Orange But what if some Impostour here disguised himself under the Name of a Famous Disciple of St. Cesarius At least this pretended Disciple seems not to be much inform'd of his Masters Affairs He saith in one place that St. Cesarius sent some Grave and Learned Men to a Council Assembled at Valence to Condemn the Opinions of Pelagius Which having given me occasion to examine the Acts of the Councils held at Valence I â—ind nothing in them concerning the Heresie of Pelagius wherein St. Cesarius could have any hand So that being mistaken in a matter of Fact of this Importance he might as well have been over-seen in joyning Eucherius and Cesarius in the Cure of that Diseased Woman It appears that the Learned Doctor Cave relyed a little too much upon this Life of St. Cesarius He saith in his History of Ecclesiastical Writers that this Holy Bishop understanding that he was suspected of Pelagianism caused a Council to be Assembled at Valence to clear himself of this accusation and being hindred by reason of the illness of his Health from going to it he maintained there publickly by his Legates that Man in the state of Sin cannot work out his Salvation without a preventing Grace But if instead of following this Cyprian Disciple of St. Cesarius and who was afterwards Bishop of Thoulon Doctor Cave had given himself the trouble to look over the Councils of Valence he would have observed that in the first which was held in the Year 734. their whole business was about Bigamy that in the Second which met in 599. some place it in the Year 684 and some in 589. they were wholly taken up with the great Donatives which Guntran King of Burgundy had bestowed upon the Church And that the Third in which Pelagius Hinmark and John Scot were Condemned and the Acts whereof are cited by Forbesius in his Instructions was not called till the Year 855. as appears by the Acts of it being presented to the Emperour Lothary and to Charles the Bald. Now St. Cesarius was unborn at the time of the First Council since Doctor Cave brings him into the World only in the Year 469. And he was Dead when the Second met according to the same Doctor who places his Death in the Year 542. And 't is I think needless to add that he was not concern'd in the Third which was held in 855. and in which the Pelagian Opinions were Condemned This short digression which we have thought necessary to remove St. Cesarius from St. Eucherius's times will not seem I hope unseasonable It appears then that Bellarmine for all his Conjecture cannot bring St. Eucherius near enough to St Sigismond King of Burgundy The distance is too great to admit of any means of reconciling the Dispute We shall observe by the way that Usuard and Aimonius have commited the like mistake But because it is but a matter of three or four Years difference they may perhaps find Friends to help them out These two Writers say that Clovis was delivered from a dangerous Sickness by the Vows and Prayers of St. Severine Abbot of Agaunum And it is certain that Clovis was Dead three or four Years before Sigismond had founded that Monastery Gregory of Tours saith that he caused the same to be Built and richly Endowed it after the Death of his Father Gombaldus But Marius Bishop of Avanches marks precisely the Year in his Chronicle and saith that Sigismond founded the Agaunian Monastery under the Consulship of Florentius and Anthemius viz. Four Years after the Death of Clovis This Remark is owing to Monsieur de Valois in his Notice of the Gauls where he saith that he cannot understand how Severine could have been Abbot of that Monastery in Clovis's time Nevertheless the Miraculous recovery of a great King being of great Credit to the Prayers and Suffrages of Monasteries Usuard and Aimonius who were both Monks caused Prayers to be made for Clovis in Agaunum even before King Sigismond had it in his thoughts to build a Monastery there 'T is true that Bollandus would fain perswade us that this Prince did only repair and beautifie it But this he asserts without any ground since both the Ancient and Modern Writers who speak of the first Foundation of the Agaunian Monastery do all generally agree that 't was St. Sigismond King of Burgundy who caused it to be Built to the Honour of the Thebean Legion which suffered Martyrdom in that place CHAP. VI. That the Acts of the Council of Agaunum concerning the Thebean Legion are as false as the Acts of their Passion BUT whether King Sigismond only beautified the Monastery of Agaunum or whether he laid the first Foundations thereof 't is all one to us 'T is enough that we can prove that the Passion which we assert to be false is posteriour to all this And that it is so cannot be deny'd since mention is made there of the Basilick which was Dedicated at Agaunum to the Memory of the Thebean Souldiers If you are not pleased to rely upon the History of their Passion as it is related in Surius and Baronius and wherein notice is taken of the Rules made by St. Sigismond in the Agaunian Monastery we shall willingly pitch upon and refer our selves to the latter Acts that are mended since in these as well as in the others mention is made of a Miracle that happen'd when the Church of Agaunum was a building to the Honour of the Thebean Legion For if King Sigismond did only repair and Adorn that Church the time of these Works must necessarily be plac'd in the Year 500. and consequently St Eucherius could not have made mention of them seeing all do agree that he dyed about the Year 440. We may strengthen this Argument with another taken from the Acts of a Council supposed to have been assembled by order of King Sigismond at Agaunum and in which Sixty Bishops put it into his Head to gather the Bones of the Thebean Souldiers and to Dedicate a Basilick or stately Church to them Though this Council is visibly false and supposititious yet it will be of good help to discover the falsity of the Passion of the Souldiers of Agaunum Fathered upon St. Eucherius The Acts of this pretended Council are set down in the Fourth Tome of the Councils by Labbe and Cossart These two Learned Jesuites were very sensible of the Forgery of these Acts but it would have been too much against the grain to have confessed it They were therefore content to say they wondered they did not see amongst the Subscriptions the Name of Avitus Archbishop of Vienna who both by reason of his Eminent Qualities and for the Dignity of his See ought of course to have been present at that Council The Oratory-Priests being fairer dealers than the Jesuites Le Cointe one of them freely declares in his Annals that the Acts of this Council were altogether false However as false as they are they
have brought great incomes to the Monastery of Agaunum They make St. Sigismond to give to it a great number of Villages and very considerable Lands in the Dioceses of Vienna Lions Grenoble and of the Cities of Aâ—â—te Avanches Lausanne and Besanson c. The Cheat indeed was worth the making But we must confess that the makers thereof were not very skilful in their contrivance of it The truth is that in those times People were so credulous that they gave Credit to the grossest tales They were contriv'd and conceiv'd under the shadow of Monkish Holiness and were brought forth into the World without contradiction or any Body to oppose them The Monk who Forged this Council makes both King Sigismond and the Bishops to say very ridiculous things The Country Peasants of Valesia would now speak better Sense Le Cointe observeth that the Acts of this Council are Dated in the beginning of the last of April and towards the end of the Ides of May That it is said at first that the Council was held at Agaunum and again that it was Assembled near that place Which shews the poor Monk hardly knew what he did He adds that Sixty Bishops met together at Agaunum and in Sigismond's time there were not above Seven and Twenty Bishops in all throughout the whole Kingdom of Burgundy He saith that Theodorus Bishop of Sion in Valesia asked what should be done with the Bodies of the Thebean Souldiers that laid yet unburied upon the Ground And in St. Sigismond's time there was no Bishops-See at Sion The Bishops-See was transferred thither not till many Years after it having always been before at a place which is called Martignac or Martigni which is the Ancient Octodurum So that this Theodorus being contemporary with King Sigismond ought to have been call'd Octodurensis Episcopus and not Sedunensis as the Council-Forger hath done But the thing we ought chiefly to observe is that both Labbe and Cossart place this Council in the Year 516. The Acts do expresly mention that when it was held the Buildings which King Sigismond ordered to be made at Agaunum were finished and wanted only to be Dedicated and appointed to their use This Prince saith in the beginning of his Deed of Gift that he makes Hinnemond Abbot of the Monastery of Agaunum which by the help of God he hath Built in his Kingdom of Burgundy And a little before he says that all the Bishops do represent to him that the Reliques of Mauricius Exuperius Candidus and Victor ought to be deposited in the New Church which he hath caused to be Built The Bishops of this pretended Council are there chiefly taken up with regulating the singing of Psalms the Offices Observances and whatever was to be Practised in that Monastery Now the business is to know whether the Passion of the Thebean Legion which we assert to be false is anteriour to that Council or happen'd after its sitting If they say it is anteriour we ask how could the Author of it speak of a Monastery which was not yet Built and of Rules not yet establish'd If it be answered that this Passion was Written after the sitting of the Council which according to Labbe and Cossart met in the Year 516. it follows that St. Eucherius is not the Author of this Passion since he died in the Year 440. If the Acts of this Council be compared with the Passion one cannot but suspect that the Impostour who composed it had before his Eyes the Acts of this Council 'T is said in these Acts that the Bishops consulted with King Sigismond what Discipline was to be set up in the Monastery of Agaunum and that the Rules which should be prescrib'd to the Monks might be so framed as to last for ever And the Author of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Souldiers as it is related both by Baronius and Surius saith that they never cease Day nor Night to sing Psalms and Hymns in the Agaunian Monastery this practice having been established by the Blessed King and Martyr St. Sigismond and being still in force there to this very day But that the Acts of this Council are forged Father Le Cointe hath given infallible proofs And whereas Labbe and Cossart place this Council in the Year 516. we should not fear being much mistaken if we charged the Forgery upon some Impostor of the Seventh or Eighth Century For these and the like Writings are the Titles and Foundations both of the Worship vast Power and Immense Revenues of the Church of Rome 'T is true we are told that the Manuscripts of these things are kept in the Vatican Library or in that of Florence and that they have all the Characters of an uncontroulable Antiquity But Marsham a man very well skilled in distinguishing between Old and Modern Manuscripts adviseth us to trust to them so much the less by how much the Older they are said to be And he is favoured in his Opinion by Papebrook a Jesuite who observes that you 'l scarcely find any Acts or Manuscripts true and sincere from the Reign of Dagobert the First upwards that is beyond the Year of our Lord 640. Which is much about the time in which the Fables which we are now Examining were invented 'T is strange indeed that Father Mabillon one of the most Eminent Men in Europe in that kind of Learning should Condemn the Opinion both of Marsham and Papebrook He thinks that these two Learned Men were mistaken and to prove it he reports some Acts of the 6 th or 7 th Age but this is nothing to the purpose for Marsham and Papebrook did never deny but there were true Acts ancienter than the Reign of Dagobert the First but they only affirmed that these Writings are very scarce and can hardly be found so that Father Mabillon to have an occasion to contradict these two great Men makes them say absolutely what they only meant with a restriction And besides 't is one thing to go about to prove from the Words of some Authors that there have been Kings before Dagobert the First who made Gifts in Writing to several Churches and another to prove that these Writings do yet continue and have been handed down to us and that they have not been worn out by time lost or destroyed by the Accidents and Revolutions which have happened in the course of so many Ages nor falsify'd and corrupted by the covetousness ignorance and infidelity of Men. The first of these two things which is not in question Father Mabillon takes upon him to prove but saith not one word of the second which he ought to have proved But here is the business Papebrook is plain and downright because he being a Jesuite is of an Order of a very new Date and which therefore needs not go up and search very high for Titles Whereas Father Mabillon is a Benedictine Monk of the Congregation of St. Maur. And St. Benet's Order hath a
by old Age and Rottenness quite worn away and it happened that during the solemn Office that was celebrated to their Honour in the Eve of their Festival it came into my thoughts to take a Torch and view them more carefully Now while I was a searching with great attention one of the Porters told me Here is a Stone with a Cover upon it what may be in it I cannot tell neither did my Predecessors to whose Custody these things were committed know any more of it than my self if you please I will bring it hither that we may see what it contains and when he had brought it I opened it and found a little Silver Trunk wherein were not only some Reliques of the Martyrs of the Blessed Legion but also of several Holy Martyrs and Confessors We found likewise in the same Trunk several other hallowed Stones with some Reliques of the Apostles and other Martyrs From which Words we may judge not only of the Character of this Gregory of Tours but also of the genius of his Age. However both he and Venantius were without doubt great Men considering the time they lived in nor do we suspect either of them of Fraud or Imposture but only say that they were too credulous and the Christians were then strangely affected and hankering after Reliques and Miracles Do but read the 30th Epistle of the Third Book of Gregory the 28th Chapter of St. Austin de Opere Monachorum the 62d Canon of the Council of Lions and the 7th Act of the Second Council of Nicea and you may see what a scandalous Trade was then droven with the Limbs and Bones of Martyrs which were broke in Peices and transported from Town to Town and from one Province into another under pretence of Devotion St. Austin even then lamenting said That the Bodies of several Persons were had in veneration upon the Earth whose Souls were tormented in Hell-fire And it was not without reason that he thus complain'd for do but read St. Martin's Life in Sulpitius Severus who saith there That the People of Tours ran in great Grouds to a Place where they thought some Martyrs had been buried That the common Tradition was that the Altar there had been erected by the ancient Bishops of Tours But that St. Martin having not been able to learn any thing for certain from the eldest Priests of his Clergy concerning the Names of those Martyrs and the time of their Death was in great perplexity and doubt about this matter fearing on the one side to cause some prejudice to Religion if he should forbear his usual coming to that Place and on the other to increase Superstition if he had authorized it by his presence But one day being gone thither with some of his Brethren and having pray'd to God to discover to him who it was who was there buried he saw on his Left-hand a frightful and deformed Spectre which he commanded to tell what it was Whereunto the Shade answered I am a Robber condemned formerly for Crimes to an ignominious Death The Error of the People makes me here to be honoured but I have no part with the Martyrs they being in Glory and I in Torments After which St. Martin caused the Altar to be thrown down and freed the People of Tours from that gross Superstition This Example alone may suffice to shew that in matter of Reliques Impostures are no new Device Moreover it serves to discover the false Zeal of the Christians of the Sixth Age and the ignorance and base connivance of the Bishops and Priests in not repressing the indiscretion of it Sulpitius Severus hath told us just now that it was the common Opinion that the Altar upon the Grave of that Robber had been erected by the ancient Bishops of Tours Now after this is it so much to be wondred at for the Good-Man Gregory who a Hundred Years after was made Bishop of Tours to be deceived himself by some uncertain Tradition or that he should give so much Credit to an Inscription upon the little Truck in which were supposed to be shut up the Reliques of the Agaunian Martyrs Now from St. Martin's time the evil was so far from diminishing that it increased more and more Religion and Piety did then it seems chiefly consist in searching the Graves looking for the Bodies of Saints erecting Altars and contriving all sorts of ways to honour them The Sixth Age having brought into the Church St. Bennet and his Rule his Children departed very soon from the Institution of their Holy Founder applying themselves wholly to get plentiful Possessions and large Revenues The Martyrs their Reliques and Miracles were the properest means in the World for that purpose and God knows how they improv'd the knack they had already got of making use of them for it is certain that they owe most of their vast Incomes and Estates to meer Dreams and Chimaeras like that of the Agaunian Martyrs Then the Old Saints grew out of date and new ones came in Fashion being reputed to exceed the others in multiplicity of Miracles Therefore they found the way to dig every Day a new one out of the Ground as if the Priests of those times had made use of a Divining Rod to find out Bodies of Saints No wonder therefore if some Martyrs of the Second and Third Age unknown to Eusebius Orosius and Sulpitius Severus were discovered since by some Monks of the Eighth and Ninth Century It is very probable if I may give my Opinion that the Acts of the Agaunian Martyrs were forged towards the end of the Sixth Age or at the beginning of the Seventh the Author of them saith That the Names of the Thebean Souldiers are written in Heaven and that only these following were come to his knowledge viz. Mauritius Exuper Candidus Orsus and the Two Victors But it seems not long after some others began to peep out Ado Archbishop of Vienna who wrote towards the middle of the Ninth Century adds to these Malosius Victor Innocent Vitalis Gerion Alexander Secundus and Antoninus Vsuard a Benedictine Monk of St. Germans had the good luck to find out Two more namely Cassius and Florentius In the Archives of Treves is kept the History of St. Thirsus wherein is mentioned another Thebean Souldier call'd Bonifacius In Burgundy some Churches are consecrated to Viator and St. Amour who by the Authors who have written their Lives are said to have been Agaunian Martyrs So that we see already Fourteen or Fifteen of them who were not come to the knowledge of the pretended St. Eucherius But further Discoveries have been made yet for one Day telleth another St. Paul exhorted the Christians to seek the things that are above but the Monks of the Tenth Century pressed them to nothing so much as to look into the things that are below and to search into the Graves And though Christ had said speaking of himself that where the Body was there the Eagles should gather also yet the
opportunity to make their escape sought notwithstanding for Death Christ saith he withdrew himself to shun the malice of the Jews who laid in wait for him and though he knew that the time appointed in the Counsel of his Father was not far off he went not in search after his Cross but waited for it from the fury of the Jews in a solitary place whither he did retire And when he foretold his Apostles of all the Persecutions they were to suffer for his Names sake he told them that they should be delivered to the Councils and Synagogues Whereupon this Bishop observes that Christ said they shall deliver you and not Ye shall deliver your selves For this reason Mr. de Tillemont in his History of the Emperours makes this wise observation speaking of the Acts of St. Maximus That these Acts do appear very well deserving the esteem which Baronius had for them though they do express that this Saint delivered himself to Death which is more usually seen in spurious than in true Acts. In short one may see what were the Morals of the Ancient Church about this thing from a Canon of the Council of Eliberis and from a special place in St. Austin and the same Morals may be seen practised in the Lives of St. Cyprian and Athanasius who fled from Persecution whenever God gave them opportunity to do it All the business is then to examine whether the Thebean Souldiers being informed of the Emperour's resolution might have prevented it by their flight and for the clearing of this point we need only read the Acts of their Martyrdom The Army of Maximian having passed the defiles of Valesia the Thebean Legion which was in the Rear understood at Agaunum that this Army was designed to cut off the Christians in Gaul They stopped at this News and refused to March any further First every Body will agree that they might have disbanded and betook themselves to flight for in such cases as this Military Laws ought to yield to that of self-preservation and then desertion is not it seems a greater infraction of Military Discipline than to refuse to March at the Orders of the General 'T is further said in the Acts that Maximian being informed of the refusal of the Thebean Souldiers commanded them to be Decimated hoping by the Death of some to terrifie the others into their duty The Legion with an undaunted Courage suffered the Decimation and the Ministers who Executed the Emperours Orders made their report to him that the Rebellious Legion was nothing frighted by this Exemplary punishment but persisted in their obstinate resolution not to March. During all this while the Army is not seen to come back in Order to observe the Motions of this Legion neither was it observed that the Emperour did command any Troops to watch them for preventing the ill effects of their mutinous disposition 'T is very natural to think that if the whole Legion was not able to save all their Lives part of them at least might have got away and yet 't is said in the Acts that not so much as one of them did escape the Emperours Cruelty Whatever care is now taken to hinder the Desertions in an Army all the diligence and watchfulness of the Officers cannot hinder a great many Souldiers to run away from their Colours every Campaign and what is yet worth our observation is that the Situation of Agaunum afforded great facility to the Thebean Souldiers to flee away for their safety I have passed my self that way when I went with the Corps of Duke Schomberg from Turin to Lauzane where he had ordered me to Bury him And having then some Thoughts of this Dissertation I staid a good while to consider the â—venues and Situation of Agaunum It is seated at the bottom and further end of a very narrow Valley and there is no access to it but by continual Defiles having on both sides Woods and high Mountains So that had the Thebean Souldiers taken advantage from the place the whole Army of the Emperour had not been able to have hindred the greatest part of them from making their escape From this we may conclude that the Author of their Acts hath not much observed the rules of Probability in the Romance he hath left us since he saith that all the Thebean Souldiers were Massacred not one of them caring to make his escape but all with one accord chearfully holding up their Necks and wishing for nothing so much as the glory of Martyrdom CHAP. XII That there is no likelyhood that a Legion should be sent for from the East to suppress a Tumult of the Gauls WE have hitherto considered the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion with Relation both to the Acts wherein it is contain'd and to the Author to whom these Acts are attributed 'T is time now to come to the Fact it self and to treat it without any regard either to the Acts or their Author Father le Cointe thought in his Annals to salve both the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion and the Relation of their Passion by betaking himself to the Acts and to the Copy of Father Chifflet We do not deny saith he that the Acts of the Martyrs of Agaunum were written by St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions but we say that those published by Surius and which are found in the Manuscripts of most Churches are spurious and falsly attributed to St. Eucherius We acknowledge none to be true besides those published by Francis Chifflet in his Paulinus Illustratus and the which he hath Extracted out of a very Ancient Manuscript of St. Claud's Monastery And we believe St. Eucherius to be the true Father of that Work But whether St. Eucherius be the Author of that work or whether he be not whether the Acts be falsified in the Copy of Surius and whether they be true in Father Chifflet's Manuscript this is now no more the matter in question We have hitherto in a manner Attack'd only the Out-works but we come now close to the Fact and will shew in it palpable Characters of falsity The first of which is this supposition namely that the Emperour Maximian caused a Legion to be put Death which he had sent for from the East to go with him into Gaul We don't deny but there were in the East some Legions call'd Thebeans In the Book we have already cited of the Dignities of the Empire mention is made of four Thebean Legions Sub dispositione Viri illustris Magistri militum per Orientem Legiones Comitatenses 9. Secunda Flavia Constantia Thebaeorum secunda Felix Valentis Thebaeorum And in another Chapter Sub dispositione Viri illustris Magistri militum per Thracias Legiones Comitatenses Prima Maximiana Thebaeorum Tertia Diocletiana Thebaeorum We will not deny neither but that the Exigencies of the Empire calling Maximian into Gaul the Emperour might have been attended by some of those Legions They are all four numbred amogst those Legions