the Troubles in Gaule were ended before Carausius formed any Enterprise against the Empire This Aurelius Victor is peremptory in and no Man that reads him can doubt of it For after he hath spoken of the War he adds That in the same War Carausius a Citizen of Menapia distinguish'd himself with so much Gallantry and Valour that the Esteem and great Reputation he acquired and the Opinion they had conceived of his being a good Officer as having bore Arms from his Youth were Motives to the Romans to make choice of him to fit out their Navy and to clear the Seat of the German Pyrats then swarming in those Parts From which Words of Aurelius Victor it will appear that Carausius made War with Maximian against the Bagauds and so signaliz'd himself by his illustrious Actions as moved the Romans to entrust him with their Naval Forces and that it was not till afterward that being informed they suspected him and had resolved his Ruin he declar'd openly against the Empire put on the Purple and invaded Britain So that it is certain that the Bagaudian Revolt was not at the same time with that of Carausius Now since this Carausius was personally in conjunction with the Imperial Troops employed in the War against the Bagauds it makes it evident that the Monk Helinaud was grossly mistaken in going about to perswade us that Maximian in his march against the Bagauds detached some Cohorts of the Thebean Legion against Carausius who at that time threatned to invade the Fronâ—iers of the Empire CHAP. XVIII That no Writer for two Hundred Years after Maximian hath made any mention of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion CArdinal Baronius in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology observes that the Greek Church hath amongst its Martyrs one Mauritius and his Companions who at the time of Dioclesian and Maximian's Persecution suffered Death at Apamea a City of Syria He further saith that he was the same Mauritius who was chief of the Thebean Legion that the Martyrs of Apamea were the Agaunian Martyrs and that formerly he himself was of that Opinion condemning Metaphrastes for having confounded the Eastern with the Western Martyrs And adds that he was perswaded to the contrary by reading a Place of Theodoretus Bishop of Cyr where he speaks of the most eminent Martyrs that were come to his Knowledge It would here be superfluous either to examine this Passage of Theodoret or the Reasons which induced Baronius to change his Opinion It is enough that by this Learned Cardinal 's own Confession we know that there was a time when he thought that Mauritius and his Companions were martyred at Apamea which is as much as to say that he look'd upon Eucherius's Relation to be Fabulous and that the Latin Writers designing to do Service to the Western Churches had remov'd the Scene of this Tragedy from Syria into the Alps. We cannot pretend to know certainly the motives which Baronius had then to call in question the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion Nevertheless there is some reason to believe that one of those which made the strongest impression upon him was the universal silence of the Ecclesiastical Writers for above Two Hundred Years after the time in which it is suppos'd that this Legion was cut to pieces at Agaunum For indeed the Martyrdom of a whole Legion is so considerable an Event that had such a thing ever been it must needs have been taken notice of in above a Hundred Places of Church History And can any pertinent Reason of this general Silence be assigned Those who believe that a Woman possessed the Roman See between the time of Leo the IV and Bennet the III have something to answer to those who as an Argument against it press the Churches silence for above Two Hundred Years viz. to the time of Marianus Scotus who was one of the first who spoke of Pope Joan. To which they reply that those were very ignorant and barbarous Ages wherein Writers were very scarce and that though some few of them may be found yet the matters they handled had no relation to the succession of Popes That perhaps those who treated of it were by the care and industry of the Church of Rome wholly suppressed or else have perished by the same misfortune that hath ravished from us so many other Works That Hincmarus Photius and the Defenders of the cause of the Emperours against the Usurpations of the Popes Hildebrand and Nicholas have always spared the Chair of St. Peter and the successours of the Apostles What other reasons they give for this silence may be seen in that excellent Treatise concerning Pope Joan lately publish'd by Mr. Spanheim But now there is no substantial reason can be given for the silence of the Ecclesiastical Writers concerning the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion till about the time of Gregory of Tours viz. almost three hundred Years after Maximian's Expedition into Gaule For had there been any ground for the belief of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion two sort of Writers would have undoubtedly spoken of it Viz. Either those Preachers who have made Homilies or Sermons upon the Martyrs or else the Compilers of Chronologies and Ecclesiastical Historys We have still a great number remaining of the Sermons of those Fathers who lived two hundred years after Maximian's Empire and which are either upon all Martyrs in general or some Martyrs in particular 'T is true indeed we have lost Methodius's Discourse upon the Martyrs except only a fragment of it transmitted to us by Theodoret the Panegyrick of Martyrs by Phileas an Egyptian Bishop mentioned by St. Jerom in his Book of Church-writers the Treatise of the Persecution of Christians by James surnamed the Wise whereof Gennadius speaks with great Commendation a Letter of St. Jerom upon the sufferings of Martyrs addressed to Chromatius and Heliodorus as we are told by Cassiodorus a Treatise of Vigilius in praise of Martyrs and a Letter of the Acts of Martyrs amongst the Barbarians cited by Gennadius And though these and several like writings are now lost yet if the Authors of them had spoke of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion doubtless some footsteps of it would be seen in the remaining Writers of those times who had occasion to make use of their Works Methodius wrote about the year 290 Phileas Bishop of Thinus in Egypt was beheaded in the year 311 under the Persecution of Maximian and had they spoken of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion Lactantius who flourish'd at the beginning of the fourth Century must in all probability have known something of it But besides Lactantius being an Italian born and call'd into Gaule by Constantine for the Education of his Son Crispuâ— it is very unlikely that he should have been wholly unacquainted with so remarkable an Event as that of the Agaunian Martyrdom which might have happened but thirty years before And had he known any thing thereof it would have
immediately to God for us is a high Injury offered to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ Now as to his third Tenet viz. That the Saints have not the Power to convey to us those Graces which we want and that we ought not so much asto look upon them as the occasional Causes of them if this opinion of his be true what will become of so many Litanies and Prayers set down in the Popish Breviaries and in their Prayer and Mass-Books in which they ask the Saints to cleanse them from all their Sins to preserve them from the Sicknesses of the Spirit to inflame their hearts with the Fire of Charity to deliver them from Hell-fire to open the Gates of Heaven to them and to make them sit on Thorns with the glorious Company of the Blessed above c. Lastly if according to Malbranche's fourth and fifth Principles all the good Services which the Saints are able to do are only to move and excite Christ's desires towards us and to give us ease in our Afflictions or afford us a good Crop he Asserts these last Tenets in so dubious a manner and so faintly though upon any other matter he uses to be very Vigorous and Positive that it is an easy thing to discern that he himself is not very well convinced of it 'T is saith he The Opinion of the Church that the Saints do know all our wants We may pray to the Saints that they be pleased to stir up the desires and the Charity of Jesus Christ One Saint perhaps is more in Favour and hath more Access to Christ upon his own Holy-day than at another time or than another Saint It may be also that they have the power of healing our Sicknesses or of procuring us a plentiful Year We see by these shy and uncertain expressions how hard he is put to it to reconcile his Opinions with the Doctrine and Practice of his Church For indeed there is a palpable incompatibility of his Principles with that Religious Worship which the Romish Church pays to the Saints And we need only to examin the Principles which he had already laid before viz. That the Church by praying to the Father through the Son does acknowledge the Son to be equal and of one substance with the Father For if he were not so saith he we could not call upon him And likewise he had already said that the Father hath tyed his Blessings and Treasures to Christ's Desires and that this is the Reason why we ought to adore the Father and to call upon Christ But what he after adds deserves especially our consideration namely that these Desires of Christ are the desires of his human Will that his Flesh is the Principle of these Desires which make all the riches of the Church and the Sanctification of the Elect And that this is the reason why Religion teaches us to Address sometimes our Prayers to the Father because if we never did invocate any but Christ by reason of those Priviledges which God hath by an eternal Decree adapted to his Desire to those human desires he saith which do proceed from the Child of the Blessed Mary we should be in danger of adhering to Christ as he is a Man and of trusting in his Flesh with the same kind of Love and Trust which we owe only to the Infinite and Soveraign Being We may easily perceive that this way of reasoning is quite contrary to the Doctrine of the Roman Church and to that Worship it renders to Saints The Esteem indeed which I have for Great Men is such that I cannot forbear having also a kind of respect even for their odd fancies and by-ways of Writing which made me take notice by the by of Father Malbranchâ— his System concerning the worshipping of Saints though I know in the bottom of it there is no more reality than in a shadow or dream But after all should we suppose his Opinion to be not altogether groundless who would venture to say that supposititious Saints such as we have proved those of the Theb. Legion to be can move and excite Christs desires Therefore the Roman Church ought to confess that she hath erred in permitting and approving the Worship which is paid to them FINIS Some BOOKS Printed for R. Bently Books in Folio 1. BEaumont's and Fletcher's Plays in one Volume containing 51. Plays 2. Mr. William Shakespear's Plays in one Volume 3. Towerson's Works compleat in one Volume 4. Dr. Allestry's Sermons in one Volume 5. Dr. Comber's Works the four Parts in one Volume 6. The Council of Trent By Father Paolo 7. Toriano's Italian Dictionary 8. Mr. Milton's Paradice lost with 13 Copper Cuts finely engraven to express the whole Poem 9. Milton's Paradice Regain'd in the same Volume Paper and Print to bind with it 10. Fodina Regalis or the History of the Laws of Mines By Sir John Pettus 11. Bishop Brownrig's Sermons Books in Quarto 1. The Burnt Child dreads the Fire 2. A Treatise of our Sanguinary Laws against Papists 3. Dr. Whitby's Answer to S. Cressy 4. 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both the Court and City of Turin have been Ancient Worshippers of the Thebean Souldiers GReat Honour and Reverence have been paid for a long time at Turin to the Thebean Souldiers And the general Opinion is that they have signaliz'd themselves there by a great number of Miracles Hyacinto Ferrero a Jesuit relates that by their means Constantine the Great got that memorable Victory which opened him the way both to Rome and to the Empire He saith that when he considers that the Battel was Fought in the Neighbourhood of Turin he cannot but believe that the Flying Squadron which was then seen in the Air and cry'd to Constantine n'andiamo a soccorso di Costantino were those Thebean Souldiers slain by Maximian who were Arm'd by Heav'n on this occasion to cause the true Christian Religion to Triumph which that Tyrant had endeavoured to destroy If after the rise of Constantine to the Empire Paganism began to fall and if the Progress of the Gospel in Turin went so successfully on and with so much rapidity that in a short time several Churches and a Bishop with a numerous Clergy were seen there All this adds the same Author was owing to the Blood Miracles and Prayers of the Thebean Souldiers He relates afterwards two or three Adventures in which the Thebean Souldiers have visibly shewed their watchful care over Turin and how intent they were to procure Blessings from Heaven upon this City He saith that the Romish Religion was in extream danger at Turin at the time when the Famous Claudius Bishop of that See endeavoured to abolish the Adoration of the Cross and of the Sacred Images and the Worshipping of Martyrs And likewise several Years after when L'Ediguieres entred into Piedmont with an Army of Calvinists but that the Thebean Souldiers by the Merits of their Martyrdom and the Efficacy of their Prayers removed the danger and preserved that Religion there But here is something yet more wonderful The same Jesuite relates that a General of the Emperour Charles the V. besieged Turin in the Year 1537. and had taken it infallibly by the secret Intelligences he had there had he caused his Souldiers to Scale it at any other place than that which is call'd now the Bastion of St. George But that unluckily for him the Reliques of the Thebean Souldiers rested then near the same Bastion and that when his Men went to get up they were frighted by the Sparkling Arms and threatning looks of these Holy Martyrs who miraculously appeared for the defence of the City And perhaps Cardinal de la Rovere spoke of this Miracle in a Sermon which he Preached before Emmanuel Philibert in a certain Solemnity in Honour of the Thebean Souldiers These are the Saints Great Prince said he who have preserved to you your Loyal City of Turin and have averted from it the desolations of War These are the Saints O City of Turin who are the Towers and Bulwarks which have been and shall be thy Defence to the end that thou mayst remain still a peaceable and a Triumphant Place to thy Prince Grant us O ye glorious Saints that we may always cry out with joy and Devotion Jacta est Pax in virtute vestra abundantia in Turribus vestris Charles Emmanuel the First could not possibly have given a greater Testimony of his Devotion to those Saints than by freely giving up to the Valesians the Town of St. Mauricius and other places which they had Usurped from him during the Wars between his Grandfather and Francis the First upon Condition that the Valesians should give him leave to Convey to Turin the Corps of St. Mauricius Chief of the Thebean Legion one of whose Arms he had already gotten out of Bohemia whither it was Transported in the Year of 1250. by King Ottocarus the Fifth And 't was perhaps about that time that St. Mauricius his Lance spoken of by Chromer was brought to Cracovia where it lyes yet exposed to publick Veneration I question very much whether France would now give up Pignerol to the House of Savoy though that House should proffer in Exchange il Santo sudario or the Holy Shroud notwithstanding the great Zeal it ptetends to have for the Romish Religion and though this Holy Shroud is look't upon as the most Precious Relique of that Religion But Charles Emmanuel in the Devotion he had for the Thebean Souldiers did nothing but tread in the steps of Emmanuel Philibert his Father When the Reliques of these Saints were conveyed from the Church of the Blessed Virgin into that of the Jesuites where they do rest to this Day Emmanuel Philibert honoured the Ceremony with his presence and was at a great expence towards the Magnificence of it And this wise Prince knowing well that Saints without Power are ordinarily neglected and that the giving of Indulgences is a means for them to gain a good Reputation obtained a considerable share of them from Gregory the Thirteenth for all those who by Offerings and Prayers should shew their Devotion to the Thebean Souldiers His Bull was obtained in the Year 1574. And the Pope expresses in it that he grants these Indulgences upon consideration of the singular Devotion which both the Duke of Savoy and the People of Turin do pay to the Thebean Souldiers Charles Emmanuel had so great a Zeal for the glory of the Thebean Souldiers that he imparted to Spain some of their Reliques to the intent they might partake of their Merits and Intercession He charged Charles Broglia Archbishop of Turin with his Orders concerning it as appears by the Copy of the Certificate which according to the Custom of the Roman Church was put up with the Reliques and was Signed in the Month of September 1603. This Archbishop saith in the same Certificate that he himself hath taken a Rib of St. Mauricius's Body one of St. Secundus's great Toes three Bones of the Fingers of Solutor Adventor and Octavius and a Leg-bone of one of St. Gerion's Companions Charles Emmanuel caused these Reliques to be put in a Silver-gilt Shrine all set with precious Stones and dispatch'd Leonardo Roncassio his first Secretary of State to present it to Margaret of Austria Queen of Spain All these things plainly shew the great respect and Devotion that both the Court and City of Turin have long paid to the Martyrs of the Thebean Legion CHAP. III. That it is worth ones Labour to examine the Passion of the Thebean Souldiers though it passes for current amongst all sorts of Christian Societies WE shall now endeavour to prove that there were never any such Persons as these Thebean Souldiers and that the Relation of their Martyrdom said to have been writ by Eucherius Bishop of Lions is altogether false and Counterfeit Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante Trita Solo. This matter is quite new and was never handled for ought I know by any Author before Though after so many Books written there is
him to convince them of their Errour and to shew them how easily they might be imposed upon in a matter wherein they pretended to so much skill But mistakes of this kind have been yet more frequently made by those who have imployed their-Criticks upon those Heathen Authors which have been left to us either by the Grecian or Latin Antiquity Every Body knows the witty trick Muret put upon Scaliger how he composed some Verses and told him he had found them in an Old Manuscript And how Scaliger who boasted that he was very well â—cquâ—inted with the genius and Style of every Age both in Prose and Verse found immediately an Ancient Author for those Verses of Muret's making And being afterwards informed they were of his composing he revenged himself of him by a Distich upon his Cheat. These feigned and Counterfeit Works were not unknown to Ancient Greece since the Learned of those times made it their Study to find them out Dionysius Longinus made a Treatise upon the same Subject and we should be informed now of a great many Fabulous Relations inserted into Histories had not the ill Fate of Learning deprived us of the Works of that excellent Critick But seeing that Men have naturally a respect for things which belong to Religion one would think that they should not suffer themselves to be mis-led by those who have made it their business to impose upon the World by inventing Fables and Publishing supposititious Ecclesiastical Writings and Transactions Nevertheless by what Misfortune I know not these frauds have been more frequent in the Church than any where else and it is impossible to Summ up the mistakes they have occasioned amongst the Learned in all Christian Societies So many spurious Writings and supposititious Facts were made and Published even in the three first Ages of Christianity that Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium so much esteemed by St. Basil one of the most worthy Fathers of the Church composed a whole Book of them which is cited in the Acts of the Seventh Council There was scarcely any thing to be seen to make use of Fontanel's Words in his History of Oracles but false Gospels false Epistles of the Apostles false Histories of their Lives c. The chief Men of the Church have been sometimes deceived c. They did not always narrowly examine what seemed to favour Religion The heat and fervour they felt when they fought for so good a cause did not always suffer them to chuse the best Weapons And the Distemper was so far from lessening in the following Ages that it still more increased and tâ—e boldness in inventing Fables and Forging false Lives of Martyrs and Saints went so far and became so common that the Church thought it necessary to put a stop to it by the Authority of its Canons For in the Council of Constantinople held in the Year 692 under Justinian the Younger the Church condemned in the 63 d Canon the false Passions and Fabulous Lives of Saints and Martyrs A great number of Learned Men have endeavoured in these latter times to find out these supposititious Writings and to ascribe to every Author the Works belonging properly to him And they would undoubtedly have been more succesful in it had they not been mis led as well as the People by Interest or Partiality For oftentimes both their Minds and Pens are sway'd by prejudice and Passion As if a Work were good or bad Ancient or Modern as it chanced to be look'd upon by Protestant or Popish Eyes false and supposititious if contrary to their Opinions but Ancient and of the true stamp if it proved fovourable to them But though they should be allowed to have been free from Prejudice and Passion yet it is no strange thing to see Men differ in their Judgments This follows necessarily the different applications and Natural inclinations of their minds Some view things only on one side and some on another The greatest part fix themselves before they have well examined all the Reasons that are and may be produced on both sides And sometimes it happens that Men concern themselves for some Works as they do for some Persons without knowing why they are more for those than for the others Hence it is that the Writers of the same Church do not always agree in their Opinions Cardinal Baronius speaks of the Recognitions attributed to St. Clement as of a sink full of filthiness and lies Whereas Bellarmine maintains that they are St. Clement's own or of some other Author as Ancient and as Learned as he The same difference in Opinions is observed amongst the Protestants concerning St. Ignatius's Letters though these Letters are generally and with good reason look'd upon as one of the fairest Monuments of the Apostolick Age. And Mr. Dupin in his Bibliotheca nova sets aside in a hundred places the Judgment and Authority of his Friends Possevinus Sixtus of Siena Rainaldus Bellarmine Labbe and other Writers of his Religion who have Criticis'd upon the Works of the Fathers This shews that the most Learned may sometimes be mistaken in their Judgments upon the Works of the Ancients Nor is this much to be wondered at since the intricacy and confusedness wherewith some Transactions are related and the distance of the time wherein they happened make it a very hard matter for us now to discern Truth from Falshood Criticks borrow most part of their Light from the Quality of the Manuscripts and sometimes these Manuscripts the Antiquity whereof sounds so high with some Men are but Modern Writings And particularly we shall consider in another place wh a Judgment one ought to pass upon a Relation of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion which Peter Francis Chifflet took out of an Ancient Manuscript of St. Claudius's Monastery But 't is now time to come to our Proofs CHAP. V. That St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions â—s not the Author who wrote that Passion of the Thebean Souldiers which both Surius and Baronius have followed THE first proof we bring against the Relation of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion is That it is clear and plain that St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions is not the Author of it and that his Name hath been set to it by some Cheat to gain more Credit thereto from the esteem which the Church always had for the extraordinary Virtues and Merits of this great Prelate To be convinced of this 't will suffice to mention only one passage wherein 't is said of Sigismond King of Burgundy That they never cease Night nor Day to sing Psalms and Hymns in the Monastery of Agaunum And that this Holy Praclice first appointed there by the blessed King and Martyr St. Sigismond is observed there to this very day It visibly appears from this place that when this Relation was made King Sigismond was dead It follows moreover from thence that it must have been compos'd several Years after the Death of this Prince since that Author after he
Gaule in the Year 285 the very time wherein the Theb. Legion was suppos'd to have been Massacred We are then much in the right to produce Eusebius in this cause as a Witness very fit to inform us about the Truth of Falsehood of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion But in all his Works there is not one Word spok'n either of this Legion or of this Martyrdom However he had often a fair opportunity to speak of it seeing that his whole Ecclesiastical History is chiefly filled up with long accounts of the Persecutions and Conflicts of Martyrs His Eighth Book is nothing but an ample Narrative both of Dioclesian and Maximians Cruelties and of all the great Examples of Zeal and Constancy which the Christians of all Orders and Conditions soever gave in those times If any ancient Writer had occasion to speak of the Theb. Legion without doubt it was Eusebius but since he hath said nothing of it his silence is an Historical Demonstration that it is only a meer Fable To this we might add that the same silence is observed by Socrates Sozomen Theodoret and Evagrius who have now and then pick'd up some Facts that are wanting in Eusebius That St. Jerom who hath followed Eusebius in his Chronology and carefully collected those things that have escaped his knowledge saith nothing of the Theb. Legion That Sulpitius Severus whose Ecclesiastical History goes beyond the Aera of Martyrs and who is so much noted for his great credulity and fondness of opinion about Saints and Miracles had not heard of it at the beginning of the fifth Age That we find it not in Paulus Orosius who speaks of the Bagauds of Amandus and Aelianus of Maximian's Expedition into Gaule and greedily swallows any thing that does but serve his turn whether well grounded or no as Monsieur Dupin observes and sometimes even debaseth the Dignity of History so much as to insert into it meer popular Reports according to Vossius's Judgment However the Fable of the Theb. Legion being not yet brought into the World in the Reign of the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius wherein he lived we do not see he hath adorned the Seven Books of his History with the recital of it It remains then only for us to examin whether according to the Principles of the Doctors of the Romish Church we may not infer a good Conclusion from this Negative Argument John Launoy a Doctor of Paris in his Dissertation upon the Authority of Negative Arguments lays down this Rule that we may reasonably conclude the untruth of a Fact from it 's not being attested either by contemporary Writers or by any Author within two hundred Years after He confesses That this Space of two hundred Years is indeed too long but that he feared if he had chalked out a shorter he should thereby have drawn upon himself the reproaches and calumnies of most People who are not willing that too strict a Search should be made after Truth But what if Mr. de Launoy had been so very complaisant to the Monks and the Admirers of Fables and Legends as to throw 'em in t'other fifty Years yet this would not in the least have weakened the strength of our Argument since that 't is almost Three hundred Years after Maximian's Expedition into Gaule that not one Writer hath spoken of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion 'T is true that upon the Superstitious Party of the Popish Church's being alarm'd by Mr. de Launoy's Book because they saw that the Method in it was like to pull down a great number of their Saints and would bring into contempt their Miracles and Reliques John Baptist Thiers a Divine of Paris endeavour'd to re assure them by a Dissertation in answer to that of Mr de Launoy which indeed he did not think worth his while to answer or to shew the vanity of his Arguments and Evasions Now this is the Tenet of John Baptist of Thiers We grant that a negative Argument ought to be of some force in Historical Accounts when in matter of very ancient Facts the Argument is taken from the general silence of Grave Learned and Diligent Writers who were not lightly wrought upon but prudent in their Judgment and Choice and who have succeeded one another during many Ages Where notwithstanding that all his Words be exactly measured and fitted to his design viz. to render negative Arguments of no use by putting them under impossible conditions c. yet nevertheless we desire no other concessions than what he himself grants For the Fact here in question is very Ancient and no body can deny but the Writers here spoken of are some of the most Grave Learned and Diligent that ever appeared in the Church and that for a continued succession of two or three Ages and yet not one of them but is wholly silent upon the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion Now after this long silence on the one side let us see who those were who first open'd their Mouths on the other and who should these be but two Authors who lived towards the end of the sixth Century namely Gregory of Tours and Venantius Honorius Fortunatus the latter of which was a Poet and consequently more likely to make use of their old Privilege in the Verse Pictoribus atque Poetis He hath Translated into Verse an Abridgment of St. George's Legend which Baronius confesses to have been originally writ by the Arrians Seeing then that this Poet was so grosly mistaken in attributing the Character of a Saint to one who was an Arrian and a wicked Man may we not think but his credulity might have been likewise imposed upon concerning another matter of Fact of an older date than this was And as for Gregory of Tours Mr. Dupin observes that he was very credulous and easy in the matter of Miracles and made no scruple of recounting uncertain and fabulous Histories Which agrees with what Abbot Hilduinus wrote concerning him to the Emperor Lewis We ought to Pardon the Simplicity of this Pious Man for having written several things contrary to the Truth of History not indeed out of any crafty design of imposing upon the World but meerly through his credulity And seeing that Fortunatus took a journey to Tours where he hoped to have been cured of his sore eyes by the intercession of St. Martin and that he had a great esteem and affection for Gregory it is very likely that he received all that he knew concerning the Theb. Legion from this good Bishop Now to let you see the very Foundation on which Gregories own belief of this matter was establish'd I shall only transcribe the Place where he speaks of it in the Tenth Book of his History of France I found saith he a little Chest in St. Martin's Treasury in which our Fathers had deposited the Reliques of the Agaunian Martyrs as I was informed by some very aged Priests The very Seal which their Piety had put to it was