induced to believe that the greatest part of Maximian's Army were Christians only upon the Authority of the Authors of St. Baboulene's Life it will not be amiss to examine what can be built upon this Writer's Authority And iâ— we cast but half an eye upon this Work of his we shall plainly discern that the whole from the beginning to the end of it is made up of nothing but fabulous Legends and Fictions The Manucript is kept at Paris in the Library of St. Germain Des-Prez and James Dubrcuil a Monk of that Abbey made an abrigdment of it and published it in the Year 1614. Mr. Du Chesne inserted it some Years after in his History of France Father Le-Cointe takes notice of it also in his Annals and rejecteth it as altogether unworthy of credit for he observeth that this Writer exactly follows in every thing that Anonymous Impostor who wrote the Acts of the Kings of France of which he gives these following particulars First That he makes Erchenald Major of the Palace in the first Year of Clovis whereas Fredegair calls him who was then in that Office Aeganes Secondly that he confounds Aubert Bishop of Paris under King Clovis with Agilbert who was Bishop of that â—â—e under Clotary Son to Clovis Thirdly that of two Baboulenes one of whom was Abbas Bobâ—ensis and the other Abbas Fosatensis he makes but one Fourthly That he reckons but 85. Years from the Death of Clovis the first to the Death of Clovis the second Fifthly That he makes Clovis the second to succeed his Father Dagobert in the Year of our Lord 643 in the first Indiction And several other faults he finds in the same Author all contrary to the known truth of History But a most notable one is his Saying that the Abbey of St. Maur des Fossez is situate in the place where formerly the Camp of the Bagauds was and that they incamped there because there was then standing an old Castle built by Julius Caesar inclosed with Walls and secured on all sides with large Ditches The truth is that that Abbey of St. Maur is call'd by several Writers of the Later Ages Castrum Bagaudarum Mr. Menage in his Origines upon the Word Bagauds saith that in a Charter of the Abbey of St. Maur granted in the Year 868. St. Maur des Fossez is call'd Castrum Bagaudarum and adds because Anciently it was a Fort of the Bagauds But who told that Anonymus Author that Julius Caesar had built there a noble Castle Nobiliter Constructum He is the only Writer who speaks of that Castle there is not the least mention of it in the Commentaries of Julius Caesar though all his Actions in Gaule are therein Writen with the greatest exactness Moreover this Impostor makes Orosius to say things which he never thought of For Orosius saith that Amandus and Aelianus having got a considerable number of Peasants together raised great disturbances in Gaule which Oblig'd Dioclesian to create Maximianus Herculeus Caesar and to send him thither who being a Man of considerable experience in War easily dispersed that Army of Peasants which was altogether without Order and Discipline But this Anonymous Scribler makes Orosius to say That Amandus and Aelianus were Christians and that they revolted only because they thought that their Religion did not allow them to obey Pagan Princes It is a strange impudence this first to invent Fables and then for the confirmation of them to quote a Famous Historian If we take this Authors quotation out of him for truth Orosius attributes very Noble and Evangelical Morals to the Christians of the Third Century in making them shake off the Authority of their lawful superiours only because they were not of their own Religion Monsieur de Tirlemont makes a Remark very suâ—iable to the purpose It is upon the Acts of St. Maximus related by Baronius in the year 254. There arises saith he yet greater difficulties from what Optimus saith That the Edict of Decius commanded all Christians to forsake their Superstition and to acknowledge their lawful Prince on whom all things depended and to Worship his Gods Against which Mr. Tirlemont with great reason does except thus What does all this mean Should then the Christians have made any difficulty to acknowledg Decius for their Emperour By no means But the truth is that though they were the most Submissive and Truest Subjects to their Princes Nevertheless because they did not prefer them to God himself they were deemed to fall from the duty of their Allegiance In fine this Anonymous Writer of Mezeray's relates the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion very differently both from the counterseit St. Eucherius Surius and Father Chifflet For he saith that Maximian having ordered that all the Souldiers of his Army should swear upon the Altars of his Gods Sacrifice to them and oblige themselves by an Oath that they would persecute the Christians where-ever they should meet with any of them Mauritius answered for the whole Theb. Legion under his Command We know O Emperour how to fight against Rebels and Wicked Persons but we know not how to make War upon Good Men and our own Fellow Subjects Though we are all well Arm'd yet we do'nt make any resistance as being more willing to have our own blood shed than to shed that of others So without any more ado they stretched out their necks to the Executioners and were raised by their Torments to the glory of Paradise And thus this Anonymous Author leads us immediatly to the end of his Romance whereas the supposed St. Eucherius after Maximian hath given his barbarous Orders makes the Theb. Legion to withdraw supposes that it refuses to march saith that it was only decimated at first makes the Emperour to reiterate his Orders relates their Speech to this Prince and so entertaining his Reader with a great number of intervening particulars he at last brings him to the Catastrophe of his Tragedy Whence it follows that the Martyrdom of the Theb. Legion is not originally found but in false and supposititious Writings and was only related at first by Impostours One invented and publish'd the Story of this Martyrdom Another vouch'd for the Truth of that Narrative by another of his own And upon the credit of these two Relators hundreds of others believed it and at last it became a common Opinion in the World For a Tale never misses to be credited when it begins to grow ancient and we see every day that when any Relation hath passed for current for fifty or threescore years it is then almost too late to Contradict or call it in Question CHAP. XVII That it is not True That some Cohorts of the Theb. Legion were detached out of Maximian's Army to March against Carausius TOWARDS the end of the counterfeit Agaunian Acts there is a passage which affords us another proof that this Story of the Theb. Legion is a Forgery It was saith the Author a common report That
have brought great incomes to the Monastery of Agaunum They make St. Sigismond to give to it a great number of Villages and very considerable Lands in the Dioceses of Vienna Lions Grenoble and of the Cities of Aâ—â—te Avanches Lausanne and Besanson c. The Cheat indeed was worth the making But we must confess that the makers thereof were not very skilful in their contrivance of it The truth is that in those times People were so credulous that they gave Credit to the grossest tales They were contriv'd and conceiv'd under the shadow of Monkish Holiness and were brought forth into the World without contradiction or any Body to oppose them The Monk who Forged this Council makes both King Sigismond and the Bishops to say very ridiculous things The Country Peasants of Valesia would now speak better Sense Le Cointe observeth that the Acts of this Council are Dated in the beginning of the last of April and towards the end of the Ides of May That it is said at first that the Council was held at Agaunum and again that it was Assembled near that place Which shews the poor Monk hardly knew what he did He adds that Sixty Bishops met together at Agaunum and in Sigismond's time there were not above Seven and Twenty Bishops in all throughout the whole Kingdom of Burgundy He saith that Theodorus Bishop of Sion in Valesia asked what should be done with the Bodies of the Thebean Souldiers that laid yet unburied upon the Ground And in St. Sigismond's time there was no Bishops-See at Sion The Bishops-See was transferred thither not till many Years after it having always been before at a place which is called Martignac or Martigni which is the Ancient Octodurum So that this Theodorus being contemporary with King Sigismond ought to have been call'd Octodurensis Episcopus and not Sedunensis as the Council-Forger hath done But the thing we ought chiefly to observe is that both Labbe and Cossart place this Council in the Year 516. The Acts do expresly mention that when it was held the Buildings which King Sigismond ordered to be made at Agaunum were finished and wanted only to be Dedicated and appointed to their use This Prince saith in the beginning of his Deed of Gift that he makes Hinnemond Abbot of the Monastery of Agaunum which by the help of God he hath Built in his Kingdom of Burgundy And a little before he says that all the Bishops do represent to him that the Reliques of Mauricius Exuperius Candidus and Victor ought to be deposited in the New Church which he hath caused to be Built The Bishops of this pretended Council are there chiefly taken up with regulating the singing of Psalms the Offices Observances and whatever was to be Practised in that Monastery Now the business is to know whether the Passion of the Thebean Legion which we assert to be false is anteriour to that Council or happen'd after its sitting If they say it is anteriour we ask how could the Author of it speak of a Monastery which was not yet Built and of Rules not yet establish'd If it be answered that this Passion was Written after the sitting of the Council which according to Labbe and Cossart met in the Year 516. it follows that St. Eucherius is not the Author of this Passion since he died in the Year 440. If the Acts of this Council be compared with the Passion one cannot but suspect that the Impostour who composed it had before his Eyes the Acts of this Council 'T is said in these Acts that the Bishops consulted with King Sigismond what Discipline was to be set up in the Monastery of Agaunum and that the Rules which should be prescrib'd to the Monks might be so framed as to last for ever And the Author of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Souldiers as it is related both by Baronius and Surius saith that they never cease Day nor Night to sing Psalms and Hymns in the Agaunian Monastery this practice having been established by the Blessed King and Martyr St. Sigismond and being still in force there to this very day But that the Acts of this Council are forged Father Le Cointe hath given infallible proofs And whereas Labbe and Cossart place this Council in the Year 516. we should not fear being much mistaken if we charged the Forgery upon some Impostor of the Seventh or Eighth Century For these and the like Writings are the Titles and Foundations both of the Worship vast Power and Immense Revenues of the Church of Rome 'T is true we are told that the Manuscripts of these things are kept in the Vatican Library or in that of Florence and that they have all the Characters of an uncontroulable Antiquity But Marsham a man very well skilled in distinguishing between Old and Modern Manuscripts adviseth us to trust to them so much the less by how much the Older they are said to be And he is favoured in his Opinion by Papebrook a Jesuite who observes that you 'l scarcely find any Acts or Manuscripts true and sincere from the Reign of Dagobert the First upwards that is beyond the Year of our Lord 640. Which is much about the time in which the Fables which we are now Examining were invented 'T is strange indeed that Father Mabillon one of the most Eminent Men in Europe in that kind of Learning should Condemn the Opinion both of Marsham and Papebrook He thinks that these two Learned Men were mistaken and to prove it he reports some Acts of the 6 th or 7 th Age but this is nothing to the purpose for Marsham and Papebrook did never deny but there were true Acts ancienter than the Reign of Dagobert the First but they only affirmed that these Writings are very scarce and can hardly be found so that Father Mabillon to have an occasion to contradict these two great Men makes them say absolutely what they only meant with a restriction And besides 't is one thing to go about to prove from the Words of some Authors that there have been Kings before Dagobert the First who made Gifts in Writing to several Churches and another to prove that these Writings do yet continue and have been handed down to us and that they have not been worn out by time lost or destroyed by the Accidents and Revolutions which have happened in the course of so many Ages nor falsify'd and corrupted by the covetousness ignorance and infidelity of Men. The first of these two things which is not in question Father Mabillon takes upon him to prove but saith not one word of the second which he ought to have proved But here is the business Papebrook is plain and downright because he being a Jesuite is of an Order of a very new Date and which therefore needs not go up and search very high for Titles Whereas Father Mabillon is a Benedictine Monk of the Congregation of St. Maur. And St. Benet's Order hath a
great concern to maintain the Antiquity of their rich Foundations Papebrook confesses ingenuously that most of the Acts in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries have been falsify'd by Monks because this reproach could not fall on the Jesuites who were not then in the World But by reason there were at that time almost no other Monks in the West but the Benedictines 't is worth the while to see with what Zeal Father Mabillon stickles in their defence But while he endeavours to make their Cause too good he betrays his own He proves that the falsification of Acts ought not to be laid only at the Church mens Doors that every Body had then a hand in the corrupting of them that Cheats and Impostours were as common at that time amongst the Laity as in the Church and that both the watchfulness and Authority of the Emperours were taken up in preventing and chastising these knavish tricks This is just what Marsham and Papebrook do both mean and say We have thought fit to make this Observation For having a very great Veneration for true Antiquity we should be unwilling to have any Body allarm'd at our impugning the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion which hath obtained the Belief of so many Ages in the Church CHAP. VII That the Passion of the Agaunian Martyrs Published by Francis Chifflet in his Edition of Paulinus is as false as that which Surius and Baronius have followed THE Relation of the Passion of the Thebean Souldiers which both Surius and Baronius have followed is a piece so notoriously supposititious that it is now quite laid aside even in the Roman Church This does evidently appear in the Judgment which Anthony Pagi makes of it in his Criticks upon Baronius The Acts of the Martyrs of Agaunum saith he which Baronius hath taken out of Surius and which he thought were written by St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions are false and supposititious There 't is said that this Martyrdom happened under the Pontificate of Marcelline when Maximian went into Gaul to put a stop to the Bagaudian Rebellion and it is certain that it was in the beginning of Diocleâ—ian s Reign that Maximian made this Expedition during the Pontificate of â—ajus Therefore the Doctors who had the direction of the Impression of Bibliotheca Patrum which was Printed by the Anissons at Lions in the Year 1677 were wiser than to give out amongst the Works of St. Eucherius the Passion of the Thebean Souldiers as it was reported both by Surius and Baronius We give say they the Acts of the Martyrs of Agaunum written by St. Eucherius Bishop of Lions and extracted out of a very Ancient Manuscript those that are put out by Surius having been spoiled and corrupted by some Anonymous Writer of the last Ages Peter Francis Chifflet is the Man who Printed these new Acts of the Agaunian Martyrs in his Paulinus Illustratus and which he saith he Copied out of a very Ancient Manuscript of St. Claude's Monastery As for Theodorus Ruinart he hath followed Chifflet s Copy in that â—ollection of the Acts of Martyrs which he caused to be Printed at Paris in the Year 1689. There he confesses that the former Acts Published by Surius were Counterfeit and those likewise that were Printed by Mombritius then he adds that in the very time it was given over by the Learned to find out the true Acts of the Agaunian Martyrs Chifflet had happily discovered them in an Ancient Manuscript â—t seems then that the Thebean Souldiers case is not yet quite desperate there being another door for the true Acts of their Martyrdom to come in at The Jesuites are very Crafty Men I must confess They find immediately a way to remove every difficulty The World was ready to forsake the Thebean Souldiers and their Passion when just in the nick of time Father Chifflet hath found a Manuscript in the Monastery of Mount Jura which gives a faithful account of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion and is free from those falsities which are so palpable both in Surius and Baronius Not a word there of Marcelline's Pontificate of King Sigismond nor of the Revolt of Aelius and Amandus Authors of the Bagaudian Insurrection in Gaul You have all in it but this Both the Passions are in every thing alike Only two or three Events are wanting in that of Chifflet which might serve as a sure Epoche whereby to discover exactly the time wherein it hapned A person more mistrustful than I might easily believe that it is not without some good reason that these places are not to be found in Chifflet's Manuscript There would be less cause to suspect it had other circumstances been left out of smaller consequence and such as do not serve to mark out exactly the time and age of the Piece But 't is in vain for Father Chifflet to boast the antiquity of his Manuscript We have not forgot the Advice which Marsham and Papebrook have given us not to trust too much to Manuscripts which have on them the most ancient dress Were we admitted to compare Chifflet's Manuscript with that of Surius we should soon see whether of them has got the best looks of Truth and Antiquity The Acts of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Souldiers were Printed at Ingolstadt under the Jesuites inspection in the Year 1617. by the care of Stewartius who was sure he had Examined the best Manuscripts he could find Peter Natalis and William Baldesan who in Italy writ the History they have left us of the Thebean Legion were not wanting to consult the Manuscripts extant in the best Libraries of that Country Though Father le Cointe does disown the Acts of Surius nevertheless he acknowledgeth 'em to be conform to the greatest number of the Manuscripts that are kept in the Archives of the Church Notwithstanding Father Chifflet will needs have his Manuscript to be the only one that is true and sincere and those of all the other Writers to be spurious and corrupted I would fain know who told him that his own was not mended by some Monk who understood History so well as to perceive the Anachronisms and contradictions in the Acts of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion This is not without Example and we might mention several for the Monks formerly did what they pleased with the Writings of their Predecessors Faustus composed the Life of St. Severine Abbot of Agaunum of whom mention hath been already made An Anonymous Author some Ages after added to it some things cut off others and dressed it up after his own Fancy as Father le Cointe complains in his Annals He tells us further that another Faustus having Written the Life of St. Maurus it was not lik'd by Odo an Abbot in the Diocese of Anger 's in the Year 863. and that he changed it in such manner that it were to be wished he had never meddled with it at all And now can Father Chifflet warrant that no such hand hath