De sancto Johanne ante portam latinam
The Martyrdom at the Latin Gate
John the Apostle survives the ordeal of boiling oil at the Latin Gate, establishing a site of Christian commemoration.
While the apostle and evangelist John was preaching in Ephesus, he was seized by the proconsul and invited to offer sacrifice to the gods. He was invited to offer sacrifice. When he refused, he was thrown into prison, and a letter was sent to the Emperor Domitian denouncing him as a major sacrilegist, a despiser of the gods, and a worshiper of the Crucified. By the order of Domitian, he was taken to Rome; once there, all the hair on his head was shaved off in mockery, and he was ordered to be thrown into a vat of boiling oil before the city gate known as the Latin Gate, yet he felt no pain there and emerged completely unharmed. The Christians built a church on that very spot, and that day is celebrated as the day of his martyrdom.
The Reasons for Imperial Persecution
The text explores various historical and theological reasons why Roman authorities opposed the message of Christ and the apostles.
When he still didn't stop preaching Christ, Domitian ordered him exiled to the island of Patmos; the Roman emperors didn't persecute the apostles for preaching Christ—since they themselves didn't reject any god—but because they claimed he had been deified without the Senate's authority, which they forbade for anyone. For this reason, it's recorded in the Ecclesiastical History that when Pilate sent letters to Tiberius about Christ, and Tiberius agreed that his faith should be accepted by the Romans, the Senate rejected it entirely. This was because he had not been called God by their authority. Another reason is found in a certain chronicle, based on the fact that it had not appeared to the Romans before. Yet another reason is that he was clearing away the worship of all the gods to which the Romans were devoted. Another reason is that he preached contempt for the world, while the Romans were greedy and ambitious. Christ didn't even allow this to happen, so that it wouldn't be attributed to human power. According to Master John Beleth, another reason the emperors and the senate persecuted Christ and the apostles was that God seemed to them too proud and envious, because he didn't deign to have a partner. Another reason, reported by Orosius, is that the senate was indignant that Pilate sent letters about the miracles of Christ to Tiberius rather than to them; for that reason, they refused to have him consecrated among the gods, which is why an angry Tiberius killed many of the senators and condemned others to exile.
The Compassion of a Mother
John's mother travels to Rome to visit her son, eventually passing away and being honored through the discovery of her relics.
However, the mother of John himself, hearing that her son was being held in Rome, was moved by maternal compassion and went to Rome to visit him. When she arrived and heard that he had been sent into exile and was returning from there, she went on to Christ in the city of Nerula in Campania. Her body lay buried in a certain cave for a long time, but was later revealed by her son James; it was then translated with great honor to the aforementioned city, smelling of a sweet fragrance and shining with many miracles.
Read the original Latin
Johannes apostolus et evangelista dum Ephesi praedicaret, a proconsule capitur et ut diis. immolet, invitatur. Qui dum renueret, in carcerem mittitur et ad Domitianum imperatorem epistola mittitur, in qua magnus sacrilegus et Deorum contemtor et crucifixi cultor nominatur. Juss igitur Domitiani Romam deducitur et deducto omnes capilli pro derisione a capite praescinduntur ac ante portam urbis, quae latina dicitur, in doleum ferventis olei igne desubter candente mitti jubetur, nullum tamen ibidem dolorem sensit, sed penitus illaesus exivit. In illo igitur loco ecelesia a christianis fabricatur et dies illa tamquam dies sui martirii solemnizatur. Cum ergo nec sic a praedicatione Christi cessaret, jussu Domitiani in Pathmos insnlam relegatur nec tamen imperatores Romani apostolos persequebantur, quia Christum praedicabant, cum ipsi nullum Deum respuerent, sed quia ipsum sine senatus auctoritate deificatum ajebant, quod ipsi de nemine fieri prohibuerunt. Unde legitur in hystoria ecclesiastica, quod, cum Pylatus quadam vice ad Tyberium epistolas de Christo misisset et ipse Tyberius ejus fidem -a Romanis recipi assentiret, senatus omnino respuit. ex co, quod non sui auctoritate Deus vocatus fuit.
Alia causa est, quae legitur in quadam chronica, ex eo quod Romanis prius non apparuerat. Alia causa est vero, quod omnium Deorum cultum, cui Romani inserviebant, evacuabat. Alia causa est ex eo, quod mundi despectum praedicabat et Romani avari et ambitiosi erant. Christus etiam hoc fieri non permisit, ne hoo humanae potentiae adscriberetur. Alia causa secundum magistrum Johannem Beleth, quare imperatores et senatus Christum et apostolos persequebantur, erat, quia videbatur iis Deus nimis superbus et invidus, eo quod consortem habere non dignaretur. Alia causa est, quam Orosius refert, quia senatus indigne tulit, quod Pylatus ad Tyberium et non ad senatum de Christi miraculis litteras destinavit, et ideo ejus consecrationem inter Deos fieri noluit, unde iratus Tyberius multos de senatoribus occidit et quosdam exsilio damnavit. Mater autem ipsius Johannis audiens filium Romae detineri, materna compassione permota Romam ad eum visitandum accessit, sed dum venisset et ipsum in exsilium relegatum audisset indeque rediret, in Campania civitate Nerulana migravit ad Christum. Cujus corpus in quodam specu sepultum multo tempore jacuit, sed postmodum a filio suo Jacobo revelatum fuit: quod quidem multo odore redolens ac miraculis multis refulgens ad praedictam civitatem cum multo honore translatum est,
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