From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; pp. 48-50.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
ST CORNELIUS.
A.D. 251-252.
CORNELIUS, a Roman, the son of Castinus, lived in the times of the Emperor Decius, who being born at Buda in Hungary, upon the death of the two Philips, assumed the 49 empire, proving a bitter enemy to the Christians, because those Philips had been favourers of their religion. But having with his son Cæsar reigned only two years, he was so suddenly cut off by the Goths, that not so much as his dead body was ever found — a just judgment upon him who, raising the seventh persecution, had put to death a multitude of most holy men.
During the pontificate of Cornelius, whose judgment was, that apostates upon their repentance ought to be received, Novatus irregularly ordained Novatianus and Nicostratus; upon which occasion the confessors who had fallen off from Cornelius, being of the same opinion with Maximus the presbyter, and Moyses, reconciled themselves to the Church again, and thereby gained the name of confessors indeed. But, not long after, these heretics pressing hard upon him, Cornelius is banished to Centumcellæ; to whom Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, being himself imprisoned, wrote letters, by which he came to understand both the calamity of his friend and the confirmation of his own exile. There are extant also other epistles of Cyprian to Cornelius, full of religion and piety, but the choicest of them is accounted to be that wherein he accuses and condemns Novatus, a certain disciple of his. Concerning the same heresy, Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria, who had been scholar to Origen, wrote to Cornelius; and in another epistle reproves Novatian for having deserted the communion of the Roman Church, and pretending that he was forced against his will to take the pontificate upon him; to whom he thus replies: “That thou wert,” says he, “O Novatian, chosen to that dignity against thy will, will appear when thou dost voluntarily leave it.” Cornelius, before he went into banishment, at the instance of Lucina, a holy matron, by night removed the bodies of St Peter and St Paul out of the public burial places, where they seemed to be less secure. That of St Paul was by Lucina herself deposited in ground of her own in the Via Oxiensis, near the place where he suffered; and that of Peter was by Cornelius laid near the place where he also was martyred, not far from the Temple of Apollo. But when Decius came to understand that Cornelius had received letters from Cyprian, he caused him to be brought from Centumcellæ to Rome; and in the Temple of Tellus, the city prefect being present, he thus expostulated with him: “Are you,” says he, “resolved 50 to live thus contumaciously, that neither regarding the gods, nor fearing the commands and threatening of princes, you keep a correspondence tending to endanger the public weal?” To whom Cornelius replied, “That the letters which he received and returned, were only concerning the praises of Christ, and the design of the redemption of souls, but contained nothing in them tending to the diminution of the empire.” At this Decius, being enraged, gave order that the holy man should first be scourged with a kind of whips that had small globes of lead fastened to the end of them; that afterwards he should be carried to the Temple of Mars to pay adoration to his image, and upon his refusal so to do, that he should be put to death. The good man, as they were leading him to punishment, disposed of what he had to Stephen the archdeacon; and afterwards, upon the 5th of May, was beheaded. Lucina, with some of the clergy, buried his body by night in a grotto of hers in the Via Appia, not far from the cemetery of Calistus. There are some who write that the bishop suffered under Gallus and Volusianus, but I rather give credit to Damasus, who affirms Decius to have been the author of his martyrdom. Cornelius held two ordinations in the month of December, in which he made four presbyters, four deacons, seven bishops. He sat in the chair two years, three days; and by his death the see was vacant thirty-five days.
Previous Pope: 21. St. Anterus. 22. St. Cornelius. Next Pope: 23. St. Lucius I.