Of sinners, empty, mindless, who have placed
God’s promises in a mistrustful heart;
340 Men vanquisht by the miserable sweet
Of present life: that troop would have been bound
Capital slavery to undergo,
By their own fault, if sin’s cause shall impose
Law’s yoke upon the mass. For to serve God,
345 And be whole-heartedly intent thereon,
Untainted faith, and freedom, is thereto
Prepared spontaneous.
The just fathers, then,
And holy stainless prophets, many, sang
The future advent of the Lord; and they
350 Faithfully testify what Heaven bids
To men profane: with them the giants, men
With Christ’s own glory satiated, made
The consorts of His virtue, filling up
The hallowed words, have stablished our faith;
355 By facts predictions proving.
Of these men
Disciples who succeeded them throughout
The orb, men wholly filled with virtue’s breath,
And our own masters, have assigned to us
Honours conjoined with works.
Of whom the first
360 Whom Peter bade to take his place and sit
Upon this chair in mightiest Rome where he
Himself had sat, was Linus, great, elect,
And by the mass approved. And after him
Cletus himself the fold’s flock undertook;
365 As his successor Anacletus was
By lot located: Clement follows him;
Well known was he to apostolic men:
Next Evaristus ruled without a crime
The law. To Sixtus Sextus Alexander
370 Commends the fold: who, after he had filled
His lustral times up, to Telesphorus
Hands it in order: excellent was he,
And martyr faithful. After him succeeds
A comrade in the law, and master sure:
375 When lo! the comrade of your wickedness,
Its author and forerunner—Cerdo hight—
Arrived at Rome, smarting with recent wounds:
Detected, for that he was scattering
Voices and words of venom stealthily: