Hadrian's Letter to Minucius Fundanus
APPENDIX,
HADRIAN'S LETTER TO
MINUCIUS FUNDANUS
JUSTIN appended this Rescript to the conclusion of his First Apology. It is the reply Hadrian sent to an inquiry from Minucius' predecessor, Silvanus Granianus, concerning the treatment of accusations made against Christians.
I have received the letter addressed to me by your predecessor Serenius! Granianus, a most illustrious man; and this communication I am unwilling to pass over in silence, lest innocent persons be disturbed and occasion be given to the informers to practise villainy.
Accordingly, if the inhabitants of your province will so far sustain this petition of theirs as to accuse the Christians in some court of law,
I do not prohibit them from doing so. But I will not suffer them to make use of mere entreaties and outcries. For it is far more just, if anyone desires to make an accusation, that you give judgement upon it. If, therefore, anyone makes the accusation, and furnishes proof that the said men do anything contrary to the laws, you shall punish them in proportion to the offences. And this, by Hercules, you shall give special heed to, that if any man, through mere calumny, bring an accusation against any of these persons, you shall award to him more severe punishments in proportion to his wickedness.
The genuineness of this Rescript was at one time challenged by a number of German scholars? although the external evidence in its favour is strong. It is true that Eusebius, H.£. tv. 8, states that Justin appended a copy to his First Apology in Latin and that he (Eusebius) translated it into Greek—while the present text of Justin has Eusebius' Greek version.? A later scribe has no doubt substituted this for the original Latin.
Rufinus has preserved a Latin text of the Rescript and there seems to be no insuperable objection to regarding this as the original text rather than a re-translation of Eusebius' Greek
1 This appears to be a mistake for Silvanus.
2 See J. B. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, pt u, vol. 1, 477/8.
3 See the important note of Dom B. Capelle in R. Bén. xxxrx (1927), 365-8, who shows that Justin himself added the Rescript.
APPENDIX 2
version. Rufinus certainly knew Ulpian's collection of the Imperial Ordinances relating to the Christians and, as he lived in the West, he may well have been acquainted with Justin's
Apologies. A further point is that the Latin text has a juristic tone which is unlike Rufinus' own hand.
The language of the Rescript is perfectly clear and its effect must have been wholly favourable to the Christians—that is why Justin appended it to his First Apology. No longer, at least in Asia Minor, could Christians be falsely accused by the hated delator or informer. Law, not prejudice or mob violence, was to be the Roman basis of dealing with them. Accusers must from now on bring a charge against Christians in a form which was to be the subject of a legal inquiry. Many would now shrink from the light accusation based on hearsay. Even to accuse
Christians of the 'Name' would not be too easy as the burden of proof lay directly on the accuser. The Church had good reason to regard Hadrian with favour and later Apologists, such as Melito, made a cautious use of the Rescript.