Mors Pilati
Standard abbreviation: Death. Pil.
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 109; CANT 71
Category: Pilate Cycle
Related literature: Healing of Tiberius, Vengeance of the Savior, Golden Legend 53.
Compiled by Stephen C. E. Hopkins, University of Central Florida ([email protected])
Hopkins, Stephen C. E. “Death of Pilate (Mors Pilati).” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/death-of-pilate-mors-pilati/.
Created October 2022.
1. SUMMARY
This brief text is a late development in the Pilate Cycle, and has much in common with its antecedents, the Healing of Tiberius and Vengeance of the Savior. Especially at its conclusion, it reads like a medieval ghost story; undoubtedly, parts of it descend from popular legends about haunted meres, though the bulk of it appears to be an adaptation of a Latin summary of Voragine’s Golden Legend about Pilate. Voragine’s account is based on what he calls the Historia apocrypha (the Latin Prose Life of Pilate). Essentially, as in the Vengeance of the Savior, Tiberius suffers a serious ailment and sends his messenger, Volusianus, to seek out the renowned healer Jesus. Volusianus encounters Veronica, who describes Christ’s crucifixion, but also the mandyllion that bears an image of his face and has his miraculous healing powers. Volusianus then convinces her to return with him to the emperor Tiberius in Rome, who is subsequently healed when he looks upon the relic. When he learns of Pilate’s role in Christ’s death, he has Pilate arrested and brought to Rome. According to this legend (and perhaps borrowing from medieval legends about Herod), Pilate is known for his fits of inconsolable rage. Yet when he is brought into the presence of the healed emperor, he is calmed. The rage relapses when he leaves Tiberius. The emperor decides Pilate is to be executed shamefully for his crimes, but Pilate commits suicide in prison with his own knife before this can be arranged. The Roman soldiers attempt to dispose of Pilate’s body by tying a millstone around his neck and casting it into the Tiber. Yet a host of demons appears and causes “lightning and tempests, thunder and hail, so that everyone was in constant fear.” For the safety of the city, the body is removed and sent to Vienne (which supposedly means “the way of Gehenna”). Another host of demons cause the same problem there when soldiers try to immerse the body in the Rhône. The body is sent to the region of Losania (Lausanne), where it is sunk in a solitary lake deep in the mountains. Yet, to this day, locals report that “diabolical machinations” still occur at the lake, and it is accounted a cursed place.
Named historical figures and characters: Jesus Christ, Pontius Pilate, Tiberius (emperor), Titus (emperor), Veronica, Volusianus.
Geographical locations: Gehenna, Jerusalem, Losania (Lausanne), Rhône River, Rome, Tiber River, Vienne.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Greek
Abbott, G. F. “The Report and Death of Pilate.” JTS 4 (1903): 83–86 (edition based on a personal manuscript of the 18th century; current whereabouts unknown).
3.1.2 Latin
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, L 58 Sup, pp. 135–42 (14th cent.) ~ illustrated
Metz, Bibliothèque municipale, 479, fols. 109r–112r (14th cent.) ~ a combination of Vengeance of the Savior and Death of Pilate
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, n.a. lat. 1154 (15th cent.)
Tischendorf, Constantin von, ed. Evangelia Apocrypha. Leipzig: Vaenarius et Mendelssohn, 1853 (edition of the Milan manuscript, pp. 432–35; introduction, pp. lxxix–lxxx).
Ehrman, Bart D. and Zlatko Pleše, eds. and trans. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 (pp. 559–60).
3.1.4 Middle Irish
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B 513, fol. 13v (15th cent.) ~ Bodleian
Royal Irish Academy, 24.P.25, fol. 64v (16th cent.)~ RIA
London, British Library, Egerton 137, fol. 101 (17th cent.) ~ BL Catalog
London, British Library, Egerton 161 (1778–1788) ~ BL Catalog
Mac Niocaill, Gearóid. “Dhá leagan de scéal Phioláit.” Celtica 7 (1966): 205–13.
3.1.3 Middle Welsh
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 5, fols. 10r–11r (ca. 1350)
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 7, fols. 62v–64r (13th/14th cent.)
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Llanstephan 27 (The Red Book of Talgarth) fol. 129v–130v (ca. 1400) ~ Codecs
3.2 Modern Translations
3.3.1 English
Cowper, B. Harris. The Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ. 4th ed. 1867. London: Frederic Norgate, 1874 (pp. 415–19).
Elliot, J.K. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993 (summary, p. 217).
Ehrman, Bart D. and Zlatko Pleše, trans. The Other Gospels: Accounts of Jesus from Outside the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 (pp. 300–304).
__________, eds. and trans. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 (pp. 559–60).
James, M. R. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923 (summary, pp. 157–58).
Walker, Alexander. Apocryphal Gospels, Acts and Revelations. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1873. Repr. as vol. 16 of The Ante-Nicene Christian Library. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. 24 vols. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1867–1883 (pp. 234–36).
Westcott, Arthur. The Gospel of Nicodemus and Kindred Documents. London: Heath, Cranton & Ouseley, Ltd., 1915 (pp. 131–35).
3.3.2 French
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Dictionnaire des Apocryphes. 2 vols. 1856. Repr., Turnhout: Brepols, 1989 (vol. 1, cols. 1177–80).
Pérès, Jaques-Noël. “Mort de Pilate.” Pages 401–405 in vol. 2 of Écrits apocryphes chrétiens. Edited by Pierre Geoltrain and Jean-Daniel Kaestli. Paris: Gallimard 2005.
3.3.3 Italian
Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (vol. 1.2, 402–404).
Moraldi, Luigi. Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 2 vols. Classici delle religioni, Sezione quarta, La religione cattolica 24. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1971 (vol. 1, pp. 721–24).
3.3.4 Spanish
González-Blanco, Edmundo. Los Evangelios Apócrifos. Vol. 2. Madrid, 1934 (vol. 2, pp. 361–69).
Santos Otero, Aurelio de, ed. and trans. Los Evangelios Apócrifos. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Christianos, 19561, 19793 (3rd ed., pp. 495–500).
3.3 General Works
Bammel, Ernst. “Pilatus.” Pages 383–84 in vol. 5 of Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 3rd ed. Edited by Kurt Galling. Tübingen: Mohr, 1961.
Berlioz, J. “Crochet de fer et puits à tempêtes. La légende de Ponce Pilate à Vienne (Isère) et au mont Pilat au XIIIe siècle.” Le Monde alpin et rhodanien 18.1 (1990): 85–104.
Ford, A. E., ed. La Vengeance de Nostre-Seigneur: the Old and Middle French Prose Versions; the Version of Japheth. Studies and Texts 63. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.
Dobschütz, Ernst von. Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende. 3 vols. TU 18. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899 (pp. 230–39).
Gaiffier, Baudoin de. “L’ ‘Historia apocrypha’ dans la Légende dorée.” AnBoll 91 (1973): 265–72.
Izydorczyk, Zbigniew. “Mors Pilati.” In The Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online, General Editor David G. Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte. Consulted online on 13 October 202.
Judd, Jr., Frank F. “Perspectives on Pilate in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.” Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 8 (2016): 157–81.
Knape, J. “Die ‘Historia apocrypha’ der ‘Legenda aurea.’” Pages 113–72 in Zur Deutung von Geschichte in Antike und Mittelalter. Edited by J. Knape and K. Strobel. Bamberg: Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, 1985.
Rhodes, James F. “The Pardoner’s ‘Vernycle’ and His ‘Vera Icon.’” Modern Language Studies 13 (1983): 34–40.
Winter, Paul. On the Trial of Jesus. 2nd ed. Revised by T. A. Burkill and Geza Vermes. New York: de Gruyter, 1974 (p. 88).