apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

HADRIAN, PIUS, AND MARCUS. $2 1
justissimo' of Antoninus Pius; viii. 2547 'fortissimo liberalissimoque principe',
VI. 1009 'optimo ac piissimo', ib. 1014 'omnes omnium ante se maximorum imperatorum
glorias supergressus bellicosissimis gentibus deletis aut subactis', of M. Aurelius
The last is dated A.D. 176, and forms part of an inscription commemorating the
Germanic and Sarmatian victories of M. Aurelius. Thus it is quasi-official, and
shows the sort of language which was applied to the emperors at the time with
their own approval. Hence, so far as it goes, the expression 'invictissimi imperatores
' of the Acts is favourable to De Rossi's date. Moreover De Rossi is
satisfied that the chamber containing the tomb of Csecilia, or at least the original part
of it (for it has been enlarged and lighted from above at a later date), is older than the
papal crypt with which it is connected (11, p. 152 sq). On this architectural argument
I shall not venture to express an opinion. But the difficulty arising from the date of
Pope Urban (a.d. 222— 230) still remains. De Rossi's solution is as follows. He
finds notices in the Martyrologies, Itineraries, Catalogues, etc, at the same time, of a
tomb of a bishop Urban in the Cemetery of Prsetextatus, and likewise of another in
the Cemetery of Callistus. The latter grave is still found in the papal crypt with the
inscription OYPBAN02 E Hence — he supposes that there were two Urbans the
one bishop of Rome, the other bishop of some unknown place, but residing in the
neighbourhood of Rome during the persecution — the former a confessor, the latter
a martyr
— the one belonging to the age of Alexander Severus, the other to that of M.
Aurelius. He believes therefore that there is a confusion in the Acts of S. Crecilia,
and that her friend was not the bishop of Rome, but this otherwise unknown person
who afterwards himself suffered martyrdom. To this earlier Urban he assigns the
grave in the papal crypt. The inscription was engraved on a marble slab of an altartomb
in a niche, whereas the epitaphs of the bishops of Rome belong to the loculi
at the sides of the chamber. This fact indicates an earlier date for Urban, as the
principal position would be filled first (11. pp. 52 sq, 152 sq). This confusion of the
two persons likewise explains how Pope Urban is sometimes called a martyr, though
he had no claim to this distinction. Moreover in the list of bishops and others buried
in the papal crypt which was inscribed there by Sixtus IH. (a.d. 432— 440), as ingeniously
restored by De Rossi, Urbanus occurs, not among the popes, whose names stand
together at the head of the list, but lower down among others (il. p. 33 sq). Altogether
De Rossi has worked out his view with great penetration and ingenuity; and no
abbreviation, such as I have attempted, can do justice to it. The theory of the two
Urbans was not first started by De Rossi. It had been suggested before by Tillemont
{Memoires ill. p. 686), and adopted by Sollier (Usuardi 3Iartyr. 25 Maii) and others,
to explain the phenomena; but De Rossi's investigations and combinations have
given shape and consistency to it. It cannot indeed be regarded as certain ;
but it
may be accepted provisionally, as the only theory hitherto propounded which explains
the facts. Lipsius subjects it to a rigid criticism, but he is obliged in the end to
confess that this hypothesis may possibly be correct (p. 183). He will not however
allow that the Urban of the papal crypt lived as early as the time of M. Aurelius.
Yet, if a second Urban be once conceded, this date has greater claims to
acceptance than any other, both by reason of the architectural argiunent, of which
I shall not attempt to appraise the value, and also on account of the direct statement
of Ado, which is the moi'e valuable because it is quite independent of, and indeed
contradictory to, the Acts. On the other hand I cannot attach much weight to De
Rossi's argument (11. p. 150) from the resemblance of the imperial edict in the Acts
§ 24 'Domini invicti imperatores jusserunt, ut qui non negaveiint se esse Christianos