Pope Cornelius - Death and Letters

Death and Letters

In June 251, Decius was killed in battle with the Goths; immediately following this Trebonianus Gallus became Emperor. Persecution began again in June 252, and Pope Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellae, Italy, where he died in June 253. The Liberian catalogue lists his death as being from the hardships of banishment; however, later sources claim he was beheaded. Cornelius is not buried in the chapel of the popes, but in a nearby catacomb, and the inscription on his tomb is in Latin, instead of the Greek of his predecessor's Pope Fabian and successor's Lucius I. It reads, “Cornelius Martyr.” The letters Cornelius sent while in exile are all written in the colloquial Latin of the period instead of the classical style used by the educated such as Cyprian, a theologian as well as a bishop, and Novatian, who was also a philosopher. This suggests that Cornelius did not come from an extremely wealthy family and thus was not given a sophisticated education as a child. A letter from Cornelius while in exile mentions an office of "exorcist" in the church for the first time. Canon law dictated that each bishopric must have an exorcist, a tradition that continued until the minor orders were suppressed by Paul VI in 1972.