MARCELLUS, bishop of Ancyra, distinguished himself by his zeal against
the Arians, on which account he was banished by Constantius in 336.[1]
Basil, a ringleader of the Semi-Arians, was intruded into that see, but
was himself deposed by the stanch Arians, in 360; and is mentioned by
Socrates to have survived our saint, though he continued still in
banishment under Jovian. The holy martyr of whom we speak was also
called Basil. He was priest of Ancyra under the bishop Marcellus, and a
man of a most holy life, and unblemished conversation, and had been
trained up by saints in the practices of perfect piety. He preached the
word of God with great assiduity, and when the Arian wolf, who bore his
name, attempted to plant his heresy in that city, he never ceased to cry
out to the people, with the zeal and intrepidity of a prophet, exhorting
their to beware of the snares which {642} were laid for them, and to
remain steadfast in the Catholic faith. He was forbidden by the Arian
bishops, in 360, to hold ecclesiastical assemblies: but he despised the
unjust order; and as boldly defended the Catholic faith before
Constantius himself. When Julian the Apostate re-established idolatry,
and left no means untried to pervert the faithful, Basil ran through the
whole city, exhorting the Christians to continue steadfast, and not
pollute themselves with the sacrifices and libations of the heathens,
but fight manfully in the cause of God. The heathens laid violent hands
on him; and dragged him before Saturninus the proconsul, accusing him of
sedition, of having overturned altars, that he stirred up the people
against the gods, and had spoken irreverently of the emperor and his
religion. The proconsul asked him if the religion which the emperor had
established was not the truth? The martyr answered: "Can you yourself
believe it? Can any man endued with reason persuade himself that dumb
statues are gods?" The proconsul commanded him to be tortured on the
rack, and scoffing, said to him, under his torments: "Do not you believe
the power of the emperor to be great, who can punish those who disobey
him? Experience is an excellent master, and will inform you better. Obey
the emperor, worship the gods, and offer sacrifice." The martyr, who
prayed during his torments with great earnestness, replied: "It is what
I never will do." The proconsul remanded him to prison, and informed his
master Julian of what he had done. The emperor approved of his
proceedings, and dispatched Elpidius and Pegasus, two apostate
courtiers, in quality of commissaries, to assist the proconsul in the
trial of the prisoner. They took with them from Nicomedia one Aslepius,
a wicked priest of Esculapius, and arrived at Ancyra. Basil did not
cease to praise and glorify God in his dungeon, and Pegasus repaired
thither to him in hopes, by promises and entreaties, to work him into
compliance: but came back to the proconsul highly offended at the
liberty with which the martyr had reproached him with his apostacy. At
the request of the commissaries, the proconsul ordered him to be again
brought before them, and tormented on the rack with greater cruelty than
before; and afterwards to be loaded with the heaviest irons, and lodged
in the deepest dungeon.
In the mean time Julian set out from Constantinople for Antioch, in
order to prepare for his Persian expedition. From Chalcedon he turned
out of his road to Pessinunte, a town in Galatia, there to offer
sacrifice in a famous temple of Cibele. In that town he condemned a
certain Christian to be beheaded for the faith, and the martyr went to
execution with as much joy as if he had been called to a banquet. When
Julian arrived at Ancyra, St. Basil was presented before him, and the
crafty emperor, putting on an air of compassion, said to him: "I myself
am well skilled in your mysteries; and I can inform you, that Christ, in
whom you place your trust, died under Pilate, and remains among the
dead." The martyr answered: "You are deceived; you have renounced Christ
at a time when he conferred on you the empire. But he will deprive you
of it, together with your life. As you have thrown down his altars, so
will he overturn your throne: and as you have violated his holy law,
which you had so often announced to the people, (when a reader in the
church,) and have trodden it under your feet, your body shall be cast
forth without the honor of a burial, and shall be trampled upon by men."
Julian replied: "I designed to dismiss thee: but thy impudent manner of
rejecting my advice, and uttering reproaches against me, force me to use
thee ill. It is therefore my command, that every day thy skin be torn
off thee in seven different places, till thou hast no more left." He
then gave it in charge to count Frumentinus, the captain of his guards,
to see this barbarous sentence executed. The saint, after having
suffered with wonderful patience the first incisions, desired to speak
to the emperor. {643} Frumentinus would be himself the bearer of this
message to Julian, not doubting but Basil intended to comply and offer
sacrifice. Julian instantly ordered that the confessor should meet him
in the temple of Esculapius. He there pressed him to join him in making
sacrifices. But the martyr replied, that he could never adore blind and
deaf idols. And taking a piece of his flesh which had been cut out of
his body that day, and still hung to it by a bit of skin, he threw it
upon Julian. The emperor went out in great indignation: and count
Frumentinus, fearing his displeasure, studied how to revenge an insult,
for which he seemed responsible to his master. He therefore mounted his
tribunal, and ordered the torments of the martyr to be redoubled; and so
deep were the incisions made in his flesh, that his bowels were exposed
to view, and the spectators wept for compassion. The martyr prayed aloud
all the time, and at evening was carried back to prison. Next morning
Julian set out for Antioch, and would not see Frumentinus. The count
resolved to repair his disgrace, or at least to discharge his resentment
by exerting his rage upon the servant of Christ. But to his thundering
threats Basil answered: "You know how many pieces of flesh have been
torn from my body: yet look on my shoulders and sides; see if any wounds
appear? Know that Jesus Christ this night hath healed me. Send this news
to your master Julian, that he may know the power of God whom he hath
forsaken. He hath overturned his altars, who was himself concealed under
them when he was sought by Constantius to be put to death. But God hath
discovered to me that his tyranny shall be shortly extinguished with his
life." Frumentinus seemed no longer able to contain his rage, and
commanded the saint to be laid upon his belly, and his back to be
pierced with red-hot iron spikes. The martyr expired under these
torments on the 29th of June, in 362. But his name is honored both by
the Latins and Greeks on the 22d of March.
The love of God, which triumphed in the breasts of the martyrs, made
them regard as nothing whatever labors, losses, or torments they
suffered for its sake, according to that of the Canticles: _If a man
shall have given all that he possesses, he will despise it as nothing._
If the sacrifice of worldly honors, goods, friends, and life be required
of such a one, he makes it with joy, saying with the royal prophet,
_What have I desired in heaven, or on earth, besides thee, O God! Thou
art my portion forever._ If he lives deprived of consolation and joy, in
interior desolation and spiritual dryness, he is content to bear his
cross, provided he be united to his God by love, and says, My God and my
all, if I possess you, I have all things in you alone: whatever happens
to me, with the treasure of your love I am rich and sovereignly happy.
This he repeats in poverty, disgraces, afflictions, and persecutions. He
rejoices in them, as by them he is more closely united to his God, gives
the strongest proof of his fidelity to him, and perfect submission to
his divine appointments, and adores the accomplishment of his will. If
it be the property of true love to receive crosses with content and joy,
to sustain great labors, and think them small, or rather not to think of
them at all, as they bear no proportion to the prize, to what we owe to
God, or to what his love deserves: to suffer much, and think all
nothing, and the longest and severest trials short: is it not a mark of
a want of this love, to complain of prayer, fasts, and every Christian
duty? How far is this disposition from the fervor and resolution of all
the saints, and from the heroin courage of the martyrs!
Footnotes:
1. Marcellus wrote a famous book against the Arians, which Eusebius of
Caesarea and all the Arians condemned, as reviving the exploded heresy
of Sabellius. But Sabellianism was a general slander with which they
aspersed all orthodox pastors. It is indeed true, that St. Hilary, St.
Basil, St. Chrysostom, and Sulpicius Severus charge Marcellus with
that error; but were deceived by the clamors of the Arians. For
Marcellus appealing to pope Julius, and repairing to Rome, was
acquitted, and his book declared orthodox by that pope in 341, and
also by the council of Sardica in 347; as St. Hilary (fragm. 3,
pp. 1308, 1311) and St. Athanasins (Apol. contra Arianos, p. 165)
testify. It was a calumny of the Arians, though believed by
St. Hilary, that St. Athanasius at length abandoned and condemned him.
It is demonstrated by Dom Montfaucon from the works of St. Athanasius,
that he ever defended the innocence of Marcellus, (t. 2 Collect Patr.)
Moreover, Marcellus being informed that St. Basil had suggested to St.
Athanasius certain suspicions of his faith, in 372, towards the end of
his life, sent St. Athanasius his most orthodox confession of faith,
in which he explicitly condemns Sabellianism; which authentic monument
was published by Montfaucon, (t. 2, Collect Patr. p. 55.) If Patavius,
Bull, and others, who censure Marcellus, had seen this confession,
they would have cleared him of the imputation of Sabellianism, and
expounded favorably certain ambiguous expressions which occurred in
his book against the Arises, which is now lost, and was compiled
against a work of Asterius the Sophist, surnamed the advocate of the
Arians.
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