Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Papylus, a martyr

Papylus (Papirius or Papyrius, as Rufinus, and Ado after him, write), April 13. In 1881 Aubé brought some new facts to light respecting this martyr from the Greek MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Papylus is mentioned by Eusebius (H. E. iv. 15) at the end of his account of Polycarp's martyrdom. Ruinart (p. 27), in his preface to the Acts of Polycarp, says that according to Eusebius Papylus and his companions Carpus and Agathonice suffered about the same time as Polycarp. This is a mistake of the Bollandist Henschenius, arising out of the Latin version of Eusebius, which inserts the words "sub id tempus," which have no equivalent in the Greek original. The Acts of Papylus contained in Metaphrastes assign his martyrdom to the Decian persecution. These Acts, however, Aubé thinks utterly worthless. In the Revue archéologique, Dec. 1881, p. 350, he published a Greek MS. containing Acts which he thinks may be those seen by Eusebius. Aubé seems to agree in placing the martyrdom of Papylus in the Decian persecution. But Lightfoot points out (Ignatius, i. 625) that in the Acts mention is made of emperors in the plural, thence he infers that this rather points to the reign of M. Aurelius or of Severus.

[G.T.S.]