certain that he did not die in Rome. In the Liber Pontificalis' we read concerning Alexander--sepultus est via Numentana, ubi decollatus est, ab urbe Roma non longe, miliario VII.' In the Itinerary or Pilgrim Guide of William of Malmesbury: In septimo miliario eiusdem viae [Nomentanae] s. papa Alexander cum Eventio et Theodulo pausant' (De Rossi, Rom. Sott.' i. 179). [509] Again the later notices as to the burials of Zephyrinus, of Callistus and their successors not on the Vatican but upon the Appian Way have been verified by De Rossi and other modern archaeologists. The statements as to the discoveries made in the excavations of 1615 and 1626 rest on contemporary authorities. Francesco Maria Torrigio, who was with Cardinal Evangelista Pallotta an eye-witness of the exhumations of 1615, has given an account of them in his work Le sacre Grotte vaticane,' 1639, and Giovanni Severano also relates what he had heard in his Memorie sacre delle sette chiese di Roma,' 1629. The master mason Benedetto Drei, who was likewise an eye-witness of the discoveries made in 1615, has left an engraved plan originally intended for Torrigio's book; one copy of this, in the British Museum, is of exceptional interest, for it is covered with autograph MS. notes in the handwriting of Drei himself. [510] In this one can see how the tombs are so arranged round the central shrine that the bodies seem to surround that of St. Peter like bishops assisting at a council.' An account quite as circumstantial and authentic is given by a certain R. Ubaldi, canon of the basilica, of the excavations made in 1626. The MS. containing this narrative lay forgotten in the Vatican Archives until it was discovered by Professor Gregorio Palmieri in recent years and was transcribed and published by Cavalicre Mariano Armellini in his work Le Chiese di Roma,' 1891. An English version may be found in A. S. Barnes, St. Peter in Rome,' pp. 315-338, a work full of interesting material and valuable research.
Let us now turn to the tomb of St. Paul on the Ostian Way. The Apocryphal Acts all declare that St. Paul as became his status as a Roman citizen suffered martyrdom by decapitation--honestiores capite puniantur, and that he was led out to a place known as Aquae Salviae, near the third mile-stone on the Ostian Way. This tradition has not been seriously disputed. In the Greek Acts the addition is made that the Apostle suffered under a pine-tree--eis massan kaloumenen Akkouai Salbias plesi tou dendrou tou strobilou. An extant inscription of Gregory the Great, 604 A.D., records the gift by him of a piece of land at the Aquae Salviae to the basilica of St. Paul--Valde incongruum ac esse durissimum videretur ut illa ei specialiter possessio non serviret in qua palmam sumens martyrii capite est truncatus ut viveret, utile iudicavimus eandem massam quae Aquas Salvias nuncupatur . . . cum Christi Gratia luminaribus deputare.' [511] A memorial chapel was built here in the fifth century, whose remains were discovered in 1867 under the present Church of S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane, and in 1875 in the course of some excavations for a water tank behind this church a number of coins of Nero were found together with several pine-cones fossilised by age.
The body of St. Paul according to tradition was buried by a Christian matron of the name of Lucina in a plot of ground, which was her property, about a mile nearer to Rome. It was not a subterranean cemetery but one on the surface, and the piece of land was confined, being hemmed in between the Ostian Road and another road, which has since disappeared, known as the Via Valentiniana. [512] This spot in the time of the presbyter Gaius, about 200 A.D., was marked like that of St. Peter on the Vatican by a memorial oratory (trophy) probably erected by Anencletus at the same time as the Petrine memoria already referred to.
That the bodies of the Apostles did not continuously remain undisturbed in their first resting places is one of those traditions which can be supported by a body of evidence, leaving indeed some points doubtful and obscure, but as regards the main fact almost conclusive. In that Kalendar of the Church known as the Feriale Philocalianum' (about 354 A.D.) under the heading Depositio Martyrum' occurs the following entry:
III. Kal. Iul. Petri in Catacumbas et Pauli Ostense--Tusco et Basso cons.'
The names of the Consuls fix the date as 258 A.D. and show that this entry is taken from some official source. It is clearly unintelligible as it stands. De Rossi however discovered at Berne a Codex of the Martirologium Hieronymianum' which exhibits the same entry in a fuller form:
III. Kal. Iul. Romae natale apostolorum sanctorum Petri et Pauli--Petri in Vaticano via Aurelia Pauli vero in Via Ostensi, utrumque in Catacumbis, passi sub Nerone, Basso et Tusco consulibus.' [513]
This can only mean that on June 29 the Feast of the Apostles was kept in three places or stations--at the Vatican, on the Ostian Road, and in a place known as the Catacombs in memory of some event which took place in the consulate of Tuscus and Bassus, 258 A.D. The words bassi sub Nerone must be regarded as a parenthesis. The existence of these three stations is proved by a hymn of pseudo-Ambrose for June 29, as these lines show:
Tantae per urbis ambitum
Stipata tendunt agmina;
Trinis celebrator viis
Festum sacrorum Martyrum.
Now it can be proved that these consular dates in the Kalendar signify in other cases a translation of remains, and the conclusion is that a translation of the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul to the Catacombs took place in 258 A.D.
There are many testimonies to the fact that the bodies of the two Apostles did actually rest in the cemetery ad Catacumbas, but the authorities differ as to the period at which the translation took place and also as to the duration of time during which the relics remained in their temporary tomb. The story contained in the Apocryphal Acta Petri et Pauli' speaks of certain unknown people from the East who after the Apostles' martyrdom attempted to carry off the bodies to their own country, but being overtaken by an earthquake the people of Rome took the bodies from them at the third milestone on the Appian Way at the place called ad Catacumbas. Here the remains were deposited for one year and seven months until tombs were built for them on the Vatican and the Ostian Way. Now this story, of which there are several slightly differing versions, is almost certainly based upon a real historical event, the translation which took place in 258. The late writers of the Acta' were utterly indifferent to chronology, and the deposition in the cemetery on the Appian Way when Tuscus and Bassus were consuls was associated with the martyrdoms and relegated with the accompaniment of many confused and legendary details to the time of Nero. All probability is against the story of the Acta.' Even if the Apostles were put to death at the same time, and I have shown that there is a very strong presumption that St. Peter's death preceded that of St. Paul by two years, nothing could be more unlikely than the bringing back of their bodies to be interred in the vicinity of their places of execution when once they had been laid safely to rest in the cemetery on the Appian Way. There were as yet no sacred associations connected with the Vatican Hill and the Ostian Way to move the Roman Christians to act in the manner described in these apocryphal narratives. [514]
The cause of the translation of 258 A.D. is not difficult to divine, for this was the year of the outbreak of the persecution of Valerian. An Edict had been issued against the Christians, forbidding their meetings in the cemeteries. It might well be that fears were aroused lest the sacred tombs of the Apostles should be desecrated, and so the bodies were removed to a place of greater safety. The researches of archaeologists have shown that the cemetery ad Catacumbas must in those days have been admirably adapted for the purpose. It was ancient already, it lay apart from other cemeteries, and it resembled rather a pagan than a Christian place of burial (Duchesne, Lib. Pont.' cvii). It has been in recent years most carefully examined and studied and in the chamber known as the Platonia or Platoma a double tomb may still be seen, said to be that in which the bodies were placed. [515] Here Damasus (366-387 A.D.) built a basilica, which until the eighth century was known as the Basilica of the Apostles, and on the walls of the Chamber he placed an inscription in verse. In the Liber Pontificalis' we read--Hic fecit basilicas duas: una beato Laurentio iuxta theatrum . . . et in Catacumbas ubi iacuerunt corpora sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, in quo loco platomam ipsam, ubi iacuerunt corpora sancta, versibus exornavit.' This poem of Damasus has fortunately been preserved. The text runs thus:
Hic habitare prius sanctos cognoscere debes
Nomina quisque Petri pariter Paulique requiris
Discipulos oriens misit quod sponte fatemur
Sanguinis ob meritum Christum qui per astra secuti
Aetherios petiere sinus regnaque piorum
Roma suos potius meruit defendere cives
Haec Damasus vestras referat nova sidera laudes. [516]
Those words discipulos oriens misit may possibly have given rise to the later apocryphal fictions about the unknown men from the East, who tried to carry off the bodies of the Apostles. Damasus however here clearly means by these words the Apostles themselves, the word discipulos being used instead of Apostolos through the exigencies of the metre. He says in effect that though the East had sent the Apostles, Rome, which had been the scene of their labours and their deaths, had the best claim to retain them.
But even if it be granted that the notices in the Feriale Philocalianum' and the Hieronymian Martyrology' contain an official authentic statement that a translation of the relics to the cemetery ad Catacumbas took place in 258 A.D., as such authorities as the Abbe Duchesne, Monsignor de Waal, Professor Marucchi, and Father A. S. Barnes admit, there are other difficulties to be overcome, and they differ from one another in their interpretation of documentary evidence, and in their views as to whether there were two translations or one only, and as to the duration of the sojourn of the relics in the Platonia. The Apocryphal Acta' say that the bodies were taken to the Catacombs immediately after the martyrdom of the Apostles and were removed to the tombs that had been prepared on the Vatican and on the Ostian Way one year and seven months afterwards. The Itineraries or Pilgrim Guides of the fifth and sixth centuries make the sojourn to be forty years: Et iuxta eandem viam (Appiam) ecclesia est S. Sebastiani martyris, ubi ipse dormit, et ibi aunt sepulchra Apostolorum Petri et Pauli; in quibus xl annos requiescebant (De locis S.S. Martyrum'); Postea pervenies via Appia ad S. Sebastianum martyrem, cuius corpus iacet in inferiori loco, et ibi sunt sepulchra Apostolorum Petri et Pauli in quibus xl annos requiescebant' (Salzburg Notitia'). As Duchesne and Barnes say, the term forty years is here undoubtedly intended as a round number, though the former is inclined, it seems to me, to extend it too widely. [517] The exact number of forty years would bring us to an impossible date, the height of the fiercest persecution which the Christian Church had to endure--that of Diocletian. The period of one year and seven months mentioned in the Apocryphal Acta' has, I have little doubt, some historical basis, which now it is impossible to discover, [518] but that the relics of the Apostles remained in the Platonia at least until the year 284 the Acta' of St. Sebastian testify. According to these Acta ' the Saint was buried in the Catacomb which still bears his name close to the Platonia because he had in a vision expressed the wish that his body might lie near the vestigia of the holy Apostles. [519] There is another difficulty to be surmounted. In the biography of Pope Cornelius, 251-253 A.D., in the Liber Pontificalis' the statement is made that at the request of a certain matron Lucina by name the bodies of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul were taken up by night; and that Lucina first buried the blessed Paul in her own ground (in praedio suo) on the Ostian Road and then that Cornelius placed the body of Peter close to the spot where he was crucified among the bodies of the holy bishops--in templum Apollinis, in Monte Aureo in Vaticanum palatii Neroniani iii Kai. Iul.' Now it is clear that if the bodies of the Apostles were only brought to the cemetery ad Calacumbas in 258 A.D., they cannot have been restored to their former tombs some years earlier. Duchesne, Marucchi, and Barnes are all of opinion that this paragraph in the notice of Cornelius has been somehow misplaced. [520] Further it is stated that after the martyrdom of this Pope this same Lucina gathered together his remains (cuius corpus noctu collegit) and buried it in her own ground (praedio suo) in a crypt close to the Cemetery of Callistus. Apparently therefore Lucina had property, which she converted into a cemetery, both on the Ostian and the Appian Way.
Now Barnes has proposed a solution of this difficulty which is both ingenious and well worthy of consideration. [521] He suggests that in some worn MS. the name Marcellus has been read as Cornelius and that the passage relating to the restoration of the bodies of the Apostles to their original tombs belongs to the biography of Marcellus. The Pontificate of Marcellus is separated from that of his predecessor Marcellinus by an interregnum due to the persecution of Diocletian, and its date was probably 306-309 A.D. In the biography of this Pope there is again mention of a certain matron, Lucina, the widow of a man named Marcus. On the martyrdom of Marcellus she gathered together his remains (cuius corpus collegit) and buried it in the Cemetery of Priscilla. Lucina, it is said, gave all her property to the Church, and a comparison of the various documents seems to point to that portion of the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria Nova, where Marcellus and his successors were buried, having been the property of this Lucina. By the time of the accession of Marcellus the bodies of the Apostles had been in the Platonia nearly 50 years. The abdication of Diocletian in 305 A.D. led to peace [522] being restored to the Christian Church in Rome by the advent of Maxentius to power. This then would be a very fitting time for a new pope to prepare the removal of the Apostolic relics from the catacomb to their original tombs. There is extant an inscription of Damasus [523] which tells us that the severity of Marcellus to those who had lapsed in the persecution stirred up violent strife and discord leading to sedition and the shedding of blood.
Veridicus rector, lapsos quia crimina fiere
Praedixit, miseris fuit omnibus hostis amarus;
Hinc furor, hinc odium sequitur, discordia, lites,
Seditio, caedes; solvuntur foedera pacis.
Crimea ob alterius, Christum qui in pace negavit,
Finibus expulsus patriae est feritate tyranni.
Haec breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre
Marcelli ut populus meritum cognoscere posset.
This inscription contains no reference to Marcellus having brought back the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul to the Vatican and the Ostian Way, but the brevity of the poetical encomium of Damasus, as he himself states, made him confine himself to praising those actions of the bishop which were the cause of the suffering and exile that befell him. [524] I would suggest, however, that in these discords and tumults, to which the inscription refers, may be found perhaps an explanation of the delay of one year and seven months in the entombment of the Apostles of which the Apocryphal Acta' (Passio Petri el Pauli) speak. The strange passage, which tells of ho
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George Edmundson was an Anglican clerical scholar. Edmundson graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1870, was ordained in 1872; and served as vicar of Northolt, Middlesex.
His work, The Church of Rome in the First Century: the Bampton Lectures for 1913 was published in 1913. The late J. A. T. Robinson praised the book and remarked in his Redating the New Testament (1977) that the book was largely ignored when it was published, perhaps because the author was not a professional New Testament scholar and his conclusions differed from almost all the "assured results" of the "higher criticism" of the day.