COLLADO
102
COLLADO
clared, was impregnated with the blood of martyrs.
The opinion of the saintly pontiff, however, does not
seem to have been shared by his contemporaries.
The practical Sixtus V (1.5S5-90) was only prevented
by death from converting the Coliseum into a manu-
factory of woollen goods. In 1671 Cardinal Altieri
regarded so little the Coliseum as a place consecrated
by the blood of Christian martyrs that he authorized
its use for bull-fights. Nevertheless from the middle
of the seventeenth century the conviction attributed
to St. Pius V gradually came to be shared by the
Romans. A writer named Martinelli, in a work pub-
lished in 1653, put the Coliseum at the head of a list of
places sacred to the martyrs. Cardinal Carpegna
(d. 1679) was accustomed to stop liis carriage when
passing by the CoUseum and make a commemoration
of the martyrs. But it was the act of Cardinal Altieri,
referred to above, which indirectly effected a general
change of public opinion in this regard. A pious
personage, Carlo Tomassi by name, aroused by what
he regarded as desecration, pubUshed a pamphlet
calling attention to the sanctity of the Cohseum and
protesting against the intended profanation author-
ized by Altieri. The pamphlet was so completely
successful that four years later, the jubilee year of
1675, theexteriorarcades were closed by order of Clem-
ent X; from this time the CoUseum became a sanc-
tuarj'. At the instance of St. Leonard of Port Mau-
rice, Benedict XIV (1740-5S) erected Stations of the
Cross in the Coliseum, wluch remained until Febru-
ary, 1S74, when they were removed by order of Com-
mendatore Rosa. St. Benedict Joseph Labre (d. 17S.3)
passed a life of austere devotion, living on alms,
within the walls of the CoUseum. "Pius VII in
1805, Leo XII in 1825, Gregory XVI in 1845, and
Pius IX in 1852, contributed UberaUy to save the
amphitheatre from further degradation, by support-
ing the fallen portions with great buttresses" (Lan-
ciani). Thus at a moment when the Coliseum stood
in grave danger of demolition it was saved by the
pious belief which placed it in the categorj" of monu-
ments dearest to Christians, the monuments of the
early martyrs. Yet, after an exhaustive examina-
tion of the documents in the case, the learned BoUan-
dist. Father Delehaye, S. J., arrives at the conclusion
that there are no historical grounds for so regarding it
(op. cit.). In the Jliddle Ages, for example, when the
sanctuaries of the martyrs were looked upon with so
great veneration, the Coliseum was completely neg-
lected; its name never occurs in the itineraries, or
guide-books, compiled for the use of pilgrims to the
Eternal City. The " Mirabilia Romse ", the first manu-
scripts of which date from the twelfth century, cites
among the places mentioned in the " Passions" of the
martyrs the Circus Flaminius ad pontem JudcBorum,
but in this sense makes no allusion to the Coliseum.
We have seen how for more than a century it served
as a strongliold of the Frangipani family; such a dese-
cration would have been impossible had it been popu-
larly regarded as a shrine consecrated by the blood,
not merely of innumerable martyrs, but even of one
hero of the Faith. The intervention of Eugenius
IV was based altogether on patriotism; as an ItaUan
the pope could not look on passively while a great
memorial of Rome's past was being destroyed.
" Nam demoliri urbis monuraenta nihil aliud est quam
ipsius urbis et totius orbis excellent iaiii diininuere."
Thus in the Middle Ages no traditidu existed in
Rome which associated the martyrs in any way with
the Coliseum; it was only in the seventeenth centuiy,
and in the mamiCT indicated, that it came to be re-
garded with veneration as a scene of early Christian
heroism. Indeed, little attention was paid by the
Christians of the first age to the actual place of a
martyr's sufferings; the sand stained with his blood
was, when possible, gathered up and trea.sured as a
precious rcUc, but that was all. The devotion of the
Christian body centred wholly around the place where
the martyr was interred. Father Delehaye calls at-
tention to the fact that although we know from trust-
worthy historical sources of the execution of Chris-
tians in the garden of Nero, yet popular tradition
preserved no recollection of an event so memorable
(op. cit., 37). The Acts of Roman Martyrs, it is true,
contain indications as to the places where various
martyrs suffered: in ampkUheatro, in Tellure. etc. But
these Acts are often merely pious legends of the fifth,
sixth, and following centuries built up by unknown
writers on a few reliable historical facts. The decree
formerly attributed to Pope Gelasius (492-96) bears
witness to the slight consideration in which this class
of Uterature was held in the Roman Church; to read it
in the churches was forbidden, and it was attributed
to unknown writers, wholly unciuaUfied for their self-
imposed task (secundum antiquam consuetudinem,
singular! cautela, in sancta Romana ecclesia non
leguntur, quia et eorum qui conscripsere nomina
penitus ignorantur, et ab infidelibus et idiotis super-
flua aut minus apta quam rei ordo fuerit esse putan-
tur.— Tiiiel. Epist. Rom. Pont., I,_ 458). The
evidence, therefore, which we possess in the Roman
Acts in favour of certain martyrs suffering in the
Colisemn is, for these reasons among others, regarded
by Father Delehaye as inconclusive. He does not
deny that there may have been martyrs who suffered
in the Coliseum, but we know nothing on the subject
one way or the other. (Je ne veux pas nier qu'U y ait
eu des martyrs de I'amphitheatre Flavien; mais nous
ne Savons pas non plus s'il y en a eu, et en tout cas
leurs noms nous sont inconnus. — Op. cit., 37.) It is,
of course, probable enough that some of the Christians
condemned ad bestias suffered in the Coliseum, but
there is just as much reason to suppose that they met
their death in one of the other places dedicated to the
cruel amusements of imperial Rome; for instance, in
the Circus Flaminius, the Gainum, the Circus of Ha-
drian, the Amphitheatrum Castrense, and the Stadium
of Domitian. Even as regards St. Ignatius of An-
tioch, the evidence that he was martyred in the Coli-
seum is far from decisive; the terms employed by St.
Jolm Chrysostom and Evagrius in reference to this
matter convey no precise meaning (Delehaye, op. cit.,
43). The same is true of the term used by Theodoret
in reference to the death of St. Telemachus, who
sacrificed his life to put an end to the bloody specta-
cles which, as late as the early fifth centurj', took
place in Rome. There is no reason to doubt the fact
of the heroic death of St. Telemachus. but there is, on
the other hand, no clear proof that its scene was the
CoUseum. Theodoret, the only writer who records
the incident, says that it happened eU ri (rrdSiov
(in the stadium), a different place from the Coliseum.
Deleh.we:, L'amphithMlrc Flnmm (Brussels, 1897);
Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome (Boston,
1S97); Parker, The Flavian Amphitheatre (London, 1876);
GoRi, Lc mcmorie storiche dclV anfiteatro Flaviano (Rome,
1874); VON Reumont, Gesch. dcr Stadl Rom (Berlin. 1867-70),
passim; Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the
Middle Ages. tr. H.umilto.n (London. 1894-1902).
M.iURICE M. H.iSSETl'.
Collado, Diego, missionary, b. in the latter part of the sixteenth century at Miajadas, in the province of Estremadura, Spain. He entered the Dominican Or- der at Salamanca about 1600, and in 1619 went to Japan, where the Christians were suffering persecu- tion. After the martyrdom of Luis Flores, a fellow- Dominican, in 1622, Collado repairixl to Rome, and later to Spain, in the interests of the Oriental missions. He obtained important coiieessions, though not with- out incurring some animosity. Beai'ing Apostolic and royal letters, he returned to the Orient in 1635. The following year he endeavoured to establish in the Philippines an independent convent devoted solely to the Chinese and Japanese missions, but, owing to the opposition of the Spanish civil authorities, his effort
