16. 19 Bruttius Praesens II. Julianus created Bishop of Alexandria  1 Sex Quinctiliâ— Gordianus Pantaenus a Christian Philosopher opens the Catechetic School at Alexandria  181  1 Imp. Commodus III. The Persecution against the Christians much abated  2 Antistius Burrhus  182  2 Petronius Mamertinus Theodotion of Pontus first a Marcionite then a Jew translates the Old Testament into Greek  3 Trebellius Rufus The Temple of Serapis at Alexandria burnt down  183  3 Imp. Commodus IV.  4 M. Aufidius Victorinus  184  4 M. Eggius Marullus seu Marcellus Commodus introduces the worship of Isis formerly prohibited into Rome  5 M. Papirius Aelianus  185 Commodi 5 Triarius Maternus  6 M. Atilius Metilius Bradua  186  6 Imp. Commodus V. About this time Lucius a Prince of Britain is said to have sent Letters to Pope Eleutherius to furnish him with Preachers to publish the Christian Faith in these parts  7 M. Acilius Glabrio Origen born  187  7 Tullius seu Clodius Crispinus Apollonius a great Philosopher and as S. Hierom affirms a Senator pleads his own and the cause of the Christian Religion before the Senate for which he suffers Martyrdom  8 Papirius Aelianus  188  8 C. Allius Fuscianus The Capitol burnt by Lightning which destroyed the adjacent buildings especially the famous Libraries  9 Duillius Silanus  189  9 Junius Silanus Demetrius ordained Bishop of Alexandria who sate 43 years  10 Q. Servilius Silanus Serapion made Bishop of Antioch this or as others the following year  190  10 Imp. Commodus VI. Commodus will have himself accounted Hercules the son of Jupiter and accordingly habits himself with other extravagant instances of folly  11 Petronius Septimianus  191  11 Cassius Apronianus Julian a Senator and many others said to be martyred about this time  12 M. Attilius Metilius Bradua II.  192  12 Imp. Commodus VII Pope Eleutherius having sate 15 years and 23 days dies in whose room Victor an African succeeds  13 P. Helvius Pertinax  193 Pertinax à 1 Januar.  Q. Sosius Falco  Did. Julianê° Ã Mart. 28.  Severus à Maii 11. 1 C. Julius Clarus  194 Severi 1 Imp. Severus II. Clemens Alexandrinus Pantaenus his Scholar and successor in the Catechetic School was famous about this time 2 Clodius Albinus Caesar II. Pope Victor excommunicates Theodorus the Heretic 195  2 Q. Fl. Tertullus Narcissus made Bishop of Jerusalem He is famous for miracles and an holy life 3 T. Fl. Clemens 196  3 Cn. Domitius Dexter Pope Victor revives the controversie about the celebration of Easter threatens to excommunicate the Asiatic Churches for which he is severely reproved by many and especially by Irenaeus 4 L. Valeriê° Messala Priscus Several Synods holden to this Purpose 197  4 Ap. Claudius Lateranus The Jews and Samaritans rebel and are overcome and their Religion strictly forbidden Severus triumphs for that Victory 5 M. Marius Rufinus  198  5 Tib. Aterius Saturninus  6 C. Annius Treboni Gallus 199  6 P. Cornelius Anulinus Severus creates his son Antoninus Emperour his son Geta Caesar and bestows a large Donative upon the Souldiers which gave occasion to Tertullian to write his Book De Corona 7 M. Aufidius Fronto 200 Severi 7 Tib. Claudius Severus The Christians at Rome severely treated by Plautianus Praefect of the City and in Afric by Saturninus the Proconsul 8 C. Aufidius Victorinus Tertullian writes his Apologetic either this or the following year 201  8 L. Annius Fabianus Pope Victor after 9 years and 2 moneths being martyred leaves the place to Zephyrinus 9 M. Nonius Mucianus Tertullian presents his Discourse to the President Scapula 202  9 Imp. Severus III. The Sixth Persecution wherein Leonidas Origens Father suffers Martyrdom at Alexandria Irenaeus at Lyons in France 10 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla 203  10 P. Septimius Geta. Origen a very Youth sets up a Grammar School at Alexandria and becomes famous 11 L. Septimius Plautianus At 18 years of Age he is preferred by Demetrius the Bishop to be Instructor of the Catechumens 204  11 L. Fabius Chilo Septimius The Secular Games celebrated at Rome upon which occasion probably Tertullian wrote his Book De Spectaculis and it may be that De Idololatria 12 M. Annius Libo 205  12 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla II.  13 P. Septimius Geta Caesar 206  13 M. Nummiê° Annius Albinê° Origen makes the famous attempt upon himself in making himself an Eunuch 14 Fulvius Aemilianus 207 Severi 14 M. Flavius Aper Tertullian writes against the Marcionites and his Book De Pallio and was then probably made Presbyter of Carthage 15 Q. Allius Maximus About this time Minucius Felix is supposed to publish his Dialogue called Octavius 208  15 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla III.  16 P. Septimius Geta Caesar II. 209  16 T. Claudius Pompeianus  17 Lollianus Avitus 210  17 M. Acilius Faustinus  18 C. Caesonius Macer Rufinianus 211  18 Q. Epidius Rufus Lollianus Gentianus  Antoninus Caracalla à 4 Febr. 1 Pomponius Bassus 212  1 M. Pompeius Asper Alexander a Cappadocian Bishop made Bishop of Jerusalem 2 P. Asper 213  2 Imp. Caracalla IV.  3 P. Caelius Balbinus 214  3 Silius Messala A disputation held at Rome between Caius and Proclus one of Montanus his Disciples whereupon Pope Zephyrin excluded Proclus and Tertullian communion with the Church of Rome which occasioned Tertullians starting aside to Montanus his Party 4 Q. Aquilius Sabinus 215 Antonini 4 Aemilius Laetus Tertullian writes against the Orthodox against whom he inveighs under the name of Psychici 5 Anicius Cerealis 216  5 Q. Aquilius Sabinus II.  6 Sex Corn. Anulinus 217  6  A Greek Translation of the Bible called the Fifth Edition found in a Hogs-head at Jericho inserted by Origen into his Octapla 7 Bruttius Praesens Macrinus Diadumen F à 10. April 1 Extricatus 218  2 Anton. Diadumenus Caesar  Antoninus Elagabalus à 7 Jun. 1 Adventus 219  1 Imp. Elagabalus II. Pope Zephyrin dies He sate 22 years and so many days Succeeded by Callistus 2 Licinius Sacerdos 220  2 Imp. Elagabalus III. Julius Africanus a famous Christian Writer sent upon an Embassie to the Emperour for the rebuilding of Nicopolis anciently Emmaus a City in Palestin 3 M. Aurelius Eutychianus Comazon 221  3 Annius Gratus  4 Claudius Seleucus 222  4 Imp. Elagabalus IV. Hippolytus Bishop of Portus composes his Paschal Canon Alexander Mam. à Martii 6. 1 M. Aurelius Severus Alexander Caesar 223 Alexandri 1 Maximus Among the famous men of this time was Ulpian the Lawyer who collected all the Imperial Edicts formerly published against the Christians 2 Papirius Aelianus 224  2 Claudius Julianus The Christians cruelly persecuted at Rome at the instigation of Ulpian the great Lawyer 3
learning His Writings His Hypotyposes Photius his account of them corrupted by the Arrians His Books yet extant and the orderly gradation of them His Stromata what the design of it His stile what in this what in his other Books A short Apology for some unwary assertions in his Writings His Writings enumerated Pag. 193. The Life of TERTULLIAN Presbyter of Carthage His names whence His Father who His education in all kinds of Learning His skill in the Roman Laws Different from Tertylian the Lawyer His way of life before his conversion enquired into His married condition His conversion to Christianity when The great cruelty used towards the Christians Severus his kindness to them Tertullians excellent Apology in their behalf His address to Scapula and the tendency of that discourse Severus his violent persecuting the Christians His prohibition of the Heteriae Tertullians Book to the Martyrs and concerning Patience His zeal against Heresies and Writings that way His Book De Pallio when written and upon what occasion His becoming Presbyter when His Book De Corona and what the occasion of it His declining from the Catholic Party Montanus who and whence His principles and practices Tertullians owning them and upon what occasion His morose and stubborn temper How far he complied with the Montanists and acknowledged the Paraclete How he was imposed upon His Writings against the Catholics The severity of the ancient Discipline Episcopus Episcoporum in what sense meant by Tertullian concerning the Bishop of Rome His separate meetings at Carthage His death His Character His singular parts and learning His Books His phrase and stile What contributed to its perplexedness and obscurity His un-orthodox opinions A brief plea for him Pag. 201. The Life of ORIGEN Presbyter Catechist of Alexandria Origen where and when born Several conjectures about the original of his name His Father who His juvenile education and great towardliness in the knowledge of the Scriptures His Philosophical Studies under Clemens Alexandrinus His Institution under Ammonius Ammonius who His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile Philosophers Another Origen his Contemporary These two heedlesly confounded His Fathers Martyrdom and the confiscation of his Estate Origen's resolute encouragement of his Father His own passionate desire of Martyrdom His maintenance by an honourable Matron of Alexandria His zeal against Heretics His setting up a private School He succeeds Clemens in the Catechetic School at eighteen years of Age. The frequency of his Auditors Many of them Martyrs for the Faith Origen's resolution in attending upon the Martyrs His danger His couragious act at the Temple of Serapis His emasculating himself and the reasons of it The eminent chastity of those Primitive Times Origen's journey to Rome and return to Alexandria His taking in a Colleague into the Catechetic Office He learns the Hebrew Tongue The prudent method of his Teaching Ambrosius converted Who he was His great intimacy with Origen Origen sent for by the Governour of Arabia His journey into Palestin and teaching at Caesarea Remanded by the Bishop of Alexandria Alexander Severus his excellent Vertues and kindness for the Christian Religion Origen sent for by the Empress Mammaea to Antioch He begins to write his Commentaries How many Notaries and Transcribers imployed and by whom maintained Notaries their Original and Office Their use and institution in the Primitive Church His journey into Greece His passage through Palestin and being ordained Presbyter at Caesarea Demetrius of Alexandria his envy and rage against him Origen condemned in two Synods at Alexandria and one at Rome The resignation of his Catechetic School to Heraclas Heraclas who The story of his offering Sacrifice The credit of this story questioned and why His departure from Alexandria and fixing at Caesarea The eminency of his School there Gregorius Thaumaturgus his Scholar His friendship with Firmilian Firmilian who The Persecution under Maximinus Origen's Book written to the Martyrs His retirement whither He compares the Versions of the Bible His Tetrapla Hexapla and Octapla what and how managed A Specimen given of them His second journey to Athens His going to Nicomedia and Letter to Africanus about the History of Susanna His confutation of Beryllus in Arabia His answer to Celsus Celsus who Origens Letters to Philip the Emperour The vanity of making him a Christian Origens journey into Arabia to refute Heresies The Helcesaitae who What their Principles Alexanders miraculous election to the See of Jerusalem His Coadjntorship Government Sufferings and Martyrdom Origens grievous sufferings at Tyre under the Decian Persecution His deliverance out of Prison Age and Death His Character His strict life His mighty zeal abstinence contempt of the World indefatigable diligence and patience noted His natural parts incomparable learning His Books and their several Classes His stile what His unsound opinions The great Out-cry against him in all Ages The Apologies written in his behalf Several things noted out of the Ancients to extenuate the charge His assertions not Dogmatical Not intended for public view Generally such as were not determined by the Church His Books corrupted and by whom His own complaints to that purpose The testimonies of Athanasius and Theotimus and Haymo in his vindication Great errours and mistakes acknowledged What things contributed to them His great kindness for the Platonic Principles S. Hierom's moderate censure of him His repenting of his rash Propositions His Writings enumerated and what now extant Pag. 213. The Life of S. BABYLAS Bishop of Antioch His Originals obscure His education and accomplishments enquired into Made Bishop of Antioch when Antioch taken by the King of Persia Recovered by the Roman Emperour Babylas his fidelity in his charge The Decian Persecution and the grounds of it severely urged by the Emperours Edicts Decius his coming to Antioch His attempt to break into the Christian Congregation Babylas his bold resistance This applied to Numerianus and the ground of the mistake The like reported of Philip the Emperour Decius his bloudy act related by S. Chrysostom His rage against Babylas and his examination of him The Martyrs resolute answer His imprisonment and hard usage The different accounts concerning his death Three Youths his fellow-sufferers in vain attempted by the Emperour Their Martyrdom first and why Babylas beheaded His command that his chains should be buried with him The translation of his body under Constantius The great sweetness and pleasantness of the Daphne Apollo's Temple there S. Babylas his bones translated thither by Gallus Caesar The Oracle immediately rendered dumb In vain consulted by Julian The confession of the Daemon Julian's command for removing Babylas his bones The Martyrs Remains triumphantly carried into the City The credit of this Story sufficiently attested The thing owned by Libanius and Julian Why such honour suffered to be done to the Martyr Julian afraid of an immediate vengeance His Persecution against the Christians at Antioch The sufferings of Theodorus The Temple of Apollo fired from Heaven Pag. 241. The Life of
our selves have been present and beheld it may be it would only make the Infidels merry supposing that we like themselves did forge and feign them But God bears witness with my conscience that I do not endeavour by falsly-contrived stories but by various powerful instances to recommend the Divine Religion of the Holy Jesus More testimonies of this kind I could easily produce from Minucius Faelix Cyprian Arnobius and Lactantius but that these are enough to my purpose XIII ANOTHER advantage that exceedingly contributed to the triumph of Christianity was the singular learning of many who became champions to defend it For it could not but be a mighty satisfaction especially to men of ordinary capacities and mean employments which are the far greatest part of mankind to see persons of the most smart and subtil reasonings of the most acute and refined understandings and consequently not easily capable of being imposed upon by arts of sophistry and plausible stories trampling upon their former sentiments and opinions and not only entertaining the Christian Faith but defending it against its most virulent opposers 'T is true indeed the Gospel at its first setting out was left to its own naked strength and men of the most unpolisht breeding made choice of to convey it to the world that it might not seem to be an humane artifice or the success of it be ascribed to the parts and powers of man But after that for an hundred years together it had approved it self to the world and a sharper edge was set upon the malice and keenness of its adversaries it was but proper to take in external helps to assist it And herein the care of the Divine providence was very remarkable that as miracles became less common and frequent in the Church God was pleased to raise up even from among the Gentiles themselves men of profound abilities and excellent learning who might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Julian c Theod. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 8. p. 131. said of the Christians of his time beat them at their own weapons and wound them with arrows drawn out of their own quiver and it was high time to do so for the Gentiles did not only attaque the Christians and their Religion by methods of cruelty and by arts of insinuation not only object what wit and subtilty could invent to bear any shadow and pretence of reason but load them with the blackest crimes which nothing but the utmost malice and prejudice could ever suspect to be true This gave occasion to the Christian Apologists and the first Writers against the Gentiles who by their learned and rational discourses assoil'd the Christians from the things charged against them justified the reasonableness excellency and divinity of their Religion and expos'd the folly and falshood the brutishness and impiety the absurd and trifling rites of the Pagan Worship by which means prejudices were removed and thousands brought over to the Faith In this way they that rendred themselves most renowned and did greatest service to the Christian cause were especially these Quadratus Bishop of Athens and Aristides formerly a famous Philosopher of that City a man wise and eloquent dedicated each an Apologetic to the Emperor Adrian Justin the Martyr besides several Tracts against the Gentiles wrote two Apologies the first presented to Antoninus Pius the second to M. Aurelius and the Senate about which time also Athenagoras presented his Apology to M. Aurelius and Aurelius Commodus not to mention his excellent discourse concerning the Resurrection To the same M. Aurelius Melito Bishop of Sardis exhibited his Apologetic Oration for the Christians under this Emperor also flourished Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia and dedicated to him an incomparable discourse in defence of the Christian Faith besides five Books which he wrote against the Gentiles and two concerning the truth Not long after Theophilus Bishop of Antioch compos'd his three excellent Books for the conviction of Autolycus and Miltiades presented an Apology probably to the Emperor Commodus Tarian the Syrian Scholar to Justin Martyr a man learned and eloquent among other things wrote a Book against the Gentiles which sufficiently evidences his great abilities Tertullian a man of admirable learning and the first of the Latins that appeared in this cause under the Reign of Severus published his Apologetic directed to the Magistrates of the Roman Empire besides his Books Ad Nationes De Idololatria Ad Scapulam and many more After him succeeded Origen whose eight Books against Celsus did not greater service to the Christian cause than they did honour to himself Minucius Faelix an eminent advocate at Rome wrote a short but most elegant Dialogue between Octavius and Caecilius which as Lactantius a De Instit l. 5. c. 1. p. 459. long since observed shews how fit and able an advocate he would have been to assert the truth had he wholly applied himself to it About the time of Gallus and Volusian Cyprian addressed himself in a discourse to Demetrian the Proconsul of Afric in behalf of the Christians and their Religion and published his Tract De Idolorum vanitate which is nothing but an Epitome of Minucius his Dialogue Towards the close of that Age under Dioclesian Arnobius taught Rhetoric with great applause at Sicca in Afric and being convinc'd of the truth of Christianity could hardly make the Christians at first believe that he was real In evidence therefore of his sincerity he wrote seven Books against the Gentiles wherein he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause as not long after his Scholar Lactantius who under Dioclesian professed Rhetoric at Nicomedia set himself to the composing several discourses in defence of the Christian and subversion of the Gentile Religion A man witty and eloquent but more happy in attacquing his Adversaries then in establishing the Principles of his own Religion many whereof he seems not very distinctly to have understood To all these I may add Apollonius a man versed in all kind of learning and Philosophy and if St. Hierom say right a Senator of Rome who in a set Oration with so brave and generous a confidence eloquently pleaded his own and the cause of Christianity before the Senate it self for which he suffered as a Martyr in the Reign of Commodus XIV AND as they thus defended Christianity on the one hand from the open assaults and calumnies of the Gentiles so were they no less careful on the other to clear it from the errors and Heresies wherewith men of perverse and evil minds sought to corrupt and poyson it And the chief of those that ingaged in this way were these Agrippa Castor a man of great learning in the time of Adrian wrote an accurate Refutation of Basilides and his Principles in xxiv Books Theophilus of Antioch against Hermogenes and Marcion Apollinaris Philip Bishop of Gortyna in Crete Musanus Modestus Rhodon Tatian's Scholar Miltiades Apollonius Serapion Bishop of Antioch and hundreds more who engag'd against the
solemnity into the Imperial Palace Which yet could not be effected for the sturdy Mules that carried the Treasure being come as far as Constantines Baths would not advance one step further And when unreasonably whipped and pricked they spake aloud and told those that conducted them that the Martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place Which was accordingly done and a beautiful Church built there But certainly they that first added this passage to the Story had been at a great loss for invention had not the Story of Balaams Ass been upon record in Scripture I confess * Bar. ad Ann. 439. Tom. 5. p. 681. Baronius seems not over-forward to believe this relation not for the trifling and ridiculous improbabilities of it but onely because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian Indeed my Authors tell us that this was done in the time of Constantine Metrophanes being then Bishop of Constantinople and that it was onely some part of his remains buried again by some devout Christians that was discovered in a Vision to Lucian and that the Empress Pulcheria by the help of her Brother Theodosius procured from the Bishop of Jerusalem the Martyrs right hand which being arrived at Constantinople was with singular reverence and rejoycing brought into the Palace and there laid up and a stately and magnificent Church erected for it set off with all rich and costly ornaments and advantages XXVI a Marcell Chro. Indict VII p. 24. Theodor. Lect. lib. 2. p. 568. AUTHORS mention another remove Ann. CCCCXXXIX and let the curious and inquisitive after these matters reconcile the different accounts of his remains to Constantinople by the Empress Eudocia Wife to Theodosius who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charitable designs carried back with her to the Imperial City the remains of S. Stephen which she carefully laid up in the Church of S. Laurence The Roman b Ad VII Maii p. 284. Martyrology says that in the time of Pope Pelagius they were removed from Constantinople to Rome and lodg'd in the Sepulchre of S. Laurence the Martyr in agro Verano where they are honoured with great piety and devotion But I find not any Author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these Western parts except the little parcel which c Vid. Avit Ep. Praef. Ep. Lucian Gennad de script Eccl. in Oros c. 39. p. 53. Marcell Chron. p. 17. Orosius brought from Jerusalem whither he had been sent by S. Augustin to know S. Hieroms sense in the Question about the Original of the Soul which he received from Avitus who had procured it of Lucian and brought it along with him into the West that is into Afric for whether it went any further I find not XXVII AS for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this Martyr d Deglor Martyr lib. 1. cap. 33. p. 42. c. Gregory Bishop of Tours and the Writers of the following Ages have furnished the World with abundant instances which I insist not upon Superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle Ages of the Church and the Christian World miserably over-run with an excessive and immoderate Veneration of the Reliques of departed Saints However I can venture the Readers displeasure for relating one and the rather because 't is so solemnly averred by e Annot. in Martyr Rom. ad Aug. III. p. 474. Baronius himself S. Gaudiosus an African Bishop flying from the Vandalic Persecution brought with him a Glass Vial of S. Stephens blood to Naples in Italy where it was famous especially for one miraculous effect that being set upon the Altar at the time of Mass it was annually wont upon the third of August the day whereon S. Stephens body was first discovered to melt and bubble as if it were but newly shed But the miracle of the miracle lay in this that when Pope Gregory the XIII reformed the Roman Kalendar and made no less then ten days difference from the former the bloud in the Vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August according to the old computation and bubbled upon that that fell according to the new Reformation A great justification I confess as Baronius well observes of the divine Authority of the Gregorian Kalendar and the Popes Constitutions but yet it was ill done to set the Kalendars at variance when both had been equally justified by the miracle But how easie it was to abuse the World with such tricks especially in these later Ages wherein the Artifice of the Priests was arrived to a kind of perfection in these affairs is no difficult matter to imagin XXVIII LET us then look to the more early Ages when Covetousness and Secular Interests had not so generally put men upon Arts of craft and subtlety and we are told both by Lucian and Photius Loc. anâ—e eleat that at the first discovery of the Martyrs body many strange miraculous cures were effected seventy three healed onely by smelling the odor and fragrancy of the body in some Daemons were cast out others cured of Issues of Bloud Tumours Agues Fevers and infinite other distempers that were upon them But that which most sways with me is what S. Augustin reports of these matters who seems to have been inquisitive about matters of Fact De Civ Dâ—i lib. 22. cap. 8. col 1346. c. Tom. 5. as the Argument he managed did require For being to demonstrate against the Gentiles that miracles were not altogether ceased in the Christian Church among several others he produces many instances of Cures miraculously done at the remains of S. Stephen brought thither as before we noted by Orosius from Jerusalem all done thereabouts and some of them in the place where himself lived and of which as he tells us they made Books which were solemnly published and read to the People whereof at the time of his Writing there were no less then seventy written of the Cures done at Hippo the place where he lived though it was not full two years since the memorial of S. Stephens Martyrdom had begun to be celebrated in that place besides many whereof no account had been given in writing To set down all were to tire the Readers patience beyond all recovery a few onely for a specimen shall suffice At the Aquae Tibilitanae Projectus the Bishop bringing the remains of the Martyr in a vast multitude of People a blind woman desiring to be brought to the Bishop and some Flowers which she brought being laid upon them and after applied to her eyes to the wonder of all she instantly received her sight Lucillus Bishop of Synica near Hippo carrying the same remains accompanied with all the people was suddenly freed from a desperate disease under which he had a long time laboured and for which he even then expected the Chirurgeons Knife Eucharius a Spanish Presbyter then dwelling at Calama
of his diet he had weakned his appetite and rendred his stomach unfit to serve the ends of nature Insomuch that S. Paul was forced to impose it as a kind of law upon him 1 Tim. 5.23 that he should no longer drink water but use a little wine for his stomachs sake and his often infirmities And yet in the midst of this weak tottering carcase there dwelt a vigorous and sprightly mind a soul acted by a mighty zeal and inspired with a true love to God he thought no difficulties great no dangers formidable that he might be serviceable to the purposes of Religion and the interest of souls he flew from place to place with a quicker speed and a more unwearied resolution then could have been expected from a stronger and a healthier person now to Ephesus then to Corinth oft into Macedonia then to Italy crossing Sea and Land and surmounting a thousand hazards and oppositions in all which as a Loc. citat pag. 7. Chrysostoms words are the weakness of his body did not prejudice the divine Philosophy of his mind so strangely active and powerful is Zeal for God so nimbly does it wing the soul with the swiftest flight And certainly as he adds as a great and robust body is little better for its health which has nothing but a dull and a heavy soul to inform it so bodily weakness is no great impediment where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it X. THESE excellent Vertues infinitely endeared him to S. Paul who seems to have had a very passionate kindness for him never mentioning him without great tenderness and titles of reverence and respect sometimes styling him his son 1 Thess 3.2 his brother his fellow-labourer Timotheus our brother and Minister of God and our fellow-labourer in the Gospel of Christ sometimes with additions of a particular affection and honourable regard 2 Tim. 1.2 Timothy my dearly beloved son Timotheus who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord and to the Church at Philippi more expresly I trust to send Timotheus shortly to you Philip. 2.19 20 c. for I have no man like-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally dear to me as my self who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own not the things that are Jesus Christs but ye know the proof of him that as a son with the father he hath served with me in the Gospel And because he knew that he was a young man and of a temper easily capable of harsh and unkind impressions he entered a particular caution on his behalf with the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 16.10 11. If Timotheus come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do let no man therefore despise him but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me Instances of a great care and tenderness and which plainly suppose Timothy to have been an extraordinary person His very calling him his dearly beloved son b Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p. 1626. Chrysostom thinks a sufficient argument of his Vertue For such affection not being founded in Nature can flow from nothing but Vertue and Goodness the lovely and essential ornaments of a divine and a holy soul We love our children not onely because witty or handsom kind and dutiful but because they are ours and very often for no other reason nor can we do otherwise so long as we are subject to the Impressions and the Laws of Nature Whereas true Goodness and Vertue have no other Arts but their own naked worth and beauty to recommend them nor can by any other argument challenge regard and veneration from us XI SOME dispute there has been among the Writers of the Church of Rome whether our S. Timothy was the same with him to whom Dionysius the Areopagite dedicates the books said to be written by him and troops of arguments are mustered on either side But the foundation of the controversie is quite taken away with us who are sufficiently assured that those Books were written some hundreds of years after S. Denys his head was laid in the dust However it may not be improper to remarque that besides ours Bishop of Ephesus we are a Pet. de Natal Hist SS l. 1.24 Naucler Chron. vol. 2. gener 6. confer Adon. Martyr ad XII Kal. Jul. vid. Usser de primord c. 3. p. 31. told of another S. Timothy Disciple also to S. Paul the son of Pudens and Priscilla who is said to have lived unto a great Age till the times of Antoninus the Emperour and Pius Bishop of Rome and that he came over into Britain converted and baptized Lucius King of this Island the first King that ever embraced the Christian Faith Pius Bishop of Rome in a b Concil Tom. 1. col 576. Letter to Justus Bishop of Vienna which though suspected by most is yet owned by c Bar. ad Ann. 166. n. 1.2 Baronius reckons him among the Presbyters that had been educated by the Apostles and had come to Rome and tells us that he had suffered martyrdom accordingly the d Martyrol Rom. ad Mart. 24. p. 190. Roman Martyrology informs us that he obtained the Crown of Martyrdom under Antoninus the Emperour A Story which as I cannot confute so I am not over-forward to believe nor is it of moment enough to my purpose more particularly to enquire about it The End of S. TIMOTHY's Life THE LIFE OF S. TITUS BISHOP of CRETE MICHAEL BURGHERS DIELINE ET SCULP S. Titus His Country enquired into The report of his noble extract His education and conversion to Christianity His acquaintance with and accompanying S. Paul to the Synod at Jerusalem S. Pauls refusing to circumcise him and why His attending S. Paul in his travels Their arrival in Crete Titus constituted by him Bishop of that Island The testimonies of the Ancients to that purpose The intimations of it in S. Pauls Epistle to him S. Pauls censure of the People of Crete justified by the account which Gentile Writers give of their evil manners A short view of the Epistle it self The directions concerning Ecclesiastic persons His charge to exhort and convince gain-sayers Crete abounding with Heretical Teachers Jewish Fables and Genealogies what and whence derived The Aeones and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ancient Gnostics borrowed from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathen Poets This shewn by particular instances Titus commanded to attend S. Paul at Nicopolis His coming to him into Macedonia His following S. Paul to Rome and departure into Dalmatia The Story of Pliny the Youngers being converted by him in Crete censured His age and death The Church erected to his memory I. THE ancient Writers of the Church make little mention of this holy man who and whence he was is not known but by uncertain probabilities a Hâ—riâ— 1. in Tit pag 1693. S. Chrysostom
several columns in this order in the first column was the Original Hebrew in its native characters in the next the Hebrew in Greek Letters in the third the translation of Aquila then that of Symmachus next the Septuagint in the sixth that of Theodotion and in the two last that of Jericho and the other of Nicopolis Indeed plain it is from what d Comment in Tit. c. 3. p. 256. T. 9. S. Hierom tells us that these two last were not compleat and intire Translations but contained only some parts of the Old Testament especially the Prophetical Books But whether from hence we may conclude the Hexapla and the Octapla to have been but one and the same Work onely receiving its different title according to those Parts that had these two last Versions annexed to them I will not say Besides these there was a Seventh Edition but this belonging onely to the Book of Psalms made no alteration in the title of the whole The frame and order of this excellent contrivance the Reader will better apprehend by this following Scheme formed according to a Specimen of the Hexapla extant in Cardinal Barberines very ancient Manuscript of the Minor Prophets upon these words Hos XI 1. When Israel was a child then I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt Octapla Hexapla Tetrapla Text. Hebr. lit Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut supra Heb. lit Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. lit Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hebr. lit Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Edit V. Hierich Desideratur   Edit VI. Nicopol Desideratur   And to make the Work more compleat and useful he distinguished the additions and deficiences by several marks a Vid. praeter script citat Orig. Comment in in Matth. Edit Haet gr l. p. 381. Resp ad Epist Afric p. 226 227. Edit Basil vid. Ruffin Invect II. in Hieron inter oper Hier. T. 4. p. 230. where any thing had been added by the LXX besides the faith of the Original Text he prefixed an Obelus before it where any thing was wanting which yet was in the Hebrew he in serted the words with an Asteric to distinguish them from the rest of the Septuagint Translation Where various Lections were confirmed by the greater number of Translations he added a note called Lemniscus where two of them onely concurred an Hypolemniscus By which means he did right to truth without doing wrong to any A work of infinite labour and admirable use and which was therefore peculiarly stiled by the Ancients Opus Ecclesiae the Work of the Church upon the account whereof S. Hierom a In Tit. loc supr cit calls him Immortale illud ingenium as indeed had there been nothing else this alone had been sufficient to have eternized his name and to have rendred him memorable to posterity and how happy had it been had it been preserved the loss whereof I can attribute to nothing more then the pains and charge the trouble and difficulty of transcribing it Though some part of it viz. the Septuagint was taken out and published more exact and correct from the faults which had crept into it by transcribing by Eusebius and Pamphilus afterwards It was a Work of time and not finished by Origen all at once begun by him at Caesarea and perfected at Tyre as Epiphanius plainly intimates XIX FROM Caesarea Origen upon what occasion I know not seems to have taken a second journey to Athens For during his stay there we find him finishing his Commentaries b Euseb ib. c. 32. p. 231. upon Ezechiel and beginning his Exposition upon the Canticles five Books whereof he there perfected making an end of the rest at his return to Caesarea The opportunity of this journy it 's conceived by some he took to go to Nicomedia to visit his friend Ambrosius who with his wife and children at that time resided there While he continued here which was not long he returned an answer to the Letter which he had lately received from Julius Africanus concerning the History of Susanna which Africanus by short but very forcible arguments maintained to be a fictitious and spurious relation Origen undertakes the case and justifies the Story to be sincere and genuine but by arguments which rather manifest the acuteness of his parts then the goodness of his cause and clearly shew how much men of the greatest learning and abilities are put to it when engaged to uphold a weak side and which has no truth of its own to support it self It happened about this time that Beryllus c Ibid. c. 33. Bishop of Bostra in Arabia fell into absurd and dangerous errours asserting that our Lord before his incarnation had no proper subsistence no personal Deity but onely a derivative divinity from his Father The Bishops of those parts met about it but could not reclaim the man whereupon Origen's assistance was requested who went thither and treated with him both in private conferences and in public Synods His greatest difficulty was to know what the man meant which when he had once found out he plied him so hard with cogent reasonings and demonstrations that he was forced to let go his hold recant his errours and return back into the way of truth Which done Origen took his leave and came back for Palestin And Beryllus d Hieron de Script in Beryll as became a true Convert in several Letters gave thanks to Origen for his kind pains in his conviction kissing the hand that brought him back XX. ORIGEN was now advanced e Eus Ibid. c. 36. p. 232. above the age of threescore and yet remitted nothing of his incredible industry either in preaching or writing At Ambrosius his intreaty he took to task Celsus his Book against the Christians This Celsus was an Epicurean Philosopher contemporary with Lucian the witty Atheist who dedicated his Pseudomantis to him as indeed there seems to have been a more then ordinary sympathy of humour and genius between these two persons Celsus was a man of Wit and Parts and had all the advantages which Learning Philosophy and Eloquence could add to him but a severe and incurable enemy to the Christian Religion against which he wrote a Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the true Discourse wherein he attempted Christianity with all the Arts of insinuation all the witty reflections virulent aspersions plausible reasonings wherewith a man of parts and malice was capable to assault it To this Origen returns a
Vit. Script Euseb and as Valesius conjectures some years after the Council of Nice though when not long before he expresly affirms that History to have been written before the Nicene Synod how he can herein be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine 'T is true Eusebius takes no notice of that Council but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous Scene of things which Constantine restored to the Church as he himself plainly intimates in the beginning of his History which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod according to the humour of all Historians who delight to shut up their Histories with some happy and successful period and partly because he intended to give some account of the affairs of that Council in his Book of the Life of Constantine the Great The Materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking which he complains were very small and inconsiderable were besides Hegesippus his Commentaries then extant Africanus his Chronology the Books and Writings of several Fathers the Records of particular Cities Ecclesiastical Epistles written by the Bishops of those Times and kept in the Archives of their several Churches especially that famous Library at Jerusalem erected by Alexander Bishop of that place but chiefly the Acts of the Martyrs which in those Times were taken at large with great care and accuracy These at least a great many of them Eusebius collected into one Volume under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Collection of the Ancient Martyrdoms which he refers to at every turn besides a particular Narrative which he wrote still extant as an Appendage to the Eighth Book of his Ecclesiastical History concerning the Martyrs that suffered in Palestin A great part of these Acts by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times were interpolated and corrupted especially in the darker and more undiscerning Ages when Superstition had overspread the Church and when Ignorance and Interest conspired to fill the World with idle and improbable Stories and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own Brains insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman Communion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation that Laertius has written the Lives of Philosophers with more truth and chastness then many have done the Lives of the Saints Upon this account a great and general out-cry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes as the Father of incredible Legends and one that has notoriously imposed upon the World by the most fabulous reports Nay some to reflect the more disgrace upon him have represented him as a petty Schoolmaster A charge in my mind rash and inconsiderate and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes advanced to the highest Honours and Offices one of the Primier Ministers of State and as is probable Great Chancellor to the Emperour of Constantinople learned and eloquent above the common standard and who by the persuasions not onely of some great ones of that time he flourished under Leo the Wise about the Year DCCCC but principally wrote under the reign of his successor but of the Emperour himself was prevailed with to reduce the Lives of the Saints into order To which end by his own infinite labour and the no less expences of the Emperour he ransacked the Libraries of the Empire till he had amassed a vast heap of Volumes The more ancient Acts he passed without any considerable alteration more then the correcting them by a collation of several Copies and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easie as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day Where Lives were confused and immethodical or written in a stile rude and barbarous he digested the history into order and clothed it in more polite and elegant language Others that were defective in neither he left as they were and gave them place amongst his own So that I see no reason for so severe a censure unless it were evident that he took his accounts of things not from the Writings of those that had gone before him but forged them of his own head Not to say that things have been made much worse by Translations seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latine Church and that many Lives are laid at his door of which he never was the Father it being usual with some when they met with the Life of a Saint the Author whereof they knew not presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes But to return to Eusebius from whom we have digressed His Ecclesiastical History the almost onely remaining Records of the ancient Church deserves a just esteem and veneration without which those very fragments of Antiquity had been lost which by this means have escaped the common Shipwrack And indeed S. Hierom Nicephorus and the rest do not onely build upon his foundation but almost entirely derive their materials from him As for Socrates Sozomen Theodorit and the later Historians they relate to Times without the limits of my present business generally conveying down little more then the History of their own Times the Church History of those more early Ages being either quite neglected or very negligently managed The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation were the Centuriators of Magdeburg a combination of learned and industrious men the chief of whom were John Wigandus Matth. Judex Basilius Faber Andreas Corvinus but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus who was the very soul of the undertaking They set themselves to traverse the Writings of the Fathers and all the ancient Monuments of the Church collecting whatever made to their purpose which with indefatigable pains they digested into an Ecclesiastic History This they divided into Centuries and each Century into fifteen Chapters into each of which as into its proper Classis and Repository they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of Religion the Peace or Persecutions of the Christians the Doctrines of the Church and the Heresies that arose in it the Rites and Ceremonies the Government Schisms Councils Bishops and persons noted either for Religion or Learning Heretics Martyrs Miracles the state of the Jews the Religion of them that were without and the political revolutions of that Age. A method accurate and useful and which administers to a very distinct and particular understanding the affairs of the Church The four first Centuries were finished in the City of Magdeburg the rest elsewhere A work of prodigious diligence and singular use True it is that it labours under some faults and imperfections and is chargeable with considerable errours and mistakes And no wonder for besides that the Persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betraid into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the heats and contentions of those Times it was the first attempt in this kind and
yet afterwards he changed his mind and gave ear to those who traduced them as an impious and infamous generation a people that designed nothing but Treason and Rebellion against the State Whereupon he not only suffered his Ministers and Governours of Provinces to treat them with all imaginable cruelty but he himself gave out Edicts forbidding any under the most terrible penalties to profess either the Jewish or Christian Religion which were executed with that rigor and inhumanity that the Christians of those days verily believed that the times of Antichrist did then take place Martyrs of note whom this Persecution sent to heaven were Victor Bishop of Rome Leonidas Origen's Father beheaded at Alexandria Serenus Heraclides Heron another Serenus and Herais a Catechumen all Origen's Scholars Potamiaena an illustrius Virgin and her Mother Marcella after various torments committed to the flames and Basilides one of the Officers that had led them to execution Faelicitas and Perpetua two noble Ladies at Tuburbis in Mauritania the one brought to bed but the day before the other at that time a Nurse Speratus and his companions beheaded at Carthage by the command of Saturninus the Proconsul Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons and many thousands of his people martyred with him whose names and sufferings though unknown to us are honourably written in the Book of life XXV THE next that created any disturbance to the Christians was Maximinus by birth a Thracian a man of base and obscure originals of a mean and sordid education he had been first a Shepherd then a High-way man and last of all a Souldier He was of strength and stature beyond the ordinary size and standard and his manners were as robust and boisterous as his constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod lib. 〈◊〉 in Maxim p. 253. and savoured wholly of the rudeness of his Education Never did a more cruel Beast says the Historian a Capitol in vit Maxim c. 9. p. 609. tread upon the earth relying altogether upon his strength and upon that account reckoning himself almost immortal He seiz'd upon whatever came in his way plundering and destroying without any difference without any Process or form of Law his strength was the law of justice and his will the measure of his actions He spared none but especially killed all that knew any thing of his mean descent that none might reproach him with the obscurity of his birth Having slain his Master Alexander Mammaeus that excellent and incomparable Prince he usurped the Government and manag'd it suitable to his own maxim that the Empire could not be maintained but by cruelty The SEVENTH PERSECUTION was raised by him Indeed Sulpitius Severus admits not this into the number and therefore makes no more than nine Pagan Persecutions reserving the tenth for the times of Antichrist But Eusebius b H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 38 p. 228. expresly affirms that Maximinus stirr'd up a Persecution against the Christians and that out of hatred to his Predecessor in whose Family many Christians had found shelter and patronage but that it was almost wholly levelled against the Bishops and Ministers of Religion as the prime authors and propagators of Christianity Whence Firmilian Bishop of Cappadocia in his Letter to S. Cyprian c Inter Epist â—â—pr p. 14â— says of it that it was not a general but a local Persecution that rag'd in some particular places and especially in that Province where he liv'd Serenianus the President driving the Christians out of all those Countries He adds that many dreadful Earthquakes happening in those parts whereby Towns and Cities were overturned and swallowed up added life and vigor to the Persecution it being usual with the Gentiles if a Famine or Pestilence an Earthquake or Inundation happened presently to fall foul upon the Christians and conclude them the causes of all those evils and mischiefs that came upon the world And this Origen d 〈…〉 meant when he tells us that he knew some places overturned with earthquakes the cause whereof the Heathens cast upon the Christians for which their Churches were persecuted and burnt to the ground and that not only the common people but the wiser sort among them did not stick openly to affirm that these things came for the sake of the Christians Hereupon he wrote his Book De Martyrio for the comfort and support of those that suffered in this evil time XXVI AFTER Maximinus reign'd Pupienus and Balbinus to them succeeded Gordian and to him Philip all which time for at least ten years together the Church enjoy'd a competent calmness and tranquillity when Decius was in a manner forced in his own defence to take the Empire upon him A man of great activity and resolution a stout Commander a wise and prudent Governour so universally acceptable for his modest and excellent carriage that by the Sentence of the Senate he was voted not inferiour to Trajan and had the Title of Optimus adjudged to him But he was a bitter and implacable enemy to Christians against whom he rais'd the EIGHTH PERSECUTION which proved though the shortest the hottest of all the Persecutions that had hitherto afflicted and oppressed the Church The Ecclesiastic a Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 39. p. 234. Chron. ad Ann. CCLII Oros l. 7. c. 21. fol. 310. Niceph. l. 5. c. 27. p. 377. Historians generally put it upon the account of Decius his hatred to his Predecessor Philip for being a Christian whereas it is more truly to be ascribed to his zeal for the cause of declining Paganism which he saw fatally undermin'd by Christianity and that therefore there was no way to support the one but by the ruine of the other We have more than once taken notice of it in some of the following Lives and therefore shall say the less here Decius reigned somewhat above two years during which time the storm was very black and violent and no place but felt the dreadful effects of it They were every where driven from their houses spoil'd in their estates tormented in their bodies whips and prisons fires and wild beasts scalding pitch and melted wax sharp stakes and burning pincers were but some of the methods of their treatment and when the old ones were run over new were daily invented and contriv'd The laws of nature and humanity were broken down friend betray'd his friend and the nearest relative his own Father or Brother Every one was ambitious to promote the Imperial Edicts and thought it meritorious to bring a Christian to the stake This Persecution swept away at Alexandria Julian Chronion Epimachus Alexander Ammon Zeno Ptolomy Ammonaria Mercuria Isidore and many others mentioned by Dionysius Bishop of that Church at Carthage Mappalicus Bassus Fortunio Paulus Donatus Martialis c. it crown'd Babylas Bishop of Antioch Alexander of Jerusalem Fabian Bishop of Rome Victoria Anatolia Parthenius Marcellianus and thousands more Nicephorus affirming it to be easier to count the Sands of the shore than
apud Sur. ubi supr Mabillon lec citat Hincmar as appears by his Epistle to Charles the Emperour Where he plainly tells us that no sooner had he read this Life written by Methodius but he found it admirably to agree with what he had read in his Youth he means I doubt not the Writings of Hilduin by whom and how the Acts of S. Denys and his companions came to the knowledge of the Romans and thence to the notice of the Greeks This is the most likely pedigree and procedure of the Story that I can think of and from hence how easie was it for the after-Writers both of the Western and the Eastern Church to swallow down a Story thus plausibly fitted to their taste Nor had the Greeks any reason over-nicely to examine or reject what made so much for the honour of their Church and Nation and seemed to lay not France onely but the whole Western Church under an obligation to them for furnishing them with so great and excellent a person But to return to our Dionysius X. THOUGH we cannot doubt but that he behaved himself with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge of his Office yet because the Ancients have conveyed down no particulars to our hands we shall not venture upon reports of false or at best doubtful credit Nothing of certainty can be recovered of him more then what Aristides the Christian Philosopher who himself lived and was probably born at Athens not long after Dionysius relates in the a Apud Usuard Adon. Mart. V. Non. Octobr. Apology which he published for the Christian Religion that after a most resolute and eminent confession of the Faith after having undergone several of the severest kinds of torment he gave the last and great testimony to it by laying down his life This was done as is most probable under the reign of Domitian as is confessed betraid into it by a secret instinct of truth by Abbot Hilduin Methodius and their followers while others extend it to the times of Trajan others to the reign of Adrian who entered upon the Empire Ann. CXVII partly that they might leave room enough for the account which they give of him partly to preserve the Authority of his Writings wherein a passage is cited out of Ignatius his Epistles written just before his Martyrdom Ann. CVII The Reader I hope will not expect from me an account of the miracles said to be done by him either before or since his death or of the fierce contests that are between several places in the Roman Church concerning his Reliques One passage however I shall not omit In a Village in Luxemburg not far from Treves is a Church dedicated to S. Denys wherein is kept his Scull at least a piece of it on the Crown whereof there is a white Cross while the other parts of the Scull are black This common Tradition and some b Vid. Author citat ap P. Halloix not ad vit Dionys p. 241. Authors to avouch it will have to be made when S. Paul laid his hands upon him at his consecration Which if so I have no more to observe but that Orders which the Church of Rome make a Sacrament did here even in a literal sense confer an indeleble character and mark upon him XI HIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shape and figure of his body is by the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek Menaeon thus described he was of a middle stature slender fair but inclining to paleness his nose gracefully bending hollow-eyed with short eye-brows his ear large his hair thick and white his beard moderately long but very thin For the image of his mind expressed in his discourses and the excellent conduct of his life the Greeks according to their magnifying humour as well as language bestow most hyperbolical elogies and commendations on him Ibid. They stile him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Interpreter and contemplator of hidden and unspeakable mysteries and an unsearchable depth of heavenly knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Trinity-Divine the divine instrument of those enlivening graces that are above all comprehension They say of him that his life was wonderful his discourse more wonderful his tongue full of light his mouth breathing an holy fire but his mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most exactly like to God with a great deal more of the like nature up and down their Offices And certainly were the notions which he has given us of the coelestial Hierarchy and Orders of Angels and the things of that supramundane State as clear and certain as some would persuade us he might deserve that title which a Vid. Anasias-Biblioth Epist ap Sur. loc cit p. 132. Chrysost de Pseudâ— Preph p. 401. Tom 6. others give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wing or the Bird of Heaven XII THE great and evident demonstration of his Wisdom and Eloquence we are told b Suid. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 745. Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 20. p. 167. are the Works which he left behind him the Notions and Language wherewith they are clothed being so lofty and sublime as are scarcely capable to be the issue of a meer mortal creature Books infinitely intricate and perplext as our Countreyman c Epist ad Carol Calv. Franc. Reg. ap Usser Epist Hibern p. 59. Johannes Scotus who first translated them into Latine tells us far beyond the reach of Modern apprehensions and which few are able to pierce into both for their Antiquity and sublimeness of those Heavenly Mysteries whereof they treat A Work so grateful to all speculative Enquirers into the natures of things and the more abstruse and recondite parts of Learning that if Suidas say true some of the Heathen Philosophers and particularly Proclus often borrows not onely his notions but his very words and phrases from him whence he suspects that some of the Philosophers at Athens stole those Books of his mentioned in the Epistle Dedicatory to S. Timothy and which now are wanting and published them under their own names But had I been to make the conjecture I should rather have suspected that this Pseudo-Dionysius fetched his speculations and good part of his expressions from Plotinus Iamblichus and the rest of the later Platonists For certainly one egg is not more like another then this mans Divinity is like the Theology of that School especially as explained by the Philosophers who lived in the first Ages of Christianity That our Dionysius was not the Author of the Books at this day extant under his name I shall not concern my self to shew For however it be contended for by many with all imaginable zeal and stifâ—ness yet want there not those and men of note even in the Roman Communion who clearly disown and deny it as among the Reformed it has been largely disproved by many and by none with greater learning and industry then Monsieur Daille who has said whatever is
and such like mischievous passions do proceed which being once driven out the soul presently enjoys a pleasant calmness and tranquillity And being delivered from that yoke of evils that before lay upon its neck it aspires and mounts up to its Creator it being but suitable that it should return to that place from whence it borrowed its original VI. BUT though he laid aside his former Profession he still retained his ancient Garb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Lib. 4. c. 11. p. 125. Eusebius and after him * De script in Justin S. Hierom reports preaching and defending the Christian Religion under his old Philosophic habit which was the Pallium or Cloak the usual badge of the Greek Philosophers different from that which was worn by the ordinary Greeks and which those Christians still kept to who before their conversion had been professed Philosophers So b De Script in Aristid S. Hierom tells us of Aristides the Athenian Philosopher contemporary with Quadratus that under his former habit he became Christs Disciple and c Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 19. p. 221. Origen of Heraclas afterwards Bishop of Alexandria that giving up himself to the more strict study of Philosophy he put on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophic Habit which he constantly wore even after he became Presbyter of that Church This custom continued long in the Christian Church that those who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as d H. Eccl. l. 7. c. 37. Socrates speaks enter upon an Ascetic course of life and a more severe profession of Religion always wore the Philosophers Cloak and he tells us of Silvanus the Rhetorician that when he became Christian and professed this Ascetic life he was the first that laid aside the Cloak and contrary to custom put on the common Garb. Indeed it was so common that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became proverbial among the Heathens when any Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passed by there goes a Greek Impostor because of their being clad after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Chrys Orat. LXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 627. and professing a severer life then ordinary like the Philosophers among the Grecians many of whom notwithstanding were meer cheats and hypocrites and e Epist ad Marcel p. 115. Tom. 1. S. Hierom notes of his time that if such a Christian were not so fine and spruce in his Garb as others presently the common saying was clapt upon him he is an Impostor and a Greek This habit it seems was generally black and sordid enough Whence the Monks who succeeded in this strict and regular course of life are severely noted by the Gentile Writers of those Times under this character * Orat. de Templ p. 10. e Epist ad Marcel p. 115. Tom. 1. Libanius calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 black-coat Monks and says f Ibid. p. 28. of them that the greatest demonstration of their vertue was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk about in mourning garments Much at the same rate g In vit Aedâ—f p. 65. Eunapius describes the Monks of Egypt that they were clad in black and were ambitious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go abroad in the most flovenly and sordid Garb. But it is time to return to our S. Justin who as h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. 125 col 304. Photius and i Haeres 46. p. 1â—1 Epiphanius note shewed himself in his words and actions as well as in his habit to be a true Philosopher VII HE came to Rome upon what occasion is uncertain probably about the beginning of Antoninus Pius his reign where he fixed his habitation dwelling as appears from the acts of his Martyrdom about the Timothine Baths which were upon the Viminal Mount Here he strenously imployed himself to defend and promote the cause of Christianity and particularly to confute and beat down the Heresies that then mainly infested and disturbed the Church writing a Book a Apol. II. p. 70. against all sorts of Heresies but more especially opposed himself to Marcion who was the son of a Bishop born in Pontus and for his deflowering a Virgin had been cast out of the Church whereupon he fled to Rome where he broached many damnable errours and among the rest that there were two Gods one the Creator of the World whom he made to be the God of the Old Testament and the Author of Evil the other a more Sovereign and Supreme Being Creator of more excellent things the Father of Christ whom he sent into the World to dissolve the Law and the Prophets and to destroy the works of the other deity whom he stiled the God of the Jews Others and among them especially b Haeres XLII p. 135. Epiphanius and a more ancient Author c Dial. contr Marcion p. 3 4 Basil edit 1674. 4. of the Dialogues against the Marcionites under the name of Origen for that it was Origen himself I much question make him to have established three differing Principles or Beings an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good Principle the Father of Christ and this was the God of the Christians an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Creating Principle that made the visible frame of things which presided over the Jews and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evil Principle which was the Devil and ruled over the Gentiles With him Justin encountered both by Word and Writing particularly publishing a Book which he had composed against him and his pernicious principles VIII ABOUT the Year of our Lord CXL the Christians seem to have been more severely dealt with for though Antoninus the Emperour was a mild and excellent Prince and who put out no Edicts that we know of to the prejudice of Christianity yet the Christians being generally traduced and defamed as a wicked and barbarous generation had a hard hand born upon them in all places and were persecuted by virtue of the particular Edicts of former Emperours and the general standing Laws of the Roman Empire To vindicate them from the aspersions cast upon them and to mitigate the severities used towards them Justin about this time published his first Apology for though in all Editions it be set in the second place it was unquestionably the first Vid. Euseb l. 4. c. 18. p. 139. presenting it as appears from the Inscription to Antoninus Pius the Emperour and to his two sons Verus and Lucius to the Senate and by them to the whole People of Rome wherein with great strength and evidence of reason he defends the Christians from the common objections of their enemies proves the divinity of the Christian Faith and shews how unjust and unreasonable it was to proceed against them without due conviction and form of Law acquaints them with the innocent Rites and Usages of the Christian Assemblies and lastly puts the Emperour in mind of the course which Adrian his predecessor had taken in this matter who
Justin Martyr the rest are of an inferiour and more inconsiderable notice As for his affirming that our Lord was near d Adv. Haeres l. 2 c. 39. p. 192. c. 40. ibid. fifty years of age at the time of his public Ministry it was an errour into which he was betrayed partly from a false supposition that our Lord must be of a more mature and elderly Age that so he might deliver his doctrine with the greater authority partly from a mistaken report which he had somewhere picked up and it may be from his Master Papias that S. John and the rest of the Apostles had so affirmed and taught it and partly out of opposition to his adversaries who maintained that our Saviour staid no longer upon earth then till the thirty first year of his age against whom the eagerness of disputation tempted him to make good his assertion from any plausible pretence and to take the hint though his impetus and the desire of prosecuting his Argument would not give his thoughts leave to cool and take the place into sober consideration from that question of the Jews to Christ thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham whence in transitu he took it for granted that the Jews had some ground for what they said and that he must be near that age XI HIS care to have his Writings derived pure and uncorrupted to posterity was great and admirable adding to his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this solemn and religious obtestation e Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c 20. p. 187. I adjure thee whoever thou art that shalt transcribe this Book by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his glorious coming wherein he shall judge the quick and the dead that thou compare what thou transcribest and diligently correct it by the Copy from whence thou transcribest it and that thou likewise transcribe this adjuration and annex it to thy Copy And well had it been with the ancient Writers of the Church had their Books been treated with this care and reverence more of them had been conveyed down to us at least those few that are had arrived more sound and unpolluted I note no more and it is what Eusebius long since thought worth taking notice of then that in his time miraculous gifts and powers were very common in the Church For so he f Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 57. p. 218. ap Eusch l. 5. c. 7. p. 171. tells us that some expelled and cast out Devils the persons often embracing Christianity upon it others had Visions and Revelations and foretold things to come some spake all manner of Languages and as occasion was discovered mens thoughts and secret purposes and expounded the mysteries and deep things of God others miraculously healed the sick and by laying their hands upon them restored their health and many who raised the dead the persons so raised living among them many years after The Gifts as he speaks which God in the name of our crucified Lord then bestowed upon the Church being innumerable all which they sincerely and freely improved to the great advantage and benefit of the World Whence with just reason he urges the truth of our Religion in general and how much advantage true Christians had to triumph over all those Impostors and Seducers who sheltered themselves under the venerable Title of being Christians His Writings Extant Adversus Haereses seu De refutatione eversione falsae scientiae Libri V. Not extant Libellus de Scientia adversus Gentes Demonstratio Apostolicae praedicationis ad Marcianum fratrem Liber de Ogdoade Epistola ad Blastum de Schismate Ad Florinum de Monarchia seu Quod Deus non sit conditor mali Epistola Ad Victorem Episcopum Romanum de Paschate Epistola Ad varios Episcopos de eadem re Epistolae plures Variorum Tractatuum Liber The End of S. IRENAEUS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. THEOPHILUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH Micha Burg Dili et sculpsit S. THEOPHILUS ANTIOCHENUS The great obscurity of his Originals His learned and ingenuous Education and natural parts An account of his Conversion to Christianity and the reasons inducing him thereunto collected out of his own Writings His scrupling the Doctrine of the Resurrection The great difficulty of entertaining that Principle Synesius his case Theophilus his conquering this objection His great satisfaction in the Christian Religion His election to the Bishoprick of Antioch His desire to convert Autolycus Autolycus who His mighty prejudice against Christianity Theophilus his undertaking him and his free and impartial debating the case with him His excellent merage of the controversie His vigorous opposing the Heresies of those times His Books against Marcion and Hermogenes His death and the time of it S. Hieroms Character of his Works His Writings I. THOUGH the Ancients furnish us with very few notices concerning this venerable Bishop yet perhaps it may not be unacceptable to the Reader to pick up that little which may be found The mistake is not worth confuting and scarce deserves mentioning that makes him the same with that Theophilus of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicates his Evangelical Writings so great the distance of time if there were nothing more between them Whether he was born at Antioch is uncertain but where-ever he was born his Parents were Gentiles by whom he was brought up in the common Rites of that Religion that then governed the World They gave him all the accomplishments of a learned and liberal Education and vast improvements he made in the progress of his Studies so that he was throughly versed in the Writings of all the great Masters of Learning and Philosophy in the Heathen World which being set off with a quick and a pleasant wit as appears from his Disputes against the Gentiles rendred him a man of no inconsiderable note and account among them II. WHEN or by what means converted to Christianity is impossible particularly to determine thus much onely may be gathered from the Discourses which he left behind him Being a man of an inquisitive temper and doubtless of a very honest mind he gave up himself to a more free and impartial search into the nature and state of things He found that the account of things which that Religion gave wherein he was then engaged was altogether unsatisfactory that the stories of their gods were absurd and frivolous and some of them prophane and impious that their Rites of Worship were trifling and ridiculous he considered the several parts of the Creation and that excellent providence that governed the World wherein he easily discerned the plain notices of a wise and omnipotent Being and that God had purposely disposed things thus that his Grandeur and Majesty might appear to all Accordingly he directs his friend to this method of conviction as that which doubtless he had found most successful and satisfactory to himself He bids a Ad Autolyc l. 1. p. 72. him
ea qâ—ae cum Sophiae ratlone sermone disposuerat intrase ipsum primum protulit sermonem Haec est nativitas perfecta sermonis dum ex deo procedit conditus ab eo primum ad cogitatum in nomin Sophiae Dominus condidit me initium viarâ—m Tertul adv Prax. c. 5 6 â— p. 503. ubi plura Fathers used the word for any manner of production and usually understand that place of Solomon of the ineffable Generation of the Son of God His Writings None whereof are now extant De Paschate Libri II. De recta vivendi ratione de Prophetis liber unus De Ecclesia De die Dominica De Natura Hominis De Creatione De obedientia sensuum fidei De Anima corpore mente De Lavacro De Veritate De fide Creatione Generatione Christi De Prophetia De Hospitalitate Liber Clavis dictus De Diabolo De Joannis Apocalypsi De Incarnatione Dei Apologia ad Imp. Antoninum Excerptorum ex libris Veteris Testamenti Libri VI. The End of S. MELITO 's Life THE LIFE OF S. PANTAENUS CATECHIST OF ALEXANDRIA Michael Burghers Delineavit et sculpsit S. PANTAENUS The various conjectures concerning his Original The probabilities of his Jewish descent what Whether born in Sicily or at Alexandria His first institution The famous Platonic School erected by Ammonius at Alexandria The renown of that place for other parts of Learning Pantaenus addicted to the Sect of the Stoics The Principles of that Sect shewed to agree best with the dictates of Christianity His great improvements in the Christian Doctrine The Catechetic School at Alexandria with its antiquity Pantaenus made Regent of it When he first entered upon this Office An Embassy from India to the Bishop of Alexandria for some to preach the Christian Faith Pantaenus sent upon this errand This Countrey where situate His arrival in India and converse with the Brachmans Their temper principles and way of life Their agreement with the Stoics Foot-steps of Christianity formerly planted there S. Matthews Hebrew Gospel found among them and brought by Pantaenus to Alexandria How far and by whom Christianity was propagated in India afterwards Pantaenus his return to Alexandria and resuming his Catechetic Office His Death His great Piety and Learning I. THE silence of Antiquity as to the Countrey and Kindred of this excellent person has administred to variety of conjectures concerning his original Some conceive him to have been born of Jewish Parents and they of note and quality For a Stromat l. 1. p. 274. Clemens Alexandrinus reckoning up his Tutors tells us that one whom he names last was of Palestine an Hebrew of very long descent and then adds that having found the last meaning say some the last of those whom he had reckoned up though he justly deserved to be placed first after he had with infinite diligence and curiosity hunted him out in Egypt where he lay obscure he sate down under his Discipline and Institution This person b H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 11. p. 175 176. Eusebius plainly supposes to have been our Pantaenus and that he intended him in the latter clause there is no cause to doubt the former onely is ambiguous it not being clear whether the latter sentence be necessarily connected and joined to the former or that he designed any more then to intimate the last Master he addressed to as distinct from those he had named before And this I am the rather inclined to think because whoever considerately weighs Clemens his period will find that by his Hebrew or Palestine Master he means one of the two whom he heard in the East whereas Pantaenus was his Master in Egypt whom he both found and heard there c Vales Annot. in Euseb p. 96. Others make him born in Sicily because Clemens in the following words stiles him a truly Sicilian Bee but whether there may not be something proverbial in that expression even as it relates to Sicily I shall not now enquire However it is certain that the Inhabitants of that Island were generally Greeks that many eminent Philosophers were born or resided there and particularly the famous Porphyry who had retired hither for some years and here wrote his virulent Books against the Christians Let this then stand for his Countrey till something more probable offer it self unless we will say that being descended of Sicilian ancestors he was born at Alexandria the place of his education II. HIS younger years were seasoned with all learned and philosophical studies under the best Masters which Alexandria for there I presume to place his education afforded at that time a noted staple place of Learning As Egypt had in all Ages been famous for the choicest parts of literature and the more uncommon speculations of Theology so more especially Alexandria where there were Professors in all Arts and Sciences and public Schools of institution not a little advantaged by that noble Library placed here by Ptolomy Philadelphus and so much celebrated by the Ancients In after-times here was a fixed and setled succession of Philosophers in the Platonic School begun by Ammonius Saccas and carried on by Photinus and Origen and their successors for several Ages a Lib. 22. non longe à sin p. 1638. Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that in his time though not so famous as formerly yet in some good degree it still maintained its reputation and that all ingenuous Arts and Methods of recondite Learning and celebrated Professors of all sorts flourished here and that it was enough to recommend a Physician to public notice if he had studied at Alexandria Nay many Ages after him Benjamin the Jew * Itiner p. 121. at his being there found near twenty several Schools of Aristotelians the onely men that then ruled the Chair whither men flocked from all parts of the World to learn the Peripatetic Philosophy III. AMONG all the Sects of Philosophy he principally applied himself b Euseb l. 5. c. 10. p. 175. to the Stoics with whose notions and rules of life he was most enamoured and no wonder c Com. in Esa c. 11. p. 49. Tom. 5. seeing as S. Hierom observes their dogmata in many things come nearest to the doctrines of Christianity As indeed they do especially as to the moral and practic part of their Principles They held that nothing was good but what was just and pious nothing evil but what was vicious and dishonest that a bad man could never be happy nor a good man miserable who was always free generous and dear to Heaven that the deity was perpetually concerned for humane affairs and that there was a wise and powerful providence that particularly superintended the happiness of mankind and was ready to assist men in all lawful and vertuous undertakings that therefore this God was above all things to be admired adored and worshipped prayed to acknowledged obeyed praised and that it is the most comely and reasonable thing in the
b Vid. l. de Menogam c. 1. p. 525. c. 3. 4. passim de Jejun c. 12. p. 550 551. more then once particularly tells us Not to say that Montanus his followers as is usual with the after-brood of every Sect asserted many things which their Master himself never dreamt of which yet without distinction are laid at his door and Tertullian too because a favourer of the Party drawn into the guilt and made liable to many improvements to the Hay and Stubble which the successors of that Sect built upon it X. BUT however it was he stomached his excommunication and was highly offended at the looseness and remissness of the Discipline among the Catholics whom with great smartness he persecutes under the name of Psychici or Animal persons as those that took too much liberty in their manners and practices of devotion stiling his own party Spiritales as whom he thought more immediately guided by the Spirit more plentifully endowed with the gifts of it and conversant in a more divine and spiritual life Against these Psychici he presently published a Tract De Jejuniis wherein he defends the Montanists in the observation of their Fasts their abstinence from Flesh and feeding onely upon dried meats their Stationary days and the keeping them till the very evening while the Orthodox broke up theirs about three of the Clock in the afternoon in all which respects he makes many tart and severe reflections upon them Indeed the devotions of those times were brisk and fervent their usages strict and punctual their Ecclesiastic Discipline generally very rigid and extreme seldom admitting persons that had lapsed after Baptism to Penance and the Communion of the Church But this was looked upon by moderate and sober men as making the gate too strait and that which could not but discourage Coverts from entering in Accordingly it began to be relaxed in several places and particularly the Bishop of Rome c Tert. de Pudic cit c. 1. p. 555. had lately published a constitution wherein he admitted persons guilty of Adultery and Fornication and probably other crimes to a place among the Penitents Against this Tertullian storms cries up the severity of the antient Discipline writes his Book De Pudicitia wherein he considers and disputes the case and aggravates the greatness of those offences and undertakes the Arguments that pleaded for remission and indulgence And if in the mentioning this Decree the Bishop of Rome be stiled Episcopus Episcoporum the Champions of that Church before they make such advantage of it should do well to prove it to have been a part of the Decree or if it was that it was mentioned by Tertullian as his just right and priviledge and not rather which is infinitely more probable Tertullians Sarcasm intended by him as an Ironical reflection and a tart upbraiding the pride and ambition of the Bishops of that Church who took too much upon them and began as appears from Pope Victors carriage towards the Asian Churches in the case of Easter to domineer over their Brethren and usurp an insolent authority over the whole Christian Church And that this was his meaning I am abundantly satisfied from a Apud Cyprian p. 282. Cyprians using the phrase in this very sense in the famous Synod at Carthage where reflecting upon the rash and violent proceedings of the Bishops of Rome whom though he particularly names not yet all who are acquainted with the Story know whom he means against those who were engaged in the cause of rebaptizing Heretics he adds that as for themselves the Bishops then in the Synod none of them made himself Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannical threatning forced his Colleagues into a necessity of Compliance since every Bishop according to the power and liberty granted to him had his proper jurisdiction and could no more be judged by another then he himself could judge others XI WHETHER ever he was reconciled to the Catholic Communion appears not 't is certain that for the main he forsook the b August de Haeres c. 86. Tom. 6. col 31. Cataphrygians and kept his separate meetings at Carthage and his Church was yet remaining till S. Augustins time by whose labours the very reliques of his followers called Tertullianists were dispersed and quite disappeared How long he continued after his departure from the Church is not known S. Hierom c De Script in Tertull. says that he lived to a very decrepit age but whether he died under the reign of Alexander Severus or before the Ancients tell us not as neither whether he died a natural or violent death He seems indeed to have been possessed with a passionate desire of laying down his life for the Faith though had he been a Martyr some mention would without peradventure have been made of it in the Writings of the Church XII HE was a man of a smart and acute wit though a little too much edged with Keeness and Satyrism acris vehementis ingenii as d Loc. citat S. Hierom characters him one that knew not how to treat an adversary without salt and sharpness He was of a stiff and rugged disposition a rigid Censor inclined to choler and impatient of opposition a strict observer of Rites and Discipline and a zealous asserter of the highest rigors and most nice severities of Religion His learning was admirable wherein though many excelled he had no superiours and few equals in the Age he lived in Tertulliano quid eruditius quid acutius says e Epist ad Mag. Grator p. 328. T. 2. S. Hierom who adds that his Apology and Book against the Gentiles took in all the treasures of Humane Learning f Commonit adv Haeres cap. 24 p. 59 60. Vincentius of Lire gives him this notable Elogium He is justly says he to be esteemed the Prince among the Writers of the Latin Church For what more learned who more conversant both in divine and humane Studies who by a strange largeness and capacity of mind had drawn all Philosophy and its several Sects the Authors and Abettors of Heresies with all their Rites and Principles and the whole circumference of History and all kind of Study within the compass of his own breast A man of such quick and weighty parts that there was scarce any thing which he set himself against which he did not either pierce through with the acumen of his Wit or batter down with the strength and solidity of his Arguments Who can sufficiently commend his Discourses so thick set with Troops of Reasons that whom they cannot persuade they are ready to force to an assent who hath almost as many sentences as words and not more periods then victories over those whom he hath to deal with XIII FOR his Books though time has devoured many yet a great number still remain and some of them written after his withdrawment from the Church His stile is for the most part abrupt and
haughty and its face full of ancient wrinkles of which a Lib. 5. cap. 1. p. 459. Lactantius long since gave this censure that though he himself was skilled in all points of Learning yet his stile was rugged and uneasie and very obscure as indeed it requires a very attentive and diligent a sharp and sagacious understanding yet is it lofty and masculine and carries a kind of majestic eloquence along with it that gives a pleasant relish to the judicious and inquisitive Reader It is deeply tinctured with the African dialect and owes not a little of its perplexedness and obscurity to his conversing so much in the Writings of the Greeks whose forms and idioms he had so made his own that they naturally flowed into his pen and how great a Master he was of that Tongue is plain in that himself b De Baptism c. 15. p. 230. de Coron c. 6. p. 104 tells us he wrote a Book concerning Baptism and some others in Greek which could not but exceedingly vitiate and infect his native stile and render it less smooth elegant and delightful as we see in Ammianus Marcellinus who being a Greek born wrote his Roman History in Latin in a stile rough and unpleasant and next door to barbarous Besides what was in it self obscure and uneven became infinitely worse by the ignorance of succeeeding Ages who changed what they did not understand and crowded in spurious words in the room of those which were proper and natural till they had made it look like quite another thing then what it was when it first came from under the hand of its Author XIV HIS errours and unsound opinions are frequently noted by S. Augustin and the Ancients not to mention later Censors and Pamelius has reduced his Paradoxes to thirty one which together with their Explications and Antidotes he has prefixed before the Editions of his Works That of Montanus his being the Paraclete we noted before and for other things relating to that Sect they are rather matters concerning Order and Discipline then Articles and Points of Faith It cannot be denied but that he has some unwarrantable notions common with other Writers of those Times and some more peculiar to himself But he lived in an Age when the Faith was yet green and tender when the Church had not publicly and solemnly defined things by explicit Articles and nice Propositions when the Philosophy of the Schools was mainly predominant and men ran immediately from the Stoa and the Academy to the Church when a greater latitude of opining was indulged and good men were infinitely more solicitous about piety and a good life then about modes of Speech and how to express every thing so critically and exactly that it should not be liable to a severe scrutiny and examination His Writings Genuine Apologeticus Ad Nationes Libri II. De Testimonio Animae Ad Scapulam De Spectaculis De Idololatria De Corona De Pallio De Poenitentia De Oratione Ad Martyras De Patientia De cultu foeminarum Lib. II. Ad Vxorem Lib. II. De Virginibus Velandis Adversus Judaeos De Praescriptione Haereticorum De Baptismo Adversus Hermogenem Adversus Valentinianos De Anima De Carne Christi De Resurrectione Carnis Adversus Marcionem Lib. V. Scorpiace Adversus Praxeam Libri post Lapsum in Montanismum scripti De Exhortatione Castitatis De Monogamia De fuga in Persecutione De Jejuniis De Pudicitia Supposititious Poemata Adversus Marcionem Lib. V. De judicio Domini Genesis Sodoma Not extant De Paradiso De Spe Fidelium De Ecstasi Adversus Apollonium Adversus Apellecianos De Vestibus Aaron De Censu Animae Graece De Corona De Virginibus Velandis De Baptismo The End of TERTULLIAN 's Life THE LIFE OF ORIGEN Presbyter Catechist of ALEXANDRIA Michael Burghers sculpsit ORIGEN Origen where and when born Several conjectures about the original of his name His Father who His juvenile education and great towardliness in the knowledge of the Scriptures His Philosophical Studies under Clemens Alexandrinus His Institution under Ammonius Ammonius who His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile Philosophers Another Origen his contemporary These two heedlesly confounded His Fathers martyrdom and the confiscation of his Estate Origen 's resolute encouragement of his Father His own passionate desire of Martyrdom His maintenance by an honourable Matron of Alexandria His zeal against Heretics His setting up a private School His succeding Clemens in the Catechetic Shool at eighteen years of Age. The frequency of his Auditors Many of them Martyrs for the Faith Origen 's resolution in attending upon the Martyrs His danger His couragious act at the Temple of Serapis His emasculating himself and the reasons of it The eminent chastity of those Primitive times Origen 's journey to Rome and return to Alexandria His taking in a Colleague into the Catechetic Office His learning the Hebrew Tongue The prudent method of his Teaching Ambrosius converted Who he was His great intâ—maâ—y with Origen Origen sent for by the Governour of Arabia His journey into Palestin and teaching at Caesarea Remanded by the Bishop of Alexandria Alexander Severus his excellent Vertues and kindness for the Christian Religion Origen sent for by the Empress Mammaea to Antioch He begins to write his Commentaries How many Notaries and Transcribers imployed and by whom maintained Notaries their Original and Office Their use and institution in the Primitive Church His journey into Greece His passage through Palestin and being ordained Presbyter at Caesarea Demetrius of Alexandria his envy and rage against him Origen condemned in two Synods at Alexandria and one at Rome The resignation of his Catechetic School to Heraclas Heraclas who The story of his offering sacrifice The credit of this story questioned and why His departure from Alexandria and fixing at Caesarea The eminency of his School there Gregorius Thaumaturgus his Scholar His friendship with Firmilian Firmilian who The Persecution under Maximinus Origen 's Book written to the Martyrs His retirement whither His comparing the Versions of the Bible His Tetrapla Hexapla and Octapla what and how managed A Speâ—imen given of them His second journey to Athens His going to Nicomedia and letter to Africanus about the History of Susanna His confutation of Beryllus in Arabia His answer to Celsus Celsus who Origens Letters to Philip the Emperour The vanity of making him a Christian Origen 's journey into Arabia to refute Heresies The Helcesaitae who What their Principles Alexander 's miraculous election to the See of Jerusalem his Coadjutor-ship Government Sufferings and Martyrdom Origen 's grievous sufferings at Tyre under the Decian Persecution His deliverance out of Prison Age and Death His Character His strict life His mighty zeal abstinence contempt of the World indefatigable diligence and patience noted His natural parts incomparable learning His Books and their several Classes His stile what His unsound opinions The great Out-cry against him in all Ages
The Apologies written in his behalf Several things noted out of the Ancients to extenuate the charge His assertions not Dogmatical Not intended for public view Generally such as were not determined by the Church His Books corrupted and by whom His own complaints to that purpose The testimonies of Athanasius and Theotimus and Haymo in his vindication Great errours and mistakes acknowledged What things contributed to them His great kindness for the Platonic Principles S. Hierom 's moderate censure of him His repenting of his rash Propositions His Writings enumerated and what now extant I. ORIGEN called also Adamantius either from the unwearied temper of his mind and that strength of reason wherewith he compacted his Discourses or his firmness and constancy in Religion notwithstanding all the assaults made against it was born at Alexandria the known Metropolis of Egypt unless we will suppose that upon some particular Tumult or Persecution raised against the Christians in that City his Parents fled for refuge to the Mountainous parts thereabouts where his Mother was delivered of him and that thence he was called Origenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 330. T. 2. quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most conceive to be the Etymology of his name one born in the Mountains But whether that be the proper derivation of the Word or the other the particular occasion of its imposition let the Reader determine as he please However I believe the Reader will think it a much more probable and reasonable conjecture then what one a Halloix not ad Orig. defens c. 1. p. 1. supposes that he was so called because born of holy Parents the Saints in Scripture being as he tells us sometimes metaphorically stiled Mountains The first and the last I dare say that ever made that conjecture A learned man b Voss de Idol l. 2. c. 10. p. 182. supposes him rather and thinks no doubt can be made of it so called from Orus an Egyptian word and with them the title of Apollo or the Sun from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no question which signifies light or fire one of their principal Deities Hence Orus the name of one of the Egyptian Kings as it has been also of many others And thus as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes Diogenes one born of Jupiter so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived Origenes one descended of Or or Orus a Deity solemnly worshipped at Alexandria A conjecture that might have commanded its own entertainment did not one prejudice lie against it that we can hardly conceive so good a man and so severe a Christian as Origens Father would impose a name upon his Child for which he must be beholden to an Heathen Deity and whom he might see every day worshipped with the most sottish Idolatry that he should let him perpetually carry about that remembrance of Pagan Idolatry in his name which they so particularly and so solemnly renounced in their Baptism But to return II. HE was born about the year of our Lord CLXXXVI being seventeen c Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 2. p. 202. years of age at his Fathers death who suffered Ann. Chr. CCII. Severi X. His Father was Leonides whom Suidas d In voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 389. Tom. 2. and some others without any authority that I know of from the Ancients make a Bishop to be sure he was a good man and a Martyr for the Faith In his younger years he was brought up under the tutorage of his own e Euseb ibid. p. 202. Father who instructed him in all the grounds of humane literature and together with them took especial care to instill the principles of Religion seasoning his early age with the notices of divine things so that like another Timothy from a child he knew the holy Scriptures and was thoroughly exercised and instructed in them Nor was his Father more diligent to insinuate his instructions then the subject he managed was capable to receive them Part of his daily task was to learn and repeat some parts of the holy Scriptures which he readily discharged But not satisfied with the bare reading or recital of them he began to enquire more narrowly into the more profound sense of them often importuning his Father with questions what such or such a passage of Scripture meant The good man though seemingly reproving his busie forwardness and admonishing him to be content with the plain obvious sense and not to ask questions above his age did yet inwardly rejoice in his own mind and heartily bless God that he had made him the Father of such a child Much ado had the prudent man to keep the exuberance of his love and joy from running over before others but in private he gave it vent frequently going into the Chamber where the Youth lay asleep and reverently kissing his naked brest the treasury of an early piety and a divine spirit reflected upon himself how happy he was in so excellent a Son So great a comfort so invaluable a blessing is it to pious parents to see their children setting out betimes in the way of righteousness and sucking in Religion almost with their Mothers milk III. HAVING passed over his paternal education he was put to perfect his Studies under the Institution of Clemens Alexandrinus then Regent of the Catechist School at Alexandria where according to the acuteness of his parts and the greatness of his industry he made vast improvements in all sorts of learning From him he betook himself to Ammonius who had then newly set up a Platonic School at Alexandria and had reconciled a Hierocl l. 1. de provid Fat. ap Phot. Cod. CCXIV. col 549. Cod. CCLI col 1381. those inveterate feuds and differences that had been between the Schools of Plato and Aristotle and which had reigned among their Disciples till his time which he did says my Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a divine transport for the truth of Philosophy despising the little opinions and wrangling contentions of peevish men and propounding a more free and generous kind of Philosophy to his Auditors Among whom was our Origen as Porphyry b Apud Euseb iâ—id c. 19. p. 220 vid. Theod. Serm. VI. de Provid p. 96. besides others witnesses who saw Origen when himself but a Youth This Ammonius was called Saccas from his carrying c Vid. Theod. loco citat sacks of Corn upon his back being a Porter by imployment before he betook himself to the Study of Philosophy one of the most learned and eloquent men of those times a great Philosopher and the chief of the Platonic Sect and which was above all a Christian born and brought up among them as d Loc. citat Porphyry himself is forced to confess though when he tells us that afterwards upon maturer consideration and his entering upon Philosophy he renounced Christianity and embraced Paganism and the Religion
The issue was that Gallienus his Party prevailed to let in Theodotus and his Army who seized the Tyrant and sent him to the Emperour who caused him to be strangled in Prison XIII HOW stormy and tempestuous is the Region of this Lower World one Wave perpetually pressing upon the neck of another The Persecution was seconded by a Civil War and a cruel Famine and that no sooner over but a terrible Plague followed close at the heels of it one of the most dreadful and amazing Judgments which God sends upon mankind It over-ran City and Country sweeping away what the fury of the late Wars had left there not having been known saith the Historian a Zosim Histoâ— l. 1. p. 347. in any Age so great a destruction of mankind This Pestilence which some say b Pomp. Lâ—t in vit Galli p.m. 1235. â—utrop H. Rom. l 9. p. 1924. came first out of Aethiopia began in the reign of Gallus and Volusian and ever since more or less straggled over most parts of the Roman Empire and now kept its fatal residence at Alexandria where by an impartial severity it mowed down both Gentiles and Christians and turned the Paschal solemnity it being then the time c Dionys ib. c. 22. p. 268. of Easter into days of weeping and mourning all places were filled with dying groans and sorrows either for friends already dead or those that were ready to depart it being now as formerly under that great Egyptian Plague and something worse there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not an house where there was not only one but many dead In this sad and miserable time how vastly different was the carriage of the Christians and the Heathens The Christians out of the superabundance of their kindness and charity without any regard to their own health and life boldly ventured into the thickest dangers dayly visiting assisting and ministring to their sick and infected brethren chearfully taking their pains and distempers upon them and themselves expiring with them And when many of those whom they thus attended recovered and lived they died themselves as if by a prodigious and unheard of charity they had willingly taken their diseases upon them and died to save them from death And these the most considerable both of Clergy and People chearfully embracing a death that deserved a title little less then that of Martyrdom They embraced the bodies of the dead closed their eyes laid them out washed and dressed them up in their funeral weeds took them upon their shoulders and carried them to their Graves it not being long before others did the same offices for them The Gentiles on the contrary put off all sense of humanity when any began to fall sick they presently cast them out ran from their dearest friends and relations and either left them half dead in the high-ways or threw them out as soon as they were dead dreading to fall under the same infection which yet with all their care and diligence they could not avoid XIV NOR were these the onely troubles the good man was exercised with he had contests of another nature that swallowed up his time and care Sabellius a Libyan born at Ptolemais a City of Pentapolis had lately started d Dion Epist ad Sex ib. c. 6. p. 252. Niâ—â—pb l. 6. c. 26. p 419. dangerous notions and opinions about the doctrin of the holy Trinity affirming the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be but one subsistence one person under three several names which in the time of the Old Testament gave the Law under the notion of the Father in the New was made man in the capacity of the Son and descended afterwards upon the Apostles in the quality of the Holy Ghost Dionysius as became a vigilant Pastor of his Flock presently undertakes the man and while he managed the cause with too much eagerness and fervency of disputation he bent the stick too much the other way asserting not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Basil ad Mâ—gâ— Phiâ—â—â— Epist XLI p 60. a distinction of Persons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a difference of Essence and an inequality of Power and Glory For which he is severely censured by S. Basil and some of the Ancients as one of those that mainly opened the gap to those Arrian impieties that after broke in upon the World Though S. Ubi sâ—pr Basil could not but so far do him right as to say that it was not any ill meaning but onely an over-vehement desire to oppose his adversary that betrayed him into those unwary and inconsiderate assertions Some Bishops of Pentapolis immediately took hold of this and going over to Rome represented his dangerous errours where the case was discussed in a Synod and Letters written to Dionysius about it who in a set Apology answered for himself and declared his sense more explicitly in this controversie as may be seen at large in a De Sentent Dionys Tom. 1. p. 548. c. vid Phot. Cod. CCXXXII col 901. Athanasius who has with infinite pains vindicated our Dionysius his Predecessor as a man sound and orthodox and who was never condemned by the Governours of the Church for impious opinions or that he held those abominable tenets which Arrius broached afterwards And certainly S. Basil might and would have passed a milder censure had he either perused all Dionysius his Writings or remembred how much he concerned himself to clear S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Dionysius his contemporary from the very same charge for which he could not but confess he had given too just occasion XV. NO sooner was this controversie a little over but he was engaged in another b Euseb ibid. c. 24. p. 270. Nepos an Egyptian Bishop lately dead a man eminent for his constancy in the Faith his industry and skill in the holy Scriptures the many Psalms and Hymns he had composed which the Brethren sung in their public Meetings had not long since fallen into the errour of the Millenaries and had published Books to shew that the promises made in the Scriptures to good men were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the sense and opinion of the Jews to be literally understood and that there was to be a thousand years State upon Earth wherein they were to enjoy sensual pleasures and delights Endeavouring to make good his assertions from some passages in S. John's Revelation stiling his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Confutation of Allegorical Expositors This Book was greedily caught up and read by many and advanced into that esteem and reputation that Law and Prophets and the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were neglected and thrown aside and the doctrine of this Book cried up as containing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great and extraordinary mystery concealed before from the World the more Simple and Unwary being taught to disband all sublime and magnificent thoughts of our Lords glorious coming the Resurrection and final
II. The Second Persecution  91  10 M. Ulpius Trajanus * This Cletus is by the Greeks and that with greatest probability made the same with Anaeletus which breeds a great difference in their account of years But because the account of the Greeks is not so clear and smooth we have chosen in assigning the times of the Bishops of Rome to follow the Writers of that Church Cletus Bishop of Rome martyred this if not rather the foregoing year April 26. he is succeeded by Clemens May 16.  11 M. Acilius Glabrio  92  11 Imp. Domitianus XVI About this time S. John is supposed to be sent by the Proconsul of Asia to Rome and by Domitian to have been put into a Vessel of hot oil and then banished into Patmos  12 A. Volusius Saturninius II.  93  12 Sex Pompeius Collega  13 Cornelius Priscus  94  13 L. Nonius Asprenas Torquatus S. John writes his Book of Revelations  14 M. Arricinius Celemens Jewish Antiquities  95  14 Imp. Domitianus XVII Fl. Clemens Domitians Cousin-german and Consul with him this year put to death for being a Christian His Wife Fl. Domitilla Domitians Neece banished for the same cause  15 T. Flavius Clemens Mart.  96 Nerva à 18. Sept. 15 C. Fulvius Valens Nerva revoking the Acts of Domitian S. John is released of his banishment and returns to Ephesus  16   1 C. Antistius Vertus  97  1 Coc. Nerva Imp. III. S. John this year probably after solemn preparation writes his Gospel at the earnest request of the Asian Churches T. Virginius Rufus III.  2 Suff. C. Cornelius Tacitus historicus  98 Trajan à Jan 27. 2 Imp. Nerva IV. Avilius dying Cerdo succeeds in the See of Alexandria  1 M. Ulpius Trajanus II. S. Clemens Bishop of Rome is banished and condemned to the Marble Quarries in the Taurica Chersonesus  99  1 C. Sosius Senecio II.  2 A. Cornelius Palma  100  2 Imp. Trajanus III. S. John dies and is buried at Ephesus  M. Cornelius Fronto III.   3 Suff. Plinius junior S. Clemens of Rome is thrown into the Sea with an anchor tied about his neck November 9. having been sole Bishop of Rome 9 years 11 moneths and 12 days  101  3 Imp. Trajanus IV. Anacletus according to the computation of the Church of Rome succeeds in that See April 3.  4 Sex Articuleius Paetus  102  4 C. Sosius Senecio III.  5 L. Licinius Sura  103  5 Imp. Trajanus V. Elxai a false Prophet Author of a new Sect arises Epiph. Haeres 19.  6 L. Appius Maximus  104  6 L. Licinius Sura II.  7 P. Neratius Marcellus  105 Trajani 7 T. Julius Candidus Barsimaeus Bishop of Edessa suffers Martyrdom others Place it Ann. 109.  8 A. Julius Quadratus  106  8 L. Ceionius Commodus Verus The Greek Menology mentions 11000 Christian Souldiers banished by Trajan into Armenia and that 10000 of them were crucified upon Mount Ararat  9 L. Tullius Cerealis  107  9 C. Sosius Senecio IV. The Third Persecution wherein Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem is crucified in the 120 year of his age   10 L. Licinius Sura III. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch condemned and sent to Rome to be thrown to wild Beasts  108  10 Ap. Annius Trebonius Gallus Ignatius his bones are conveyed back to Antioch and there solemnly interred  11 M. Atilius Bradua  109  11 A. Cornel. Palma II. Onesimus S. Paul's Disciple whom the Martyrologies make Bishop of Ephesus stoned at Rome Feb. 16.  12 C. Calvisius Tullus II. Primus made Bishop of Alexandria  110  12 Clodius Crispinusâ— Euaristus succeeds Anacletus Bishop of Rome though the Greeks who make Cletus and Anacletus the same Person make him immediately to follow Clemens  13 Solenus Orfitus Hasta  111  13 L. Calpurnius Piso Justus dying Zacchaeus succeeds in the See of Jerusalem  14 Vettius Rusticus Bolanus  112  14 Imp. Trajanus VI.  15 C. Julius Africanus  113 Trajani 15 L. Publius Celsus  16 C. Clodius Crispinus  114  16 Q. Ninnius Hasta  17 P. Manlius Vopiscus  115  17 M. Valerius Messala vel ut al. Adrianus Salinator The Jews at Alexandria and about Cyrene in Egypt rebel who are slain in great numbers  18 C. Popilius Carus Pedo  116  18 Aemilius Aelianus Papias Bishop of Hierapolis sets on foot the Millenarian Doctrin 19 L. Antistius Vetus 117 Adrianê° ab Aug. 9. 19 Quinctius Niger  20   1 T. Vipsanius Apronianus  118  1 Imp. Adrianus II. The Fourth Persecution raised against the Christians reinforcing that which had been set on foot by Trajan 2 T. Claudius Fuscus  119  2 Imp. Adrianus III. Pope Evaristus martyred He sate 9 years 3 moneths 10 days He was succeeded by Alexander a Roman  3 Q. Junius Rusticus Justus made Bishop of Alexandria  120  3 L. Catilius Severus The Christians severely prosecuted at Rome whereof many Martyrs and more driven to hide themselves in the Cryptae and Coemeteria under ground  4 T. Aurelius Fulvus postea Imp. Antoninus  121  4 M. Annius Verus II. A great tumult at Alexandria about the Idol Apis found there 5 L. Augur  122  5 M. Acilius Aviola The Persecution rages in Asia under the Government of Arrius Antoninus the Proconsul  6 Corellius Pansa  123 Adriani 6 Q. Arrius Paetinus Adrian comes to Athens and is initiated in the Eleusmian mysteries 7 C. Ventidius Apronianus Quadratus Bishop of Athens and Aristides present Apologies to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians 124  7 M. Acilius Glabrio Serenius Granianus writes to the Emperour in favour of the Christians by whose Rescript to M. Fundanus Proconsul of Asia Granianus his successor the proceedings against them are mitigated 8 C. Bellicius Torquatus  125  8 P. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus II.  9 Q. Vettius Aquilinus 126  9 Vesproniê° Candid Verê° II Ambiguus Bibulus al. M. Loll. Pedius Adrian revisits Athens finishes and dedicates the Temple of Jupiter Olympius and an Altar to himself 10 Q. Jun. Lepidus 127  10 Gallicanus  11 C. Caelius Titianus 128  11 L. Nonius Asprenas Torquatus Aquila a Kinsman of the Emperours first turns Christian then apostatizing to Judaism translates the Old Testament into Greek 12 M. Annius Libo  129  12 Q. Juventius Celsus  13 Q. Julius Balbus  130  13 Q. Fabius Catullinus Aelius Adrianus having repaired Jerusalem calls it after his own name Aelia 14 M. Flavius Aper The Martyrdom of Alexander Bishop of Rome after he had sate 10 years 5 moneths 20 days to whom succeeded Sixtus a Roman 131 Adriani 14 Ser. Octavius Laenas Pontianus Hymenaeus made Bishop of Alexandria being
a life of true Philosophy and Vertue Ap. Dioâ— Hali◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â—5 Tem. 2. History says Thucydides being nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy drawn from Examples the one is a more gross and popular Philosophy the other a more subtle and refined History These considerations together with a desire to perpetuate the memory of brave and great Actions gave birth to History and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and foregoing Times to the notice of Posterity The first in this kind was Moses the great Prince and Legislator of the Jewish Nation who from the Creation of the World conveyed down the Records of above MMDL years the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish State Among the Babylonians they had their public Archives which were transcribed by Berosus the Priest of Belus who composed the Chaldean History The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable Acts upon Pillars in Hieroglyphic notes and sacred Characters first begun as they pretend by Thouth or the first of their Mercuries out of which Manethos their Chief Priest collected his three Books of Egyptian Dynasties which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philadelphus second of that line The Phoenician History was first attempted by Sanchoniathon digested partly out of the Annals of Cities partly out of the Books kept in the Temple and communicated to him by Jerombaal Priest of the God Jao this he dedicated to Abibalus King of Berytus which Philo Byblius about the time of the Emperour Adrian translated into Greek The Greeks boast of the Antiquity of Cadmus Archilochus and many others though the most ancient of their Historians now extant are Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon Among the Romans the foundations of History were laid in Annals the public Acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus who kept them at his own house that the people upon any emergency might resort to them for satisfaction These were the Annales Maximi and afforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the History of that great and powerful Commonwealth But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard both as it more immediately concerns the present enquiry and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests is the History of the Church For herein as in a Glass we have the true face of the Church in its several Ages represented to us Here we find with what infinite care those Divine Records which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us with what a mighty success Religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions and spread its Banners in the remotest corners of the World With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints with what a bitter and implacable fury the Enemies of Religion have set upon it and how signally the Divine Providence has appeared in its preservation and returned the mischief upon their own heads Here we see the constant succession of Bishops and the Ministers of Religion in their several stations the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs who with the most chearful and composed minds have gone to Heaven through the acutest torments In short we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious Life of a real and unfeigned Piety a sincere and universal Charity a strict Temperance and Sobriety an unconquerable Patience and Submission clearly represented to us And the higher we go the more illustrious are the instances of Piety and Vertue For however later Ages may have improved in knowledge Experience daily making new additions to Arts and Sciences yet former Times were most eminent for the practice and vertues of a holy life The Divine Laws while newly published had a stronger influence upon the minds of men and the spirit of Religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be debauched into that impiety and prophaneness that in these last Times has over-run the World It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what Records there are of the state of the Church before our Saviours Incarnation it is sufficient to my purpose to enquire by what hands the first affairs of the Christian Church have been transmitted to us As for the Life and Death the Actions and Miracles of our Saviour and some of the first acts of his Apostles they are fully represented by the Evangelical Historians Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this nature H. Eâ—cl l. 3. c. 24. p. 94. the Apostles and their immediate Successors as Eusebius observes not being at leisure to write many Books as being imployed in Ministeries greater and more immediately serviceable to the World The first that engaged in this way was Hegesippus an ancient and Apostolic man as he in Photius stiles him an Hebrew by descent Cod. 232. col 893. and born as is probable in Palestin He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius and came to Rome in the time of Ancietus where he resided till the time of Eleutherius He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he stiled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein in a plain and familiar stile he described the Apostles Travels and Preachings the remarkable passages of the Church the several Schisms Heresies and Persecutions that infested it from our Lords death till his own time But these alas are long since lost The next that succeeded in this Province though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection was Eusebius He was born in Palestin about the later times of the Emperour Gallienus ordained Presbyter by Agapius Bishop of Caesarea who suffering about the end of the Dioclesian Persecution Eusebius succeeded in his See A man of incomparable parts and learning and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the Records and Antiquities of the Church After several other Volumes in defence of the Christian Cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles he set himself to write an Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 3. wherein he designed as himself tells us to recount from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable Transactions of the Church the Apostolical successions the first Preachers and Planters of the Gospel the Bishops that presided in the most eminent Sees the most noted Errours and Heresies the calamities that befel the Jewish State the attempts and Persecutions made against the Christians by the Powers of the World the torments and sufferings of the Martyrs and the blessed and happy period that was put to them by the conversion of Constantine the Great All this accordingly he digested in Ten Book which he composed in the declining part of his life Praefat. de
passage to happen especially at this time to demonstrate the vanity of the Gentile Religion to correct the infidelity of the Emperour and to give testimony to that Religion which he scorned with so much insolence and sarcasm and pursued with so much vigour and opposition If any enquire why Julian should so far gratifie the Christians as to bestow the Martyrs bones upon them and suffer them to convey them with so much pomp and honour into the City and not rather scatter the ashes into the air throw them into the fire or drown the Coffin in the River c Ibid. p. 681. Chrysostom answers that he durst not he was afraid lest the divine vengeance should overtake him lest a thunderbolt from heaven should strike him or an incurable disease arrest him as such kind of miserable fates had overtaken some of his predecessors in the height of their activity against the Christians and he had lately seen sad instances of it that came very near him his Uncle Julian Praefect of the East a petulant scorner and apostate derider of Christians who having broken into the great Church at Antioch had treated their Communion Plate with the greatest irreverence and contempt throwing it upon the ground spurning and sitting upon it and after all carrying it away into the Emperours Exchequer was immediately seized with a loathsom disease which I am not willing to mention which within a few days in spight of all the Arts of Physic put an end to his miserable life And Faelix the Treasurer a man of the same spirit and temper and engaged with him in the same design coming up to the Palace on a sudden fell down upon the top of the steps and burst asunder Ammianus Marcellinus * Lib. 23. p. 1641. himself confessing that he died of a sudden Flux of bloud Others there were who about that time came to wretched and untimely ends but these two onely are particularly noted by Chrysostom Examples which 't is probable had put an awe and restraint upon him XI BUT evil men wax worse and worse Julian however awed at present yet his rage quickly found a vent which all his Philosophy could not stop Vexed d Socr. c. 19. p. 191. Sozom. Theod. ibid. to see the Christians pay so solemn a veneration to the Martyr and especially stung with the hymns which the Christians sung the very next day he gave order against the advice of his Privy Council to Salust the Praefect to persecute the Christians many of whom were accordingly apprehended and cast into Prison And among the rest one Theodorus a Youth was caught up in the streets and put upon the Rack his flesh torn off with iron Pincers scourged and beaten and when no tortures could shake his constancy or so much as move his patience he was at length dismissed Rufinus afterwards met with this Theodorus and asking him whether in the midst of his torments he felt any pain he told him at first he was a little sensible but that one in the shape of a young man stood by him who gently wiped off the sweat from his face refreshed him with cold water and supported his spirit with present consolations so that his Rack was rather a pleasure then a torment to him But to return XII HEAVEN shewed it self not well pleased with the proceedings of the Emperour For immediately the Temple of Apollo in the Daphne took fire which in a few hours burnt the famed image of the god and reduced the Temple excepting onely the Walls and Pillars into ashes This the Christians ascribed to the divine vengeance the Gentiles imputed it to the malice of the Christians and though the Priests and Warders of the Temple were racked to make them say so yet could they not be brought to affirm any more then that it was fired by a light from Heaven This conflagration is mentioned not onely by Christian Writers but by a Lib. 22. p. 1629. Ammianus Marcellinus and by b Loc. supr cit Julian himself but especially by Libanius the Orator who in an Oration on purpose made to the People elegantly bewails its unhappy fate whose Discourse S. Chrysostom takes to task and makes witty and eloquent remarques upon it If the Reader ask what became of Babylas his Remains after all this noise and bustle they were entombed within the City in a Church dedicated to his name and memory and in after-Ages are c Vid. Bolland ad Jan. XXIV p. 580. said to have been translated by some Christian Princes probably during their Wars in the holy Land to Cremona in Italy where how oft they have been honourably reposed and with how much pomp and ceremonious veneration they are still entertained they who are curious after such things may enquire The End of S. BABYLAS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. CYPRIAN BISHOP OF CARTHAGE Micha Burgh deli et sculp S. CYPRIANUS CARTHAGINIENSIS His Birth-place The Nobility of his Family exploded The confounding him with another Cyprian Bishop of Antioch These two vastly distinct S. Cyprian 's education His professing Rhetoric His conversion to Christianity by the persuasions of Caecilius Their mutual endearment His great charity to the Poor His Baptism Made Presbyter and Bishop of Carthage His modest declining the honour His proscription recess and care of his Church during that retirement The case of the Lapsed A brief account of the rise of the Novatian Sect. The fierceness of the Persecution at Carthage under Decius The courage and patience of the Christians Cyprian 's return A Synod at Carthage about the case of the Lapsed and the cause of Novatian Their determination of these matters Ratified by a Synod at Rome and another at Antioch A second Synod about the same affair Moderation in the Ecclesiastic Discipline used in the time of Persecution The great Pestilence at Carthage The miserable state of that City The mighty charity of S. Cyprian and the Christians at that time These evils charged upon the Christians S. Cyprians vindication of them The time of baptizing Infants determined in a Synod Another Synod to decide the case of the Spanish Bishops that had lapsed in the time of Persecution The Controversie concerning the Rebaptizing those who had been baptized by Hereties This resolved upon in a Synod of LXXXVII African Bishops The immoderate heats between Cyprian Firmilian and Stephen Bishop of Rome about this matter Cyprian arraigned before the Proconsul His resolute carriage His banishment to Curubis His Martyrdom foretold him by a Vision His Letters during his exile The severe usage of the Christians His withdrawment and why His apprehension and examination before the Proconsul The sentence passed upon him His Martyrdom and place of burial His piety fidelity chastity humility modesty charity c. His natural parts His learning wherein it mainly consisted The politeness and elegancy of his stile His quick proficiency in Christian studies His frequent converse with Tertullian 's Writings His Books The
excellency of those ascribed to him The great honours done to his memory I. THASCIVS Caecilius Cyprian was born at Carthage in the declining part of the foregoing Saeculum though the particular year cannot be ascertained Who or what his Parents were is unknown a Ad Ann. 250. n. V. vid. not ad Martyrol Rom. Sept. XXVI p. 600. Cardinal Baronius not to mention others makes him descended of a rich honourable Family and himself to have been one of the chief of the Senatorian Order and this upon the authority of Nazianzen b Orat. in laud. S. Cypr. p. 275. who indeed affirms it but then certainly forgot that in very few lines before he had exploded as a fabulous mistake the confounding our Cyprian with another of the same name of whom Nazianzen unquestionably meant it For besides our Carthaginian Cyprian there was another born at Antioch a person of great learning and eminency who travelled through Greece Phrygia Egypt India Chaldaea and where not famous for the Study and the Arts of Magic by which he sought to compass the affections of Justina a noble Christian Virgin at Antioch by whose prayers and endeavours he was converted baptized made first Sexton then Deacon of that Church was indued with miraculous powers and afterwards consecrated Bishop of that Church though I confess I find not his name in the Catalogue of the Bishops of that See drawn up by Nicephorus of Constantinople and at last having been miserably tormented at Antioch was sent to Dioclesian himself then at Nicomedia by whose command together with Justina sent thither also at the same time from Damascus he was beheaded The History of all which was largely described in three Books in Verse written by the noble Empress Eudocia the excerpta whereof are still extant in a Cod. CLXXXIV col 416. Photius This account Simeon the Metaphrast Nicephorus and the later Greeks without any scruple attribute to S. Cyprian of Carthage nay some of them make him to suffer Martyrdom under the Decian Persecution Though in the whole mistake the more to be pardoned in that not onely Prudentius but Nazianzen had long before manifestly confounded these two eminent persons who finding several passages of the Antiochian Cyprian very near a kin to the other carried all the rest along with them as two persons very like are oft mistaken the one for the other To prove that our Cyprian was not him described by Nazianzen were a vain and needless attempt the accounts concerning them being so vastly different both as to their Countrey Education manner of Life Episcopal charge the time place and companions of their death that it is plainly impossible to reconcile them But of this enough II. S. CYPRIAN's education was ingenuous b Pont. Diac. in vit Cypr. non longe ab init polished by Study and the Liberal Arts though he principally addicted himself to the Study of Oratory and Eloquence wherein he made such vast improvements that publicly and with great applause he taught Rhetoric at e Hier. de script in Cypriano Carthage All which time he lived in great pomp and plenty in honour and power his garb splendid his retinue stately never going abroad as himself tells us d Ad Donat. Epist 1. p. 2. but he was thronged with a crowd of Clients and Followers The far greatest part of his life he passed among the errours of the Gentile Religion and was at least upon the borders of old Age when he was rescued from the Vassalage of inveterate Customs the darkness of Idolatry and the errours and vices of his past life as e Ubi supra himself intimates in his Epistle to Donatus He was converted to Christianity by the arguments and importunities of Caecilius f Pont. ibid. p. 12. a Presbyter of Carthage a person whom ever after he loved as a friend and reverenced as a father And so mutual an endearment was there between them that Cyprian in honour to him assumed the title of Caecilius and the other at his death made him his Executor and committed his Wife and Children to his sole care and tutelage Being yet a Catechumen g Id. ibid. p. 11. he gave early instances of a great and generous piety professed a strict and severe temperance and sobriety accounting it one of the best preparations for the entertainment of the truth to subdue and tread down all irregular appetites and inclinations His estate at least the greatest part of it he sold and distributed it among the necessities of the Poor at once triumphing over the love of the World and exercising that great duty of Mercy and Charity which God values above all the Ritual Devotions in the World So that by the speedy progress of his piety says Pontius his Friend and Deacon he became almost a perfect Christian before he had learnt the rules of Christianity III. BEING fully instructed in the rudiments of the Christian Faith he was baptized h Epist 1. p. 2 3 when the mighty assistances which he received from above perfectly dispelled all doubts enlightned all obscurities and enabled him with ease to do things which before he looked upon as impossible to be discharged Not long after he was called to the inferiour Ecclesiastic Offices and then advanced to the degree of Presbyter wherein he so admirably behaved himself that he was quickly summoned to the highest order and honour in the Church Donatus his immediate predecessor in the See of Carthage as his own words a Epist 55. p. 82 seem to imply being dead the general vogue both of Clergy and People Felicissimus the Presbyter and some very few of his party onely dissenting b Epist 40. p. 53. was for Cyprian to succeed him But the great modesty and humility of the man made him flie c P. Diac. p. 12. from the first approaches of the news he thought himself unfit for so weighty and honourable an imployment and therefore desired that a more worthy person and some of his Seniors in the Faith might possess the place His declining it did but set so much the keener an edge upon the desires and expectations of the People his doors were immediately crowded and all passages of escape blocked up he would indeed have fled out at the window but finding it in vain he unwillingly yielded the People in the mean while impatiently waiting divided between hope and fear till seeing him come forth they received him with an universal joy and satisfaction This charge he entered upon Ann. CCXLVIII as himself d Epist 55. p. 80 plainly intimates when in his Letter to Cornelius he tells him he had been four years Bishop of Carthage which Epistle was written not long after the beginning of Cornelius his Pontificat Ann. CCLI It was the third Consulship of Philip the Emperour a memorable time it being the thousandth year ab Vrbe Condita when the Ludi Saeculares were celebrated at Rome with all imaginable magnificence