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2.: EXILE OF MARCELLUS AND EUSEBIUS, BISHOPS OF ROME — ( P. 77 ) - Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 3 [1776]

Edition used:

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury with an Introduction by W.E.H. Lecky (New York: Fred de Fau and Co., 1906), in 12 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 12 vols.

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2.

EXILE OF MARCELLUS AND EUSEBIUS, BISHOPS OF ROME — (P. 77)

Most interesting traces of the early Bishops of Rome have been found in the Catacombs. We owe them to the activity of Bishop Damasus in subterranean Rome. The subject can be studied in English, in the “Roman Sotteranea” of Messrs. Northcote and Brownlow (2 vols.), an excellent compilation from the researches of the Cavaliere di Rossi, the greatest authority of this century on Christian Rome.

Marcellus and Marcellinus were “different persons.” Marcellinus is mentioned in the inscription of the Deacon Severus found in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus (op. cit. i. 350). Both Marcellus and Marcellinus were buried not in this cemetery but in that of St. Priscilla (ib. 304).

Eusebius, the successor of Marcellus, was like him severe to the “Lapsed,” and like him banished. This is shown by the following inscription, found in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus, — the fellow of that relating to Marcellus quoted in Gibbon’s note (p. 77).

  • Heraclius vetuit lapsos peccata dolere;
  • Eusebius miseros docuit sua crimina flere.
  • scinditur in partes populus gliscente furore;
  • seditio caedes bellum discordia lites;
  • extemplo pariter pulsi feritate tyranni,
  • integra cum rector servaret foedera pacis,
  • pertulit exilium domino sub iudice laetus,
  • litore Trinacrio mundum vitamque reliquit.

The author of these epitaphs had a limited vocabulary. But they throw light on the divisions in the Roman Church at the time, and on the interference of Maxentius, in the interests of order, — which won for him in later times the name of a persecutor.