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Two Notes on the Great Persecution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Norman H. Baynes
Norman H. Baynes
Affiliation:
University College, London
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Extract

Who was the author of the Fourth Edict in the great persecution of Diocletian's reign we do not know. Its precise terms are not recorded; of the date of its issue we are not informed. It is true that Mr. Kidd has recently written: ‘On April 30, 304, Maximian put out the Fourth Edict in the name of himself and bis co-Augustus,’ but he discreetly forbears to give the reader any hint of the source on which he bases that statement. It may be doubted whether he has any better authority in mind than the ambiguous Passio S. Sabini, which, as even Mr. Mason admitted many years ago, ‘is not in the highest class of the historical relics of its age.’ If, indeed, this supposition does not do Mr. Kidd an injustice, it would have been well to have given some reasoned defence of the document. Dufourcq regards the Passio S. Sabini as a product of the Ostrogothic period, and contends that its picturesque exordium does not depend upon any earlier source. Until his detailed criticism of the Passion is answered, we can hardly use it for the reconstruction of the history of the fourth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 3-4 , July 1924 , pp. 189 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1924

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References

page 189 note 1 A History of the Church to a.d. 461, I., pp. 520–521, Oxford, 1922Google Scholar.

page 189 note 2 Mason, A. J., The Persecution of Diocletian, p. 213, Cambridge, 1876Google Scholar.

page 189 note 3 Dufourcq, Albert, Études sur les Gesta Martyrum romains, II., pp. 91–97, Paris, 1907Google Scholar.

page 189 note 4 Eusebius, De Mart. Pal. c. III. 1. I am not sure of the precise meaning of the words δευτέρου δ' ἔτους διαλαβόντος.

page 189 note 5 Cf. Delehaye, H., Les Martyrs d'Égypte. An. Boll. XL., pp. 5–514, 299–64Google Scholar.

page 189 note 6 Cf. Ricci, Seymour de, Proceedings of Society of Biblical Archaeology, XXIV. (1902)Google Scholar; Cantarelli, in Memorie of the Accademia of the Lincei, Ser. V., T. XIV.; Schmidt, C., in Texte und Untersuchungen XX. (1901)Google Scholar, Heft IV., Part II., pp. 47–50; Delehaye, M., An. Boll., XL. (1922), pp. 27 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 190 note 1 P. Delehaye's argument as against Schmidt, who would place the martyrdom of Aedesius in a.d. 308, is to my mind conclusive. The words of Eusebius (σμικρόν τῷ χρόνῳ ὓστερον) in this connexion cannot cover an interval of years.

page 190 note 2 The Acta are printed in Ruinart (edition of 1859), p. 519–521.

page 191 note 1 Though we can no longer use the reference to these martyrs in the Acta S. Crispinae in support of this view. Ct. Cavalieri, Franchi de' in Studi e Tesi IX, (1902), p. 27Google Scholar.

page 191 note 2 Ibid., p. 26.

page 191 note 3 An. Boll., IX. (1890), pp. 123–134; at pp. 123–5, cf. ibid.. pp. 109–110.

page 191 note 4 Cavalieri, Franchi de', Studi e Testi, IX., pp. 32–35Google Scholar.

page 191 note 5 See , reff, in Studi e Testi IX., p. 26, n. 2Google Scholar.

page 191 note 6 Ruinart [1859], pp. 414–422. On these Acta, cf. Delehaye, H., Les Passions des Martyrs et les Genres littéraires, Brussels, 1921, pp. 114 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 191 note 7 Ruinart [1859], pp. 436–439.

page 191 note 8 An. Boll. IX., pp. 116–123.

page 193 note 1 Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1912, pp. 211–234.

page 193 note 2 Lactantius, De Mort. Pers. 44. 11.

page 193 note 3 Cf. Hülle, Hermann, Die Toleranzerlasse römischer Kaiser für das Christentum bis zum Jahre 313. Greifswald Diss., Berlin, 1895, pp. 63 sqqGoogle Scholar. The attempt of Valerian Sesan (Kirche und Staat im römisch-byzantinischen Ŕeiche, etc., I., Czernowitz, 1911) to prove that Constantine issued in the autumn of 312 a general edict of toleration is misconceived (cf. Konstantin der Grosse und seine Zeit. Festgabe zum Konstantins - Jubiläum, 1913, ed. F. S. Dölger; Joseph Wittig, Das Toleranzreskript von Mailand 313, pp. 40–65 at p. 64).

page 193 note 4 Cf. Seeck, Otto, Regesten der Kaiser und Pāpste I., p. 53Google Scholar.

page 194 note 1 , Eusebius, H.E. IX. 9. 17Google Scholar.

page 194 note 2 Ibid. 2. 1.

page 194 note 3 If the month is right the martyrdom must be in 311 (not 312, as Professor Lawlor, p. 268), for it is dated to the ninth year of the persecution (H.E. VII. 32. 31) = ca. Easter 311–ca. Easter 312.

page 194 note 4 H.E. IX. 6. 2.

page 194 note 5 Ibid. 7. 2. sqq. Inscription of Arykanda in Gebhardt, Osca von: Acta Martyrum Selecta, Leipzie, 1902, pp. 184–6Google Scholar.

page 194 note 6 Ibid. 7. 10.

page 194 note 7 Ibid. 9a. For motive, cf. Hü, op. cit., p. 67.

page 194 note 8 Despite the able article of John R. Knipfing — Das angebliche ‘Mailānder Edikt’ v. J. 313 im lichte der neueren Forschung. Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte XL., pp. 206–208—I am not convinced that there was no such rescript.

page 194 note 9 H.E. IX. 10. 7 sqq.

page 194 note 10 Ibid. 10. 8.

page 194 note 11 Ibid. 10. 12.

page 194 note 12 , Lactantius, De Mort. Pers. 48. 1Google Scholar.