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. 19-20.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
ST EVARISTUS.
Circa A.D. 100-109.
EVARISTUS, by birth a Grecian, his father a Jew, named Juda, of the holy city of Bethlehem, lived in the time of Trajan, a prince whom I take delight to mention, because of his singular justice and humanity; who behaved himself so acceptably towards all men, that, as far as the times of Justinian, the usual acclamation of the people at the creation of an emperor was this: “Let him be more prosperous than Augustus and better than Trajan.” He was of a temper so courteous and condescending in visiting the sick, in saluting his friends, in keeping festivals, and being present at collations to which he was invited, that the fault which some found with him for that very reason, gave the occasion of that worthy noble saying of his, “That a prince ought to be such to his subjects as he desires they should be to him.” He impartially distributed honours, riches, and rewards to all that deserved well; never oppressed any man to fill his own exchequer; granted advantageous immunities to poor cities; repaired the highways, and made the passages of rivers secure; made a high large mole at the haven of Ancona, to break the violence of the waves; and indeed neither acted nor designed anything in his whole life but what tended to the public good. Having gained such renown both in war and in peace, he died of a flux at Seleucia, a city of Isauria, in the eighteenth year and sixth month of his reign. His bones were afterwards 20 conveyed to Rome, and there buried in an urn of gold in the Forum which he himself had built, under the winding pillar of a hundred and forty feet high, which is yet to be seen.
But we return to Evaristus, who, as Damasus tells us, divided the city of Rome among the presbyters into parishes; ordained that seven deacons should attend the bishop whoever he preached, to be witnesses of the truth of his doctrine; and moreover, that the accusation of a layman should not be admitted against a bishop. He held Decembrian ordinations, at which he made six presbyters, two deacons, and five bishops. In his time lived Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, an auditor of John, a person who took not so much delight in the records of the ancient disciples of our Lord, as in the living conversation of Aristion and John the elder. And it is manifest, from the order he observes in setting down the names of these two after the mention of almost all the apostles, that the John whom he places among the apostles was a distinct person from this John the aged, whom he reckons after Aristion. He was certainly a very learned man, and followed by many, as particularly Irenæus, Apollinarius, Tertullian, Victorinus Pictaviensis, and Lactantius Firmianus. Now also Quadratus, a disciple of the apostles, did by his industry and courage support the Church of God as much as might be in such dangerous times. For when Hadrian, who now passed the winter at Athens, and was admitted a priest to the goddess Eleusina, began to persecute the Christians, Quadratus with his own hand presented to him a very honest and rational book of the excellence of the Christian religion. The like did Aristides, an Athenian philosopher, converted to Christianity; who at the same time with Quadratus, presented to Hadrian a treatise, containing an account of our religion. The effect of which apologetics was, that Hadrian being convinced of the injustice of putting the Christians to death without their being heard, wrote to Minutius Fundanus, the proconsul of Asia, ordering that no Christian should be executed, unless his guilt were proved by a credible witness. As for our Evaristus, some tell us that he was martyred in the last year of Trajan; but they were more in the right, who are of opinion that he suffered under Hadrian before his being reconciled to the Christians. For he was in the chair nine years, ten months, two days, and was buried in the Vatican, near the body of St Peter, October 27th. The see was then vacant nineteen days.
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