4. Accordingly,1462
| 1462 At
this point begins the portion of the work edited by Valesius from the
Codex Bobiensis, which is preserved now in the Ambrosian Library. |
as this
man’s
fame was becoming always the more extensively diffused
throughout different localities, and when it had now penetrated even
beyond the
river Stranga, the honourable
report of his name was carried
into the territory of
Persia. In this
country dwelt a person
called Manes, who, when this man’s repute had reached him,
deliberated largely with himself as to how he might
entangle him in the
snares of his
doctrine, hoping that Marcellus might be made an upholder
of his dogma. For he reckoned that he might make himself master
of the whole
province, if he could only first attach such a man to
himself. In this project, however, his
mind was agitated with the
doubt whether he should at once repair in person to the man, or first
attempt to get at him by letter; for he was afraid lest, by any sudden
and unexpected introduction of himself upon the scene some mischance
might possibly
befall him. At last, in obedience to a subtler
policy, he
resolved to
write; and calling to him one of his
disciples,
by name Turbo,
1463
| 1463
The Codex Bobiensis reads Adda Turbonem. This Adda,
or Addas, as the Greek gives it below in ch. xi., was one of those
disciples of Manes whom he charged with the dissemination of his
heretical opinions in the East, as we see from ch. xi. |
who had been
instructed by Addas, he handed to him an
epistle, and bade him depart
and convey it to Marcellus. This adherent accordingly received
the letter, and carried it to the person to whom he had been
commissioned by Manes to
deliver it, overtaking the whole
journey
within five days. The above-mentioned Turbo, indeed, used great
expedition on this
journey, in the course of which he also underwent
very considerable exertion and
trouble. For whenever he
arrived,
1464
| 1464 Codex
Bobiensis adds, ad vesperam, towards evening. |
as
1465
| 1465 The
text gives veluti peregrinans. The Codex Bobiensis has
quippe peregrinans. |
a traveller in
foreign parts, at a hospice,—and these were
inns which Marcellus
himself had supplied in his large
hospitality,
1466
| 1466 On
the attention paid by the primitive Church to the duties of
hospitality, see Tertullian, De Præscriptionibus, ch.
20 [vol. iii. p. 252, this series]; Gregory Nazianzenus, in his
First Invective against Julian; also Priorius, De
literis canonicis, ch. 5, etc.; and Thomassin, De Tesseris
hospitalitatis, ch. 26. |
—on his being asked by the
keepers
of these hostels whence he came, and who he was, or by whom he had been
sent, he used to reply: “I
belong to the
district of
Mesopotamia, but I come at present from Persis, having been sent by
Manichæus, a master among the
Christians.” But they
were by no means ready to welcome a name unknown
1467
| 1467 In
the text, ignotum; in the Codex Bobiensis, ignoratum. |
to them, and were wont sometimes to
thrust Turbo out of their
inns, refusing him even the means of getting
water for drinking purposes. And as he had to bear
daily things
like these, and things even worse than these, at the
hands of those
persons in the several localities who had charge of the mansions and
hospices, unless he had at last shown that he was conveying letters to
Marcellus, Turbo would have met the doom of death in his
travels.
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