However this may be, there have existed since the eighth century numerous MSS. of a collection of the names of the martyrs of all times and countries belonging to the Roman Empire which went by the name of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, and to which was attached two reputed letters of St Jerome to Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia, and to Heliodorus, Bishop of Altinum. The work corresponds to that mentioned by Cassiodorus.
Upon close examination, it is quite clear that the work, as we have it now, cannot have been composed by St Jerome. It includes the names of many persons who lived at a date subsequent to St Jerome, as, for example, to name one out of many, St Gregory the Great on the 12th March. In other respect the names do not extend beyond the seventh century, as appears upon an inspection of the earliest codices. In later recensions we naturally meet with the names of many persons who lived at a still later date.
As regards the date of composition, the personality of the compiler and kindred questions, we are face to face with an historical and literary problem resembling that of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and the Donation of Constantine. Still some light has now been cast upon these difficulties, since we have at last a thoroughly critical text of the document, the investigations of De Rossi and Duchesne having determined which of the existing MSS. is the earliest.[773]
Among the MSS. belonging to the eighth century, is one written for the Monastery of Weissenburg in the diocese of Spires, now preserved in Wolfenbüttel, Codex Wisseniburgensis, 23. De Rossi believed it was written shortly before the death of Abbot Wando († 756) of Fontanelle in the diocese of Rouen, because his death has been added by a later hand on XV. Kal. Mai. It is certain that the codex was written before 772, because this date is referred to in it. Of about the same period is the Parisian Codex 10 837, belonging to Echternach. It is written in an Anglo-Saxon hand, and is perhaps somewhat later than the former, but is derived from an original MS. certainly older than the Weissenburg Codex. This view which is that of De Rossi gains support from the fact that the two festivals in honour of the Holy Cross are not contained in the codex, while they appear in the Weissenburg and all later codices. Both codices are full of errors of grammar and spelling. The codex from the monastery of Hilariacum originally belonging to Metz and now at Berne, is more correct and better written, but unfortunately only extends to the 21st November. The latest entries made in it by the first hand belong to the year 766 and refer to Bishop Chrodegang. The text dates from the time of Clotaire II. (584-628).
These three most ancient recensions do not differ from one another to any great extent, but the MSS. belonging to later times, when the work was often copied and used, show much greater divergencies, for alterations and additions were continually being made in it corresponding to the requirements of the local churches and monasteries where it was employed.
Since the two learned editors have succeeded in detecting the original matter common to the three recensions, we are in possession of the following result: the martyrology which formed the original source of all later texts as far as they are known to us was written in Auxerre between 592 and 600. The grounds for this conclusion are briefly as follows: the compiler is evidently well informed as to ecclesiastical and secular events in Gaul, in fact far better than with regard to any other country. In naming the cities of Gaul, he gives the provinces in which they are situated, and gives also many unusual details respecting the individuals named, as for example when he gives in the case of bishops, not only the day on which they died, but the date of their ordinations as well; the names are also always given correctly, while in other documents they are often frightfully distorted. A circumstance which especially points to Auxerre as the locality from which the martyrology originated is that this not very important city is mentioned thirty times while the neighbouring and much larger city of Lyons is named only twenty-six times. Moreover, all the bishops of Auxerre, with one solitary exception, are named, while there are many gaps in the lists of the bishops of Lyons and Autun. Thirdly, a litania is enjoined on the first of each month, and this custom was peculiar to the Church of Auxerre, having just been introduced at that time by Bishop Aunarius. Again, the day of the ordination of this not very famous Bishop Aunarius is marked (II. Kal. Aug.), but not as we might have expected the day of his death. The same holds good of Syagrius, Bishop of Autun; the date of his consecration (natale suscepti episcopatus) is given, but not the date of his death which happened in 599 or 600. The last Gallic bishop whose death is noticed is Avitus of Clermont († 592).
On account of these facts, Duchesne arrived at the conclusion that the so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum originated at Auxerre between 592 and 600. This conclusion is not weakened by the fact that personages belonging to the seventh century are included,[774] such as Desiderius of Vienne († 606-7), Columbanus († 615), Eustasius, Abbot of Luxeuil († 629), and Abbot Attala, the date of whose death is unknown. Desiderius, indeed, appears in the Berne and Weissenburg Codices, and the three others in that of Echternach, but they have been added by the transcribers, and both De Rossi and Duchesne are agreed that none of these codices represent the original text composed at Auxerre.
The editors go yet further, and show that the compiler was also very well informed concerning ecclesiastical matters in Italy, especially in Northern Italy and Milan; while he has comparatively little to say about Spain, Rhætia, Dalmatia, Pannonia, and nothing at all about Scotto-Irish saints. This postulates the existence of a yet older work, used by the compiler of Auxerre, which may have been identical with the work familiar to Cassiodorus.[775] This document, however, has entirely disappeared without leaving behind it any other documents derived from it. If one follows the perspective thus opened out, the connecting links may finally come to light which connect this document with the work of Eusebius, referred to by Eulogius of Alexandria and in the two letters attributed to St Jerome.
However, we shall not follow these interesting suggestions further, but shall content ourselves with the fact that in the Hieronymianum, in the earliest form in which it has come down to us, we have a primitive martyrology,[776] with additions and alterations made to it by a Frankish transcriber or compiler between 592-600. In its original form it contained only saints belonging to the Græco-Roman empire, and this accounts for the absence of the Irish saints and those of Mesopotamia. Thus at last the so-called Hieronymianum has been made serviceable for use in historical and liturgical investigations; the learned editors, in giving us as far as possible the original text, have given us for the first time a reliable edition of the document, and the Bollandists have rendered the work still more serviceable by the addition of a reliable alphabetical index, thus considerably lightening the labours of those who use this work. This is no common gain for liturgical study, since the Hieronymianum, obtained in the course of time, an increasingly prominent position, more prominent indeed at last than it deserved; moreover it has not been without its influence upon later martyrologies and calendars, and has had an appreciable effect even on the development of the Church’s cycle of festivals.
To know the number and condition of the Christians who had laid down their lives for the faith within the limits of the Roman empire would be of the highest interest now and always; to record the name, date, and locality of each with statistical accuracy would have been a work deserving the thanks of posterity. It might have been done immediately after the cessation of the Diocletian persecution, but only with the assistance of the secular authorities. Eulogius and the writer of the letters ascribed to St Jerome were on the right track in thinking that Eusebius had undertaken to furnish a work of this character with the assistance of the emperor; the latter informs us that Eusebius actually did so, and that the collection contained the names of from five to eight hundred martyrs for every day of the year, thus giving a total of between 182,500 and 292,000 martyrs.