Prof. Thomas Powel, M. A., has printed a Welsh version of the “celestial letter” from a fifteenth MS. in the British Museum (Catt. MS. Titus D xxii.). In this the recipient of the letter is Peter of Antioch, and the letter, it is asserted, was found on the altar of Peter and Paul in Rome. It may be well to give the English of “Ebostol y Sul” as an example of the developed type:—
This is the cause why the wrath of God will come among you, and decay upon your labor, and upon what you may possess of goods, and that the people of the pagans will come to put your bodies in bondage and subjection. Because you do not keep the holy blessed Sunday there will multiply among you rapacious wolves and mad dogs, and they will plunge you in the depths of affliction, and I will turn away my face from you, and from your houses which your hands made. Every such evil as you have done against my holy church I will avenge, and I will deliver you into the power of aliens, and I will sink you as I formerly sank Sodom and Gomorrah, which the earth swallowed up for their sins. And whoever shall travel on the holy Sunday to any other place than to my church—for it is a house of prayer—or to pilgrimages of saints, or to visit the sick, or to bury the dead, or to make peace between enemies—whoso shall do any other work than these, as shaving off hair or beards, or shearing them, or washing heads or clothes, or baking bread, or other work forbidden by the church on the solemn day, Sunday, shall not receive from God spiritual blessing, day or night, but rather the curse which they have deserved unhappily, and I will send into their houses diseases unending, upon them and upon their children, and a plague upon their cattle. And whoever shall dispute on the Sunday, or shall deal treacherously, or engage in strife, or unseasonable matters, instead of praying with a devout will in my name and in my church, I will send them diverse losses manifestly, so that they shall fail.
Let all the unbelieving people hear, and hear, thou evil and unjust generation, that which thou wilt not believe willingly. Very short are thy days, and daily thy days and thy end hasten and draw nigh to thy end; and I am long-suffering with earthly sinners, to see if they will turn them to true penance and contrition and holy confession. Let all the people of the world hear, that from love to me they may not grow bold to swear to false oaths, or to dishonor my churches, or to commit thefts on the holy Sunday. For on that day the Lord rose from the dead to life, and ascended to heaven, and He is sitting on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in six days God made heaven and earth, and that which is in them, altogether; of creatures which are seen, and those which are not seen; and on the seventh day He rested from all His works, and so I will that you too rest from the worldly works, all, free and slave, and keep the Sunday from the evening of Saturday until the sunrise on Monday, or I will curse you before my Father which is in heaven, and you shall not reign with me nor with my angels in the kingdom of heaven most high. And unless you keep faith toward your sponsors, and keep Sunday regularly without labor, I will send tempests upon you and upon your crops, so that they will be endangered, and you will not get food without trouble.
Bring your tithes faithfully to my church with a devout will; and whosoever shall not bring faithfully the tithe of the good which God hath lent him, he shall have the wrath of God on his soul and on his body, and he shall not see eternal life in the place where he hopes to see it; but they shall hunger, for they are an unbelieving people, preparing for themselves infernal judgments; and I will not forgive them forever if they keep not my commandments. Whoever shall observe the holy Sunday, I will open for them the windows of heaven; I will multiply for them every good thing of the labor of their hands; and I will lengthen their years in this present world, in health and earthly gladness, and there shall be no anxious troubles among their people; and I will be their helper, and they shall be my adopted children. And know that I am the Lord, and that there is no Lord but me; for I will put away all evil and care from you. If there be a priest who will not declare this epistle to my people, either in a town, or in a church, or in a city, my wrath will fall on him forever. Let them declare to the people that they may believe in the solemn Sunday, and that they may merit the mercy of heaven; for God Himself sent this written admonition to sinners unto the altar of the church of Peter and Paul in Rome, to admonish them respecting the work of Sunday and holy day.
I am Peter of Antioch, who swear by the power of God, who created the heaven and the earth, and that which is therein, and created man in His own image and form; and by Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who was crucified for us, and who will come to judge the quick and the dead; and by the Holy Ghost, and by the Trinity in Unity inseparable; and by the four evangelists, and by the twenty-four prophets, and by the twelve apostles, and by the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, and by the bodies of the saints, no man composed this epistle, but it was found upon the altar of Peter, the apostle, sent by Jesus Christ from heaven indeed.
IX. Other Manuscripts.
The Vatican contains an Arabic MS. of the year 1426, which professes to be a letter of St. Peter and St. Paul to St. Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, which was sent from heaven December 25, 746, to the church of the two saints at Rome, in the presence of 12,000 bishops, 700 priests, and 23,000 laymen. The object, as in other varying editions of the letter, is to enforce the observance of the Sunday.
There are two other Arabic MSS. of the same century in the Vatican. In one the “Epistola” is said to have fallen at Rome, and to be written on porphyritic marble.
There is a copy in a fifteenth-century Latin MS. in the British Museum (Add. MSS., b. 716, fols. 72, 73). It contains the text used by Eustace of Flaye, with some additions.
A Greek version of the “heavenly letter” appeared in the fifteenth century. In this it is stated that a stone fell from heaven at Bethlehem, and was so heavy that the patriarch Joannice alone, after three days and nights of prayer, was able to move it, and to take from it the letter which it contained. This epistle refers to a previous letter that had been sent without effect. The main stress of the document is on the observance of Sunday. In the epilogue Joannice is made to exhort the Christians to obtain a copy: “Buy it, and you will buy the kingdom of heaven.” Staphorst has printed a fifteenth-century Hamburg MS., which recommends abstinence on Thursday as well as the observance of Sunday. Dr. Walter W. Skeat has described in the “Modern Language Quarterly” for May, 1901, a fifteenth-century charm, written in the East Midland dialect. The opening words are:—
Here begynneth the copy of the wryth that the Angel brought from Hevene on-to Seint Leo the Pope of Rome, he to deliver it to Kynge Charlys that that tyme he went to the batayl ayens goddys enemys. And he seyd that it wolde save hym that beryth thys letter up-on hym from fir and water, and from thunder and leneyng, and from alle wyk-kyd spiritys, and from false fyndys, and from drechying and dremyng in a bodijs slepyng, and from alle maner of perelles, bothe on lande and on water.
Further virtues are ascribed to the charm, which then follows. Here the original purpose of the heavenly letter has been completely lost sight of, and it is used merely as the preface to an amulet.
X. Among the Syrians.
Toward the end of the sixteenth century the “heavenly letter” was in circulation among the Syrian Christians of Malabar. It was cited as authoritative, and it was also subjected to synodical condemnation. A Syriac MS., belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society, contains a fragment of a “letter received by Athanasius, A. D. 829.”
The Vatican has an Arabic version belonging to the sixteenth century. It is written in Syriac characters, and professes to have been received by the patriarch Athanasius, December 25, 1057.
XI. In the Seventeenth Century.
In 1694 there was printed at Cologne a “Wahrhafte abschrift des Himmelbriefs so Gott selbst geschrieben, und auf S. Michaelsborg in Bethania vor S. Michelis Bild hanget, auch niemand weiss woran er hanget. Er ist mit goldenen Buchstaben geschrieben.” The virtue of the “celestial letter” as an amulet is asserted: “He who has it in his house will be safe from harm by thunder, fire, and water. It is also recommended to pregnant women.”
There is an Icelandic version of the “heavenly letter,” belonging to the same century.
A Vatican MS. contains an Arabic edition, in which the year A.D. 1353 is erroneously given as the equivalent of the year of the Greek era 1042. The proper date would be A.D. 731.
Ewald describes an Ethiopic MS. at Tubingen, dated 1678, in which it is stated that a “Tomar” book came from heaven to Athanasius on Sunday, in Rome, in the year of the Greeks 1056. It fell in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, where there were with Athanasius 120 priests, and a congregation numbering, with women and children, 230 souls. While they were praying, there came a darkness so that they could not discern each other’s features. Then the helpers of the arch-priest went forth, and saw the book floating between earth and heaven. They repeated this to him, but he delayed to go forth until he had completed the communion service. Then all went, and were joined by the people of the town, who came to the number of 10,700 souls. Robes were spread on the earth, and the letter fell on them and was read by the arch-priest. It is dated 1056, and mentions a previous letter of 1042. The main stress of the letter is, as in other versions, Sunday observance.
Assemanni mentions a MS. of 1678, which is evidently a Syriac version of the letter associated with the name of Athanasius. The date of the descent of the “celestial epistle” is given as A. D. 829.