A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

S. JULIAN of Toledo.

S. JULIAN, Disciple of Eugenius, chosen Archbishop of Toledo in the Year 680. was President in several Councils held in that City, and died in 690. His Successor Felix, * 1.1 having praised his Vertues, sets down the Catalogue of his Books.

He wrote, saith he, a Book of the Prognosticks of another Life, directed to the Bishop Idatius; in the begin∣ning of which there is a Letter to that Bishop, and a Prayer. This Work is divided into three Books, the first is of the Original of Man's Death. The second of the State of the Souls of the Dead until the Resurrection. The third is of the last Resurrection. He made moreover a Book of Answers, dedicated to the same Person; in which he maintains the Canons and Laws, whereby Christian Slaves are forbidden to serve Infidels. We have also an Apology for the Faith, dedicated to Pope Benedict, and another Apology upon three Articles, upon which the Bishop of Rome seemed to have had some Doubts; a little Tract of the Remedies against Blasphemies, with a Letter to Adrian the Abbot; a Treatise of the Proof of the sixth Age, [or of the coming of Christ] at the beginning thereof there is a Letter to King Ervigius, with a Prayer. This Work is divided into three Books; the first contains the Texts of the Old Testament, shewing, without any need of sup∣putation of Years, that the Messias is come: The second Book shews, by the Apostle's Do∣ctrine, that Christ came in the fulness of Time: The third proves, that the sixth Age, in which the Messias was to come, is come; There he distinguisheth the five Ages which went before, not by the Years but by the Generations. We have moreover a Collection of his Poetry, containing Hymns, Epitaphs and Epigrams in great number; a Book of Letters; a Collection of Sermons, among which is found a little Writing of the Protection of the House of God, and of those that retire into it; a Book intituled, Of the Contrarieties of the Scripture, divided into two Parts, the first whereof comprehends what relates to the Old Testament, and the second to the New; a Book of History of what happen'd in France in the Time of King Wamba; a Collection of Sentences, taken out of S. Austin, upon the Psalms; some Extracts of the same Father's Books against Julian; a Treatise of Divine Judgments, taken out of the Scripture, with a Letter to King Ervigius; a Trea∣tise against the Persecutors of those who fly into Churches; a Book of the Masses for the whole Year, divided into four Parts, in which he corrected some which were either cor∣rupted or imperfect, and made new ones; a Book of Prayers for the Festivals of the Church of Toledo, either reformed or newly made.

Of all those Works these only remain:

The Treatise of the Prognosticks, directed to Idatius Bishop of Barcelona, with the Letter and the Prayer: The three Books, to shew the sixth Age against the Jews: And the History of the Acts of Wamba in France.

In the first Book of the Treatise of Prognosticks, he treats of Men's Death; he shews it is sin that subjected them to Death, and affirms it is called Mors a Morsu, because the first Man became Mortal, by eating of the Forbidden Fruit. He believes, that, altho' Death be not good, yet it is useful to the Just, and that a sharp Death remits Sins. He examines why Baptism remitting Original Sin, does not free Men from the Law of Death; and he gives two Reasons for it, taken out of S. Austin, and of Julian Pomerius, He believes Angels assist the Just at their Death, and that Devils do then lie in wait for them. He commends the

Piety of the Faithful, who take care to do the last Office to their Parents; hereupon he produces some Passages out of S. Austin, about the Sacrifices offered for the Dead, and the Suffrages of Martyrs.

In the Second, which is of the State of Souls after Death, he says, Those of perfect Christians are immediately carried into a Paradise, where they remain, joyfully waiting for the Resurrection of their Bodies: And that they enjoy in that Place the Happiness and the Knowledge of God. He believes those of them who have some Sins to blot out, are de∣tain'd for a while; but neither the one not the other do enjoy as perfect a Vision of the Divine Substance, as they shall do after the Resurrection, tho' they do already see God, and reign with Christ: That the Wicked, immediately after Death, are precipitated into Hell, where they undergo endless Torments. He establisheth * 1.2 Purgatory, which he believes to be a real Fire, wherewith Sins remaining at ones Death are expiated in the other World; and that the Time of the Soul's abiding there is proportion'd to the number or the grievousness of Sins committed by them. He affirms, That the Souls of the Dead may know one another. He says, The Dead pray for the Living, but not for the Damned; that they know what is done here below; that they pity those they have been acquainted with; that they are earnestly desirous of Men's Salvation; that sometimes they appear to the Living; that the Damned see only some of the Blessed, &c.

The Third Book is of the Judgment and Resurrection: These are his Opinions. Neither the Time nor the Place of the Final Judgment can be known, nor how long it will last. Jesus Christ shall appear descending from Heaven with Angels, carrying his Cross: At the Sight of him the very Elect shall tremble for fear, and that Fear shall purify them from their Sins; but the ungodly shall be in a strange Confusion. All the Saints shall judge the World, toge∣ther with Christ. All Men shall rise in a Moment, and shall put on again a true Body and Flesh, but uncorruptible, without Defect, Imperfection or Mutilation, in a perfect Age and perfect Beauty. The Difference of Sexes shall remain, but without Lust, without any need of Food or Raiment. All Children, who had any Life in their Mothers Womb, shall rise again. Angels shall separate the Good from the Bad; the Consciences of both shall be laid open, the ungodly shall be cast down head-long into real Fires, in which their Bodies shall burn without being consumed; there shall be different Torments, according to the Difference of Crimes; and the Children guilty of Original Sin only, shall suffer the easiest Pain of all; It is needless to ask where that Fire shall be; after the Condemnation the Recompence of the Just shall follow, and then the Heaven and the Earth shall be set on Fire; there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth, where the Saints may dwell, tho' they may also ascend up into the Heavens; they shall then see God as the Angels do see him now; they shall enjoy a Liberty so much the more perfect, as they shall no more be obnoxious to Sin; they shall all be happy, tho' in different Degrees of Happiness; they shall be wholly employed in praising God; they shall place all their Felicity in the perpetual Contemplation and Love of him. These are the Points of Doctrine which Julian gathereth from the Fathers of the Church, for pro∣perly this Work is nothing else but a Collection of Passages of the Fathers, chiefly of S. Au∣gustin, S. Gregory and Julian Pomerius.

The Treatise against the Jews is more of Julian's Composition. He proves in the first Book That the Signs of the Messias's coming, pointed at in the Old Testament, are come to pass; That the Time set down by Daniel agrees with the coming of Christ; and that after Jerusa∣lem's Destruction the Jews can expect no other Messias. In the second he shews, by the Hi∣story of the New Testament, That Jesus Christ is the Messias, and that the Apostles did con∣vince the Jews of it. In the last he distinguisheth the Ages of the World by the Generations, and shews we are in the sixth Age: The first is from Adam to the Flood; the second from the Flood to Abraham; the third from Abraham to David; the fourth from David until the carry∣ing away into Babylon; the fifth from the carrying away into Babylon to Jesus Christ. He compares the Account of the Years of the Hebrew Text, and of the Septuagint, and preferrs the latter, because it was more suitable to his Design, finding by this means 5000 Years run out from the Beginning of the World to Christ's Birth. He extols the Authority of the Version of the Septuagint, and affirms that the Jews have corrupted the Hebrew Text. He adds, That altho it were not so, yet the distinction of the Generations shews the fifth Age of the World was run out when Christ came into the World.

The History of the Acts of Wamba in Gallia, being no Ecclesiastical Work, we will make no Extract of it here, contenting our selves in observing; that it is found in the first Volume of the Historiographers of France, put out by Du Chesne.

In the Bibliotheca Patrum of Colen [in 1618.] they have attributed to Julian of Toledo, a Book of Antilogies * 1.3, or seeming Contrarieties of the Scripture, which had been already printed without the Author's Name; but it was found to be Berthorius's, Abbot of Mount Cassin.

There was also part of a Commentary upon the Prophet Nahum published under Julian's Name: But besides that, there is nothing said of it in Felix's Catalogue, the Style and the manner of the Writing of it, shews plainly enough it belongs to another Author, tho' bearing Julian's Name in the Manuscript upon which Canisius publish'd it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Julian of Toledo.
• * 1.2

  [Vid. not. (u).]
• * 1.3

  [at Basil in 1530. at Colen in 1533. octa∣vo].