Volume 2

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

999/1016 (page 2051)

$least of the narrators of this miracle, viz. Aeneas of Gaza, a rhetorician and philosopher (in Theo- pkrasto\ the emperor Justinian (Cod'. Justin, i. tit. 30), and count Marcellinus, his former chan- cellor (Chronic. Marcellin.'), were witnesses both of the mutilation inflicted, and the capacity to articulate in the case of some of these martyrs who were living in their time. Marcellinus adds that one of the confessors having been born dumb, spoke for the first time after the excision of his tongue. Procopius (de Bell. Vandal, i. 7) states that two—Gregory I. (Dial. iii. 32) that one—out of their nuxnber lost their supernatural power of speech thi’ough having lapsed into evil living. No contemporary authority gives the number of the confessors; in an old menology it was fixed at sixty (Victor Vitensis in Migne, Patrol. Lot. Iviii. 245; Gibbon, xxxvii.; New- ' man, on Mir. cc.-ccxiii.). Other examples of the preservation of speech after mutilation occur in the instances of Aigulphus of Lerins, A.D. 675, and his companions (Acta SS. Ben. saec. ii.), and Leger bishop of Autun, A.D. 678 (ibid.); while of miraculous healing of another kind, we find an example in the instance of a band of five Catholic slaves in Africa who, after having been beaten, not once, but on several occa- sions, almost to death, had their wounds invari- ably cured by the morrow (Fleury, xxviii. 58).** (2) As an example of protection and succour accorded to large bodies of men, we may take the miiacle of the so-called thundering legion. When the emperor Marcus Aurelius was waging war against the Quadri, his troops on one occasion suffered greatly owing to the heat and from thirst. Amongst his soldiers were many Chris- tians. Those who belonged to the Meliteno legion fell on their knees in prayer; a shower of rain fell, refreshing and invigorating the Roman army, but terrifying and dispersing the enemy, to whom it had proved a storm of thunder and lightning. Such in the main is the account with which Eusebius (Hist. v. 5) prefaces the original statement of Claudius Apollinaris bishop of Hierapolis, in an apology addressed to Marcus Aurelius, A.D, 176, although no longer extant, and the few words in which Tertulliau (Apol. 5, ad Scap. 4) alludes to the event. Dion Cassius (Hist. Ixxi.), omitting all reference to the prayers of the Christians, speaks of the occurrence as “ a wonderful and providential preservation,” which he attributes to magic, as Julius Capitolinus (in Marc. Aurel.') to the emperor’s prayers. The event itself is represented, with pagan features in the mode of rendering, on a bas-relief of the Antonine column in Rome. Manifestly, however, it is erroneous to derive the title “ thundering legion ” from this occurrence, as it already existed and was as old as the time of Augustus. Baronius’s explanation (Ann. 176, 20) is that the Christian soldiers were in all parts of the army, and after this were incorporated into the existing thundering legion (Newman, on Mir, cxiii.- exxii.; Migne, Diet, des Mir. t. i. p. 759). As examples of protection afforded to indivi- b These cases of recovered speech after mutilation of the tongue have been Investigated in a special treatise by the Hon. E. Twisleton, who has quoted several cases in modem times, authenticated by well-known surgeons, in which persons thus mutilated have been able to speak. [C.] CHRIST. ANT.—VOL. II. duals we may note the instance of Theotimus, bishop of Toini, A.D. 400, who became invisible to his pursuers (Fleury, xxi. 5) ; St. Martin of Tours, the arm of whose assailant fell powerless (Sulp. Sev. Fiia, 13); Armogastus, a young Catholic in Theodoric’s seiwice, whose limbs were freed from their bonds on his signing the cross and invoking Christ (Fleury, xxviii. 59). Of pro- tection against the fatal effects of poison we find an example in the instance of Sabinus, bishop of Canusium, A.D. 593 (Greg. M. Dial. iii. 5), also of Samson, bishop of Dol, a.d. 565 circ. (Acta SS. Ben. saec. i.); and of miraculous succour, under circumstances of difficulty or absolute want, in the instances of Clovis who, when marching against the Visigoths, was after prayer guided to the right place for crossing the Vienne by a stag which began to ford it (Greg. Turon. ii. 37), and of St. Columban and his companions, who were fed by ravens in a time of famine (Acta SS. Ben. saec. ii.). Comp, also the in- stance of a prior in Life of Austregisile (ibid.). 2. Miracles of power. (1) Punitive; (2) Marvels. (1) Of this class was the fiery eruption on the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem. The emperor Julian had given orders for the rebuilding of the Temple, having entrusted the superintendence of the work to his lieutenant Alypius, and himself issued invitations to the Jews of all countries to assemble at Jerusalem and aid him in accomplishing his purpose. Of the marvellous manner in which the work was interrupted and the imperial designs thw'arted, we learn the particulars, some from one writer, soipe from another. A whirlwind arose, scat- tering heaps of lime and sand in every direction ; a storm of thunder and lightning fell, melting in its violence the implements of the workmen; an earthquake followed, casting up the founda- tion of the old Temple, filling in the new excava- tions and causing the fall of buildings, especially the public porticoes beneath which the terrified multitude had sought shelter. When the work- men resumed their labours balls of fire burst out beneath their feet, not once only, but as often as they attempted to continue the undertaking. The fiery mass traversed the streets, repelling from the doors of a church, even with loss of life or limb, those who had tied to it for safety. This miracle has the support of contemporary .writers. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. v. 4), and Ammianus Marcellinus (Hist, xxiii. 1); and of later historians Rufinus (Hist. i. 37), Socrates (iii. 20), Sozomen (v. 22), Theodoret (Hist. Eccl. iii. 20). See Warburton’s Julian; Gibbon, c. xxiii.; Newman, on Mir. clxxv.; Migne, Diet, des Mir. t. ii. p. 1115. With regard to the death of Arius, the event was regarded by the Catholic party in general as a direct interposition of Pro- vidence in their fa\'our, and in answer to the prayers of the bishop of Constantinople and his clergy, and by Athanivsius himself as a sufficient refutation of the Aritm heresy (Athanas. Ded. Epist. ad MonachoSy 3 Op. v. i. 344 ; Milman, Hist, of Christianiti/y hk. III. iv.). Amongst miracles of this class those of an anti-Arian complexion are indeed conspicuous. We may instance the story of an Arian bishop who was struck blind when about to force his way into a Catholic church (Greg. M. Dial. iii. 29); of a man who, when counterfeiting blindness at the 130$