Chapter IX.--The Epistle of Adrian, decreeing that we should not be punished without a Trial.
1. "To Minucius Fundanus. I have received an epistle, [1054] written to me by Serennius Granianus, a most illustrious man, whom you have succeeded. It does not seem right to me that the matter should be passed by without examination, lest the men [1055] be harassed and opportunity be given to the informers for practicing villainy.
2. If, therefore, the inhabitants of the province can clearly sustain this petition against the Christians so as to give answer in a court of law, let them pursue this course alone, but let them not have resort to men's petitions and outcries. For it is far more proper, if any one wishes to make an accusation, that you should examine into it.
3. If any one therefore accuses them and shows that they are doing anything contrary to the laws, do you pass judgment according to the heinousness of the crime. [1056] But, by Hercules! if any one bring an accusation through mere calumny, decide in regard to his criminality, [1057] and see to it that you inflict punishment." [1058]
Such are the contents of Adrian's rescript.
[1054] Greek, epistolen; Latin, litteras.
[1055] Greek, hoi anthropoi; Latin, innoxii.
[1056] This is the only really suspicious sentence in the edict. That Hadrian should desire to protect his Christian subjects as well as others from tumultuous and illegal proceedings, and from unfounded accusations, would be of course quite natural, and quite in accord with the spirit shown by Trajan in his rescript. But in this one sentence he implies that the Christians are to be condemned only for actual crimes, and that the mere profession of Christianity is not in itself a punishable offense. Much, therefore, as we might otherwise be tempted to accept the edict as genuine,--natural as the style is and the position taken in the other portions of it,--this one sentence, considered in the light of all that we know of the attitude of Hadrian's predecessors and successors toward the Christians, and of all that we can gather of his own views, must, as I believe, condemn it as a forgery.
[1057] Compare this sentence with the closing words of the forged edict of Antoninus Pius quoted by Eusebius in chap. 13. Not only are the Christians to be released, but their accusers are to be punished. Still there is a difference between the two commands in that here only an accusation made with the purpose of slander is to be punished, while there the accuser is to be unconditionally held as guilty, if actual crimes are not proved against the accused Christian. The latter command would be subversive of all justice, and brands itself as a counterfeit on its very face; but in the present case the injunction to enforce the law forbidding slander against those who should slanderously accuse the Christians is not inconsistent with the principles of Trajan and Hadrian, and hence not of itself alone an evidence of ungenuineness.
[1058] Greek, hopos an ekdikeseias; Latin, suppliciis severioribus vindices.
Chapter X.--The Bishops of Rome and of Alexandria during the Reign of Antoninus.
Adrian having died after a reign of twenty-one years, [1059] was succeeded in the government of the Romans by Antoninus, called the Pious. In the first year of his reign Telesphorus [1060] died in the eleventh year of his episcopate, and Hyginus became bishop of Rome. [1061] Irenæus records that Telesphorus' death was made glorious by martyrdom, [1062] and in the same connection he states that in the time of the above-mentioned Roman bishop Hyginus, Valentinus, the founder of a sect of his own, and Cerdon, the author of Marcion's error, were both well known at Rome. [1063] He writes as follows: [1064]
[1059] Hadrian reigned from Aug. 8, 117, to July 10, 138 a.d.
[1060] On Telesphorus, see above, chap. 5, note 13. The date given here by Eusebius (138-139 a.d.) is probably (as remarked there) at least a year too late.
[1061] We know very little about Hyginus. His dates can be fixed with tolerable certainty as 137-141, the duration of his episcopate being four years, as Eusebius states in the next chapter. See Lipsius' Chron. d. röm. Bischöfe, p. 169 and 263. The Roman martyrologies make him a martyr, but this means nothing, as the early bishops of Rome almost without exception are called martyrs by these documents. The forged decretals ascribe to him the introduction of a number of ecclesiastical rites.
[1062] In his Adv. Hær. III. 3. 3. The testimony of Irenæus rests upon Roman tradition at this point, and is undoubtedly reliable. Telesphorus is the first Roman bishop whom we know to have suffered martyrdom, although the Roman Catholic Church celebrates as martyrs all the so-called popes down to the fourth century.
[1063] On Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion, see the next chapter.
[1064] Irenæus, Adv. Hær. III. 4. 3.