PHILO CARPATHIUS.
'TIS said in the Life of St. Epiphanius, that this Saint Ordain'd one named Philo Bishop of Carpasus, and that he committed to him the Charge of making Ordinations at Salamis in * 1.1 his absence. Upon this Ground it has been thought that this Man lived in the time of St. Epi∣phanius, and that he was Bishop of the Isle of Carpathus, which is upon the Coast of Asia, near the Isle of Crete: There has also been attributed to this Philo, a Commentary upon the Canticles. But all these Suppositions are found to be False: For, First, The Life of St. Epi∣phanius which is fill'd with an infinite Number of Fables and Forgeries, was written by a Mo∣dern Greek, and has no Authority, and can no more prove that there was a Philo, than that there was a Papius, or an Eudemon, or a Polybius, or a great many others whom this Fabu∣lous Author has feign'd to embellish his History. Secondly, He does not say that this Philo was Ordain'd Bishop of the Isle of Carpathus, which was not under the Jurisdiction of St. Epi∣phanius, but of a City call'd Carpasus, which was in the Isle of Cyprus, mentioned by Pliny: Now it does not appear that this City ever had a Bishop. In short, the Commentary upon the Canticles, is the Invention of some Modern Greek, which contains many things that may be found word for word in the Commentary of Gregory the Great. And tho' it were true that these places were added, as some Authors have suspected, we cannot lay much stress upon an Author so little known as he is.