| Antoninus Pius. | PIUS, Ninth Bishop of Rome. |
Year of Christ 142.
Anicetus is placed next to Hyginus by Optatus[[185]], St. Augustin[[186]], and Epiphanius[[187]]: But who would not, with Eusebius[[188]], rather follow Irenæus[[189]], and Hegesippus[[190]], naming Pius immediately after Hyginus, since the former wrote in the Time of Eleutherius the Second Bishop after Anicetus; and the latter lived at Rome in the Time of Anicetus, and continued there till the Pontificate of Eleutherius.
Marcion comes to
Rome.
In the Time of Pius, Marcion, a Native of Pontus, and the Son of a Bishop of the holy Catholic Church, says Epiphanius[[191]], being excommunicated by his Father for debauching a Virgin, and finding he could by no means prevail upon the venerable Prelate to receive him again into the Church, abandoned his native City, supposed to be Sinope, and fled to Rome. Upon his Arrival there, he applied to the Elders of that Church, intreating them to admit him to their Communion. But those holy Men, who had been taught by the Disciples of the Apostles, instead of complying with his Request, returned him this Answer; |The Power of
receiving Appeals
disowned by the
Church of Rome.| We cannot admit you without Leave from your holy Father; nor can we, as we are all united in the same Faith, and the same Sentiments, undo what our holy Collegue your Father has done.--Thus Epiphanius[[192]]. Had Bellarmine lived in those Days, he had taught them another Doctrine, a Doctrine which, however necessary, the Apostles had forgot to deliver to their Disciples; viz. That the See of Rome was raised above all other Sees; that the Appeals of the whole Catholic Church were to be brought to it; that no Appeals were to be made from it; that it was to judge of the whole Church, but be judged by none. Marcion did not apply to Pius, as the Reader must have observed, or at least did not apply to him alone, but to the Elders, who disclaimed all Power of reversing the Sentence of a particular Bishop or Judge. And is not this an evident and incontestable Proof that the Power of receiving Appeals was not known, or thought of, in those Days? And yet, who would believe it? Bellarmine has the Assurance to allege this very Case as an Argument to prove in the Pope a Power of receiving Appeals[[193]]. But what would become of this Prerogative, should the Pope return the same Answer to every Appellant?
Pius no Martyr.
Pius governed the Church for the Space of Fifteen Years, and died in 157. the Twentieth of Antoninus[[194]]. The Roman Martyrology tells us, that he was martyred in the Persecution of Antoninus Pius; but in that Prince’s Reign there was no Persecution; nor is the Title of Martyr given him by Irenæus. |Writings ascribed
to him.| Baronius ascribes to this Pope a Decree, commanding the Festival of Easter to be kept on Sunday, and quotes the Chronicle of Eusebius[[195]]. This Decree is indeed mentioned in some Editions of that Writer; but Scaliger assures us, that no Mention is made of it in any Manuscript Copy; and therefore he has left it out in his Edition[[196]]. As to the Celebration of Easter, it is manifest from Irenæus, that though Pius, as well as his Predecessors Sixtus, Telesphorus and Hyginus, differed from the Bishops of Asia, yet they did not on that Account separate themselves from their Communion[[197]]. On this Pope are fathered several spurious Pieces, viz. some Decrees, Two Letters ranked among the Decretals, and Two more written to Justus Bishop of Vienne in Dauphiné. The Decrees, as well as the Decretals, are universally rejected; and yet F. Pagi quotes one of them to prove the real Presence in the Sacrament[[198]]. The two Letters to Justus are deemed genuine by Baronius[[199]], by Cardinal Bona[[200]], and by Blondel in his Treatise of the Sibyls[[201]], who nevertheless suspects them elsewhere[[202]]. On the other hand, they are absolutely rejected as false by Dr. Pearson[[203]], by Cotelerius[[204]], and Natalis Alexander[[205]], who discover several Expressions in them that were not in Use till some Ages after, and a great many Incoherences. To say with Le Sueur, That they were written originally in Greek, and in latter Times translated into Latin[[206]], is but a poor Evasion. As for the Fable of Hermes, the Brother of Pius, who, by the Command of an Angel appearing to him in the Disguise of a Shepherd, is said to have written a Book shewing, that Easter ought to be kept on Sunday, I refer the Reader to Platina, and such-like Writers.
| Antoninus, | ANICETUS, Tenth Bishop of Rome. | M. Aurelius. |