The infants whom Herod massacred at Bethlehem were termed in Latin
_innocentes_, from _in_ (not), and _noceo_ (to hurt). These harmless
ones were revered by the Church from the first, and honoured on the
third day after Christmas as martyrs in deed. The relics of the Holy
Innocents were great favourites in the middle ages, and are to be found
as frequently as griffins' eggs in the list of treasures at Durham; but
names taken from them are almost exclusively Roman. A lawyer of the time
of Constantine was called Innocentius, and a Pope contemporary with St.
Chrysostom handed it on to his successors, many of whom have
subsequently assumed this title, and are called by their subjects
Innocenzio.
Pius, applied at first to faithful filial love, as in the case of Æneas,
assumed a higher sense with Christianity, and from being an occasional
agnomen, became the name of a martyr Pope, under Antoninus Pius, and
thus passed on to be one of the papal appellations most often in use,
called Pio at Rome, and generally left to the pontiffs, though the
feminine Pia is occasionally used in Italy. The Puritans indulged in
Piety, and it still sometimes occurs in England, as well as Patience and
Prudence, though the givers are little aware that there were saints long
ago thus called, St. Patiens, of Lyons, and St. Prudentius, the great
Christian poet of primitive times.
In like manner we have Modesty, or Moddy, as a Puritan name in England,
taken from the abstract virtue, while the peasant women of Southern
France are christened Modestine, probably in honour of a Roman martyr
called Modestus, who was put to death at Bezières. Indeed, Modestinus
and Modestus were both in use even in the earlier Roman times, and were
understood by those who first bore them not in the sense of
‘shamefastness,’ but of moderation or discretion, the word coming from
_modus_ (a measure).
To these, perhaps, should be added that which Italy and Spain have
presumed to form from that title of the Blessed Saviour, Salvatore, or
Salvador, the latter more common in South America than in the Old World.
_Cœlum_ (heaven) formed, in late Latin, _Cœlestinus_, the name of one of
the popes who was martyred, and afterwards canonized, and imitated by
several successors, whence the French learned the two modern feminines,
Celeste and Celestine.
_Restitutus_ (restored), from _re_ and _sisto_, seems as if it could be
given only in a Christian sense, as to one restored to a new life; yet
its first owner known to us was a friend of Pliny, and an orator under
Trajan. It came to Britain, and is found in Wales as Restyn.
Melior (better), is a Cornish female name, probably an imitation of some
old Keltic one. It is found as early as 1574.