Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Death of Paul Bishop of the Novatians, and Election of Marcian as his Successor.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XLVI.—Death of
Paul Bishop of the Novatians, and Election of Marcian as his
Successor.
A little while after the
removal of John’s body, Paul bishop of the Novatians died, on the
21st of July, under the same consulate:1037
who at his own funeral united, in a certain sense, all the different
sects into one church. For all parties attended his body to the tomb,
chanting psalms together, inasmuch as even during his lifetime by his
rectitude he was in universal esteem by all. But as Paul just before
his death performed a memorable act, I deem it advantageous to insert
it in this history as it may be interesting to the readers of this work
to be acquainted with it. And lest the brilliancy of that important
deed should be obscured by dwelling on circumstantial details of minor
consequence, I shall not stay to expatiate on the strictness with which
he maintained his ascetic discipline as to diet even throughout his
illness, without the least departure from the course he had prescribed
for himself, or the omission of any of the ordinary exercises of
devotion with his accustomed fervor. But what was this deed? Conscious
that his departure was at hand, he sent for all the presbyters of the
churches under his care, and thus addressed them: ‘Give your
attention while I am alive to the election of a bishop to preside over
you, lest the peace of your churches should hereafter be
disturbed.’ They having answered that this affair had better not
be left to them: ‘For inasmuch,’ said they, ‘as some
of us have one judgment about the matter, and some another, we would by
no means nominate the same individual. We wish therefore that you would
yourself designate the person you would desire to succeed you.’
‘Give me then,’ said Paul, ‘this declaration of yours
in writing, that you will elect him whom I should appoint.’ When
they had written this pledge, and ratified it by their signatures,
Paul, rising in his bed and sitting up, wrote the name of Marcian in
the paper, without informing any of those present what he had inserted.
This person had been promoted to the rank of presbyter, and instructed
in the ascetic discipline by him, but was then gone abroad. Having
folded this document and put his own seal on it, he caused the
principal presbyters to seal it also; after which he delivered it into
the hands of Marcus a bishop of the
Novatians in Scythia, who was at that time staying at Constantinople,
to whom he thus spake, ‘If it shall please God that I should
continue much longer in this life, restore me this deposit, now
entrusted to your safe keeping. But should it seem fit to him to remove
me, you will herein discover whom I have chosen as my successor in the
bishopric.’ Soon after this he died; and on the third day after
his death, the paper having been unfolded in the presence of a great
number of persons, Marcian’s name was found within it, when they
all cried out that he was worthy of the honor. Messengers were
therefore sent off without delay to bring him to Constantinople. These,
by a pious fraud, finding him residing at Tiberiopolis in Phrygia,
brought him back with them; whereupon he was ordained and placed in the
episcopal chair on the 21st of the same month.1038
| 1038This seems hardly probable when compared with the
opening sentence of the chapter, and so Valesius with Christophorson
and others change it into August. The emendation suggested in the Greek
is not a difficult one; it simply adds between αὐ- and τοῦ of the word αὐτοῦ (above translated
‘the same’), the syllable γουσ- making it
thus, αὐγούστου
μηνός, ‘month of August.’
The emendation, or something equivalent to it, must be accepted,
otherwise we are compelled to place the death of Paul and the
ordination of Marcian together with the intervening events on the same
day.
|
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
