And when the chief priests reproached the guards and urgently demanded from them the holy body, the soldiers said to them: Give back Joseph to us, and we will give back Christ; but as we truly recognize, neither can you now give back the benefactor of God, nor we the Son of God. Then, those men being confounded, the soldiers were freed under this excuse. XXI. It is reported that the apostle James, when he had seen the Lord already dead on the cross, swore with an oath that he would never eat bread unless he should see the Lord rising again. At length on the third day the Lord, returning with triumph after despoiling hell, showing Himself to James, said: Rise, James, eat, for I have now risen from the dead.
This is James the Just, whom they call the brother of the Lord, for the reason that he was Joseph's son begotten of another wife. XXII. We believe that the Lord's resurrection took place on the first day, not the seventh, as many suppose. This is the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we properly call the Lord's Day (Dominica) on account of His holy resurrection. This day first saw the light in the beginning, and this day first deserved to behold the Lord rising from the sepulchre. From the captivity of Jerusalem and the desolation of the Temple down to the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ — that is, down to the seventeenth year of Tiberius — there are reckoned 668 years. XXIII.
But the Lord, rising again, for forty days disputing with the disciples concerning the kingdom of God, while they beheld Him, was taken up in a cloud and carried up into the heavens, and sits in glory at the right hand of the Father. Pilate, however, sends the Acts to Tiberius Caesar, and informs him both of the miracles of Christ and of His passion and resurrection. Which Acts are kept written among us to this day. But Tiberius reported this to the senate: which the senate rejected with anger, for the reason that it had not first come to it. Hence indeed the first seeds of hatred against the Christians sprouted forth.
But Pilate, not remaining unpunished, for the crime of his malice — that is, for the death which he inflicted on our Lord Jesus Christ — killed himself with his own hands; whom many suppose to have been a Manichaean, according to that which is read in the Gospel: There came certain men from the Galileans, announcing to Him, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices (Luke XIII, 1). So also King Herod, while he raged against the apostles of the Lord, was struck by divine power on account of such great crimes, and, swelling up and teeming with worms, taking a knife to lance the sore, aimed the blow of his own hand against himself. XXIV.
The blessed apostle Peter, under the emperor Claudius, the fourth from Augustus, came to Rome, and there, preaching, by many miracles most manifestly proved Christ to be the Son of God. For from those days the Christians began to exist in the city of Rome. But as the name of Christ was being spread more and more among the peoples, there arose against this the envy of the ancient serpent, and a savage malignity flung itself into the whole inmost being of the emperor. For that Nero, dissolute, vain and proud, a passive partner of men and again a pursuer of men, the most filthy violator of his mother, his sisters and any of his nearest women, to complete the mass of his malice, was the first to stir up persecution against the worship of Christ among the believers.
For he had with him Simon Magus, a man of all malice and a master of every magical art. When this man had been struck down through the Lord's apostles Peter and Paul, Nero, being incensed against them because they preached Christ to be the Son, and scorned to adore the idols, ordered Peter to be slain by the cross and Paul by the sword. He himself too, attempting to flee the sedition stirred up against him, killed himself by his own hand at the fourth milestone from the city. Then James the brother of the Lord and Mark the evangelist were also crowned with glorious martyrdom for the name of Christ. Yet first of all, Stephen, a Levite and martyr, entered this way. After the slaying of the apostle James, a great calamity overtook the Jews.
For at the coming of Vespasian, both the Temple was burned and six hundred thousand Jews were destroyed there by war, by sword and by famine. But Domitian, the second after Nero, raged against the Christians; he banished the apostle John into exile on the island of Patmos, and stirred up diverse cruelties against the peoples. After his death, the blessed John, apostle and evangelist, returned from exile: who, an old man and full of days, of a life perfected toward God, laid himself living in the sepulchre. He is reported not to taste death until the Lord comes again to judge, He Himself saying thus in the Gospels: So I will that he remain until I come (John XXI, 22). XXV. The third after Nero, Trajan, moved persecution against the Christians:
under whom the blessed Clement, the third bishop of the Roman Church, suffered; and Saint Symeon, bishop of Jerusalem, son of Cleophas, is asserted to have been crucified for the name of Christ; and Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, led to Rome, was assigned to the beasts. These things were done in the times of Trajan. XXVI. After him Aelius Hadrianus was created emperor. Whence also Jerusalem is called Aelia, after Aelius Hadrianus, the successor of Domitian, because he restored it. But after these passions of the saints, it was not enough for the adverse party to have stirred up the unbelieving nations against the Christians, unless it should also stir up schisms among the Christians themselves. It rouses heresies, and the divided catholic faith is expounded in one way and another.
For under the rule of Antoninus the insane Marcionite and Valentinian heresy arose: and Justin the Philosopher, after the books he wrote on behalf of the catholic Church, was crowned with martyrdom for the name of Christ. But in Asia, persecution having broken out, the most blessed Polycarp, disciple of John the apostle and evangelist, in the eightieth year of his age, like a most pure holocaust, was consecrated to the Lord through fire. And in Gaul too many were crowned by martyrdom with jewels more heavenly for the name of Christ: the histories of whose passions are faithfully kept among us to this day. XXVII.
Among whom was also that first bishop of the Church of Lyons, Pothinus, who, full of days and afflicted with diverse torments, suffered for the name of Christ. But the most blessed Irenaeus, the successor of this martyr, who had been sent to this city by the blessed Polycarp, shone with admirable virtue: who in the space of a short time, by his preaching, rendered the city for the most part wholly Christian. But when persecution came, the devil waged there through a tyrant such wars, and so great a multitude of Christians was slaughtered there for the confession of the Lord's name, that rivers of Christian blood ran through the streets: of whom we could gather neither the number nor the names.
For the Lord has inscribed them in the book of life. The executioner, having afflicted the blessed Irenaeus with diverse punishments in his presence, consecrated him through martyrdom to Christ the Lord. After him forty-eight martyrs also suffered, among whom we read that the first was Vettius Epagathus. XXVIII. But under the emperor Decius many wars arose against the Christian name, and so great was the slaughter of the believers that they cannot be numbered. Babylas, bishop of Antioch, with three little ones — that is, Urbanus, Prilidanus and Epolonus; and Sixtus, bishop of the Roman Church, and Laurence the archdeacon, and Hippolytus, were consummated through martyrdom for the confession of the Lord's name.
Valentinian and Novatian, then the greatest leaders of the heretics, at the instigation of the enemy raged against our faith. In his time seven men, ordained bishops, were sent to preach in Gaul, as the history of the passion of the holy martyr Saturninus recounts. For it says: Under Decius and Gratus as consuls, as is held by faithful remembrance, the city of Toulouse first and foremost began to have the holy Saturninus as its bishop. These therefore were sent: to the people of Tours, Gatianus the bishop; to the Arelatenses (of Arles), Trophimus the bishop; to Narbonne, Paulus the bishop; to Toulouse, Saturninus the bishop; to the Parisians, Dionysius the bishop; to the Arverni (of Clermont), Stremonius the bishop; to the Lemovices (of Limoges), Martial was appointed bishop.
Of these, the blessed Dionysius, bishop of the Parisians, having been afflicted with diverse punishments for the name of Christ, ended his present life with the sword hanging over him; but Saturninus, already secure of his martyrdom, says to his two presbyters: Behold, I am now offered up, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I beg that, until I fulfil my appointed end, I be by no means forsaken by you. And when, having been seized, he was being led to the Capitol, abandoned by these men he is dragged off alone. Therefore, when he perceived himself forsaken by them, he is reported to have prayed: Lord Jesus Christ, hear me from Thy holy heaven, that this Church may never deserve to have a bishop from among these citizens forever. Which we have known to have so come to pass in that very city up to now.
But this man, bound to the tracks of a raging bull and hurled down from the Capitol, ended his life. But Gatianus, Trophimus, Stremonius, Paulus, and Martial, living in the highest sanctity, after the peoples of the Church had been acquired and the faith of Christ spread abroad in all things, departed in a happy confession. And thus both these by martyrdom and those by confession, leaving the earth, were alike joined together in the heavens. XXIX. But of the disciples of these, a certain one, approaching the city of Bourges, announced to the peoples the Salvation of all, Christ the Lord. Of these, then, very few believing, ordained as clergy, take up the rite of chanting psalms:
and they are instructed how to build a church, or how they ought to celebrate the solemnities to almighty God. But since they still had little means of building, they ask for the house of a certain citizen, of which they might make a church. But the senators and the rest of the better people of the place were then bound to fanatical cults; those who had believed were from among the poor, according to that saying of the Lord which He casts in the Jews' teeth, saying: That the harlots and the publicans shall go before you into the kingdom of God (Matthew XXI, 31). But these, not having obtained the house from him from whom they had asked it, found a certain Leocadius, the first senator of Gaul, who was of the lineage of Vettius Epagathus, whom we have mentioned above as having suffered at Lyons for the name of Christ.
To him, when they had made known their petition and likewise their faith, he replied: If my house, which I have in the city of Bourges, were worthy of this work, I would not refuse to grant it. But they, hearing this, prostrate at his feet, offering three hundred gold pieces with a silver dish, declare it to be worthy of this ministry. Then he, having received three gold pieces of these as a blessing, graciously remitting the rest, while he was still entangled in the error of idolatry, having been made a Christian, made his house a church. This is now the first church in the city of Bourges, composed with marvellous workmanship, and made illustrious by the relics of the first martyr Stephen. XXX.
In the twenty-seventh place, Valerian and Gallienus obtained the Roman empire, who stirred up a grievous persecution against the Christians in their time. Then Cornelius made Rome, and Cyprian made Carthage illustrious with their happy blood. In their time also that Chrocus, king of the Alamanni, with his army set in motion, ranged through the Gauls. This Chrocus, moreover, is reported to have been of great arrogance: who, when he had done not a few things wickedly, by the counsel — as they say — of his wicked mother, having gathered, as we said, the people of the Alamanni, ranged through all the Gauls, and overthrew from their foundations all the buildings which had of old been constructed.
But coming to Clermont, he burned, demolished and overthrew that shrine which in the Gallic tongue they call Vasso Galatae. For it had been made and strengthened with marvellous workmanship, its wall being double. For within it was built of small stone; but on the outside of squared, carved blocks. For that wall had a thickness of thirty feet. On the inside it was varied with marble and mosaic. The pavement of the building too was laid with marble, and above it was roofed with lead. XXXI. Near this city rest the martyrs Liminius and Antolianus. There Cassius and Victorinus, joined in the love of Christ by brotherly affection, through the shedding of their own blood, alike obtained the kingdoms of the heavens.
For antiquity relates that Victorinus had been the slave of the priest of the aforesaid temple. Who, when he repeatedly went to the village which they call the Christians' village to persecute the Christians, found Cassius a Christian: moved by his preaching and miracles, he believes in Christ, and, having left the filth of fanaticism and been consecrated by baptism, shone great in the working of virtues. And not long after, through martyrdom, as we have said, joined together on earth, they migrated alike to the heavenly kingdoms. XXXII. But when the Alamanni rushed into the Gauls, Saint Privatus, bishop of the city of Javols, is found in the crypt of Mount Mende, where he was free for fastings and prayers, the people of the fort of Grèze being shut up in its fortification.
But when the good shepherd would not consent to hand over his sheep to the wolves, he is compelled to sacrifice to demons. Detesting and refusing this defilement, he is beaten with cudgels for so long that he was thought to be lifeless. But from that very battering, after a few days had passed, he breathed out his spirit. But Chrocus, seized in the city of Arles in Gaul, afflicted with diverse punishments, beaten with the sword, perished, not undeservedly paying the penalties which he had inflicted on the saints of God. XXXIII. Under Diocletian, who ruled the Roman empire in the thirty-third place, a grievous persecution was stirred up against the Christians for four years:
so that on one occasion, on the very most sacred day of Easter, great numbers of the Christian people were slain on account of the worship of the true God. At that time Quirinus, priest of the Church of Siscia, bore glorious martyrdom for the name of Christ; whom, a millstone tied to his neck, the savagery of the pagans drove into the depth of a river. Therefore, when he had fallen into the depth, for a long time he was borne upon the waters by divine power; nor did the waters swallow him whom the weight of crime did not press down. Admiring this deed, the multitude of the people standing around, despising the fury of the heathen, hasten to free the priest. Perceiving this, he did not allow himself to be withdrawn from martyrdom, but, with his eyes raised to heaven, said:
Lord Jesus, who, glorious, sittest at the right hand of the Father, suffer me not to be removed from this contest; but, receiving my soul, deign to join me to Thy martyrs in everlasting rest. These words having been spoken, he gave up his spirit. His body, received by the Christians, was reverently committed to burial. XXXIV. The thirty-fourth of the Romans, Constantine, obtained the empire, reigning happily for thirty years. In the eleventh year of his rule, when after the departure of Diocletian peace had been restored to the Churches, the most blessed prelate Martin was born at Sabaria, a city of Pannonia, of heathen parents, yet not of the lowest sort.
This Constantine, in the twentieth year of his rule, killed his son Crispus with poison and his wife Fausta in a hot bath, namely because they had been willing to be betrayers of his kingdom. In his time the venerable wood of the Lord's cross was found through the zeal of his mother Helena, with Judas the Hebrew disclosing it, who after baptism was named Quiriacus. Up to this time the historiographer Eusebius writes in his Chronicle. For from the twenty-first year of his rule, Jerome the presbyter added to it, indicating that Juvencus the presbyter wrote the Gospels in verse, at the request of the aforesaid emperor. XXXV.
But under the rule of Constans, there was James of Nisibis, to whose prayers the ears of the divine clemency inclined, and they repelled many dangers from his city. And Maximinus, bishop of Trier, is found mighty in all sanctity. In the nineteenth year of Constantius the younger, Antony the monk passed away, in the one hundred and fifth year of his age. The most blessed Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, was assigned to exile at the urging of the heretics: and there, writing books on behalf of the catholic faith, he sent them to Constantius, who in the fourth year of his exile, ordering him to be released, permitted him to return to his own home. XXXVI. Then now too our light arises, and Gaul is illuminated with the new rays of lamps;
that is, at that time the most blessed Martin began to preach in the Gauls, who, declaring Christ the Son of God to be true God among the peoples through many miracles, turned away the unbelief of the heathen. For he destroyed temples, suppressed heresy, built churches, and, while he shone with many other virtues, to crown the title of his praise, restored three dead men to life. In the fourth year of Valentinian and Valens, Saint Hilary at Poitiers, full of sanctity and faith, with many virtues displayed on every side, migrated to the heavens. For he too is read to have raised the dead.
But Melania, a noblewoman and inhabitant of the city of Rome, departed to Jerusalem out of devotion, leaving her son Urbanus behind at Rome. She so showed herself to all in every goodness and sanctity that she was called Thecla by the inhabitants. XXXVII. But after the death of Valentinian, Valens, successor to the entire empire, orders the monks to be forced into military service, and commands that those unwilling be beaten with cudgels. After this, the Romans waged a most savage war in Thrace: in which there was so great a slaughter that the Romans, having lost the protection of their cavalry, fled on foot. And when they were being cut down by the Goths with the utmost destruction, and Valens fled, wounded by an arrow, having entered a small hut, with the enemy pressing on, his cabin set on fire over him, he was deprived of the burial he desired.
And thus the divine vengeance, on account of the blood of the saints that was shed, at length went forth, having been sent. Thus far Jerome: but from this time on, Orosius the presbyter wrote further. XXXVIII. Therefore, when the emperor Gratian saw that the commonwealth was destitute, he makes Theodosius his colleague in the empire. This Theodosius places all his hope and confidence in the mercy of God. Who restrained many nations not so much by the sword as by vigils and prayer, strengthened the commonwealth, and as victor entered the city of Constantinople. But Maximus, when through tyranny, the Britons being oppressed, he had taken the victory, was created emperor by the soldiers.
Establishing his seat in the city of Trier, he killed the emperor Gratian, ensnared by treachery. To this Maximus the blessed Martin, now a bishop, came. In Gratian's place, therefore, that Theodosius who had placed all his hope in God took up the whole empire. Who thereafter, relying on divine inspirations, killed Maximus, stripped of his rule. XXXIX. But among the Arverni (of Clermont), after Stremonius the bishop and preacher, the first bishop was Urbicus, converted from among the senators, having a wife, who, according to ecclesiastical custom, lived religiously, removed from the company of the priest. For both of them were free for prayer, almsgivings, and good works.
And while they did these things, the envy of the enemy, who is always the rival of sanctity, is stirred up against the woman: inflaming her into desire for her husband, he makes her a new Eve. For the woman, kindled by lust, covered with the darkness of sin, makes her way to the house of the church through the darkness of night. And when she had found everything locked, she began to beat upon the doors of the church house, and to utter words of this kind: How long, O priest, dost thou sleep? How long dost thou not unbar the closed doors? Why dost thou scorn thy spouse? Why with hardened ears dost thou not hear the precepts of Paul? For he wrote: Return to one another, lest Satan tempt you. Behold, I return to thee, nor do I run back to a stranger, but to my own vessel.
As she long declaimed these and similar things, at length the priest's religious resolve grows lukewarm. He orders her to be brought into the bedchamber, and having used her embrace, he orders her to depart. Thereafter, coming to himself too late, and grieving over the crime committed, intending to do penance, he seeks the monastery of his diocese: and there, washing away with groaning and tears the things he had committed, he returned to his own city; who, having fulfilled the course of his life, departed from the world. For from this intercourse a daughter was born, who remained in religion. The priest himself too, with his wife and daughter, was buried in the crypt of Chantoin, beside the public causeway. In whose place Legonius is appointed as bishop. XL.
When he had died, Saint Illidius succeeded him, a man of surpassing holiness and outstanding virtue, who shone forth in such great sanctity that his fame reached even foreign lands. From this it came about that, being summoned, he cured the daughter of the emperor of Trier of an unclean spirit, which we have recorded in that book which we composed concerning his Life. He was, moreover, as fame relates, exceedingly old and full of days, and full of good works, who, having finished the course of this life by a happy consummation, passed over to Christ, and was buried in a crypt in the suburb of that city. He had also an archdeacon, named Justus and just by merit, who likewise completing the course of his life with good works, was joined to the tomb of his master.
Now indeed, after the passing of the blessed confessor Illidius, such great miracles appear at his glorious tomb that they can neither be written down in full nor held in memory. Saint Nepotianus succeeded him. XLI. Therefore among the Arverni Saint Nepotianus was reckoned the fourth bishop. Now legates were being sent from Trier into Spain, among whom a certain Artemius, of admirable wisdom and beauty, and flourishing in the prime of youth, was seized by a fever. While the others went ahead, this man was left behind sick among the Arverni. For at that time he had been bound at Trier by the bond of betrothal. But having been visited by Saint Nepotianus and anointed with holy oil, by the Lord's bestowal he was restored to health.
When he had received from that same holy man the word of preaching, forgetting both his earthly betrothed and his own possessions, he was joined to the holy Church, and having become a cleric he was advanced to such great holiness that he became successor to the blessed Nepotianus in governing the folds of the Lord's flock. XLII. About that same time a certain Injuriosus, of the senators of the Arverni, possessing great wealth, sought in marriage a girl of like rank to himself; and having given the betrothal pledge, he appointed the day of the wedding. Now each was the only child of their father. When the day arrived, the solemnity of the wedding having been celebrated, according to custom they were placed in one bed. But the girl, grievously saddened, turned to the wall and wept most bitterly. He said to her: «Why are you troubled?»
«Tell me, I beg you.» And while she remained silent, the man added: «I beseech you by Jesus Christ the Son of God, that you wisely explain to me what grieves you.» Then she, turning toward him, said: «If I should weep all the days of my life, would my tears be great enough to wash away so immense a sorrow of my breast? For I had resolved to keep my poor body unstained for Christ, untouched by a man; but woe is me, that I have been so abandoned by Him, that I cannot accomplish what I longed for, and what I have preserved from the beginning of my age, I have lost on this latest day, which I ought never to have seen.»
«Behold, abandoned by the immortal Christ, who promised me paradise as my dowry, I have been allotted the partnership of a mortal man, and instead of unfading roses the spoil of withered roses does not adorn but disfigures me. And when I ought to have put on the robe of purity over the fourfold river of the Lamb, this garment has shown itself a burden to me, not an honor. But why do we draw out our words further? Unhappy am I, who ought by lot to have merited the heavens, today am plunged into the abyss. O, if these things were to be mine, why was not the day of my life its own end, which was its beginning! O, if I had entered the gate of death before I received the nourishment of milk! O, if the kisses of my sweet nurses had been spent upon my funeral!»
«For earthly forms make me shudder, since for the life of the world I gaze upon the pierced hands of the Redeemer. Nor do I look upon diadems gleaming with notable jewels, since I marvel in my mind at that crown of thorns. I spurn the spaces of your earth spread far and wide, because I long for the loveliness of paradise. Your sun-terraces make me shudder, since I gaze upon the Lord seated above the stars.» As she cast forth such words with great weeping, the young man, moved by piety, said: «Most noble parents among the Arverni had us as only children, and they wished to join us for the propagation of offspring, lest, when they departed from the world, a foreign heir should succeed.» She replied to him: «The world is nothing, riches are nothing, the pomp of this age is nothing, life itself which we enjoy is nothing:»
«but rather that life is to be sought which is not shut off by the ending of death, which is not dissolved by any decay, nor brought to an end by any setting, where man, remaining in eternal blessedness, lives in light that never sets. And, what is greater than all these things, enjoying the very presence of the Lord by perpetual contemplation, translated into the state of the angels, he rejoices with indissoluble gladness.» To this he said: «By your most sweet words eternal life has shone upon me like a great radiance, and therefore, if you are willing to abstain from carnal desire, may I be made a partaker of your mind.» She replied: «It is difficult for the male sex to grant this to women.»