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The Libelli of the Decian Persecution1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

John R. Knipfing
John R. Knipfing
Affiliation:
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
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Extract

Despite the admirable “Licht vom Osten” of Adolf Deissmann and the more recent studies of Cumont, Bousset, Norden, and Reitzenstein, the student of the history of religions can still set his plough to much fruitful soil in the field of the papyri. Even the intensively cultivated domain of church history could be broadened and enriched by studies derived from such data in their application to problems of Christian institutional and constitutional development, of monasticism, and of the sociological aspects of the church's expansion. In another quarter, that of the persecutions, the papyri have helped to an understanding of the genre littéraire of the Acts of the Martyrs, and to a more accurate conception of the relations of Roman state and Christian church. This last we owe particularly to the finds of Libelli from the period of the Decian persecution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 1923 , pp. 345 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1923

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References

2 Cf. Delehaye, H., Les passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires, Bruxelles, 1921, pp. 161–182 (with full bibliographical data).Google Scholar

3 Cf. Wilcken, U., Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, Leipzig, 1912, I, 2, p. 152Google Scholar; and Faulhaber, in Zeitschr. für Kathol. Theol., XLIII (1919), p. 627.Google Scholar

4 First published by Krebs, in Sitzungsberichte of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1893, pp. 1007–1014. Best edition now Wilcken, op. cit., I, 2, pp. 151 f.

5 Wessely, in Anzeiger, Vienna Academy, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1894, pp. 3 f., and in Patrologia orientalis, IV. 2 (1907), p. 118, no. 4.Google Scholar

6 Botti revealed its existence and content at the Second Congress of Christian Archaeologists, 1900. Cf. Revue des études grecques, 1901, p. 203. Published by Breccia in Bulletin de la société arch. d'Alexandrie, nouv. série, 1907. Best edition in Wilcken, op. cit., I, 2, pp. 152 f. (no. 125).

7 Oxyrhynchus Papyri (ed. Grenfell, and Hunt, ), IV, London, 1904, p. 49, no. 658.Google Scholar

8 Published by Wessely, in Patrologia orientalis, IV, 2, pp. 113–14, no. 1.

9 Abhandlungen, Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1910, Anhang, Abhdlg. V.

10 Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, I, 1911, p. 21, no. 12.

11 Amtliche Berichte aus den kgl. Kunstsammlungen zu Berlin, 1913, col. 117.

12 Catalogue of the Greek Papyri, John Rylands Library Manchester, II, 1915, pp. 94–96, nos. 112 a, b, c.

13 Meyer, P. M., Griechische Texte aus Aegypten, I, Berlin, 1916, pp. 77–79, nos. 15–17; and Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XII, 1916, p. 190, no. 1464.Google Scholar

14 Papiri greci e latini, V, Florence, 1917, pp. 23–24, no. 453.

15 Professor Arthur S. Hunt of Oxford first informed me of the existence of the Michigan and Wisconsin papyri. Professor A. E. R. Boak of Michigan kindly sent me the two Michigan transcripts (inventory nos. 262 and 263).

16 Transcript made by Professor A. G. Laird of Wisconsin (inventory no. 59). The addition of the name of the month Payni is mine.

17 Inventory nos. 275 and 316. Professor P. M. Meyer of the University of Berlin kindly sent me his own transcripts.

18 Classified as 112 (d) and 112 (e). I use Meyer's transcripts.

19 Abhandlungen, Berlin Academy, 1910, p. 25.

10 Griechische Texte aus Aegypten, I, pp. 75–76. Meyer states (p. 75) that six Theadelphian libelli went to Manchester, but, as he informs me by letter, in reality there were but five.

21 Plaumann (Amtliche Berichte aus den k. Kunstsammlungen zu Berlin, 1913, col. 119) is in accord with Meyer. So too Vitelli (Papiri greci e latini, V, p. 23).

22 Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 2, pp. 151 f., no. 124.

23 Wessely, in Patrologia orientalis, IV, 2 (1907), p. 118; and Meyer, Abhandlungen, 1910, pp. 31–32, no. 22.Google Scholar

24 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, IV, p. 49, no. 658; XII, p. 190, no. 1464.

25 Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 2, pp. 152–153, no. 125; and Rylands papyri, Catalogue, I, p. 21, no. 12.

26 Wisconsin papyri, inv. no. 59.

27 Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 2, no. 124, line 16.

28 “Les plus anciens monuments du christianisme écrits sur papyrus,” in Patrologia orientalis, IV, 2, p. 121.

29 ‘Die Libelli aus der Verfolgung des Decius,’ in Der Katholik, XXXVIII (1908), p. 178.Google Scholar

30 ‘Due Libelli originali di libellatici,’ in Nuovo Bulletino di arch. crist., 1895, p. 72. Franchi holds that Aurelius Diogenes wrote the libellus himself.

31 ‘Die Libelli in der Christenverfolgung des Kaisers Decius,’ in Zeitschrift für kath. Theologie, XLIII (1919), pp. 627–629.Google Scholar

32 Op. cit., I, 2, no. 124.

33 Loc. cit., p. 30, no. 21.

34 Meyer, Griechische Texte, I, p. 77, no. 15.

35 Wessely, Patrologia orientalis, IV, 2, p. 118, no. 4, lines 12–13.

36 Rylands papyri, Catalogue, I, p. 21, no. 12, lines 9–10.

37 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XII, p. 190, no. 1464, lines 14–17. Note also that the name ‘Aure[lius]’ is placed at the end of the line giving the date, another indication that the entire libellus was written by the same hand.

38 Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 2, pp. 152 f., no. 125.

39 Abhandlungen, 1910, pp. 22, 25.

40 So Faulhaber, loc. cit., p. 627. Bludau (loc. cit., p. 178) makes the all too sweeping generalization that the petition was written by the professional scribe and signed by the petitioner himself.

41 Meyer, Abhandlungen, 1910, pp. 25–27; Griechische Texte, p. 76.

42 Meyer, Abhandlungen, nos. 4, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, and 20.

43 Ibid., nos. 3, 12, and 19.

44 Foucart, ‘Leg certificats de sacrifice pendant la persécution de Decius (250),’ in Journal des Savants, 1908, p. 175; cf. Meyer, Abhandlungen, p. 20.

45 Namely Meyer, Abhandlungen, nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 (incomplete), 16, 20; Berlin Papyri (ed. Plaumann in Amtliche Berichte, 1913, 117); Rylands papyri, Catalogue, II, nos, 112 (a, b, c, d, and e); Meyer, Griechische Texte, nos. 15, 16, and 17; Pap. Flor., V, no. 453; Michigan papyri, inventory nos. 262–263; and Hamburg papyri, inventory no. 316.

46 Contained in seventeen of the above-mentioned twenty-five.

47 Abhandlungen, 1910, p. 22, n. 1.

48 Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 2, no. 124, lines 17–18.

49 Rylands papyri, Catalogue, I, no. 12, line 12. The certifications cited—of Aurelius Syrus and Aurelius Sabinus—afford sufficient proof to refute Schoenaich's view that the commission attested to the correct religious behavior of the Christians toward the state-cult, but not to the individual's consummation of an act of sacrifice. Cf. Schoenaich, , Die Libelli und ihre Bedeutung für die Christenverfolgung des Kaisers Decius, Glogau and Leipzig, 1910, pp. 9 f.Google Scholar

50 Jouguet, , La vie municipale dans l'Égypte romaine, Paris, 1911, pp. 37 f.Google Scholar; and Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 1, p. 42.

51 Costa, G., s.v. Decius, in De Ruggiero, Dizionario di antichità romane, vol. II (1910), pp. 1486 f. Costa maintains, despite the fourth-century analogies discovered by Mommsen (Staatsrecht, II, 1, p. 338, n. 3), that the account in the Hist. Aug. (vita Valeriani, 5,3–6, 9, ed. H. Peter) of Valerian's appointment as censor is historically founded.Google Scholar

52 Neumann, K. J. (in Orientalische Studien T. Nöldeke gewidmet, II, Giessen, 1906, p. 835) holds negligible the view of Decius' attachment to the old Roman statecult. Decius' general edict of persecution, however, and the contents of the libelli are sufficient proof to the contrary. Cf. Faulhaber, loc. cit., pp. 445–448; and Duchesne, Hist. anc. de l'église, I, 4th ed., pp. 367 f.Google Scholar

53 Cyprian, Epist. 43, 3 (ed. Hartel. in CSEL, 1871): quinque primores illi qui edicto nuper magistratibus fuerant copulati.

54 Acta Sanctorum, February 3, pp. 633–635. Cp. Allard, P., Dix leçons sur le martyr, 2d ed., Paris, 1907, pp. 255 f.Google Scholar

55 de' Cavalieri, Franchi, ‘Osservazioni sulle Leggende dei SS. Martiri Mena e Trifone,’ in Studi e Testi, 19, Rome, 1908, p. 27, n. 1.Google Scholar

56 Cf. Eusebius, De mart. palest., 4, 8, the longer recension, ed. Schwartz, in GCS, Eusebius' Werke, 2. Band, 2. Teil (1908), p. 914, line 24.

57 Cf. Pionii, Passio, ch. 3, in Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta, Berlin, 1902, p. 97.Google Scholar

58 This seems to be a reasonable interpretation of the evidence contained in the more authentic of the Decian acta martyrum. This evidence contradicts the view of Foucart (loc. cit., p. 176), that the sphere of the magistrate's power commenced only when the inhabitant had refused to sacrifice or had in some other way declared himself a Christian.

59 On the date of the martyrdom of Pionius see Corssen, , in Zeitschrift f. d. neutest. Wissenschaft, V (1904), pp. 266 ff.Google Scholar

60 Cf. BHG, 1328. Cf. Aubé, B., L'église et l'éetat dans la seconde moitié du IIIe siècle, Paris, 1885, p. 508Google Scholar. For date cf. also Tillemont, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, III (1701), p. 309.Google Scholar

61 I base this date on Cyprian's use of the word ‘nuper’ in referring to the activities of the commission at Carthage. Cf. Ep. 43, 3 (ed. Hartel). Ritschl and Nelke, the chief authorities on the chronology of Cyprian's correspondence, both date the letter in March 251. Cf. Bardenhewer, O., Geschichte der altkirchlichen Litteratur, II, 1903, pp. 434 f.Google Scholar

62 Theol. Literaturzeitung, 1894, col. 41.

63 See infra, p. 362.

64 So Franchi de' Cavalieri, in Studi e Testi, 19, p. 37. Cf. Cyprian, Ep. 59, 13 and 18 (Carthage); De Lapsis, 24–25 (Carthage); Ep. 8, 2 and 21, 3 (Rome); also Passio Pionii, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8; Martyrium S. Tryphonis, ed. Franchi de' Cavalieri, in Studi e Testi, 19, p. 56, lines 7–8, p. 70, lines 2–3; Acta disputationis S. Achatii, 2, ed. Gebhardt, pp. 116 f.; Passio S. Saturnini, 4 (ed. Ruinart, 1859), p. 178; and Acta SS. Martyrum Petri, Andreae, Pauli. et Dionysiae, 1–4 (ed. Ruinart), pp. 205 f. Technically speaking, the living emperor was not included among the θεοί; sacrifices in his honor were to his genius, to his fortuna (τύχη), or pro salute. Cf. Blumenthal, , ‘Der aegyptische Kaiserkult,’ in Archiv für Papyrusforschung, V (1913), p. 328.Google Scholar

65 The Decian Persecution, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 73.Google Scholar

66 On the supplicatio see especially Toutain, J., s.v., in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités, IV, 2 (1911), pp. 1565–68Google Scholar; and Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2d ed., Munich, 1912, pp. 399 f.Google Scholar

67 Cyprian, Ep. 30, 3.

68 Cyprian, Ep. 55, 3, 14, 17, 20; De Lapsis, 8, 27, 28; Ad Fortunatum, 11.

69 Cyprian, Ep. 67, 6.

70 Eusebius, Hist. eccles. (ed. Schwartz), vi, 41, 11. Faulhaber (loc. cit., p. 451) has added Lugdunum to this list of places, on the testimony of Hirschfeld, O., Sitzungsberichte, Berlin Academy, 1895, I, pp. 396 f.Google Scholar

71 Cf. Meyer, , Abhandlungen, 1910, p. 21.Google Scholar

72 Cf. H. Leclercq, s.v. Dèce, in Dict. d'arch. chrét. et de liturgie, fasc. xxxv–xxxvi (1916), col. 314; and Schoenaich, op. cit., p. 10.

73 This is made clear by some of the Theadelphian libelli, e.g., Meyer, Abhandlungen, no. 11: παρὰ Αὐρηλίας Καμίς ἀπὸ κώμης Φιλαγρίδος κατα[μέ]νουσα ἐν κώμῃ Θεα[δελ]ϕείᾳ …

74 The names are given in the chronological order of publication of the respective libelli.

75 Die Liturgie, Studien zur ptolemäischen und kaiserlichen Verwaltung Aegyptens, Leipzig, 1917.Google Scholar

76 Cf. the above-cited works of Duchesne, Faulhaber, Foucart, Gregg, Harnack, Leclercq, Meyer, and Wessely. So too H. Achelis, Das Christentum in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, II (1912), p. 267; Costa, , Impero romano ed il cristianesimo, Rome, 1915, p. 40Google Scholar; Labriolle, , Histoire de la littérature latine chrétienne, Paris, 1920, p. 198Google Scholar; Linsenmayer, , Die Bekämpfang des Christentums durch den römischen Staat, Munich, 1905, pp. 132 f.Google Scholar; Manaresi, , L'impero romano e il cristianesimo, Turin, 1914, p. 340; and Offord, in Ancient Egypt, 1917, p. 149.Google Scholar

77 The date is based on the chronology and somewhat indefinite contents of Cyprian, Ep. 37, 2. The first half of January 250 is also possible, for the earliest martyrdom is that of Pope Fabian, January 20, 250. Cf. Duchesne, , Liber Pontificalis, I (1886), p. 149, n. 8.Google Scholar

78 Mommsen, Römisches Strafrecht, 1899, pp. 568 f.; and Wissowa, op. cat., p. 400.

79 This is the elaboration of a suggestion of Professor W. S. Ferguson.

80 Papyri Gissen., ed. Kornemann and P. M. Meyer, I. 2 (Leipzig, 1910), pp. 42–43, no. 40. The revised text in Meyer, P. M., Juristische Papyri, Berlin, 1920, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

81 Cf. Bloch, G., L'empire romain, Paris, 1922, p. 208.Google Scholar Cf. Meyer (op. cit., p. 1) for full bibliography on the problem.

82 Cf. Wilcken, , in Archiv für Papyrusforschung, 1911, pp. 82–83; id., Grundzüge, I, 1, pp. 57–60.Google Scholar

83 Cf. Radin, M., The Jews among the Greeks and Romans, Phila., 1915, p. 361.Google Scholar

84 Einführung in die Papyruskunde, Berlin, 1918, p. 269.Google Scholar

85 Klebs, s.v. Aurelius, in Pauly-Wissowa, II (1896), col. 2431.

86 Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, 3. Aufl., Leipzig, 1915, II, p. 167.Google Scholar

87 Kornemann, , in Gercke and Norden, Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft, 2. Aufl., III (1914), p. 229; Meyer, Abhandlungen, 1910, pp. 19–20; Offord, loc. cit., p. 151; Plaumann, loc. cit., col. 120; and Preuschen, in Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte für Studierende, hrsg. von G. Krüger, I, Tübingen, 1912, p. 107.Google Scholar

88 Michigan papyri, inventory no. 262, line 3.

89 Cyprian, Ep. 55, 13–14, 3, 17, 20; 30, 3; De Lapsis, 27–28. Cf. the illuminating commentary of Faulhaber (loc. cit., pp. 618–626) on these passages.

90 Cyprian, ibid.

91 Loc. cit., cols. 336–337.

92 Hamburg papyri, in Meyer, Abhandlungen, no. 6, pp. 7–8; and Berlin papyri, inventory no. 13430, ed. Plaumann, , in Amtliche Berichte aus den kgl. Kunstsammlungen zu Berlin, 1913, col. 117.Google Scholar

93 Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 2, pp. 152–153, no. 125. Cf. ibid., p. 153 (commentary); Bludau, in Der Katholik, 1908, p. 177; and Leclercq, loc. cit., col. 320, n. 5.

94 Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen, 3. Aufl., bearb. von Benseler, 1875.

95 Die historischen Personennamen des Griechischen bis zur Kaiserzeit, Halle, 1917.Google Scholar

96 Aegyptische und griechische Eigennamen aus Mumienetiketten der römischen Kaiserzeit, Leipzig, 1901.Google Scholar

97 Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung, II, 3d ed., p. 173.

98 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, IV, p. 49, no. 658; XII, p. 190, no. 1464.

99 Eusebius, Hist. eccles. (ed. Schwartz), vi, 41, 19; vii, 11, 24.

100 Acta apostolorum apocrypha, ed. Lipsius, I (1891), pp. 235–272.

101 Eusebius, op. cit., vi, 41, 8; vii, 44, 2.

102 Ibid., vi, 42, 3.

103 Ibid., vi, 41, 15.

104 Cyprian, ed. Hartel, in CSEL, III, 1 (1868), p. 454: Irenaeus ab Vlulis.

105 Wilcken, op. cit., I, 2, pp. 152–153, no. 125.

106 See Faulhaber (loc. cit., p. 463, n. 3) for a list of writers who hold that the Decian edict was a command of sacrifice specifically addressed to the Christians. The list comprises Schoenaich, Bludau, Tillemont, Mosheim, Bekker, Peters, Görres, Schlemmer, Aubé, Allard, Harnack, Bihlmeyer, and Wilcken. I believe that he misrepresents the views of Wilcken (cf. Grundzüge, I, 2, p. 152): “wird anzunehmen sein, dass … Decius von allen Personen das vorgeschriebene Opfer verlangt hat.” Achelis (op. cit., II, p. 267), Deissmann (Licht vom Osten, 1909, p. 24), Duchesne (op. cit., I, p. 368), Kirsch (s.v. Lapsi, in Catholic Ency., IX, p. 1), Monceaux (Hist. litt. de l'Afrique chrét., II (1902), p. 21)Google Scholar, V. Schultze (s.v. Decius, in Hauck-Herzog, Realencyklopädie f. prot. Theol., XXIII (1913), p. 340) have likewise limited the edict to the Christians.Google Scholar

107 Petesouchos was the crocodile-god and patron of the nome—the gift of Souchos, the crocodile-headed king and anthropomorphized god. Cf. Wilcken, Grundzüge, I, 1, p. 106; and Hofer, s.v. Petesouchos, in Roscher, Lexicon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, III, 2 (1902–1909), cols. 2171–72.Google Scholar

108 Cf. Eusebius. De mart. palest., ed. Schwartz, in GCS, 3, 1, p. 910, line 4; and the longer recension, ed. Schwartz, 4, 8, p. 914, lines 23 and 25.

109 The libelli are given in the chronological order of their publication; the seven unpublished ones come at the end. The lines of the papyrus originals are followed, Square brackets [ ] indicate lacunae or mistaken omissions in the original; parentheses ( ) indicate the resolution of an abbreviation; points in the place of letters in the text itself indicate letters lost, deleted, mutilated, or illegible.

110 The addition of the name of the month is mine.

111 This libellus and the three which follow (nos. 39, 40, and 41) I owe to the courtesy of Professor P. M. Meyer of the University of Berlin. In regard to the two unpublished Rylands libelli (nos. 40 and 41) he has written me, Dec. 2, 1922: “Da meine Lesungen in aller Schnelligkeit erfolgt sind und ich sie nicht nachprüfen konnte, bitte ich Sie, nicht auf etwaige Abweichungen von der definitiven Lesung hinweisen zu wollen.”