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Histoire ecclésiastique
CHAPITRE X : QUELS FURENT SOUS LE RÈGNE D'ANTONIN LES ÉVÈQUES DES ROMAINS ET DES ALEXANDRINS
[1] Ce prince subit sa destinée après vingt et un ans de règne [10 juillet 138]. Antonin le Pieux lui succéda à l'empire. La première année de son gouvernement, arriva la mort de Télesphore, dans la onzième année de sa charge, Hygin fut choisi pour l'épiscopat des Romains.
Irénée raconte que Télesphore illustra sa mort par le martyre ; au même endroit, il nous montre que, sous Hygin, l'évêque des Romains, dont nous venons de parler, Valentin, auteur de la secte qui porte son propre nom, et Cerdon, chef de celle de l'erreur de Marcion, florissaient tous deux à Rome. Voici ce qu'il en écrit ;1
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Sur le rescrit d'Hadrien, voy. l'article de M. CALLLEWAERT, dans la Revue d'histoire, et de littérature religieuses, t. VIII (1903), p. 152 suiv. La traduction d'Eusèbe s'est substituée au texte latin dans le ms. de Justin. Un assez grand nombre d'historiens ont considéré le texte latin, donné par Rufin, comme l'original. Bien que cette opinion soit très probablement fausse (voy. CALLEWAERT, l. c, p. 181), nous croyons utile de reproduire ce texte ci-dessous. Exemplum epistulae imperatoris Hadriani ad Minuciuin Fundanum proconsulem Asiae, « Accepi litteras ad me scriptas a decessore tuo Serennio Graniano clarissimo uiro et non placet mihi relationem silentio praeterire, ne et innoxii perturbentur et calumnia- 512 toribus latrocinandi tribuatur occasio. Itaque si euidzenter prouinciales huic petitioni suae adesse ualent aduersum Christianos, ut pro tribunali eos in aliquo arguant, hoc eis exequi non prohibeo. Precibus autem in hoc solis et adclamotionibus uti eis non permitto. Etenim multo aequius est, si quis uolet accusare, te cognoscere de obiectis. Si quis igitur accusat et probat aduersum leges quicquam agere, memoratos homines, pro merito peccatorum etiam supplicia statues. Illud mehercule magnopere curabis, ut si quis calumuiae gratia quemquam horum postulauerit reum, in hunc pro sui nequitia suppliciis seuerioribus uindices. » ↩
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The Church History of Eusebius
Chapter X.--The Bishops of Rome and of Alexandria during the Reign of Antoninus.
Adrian having died after a reign of twenty-one years, 1 was succeeded in the government of the Romans by Antoninus, called the Pious. In the first year of his reign Telesphorus 2 died in the eleventh year of his episcopate, and Hyginus became bishop of Rome. 3 Irenaeus records that Telesphorus' death was made glorious by martyrdom, 4 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. 5 He writes as follows: 6
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Hadrian reigned from Aug. 8, 117, to July 10, 138 a.d. ↩
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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. ↩
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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. ↩
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In his Adv. Haer. III. 3. 3. The testimony of Irenaeus 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. ↩
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On Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion, see the next chapter. ↩
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Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. III. 4. 3. ↩