Legion be of more Weight and Consideration then that of a whole Army Secondly Sulpitius Severus speaking of the persecution which Marcus Aurelius rais'd against the Christians saith That that was the first time that Martyrs were known to have suffered in Gaule Christianity having been received somewhat late beyond the Alpes From which words we may very reasonably infer That it is not likely that when Dioclesian admitted Maximian to a Partnership in the Government the Christians were so numerous as to form an Army But if to destroy this consequence and the Authority of Sulpitius Severus it be reply'd that there is no likelyhood that the Gospel was preached so late in France a Country so near adjoining to Italy since in the time of Marcus Aurelius the Apostles and their Disciples had published it in the most distant parts of the World we will oppose nothing to this Answer that may any way detract from the Antiquity of the French Churches For besides that this would carry us too far beyond our purpose the Persecution which their unworthy Posterity have raised against us shall never lessen that high and just respect and veneration we have always had for the first Churches of the Gauls But suppose it were True that St. Luke St. Philip St. Paul Crescent and some other Disciples of Christ did Preach the Gospel in Gaule and let it be suppos'd likewise That it is not without ground that Vienna Lions Aix Narbonne Sens Paris Reims Limoges and Toulouse do boast of having received the Christian Religion from the Apostles and Apostolical Men yet all this would not suffice unless we should also further suppose that these first Preachers left there both Successors and very great numbers of Converts Nay indeed it ought to be made out That their Preaching proved very effectual and made considerable progress every where But if none but well approved Acts must be trusted this matter will prove of greater difficulty than may at first be imagined The Assembly of the French Clergy having ordered all the Bishops to send Memoirs to the Messicurs of St. Marthe concerning the Foundations and Antiquity of the Churches of their Dioceses these learned Men made to these Memoirs several Additions and Discoveries of their own and at last caused those large Volumes of theirs of Christian France to be Printed 'T is true we find in them that the Christian Religion was Preached in Gaule very early by the Apostles and their Disciples and we believe That in that respect the Titles of the Gallican Churches are as good as those of many other Churches that flatter themselves with the like belief of their having been honoured with the Presence and the Preaching of some or other of the Apostles who came there in Person But if you strictly and impartially consider the Works of Messicurs de St. Marthe after the Apostolick Age you fall into a kind of Wilderness a large waste of almost 250 years fill'd up with nothing but fabulous Legends and uncertain Traditions except the Relations of some few Martyrs as those of Lions who shine as Stars in so profound and long a Darkness all the rest being made up of nothing but groundless Suppositions or Acts that may easily be proved to be spurious I have by me the Original Copy of the Memoirs which Artus de Lion Bishop of Gap sent to Mrs. de St. Marthe written by himself and signed with his own hand Where he proves that St. Demetrius Disciple of the Apostles was Bishop of Gap and gives two Reasons for it the First is That before the Protestants had pull'd down the Episcopal Palace in the year 1577 there were seen upon the Walls of the great Hall the Images of the Bishops of Gap and that St. Demetrius was at the head of them with these Words Saint Demetrius the First Bishop of the Church of Gap and Disciple of the Apostles And that by the Grace of God they had yet an Eye Witness of it in their Chapter namely Mr. Paul of Bauvais who when he wrote these things was in the hundredth year of his Age. The other Authority he produces is taken out of a Berviary which Bertrand of Champeaux Bishop of Gap caused to be Printed in the year 1499 where St. Demetrius is placed in the Calender on the 26th of October with the Character of Bishop and Martyr and the Word totum Duplex which according to the use of the Church of Gap signifies the same as according to the use of the Council of Trent Duplex primae Classis which is proper to the Festivals of Patrons and Titulars of Churches After these so special and convincing proofs who would venture now to deny that St. Demetrius Disciple of the Apostles did plant the Faith in the Diocess of Gap That Breviary of Gap Printed in the Year 1499. is a curious Piece indeed We read there in the. 8th Lesson of St. Demetrius's Office speaking of the Etymology of that Saint's Name that Demetrius ex eo dictus quia de Medio id est de Mundo triumphavit And in the fourth Lesson that the City of Gap having been taken by the Sarazens Count William beat them out of it and gave the half thereof for the Redemption of his Soul to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Year of our Lord 86 on the Kalends of January in the fifth Indiction Though it is well known to every body that the use of the Indictions did not begin till three Hundred Years after Christ and that the Sarazens did not make Inruptions into Gaule till several years after Should we come to Examine narrowly the traditional Origins of most Gallican Churches we should not I think find much more solidity in any of them And especially we may observe that after the First Age there happened to that kind of Traditions such an Eclipse or Discontinuation that they do'nt appear again till after the time of the General Persecution And yet notwithstanding if we believe Mezeray and take his Anonimous Writer's bare word for it the Christians made a figure great enough at that time in Gaule to raise whole Armies against the Emperours However there is no need of straining very much for to preserve to the Churches of France their Antiquity and to Sulpitius Serverus the Authority he deserves in a matter of this nature For though the Apostles and their Disciples had preached the Christian Religion in Gaule very early yet this blessed Seed as well as that in the Parable was soon after choak'd by thorns and sprung not up again till a long time after so that it was very late before it came to any considerable Maturity there Gregory of Tours gives us this way of saving both the Authority of Sulpitius Severus and the Antiquity of the Gallick Church who saith that about the Year 250 under the Reign of Decius the City of Toulouse had Saturnine for its Bishop and that he came from Rome with six others to preach
ever made bold with his Manuscript The Acts of the Agaunian Souldiers having no such thing in them as Gifts to Monks and Monasteries 't was no hard matter to find them corrected in some Old Manuscripts But I question much whether any such Manuscript can be produced as will serve to rectifie the Acts of the Council of Agaunum wherein so many considerable Revenues are bestowed on the Monks of that place Let any Body read Mr. Dodwel's Dissertation upon the small number of Martyrs and he will see there what stress one ought to lay upon the Acts and the Manuscripts from whence they were taken 'T is true that Theodore Ruinart in the Edition he hath lately put out at Paris of the Acts of some Martyrs prefixes a long Preface wherein he opposes Mr. Dodwels Opinion concerning the small number of Martyrs but at the same time he confesses that they who gathered their Acts have often added to or cut off from them what they listed One may see in the same Preface that the Acts of most of the Martyrs having perished either by the ravage and burnings made by the Barbarians or by the Orders of Heathen Magistrates others were substituted in their place but such as have not the Authority of the former and much less can they pretend to the same sincerity and exactness These Acts have been by the Monks of the last Ages so disfigur'd and stuffed with so many Fables that the honester and more ingenuous of the Church of Rome have been ashamed of it and have publickly expressed their Sorrow for it Lewis Vives and Melchior Canus have grievously complained that Diogenes Laertius has Written the Lives of the Pagan Philosophers with more integrity and Wisdom than the Christians have done those of their Martyrs Confessors and Virgins When it was first given out that Lippomanus Bishop of Verona was upon correcting the Acts and Old Legends of Saints all good Men of the Romish Church were very glad at the News hoping that he would have purged them from all the gross lies which Metaphrastes Comestor and Jacobus de Voragine had left behind them But Lippomanus and Surius made all things worse instead of mending them For before this the Acts and Lives of Saints were look'd upon as pious Romances and a production of the ill-regulated zeal of the Legend-Writers But then they were esteemed quite another thing after they had been Revised by Surius Lippomanus and Junius Mombritius who contented themselves with taking away only the most palpable and obvious falsities retaining those which they thought were not so offensive and then protesting that they had gone up to the head and had consulted the best Manuscripts Rosweidus Bollandus Godfrey Henschenius and Papebrochius who are come after thinking to do some Service to the Learned by gathering all whether good or bad have not given us a truer account of the Acts of Martyrs and Saints but only have incumbred Mens Studies with their huge and bulky Volumes 'T is not that we believe that the Doctors of the Romish Communion are willing to countenance lyes and Forgeries We do them more justice than so They would undoubtedly have all this silly stuff taken out of their Church Service Breviaries and Martyrologies but they know not how it can be done They fear to give some advantage to the Protestants and to furnish them with Weapons against the infallibility of their Church And the Learned amongst them are afraid to bring upon themselves the hatred and persecution of Monks and Fryers who make a Trade of these Impostures amongst silly Women and the more ignorant sort of People 'T is known all over France what troubles they brought upon the Bishop of St. Pons one of the most worthy Prelates of that Kingdom for taking out of the Calendar of his Diocese several Saints whose Saintship might be called in question and whose Suffrages he did not so much esteem This is the reason why most of those who are sufficiently convinced of these abuses are contented to bewail them in secret not having the Courage to undertake the redressing of them There are some others who thinking it unsufferable that their Religious Worship should seem to have no other ground than the false Legends of Saints and Martyrs have indeed taken away from the Story what was most fictitious but yet have kept still the Essential part of it Father Chifflet was perhaps one of these and therefore he found just in time a Manuscript of the Passion of the Agaunian Martyrs more accurate and truer than the Manuscripts of Surius and Baronius Finally we might add that Manuscripts as well as other Books are subject to the rigour of the Index Expurgatorius And how should they stick at maiming them when they fear they will give any advantage to the Protestants since they make no scruple sometimes of suppressing them wholly We are not willing to set down here the Story of the Edition of Anastase Published by the Jesuits of Mayence in 1602. in which they cut off what we read in the Manuscript of Heydelberg about Pope John and of the trick they put us upon Marquardus Freherus who had discovered it to them Fabrotus in his new Edition of that Author Printed at Paris in the Year 1649. hath been so sincere as to own the expunging that passage but at the same time was not so ingenuous as to restore it Every Body knows the Story of St. Chrysostom's Letter to Cesarius the Monk and of Theodoret's Commentary upon the difference that arose between St. Paul and St. Peter the which as not favouring Transubstantiation and the Authority and Infallibility of the Pope they have endeavoured to stifle and to suppress Mr. Alix having discovered this Mystery of iniquity acquainted the Publick with it in his excellent Letter to Mr. Hambden But after all Peter Francis Chifflet is not the first Writer who to extricate himself out of a difficulty or to purchase the glory of some curious discovery hath taken an occasion to find a Manuscript 'T is not of late Years that there have been Annius's of Viterbo and Varilla's especially amongst the pretenders to Antiquity and Compilers of Anecdota or Secret Histories But though these Remarks may not perhaps seem unseasonable yet we have no need of them for clearing the matter of Fact now in question Father Chifflet's Manuscript hath not brought us to such straits as to reduce us to meer guesses and conjectures For admitting his Manuscript to be both as Ancient and Correct as he pleases the Thebean Souldiers would not be a jot the better for it We shall in the conclusion examine their cause without any regard to the Manuscripts and Acts of their Passion and shall deduce from the very circumstances of their Martyrdom such Arguments as will demonstrate the falsity of it And we must own our obligation to Father Chifflet that we shall now Fight no longer in the Dark without either seeing or knowing our Adversary
his Expedition into Gaul with the Thebean Legion All which does agree well enough with the time we have assigned for the same Expedition And it is strange that Cardinal Baronius who hath followed the Acts of Surius and ought consequently to have joined the time of the Bagaudian Revolt with that of the Death of the Thebean Souldiers hath notwithstanding this placed their Martyrdom in the Year 297 viz. Twelve Years after Dioclesian had taken Maximian into the Government and sent him into Gaul to suppress the Rebellion of Amandus and Aelianus And since these two Events fell out so well to the purpose one would wonder Father Chifflet should be so transported upon his finding a Manuscript in which there is not a word spoken of the Begauds noâ— of Amandus nor Aelianus if it were not that King Sigismond unluckily appeared there also amongst the rest For as these two concuring Events very much favoured the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion so what is there related of St. Sigismond made it evident that St. Eucherius could not be the Author of the Acts of that Martyrdom since he Dyed several Years before this Prince came into the World Bollandus thought he might save the Credit of this piece prove it to be the work of this Holy Bishop of Lions and remove the Anachronism by saying that there was formerly a Monastery at Agaunum and that King Sigismond only repaired and beautified it But because it is but a poor shift destroyed both by the Acts of Surius and the Accounts which all the Historjans give of that Martyrdom Father Chifflet was overjoyed upon his finding a Manuscript wherein not the least mention is made of King Sigismond or of the Bagaudian Insurrection We have already declared how good an Opinion we have of Father Chifflet's integrity which we don't pretend to retract Nevertheless if he be not the Man who hath helped this place out of the Acts of the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion no Body ought to find fault with us if we suspect that some others might have conjured it away Whatsoever may be the Antiquity of Father Chifflet's Manuscrpit sure it is that Impopostors are yet much ancienter than it Now I hope Father Ruinart will not except against us for making some advantage of the Advice he himself gives in his Answer to Mr. Dodwel viz. That the Collectors of the Acts of Murtyrs have frequently added too and lop't off such things as they did not like But let us come now to the Matter it self and examine whether the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion can be made to fall in with Maximian's fourth Expedition into Gaul mentioned by Eutropius and Aurelius Victor The Emperour Dioclesian fearing lest the Gallican Revolt should be of dangerour consequence assumes him into the Government to the end that by his assistance he might with more ease to himself undergo the weight of it He raises an Army with all speed to suppress this threatning Insurrection in its Birth then it is supposed that he sent for the Thebean Legion from the East to serve in the Expedition And yet they needs will have it that having passed the Mountains with them and in a manner facing the Enemy such a Frenzy of superstition on a sudden seized him as made him weaken his Army by the Martyrdom of this whole Legion We took Notice before that the Author of this Romance was not very cautious in observing the Rules of probability But because some things may be true though they do not seem very probable we shall therefore add something of more weight than meer Conjeures for the proof of our Assertion First then let a Man be never so little versed in Roman History he will find no ground there to believe that Maximian being but lately admitted to a share in the Empire should by his own single authority cut off a whole Legion For though Dioclesian had made him Augustus yet were they Masters in Common and joint sharers of the Provinces Arms and Legions of the Empire Galesius and Constantius were the First that shared the Empire This the City of Rome took very ill looking upon it as a diminution of its Power and glory But this sharing of the Empire ending in the Victories which Constantine got over all his Competitors Rome became again the Mistress of the Universe Whereupon the Poet Porphyrius in a Poem which he composed in the 15 th Year of this Prince has these words lacera cruentis Imperii pars fessa Poli diversa gemehat Sâ—eptra Ausoniae moerebat perdita jura During the Division of the Empire each Emperour acted as he pleased in his own District and was under no obligation to Communicate his Affairs and Conduct to the other Emperours whereas when the Empire was possessed jointly by two or three Emperours they Consulted one another in all Affairs of Importance because each had an equal right to the whole Aequo Jure as Eutropius saith speaking of Marcus Aurelius and of Lucius Verus Whence we may judge if it be possible in reason to suppose that Maximian would of his own head have Commanded a whole Legion to be put to Death and without so much as Consulting Dioclesian have allarm'd all the Christians throughout the Empire by so violent a Persecution 'T is true indeed if the loss of a whole Legion cut off by the Command of a Cholerick and Enraged Prince were to be look'd upon as a trifling matter and of no consquence to the State there would have been no great need for Maximian upon this occasion to have ask'd the Advice of his Colleague but I question much whether any considering Person will think it so Secondly Let us reflect upon what the Historians tell us of the Reign of Dioclesian and Maximian till the time they begun to persecute the Christians and we shall find that they represent those times to us as times of Ease and Plenty and they speak of their Government as managed with Clemency and Moderation Matermin tells Maximian that no sooner had the Light of his Government shined upon the Empire but it overspread all places with peace and security Eusebius in the 12 th and 13 th Chapter of the 8 th Book of his Church-History cannot forbear making frequent mention of the Happiness which both the Church and Empire enjoyed before Dioclesian and Maximian had resolved to Exterminate the Christians Who can express saith he the Prosperity and Plenty which the Empire enjoyed so long as those who Governed were well and kindly affected towards us He had said before we want Words to express the great value and esteem which the Doctrine of our Blessed Saviour met with amongst the Greeks and Barbarians and the perfect Liberty and Tranquility which the Professours of it enjoyed before the Persecution which was raised against the Church in our Days The particular affection the Emperours shewed towards those of our Religion and the Honour they did them in conferring