An historical dissertation upon the Thebean Legion plainly proving it to be fabulous / by John Dubourdieu ...

CHAP. IV. (Book 4)

That the most skilful Men are sometimes mistaken in the Judgments they make upon the Works of the Ancients. (Book 4)

IT will Evidently appear from what shall be said hereafter, that Baronius, Peter Francis

Chifflet, Archbishop Usher, and Grotius, have been mistaken in their Judgments concerning the Martyrdom of the Thebean Legion, and the Re∣lation Fathered upon Eucherius.

For Criticks are not always in the right. Though they have contributed much to the re∣viving of Learning, yet it does not thence follow, that even the most skilful Men in that Science are infallible. It hath very often happened that they have taken false Copies for Originals, and set upon Modern Writings the worth and value due to those of Antiquity.

Those who have any skill in Medals, know that the most understanding Men themselves are apt sometimes to be mistaken. If one Examines * 1.1the first Edition of the Praestantiora Imperatorum Numismata of Mr. Vaillant, Printed at Paris in the Year 1682, there one will find the Medals of Germanicus, of Nero Drusus his Father, of the Emperour Claudius, of Julia Wife to Seve∣rus, and of Gordianus Affricanus the Son, the Price and Rarity whereof this Medalist does mightily Extol. But if you cast your Eye up∣on the Second Edition of 1692. there you will find the same Medals very much debased. Mr. * 1.2Vaillant, acknowleging the three first to be su∣spicious, and the two last absolutely false. He praiseth likewise in the same Work, one of Tra∣jan's * 1.3Medals with a Pillar and an Owl on the top of it. And in his Remarks upon Scelecta Nu∣mismata Seguini, Published at Paris in the Year 1684. he confesseth ingenuously that the same was Counterfeit.

'Tis no less usual to be deceived in matter of Statues and Basso-Relievos, then in Medals. We have a great many Examples of this kind; but it will suffice to give here only one single instance: Vazari tells us, that Michael Angelo, to convince some Vertuosos and Antiquaries, who valued nothing but what was Ancient, of the rashness of their Judgment in such cases, made a Cupid and buried it under the ruines of an Old Building, having first broken off one of its Arms which he kept at home. All the Lovers of the Art came immediately to look upon it, and no Body did so much as question the Antiquity of the piece, till Michael Angelo shewed them the Arm which he had kept by him, to convince them of their Errour, and to shew them how easily they might be imposed upon, in a matter where∣in 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 ••cqu••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 af∣terwards 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 Trea∣tise upon the same Subject; and we should be * 1.4informed now of a great many Fabulous Relati∣ons inserted into Histories, had not the ill Fate of Learning deprived us of the Works of that ex∣cellent 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 Fa∣bles, 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 Ico∣nium, 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 * 1.5of 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 Gos∣pels, 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 t••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 Constanti∣nople, held in the Year 692, under Justinian the Younger, the Church condemned, in the 63d▪ Canon, the false Passions, and Fabulous Lives of Saints and Martyrs.

A great number of Learned Men have endea∣voured in these latter times, to find out these sup∣posititious Writings, and to ascribe to every Au∣thor the Works belonging properly to him. And they would undoubtedly have been more succes∣ful 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 preju∣dice 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 Judg∣ments. This follows necessarily the different ap∣plications, and Natural inclinations of their minds.

Some view things only on one side, and some on another. The greatest part fix themselves, be∣fore 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 * 1.6agree 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 An∣cient 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 Biblio∣theca nova, sets aside in a hundred places the Judg∣ment 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 some∣times 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 dis∣cern 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 particu∣larly 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 Ma∣nuscript of St. Claudius's Monastery. But 'tis now time to come to our Proofs.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Vaillant Praest. Imp. Nu∣mism. pag. 12. 14, 16. 13.
• * 1.2

  Vaill. pag. 49.
• * 1.3

  Pag. 71.
• * 1.4

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.5

  Council. 7. act. 5. Tom. 3. pag. 552.
• * 1.6

  Ann. Ba∣ron. Tom. 1. An. 51. Bellarm. de lib. arb. lib. 5. c. 25.