PG 10 · cols. 111–113

Monitum in Acta S. Callisti papae et martyris Romae

Editors' preface

PG 10:111

ACTA S. CALLISTI PAPAE MARTYRIS ROMAE.

ACTS OF ST CALLISTUS, POPE [AND] MARTYR AT ROME.

(Acta Sanctorum Bolland., Octobris tom. VI, die 14, p. 401.)

(Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, October, vol. VI, day 14, p. 401.)

MONITUM.

PREFATORY NOTE.

Callistiani martyrii Acta, cum variis vetustisque mss. collata, magnam partem jam pridem edidit, ac Commentario illustravit Henschenius tom. II Maii, ad diem ejusdem mensis decimum, pag. 498 et seqq. quatuor; non quidem integra, sed eatenus tantum, quatenus SS. Calepodii, Palmatii, Simplicii, Felicis, Blandae aliorumque martyrum, de quibus illic agebat, gesta continebant; omissa parte reliqua, qua reliqua S. Callisti gesta et S. Asterii, qui S. Callistum tumulavit, et Privati militis martyrium explicatur.

The Acts of the martyrdom of Callistus, collated with various old manuscripts, Henschenius long ago published in great part and illustrated with a commentary, in volume II of May, at the tenth day of that month, p. 498 and the four following; not indeed whole, but only so far as they contained the deeds of SS. Calepodius, Palmatius, Simplicius, Felix, Blanda and the other martyrs with whom he was there dealing; the remaining part being omitted, in which the remaining deeds of St Callistus, and the martyrdom of St Asterius, who buried St Callistus, and of the soldier Privatus, are set out.

Editors' notes and page, col. 111

Footnotes

(1) ‹anchor: finivit› · call in col 111

Euseb. lib. VI cap. 21.

Eusebius, [Ecclesiastical History,] book VI, chapter 21.

(printed under page 62)

Page

running head: 111 S. CALLIST
marginal letters: A Post Zephyrinum Callistus; B (leg. ad consulatum); C mensis, septimi et decimi.
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: Latin only, no Greek printed; editors' matter: Post Zephyrinum Callistus, De decreto, et epistolis; full-width title at top (NOTITIA...) and full-width title and Monitum at bottom (ACTA S. CA... / MARTYR... / MON... / Callistiani martyrii Acta...) cut off at right edge, not set. Q1: title across cols 111/112 read on the page as NOTITIA ALTERA. (D. COUSTANT, Epistolae Rom. pont., tom. I et unic., p. 114.) — attribution to Coustant confirmed; title still to be set full_width
other: title band printed full width across the top of cols 111-112; editors' matter (Coustant's notice), set as layer 1. The running head reads S. CALLISTI I PAPAE.
other: page shared with PG010/ed_notitia_altera_callisti; this file is a copy of its notes (QA keeps this unit's own)
running head: 111 S. CALLISTI I PAPAE 112
marginal letters: (none)
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: full-width matter of page 62 (title, source line, MONITUM heading and opening paragraph) set here under the col 111 rail; title printed on two lines (ACTA S. CALLISTI PAPAE / MARTYRIS ROMAE.), set once. In the source line the page number's first digit is blurred ("p. •01"); read as 401, UNSURE. Col 113 continues with "Dabimus haec integra".

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Editors' notes and page, col. 112

Page

running head: S. CALLISTI I PAPAE 112
marginal letters: A constituit. Ita enim; B sanctificationem ex lege; C 3. Callisto Isidorus
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: Latin only, no Greek printed; editors' matter: constituit. Ita enim; full-width title at top (...NOTITIA ALTERA.) and full-width title and Monitum at bottom (...S. CALLISTI PAPAE / ...ARTYRIS ROMAE. / MONITUM. / ...variis vetustisque mss.) cut off at left edge, not set
other: page shared with PG010/ed_notitia_altera_callisti; this file is a copy of its notes (QA keeps this unit's own)
running head: 111 S. CALLISTI I PAPAE 112
marginal letters: (none)
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: rail only. The page's full-width matter (title ACTA S. CALLISTI PAPAE MARTYRIS ROMAE, source line, MONITUM heading and opening paragraph) is set under the col 111 rail in c111_a.md.

PG 10:113

Dabimus haec integra ex eodem, quo usus est Henschenius, manuscripto. Credidit Henschenius Acta haec per notarios Romanos fuisse conscripta; secutus, ut opinor, quae in fronte Ms. leguntur, verba, quae sunt hujusmodi : « Gesta praeclara S. Calixti papae et aliorum martyrum conscripta per notarios Romanos; » sed nimium facile : neque enim ea simplicitate, quae primigeniis sincerisque martyrum Actis propria est, sunt praedita, neque naevis carent qui imputari notariis Romanis nequeant : unde nescire se Sollerius ait in Observatione ad laterculum Usuardinum diei decimi mensis Maii, quid movere Henschenium potuerit, ut in eam abiret sententiam.

We shall give these entire from the same manuscript which Henschenius used. Henschenius believed that these Acts had been written down by the Roman notaries, following, as I suppose, the words which are read at the head of the manuscript, which are of this sort: "The illustrious deeds of Pope St Callistus and other martyrs written down by the Roman notaries;" but too easily: for neither are they endowed with that simplicity which is proper to the original and genuine Acts of the martyrs, nor do they lack blemishes which cannot be imputed to the Roman notaries; whence Sollerius says in his Observation on the list of Usuard for the tenth day of the month of May that he does not know what could have moved Henschenius to pass over into that opinion.

At quanquam a notariis Romanis ea Acta conscripta non fuerint, magnae tamen sunt antiquitatis, ut quae Bedae, Adoni, Rabano, qui ipsismet eorum non raro verbis utuntur, praeluxere, uti facile fatebitur is, qui eorum textus, quibus de Sanctis Martyribus in Actis S. Callisti memoratis agunt, consuluerit, cum Actisque contulerit : nec enim dici potest, non ex Actis Martyrologorum Annuntiationes, sed ex his Acta fuisse conflata; quod vel ex Bedae verbis, Callistiana Acta citantis, refellitur. Posteaquam enim ad diem X Maii haec de SS. Calepodio, Palmatio et Simplicio scripsit : « Romae Natale Calepodii senis presbyteri, sub Alexandro imperatore, qui eum fecit occidi a Laodicio, et corpus trahi per civitatem atque in Tiberim jactari die Kalendarum Maiarum. Quod inventum piscatores levaverunt, et narraverunt Calixto episcopo. At ille acceptum condidit cum aromatibus et linteaminibus, et sepelivit eum in coemeterio ejusdem via Aurelia, milliario ab Urbe tertio VI Idus Maii. Tunc decollatus est ab Alexandro Palmatius consul cum uxore et filiis et aliis quadraginta duobus (cum quibus et Simplicius senator) qui per doctrinam Calixti papae et Calepodii presbyteri nuper fuerant baptizati : » mox addit : « Scriptum in Passione S. Calixti papae. » Et vero, quam haec Bedae cum Actis verba conformia sint, vide : de Calepodio quidem num. 8 leges : « Quem fecit (Alexander) occidi gladio et corpus trahi per civitatem sub die Kalendarum Maii : cujus corpus jactari fecit in Tiberim . . . Quod inventum levantes (piscatores) de flumine, renuntiaverunt B. Calixto episcopo . . . quod corpus sanctum acceptum condivit cum aromatibus et linteaminibus et cum hymnis, et sepelivit eum in coemeterio ejusdem, sexto Idus Maii. » De Palmatio vero num. 5 : « Baptizavit (Callistus) autem et omnem domum Palmatii et uxorem et filios promiscui sexus quadraginta duos. » Rursum ad diem XIV Octobris de S. pontifice Beda : « Natale S. Calixti papae : qui in persecutione Alexandri imperatoris diutius fame cruciatus et quotidie fustibus caesus, per visionem a presbytero suo Calepodio, qui antea martyrium consummaverat, confortatus et consolatus est : qui in carcere eodem positus quemdam militem, nomine Privatum, ab ulcerum dolore ac foeditate simul et infidelitate curavit. Quod audiens Alexander, ipsum quidem militem fecit plumbatis deficere : beatum vero Calistum per fenestram domus praecipitari; et ligato ad collum ejus saxo in puteum demergi, et in eum (sic) per rudera cumulari. Post dies vero septemdecim presbyter ejus Asterius, cum clericis noctu veniens, levavit corpus et sepelivit in coemeterio Calepodii pridie Idus Octobris. » Legesis num. 8 et 9 Actorum, eadem fere verba reperies : idem experiere, si Adonis verba cum Actorum verbis conferre volueris. Unde efficitur, Acta S. Callisti saeculo octavo, quo Beda floruit, esse, et multo quidem fortasse, antiquiora.

Yet although those Acts were not written down by the Roman notaries, nevertheless they are of great antiquity, inasmuch as they shone beforehand for Bede, Ado, and Rabanus, who not seldom use their very words, as anyone will easily confess who consults their texts in which they treat of the Holy Martyrs mentioned in the Acts of St Callistus, and compares them with the Acts: for neither can it be said that the notices of the Martyrologies were not drawn from the Acts, but the Acts compiled from them; which is refuted even by the words of Bede citing the Callistian Acts. For after he has written at the tenth day of May these things concerning Saints Calepodius, Palmatius, and Simplicius: "At Rome, the birthday of Calepodius the aged presbyter, under the Emperor Alexander, who caused him to be slain by Laodicius, and his body to be dragged through the city and cast into the Tiber on the day of the Kalends of May. Which, when found, fishermen lifted up, and told Bishop Callistus. And he, having received it, embalmed it with spices and linen cloths, and buried him in the cemetery of the same on the Aurelian Way, at the third milestone from the City, on the sixth day before the Ides of May. Then Palmatius the consul was beheaded by Alexander with his wife and children and forty-two others (among whom was also Simplicius the senator) who had lately been baptized through the teaching of Pope Callistus and Calepodius the presbyter:" he presently adds: "Written in the Passion of Pope St Callistus." And indeed, see how conformable these words of Bede are with the Acts: concerning Calepodius, in fact, at no. 8 you will read: "Whom he (Alexander) caused to be slain with the sword and his body to be dragged through the city on the day of the Kalends of May: whose body he caused to be cast into the Tiber ... Which, when found, they (the fishermen), lifting up from the river, reported to the blessed Bishop Callistus ... which holy body, having received, he embalmed with spices and linen cloths and with hymns, and buried him in the cemetery of the same, on the sixth day before the Ides of May." And concerning Palmatius at no. 5: "Moreover he (Callistus) baptized also all the household of Palmatius, and his wife and children, forty-two persons of both sexes." Again, at the fourteenth day of October, Bede writes concerning the holy pontiff: "The birthday of Pope St Callistus: who in the persecution of the Emperor Alexander, having been long tortured with hunger and daily beaten with clubs, was strengthened and consoled through a vision by his presbyter Calepodius, who had previously consummated his martyrdom: who, placed in the same prison, cured a certain soldier named Privatus of the pain and foulness of ulcers and at the same time of unbelief. Hearing which, Alexander caused the soldier indeed to die under lead-weighted whips, and the blessed Callistus to be cast headlong through the window of the house, and, a stone having been bound to his neck, to be plunged into a well, and rubble to be heaped upon him (sic). And after seventeen days his presbyter Asterius, coming by night with clerics, lifted up the body and buried it in the cemetery of Calepodius on the day before the Ides of October." Read nos. 8 and 9 of the Acts, and you will find almost the same words; you will experience the same if you wish to compare the words of Ado with the words of the Acts. Whence it follows that the Acts of St Callistus are older, and perhaps much older, than the eighth century, in which Bede flourished.

Cum enim Beda his Acta antiquiora non repererit, nec vero simile fiat tum recens, cum Martyrologium suum Beda confecit, fuisse exarata, est sane cur jam Bedae aevo vetusta fuisse, non inficiemur; quanquam obscurum incertumque admodum sit, quo primum saeculo nata sint. Petrus Morettus ecclesiae S. Mariae trans Tiberim Canonicus, tom. I de S. Callisto papa et martyre ejusque basilica, anno 1752 typis Romanis edito, Disquisitione 1, cap. 9, multa erudite congessit, quibus probare contendit, scripta esse (vide citatum cap. num. 67, pag. 212) « cum nondum excidisset memoria gestorum, quippe quae (S. Callisti Passio, et quidem qualis hodie legitur), ad usum fuerit Romanae Ecclesiae primis post concessam Christianae religioni tranquillitatem saeculis. « Ac proinde, » Maxima hinc, inquit, scriptionis antiquitas nec minor propterea auctoritas. »

For since Bede did not find Acts older than these, nor is it likely that they had been newly composed at the time when Bede compiled his Martyrology, there is certainly reason why we should not deny that they were already ancient in Bede's age, although it is altogether obscure and uncertain in what century they first arose. Petrus Morettus, Canon of the church of St Mary across the Tiber, in vol. I on Pope and Martyr St Callistus and his basilica, published in Roman type in the year 1752, Disquisition 1, chap. 9, learnedly collected many arguments by which he strives to prove that they were written (see the cited chapter, no. 67, p. 212) "when the memory of the events had not yet faded, inasmuch as it (the Passion of St Callistus, and indeed such as it is read today) was in use by the Roman Church in the first centuries after peace was granted to the Christian religion." "And accordingly," says he, "greatest hence is the antiquity of the writing, and no less on that account its authority."

ACTA MARTYRII.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM.

Editors' notes and page, col. 113

Footnotes

(1) ‹anchor: Macrini et Alexandri› · call in col 113

« Haec, inquit Henschenius, infra non raro citandus, tom. II Maii pag. 501 in Adnotatis ad Passionem S. Calepodii et Soc. MM., claritatis causa ita legenda forent: « A temporibus Macrini usque ad tempora Alexandri haec gesta sunt. » Successit Antonio Caracallae mense Aprili occiso Macrinus anno 217: Macrino Heliogabalus extinctus anno 222 die VI Martii ex Pagii calculo; secundum Henschenium, X. Zephyrinus papa obiit anno 217, die XXVI Julii; successit Zephyrino Callistus die probabilius secunda Augusti, martyrio coronatus die XII Octobris, anno Alexandri primo.

"For clarity's sake," says Henschenius (who will often be cited below), in volume II of May, page 501, in the Notes on the Passion of St Calepodius and his fellow martyrs, "these words should be read thus: 'These things were done from the times of Macrinus to the times of Alexander.'" Macrinus succeeded Antoninus [printed "Antonio"] Caracalla, who was killed in the month of April, in the year 217; Heliogabalus [succeeded] Macrinus, [and was] killed in the year 222, on 6 March by Pagi's reckoning, on the 10th according to Henschenius. Pope Zephyrinus died in the year 217, on 26 July; Callistus succeeded Zephyrinus, most probably on 2 August, and was crowned with martyrdom on 12 October, in the first year of Alexander.

(printed under page 63)

(2) ‹anchor: mane die Jovis› · call in col 113

Videsis dicenda not. 24.

See what will be said at note 24.

(printed under page 63)

(3) ‹anchor: incendio concremata est› · call in col 113

Additur in ms. Ultrajectino: « Anno Domini CCXII. » Henschenius cit. Porro nihil hactenus narrata prae se ferunt incredibile, cum et Suetonius his non admodum absimilia in Galba scribat: « Novissimo Neronis anno . . . tacta de coelo Caesarum aede, capita omnibus simul statuis deciderunt: Augustique sceptrum e manibus excussum est. » Ex Moretto in Adnotatis in Passionem S. Callisti.

The Utrecht manuscript adds: "In the year of the Lord 212." (Henschenius, as cited.) Moreover, nothing narrated so far has anything incredible about it, since Suetonius too, in his Galba, writes things not very unlike these: "In the last year of Nero ... when the temple of the Caesars was struck from heaven, the heads fell from all the statues at once, and the sceptre was struck from the hands of Augustus." From Moretti, in his Notes on the Passion of St Callistus.

(printed under page 63)

(4) ‹anchor: templum Ravennatium› · call in col 113

Verba sunt minus ordinatim collocata: rectius scripsisset auctor: « Venerunt trans Tiberim in urbem Ravennatium ad templum, » in cujus nempe coenaculo Christianos psallentes Romani ex Urbe fugientes audiverunt. Videtur id templum idem esse, quod a Callisto jam ante sacris Christianorum usibus addictum, ac S. Mariae dedicatum, Alexander, adhuc forte caesar, Heliogabalo res publicas parum curante, repulsis popinariis, Christianis adjudicavit.

The words are set in a less orderly way; the author would have written more correctly: "They came across the Tiber into the city of the Ravennates, to the temple," in whose upper room, that is, the Romans fleeing from the City heard the Christians singing psalms. This temple seems to be the same one that had already been given over by Callistus to the sacred uses of the Christians and dedicated to St Mary, and which Alexander, perhaps while still Caesar, at a time when Heliogabalus paid little attention to public affairs, awarded to the Christians after the tavern-keepers had been driven off.

(printed under page 63)