MARCELLUS, a Roman, of the region called Via Lata, the son of Benedict, was in the chair from the time of Constantius and Galerius to Maxentius; for Diocletian and Maximian, having laid down their authority, Constantius and Galerius undertook the government and divided the provinces between them. Illyricum, Asia, and the East fell to the share of Galerius; but Constantius, being a person of very moderate desires, was contented with only Gallia and Spain, though Italy also was his by lot. Hereupon Galerius created two Caesars, Maximinus, whom he made governor of the East, and Severus, to whom he intrusted Italy, he himself holding Illyricum, as apprehending that the most formidable enemies of the Roman State would attempt their passage that way. Constantius, a man of singular meekness and clemency, soon gained the universal love of the Gauls, and the rather for that now they had escaped the danger they had been in before from the craft of Diocletian, and the cruelty of Maximian. But in the thirteenth year of his reign, he died at York in England, and by general consent of all men was placed in the number of the gods.

Marcellus being intent upon the affairs of the Church, and having persuaded Priscilla, a Roman matron, to build at her own charge a cemetery in the Via Salaria, constituted twentyfive titles or parishes in the city of Rome for the more advantageous and convenient administration of baptism to those Gentiles who daily in great numbers were converted to the faith, having a regard likewise to the better provision which was thereby made for the sepultures of the martyrs. But Maxentius, understanding that Lucina, a Roman lady, had made the Church her heir, was so incensed thereat, that he banished her for a time, and, seizing Marcellus, endeavoured by menaces to prevail with him to lay aside his Episcopal dignity and renounce Christianity; but finding his commands despised and slighted by the good man, he ordered him to be confined to a stable, and made to look after the Emperor's camels and horses. Yet this ignominious usage did not so discourage the good bishop, but that he kept constantly to stated times of prayer and fasting, and though he was now disabled in person yet he neglected not by epistle to take due care for the regulating of the churches. But before he had been there nine months, his clergy by night rescued him from this loathsome restraint; whereupon Maxentius, being yet more enraged, secured him the second time, and condemned him to the same filthy drudgery again, the stench and nastiness of which at length occasioned his death. His body was buried by Lucina in the cemetery of Priscilla in the Via Salaria on the sixteenth of January. In time following when Christianity flourished, a church was built upon the ground where this stable stood, and dedicated to St Marcellus, which is to be seen at this day. We read, moreover, that Mauritius, together with his whole legion of Christian soldiers, suffered themselves to be tamely cut off near the river Rhone; to whom may be added Marcus, Sergius, Cosmas, Damianus, with multitudes more who were slain in all places. Marcellus being in the chair two years, six months, twenty-one days, at several Decembrian ordinations made twenty-six presbyters, two deacons, twenty-one bishops; and by his death the see was vacant twenty days.

 

Fleury says: "Pope Marcellus died this year, after having held the Holy See one year and nearly eight months. He had been odious to many, because he was for compelling those who had fallen during the persecution to do penance for their crime, and the disputes on that subject led to sedition and murder". Marcellus only did his duty in proposing that penance, and Fleury, to the language we have just quoted, should have added that the conduct of Marcellus in that matter was conformable to the rules of the Church and to the duty of the pontiff, in order to make those rules respected by all Catholics.

 

SAINT EUSEBIUS

A.D. 310

 

EUSEBIUS, a Grecian, son of a physician, entered upon the pontificate
when Constantius and Maxentius were Emperors.

For Constantius (called Chlorus from his paleness) dying, Constantine, his son by Helena, whom he afterwards divorced to marry the daughter of Maximian, was with universal consent made Emperor of the West. But the Praetorian Guards at Rome in a tumultuary manner declared for Maxentius, son to Maximian, and gave him the title of Augustus. Hereupon Maximian himself, being raised to some hopes of recovering the Empire, left his retirement in Lucania and came to Rome, having by letter endeavoured to persuade Diocletian to do the same. To suppress these tumults, Galerius sent Severus with his army, who besieged the city, but being de serted by the treachery of some of his soldiers who favoured Maxentius pretensions, was forced to fly to Ravenna, and there slain. And Maximian himself did very narrowly escape the revenge of his son Maxentius, who eagerly sought his father's life for endeavouring by promises and bribes to gain the good-will of the soldiers for himself. So Maximian went into Gaul to Constantine, and gave him his daughter Fausta in marriage. But afterwards he laid a design to ensnare and circumvent him too, till his plot being discovered by Fausta, who revealed the whole matter to her husband, he betook himself to flight, but was taken and put to death at Marseilles, thereby suffering the just punishment of his villanies; or, as others tell us, he laid violent hands upon himself.

During the pontificate of Eusebius, on the third of May, the Cross of our Saviour was found, and very much adorned, and had in great veneration by Helena, Constantine's mother; Judas also, who found it, was baptized, and his name being thereupon changed, was afterwards called Cyriacus.

Eusebius admitted heretics to the communion of the Church upon their retractation by the imposition of hands only. More over he ordained that no laics should commence a suit against a bishop. In his time lived Lactantius Firmianus, a scholar of Arnobius, who being a Professor of Rhetoric at Nicomedia, and discontented that he had so few scholars in a city of Greece, he thereupon betook himself to writing, wherein he became so excellent that he gained a reputation next to that of Cicero himself. He wrote many things, but his works that are chiefly extant, are those against the heathens, concerning the creation of man, and the anger of God. In his old age he was tutor to Constantine's son, Caesar Crispus, in Gallia. Eusebius also, bishop of Cesarea in Palestine, a partner with Pamphilus in the diligent search after divine learning, wrote a vast number of books; particularly those "On the preparation of the Gospel"; an Ecclesiastical History; against Porphyry, a violent opposer of the Christians; six apologies for Origen; and three books of the life of Pamphilus the martyr, whose name he added to his own for a surname, as a testimony of the strict friendship there had been between them. But our Eusebius, the bishop of Rome, having at one Decembrian ordination made thirteen presbyters, three deacons, fourteen bishops, died at Rone, and was buried in the cemetery of Calistus, in the Via Appia, October the 2nd. He sat in the chair six months; and by his death the see was vacant one day.

SAINT MELCHIADES

A.D. 311

 

MELCHIADES, an African, was contemporary with Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius a Dacian, who for his being an excellent soldier, was admitted by Galerius to a partnership in the empire.

The Emperor Galerius, according to Eusebius, was sinking under the torments of a frightful dropsy, and ordered the execution of several physicians who were unable to cure him. One of them, seeing himself in peril, said to the tyrant : "You mistake, my lord, if you imagine that man can cure the evil that God has sent to you. Your disease is not human, nor amenable to our remedies. Remember what you have done against the servants of God and against his holy religion, and you will see whither you should resort for relief". Galerius began to understand that he was only man. Conquered by disease and urged by pain, he exclaimed that he would re-establish the temple of God and give satisfaction for his crime, and he ordered an edict to be drawn up in his own name and in the name of Constantine and Licinius. The edict was in the following terms :

"Among the cares that we continually take of the public weal, we desired to restore all things into conformity with the ancient laws of Rome, and therefore to cause the Christians, who had quitted or might quit the religion of their ancestors, to return to it; for they were so preoccupied by certain reasonings that they no longer followed the maxims of their fathers, but according to their own fancy made laws for their own observance, and assembled together the people in various places; and finally, as we made an ordinance for bringing them back to the maxims of the ancients, many of them have been put in peril, and many have actually perished".

When a government takes a retrospect, it deems it right to soften the statement of the evils that it has done. It was not many Christians who had been put in peril, but all of them; and it was not merely many Christians who had perished, but tens of thousands of them : in a few days a whole legion had been butchered. But now Galerius confesses himself vanquished. "And as we see that they for the most part remain in their sentiments, worshipping neither the God to whom worship is due, nor the God of the Christians, we, having respect to our clemency and to our custom to have mercy upon all men, have deemed it our duty to extend that mercy also to the Christians, so that they may be Christians as be fore, and re-establish their places of assembly, provided that they do nothing there contrary to rule. Then, according to the mercy that we bestowed upon them, they will be obliged to pray to their God for our health, for the state, and for themselves, so that the States may be prosperous on all sides, and that they may dwell in peace in their own houses."

This edict was drawn up in Latin, at Sardis, where the emperor then was, and thence distributed into all the principal cities, and translated into Greek for the East. It was published throughout Asia and the adjacent provinces, and especially in Nicomedia, which had witnessed so much cruelty of the executioners and so much intrepidity of the victims. The following passage from Fleury shows the effect produced by this edict which Sabinus the prefect subsequently, by special order, interpreted favorably to the Christians :

"The governors and the magistrates of towns and rural districts, believing, in fact, that such was the emperor's in tention, made it known by writing, and even commenced putting it in force. All the confessors of Christianity who were in prison were set at liberty, and those who were condemned to labor in the mines were recalled. It seemed that the bright light suddenly appeared after a dark night. In all the towns, the churches held their assemblies and made their usual collections. The infidels were surprised at so unexpected a change, and loudly confessed that the God of the Christians was great and the only true God. The Christians who had been faithful in the persecution now regained all their former freedom; those who had fallen eagerly endeavored to obtain the healing of their sick souls, begging those who had remained firm to extend the hand to them, and pray ing God to be propitious to them. The professors who were delivered from labor in the mines returned home and traversed the streets, filled with incredible joy. On the high roads and in the public places, numerous companies of them were seen walking in procession and singing psalms and hymns to God, and thus ending their journey and returning into their houses with joyous countenances. The very infidels rejoiced with them".

Yet Maxentius sent his soldiers about with private instructions to massacre all they could secretly meet with; and taking delight in magic, at the performance of the hellish rites belonging to that black art, he would send for great-bellied women, especially Christians, and rip them up for the sake of their unborn infants, whose ashes he made use of in his sorceries, thereby showing that tyranny might be supported and kept up even by villany.

Maximin also exercised the like rage and cruelty in the East, giving rewards and preferments to the professors and teachers of witchcraft and sorcery; and being himself very much inclined to give credit to auguries and divinations, became the more bitterly incensed against the Christians, because they despised such superstitions. He commanded likewise, that the decayed idolatrous temples should be repaired, and sacrifices offered to the gods in them after the ancient manner.

During these calamities, multitudes of Christians were put to death, and particularly Dorothea, a most virtuous and beautiful virgin, who chose rather to die than to yield to the tyrant's lust. Sophronia also having been oftentimes solicited by Maxentius, like the noble Lucretia, slew herself to avoid the danger her chastity was in from him.

But Constantine reflected that the emperors who during his time had been zealous for idolatry and the plurality of gods had perished miserably; and that his father, Constantius, who throughout his whole life had honored the one true God, had received evident marks of his protection. He therefore resolved to attach himself to that God, and earnestly prayed to know and to be protected by him. The Emperor Constantine was thus praying with the utmost fervency, when, towards noon, as the sun tended westwards, as Constantine marched through the country with his troops, he saw in the sky, above the sun, a luminous cross, and an inscription which said, "In hoc signo vinces"-"By this sign you shall conquer". He was strangely surprised by that vision, and the troops that accompanied him, who saw it, were no less astonished. The emperor long afterwards related that marvel, and with the solemnity of an oath attested that his own eyes had witnessed it.

"During the remainder of the day the emperor was occupied in meditating what might be the meaning of that marvel. At night, as he slept, Christ appeared to him with the same sign that he had seen in the sky, and commanded him to have an image of it made, and to make use of it in battle against his enemies".

Such was the origin of Constantine's standard, the Labarum.

The battle against Maxentius was gained on the 28th of October, A.D. 312, near the Milvian bridge. The antiquary Fea, who had long studied the history of that period, affirms that the Milvian bridge here alluded to is not that which at the present time is still known as the Ponte Molle, but was a wooden bridge farther up, but still on the Tiber.

Satisfied at first with granting liberty of worship to all, Constantine ere long showed himself the venerator and the indefatigable promoter of Christianity, and he bestowed upon the hierarchy of the Church so many favors, privileges, and gifts, that the name of Christian, which among many Romans was still a mere byword of hatred or contempt, became a proud and coveted title.

As for Maximin, he became manifestly the object of Divine vengeance; his bowels and entrails being on a sudden so swollen and putrified, that there appeared no difference between him and a putrid carcase; worms in great abundance breeding in his flesh, and rottenness with intolerable stench overspreading his body. This dreadful punishment had been long called for by his wicked practices; for he had forbidden the Christians to assemble at the sepulchres of the martyrs, and had given out that at Antioch an image had spoke and proclaimed aloud, that the Christians must be banished out of
the cities, when indeed they were certain knavish priests whom himself had suborned, who from their adjoining private recesses had uttered these words; and moreover, he had distributed rewards through the several provinces to the idolpriests who were active against the Christians. But at length the physician plainly telling him the danger of his condition, the tyrant began to relent, and by a public edict forbade all persons to molest or injure the Christians, and suffered them to enjoy their liberty. But this forced repentance stood him in no stead; for having been a long time afflicted with grievous pain and disease, at last died this cruel and inconstant man, who had been sometimes an encourager, some times a persecutor of the Christians.

Unhappily, the Church was wounded by her own hands. The perversities of the Donatists ravaged Africa. We have already described the traditori, or traitors. That name was now reciprocally bestowed by both parties. A council of the bishops of Italy and Gaul was assembled at Rome. It consisted of eighteen bishops, and was opened on the 2d of October, 313, in the palace of the Lateran, and condemned the Numidian bishop, Donatus. The Donatists, besides denying the validity of baptism when administered by heretics, re- jected the infallibility of the Catholic Church, to which they gave insulting names, to prove its easy kindness. In the same council, Cicilian, Bishop of Carthage, who had falsely been declared a traditor, was declared lawful Bishop of Carthage, and the Africans were ordered to consider his previous deposition as not having taken place. Melchiades pronounced the final sentence, which evidenced his justice, prudence, and charity.

This same palace of Saint John of Lateran had been bestowed on the Church. It formerly belonged to Plautius Lateranus, who was despoiled of it by Nero for the benefit of his treasury. To the gift of the palace itself Constantine added a fitting income for the proper maintenance of the dignity of the head of the Church. This statement is affirmed by Sangallo.

Melchiades ordained, that no Christian should keep a fast upon a Sunday or a Thursday, because those days were so observed and kept by the pagans; and the Manichaean heresy being at that time very prevalent in the city of Rome, he made several constitutions concerning oblations. These things being settled, he was by Maximin's order crowned with martyrdom; as were also Peter, bishop of Alexandria; Lucianus, a presbyter of Antioch, a man eminent for piety and learning; Timothy, a presbyter of Rome, and divers others both bishops and priests. Melchiades was buried in the cemetery of Calistus, in the Via Appia, December the 10th. During his pontificate, he did at one ordination make seven presbyters, six deacons, twelve bishops. He sat in the chair four years, seven months, nine days; and by his death the see was vacant seventeen days.

 

The Holy See was vacant one month and twenty days.