Edward Bickersteth Birks

“ The persecution is not represented as general, but as aimed at a few obnoxious devotees, and Caius does not appear as leading, accompanying, or inciting them, but only as exercising a fatherly supervision. Probably the persecution continued for some time under Diocletian. The early Pontifical, as well as Anastasius, makes Caius of Dalmatian origin and cousin to this emperor. The Acts of St. Susanna confirm this, but are untrustworthy (Till. iv. 760) . Caius is said in the early Pontifical to have avoided persecution by hiding in the crypts. ”

“ Calligonus, eunuch and chamberlain to Valentinian II., insulted Ambrose, A.D. 385 (Ambr. Ep. xx. (1) , iii. p. 859) . He conveyed a message, or reported a saying, of the emperor's, and added, "While I am alive, dost thou contemn Valentinian? I will remove thy head from off thee." Ambrose answered, "God grant thee to fulfil thy threat; for I shall suffer what bishops suffer, and thou wilt do what eunuchs do. And would that God would avert them from the church, that they might turn all their weapons on me." ”

“ The "Jewish superstition" has been interpreted, with great probability, to mean Christianity. The Plautianus mentioned was, teste Herodian, a vile tyrant, all-powerful with Severus, whose daughter Caracalla was compelled to marry, much against his will, in the hope of reforming him from certain low tastes, such as won him the favour of the city populace. Spartianus tells us that when Caracalla emerged from boyhood, before his accession, he was so changed, so stern, that no one would have known him ”

“ By the third edict, on the great anniversary festival of the emperor on the 21st, the clergy were to sacrifice if they were to be included in the general release of prisoners; if not, torture was to be employed to induce them. But there were no general orders for the arrest of all Christians. ”

“ At a stroke the Roman world was pauperized. Every citizen resident in the capital was entitled to receive every month, at a cheap rate—the indigent quite gratuitously—a certain amount of corn or bread. ”

“ James, according to the common Western use, in his Martyrologium: "At Samos in Licia. After he had been scourged with iron rods, and then delivered from the broiling flames by the virtue of Christ, his head was at last severed from his body, which had fallen full of arrow-wounds, and the martyr's witness was complete." ”

“ The act seems to synchronize with a congiarium or largess to the populace in A.D. 214. Thenceforward Caracalla's laws, wherever promulgated, seemed to be dated at Rome. Oppressive as were the effects of the act, it seems yet to have been welcomed. It was but fair, thought Augustine, that rustics who had lands should give food to citizens who had none, so long as it was granted as a boon and not extorted as a right. ”

“ Cosmas (1) and Damianus, brothers, physicians, "silverless" martyrs. They became types of a class, the ἀνάργυροι, "silverless" martyrs, i.e. physicians who took no fees, but went about curing people gratis, and claiming as their reward that those whom they benefited should believe in Christ. They were certainly not earlier than the last quarter of the 3rd cent., and the legends of martyrs of that time, whose fame is known only by popular tradition, seem in many cases to succeed naturally to the place of those heathen myths that were slowest to die. ”

“ It appears probable that Ado has confounded the widely celebrated martyrs who are said to have suffered in September under Adrian, with the occupants of some Christian tombs in a crypt where there were many celebrations early in August. The Menology gives the ages of Faith, Hope, and Love as 12, 10, and 9. ”

“ The date we assign him will vary according as we attach more weight to the ancient Life of him, which professes to be based on a contemporary record (Acta SS. Aug. 5, vol. ii. p. 64) , as Ruinart prefers to do, or to a casual statement by Gregory of Tours, who was shewn his tomb (Glor. Conf. 74, 75) , as do Tillemont and the Bollandists. ”

“ Hieron., Rabanus assigns his death, and Notker his burial, to Feb. 20 (Rossi, ii. 104) . His commemoration on July 1 in the Mart. Hieron. is unexplained (ib. p. 105) . He was the last of the 12 popes buried in the crypt of Sixtus, in the cemetery of Callistus (ib. p. 105) . ”