704 LYONS, MARTYRS OF

Iconoclastic side, and was rejected by the synodas heretical. [Leucius.] [G. S.]

LYONS, MARTYRS OF, June 2. Adocalls them Martyres Athanacenses from thename of the place Athanacus, where theysuffered. The seventeenth year of Marcus Aure-lius, whom Eusebius calls Antoninus Verus(Euseb. E. E. iv. 14, compared with preface tolib. v.), was marked by an outburst of persecu-tion in Gaul, where the churches of Lyons andVienne specially suffered. (On the possibilityof such local persecutions even under friendlyemperors, see F. Gorres, Die Toleranzedicte desKais. Gallienus in Jahrb. Prot. Theolog. 1877,pp. 607-608.) The story of the persecution iscontained in the epistle of these churches to theChristians of Asia and Phrygia, as recorded inEuseb. If. E. v. 1-4. The number of martyrswas forty-eight (Ado). The following are theonly names recorded by the historian, but thenit must be remembered that we possess onlyextracts from the epistle, the full list havingbeen given in the original document whichEusebius transcribed into his lost “ Collection ofAncient Martyrdoms” (H. E. v. 4); VettiusEpagathus, Maturus, Attalus, a native of Per-gamus, and a pillar and foundation “of thechurch of that place ” (err^Aoj xal 4$pafa>jua, cf.1 Tim. iil. 15). Blandina, a female slave, Sanc-tus, born at Vienne, but deacon of the churchat Lyons; Biblias, a woman; Pothinus, or Foti-mus, the aged bishop [Fotimus] ; Alexander, aphysician ; Ponticus and Alcibiades. In Ado’sMart ., however, we have the whole list, whichseems a clear indication that in his time at leastthe Eusebian “ Collection of ancient Martyr-doms ” was still extant. The omitted namesare Zacharias, a presbyter, Macarius, Silvius,Primus, Ulpius, Vitalis Cominus, Ootuber,PLiluminus, Geminus, Julia, Albina, Grata,Rogata, Aemilia, Potamia, Pompeia, Rhodana,Quartia, Materna, Helpes, Amnas, Aristaeus,Cornelius, Zosimus, Titus, Julius, Zoticus, Apol-lonius, Germinianus, Julia, Ausonia, Aemilia,Jamnica, Pompeia, Domna, Justa, Trophima, andAntonia. He classes them according to the kindof martyrdom they endured. The story of theirsufferings is a very lengthened one. In contraven-tion of the established principles of Roman lawthat a slave’s testimony against his master couldnot be accepted (Gieseler, H. E. t. i. p. 132), theirdomestics were forced to charge the Christiansof Lyons with the feasts of Thyestes and theincests of Oedipus, and other unnatural crimes.The martyrs were then racked, scourged, cast tothe beasts, roasted in an iron chair, and finallythose who were Roman citizens were beheadedaccording to the express command of Caesar,unless they renounced the faith, when they weredismissed. Finally the bodies were burned, andthe ashes flung into the Rhone, in order, as theheathen said, “ that they might not have anyhope of rising again, in the belief of which theyhave introduced a new and strange religion, andcontemn the most dreadful punishments, and are

LYONS, MARTYRS OF

prepared to meet death even with joy. Now weshall see whether they will rise again, andwhether their God is able to help them, andrescue them out of our hands.” The particularsof the individual martyrdoms will be found inconnexion with each name as given above. Themain interest of the narrative for our time :& itstheological aspect. Its early date (a.d. 177) isacknowledged. (Luthardt, Authorship of St.John*s Gospel, p. 48, ed. Clark ; cf. Scholten, Dieaeltest. Zeugnisse betreff. die Schrift. des JV. T.pp. 110, 111.) We have therefore in it anauthentic witness to the views and doctrines ofthe Christian church in Gaul, in Rome, and inAsia Minor, in the last half of the 2nd century,since the constant correspondence and communi-cation between them (shewn by the instance ofAttalus above) prove that there must have beenpractical unity of doctrine among these churches.A difference on a point of ritual like the paschalcontroversy served but a few years later to breakup this unity (Euseb. H. E. v. 23, 24). Theauthor of Supernatural Religion (t. ii. c. ix. s. 4),criticising this epistle, and endeavouring toobviate the force of a plain quotation thereinfrom St. Luke as an evidence for the existenceand use of that gospel, proceeds then to make thefurther statement: “No writing of the newTestament is directly referred to in this epistle.”As this writer ranges over a very wide field ofpatristic literature in his volumes we suppose hehad not time to read the epistle very carefully.The following are some ot its references to andquotations from the New Testament, which muststrike any careful reader. In the beginning ofthe epistle Rom. viii. 18 is accurately quoted,and there are, more or less direct, references to,or quotations, more or less accurately, from thefollowing passages:—Matt. xxii. 11; Luke i. 6;John xvi. 2, xix. 34; Acts vii. 60; 2 Cor. ii. 15;Phil. ii. 6; 1 Tim. iii. 15; Heb. xi. 35; 1 Pet. v.6 ; Rev. i. 5, xix. 4, 9 ; and finally Rev. xxii. 11,which is quoted thus: *lva y ypa<p% ir^pudi}.We possess in Euseb. (v. 4) an extract fromanother epistle of the martyrs commendingIrenaeus to Eleutherus bishop of Rome, whilein the previous chapter he tells us they wroteto the same, and to the Christians in Asia andPhrygia, about Montanus and his followers, butto what effect is not certainly known [Monta-nism] (Mart. Vet. Pom ., Adon., Usuard.; Till,iii. 1; Ruinart, Acta Sine. ; Dodwell, Diss.Cuprian . xi. 36, supports a.d. 167 as the truedate of this persecution; Wieseler, Die Chris -tenverfolg.der Casaren , pp. 19,68, 94, Giitersloh,1878). Renan in his Marc-Aurele (p. 329)identifies the execution of the martyrs with themeeting of the general assembly of the Gallicnations, which met annually in the month ofAugust for the celebration of the worship ofAugustus; a ceremonial with which the martyr-dom of Polycarp in Asia Minor would also seemto have been associated. He also endeavours(p. 331) to identify the very localities of themartyrdoms (cf. Rev. Critiq. 12 Juillet, 1879;Aug. Bernard, Le Temple cf August). [G. T. S.]

NOTE.

For Martyrs and Confessors whose names fall under subsequent Letters, except where th<y are of specialhistoric importance, the reader is referred to the “Dictionary of ChiLstian Antiquities,” in which,especially after the Letter L, they are fully enumerated, aDd references giveD U the Calendars anJMartyroiugies in which they occur.