Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
22. Reaction of Flight: Monasticism
IV
Ordeal of the Church
22. REACTION OF FLIGHT: MONASTICISM
A. Introduction: Background of Monasticism
(1) DOMESTIC ASCETICISM
Ascetic comes from the Greek asketes, "one who practices"; that is, one who does not
merely admire the evangelical counsels, but tries to live according to them as much as possible.
Since holiness is a mark of the Church, it is to be expected that no Christian generation would be
devoid of those devoting themselves without reserve to Christ. The origin of monasticism during
the third century does not imply an access of fervor in the Church; rather, it denotes the addition
of a new means of attaining an old objective. During the first two centuries asceticism had been
practiced at home, in the environment of the family and the Christian community. Large numbers
of Christians of both sexes vowed themselves to virginity the better to embrace a permanent state
of fidelity to Christian asceticism; St. Justin about 150 says that "many men and women from sixty
to seventy years of age, brought up from childhood in the law of Christ, have kept pure" (Apology
I, xv, 6).

Community life in the strict sense did not exist, but already domestic ascetics tended to
gather for mutual encouragement. The ascetics usually had a special position in the church;
virgins and widows were accorded a distinctive state. The Christian fathers wrote treatises for
their instruction, and the hierarchy watched over their conduct and reputation. When abuses
appeared in the institution, various bishops, such as Sts. Ambrose and Augustine, began to lay
down certain standards and rules of life which provided the basis for regular convents.
(2) MOTIVES FOR MONASTICISM
Flight from persecution is perhaps with justice enumerated last by Pourrat among
motives giving rise to the evolution of monasticism during the third century. Certainly this
arbitrary title is not intended to represent the whole course of the movement; at most it was the
occasion of the vocation of the first hermit, St. Paul of Thebes. But in a larger sense the monastic
movement was flight, flight from the world and from mediocrity. Domestic asceticism has not
ceased today, but it is ever difficult to observe it, for its success demands a "mental hermitage"
and at least a minimum of physical retirement. It was not long before domestic ascetics tried to
remove obstacles by living on the outskirts of towns. But when such habitations became
renowned for virtue, visitors threatened anew the ascetics' peace; moreover, it was difficult to
escape the pagan atmosphere. It is not surprising, then, that eventually some of the ascetics,
reflecting on the examples of the prophets down to St. John the Baptist, resolved to fly the haunts
of men entirely.
B. Monastic Beginnings
(1) THE EASTERN ANCHORITES
St. Paul of Thebes (c. 228-340) is traditionally designated as the pioneer of the eremitical
life. Paul was still young when about 250 he fled from the Decian persecution to a grotto on a
remote mountain in Egypt. Here he became an anchorite, one "living apart," amid a palm grove
which furnished his elementary food and clothing. St. Paul had lived some ninety years in his
chosen solitude before he was discovered by St. Anthony the Abbot, as the result of a private
revelation made to cure him of a momentary complacency. Shortly after their encounter, St. Paul
died at the reputed age of 113. He was to have many imitators throughout the Middle Ages.
St. Anthony (250-356), however, was the publicist of the eremitical life. From youth he
was retiring and for a number of years he lived as a hermit near his village. About 285 he fled
such limited society to the wasteland of Pispir. Here he led a mortified existence at the expense
of violent temptations. But he could not reject persistent disciples and before long his solitude
was shared by many other hermits. Each lived a retired life in his own cell, devoting himself to
prayer, reading, and manual labor of his own choosing. The silent companionship was broken
only occasionally by discourses from St. Anthony. Even this association and the arrival of visitors
proved too much for St. Anthony. He went into Upper Egypt near St. Paul's hermitage to found a
monastery which still bears his name. Yet he could renounce his beloved retirement for the
needs of the Church: he emerged about 311 to encourage the confessors in Maximin's
persecution, and around 338 to confer with St. Athanasius, a great friend, about the defeat of the
Arian heresy. St. Anthony died on January 17, 356, and his Life was written by Athanasius.
The Thebaid and the Nitrian Desert soon housed whole colonies of hermits: 5,000 are
reported in 325 in the latter area alone. St. Ammon (d. 347) and Macarius of Alexandria (d. 394)
vied with St. Anthony's disciples in the practice of austerities. Women also embraced the
eremitical life: St. Anthony founded an institute for his sister and her companions.
The Stylites were the most extraordinary of anchorites. The pioneer, St. Simeon of
Antioch (d. 459), was undoubtedly a holy and obedient man who literally went up to God. After
his youthful enthusiasm of chaining himself to a rock had been rebuked by the hierarchy, he
perched himself on a stylos or pillar, at first ten, later thirty feet high. Thence he preached to
sightseers, confirming his words with miracles. His fame spread even to Gaul. He had imitators
who, however, did not always manifest his spirit of deference to authority. Eremitical life
nourished some souls of surpassing sanctity and self-denial, but it tended to be an uncharted sea
dangerous for ordinary aspirants to asceticism. For most men, some sort of fusion of retirement
and the common life would have to be worked out.
(2) EASTERN CENOBITES
St. Pachomius (d. 348) is styled founder of the cenobitic or common monastic life, since
he resolved the apparent contradiction of the terms koinobion life in common, and monasterion a
solitude. St. Pachomius, a convert from paganism, determined soon after his baptism to give
himself entirely to God. Enlightened by a vision, he joined others in erecting a monastery at
Tabennesi in the Thebaid about 320. His disciples became so numerous that before his death he
governed eight houses, besides the convents for women administered by his sister.
The Pachomium. Rule supplied what was needed by the average student of asceticism.
No longer would a group of hermits be permitted to follow their own immature concepts of the
religious life, but instead a community would dwell under a superior's discipline. This superior,
the abbot, would exercise firm but paternal restraint on the candidates' spiritual exercises and
austerities. This does not mean that the Pachomian life was easy. A postulant was left for a time
outside the monastery door, humbly requesting admission and patiently enduring studied rebuffs.
He was not accepted until the religious had voted to give him the habit. Once admitted, the
novice was assigned to an experienced monk to be trained in the religious life according to St.
Pachomius's norms. With the excesses of certain hermits in mind, the abbot deliberately strove
to combat self-will in the novice, and the novice master was instructed to command precisely
what the candidate disliked, and even actions of no intrinsic value, such as watering a dead bush.
St. Pachomius also supervised his monks closely by having them live in "tribal houses," thirty or
forty monks under a rector. Religious exercises, Mass, recitation of Psalms, and spiritual
conferences were in common. Unlike some solitaries who neglected the sacraments, the
Pachomian monks were to receive Holy Communion at least weekly. A certain minimum of
fasting and mortification was prescribed, but the monks might add to this with permission. The
refectory seems to have witnessed a number of diets and meal times for various individuals.
Sanctions invoked were public penance, fasting on bread and water, and corporeal punishment.
Silence was strictly enjoined.
St. Hilarion (d. 371), a disciple of St. Anthony, worked out a sort of compromise between
the monastic systems of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius. Early in the fourth century he set up
lauras near Gaza in Palestine. These were colonies of hermits gathered in villages and formed of
cells found in a defined area. Life in a laura was intermediate between that of solitaries
independent of one another and that of cenobites living in community. The monks, though living
apart in cells, Were yet gathered around heads or guides. Rule of a superior afforded a curb to
individual caprice, though often the abbots were laymen who lacked the ecclesiastical formation
of the priesthood and tended to neglect the sacramental system for private devotions. Thus a
successor of St. Hilarion in Palestine, St. Sabbas, had to be constrained to receive ordination by
the bishop of Jerusalem.
(3) EARLY WESTERN MONASTICISM
Introduction: During this period monasticism was still in its infancy in the West. Largely a
transplantation from the East, it was not yet perfectly proportioned to Western culture, spirituality,
or even climate. Truly indigenous Western monasticism will not appear before St. Benedict's
work in the sixth century.
St. Athanasius of Alexandria was the friend and disciple of St. Anthony of the Thebaid.
During his exiles in the West under Arian persecution, St. Athanasius familiarized westerners with
the ideals and practices of the eastern monastic pioneers. His Life of St. Anthony, written about
357, was translated into Latin by 379.
St. Jerome was one of the first to popularize the monastic life at Rome about 380-85.
Although he soon retired to the Holy Land, he continued to direct various Roman clerics and
virgins by letter.
St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, was at the same time inspiring maidens in Lombardy with
the ideal of virginity in his sermons. Like St. John Chrysostom in the East, he defended the
monastic ideal against detractors.
St. Augustine, St. Ambrose's distinguished convert, was also greatly influenced by
accounts of the austerities of Eastern ascetics. In Africa he set up religious houses for both
laymen and clerics, while his letter to a convent of nuns became the basis of the so-called Rule of
St. Augustine which guided many later communities.
St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, became a western counterpart of St. Athanasius in the Arian
controversies. Probably he knew the bishop of Alexandria; at any rate he could observe monastic
life during his exile in the East. On his return he inspired and aided St. Martin in erecting
the first known monastery in Gaul.
St. Martin made this foundation at Liguge about 360, shortly after St. Hilary's return.
Subsequently bishop of Tours, St. Martin founded another monastery in his diocese at
Marmoutier. Here he gave as much attention as he could to the eighty monks. Marmoutier was
the parent of St. Germanus of Auxerre, monastic apostle in Gaul and Britain, and of St. Patrick,
whose foundation at Armagh in turn became a nursery for Celtic monasticism.
St. Honoratus founded the abbey of Lerins along the Riviera about 400. When he left
this institute to become bishop of Arles, he was succeeded by St. Hilary. The house had two
famous teachers, Salvian, instructor of many future bishops in Gaul, and St. Vincent, codifier of
patristic traditions. Also from Lerins came St. Lupus of Troyes and Ferrieres, and the great St.
Caesarius of Arles.
Blessed John Cassian contemporaneously founded the monastery of St. Victor at
Marseilles. Not only was this house another monastic nursery, but its revered abbot popularized
Eastern monastic traditions in his conferences, the Monastic Institutions.
C. Monastic Codification
(1) ROLE OF ST. BASIL
St. Basil the Great (329-79), archbishop of Neo-Caesarea, brought Eastern monasticism
to maturity by codifying the best elements that had been revealed by a century of experience in
the Thebaid and in Palestine. St. Basil not only visited existing foundations, but before his
election to the episcopate lived for some time as a hermit in Pontus. To his personal experience
with the advantages and dangers of illregulated monasticism, he added the grace of the
episcopacy and familiarity with problems of legislation and administration. He was well qualified,
then, to write a Rule which eventually became the norm for all Oriental monasticism, much as St.
Benedict's was to become in the West. "St. Basil . . . corrected what was unworkable in the
Pachomian conception . . . . The Rule of St. Basil, just because it strengthens the life of the
community, is of greater moderation than that of Pachomius."
(2) RULE OF ST. BASIL
The Basilian Rule was in the catechetical form, comprising 203 questions and answers
on subjects relating to monastic life and the application of biblical maxims. With but little
modification it could be used by both monks and nuns. It introduced a spirit of moderation into
the arbitrary and often excessive practices of earlier monasticism. Lest absolute solitude harm
the average monk, it envisioned a balance of the active and contemplative lives, which allowed
the monks even to serve as clerical auxiliaries and missionaries in case of need. Labor was to
serve not merely as a means to dispel idleness, but to provide support for the community; in fact,
if fasting hinders you from labor, it is better to eat like the workman of Christ that you are. Less
discouragement was put in the way of postulants, though novices were carefully trained in
obedience and indifference. A rule of order for each day was followed, with liturgical prayers at
dawn, Terce, Sext, None, dusk, and bedtime, interrupted at midnight. Prayer was in common and
at a fixed place, and all meals had to be taken at appointed hours. While manual labor was
highly esteemed, the study of Holy Scripture was also enjoined on the monks. Extraordinary
devotions and mortifications were not permitted, and generally the abbot should know what his
subjects did both within and outside the monastery. To this end, the monastic institutes were to
be small. To this day the Basilian rule remains the common norm of Oriental monasticism.
(3) MONASTIC CHAMPIONSHIP
St. John Chrysostom, Antiochian preacher and later patriarch of Constantinople, became
a great apologist for monasticism in the Orient, His masterly oratory and excellent commentaries
on St. Paul's Epistles were themselves sources of ascetical theology. He reconciled the monastic
ideal with the priestly charge, and for many years in the East bishops, required to be celibate by
canon law, were selected from the monastic
clergy.
St. Gregory of Nissa, younger brother of St. Basil, defended his memory and doctrine.
Scholar rather than man of action, he was highly revered in the Greek Church, and his writings
also became normative.
Monasticism accordingly became exceedingly popular in the Orient, and increasingly the
cenobites adopted the Basilian rule until it became virtually universal. Emperor Justinian later
imposed certain standard regulations, though leaving the monks subject to episcopal jurisdiction.
Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
23. Persecution by Roman Absolutism
IV
Ordeal of the Church
23. PERSECUTION BY ROMAN ABSOLUTISM
A. Absolutist Reorganization
(1) DIOCLETIAN'S TETRARCHY
Emperor Diocletian (285-305) was probably the son of the Oriental freedman Diokles. At
least the system that he instituted in imperial government savored more of Oriental absolutism
than of Roman constitutionalism. Though he had secured the throne by the customary third
century method of successful mutiny, Diocletian was determined to remove the ladder by which
he himself had mounted. He deleted from the imperial office any traditions of military
camaraderie still clinging to it from Caesar's day. Henceforth the monarch was to be absolute
master without disguise or restraint. The crown, monarchical trappings, elaborate court etiquette,
and above all a host of intermediate officials and secretaries were to make the emperor appear a
remote and awesome figure, no longer deified posthumously, but very god on earth.
Administrative reorganization was indeed needed for the unwieldy empire. Diocletian
now divided Roman dominions into four portions, the prefectures. Each of these divisions was to
be supervised by a prefect combining civil and military jurisdiction and immediately subject to the
emperor or one of his colleagues and heirs. The prefectures were the Orient, comprising Asia
Minor, Syria and Palestine, and Egypt, with headquarters at Nicomedia; Illyricum, comprising
Thrace, Greece, and the Balkans; Italy, which also included Proconsular Africa; and Gaul, which
embraced as well Britain and Spain. This tetrarchy of prefectures, each with its administrative
bureaucracy, survived Diocletian's schemes for the succession, and substantially endured until
the dissolution of the Roman Empire. Prefectures were subdivided into dioceses, each under its
vicar, and these in turn were portioned into provinces under praesides chosen from the
equestrian class.
Succession to the throne was minutely regulated by Diocletian in the hope of putting an
end to military usurpations. He chose a junior colleague, Maximian, who was given the title of
"co-augustus" and put in charge of the Western prefectures of Italy and Gaul, Diocletian retaining
personal supervision of the East. Each of these rulers was then to choose a deputy and
prospective heir, entitled Caesar. Diocletian selected Galerius, Maximian, and Constantius. In
305 Diocletian put this plan into operation by himself resigning and constraining the reluctant
Maximian to do likewise. Galerius and Constantius then succeeded to the supreme positions and
were in turn to provide heirs by adoption. But once the government had become an unabashed
monarchy, the trend toward hereditary succession became strong. Though Galerius and
Constantius duly named successors, on the latter's death a year later, his soldiers bypassed the
legal system to proclaim his son Constantine. After a series of civil wars, Constantine was able to
make himself sole ruler and retained the throne in his family until 363. Other dynasties
succeeded, and in the Byzantine East especially hereditary succession became normal, in spite
of periodic palace revolutions. Diocletian's reorganization ` therefore, somewhat checked the
third century anarchy, but did not effect a complete cure: the medicine of absolutism, moreover,
had to be administered in ever larger doses as the body politic became immune to its effects.
(2) EFFECTS OF REORGANIZATION
Religious intolerance is endemic to totalitarian absolutism, and persecution of the
Christians followed despite Diocletian's personal aversion to such methods. His heir, Galerius,
imbibed a fanatical hatred for the Church from his barbarian mother, and consistently strove to
convince Diocletian that they be crushed. Anti-Christian tracts by Porphyry and Hierocles
circulated, and it was only a question of time before imperial regimentation would claim the
Church as a province.
Cultural cleavage had been accentuated by the reorganization. The two eastern
prefectures coincided with the Hellenistic world, and the western ones with the Latinized
provinces. Though separation of administration did not mean division of the Empire, yet the
inaccurate but popular designations of "Empire of the East" and "Empire of the West" are correct
in suggesting a growing divorce that would eventually affect Church as well as state.
Social stratification was a by-product of the administrative changes. If the emperor and
his court were now sacrosanct, the moths fluttering at his shrine must be properly attired. Greater
stress than ever was placed on precedence, titles, court attire. Influence came to count for more
than merit; ancestry was more highly prized than ability. Higher officials were lavishly rewarded
with estates and privileges, but depended precariously upon imperial favor ever susceptible to
flattery, calumny, and every species of intrigue. Espionage and counter-espionage became
regular devices of government, and one authority was checked by another. The East relapsed
rather easily into servility, but in the West the spirit of freedom, upheld by a hierarchy less under
imperial control, was never wholly quenched.
Economic castes were now becoming rigid. The middle class, both of urban artisans and
merchants and of rural independent farmers, was well nigh obliterated in the repeated disasters
of the third to the fifth centuries. The system of latifundia engulfed the provinces so that many
independent farmers began to be reduced to coloni, forerunners of medieval serfs. Whether
personally slave or free, they were bound to the land to assure a constant food supply. Likewise
in towns, artisans were restricted to their hitherto more or less spontaneous collegia or guilds.
Before long men were as much bound to their father's trade as were coloni to remain on the land.
Distribution was another problem settled by the fiat measures of absolutism. In 296 Diocletian
introduced a reformed coinage, based on a gold standard, but his successors repeatedly
debased it. In 301 a price fixing edict was issued and the government embarked on the endless
complications of economic regimentation, with attendant problems of smuggling and black
marketing. Taxes were increased, but often had to be collected in kind rather than in specie, and
officials were sometimes so paid.
Military importance was by no means de-emphasized; rather, the 33 legions of the early
third century had by now reached 60, and to meet ever-shifting barbarian threats the mobile
cavalry reserves had to be augmented. Military magistrates, generically duces, came to be
distinguished for the civil service, corporately termed judices.
B. Imperial Persecution (303-14)
(1) INAUGURATION (303-06)
Diocletian's edicts. Emperor Diocletian, whose wife and daughter were catechumens, did
not persecute Christians until late in his reign. But his anti-Christian Caesar Galerius enjoyed
great prestige after defeating the Persians in 297. The latter systematically dismissed Christian
officers from the army and viewed with alarm Christian influence in the state. During 302 failure
of the auguries was interpreted by the soothsayer Tagis as an omen of the "Christian menace."
Now Galerius persuaded the emperor to issue a first edict, February 24, 303, which stopped short
of blood. This forbade Christians to assemble for worship, and directed that their churches be
destroyed or confiscated, their Scriptures burned, and their faith renounced. Penalties were
graduated: nobles were to be demoted; citizens enslaved, and slaves denied hope of
emancipation. A Christian of Nicomedia paid with his life for tearing down the edict, and the
cathedral at Nicomedia was burned as an object lesson. Fires in the imperial palace were
blamed on the Christians by Galerius-on Galerius himself by the Christian apologist Lactantius.
New imperial edicts followed in 304. A second decreed immediate arrest of the clergy; a third
extended the same penalty to all recalcitrant Christians. Finally a fourth edict decreed capital
punishment for all those who would refuse to acknowledge the official paganism. The ultimatum
was: "You have heard the law of the Emperor: it commands that throughout the world members of
your society must either sacrifice or perish" (Eusebius, History, VIII).
Enforcement quickly claimed victims. An inquest into the imperial household led to the
abjuration of Diocletian's wife and daughter. On the other hand, Grand Chamberlain Peter, the
court official Dorotheus, Bishop Anthimus of Nicomedia and other clerics and laymen were
executed. Public and private property belonging to Christians was confiscated and the use of
torture to enforce abjuration became a matter of course. During 304 Diocletian suffered a sort of
nervous breakdown; he recovered sufficiently to hand over the government to Galerius and his
colleague Constantius on May 1, 305.
Galerius, the real instigator of the persecution became henceforth the chief ruler of the
empire. Until shortly before his death in 311 he was indefatigable in enforcing the edicts of
persecution, and he found a willing aide and heir in Maximin Daia, nominated Caesar for the East
in 305. In the West, however, he found less support. Diocletian's old colleague Maximian had
dutifully seized and burned the pontifical archives at Rome and had executed Pope Marcellinus in
October, 304; thereafter the Holy See remained vacant for the unprecedented interval of four
years. But Maximian's successor, the new co-augustus Constantius, was a solar monotheist, not
unfavorably disposed to Christianity. During his short reign of a year, he seems to have confined
himself to token observance of the edicts: destroying a few churches. More serious for the future
of Galerius's designs, Constantius's son Constantine, held as a sort of hostage in Nicomedia, had
been a silent witness of the outbreak of persecution. Now he escaped to rejoin his father in
Britain and disrupt the plan of succession by accepting the throne from his father's troops on the
latter's death in July, 306.
(2) COURSE OF THE PERSECUTION
The means employed were most cruel. A first hand account is furnished by Bishop
Phileas of Thmuis concerning martyrs who suffered at Alexandria in 306: "The blessed martyrs
who lived with us . . . suffered for the sake of Christ every pain, every torment that could be
devised, and some not once but several times. . . . They were beaten with rods, with whips,
straps, and ropes. . . . Some with bands tied behind them were placed on the rack while their
limbs were stretched by a machine. On a judge's order, executioners tore with iron rakes not only
their sides, as is done with murderers, but also their stomachs, legs, and even their faces. Some
were hung in the portico by one hand in such wise that the straining of joints was more cruel than
any torture. Others were bound to pillars, one facing the other, without having their feet on the
ground, causing the weight of their bodies to tighten their bonds the more. They endured this
torture not only while the judge was questioning them, but nearly all the day. As the judge passed
on to another, he left some of his assistants to watch the first in order to see whether excess of
suffering would shake their resolution. Without mercy he ordered bonds tightened and the dying
dragged about the room, for he declared that we deserved no respect and all should treat us as if
no longer human beings" (Eusebius, History, VIII, 10).
The martyrs were countless. The prisons were so full of Christians that no room
remained for criminals. In Phoenicia, great numbers were slain by the sword because the beasts
were miraculously held back from injuring them. In Egypt, even the swords became blunted and
broken so that executioners had to work in relays because of sheer physical exhaustion. Martyrs
in the Thebaid were tied to bent branches of trees to be rent limb from limb. A whole town was
burned down with its Christian inhabitants in Phrygia. Christians in the army were decimated,
and the officers, Sts. Sebastian and Maurice, suffered. Bishops and priests who were not put to
death were maimed: many members of the Nicene Council in 325 would display scars from the
persecution. Pagan tactics of committing Christian virgins to brothels sometimes prompted the
latter to leap off cliffs or cast themselves into the sea. These were the heroic years of the virgin
martyrs, Sts. Agnes, Lucy, and others. The number of victims overtaxed Christian piety, for the
catacombs still record mute evidence of the ferocity of the persecution in the hasty burial of
"Marcella and 550 martyrs of Christ"; of "150 martyrs of Christ," etc.
Ecclesiastical government was rendered difficult by the severity of the persecution and
the clamors of apostates for reconciliation. Marcellus, finally elected pope in 308, was exiled by
reason of such riots, while the next papal election was in dispute. Similarly the moderate leniency
of St. Peter of Alexandria provoked the rigoristic schism of Bishop Meletius. Bishop Mensurius of
Carthage replaced the sacred books by heretical works for imperial burning, but the alleged
"treason" of Bishop Felix of Aptonga would presently become the occasion of the great Donatist
schism. Though Constantine did not persecute, Maximian came back from retirement, and he
and his son Maxentius, if less cruel than Galerius and Maximin in the East, were yet unfavorable
toward Christianity.
(3) CESSATION
Galerius was the first of the persecutors to be removed. In 311 he became afflicted with a
loathsome disease. In his agony he issued the following edict of toleration: "Since they
[Christians] still persist in their impious folly and are deprived of public exercise of their religion,
we are disposed to extend to these unhappy men the effects of our accustomed mercy. We allow
them, consequently, to profess their private opinions and meet at their places of worship without
fear of disturbance, provided always that they respect the existing laws. . . . We hope that our
clemency will induce the Christians to offer prayers to the Deity whom they worship for our safety
and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the state" (Lactantius, Persecutors' Deaths, 34). This
muddled edict from a mind in torment was an unwilling face-saving measure. It might grant the
Christians some respite, but could afford them no real security for the future. As a matter of fact,
though Licinius, Galerius's successor in Illyricum, confirmed the edict, Maximin Daia disregarded
it in his prefecture of the East.
Maxentius in Italy allied himself with Maximin Daia against Licinius and Constantine and
this led to renewal of persecution in the West. As will be noted again in narrating Constantine's
career, Maxentius was defeated and killed at the Milvian Bridge in 312, and Constantine and
Licinius united on a policy of relaxation, popularly called the Edict of Milan (313).
Maximin Daia, thus left the sole persecutor, struggled on for a while with dogged
fanaticism. But in the face of repeated victories of Constantine and Licinius, persecution soon
ceased even to be good Politics. Put to flight, Maximin died in exile during 314, possibly by
suicide.
Conclusion: "It was not I who did it, but others," Maximin Daia is said to have exclaimed
in defeat. In a sense this is true. All explanations already offered, Roman revival, absolutist
regimentation, popular bigotry, do not quite explain the bitterness of the ordeal to which the
Church had been subjected. Diabolical forces seem to have been at work to preserve Satan's
age old domination of society. But just as the Church's remarkable growth confirmed Christ's
prophecy of the mustard seed, so the course of persecution vindicated His prediction: "In the
world you shall have distress; but have confidence, I have overcome the world." Several million
martyrs, witnesses in suffering and blood, had reasserted with the centurion: "Indeed, this was
the Son of God." By 313, though Rome was still officially pagan, while a majority of its subjects
were doubtless idolators, yet there could be no doubt that paganism was a dying cause.
Imperialism, without losing its mundane outlook, would soon deem it expedient to profess itself
Christian. Perhaps a final irony lies in the fact that by the sixth century Diocletian's sarcophagus
had disappeared from the sumptuous villa of his retirement, and his private "chapel," a temple to
Jupiter, had been transformed into a cathedral of the Christians that he had tried to exterminate.
Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
24. Patriarchates in Evolution
IV
Ordeal of the Church
24. PATRIARCHATES IN EVOLUTION
A. Western Patriarchate
(1) PAPAL HISTORY (250-314)
Sacramental controversy. Pope St. Fabian (236-50) was one of the first victims of the
Decian persecution and the Holy See remained vacant for more than a year. During this time the
priest Novatian headed the administration and aspired to the papacy. When in March, 251 St.
Cornelius was chosen, Novatian went into schism, posing as antipope until his death about 258.
Though opposed to reconciliation of apostates, Novatian made common cause with the
Carthaginian laxists in revolt against St. Cyprian. The latter gave Pope Cornelius his support and
by the time of the latter's death in June, 253, the schism had ceased to be critical. Pope St.
Lucius (253-54) spent part of his short pontificate in exile; relations with Carthage remained
cordial. But under Pope St. Stephen I (254-57) the question of rebaptizing heretics led to a
difference of views. The pope forbade baptisms of converts to the disgust of St. Cyprian and
Firmilian of Caesarea. Though St. Stephen threatened the dissenters with excommunication, he
may have withheld the penalty at the intercession of St. Denis of Alexandria. In any event, Pope
Sixtus II (257-58) seems to have worked out some amicable settlement, though Rome's victory
was not definitively recognized until the Council of Arles in 314.
Trinitarian controversy. Pope St. Denis (259-68) felt obliged to correct his namesake of
Alexandria for expressions verging on Tritheism in his reaction against Sabellian modalism.
Having beard complaints from both doctrinal camps at Alexandria, the pope summoned a Roman
synod late in 262. Thence emanated a dogmatic letter asserting that, "we must neither divide the
wonderful and divine Monad into three divinities, nor destroy the dignity and exceeding greatness
of the Lord by thinking Him a creature, but must have faith in God the Father Almighty and Christ
Jesus His Son and in the Holy Ghost. . . . Thus both the divine Trinity and the holy preaching of
the Monarchy will be safeguarded" (Denzinger, 51). St. Denis of Alexandria, never in formal error,
accepted the papal decision, but his fellow patriarch of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, continued to
hold modalistic adoptionism. What part Pope St. Denis had in a first council held against Paul at
Antioch (264) is not known; but the second council reported to him the deposition of Paul (268).
St. Denis had died in December, 268, so that it must have been his successor St. Felix (269-75)
who confirmed the conciliar acts. Though a supposed letter of Pope Felix to Maximus of
Alexandria on the Trinitarian question is not authentic, we learn of the papal solicitude indirectly
when Emperor Aurelian (270-75) directed that the Antiochian ecclesiastical property "be given to
that party to whom the bishops of Italy and the City of Rome should award it." Paul was expelled,
but his disciple Lucian survived to infect Arius (Eusebius, History, VII, 30).
Catacomb pontificates. The pontificates of St. Eutychian (275-83) and St. Caius (283-96)
were apparently peaceful and relatively uneventful; we know little more of them than their names.
According to Eusebius (History, VII, 32) St. Marcellinus died "through the persecution." Later the
Donatists accused him of offering incense. To this charge St. Augustine retorted: "He (Petilius the
Donatist) accuses Marcellinus of being a traditor, a wicked and sacrilegious man; I declare him
innocent. It is not necessary to weary myself in proving his innocence, for Petilius does not
venture to prove his charge" (Contra Litteras Petiliani, M.L., XLIII, 323). Though there is nothing
in the Liberian Catalogue about the pope's supposed defection, the reconstructed Liber
Pontificalis of later centuries declared: "Marcellinus himself was haled to sacrifice, to offer incense
and he did it; after a few days, inspired by penance, he was beheaded by the same Diocletian
and crowned with martyrdom." On the other hand, Theodoret refers to 'that Marcellinus who had
so nobly distinguished himself during the persecution" (History, I, 2). From such contradictory
evidence no certain conclusion can be drawn; possibly Marcellinus merely gave up some
liturgical books and the Donatists exaggerated the story for propaganda purposes.
Diocletian's persecution was so severe that the Holy See remained vacant from October,
304 to May, 308. The priest Marcellus, newly elected pope, was faced with the reconciliation of
apostates. Many of the faithful, perhaps scandalized by reason of some weakness of
Marcellinus, opposed any leniency. These rigorists went so far as to try to impose their will by
violence, and blood was shed. The Roman ruler, otherwise comparatively tolerant, thereupon
exiled the pope. After his death in exile during January, 309, a Eusebius was elected to succeed
him. But the opposing faction of laxists who had denounced Marcellus to Maxentius now elected
Heraclius. After riots had disturbed the city for four months, both pope and antipope were exiled.
Pope Eusebius died in Sicily in August, 310, and peace among the Christian community seems to
have been restored at the election of St. Miltiades in July, 311. St. Miltiades (311-14) survived the
last of the persecutions and received from the victorious Constantine the gift of the Lateran
Basilica on the Coelian Hill-this was enlarged by the next pope and converted into the Lateran
cathedral. The pope was on friendly terms with the emperor and co-operated with him during the
Donatist controversy which disturbed both Church and state in North Africa. This dispute will be
treated elsewhere; here it is sufficient to note that the pope vindicated Bishop Caecilian of
Carthage against the Donatist rebels in a Roman Synod in 313. Though he died before the
conclusion of the Council of Arles (314), this plenary assembly of the Latin patriarchate, though
imperially inspired, wrote submissively to Rome to his successor, St. Sylvester.
(2) EVANGELIZATION OF THE WEST
General survey. "On the eve of the peace of Constantine . . . there was a much weaker
diffusion of Christianity in the West. But it would be an exaggeration to say that, apart from the
Mediterranean shores, the West was scarcely affected. In Spain authentic data concerning the
Valerian persecution and the large number of sees represented at the Council of Elvira prove an
already deep penetration of the interior of the country by Christianity. Though the number of
bishoprics in Gaul prior to the fourth century was rather limited, there were a few in existence
some distance away from the Mediterranean shores, e.g., at Bordeaux, Bourges, Sens, Paris,
Rouen, Soissons, Rheims, Chalons, and Treves. In Italy, it is hardly likely that Maxentius would
have carried out from the first a policy favorable to the Christians if they had only been a mere
handful of men. In Africa, we have noticed the great number of bishops assembling in a series of
councils held under the presidency of the bishop of Carthage from the end of the second century
until the close of the last persecution; the after effects of this on the whole life of the provinces,
which was to be profoundly upset by Donatism, show the place held by the Christian element in
these countries. Even so, it remains true that there was still much to be done to propagate the
Gospel in the West, where country districts had hardly been touched."
The Synod of Arles, held in Gaul during 314 affords some evidence to estimate the extent
of the Western evangelization at the close of the period of persecutions. This meeting was called
by Constantine for consultation about imperial policy toward the African Donatist rebels. The
gathering cannot, like the great assembly at Nicea in 325, he termed a general council, but it
seems just to describe it as a Latin plenary synod. The acts are in Latin and were sent to Rome
for confirmation, though the pope had been represented at Arles by the priests Claudian and
Vitus and the deacons Eugene and Cyracus. The list of sees represented is by no means
accurately determined, but 33 bishops were at hand, besides priests or deacons representing
other sees. We can identify Syracuse, Capua, Arpinum, Ostia, Porto, Civitavecchia, Milan,
Aquileia in Italy; sixteen Gallic towns, including the sees of Arles, Marseilles, Vienne, Rheims,
Vaison, Rouen, Autun, Lyons, Bordeaux, Nice, Orange; from Germany were Agroecius of Trier
and Maternus of Cologne; three bishops were present from Britain, those of London, York, and
Lincoln; Spain was represented by the bishops or episcopal proxies of Emerita, Terragona,
Saragossa, Baetica and others; Caecilian of Carthage headed the representatives of nine African
sees, and there was one from Dalmatia. Shotwell interprets the Synod of Arles as clear evidence
of Roman leadership in the Latin Patriarchate: "It was . . . an assemblage of western men,
accustomed from of old to defer to the opinion of the one apostolic church in their midst. . . . The
Western episcopate knew where its leadership lay.
B. Eastern Patriarchates
(1) ALEXANDRIA
Evangelization. During the persecution of Septimius Severus there had already been
many martyrs, and during that of Decius papyri certificates of sacrifice have been found even in
villages. The victims of the last persecution were legion. Before Nicea, fifty Christian
communities and forty sees can be identified, and the provincial council of Alexandria in 320-23
numbered 100 bishops. The Pentapolis-Cyrene, Ptolemais, Berenice, Arsinoe, and Sozuse-had,
it would seem, separate sees, suffragan to Alexandria.
Patriarchal rank, therefore, was already assured to the bishop of Alexandria. Demetrius
(190-233) encouraged the Catechetical School, but did not hesitate to depose its rector, Origen,
when suspicions were entertained regarding his orthodoxy. Under Heraclas, rector from 230 and
patriarch from 233 to 248, a reaction against Origen's teaching took place at Alexandria. But with
Patriarch St. Denis (248-65), Origen came into favor again, not entirely for the good of the see.
St. Denis became dean of the Oriental hierarchy, advisor of the Holy See, regulator of the paschal
cycle, and staunch defender of orthodoxy against paganism and heresy. The teaching office
descended to two priests of Alexandria, Theognostus rector from 265 to 280, and Pierius from
about 280 to 310. Of the later patriarchs of this period, the most distinguished was St. Peter
(300-11) who tried to reverse the theological trend to Origenism. He dealt with apostates firmly,
but held out hope of pardon for those willing to undergo the exomologesis for periods varying with
their culpability: whether they apostasized spontaneously, used fraud or evasion, or weakened
only after torture or long imprisonment. This policy was too lenient for Bishop Meletius of
Lycopolis, who began a schism which contributed to the rise of Arianism. St. Peter was martyred
on November 25, 311, in Maximin Daia's persecution.
(2) ANTIOCH
The Antiochene bishopric was also becoming a patriarchal see as the career of Paul of
Samosata revealed. When Bishop Demetrianus died a Persian captive in 260, Paul succeeded
to the see with the favor of the Palmyrian dynasty which had rebelled against Rome after
Valerian's defeat. As Palmyrian chancellor, Paul amassed wealth and courted popularity.
Censured by his fellow bishops in 264, he promised amendment. He failed to keep his pledge
and was declared deposed in 268. He defied ecclesiastical censure until he was evicted by
imperial troops in 272. But his theological errors were carried on by Lucian who paved
the way for Arianism.
Exegetical insistence on the letter of Scripture by the School erred first with Paul of
Samosata, and from him the line runs through Lucian, Arius, Diodore, Theodore of Mopsuestia to
Nestorius. On the other band, Alexandrian stress on symbolism sometimes strayed from
orthodoxy in Origen and St. Denis. If the Catholic Alexandrian doctors, Sts. Athanasius and
Cyril, escaped contagion, the spiritualist tendency worked further harm with Apollinaris of
Laodicea, Eutyches, and Dioscorus.
(3) EVANGELIZATION OF THE EAST
General survey. "Christianity . . . constituted a majority, or almost a majority in the cities
in some parts of the East, and an imposing minority in others. On the other hand, in some great
cities where the old religions still had numerous and earnest believers, as at Antioch for example,
Christians encountered energetic resistance, and the partial success of the policy of Daia, inviting
requests for the expulsion of Christians from their pagan fellow-citizens, testifies to the continued
existence of these civic strongholds of Eastern paganism. Nevertheless, on the whole it is certain
that by 300 the Christianization of the East had gone very far. It had made more progress in
Hellenic or Hellenized parts like Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, and the Greek coasts, than in
Egypt and especially the Semitic countries such as Syria. . . . In the Asiatic and Hellenic East, as
well as in Egypt, Christian communities in villages were no longer an exception." Surely they
could not have been, if there were many bishops like St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. It is said that
when he became bishop of Neo-Caesarea about 243 there were seventeen Christians; when he
died some twenty years later, there were but seventeen pagans.
Catholic Church History
Pagan Imperialism (49 B.C.-313 AD) IV. Ordeal of the Church (249-313)
25. Catacomb Christian Life
IV
Ordeal of the Church
25. CATACOMB CHRISTIAN LIFE
A. The Church in the Catacombs
(1) THE CATACOMB SYSTEM
Origin. "The usage made by Christians of catacombs . . . was not at first due to a care for
personal safety on the part of people who no longer dared to live in daylight, and it was only
progressively that such use became frequent at Rome, if not almost habitual in times of crisis.
Christians had used private houses as their first places of worship, and apart from exceptional
cases they were able to continue peacefully until the time of the great persecutions."
Evolution. The catacombs according to this view of Zeiller were developments of
primitive Christian cemeteries, ultimately used as emergency chapels and meeting places. A
catacomb was a network of passages dug underneath cities where the subsoil was adaptable to
the purpose. They comprised narrow passageways intersecting one another on either side of
which were recesses for tombs. The latter were often sealed by slabs of stone or masonry. At
the end of certain passages, chambers or vaults were later hollowed out to serve as chapels.
The first catacombs were dug under the estates of rich Christians, such as Domitilla, for Roman
law permitted citizens to inter any whom they wished on their lands. Christians took advantage of
this to provide for the decent burial of poorer members of the flock. When such private
cemeteries became inadequate, they passed under the supervision of the Christian community,
and therefore of the popes. At the beginning Of the third century, Pope St. Zepherinus named St.
Calixtus, his deacon and future successor, administrator of the catacomb along the Appian Way.
This cemetery, later known by the name of St. Calixtus, is the most famous of the catacombs.
Other well known ones are those of Lucina on the Via Ostia, of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina, of
St. Cecilia and St. Sebastian on the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina, and of Priscilla on the Via
Salaria.
Expansion. Though the Roman catacombs are the most renowned, similar structures
were in use at Naples, in Sicily, at Alexandria, and throughout Northern Africa and Asia Minor. At
Rome, existing catacombs were often enlarged by superimposing layers or galleries ranging from
22 to 80 feet below the surface. The porous Roman stone facilitated excavations, which were
made by the fossores, whose responsible task ranked them next to the clergy. Monograms and
inscriptions help to identify the tombs placed in the catacombs. Pope St. Damasus (366-84)
fittingly restored those inscriptions after the cessation of the persecutions. During later times the
martyrs' relics were in large part removed to Roman churches. The catacombs were then
abandoned, the silt of centuries covered them, and they were but imperfectly known until De
Rossi's investigations during the nineteenth century.
(2) CATACOMB SYMBOLISM: THE HOLY EUCHARIST
Catacomb artistry can make small claim to accurate drafting and aesthetic finish. Often
the representations are mere sketches or suggestions of an idea or practice. Nevertheless the
dogmatic value of these drawings is immense for they provide lasting evidence of Christian
beliefs, especially in the sacraments of baptism and Holy Eucharist, and in the primacy of St.
Peter. A few examples of this catacomb symbolism will be noted here.
The Milk. In the catacomb of Domitilla there are pictures of a lamb or of the Good
Shepherd carrying a pail of milk. It is important to note that a nimbus surrounds the milk, thereby
indicating its sacred nature. This drawing represents the Good Shepherd nourishing His flock by
the Holy Eucharist. The identification can be substantiated through Clement of Alexandria who
says: "The Church nourishes her children with milk, and this milk . . . is the body of Christ"
The Fish. In the catacomb of St. Calixtus in the crypt of Lucina are two paintings of a fish
against a green background. The fish bears a wicker basket on its back, filled with bread and
glasses of red wine. Now the fish is a symbol of Christ, whether the symbolism be interpreted as
a metonymy springing from use of a fish to suggest Christ's multiplication of the fishes and bread;
or from a typical reference to the fish that healed Tobias; or from the acrostic: Iesous Christos
Huios Theou, Soter: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, made of the first letters of the Greek word
for fish: ichthus. The fish in the drawing bears what is evidently the material for the Eucharistic
sacrifice in the simple vessels necessitated by primitive poverty. St. Jerome alludes to this
usage: "What can be more rich than the man who carries Christ's body in a basket of wickerwork,
and Christ's blood in a glass vessel?" (Letter to Risticius.)
The Tripod. In the same catacomb, in the chapel of sacraments, there are two
representations of a tripod-table with a loaf of bread and a fish. Standing nearby are a man with
bands extended and a woman with arms upraised. It is believed that the man represents Christ
multiplying the loaves and fishes for the woman, who typifies the Church. The tripod-altar and
other pictures refer the symbolism to the Eucharist.
The Fractio Panis. In St. Priscilla's catacomb, in what is called the Greek Chapel, there
appears the famous symbol known as the Fractio Panis, the Breaking of the Bread. Seven
persons are seated at a long table on which are placed two fishes, five loaves of bread, and a
twohandled cup. Along the sides of the table are seven baskets of bread. The man seated in the
place of honor is bearded and of venerable aspect. He is depicted as extending his bands over
the table and its contents. Evidently he is the president of the feast, the bishop or priest who is
consecrating the offering. Though Christ's miracle of the loaves and fishes is suggested, it in turn
refers to the Eucharist by the addition of table, cup, and banquet scene.
(3) PAPAL PRIMACY IN CATACOMB SYMBOLISM
Petrine portraits. "The mark which most frequently distinguishes St. Peter in the earliest
representations is that our Lord is depicted in the act of handing to him a roll or a volume, an act
which is sometimes explained by the accompanying inscription, Dominus legem dat. Of this class
of representation a good many instances have come down to us. The most famous is perhaps
the well-known sarcophagus which came originally from the Vatican Cemetery and is now in the
Museum of Christian antiquities at the Lateran. On this sarcophagus Christ is shown already
ascended into heaven, but handing over to St. Peter as His visible representative upon earth the
volume of the law of the New Dispensation. There is a painting of the same subject in the
Catacomb of St. Priscilla, and on a gilded glass now in the Vatican Museum the volume actually
bears the title, Lex Domini. Most important of all this class, perhaps, is the mosaic in Santa
Constanze on the Via Salaria, where the whole parallel is carefully worked out between the giving
of the law of the Old Covenant to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the giving of the New Law to Peter."
Papal tombs. "The earliest Bishops of Rome were buried on the Vatican close round the
tomb which contained the relics of the apostle. There their bodies were found in the excavations
in 1626, still largely preserved by the quasi-embalming process to which they had been
subjected, and surrounding St. Peter like bishops attending a council." This juxtaposition to St.
Peter is itself a mute testimony to the papal succession. When the Vatican area was filled, the
pontiffs of the third century were laid in what thereby became known as the Papal Crypt in the
Calixtine Catacomb. Recent excavations at the Vatican Basilica during the pontificate of Pope
Pius XII have brought to light a wealth of archaeological evidence which, while still controversial
in certain details, lends substantial confirmation to all the major traditions of St. Peter's Roman
burial and of papal succession in the Roman episcopate.
B. Christian Life Under Persecution
(1) PENAL PROCEDURE
Trial. Legal processes varied with imperial policies and the dispositions of the local
governors. In many if not most cases judicial procedure tended to be summary for the ordinary
Christian. Usually no witnesses dared come forward; no legal defense was allowed; and no
appeal was made, nor would it have been heard had it been made. Christians were quickly
condemned for pleading "guilty": as may be seen from the letter of the Martyrs of Lyons
(Eusebius, History, VI, 1).
Sentence was passed by the judge. The mildest was banishment without loss of civil
rights; e.g., St. John the Apostle, Flavia Domitilla, Pope St. Cornelius. Next deportation entailed
loss of civil rights: such martyrs were classed as criminals, e.g., Pope St. Pontian. Third in order
came penal servitude, in which the convicts, branded and chained, were forced to work in
quarries and mines under subhuman conditions. Finally, the death penalty was administered by
crucifixion for slaves; condemnation to beasts or burning for noncitizens; and beheading for
citizens. But at least as early as 177 at Lyons this privilege was ignored in the case of Christian
citizens. St. Justin declared: "We are beheaded, crucified, exposed to beasts, tortured by chains
and fire, and the most fearsome torments" (Dialogue, 110). Tertullian says much the same: "We
bang on crosses, are engulfed by flames, the sword bares our throats, and wild animals spring on
us" (Apologeticus, 31). Only after 303 was drowning used by exasperated persecutors to carry
out mass executions (Eusebius, History, VIII).
Imprisonment, however, was often by its duration and horror equally bard to endure. The
well-to-do had first to experience confiscation of their property, or the disinheritance and
persecution of relatives still at large. Once arrested, Christians were usually imprisoned under
conditions all the more dreadful because unfamiliar. St. Perpetua exclaims: "I was afraid; never
before had I seen such darkness. O, the day of horror! The overpowering heat caused by the
crowd of prisoners! The soldiers' brutality!" Frequently Christian prisoners were subjected to
irons or stocks: "Let them be returned to prison and be put in irons until tomorrow" (Acts of
Martyrs of Scillium). Solitary confinement was also used; the martyrs of Lyons occupied the
"darkest and worst part of the prison" (Eusebius, History, V, 1). Origen was so treated for many
months. In ordinary times, however, the Christians were held in public prisons to which access
was possible by bribing the guards. Priests and deacons found ways of administering the
Eucharist, through lesser clerics and laymen when they themselves were too well known.
Torture, finally, was routine: "I avow and you torture; . . . we confess and we are tortured"
(Tertullian, Apologeticum, 2).
(2) VENERATION OF MARTYRS
Acts of martyrs include: (a) acta strictly so called, the court records, e.g., St. Cyprian's
trial; (b) the passiones, eyewitness accounts, e.g., St. Polycarp's sufferings; and (c) legends
subsequently composed for edification, e.g., St. Cecilia. It is obvious that the first two categories
are primary documents of the greatest value; however, in regard to the third, it should be stressed
that perfectly historical martyrs may have been the subject of legends, either plausible or
embroidered.
Indulgences granted through the superabundant merits of the martyrs may be seen in the
custom of the libelli pacis, already discussed. When not abused, these certificates were worthy of
mercy, and even the stem St. Cyprian says: "Persons who had a letter from the martyrs and were
near death might confess and have bands imposed in penance and so be commended to the
Lord in the peace promised them by the martyrs" (Letter 20).
Masses in honor of martyrs were eventually celebrated at the Christian liturgical reunions.
The first martyr known to be so honored was St. Polycarp. His authentic Acta relate the objection
that if the Christians secure St. Polycarp's relics, "they will abandon the Crucified and worship this
man." To this the editor of the Acta replied with a prudent distinction: "They failed to realize that
we will never abandon Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all saved throughout the world-the
Innocent One for the guilty-or to worship any other. Him we adore as the Son of God; the martyrs
we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord." And when the Christians were able to obtain the
charred bon, of St. Polycarp, they interred them in a decent place. "There the Lord permitting, we
will meet with joy to celebrate his martyrdom, his birthday, both to recall heroes who have gone
before us, and to train and prepare the heroes of the future" (Acta, 17-18). Thus, indeed, did the
blood of Christ's martyrs become a seed.