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Letter to the People of Thmuis, and Letter of Four Bishops to Meletius

Written between 303 and 306, probably in Alexandria, Egypt. The date is the usual view of scholars; some doubt it.

A letter that tells his flock how the martyrs of Alexandria suffered, and a letter of four jailed bishops that rebukes Meletius for ordaining in their churches.

Letter · first written in Greek

The letter to Thmuis survives in Greek in Eusebius; the letter to Meletius survives only in Latin.

Translated by S. D. F. Salmond (1886). Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 6 (1886); first issued in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edinburgh, 1867-1873) Public domain. Source and rights

About this text (1 note)

The letter to Thmuis survives in Greek in Eusebius; the letter to Meletius survives only in Latin.

How we know the date and place
Date written probable
Eusebius, Church History 8.10 (the letter to Thmuis); ANF 6: the letter to Meletius was written when the four bishops were in prison and Peter was bishop of Alexandria
Place written probable
Eusebius, Church History 8.10: written from prison; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phileas_of_Thmuis: the prison was at Alexandria; site: https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/727070

1,476 words. 5 sections.

Contents
  1. Opening
  2. Fragments of the Epistle of Phileas to the People of Thmuis. [1313]
  3. I.
  4. II.
  5. III.

Opening

§ opening›

Phileas

Phileas.

Translator's Biographical Notice.

[a.d. 307.] From Jerome1310 we learn that this Phileas belonged to Thmuis, a town of Lower Egypt, the modern Tmai, which was situated between the Tanite and Mendesian branches of the Nile, an episcopal seat, and in the time of Valentinian and Theodosius the Great a place of considerable consequence, enjoying a separate government of its own. Eusebius1311 speaks of him as a man not less distinguished for his services to his country than for his eminence in philosophical studies and his proficiency in foreign literature and science. He tells us further, that, along with another person of considerable importance, by name Philoromus, being brought to trial for his faith, he withstood the threats and insults of the judge, and all the entreaties of relatives and friends, to compromise his Christian belief, and was condemned to lose his head. Jerome also, in the passage already referred to, names him a true philosopher, and, at the same time, a godly martyr; and states, that on assuming the bishopric of his native district, he wrote a very, elegant book in praise of the martyrs. Of this book certain fragments are preserved for us in Eusebius. In addition to these we have also an epistle which the same Phileas seems to have written in the name of three other bishops, as well as himself, to Meletius, the bishop of Lycopolis, and founder of the Meletian schism. This epistle appears to have been written in Greek; but we possess only a Latin version, which, however, from its abrupt style, is believed to be very ancient. The four bishops whose names stand at the head of the Epistle—viz., Hesychius, Pachomius, Theodorus, and Phileas, are also mentioned by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., viii. 13) as distinguished martyrs. This epistle was written evidently when those bishops were in prison, and its date is determined by the mention of Peter as the then bishop of Alexandria. The martyrdom of Phileas is fixed with much probability as happening at Alexandria, under Maximus, about the year 307 a.d.1312 [But see Neale, Patriarchate of Alex., i. pp. 97-101, for his view of two bearing this name.]

3 notes
  1. 1310 De vir. illustr., chap. 78.
  2. 1311 Hist. Eccles., viii. 9 and 10.
  3. 1312 [His diocese belonged to the region over which Alexandria had the primacy by the "ancient usages."]

Fragments of the Epistle of Phileas to the People of Thmuis. [1313]

‹§ fragments-of-the-epistle-of-phileas-to-the›

I.

‹§ fragments-of-the-epistle-of-phileas-to-the.1›

Having before them all these examples and signs and illustrious tokens which are given us in the divine and holy Scriptures, the blessed martyrs who lived with us did not hesitate, but, directing the eye of their soul in sincerity to that God who is over all, and embracing with willing mind the death which their piety cost them, they adhered steadfastly to their vocation. For they learned that our Lord Jesus Christ endured man's estate on our behalf, that He might destroy all sin, and furnish us with the provision needful for our entrance into eternal life. "For He thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself unto death, even the death of the cross."1314 For which reason also these Christ-bearing1315 martyrs sought zealously the greater gifts, and endured, some of them, every kind of pain and all the varied contrivances of torture not merely once, but once and again; and though the guards showed their fury against them not only by threatenings in word, but also by deeds of violence, they did not swerve from their resolution, because perfect love casteth out fear.1316

4 notes
  1. 1313 In Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., viii. 10.
  2. 1314 Phil. ii. 6-8.
  3. 1315 christophoroi. So Ignatius of Antioch was called theophoros, God-bearer. [Vol. i. pp. 45, 49, this series.]
  4. 1316 1 John iv. 18.

II.

‹§ fragments-of-the-epistle-of-phileas-to-the.2›

And to narrate their virtue and their manly endurance under every torment, what language would suffice? For as every one who chose was at liberty to abuse them, some beat them with wooden clubs,1317 and others with rods, and others with scourges, and others again with thongs, and others with ropes. And the spectacle of these modes of torture had great variety in it, and exhibited vast malignity. For some had their hands bound behind them, and were suspended on the rack and had every limb in their body stretched with a certain kind of pulleys.1318 Then after all this the torturers, according to their orders, lacerated with the sharp iron claws1319 the whole body, not merely, as in the case of murderers, the sides only, but also the stomach and the knees and the cheeks. And others were hung up in mid-air, suspended by one hand from the portico, and their sufferings were fiercer than any other kind of agony by reason of the distention of their joints and limbs. And others were bound to pillars, face to face, not touching the ground with their feet, but hanging with all the weight of the body, so that their chains were drawn all the more tightly by reason of the tension. And this they endured not simply as long as the governor1320 spoke with them, or had leisure to hear them, but well-nigh through the whole day. For when he passed on to others he left some of those under his authority to keep watch over these former, and to observe whether any of them, being overcome by the torture, seemed likely to yield. But he gave them orders at the same time to cast them into chains without sparing, and thereafter, when they were expiring, to throw them on the ground and drag them along. For they said that they would not give themselves the slightest concern about us, but would look upon us and deal with us as if we were nothing at all. This second mode of torture our enemies devised then over and above the scourging.

4 notes
  1. 1317 xulois. What is meant, however, may be the instrument called by the Romans equuleus, a kind of rack in the shape of a horse, commonly used in taking the evidence of slaves.
  2. 1318 manganois tisi.
  3. 1319 The text gives amunteriois ekolazon, for which Nicephorus reads amunteriois tas kolaseis. The amunteria were probably the Latin ungulæ, an instrument of torture like claws. So Rufinus understands the phrase.
  4. 1320 hegemon. That is probably the Roman Præfectus Augustalis.

III.

ܤ fragments-of-the-epistle-of-phileas-to-the.3

And there were also some who, after the tortures, were placed upon the stocks and had both their feet stretched through all the four holes, so that they were compelled to lie on their back on the stocks, as they were unable (to stand) in consequence of the fresh wounds they had over the whole body from the scourging. And others being thrown upon the ground lay prostrated there by the excessively frequent application of the tortures; in which condition they exhibited to the onlookers a still more dreadful spectacle than they did when actually undergoing their torments, bearing, as they did, on their bodies the varied and manifold tokens of the cruel ingenuity of their tortures. While this state of matters went on, some died under their tortures, putting the adversary to shame by their constancy. And others were thrust half-dead into the prison, where in a few days, worn out with their agonies, they met their end. But the rest, getting sure recovery under the application of remedies, through time and their lengthened detention in prison, became more confident. And thus then, when they were commanded to make their choice between these alternatives, namely, either to put their hand to the unholy sacrifice and thus secure exemption from further trouble, and obtain from them their abominable sentence of absolution and liberation,1321 or else to refuse to sacrifice, and thus expect the judgment of death to be executed on them, they never hesitated, but went cheerfully to death.1322 For they knew the sentence declared for us of old by the Holy Scriptures: "He that sacrificeth to other gods," it is said, "shall be utterly destroyed."1323 And again1324 "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."1325

5 notes
  1. 1321 tes eparatou eleutherias.
  2. 1322 [It is impossible to accept modern theories of the inconsiderable number of the primitive martyrs, in view of the abounding evidences of a chronic and continuous persecution always evidenced by even these fragments of authentic history. See vol. iv. p. 125.]
  3. 1323 Exod. xxii. 20.
  4. 1324 Exod. xx. 3.
  5. 1325 Eusebius, after quoting these passages, adds:—"These are the words of a true philosopher, and one who was no less a lover of God than of wisdom, which, before the final sentence of his judge, and while he lay yet in prison, he addressed to the brethren in his church, at once to represent to them in what condition he was himself, and to exhort them to maintain steadfastly, even after his speedy death, their piety towards Christ."—Tr.