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
into Armenia and Mesopotamia Which hapned several Years after Maximian's Advancement to the Empire and his Bagaudian Expedition CHAP. XVI That it is not true that the Bagauds were Christians and that the Thebean Legion suffered death for refusing to persecute them IT will not be amiss to take notice here of an Objection which may perhaps be made a gainst us Viz. That it is true that the Persecution mentioned in the precedent Chapter did not begin till near the year 298 or 301 But that Maximian was oblig'd to cut off the Theb. Legion upon another account which was that those People who had revolted and went under the nick-name of Bagauds being Christians the Emperour was afraid least the Theb. Souldiers who were of the same Religion should joyn with the Rebels and therefore he thought it the best course he could take to get himself thus rid of them and that This was the chief and indeed the true cause of their Martyrdom Here we are to consider what Mezeray saith in his second Book of the Origin of the French concerning this matter These are his words After Carinus at his departure from Gaule had drawn thence all his Legions to go and encounter Dioclesian the Provinces being freed from the Troops that kept them in awe attempted likewise to shake off the heavy Yoke of settled Taxes and the arbitrary extorsions of their Governours Which lying heaviest upon the Countrey people they took up arms first Aelianus and Amandus two Officers in the Roman Army were so unwise as to put themselves at the head of them Such slaves as were hardly used by their Masters joyned with them some came into this Party of their own accord and others were surprised into it several were sollioited but most of them scorned the invitation This Rising was call'd Bagaud and the followers of it Bagauds or Bagaudians Which word as some say signifies Revolt and perhaps a Revolt of such as lived in the Woods according to the Etymology of the word from the Ancient Celtick Language For it is likely that those People having no other Fortresses and Places to retire to but Woods they there intrenched themselves after the manner of the Germans and Ancient Gauls There were many Woods without doubt in several places of that Countrey but the chiefest and biggest of them was two Leagues from Paris on the River Marne in a place where now stands the Abbey of St. Maur called des Fossez or of the Ditches because they had digged up a very spacious Trench to incamp there Most of them were Christians And who knows but that after so many horrid Persecutions which they had suffered their patience did turn at last into a just fury in arming them both against the Torments and their Tormentors Maximian taking a review of his Troops near the Town of Aoste on this side of the Alpês the Theb. Legion refused to take the Oaths with the Ceremonies used amongst the Pagans and being encouraged by the Speeches of their Tribune Mauritius chose rather to undergo two or three Decimations and at last to be all cut to pieces then to desite themselves by those abominable Rites The whole Legion was not there some Cohorts having been detached who as we shall see hereafter in another place signaliz'd themselves by a like Victory So many brave Men who despised Death would have sold their lives to the Romans at a very dear rate if it had not been more glorious to die for the Faith which they professed than to fight for it I say further that they would have strengthened very much the Bagaudian Party had their Religion permitted them to dissemble till they had joined them However Maximian having defeated some of these Bagauds and received others into his favour and by this means having divided them he besieged their great Intrenchment both by Land and by Water with so great Vigour and Resolution that at last he took it All those who were found in it were put to the Sword without exception and their strong works were so entirely ruin'd and demolish'd that nothing of them but some few Ditches remained We are to believe saith the Author of the Life of St. Baboulene that these Men being Christians and despising their lives for the sake of their Religion pass'd through Martyrdom to the Kingdom of Heaven and though we have not their Acts in writing nevertheless their Memory and Names shall never be blotted out of the Book of Life These are the new Weapons wherewith M. de Mezeray furnishes the Asserters of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion Now all these difficulties we are very desirous to remove the better to clear this piece of Ecclesiastical History First then it is suppos'd in the Objection that most part of the Bagauds Army were Christians and that the Emperour Maximian caused the Theb. Legion to be cut off for fear so many brave Men should joyn with and strengthen the Rebels Then it is said that this Objection is taken out of an Ancient Anonymous Writer who hath given us the Life of St. Baboulene and who ought therefore to be credited by reason that these Transactions happened in an Age nearer to his than to our times Our Answer to this will not a little contribute I hope to discover the Falshood of the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion And First in this Account of Mezeray supported by the Authority of that Anonymous Writer we find the Christians divided in their Practice upon a very considerable point of Morality For some of them leaving the Plow take up Arms against their Sovereign and others on the contrary being up in Arms lay them down and patiently submit to the Execution of the barbarous Orders of their Prince Now to what shall we ascribe this difference in their Judgment and practices Was it that the Morality on the other side of the Alps differ'd from that of the Gauls Or must we attribute the cause of this difference to the diversity of their Climates Educations Tempers and Manners But we should spend too much time should we go about to untye this knot therefore the shortest way is to 〈◊〉 it and to 〈◊〉 positively that both 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 that is Christianity would rather loose than get by it The Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion is asserted because it is thought very honourable to Christianity but then to support the Assertion and Insurrection of the first Christians in Gaule is brought in and a rebellious Conspiracy to shake off the Yoak of their Masters So that if those who set up for the defence of an Obedience so intirely passive have in the Example of the Theb. Souldiers a Legion of Martyrs to boast of Those who on the contrary believe that there are some Cases and Times in which Patience ought to give place to other Vertues shall find in the Bagauds a whole Army of Christians in Rebellion against the Empire to oppose to that Legion And shall the Example of one single
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