De innocentibus
The Meaning of Innocence
The author defines the spiritual and historical significance of the Holy Innocents.
They are called innocents for three reasons: because of their life, their punishment, and the innocence they attained. They are called innocents because of their life, since they lived an innocent life—that is, a life that did no harm. They never harmed anyone: not God through disobedience, not their neighbor through injustice, and not themselves through the malice of any sin. That is why the Psalm says, 'The innocent and the upright have clung to me'—innocent in life and upright in faith. Regarding their punishment, because they suffered innocently and unjustly, the psalmist says, 'They have poured out innocent blood.' By reason of the innocence they attained, because in their very martyrdom they attained baptismal innocence—that is, purity from original sin. Regarding this innocence, it is said in the Psalm: 'Keep innocence and see equity'—that is, keep the innocence of baptism and afterward see the equity of good works. 4. The innocents were killed by Herod the Ascalonite. .
The Lineage of Cruelty
A historical overview of the Herodian dynasty and the rise of Herod the Ascalonite.
Sacred Scripture mentions three Herods, all of whom were made famous by their cruelty. The first was Herod Ascalonita, under whom the Lord was born and by whom the children were killed. The second was Herod Antipas, who beheaded John. The third was Herod Agrippa, who killed James and imprisoned Peter; the verses about him are as follows: The Ascalonite kills the children, Antipas kills John, and Agrippa kills James, while also imprisoning Peter; but let's look briefly at the history of the first Herod. Antipater the Idumean, as we read in the Scholastic History, married the niece of the King of the Arabs, and they had a son named Herod, who was later called the Ascalonite. He received the kingdom of Judea from Caesar Augustus, and at that time the scepter was first taken away from Judea. Six sons were born to him: Antipater, Alexander, Aristobulus, Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip. He sent Alexander and Aristobulus, who were born of the same mother, Judea, to Rome to be trained in the liberal arts; after this, they returned from their studies, and Alexander was a grammarian, while Aristobulus was a very sharp orator, and they began to argue with their father more frequently about the succession to the kingdom. Offended by this, the father was eager to prefer Antipater over them, and when they had discussed the death of their father and had been rejected by him because of it, they went to Caesar to complain about the injury done by their father. Meanwhile, the Magi came to Jerusalem and inquired diligently about the birth of the new king; hearing this, Herod was troubled, fearing that someone had been born of the line of true kings who would drive him out as an invader of the kingdom.
The Flight and the Slaughter
Herod's failed plot against the Magi leads to the Holy Family's flight into Egypt.
Herod therefore asked the magi to report back to him once they had found the child, pretending he wanted to worship him when he actually intended to kill him. However, the magi returned by another way. They went back to their own country. Seeing that they weren't coming back to him, Herod believed they had been deceived by the vision of the star and were ashamed to return; for that reason, he stopped looking for the child. But when he heard what the shepherds had said, and what Simeon and Anna had prophesied, he was terrified and thought he had been shamefully mocked by the magi. Then Herod began to plot the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem, so that he might kill the one he didn't know along with them. At the angel's warning, however, Joseph fled with the child and his mother into Egypt, to the city of Hermopolis, and stayed there for seven years until Herod died. As the Lord entered Egypt, all the idols fell down, just as Isaiah had prophesied. They also say that just as there was no house in Egypt during the exodus of the children of Israel where the firstborn didn't lie dead through the Lord's intervention, so too there was no temple at that time where an idol didn't fall. Cassiodorus reports in his Tripartite History that in Hermopolis in the Thebaid there is said to be a tree called the 'persidis,' which is effective for the health of many if its fruit, leaves, or a piece of its bark is tied to the necks of the sick. When the blessed Mary was fleeing into Egypt with her Son, this tree bowed down to the ground and humbly worshipped Christ. That is what Cassiodorus says.
The Massacre and Divine Judgment
Herod executes the children of Bethlehem, while scholars debate the timing and nature of the slaughter.
While Herod was planning the slaughter of the children, Caesar Augustus summoned him by letter to answer for accusations made by his sons. While traveling through Tarsus, he learned that the Magi had been transported by the ships of the Tarsians, and for that reason, he had all the ships of Tarsus burned, in accordance with what had been predicted: 'In a mighty spirit you will shatter the ships of Tarsus.' When the father argued his case before Caesar, it was decided that his sons should obey him in all things and that he could bequeath the kingdom to whomever he wished. Herod, therefore, returning and made bolder by this confirmation, sent men to kill all the children who were in Bethlehem from two years old and under, according to the time that had been inquired of the Magi. This, however, has a double meaning. First, so that it might state the order of time below; and the sense is: 'from two years old and under,' that is, from infants of two years up to children of one night. For Herod had learned from the Magi on the day the star appeared that the Lord had been born to them, and because a year had already passed—from the fact that he had gone to Rome and returned—he believed the Lord to be a year old and also of the remaining days, and therefore he raged against the children beyond his age, up to two years old and under, down to infants of one night, fearing the transformation of the child, lest indeed the boy to whom the stars were subject might transform his face beyond his age or in such a way. And this interpretation is considered and held to be more common and more true. It is explained in another way according to Chrysostom, so that it might state the order of number below; and the sense is: 'from two years old and under,' that is, from children of two years. It is said that the star appeared to the Magi a year before the Savior was born. After Herod learned this from the Magi, he delayed for a year while traveling to Rome; he believed that the Lord had been born at the time the star appeared to the Magi, and so he thought the Lord was two years old, which is why he killed the two-year-old boys and those up to five years old, but not those younger than two. What seems to support this claim is that some of the bones of the Innocents are found to be too large to have belonged to two-year-olds. It could be argued, however, that people in those days were much larger in stature than they are today. Herod himself, however, was punished on the spot; for—as Macrobius says and as is recorded in a certain chronicle—one of Herod's own young sons had been sent there to be raised, and he was killed by the executioners along with the others. Then what was said by the prophet was fulfilled: a voice of weeping and wailing—that is, of the grieving mothers—was heard in Rome, which means in the heights.
The Wretched End of a Tyrant
The divine retribution against Herod culminates in his miserable death and the destruction of his own household.
God, the most just judge, did not allow Herod’s wickedness to go unpunished, as we read in those same scholastic histories. It happened by divine judgment that the man who had bereaved so many others of their sons was himself more miserably bereaved of his own. For Alexander and Aristobulus were once again held in suspicion by their father—one of their accomplices confessed that Alexander had promised him many gifts if he would offer his father poison; a barber also confessed to promises of rewards if, while he was shaving his father's beard, he would immediately cut his throat, and he added that Alexander had said that no hope should be placed in an old man who dyed his hair to appear young. Because of this, the angry father had them put to death and named Antipater as the future king, though Herod later replaced Antipater with Antipas in the line of succession. Furthermore, Herod cherished Agrippa and Herodias—the wife of Philip, whom he had fathered by Aristobulus—with paternal love. For this double reason, Antipater developed an intolerable hatred for his father, to the point that he tried to kill him with poison, for which Herod, already sensing the plot, threw him in prison. Augustus Caesar, however, hearing that he had killed his sons, said: 'I would rather be Herod's pig than his son,' because, although he is a proselyte, he spares pigs but kills his sons. Herod himself, however, when he was already seventy years old, fell into a most grievous illness, for he was tormented by a severe fever, itching of the body, constant pain, inflammation of the feet, rotting testicles, an intolerable stench, frequent gasping, and interrupted sighs. Placed in oil by the doctors, he was brought back from there as if dead. Hearing that the Jews were rejoicing at the prospect of his death, he gathered the most prominent young men from all over Judea and imprisoned them. He then said to his sister Salome, 'I know the Jews will rejoice at my death, but I can ensure there will be many mourners and a noble funeral if you are willing to follow my orders: when I have breathed my last, kill everyone I am holding in custody, so that all of Judea will weep for me, even if they don't want to.' It was his custom to peel and eat an apple after every meal. While he was holding the knife and being shaken by a violent coughing fit, he looked around to make sure no one would stop him and raised his hand to strike himself, but his cousin grabbed his right hand and stopped him. Immediately, as if the king were dead, wailing broke out in the royal hall; hearing this, Antipater rejoiced and promised the guards many things if he were released. When Herod learned of this, he took his son's rejoicing more heavily than his own death, and sending... he had him killed and appointed Archelaus to reign after him, and thus he died five days later, most fortunate in other matters, but most unhappy in his domestic affairs. Salome, however, his sister, released everyone the king had ordered to be killed. Remigius, however, in his original commentary on Matthew, says that Herod killed himself with the knife he used to peel his apple, and that his sister Salome killed all the prisoners just as she had arranged with her brother.
Read the original Latin
Innocentes dicti sunt triplici ratione, scilicet ratione vitae, ratione poenae et ratione innocentiae assecutae. Ratione vitae dicti sunt innocentes ex eo, quod vitam innocentem , id est, non nocentem habuerunt. Nulli enim unquam nocuerunt, nec Deo per inobedientiam, nec proximo per injustitiam, nec sibi per alicujus peccati malitiam. Et ideo dicitur in psalmo: innocentes et recti adhaeserunt mihi, Innocentes in vita et recti in fide, Ratione poenae, quoniam innocenter ac injuste passi sunt, unde psalmista: effuderunt sanguinem innocentem. Ratione innocentiae assecutae, quoniam in ipso martirio assecuti sunt baptismalem innocentiam, id est ab originali peccato munditiam, de qua innocentia dicitur in psalmo: custodi innocentiam et vide aequitatem, id est, custodi innocentiam baptismatis et postmodum vide aequitatem bonae operationis. j 4. Innocentes ab Herode Ascalonita interfecti sunt. .
Tres enim Herodes sacra scriptura commemorat, quos famosos fecit eorum crudelitas. Primus dictus est Herodes Ascalonita, sub quo dominus natus est et a quo pueri occisi sunt. Secundus dictus est Herodes Antipas, qui Johaunem decollavit. Tertius dictus est Herodes Agrippa, qui Jacobum occidit et Petrum incarceravit, unde de hoc exstant versus :
Ascalonita necat pueros, Antipa Johannem Agrippa Jacobum, claudens in carcere Petrum, Sed primi Herodis hystoriam breviter videamus. Antipater Ydumaeus, ut in hystoria scholastica legitur, neptem regis Arabum duxit uxorem, ex qua filium habuit, quem vocavit Herodem, qui postmodo Ascalonita dictus est. Hic a Caesare Augusto regnum Judaeae accepit et tunc primitus sceptrum ablatum est de Judaea. Huic sex filii nati sunt, scilicet Antipater, Alexander, Aristobulus, Archelaus, Herodes Antipas et Philippus, Alexandrum autem et Aristobulum ex eadem matre Judaea genitos Romam misit liberalibus artibus imbuendos: post hoc a studiis redierunt et erat Alexander ) grammaticus, Aristobulus autem acerrimus perorator; jamque frequentius de susceptione regni cum patre disceptabant. Ab hoe pater offensus Antipatrem illis praeponere satagebat, cumque illi de morte patris tractassent et ob hoc a patre rejecti fuissent, Caesarem adeunt de patris injuria conquestari. Interea magi Jherosolimam veniunt et de ortu novi regis diligentius sciscitantur: Herodes hoc audiens perturbatur timens, ne de verorum regum genere aliquis natus esset, qui eum tamqnam regni inyasorem repelleret.
Rogat igitur magos ut eo invento sibi renuntient, simulans se velle adorare, quem volebat occidere. Verumtamen magi per aliam viam reversi. sunt in regionem suam. Videns Herodes, quod nequaquam ad se venirent, stellae visione eos deceptos ad se redire erubuisse credidit et ideo ab inquisitione pueri animum revocavit. Cum antem andiisset quod pastores dixerunt et quae Symeon et Anna prophetaverant, vehementer timuit et se à magis turpiter illusum putavit. Tune Herodes de nece puerorum , qui erant in Betlehem, tractare coepit, ut cum iis ille, quem ignorabat, occideretur. Ad monitionem autem angeli Joseph cum puero et matre in Aegyptum, in civitatem Hermopolis fugit ibique septem annis usque ad obitum Herodis mansit, Ingrediente igitur domino Aegyptum secundum Ysaiae vaticinium universa ydola corruerunt, Tradunt quoque, quod sicut in exitu filiorum Israel de Aegypto non fuit domus in Aegypto, in qua procurante domino non jaceret mortuus primogenitus, ita nec tunc fuit templum, in quo non corruisset ydolum. Refert Cassiodorus in hystoria tripartita, quod in Hermopoli Thebayde dicatur esse arbor, quae vocatur persidis, valens in salutem multorum, si fructus aut folium aut pars corticis collo acgrotantium alligetur.
Cum igitur beata Maria cum filio in Aegyptum fugeret, haec arbor usque ad terram inclinata est et Christum suppliciter adoravit. Haec Cassiodorus.
Cum igitur Herodes de nece puerorum disponeret, a Caesare Augusto per epistolam est citatus filiorum accusationibus responsurus. Qui cum per Tarsum iter faceret, intellexit, quod magos naves Tarsensium transvexissent, et ideo omnes naves Tarsi comburi fecit, secundum quod praedictum fuerat: in spiritu vehementi conteres naves Tarsis. Cumque pater cum filiis coram Caesare disceptaret, definitum est, ut filii patri in omnibus obedirent et ipse, cui vellet, regnum dimitteret. Rediens igitur Herodes et ex confirmatione factus audacior, mittens occidit omnes pueros, qui erant in Betlehem a bimatu et infra, secundum tempus, quod exquisitum erat a magis. Hoe antem duplicem intelligentiam continet. Primo ut infra dicat ordinem temporis; et est sensus: à bimatu et infra, id est, ab infantibus duorum annorum usque ad pueros unius noctis Didicerat cnim Herodes a magis ea die, qua stella apparuit, iis dominum natum esse, et quia jam annus fluxerat, ex eo quod Romam ierat et redierat, dominum anniculum et reliquorum insuper dierum esse credebat ideoque supra aetatem ejus usque ad bimos et infra usque ad unius noctis infantes desaceviit in pueros, timens pueri morphoseon, ne scilicet prer, cui sydera famulabantur, supra aetatem suam vel ita faciem transformaret. Et haec sententia usitatior et verior habetur et reputatur. Alio modo exponitur secundum Chrysostomum, ut infra dicat ordinem numeri, et est sensus: a bimatu et infra, id est: a pueris duorum annorum.
Dicit enim stellam per annum ante ortum servatoris magis apparuisse. Herodes autem postquam hoc a magis didicit, Romam vadens adhuc per annum distulit; credebat autem tunc dominum natum fuisse, quando magis stella apparuit, et ideo dominum duorum annorurh esse credebat, unde pueros bimos occidit et deinceps usque ad quinque annos, sed non minores bimis. Cui assertioni fidem facere videtur, quod quaedam ossa innocentium habentur adeo grandia, quam bimorum esse non possunt. Potest tamen dici, quod longe majoris erant tunc homines quantitatis, quam modo. Ipse autem Herodes statim ibi punitus est, nam (sicut dicit Macrobius et in quadam Chronica legitur) unus parvulus filius Herodis ibidem ad nutriendum fuerat datus, qui cum aliis a carnificibus est occisus. Tunc adimpletum est, quod dictum est per prophetam: vox ploratus et ululatus, piarum scilicet matrum, audita est in Roma, id est in excelso.
Deus autem judex justissimus (ut in iisdem hystoriis legitur scholasticis) non est passus tantam Herodis nequitiam remanere impunitam. Divino enim judicio factum est, ut qui multos orbaverat filiis, ipse suis miserabilius orbaretur. Nam Alexander et Aristobulus iterum patri habiti sunt suspecti, — Confessus est autem unus de eorum complicibus, quod Alexander multa sibi donaria promisisset, si patri venenum propinaret: confessus est etiam tonsor de promissis sibi muneribus, si dum patris barbam raderet, eum conlinuo jugularet, addiditque Alexandrum dixisse, non esse ponendam spem in sene, qui sibi capillos tingeret et juvenis appareret. Ob hoc pater iratus eos occidi fecit, Antipatrem autem futurum regem instituit, sed ipsi Antipatri Herodes Antipam in regnum substituit. Insuper Herodes Agrippam et Herodiadem uxorem Philippi, quos ex Aristobulo susceperat, paterna dilectione fovebat. Hac duplici de causa Antipater intolerabile contra patrem concepit odium, in tantum, quod eum attentavit occidere per venenum, quod Herodes jam praesentiens eum in carcere posuit. Augustus autem Caesar audiens, quod filios occidisset, dixit: mallem esse Herodis porcus quam filius, quia cum sit proselitus, porcis parcit et filios occidit. lpse autem Herodes cum jam annos LXX haberet, in gravissimam aegritudinem cecidit, nam febre valida, prurigine corporis, continuis tormentis, pedum inflammatione, vermescentibus testiculis, intolerabili foetore, crebro anhelitu et interruptis suspiriis torquebatur.
A medicis véro in oleo positus, inde quasi mortuus est allatus. Audiens autem Judaeos mortem suam eum gaudio exspectare, nobiliores juvenes ex omni Judaea collectos in carcere posuit dixitque Salomae, sorori suae: scio Judaeos de morte mca gavisuros, sed potero habere multos lugentes et nobiles exsequias funeris, si meis volueris parere-mandatis, ut, cum spiritum emísero, cunctos occidas, quos in custodia servo, ut sic omnis Judaea me defleat licet invita. Habebat autem in consuetudine, ut post omnem cibum pomum pro se purgaret et comederet, cumque gladium mann teneret tussique violenta discinderetur, circumspiciens, ne se aliquis impediret, se ipsum percussurus manum sustulit, sed consobrinus ejus sustinendo dextram impedivit. Protinus autem quasi rex mortuus esset, in aula regia ululatus insonuit, quo audito exsultat Antipater multaque, si solveretur, custodibus pollicetur. Quod cum cognovisset Herodes, gravius filii exsultationem quam propriam tulit mortem, mittensque. satellites eum occidi fecit et Archelaum post se regnaturum instituit sicque post dies V mortuus est, in aliis fortunatissimus, in rebus domesticis infelicissimus. Salome autem soror ejus omnes absolvit, quos rex occidi mandaverat. Remigius autem in originali super Matthaeum dicit, quod Herodes gladio, quo pomum purgabat, se peremit et quod Salome soror ejus omnes vinctos, pront cum fratre ordinaverat, interfecit,
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