usly affirmed that there
were two Gods; the one rigorous and severe, the author of the Old
Testament; the other merciful and good, the author of the New, and the
father of Christ, sent by him to redeem man from the tyranny of the
former; and that Christ was not really born of the Virgin Mary, or true
man, but such {128} in shadow only and appearance. Our holy pope, by his
pastoral vigilance detected that monster, and cut him off from the
communion of the church. The heresiarch, imposing upon him by a false
repentance, was again received; but the zealous pastor having discovered
that he secretly preached this old opinions, excommunicated him a second
time.[3]

Another minister of Satan was Valentine, who being a Platonic
philosopher, puffed up with the vain opinion of his learning, and full
of resentment for another's being preferred to him in an election to a
certain bishopric in Egypt, as Tertullian relates,[4] revived the errors
of Simon Magus, and added to them many other absurd fictions, as of
thirty AEones or ages, a kind of inferior deities, with whimsical
histories of their several pedigrees. Having broached these opinions at
Alexandria, he left Egypt for Rome. At first he dissembled his heresies,
but by degrees his extravagant doctrines came to light. Hyginus, being
the mildest of men, endeavored to reclaim him without proceeding to
extremities; so that Valentine was not excommunicated before the first
year of St. Pius his immediate successor.

St. Hyginus did not sit quite four years, dying in 142. We do not find
that he ended his life by martyrdom, yet he is styled a martyr in some
ancient calendars, as well as in the present Roman Martyrology;
undoubtedly on account of the various persecutions which he suffered,
and to which his high station in the church exposed him in those
perilous times. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 252.

Footnotes:
1. Eus. l. 4, c. 11.
2. Eus. l. 4, c. 30.
3. St. Epiph. hom. 41; Iren. l. 3, c. 4; Euseb. &c.
4. Tertull. l. contra Valent. c. 4.

ST. EGWIN, B.C.

HE was of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, devoted himself to the
divine service in his youth, and succeeded O{}or in the episcopal see of
Worcester, in 692. by his zeal and severity in reproving vice, he
stirred up some of his own flock to persecute him, which gave him an
opportunity of performing a penitential pilgrimage Rome. Some legends
tell us, that setting out he put on his legs iron shackles, and threw
the key