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P. Lansselius, S.J., Disputatio apologetica de S. Dionysii Areopagitae vita ejusque scriptis

Editors' preface

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PETRI LANSSELII

OF PETER LANSSELIUS

SOC. JESU PRESB.

PRIEST OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

DE S. DIONYSIO AREOPAGITA

CONCERNING ST DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

EJUSQUE SCRIPTIS

AND HIS WRITINGS

DISPUTATIO APOLOGETICA.

AN APOLOGETIC DISPUTATION.

Non est ut mirandum sit alicui, si post multas doctissimorum hominum lucubrationes, qui summa laude et ingenii gloria Vindicias Areopagiticas in lucem emiserunt, nos eamdem disputationem aggredimur. Nam ut omittam, quod singuli non omnia persecuti sint, quoque, ut ait coelestium hymnorum Vates, dies diei eructat verbum; sane pertinet ad editionem hanc nostram, quam ornatam suisque numeris absolutam esse cupimus, ut remorae omnes exstinguantur, turbulentae objectionum undae placentur, quo recto cursu hic mercium Atticarum cataplus, in Galiam a B. Dionysio invectus ad doctorum omnium intelligentiam appellat. Neque vero hic complectar omnia quae in hoc genere dici potuissent: magnam partem objectionum, quas amantes novitatis solent opponere, S. Maximus, aliique exhauriunt, qui Dionysii Vitam summo judicio perscripserunt. Quorum

It should not be a matter of wonder to anyone if, after the many night-labours of most learned men, who with the highest praise and glory of talent brought out into the light Vindications of the Areopagite, we undertake the same disputation. For, to pass over the fact that no single one of them pursued everything, and also that, as the poet of the heavenly hymns says, day utters speech to day (Ps. 18:3), it surely belongs to this edition of ours, which we desire to be adorned and complete in all its parts, that every hindrance be removed and the turbulent waves of objections be calmed, so that this cargo of Attic wares, carried into Gaul by blessed Dionysius, may put in by a straight course to the understanding of all learned men. Yet I shall not here embrace everything that could have been said on this subject: a great part of the objections which lovers of novelty are wont to raise is exhausted by St Maximus and the others who wrote out the Life of Dionysius with the soundest judgement. Since their

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Footnotes

(o) ‹anchor: diei eructat verbum› · call in col 981

Psal. XVIII, 3.

Psalm 18 [19]:3.

(printed under page 508)

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docta monumenta quoniam sunt in manibus, et a nobis in hoc etiam Opere collocantur, hoc proinde loco silebitur de Apollinari, nihil dicetur de utroque Dionysio, tum Corinthio tum Alexandrino, nihil de iis minutis quasi tragulis, quas scioli homines et curiosi in communem jam omnium nationum opinionem conjiciunt, ne in illis otiose refellendis actum agere, et bis cramben rccoquere videamur. Gravior mihi semper visa Turonensis Gregorii auctoritas, qua freti eruditissimi quidam hujus temporis theologi, fieri minime posse dicebant, ut is foret Areopagita Dionysius, quem homo Gallus, in Galliae rebus versatus deque notissimis rebus memorans, sub Decio Lutetiam Parisiorum venisse confirmat. Eoque magis in ea ipsa re audiendum esse putabant, quod cum ejus narratione sententia Martyrologium vetus Romanum, ut ipsi quidem rentur, conspiret Sancti viri locum e

learned monuments are in everyone's hands, and are also placed by us in this Work, nothing will therefore be said in this place about Apollinaris, nothing about the two Dionysii, the Corinthian and the Alexandrian, nothing about those petty little darts, as it were, which smatterers and the curious hurl into the now common opinion of all nations, lest in refuting them to no purpose we should seem to do what is done already and to cook cabbage twice over. Weightier has always seemed to me the authority of Gregory of Tours, relying on which certain most learned theologians of this age used to say that it could by no means be that he was Dionysius the Areopagite whom a Gaul, versed in the affairs of Gaul and recounting most well-known matters, affirms came to Lutetia of the Parisii under Decius. And they thought he was to be heard all the more on that very matter because, as they at least suppose, the old Roman Martyrology agrees in its judgement with his narrative the passage of the holy man from

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Francorum Historia depromptum, quandoquidem lubet excutere et examinare paulo subtilius, ad latebram totius difficultatis illuminandam, totum hic apponam. Ita igitur habet libro I, cap. 30 : « Hujus tempore septem viri episcopi ordinati ad praedicandum in Gallias missi sunt, sicut historia passionis sancti Saturni denarrat : ait enim, sub Decio et Grato consulibus, sicut fideli recordatione retinetur : primum ac summum Tolosana civitas sanctum Saturninum habere coeperat sacerdotem. Hi ergo missi sunt, Turonicis Gratianus episcopus ; Arelatensibus, Trophimus episcopus ; Narbonae, Paulus episcopus ; Tolosae, Saturninus episcopus : Parisiacis, Dionysius episcopus ; Arvernis, Stremonius episcopus ; Lemovicinis, Martialis est destinatus episcopus. »

the History of the Franks, since it pleases us to sift and examine it a little more subtly in order to illuminate the hiding-place of the whole difficulty, I shall set down here in full. Thus then he has it in Book I, ch. 30: "In his time seven men ordained bishops were sent to preach into Gaul, as the history of the passion of St. Saturninus relates: for it says, under the consuls Decius and Gratus, as is retained by faithful remembrance, the city of Toulouse had begun to have St. Saturninus as its first and highest priest. These therefore were sent: to the people of Tours, Bishop Gratian; to the people of Arles, Bishop Trophimus; to Narbonne, Bishop Paul; to Toulouse, Bishop Saturninus; to the Parisians, Bishop Dionysius; to the Arverni, Bishop Stremonius; to the people of Limoges, Martial was appointed bishop."

Equidem hunc antistitem non agri modo Turonensis decus, sed totius Galliae lumen, tanti facio, quanti par est eum, qui clarissimis monumentis gloriosi nominis famam obtinuit ; sed in hac re tamen non plus habet momenti ejus oratio, quam illa ipsa passio Saturnini quam laudat, quamque in maeandris antiquitatis relegendis Helicen unam et Cynosuram sequitur. Atque hoc ipso introitu in disputationem videre mihi videor, quis eum flatus in erroris scopulos illiserit ; nam cum in ea Saturnini rerum gestarum historia, vidisset egregium illum Christi bellatorem sub Decio venisse in Galliam, existimavit etiam alios claros viros, quos deinde nominat, fidei duces et propagatores, eadem ipsa aetate Galliae regnum vitae innocentia et doctrina illustravisse. Itaque ut in tenebris micans et incertus, nullum profert Romanum pontificem totius Ecclesiae gubernatorem, a quo illi primipili religionis ad triumphantem ubique impietatem coercendam sint dimissi. Sunt igitur duo quaedam mihi obiter et brevissime ostendenda : in primis, fuisse plures, etiam ex iis quos enumerat Gregorius, Christianae fidei buccinatores in Gallia, priusquam Decius imperii habenas moderaretur ; deinde, neminem eorum scriptorum, qui Ecclesiae nascentis memoriam posteritati transmiserunt, martyrumque natales dies collegerunt de B. Dionysio, confirmasse, eum una cum Gratiano, Saturnino, caeteris in Galliam fuisse legatum : e quibus liquido, opinor, constabit, quam levis, atque falsa, quam inanis sit Gregorii Turonensis opinatio, quam vanum denique sit ingeniosorum hominum commentum, qui antiquo Romano Martyrologio niti ejus opinionem, robustioremque fieri existimant.

Assuredly I value this prelate, the ornament not only of the territory of Tours, but the light of all Gaul, as highly as it is fitting to value him who by most illustrious monuments has obtained the fame of a glorious name; yet in this matter his statement has no more weight than that very Passion of Saturninus which he cites, and which he follows as his sole Helice and Cynosure in retracing the meanders of antiquity. And at this very entrance into the disputation I seem to myself to see what blast dashed him upon the rocks of error; for when in that history of the deeds of Saturninus he had seen that that peerless warrior of Christ came into Gaul under Decius, he supposed that the other illustrious men also whom he next names, leaders and propagators of the faith, in that very same age illuminated the kingdom of Gaul by innocence of life and teaching. And so, like one gleaming and uncertain in the darkness, he brings forward no Roman Pontiff, governor of the whole Church, by whom those chief centurions of religion were sent forth to restrain impiety triumphing everywhere. There are therefore two points to be shown by me in passing and very briefly: first, that there were several, even of those whom Gregory enumerates, trumpeters of the Christian faith in Gaul before Decius held the reins of empire; next, that none of those writers who transmitted the memory of the nascent Church to posterity, and collected the natal days of the martyrs, has confirmed concerning blessed Dionysius that he was sent as legate into Gaul together with Gratian, Saturninus, and the rest: from which it will clearly be established, I think, how light and false, how empty is the conjecture of Gregory of Tours, and finally how vain is the figment of ingenious men who think that his opinion rests upon and is strengthened by the ancient Roman Martyrology.

Utrumque vero ex iis scriptoribus, qui Martyrologia summa cura et labore concinnarunt, non est operosum ostendere. Nam ut a Gratiano inchoemus, vetus Romanum Martyrologium, et deinceps Ado 18 Octobris, nec quo tempore sit missus in Galliam explicant, nec socium B. Dionysii fuisse contendunt. Par utriusque silentium de Trophimo, quem alioqui discipulum apostolorum vocant. De illo vero haec Adonis verba notari velim, cum de festivitatibus apostolorum, « Natalis, inquit, sancti Trophimi de quo scribit Apostolus ad Timotheum : Trophimum autem reliqui infirmum Mileti. Hic ab apostolis Romae ordinatus episcopus, primus ad Arelatem urbem Galliae ob Christi Evangelium praedicandum directus est. Ex cujus fonte, ut B. papa Zosimus scribit, totae Galliae fidei rivos acceperunt : qui apud eamdem urbem in pace quievit. » Idem confirmat in Chronico aetate sexta, anno Christi 59 Gaguinus libro IX de Carolo V rege scribens, haec de Trophimo refert : « Arelatem regni Burgundorum primariam civitatem et caput fuisse, imperioque paruisse, certum est : quam, ut Gervasius scribit, Aram latam prisci appellabant ; nam in eo loco prope civitatem, qui Rocheta dicebatur, duae columnae exstructae erant et super eas ara imposita,

And to show both points from those writers who compiled the Martyrologies with the greatest care and labour is not difficult. For to begin with Gratian, the ancient Roman Martyrology, and next Ado on the 18th of October, neither explain at what time he was sent into Gaul, nor contend that he was a companion of blessed Dionysius. Equal is the silence of both concerning Trophimus, whom moreover they call a disciple of the apostles. Concerning him indeed I would have these words of Ado noted, when treating of the feasts of the apostles: "The natal day," says he, "of St. Trophimus, of whom the Apostle writes to Timothy: But Trophimus I left sick at Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20). He, having been ordained bishop at Rome by the apostles, was directed first to Arles, a city of Gaul, to preach the Gospel of Christ. From whose fountain, as the blessed Pope Zosimus writes, all the provinces of Gaul received the streams of the faith: who rested in peace at the same city." The same thing he confirms in his Chronicle in the sixth age, under the year of Christ 59. Gaguin in Book IX, writing of King Charles V, relates these things concerning Trophimus: "That Arles was the primary city and capital of the kingdom of the Burgundians, and obeyed the empire, is certain: which, as Gervase writes, the ancients called Ara lata ('Broad Altar'); for in that place near the city which was called Rocheta, two columns were built up and upon them an altar set

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Footnotes

(p) ‹anchor: infirmum Mileti› · call in col 983

II Tim. IV, 20.

2 Timothy 4:20.

(printed under page 509)

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ubi quotanis ad Kalendas Maias frequens undique populus, humanas hostias pro sua sospitate mactare consueverat. Itaque tres juvenes publica pecunia emptos ano toto saginabant, quos constituto die ad ipsam aram immolabant, victimarum sanguine circumstantem populum aspergentes, quem ritum D. Trophimus ex septuaginta duobus Christi discipulis illo ex Judaea missus, sustulit ; docens, non cruore mortalium hominum, sed Christi sanguine illos debere aspergi. » Hunc igitur, ad rudes animos religione imbuendos, sub Decio venisse in Galliam putemus.

up, where every year on the Kalends of May aNumerous people from all sides had been wont to slaughter human victims for their safety. And so they fattened for a whole year three youths bought at the public expense, whom on the appointed day they sacrificed at the altar itself, sprinkling the surrounding people with the blood of the victims; which rite St. Trophimus, one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ sent thither from Judaea, abolished, teaching that they ought to be sprinkled not with the blood of mortal men, but with the blood of Christ." Let us suppose, then, that he came into Gaul under Decius to imbue untaught minds with religion!

Sequitur tertio loco Narbonensis antistes Paulus, de quo, si eadem vetustis monumenta scrutari, et pervolutare Martyrologia velimus, sic reperiemus, nullam Decii mentionem, nullam cum Dionysio nostro in peregrinando societatem adhiberi. Vetus Romanum 22 Martii diserte ipsum discipulum apostolorum indigitat. Ado De festivitate apostolorum : « Natalis S. Pauli, quem beati apostoli ordinatum urbi Narbonae episcopum miserunt. Quem tradunt eumdem ipsum fuisse Sergium Paulum proconsulem, virum prudentem, a quo ipse Paulus sortitus est nomen, quia eum fidei Christi subegerat, quique ab eodem sancto Apostolo, cum ad Hispanias praedicandi gratia pergeret, apud praefatam urbem Narbonam relictus, praedicationis officio non segniter impleto, clarus miraculis coronatus sepelitur. » Illustrissimus Baronius hanc ipsam historiam purpura orationis convestivit et ornavit, quam huic panno minime attexo, hoc unum contentus ostendisse, tot saeculorum aetatumque judicio, Martyrologii testimonio, scriptorum illustrium consensione, Gregorii Turonensis opinionem abjectam et repudiatam fuisse.

There follows in the third place Paul, Prelate of Narbonne, concerning whom, if we wish to search the same monuments of antiquity and turn over the Martyrologies, we shall find thus: that no mention of Decius is made, and no fellowship in travel with our Dionysius is added. The ancient Roman Martyrology on the 22nd of March expressly points him out as a disciple of the apostles. Ado in On the Feasts of the Apostles says: "The natal day of St. Paul, whom the blessed apostles ordained bishop and sent to the city of Narbonne. Whom they relate to have been that very same proconsul Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, from whom Paul himself obtained his name because he had subjected him to the faith of Christ, and who, left by the same holy Apostle at the aforesaid city of Narbonne when he was proceeding to Spain for the sake of preaching, having fulfilled the office of preaching not slothfully, illustrious for miracles and crowned, is buried." The most illustrious Baronius has clothed and adorned this very history with the purple of his eloquence, which I by no means weave onto this patch, content to have shown this one thing: that by the judgement of so many centuries and ages, by the testimony of the Martyrology, and by the agreement of illustrious writers, the opinion of Gregory of Tours has been cast aside and repudiated.

Numerat deinde Saturninum, de quo etiam quid vetus memoria praedicet, videamus. Vetus quidem Romanum Martyrologium plane silet, nec in Vita quam Surius tomo VI posuit, discipulus fuisse Dionysii nostri dicitur ; quin Graecus scriptor nullus reperietur, qui dicat Saturnum sancti Dionysii socium, Tolosanum fuisse episcopum. Adde, neminem memorare, mortem illum occubuisse sub Fescennino Sisinnio, atque adeo, nisi me mea memoria fallit, non exstare apud ullum qui res veteres litterarum monumentis mandarit, ullam mentionem cujusdam praesidis Sisinnii, qui tempore Decii imperatoris floreret. Latini vero qui deinceps Saturnini meminerunt, cum in eadem vestigia sint ingressi, quae palans ante Gregorius impresserat, non est mirum, si cum eodem de via deflexerint. Merito igitur illa ab Hilduino dicuntur pag. 69 : « Et quod Gregorius Turonensis, sicut in passione S. Saturnini legisse se dixerat, sub autumatione memoret istum ipsum tempore persecutionis Decii sub B. Sixto cum aliis sex episcopis, quorum vitae vel passiones nequaquam ejus dictis in ratione temporum consonant, in has regiones fuisse directum. »

Next he enumerates Saturninus, concerning whom also let us see what ancient memory proclaims. The ancient Roman Martyrology indeed is wholly silent, nor in the Life which Surius placed in vol. VI is he said to have been a disciple of our Dionysius; nay, no Greek writer will be found to say that Saturninus was a companion of St. Dionysius and Bishop of Toulouse. Add that no one relates that he met his death under Fescenninus Sisinnius, and indeed, unless my memory deceives me, there is not extant in anyone who has committed ancient matters to monuments of letters any mention of a certain governor Sisinnius who flourished in the time of the Emperor Decius. And as for the Latins who afterwards made mention of Saturninus, since they entered into the same footsteps which Gregory wandering before had imprinted, it is no wonder if with him they turned aside from the way. Deservedly therefore are those words spoken by Hilduin on p. 69: "And that Gregory of Tours, as he had said he read in the passion of St. Saturninus, mentions by way of supposition that this same man in the time of the persecution of Decius under blessed Sixtus was directed into these regions with six other bishops, whose lives or passions in no wise agree with his sayings in the reckoning of times."

Quinto loco Dionysium nostrum recenset, quem, ut delectum Argivum virum, ad ipsam heroum classem Gallicamque expeditionem aggregat. Proferemus igitur Martyrologium, quod totum ab eo esse volunt. Ita vero habet 3 Octobris : « Athenis, Dionysii Areopagitae, sub Adriano diversis tormentis passi, ut Aristides testis est in opere quod de Christiana religione composuit, etc. » Et 9 ejusdem : « Parisiis Dionysii episcopi cum sociis suis a Fescennino gladio animadversi. » Ex his locis quidam existimarunt, quod e privatis eorum litteris cognovi, perspicue duos distingui Dionysios, notata loci et diei varietate. Sed, quod pace illorum sit dictum, vitreum illud est et fragile fundamentum, ex quo effici nihil aliud possit, quam solemnes dies festos uni et eidem varie consecratos. Neque vero est

In the fifth place he reckons our Dionysius, whom, like a chosen Argive man, he joins to that very fleet of heroes and Gallic expedition. We shall bring forward therefore the Martyrology, the whole of which they wish to be on his side. Now it has on the 3rd of October thus: "At Athens, of Dionysius the Areopagite, who suffered diverse torments under Hadrian, as Aristides is witness in the work which he composed on the Christian religion," etc. And on the 9th of the same: "At Paris, of Bishop Dionysius with his companions punished with the sword by Fescenninus." From these passages some have supposed, as I have learned from their private letters, that two Dionysiuses are clearly distinguished, the variety of place and day being noted. But, be it said by their leave, that is a glassy and fragile foundation, from which nothing else can be made out than solemn feast days variously consecrated to one and the same man. Nor indeed is there

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quod Athenarum mentio conturbare ullius animum debeat : nam Athenis quidem S. Dionysium diem extremum obiisse, non civitatum imperiorumque Annales, non commemoratio ulla antiquitatis, non excellentium hominum commentarii significant ; liquido autem repugnant illi omnes, qui ejus Vitam scriptis illustrarunt suis, quos diligenter exceptos studioso Lectori suo loco proponimus. Quod si quis autem rationem exquirat, cur vetus Romanum Martyrologium, Beda et Ado agant 3 Octobris de Areopagita Dionysio, die vero 9 de Dionysio Parisiorum, caecus sim et devius a ratione, si me putem in eo genere aliquid melius aut elegantius excogitare, quam quod praestitit clarissimus Baronius, undequaque magnus, de quo non dubitem id Laconum pronuntiare, Θεῖος ἀνὴρ οὗτος. Sic vero ille disputat : « Quod autem Beda et Ado de Dionysio Areopagita agunt tertia die Octobris, die vero nona de Dionysio Parisiorum, quasi hic sit diversus ab illo, dicimus a Graecis mutuatos exemplum, ea enim die Graeci de Areopagita agunt, Romae autem hac die ex antiquis Ecclesiarum monumentis agi solitum certum est, alia fortasse de causa. Saepe enim accidisse vidimus, ut alia ratione Graeci, alia vero Latini ejusdem sancti agant celebritatem ; imo inter ipsos Latinos eamdem invenies diversitatem, quod nimirum alii celebrent diem natalem, inventionis seu translationis ; alii, vel forte dedicationis Ecclesiae ; qua etiam ratione de uno eodemque sancto iterum agi solemnitatem, facile invenies. Ad haec si attentius considerentur quae Beda et Ado ea die tertia Octobris dicant de Dionysio Areopagita, iidem nostrae potius favere videntur causae, quam contradicere, cum testentur, sanctum Dionysium sub Adriano imperatore martyrium consummasse ; quo quidem tempore Atheniensi Ecclesiae praefuisse Quadratum episcopum, et hujus praecessorem Publicum, Dionysii successorem, certum est ; id etenim Eusebius Historiae libro IV, cap. 22, id etiam sanctus Hieronymus De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis in Quadrato, id denique caeteri historici ea tempora prosecuti testantur. Quin si fidem praestamus Hippolyti libello De septuaginta duobus discipulis, Narcissum discipulum Domini ante praedictos post Dionysium Athenis sedisse, dicere opus est. Quaenam ergo causa esse potuit, ut Dionysio adhuc superstite, usque ad tempora Adriani tres episcopi, vel saltem duo, in ejus locum fuerint subrogati ? Haud equidem credendum est, talem tantumque virum, Ecclesiae columnam, in maximis illis Ecclesiae augustiis sedi nuntium remisisse, vitamque otiosam transegisse. Sicque nihil est quod convenientius dici posse videatur, quam (quod ejus acta significant) eum ad majorem provinciam subeundam a S. Clemente papa in Gallias amandatum ; quo exemplo factum apparet, ut et S. Polycarpus suorum discipulorum plerosque eodem ex Asia miserit, cum tam ingens ostium ad Evangelium propagandum patere videret, et in multa messe operarios esse perpaucos. »

any reason why the mention of Athens should trouble the mind of anyone: for that St. Dionysius met his last day at Athens, neither the Annals of cities and empires, nor any commemoration of antiquity, nor the commentaries of excellent men signify; and all those clearly contradict it who have illustrated his Life by their writings, whom, diligently gathered, we set before the studious Reader in their proper place. Now if anyone should inquire the reason why the ancient Roman Martyrology, Bede, and Ado treat on the 3rd of October of Dionysius the Areopagite, and on the 9th of Dionysius of Paris, I should be blind and straying from reason if I thought that I could devise anything better or more elegant in that kind than what the most illustrious Baronius, great on every side, has furnished, of whom I would not hesitate to pronounce that saying of the Spartans, "This is a divine man." Now he disputes thus: "And as to the fact that Bede and Ado treat of Dionysius the Areopagite on the third day of October, and on the ninth day of Dionysius of Paris, as though the latter were different from the former, we say that they borrowed the example from the Greeks, for on that day the Greeks keep the feast of the Areopagite, whereas at Rome it is certain from the ancient monuments of the Churches that it was wont to be kept on this day, perhaps for another cause. For we have often seen it happen that on one ground the Greeks, and on another the Latins, keep the feast of the same saint; nay, among the Latins themselves you will find the same diversity, namely because some celebrate the natal day, or the day of invention or translation, others perhaps that of the dedication of the church; on which ground also you will easily find that a solemnity is kept a second time for one and the same saint. Besides this, if the things which Bede and Ado say on that third day of October concerning Dionysius the Areopagite be more attentively considered, the same men seem rather to favour our cause than to contradict it, since they testify that St. Dionysius consummated his martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian; at which time indeed it is certain that Bishop Quadratus presided over the Church of Athens, and before him Publius, the successor of Dionysius; for this Eusebius in Book IV of his History, ch. 22, this also St. Jerome in On Ecclesiastical Writers under Quadratus, this finally the rest of the historians who have treated of those times testify. Nay, if we give credit to the little book of Hippolytus On the Seventy-Two Disciples, we must say that Narcissus, a disciple of the Lord, sat at Athens after Dionysius before the aforesaid bishops. What cause therefore could there have been that, while Dionysius was still surviving, down to the times of Hadrian three bishops, or at least two, were substituted in his place? Assuredly it is not to be believed that such and so great a man, a pillar of the Church, in those greatest straits of the Church renounced his see and spent an idle life. And thus there is nothing that can seem to be more fittingly said than (what his acts signify) that to undertake a greater province he was sent away by the holy Pope Clement into Gaul; by which example it appears to have come to pass that St. Polycarp also sent most of his disciples to the same place from Asia, when he saw so great a door standing open for propagating the Gospel, and in an abundant harvest the labourers to be very few."

Hactenus Baronius : qui cum S. Clementem nominat, fortissimum mea quidem opinione suggerit argumentum ad eamdem rem comprobandam. Neque enim in Vitis pontificum reperietur ab alio missum in Galliam Dionysium, quam a Clemente, qui idem publicus administer religionis, soliique Romani praeses, pari consilio et auctoritate B. Dionysii commilitones amandavit, a quibus Itali, Germanique, tum qui in Hispania sunt populi, fidei lucem exceperunt. Quos populos futili existimatione delusos, hactenus in summa ignoratione jacuisse necesse est, inanemque omnem majorum traditionem esse putandam, anilia denique esse commenta quae in archivis ecclesiarum tabulariisque continentur, si Dionysius Areopagita, si qui ejus feruntur socii, nunquam ad eas oras appulerunt. Atque hoc ipsum erit etiam, opinor, illustrius, si consideremus

Thus far Baronius: who, when he names St. Clement, suggests in my opinion at least the strongest argument for proving the same thing. For neither will it be found in the Lives of the Pontiffs that Dionysius was sent into Gaul by anyone else than by Clement, who, being the same public minister of religion and president of the Roman throne, with equal counsel and authority sent forth the fellow soldiers of blessed Dionysius, from whom the Italians and Germans, and also the peoples who are in Spain, received the light of the faith. Which peoples, deluded by a futile supposition, must necessarily have lain hitherto in the deepest ignorance, and all the tradition of our ancestors must be thought empty, and finally the things that are contained in the archives and registries of the churches must be old wives' fables, if Dionysius the Areopagite, and if those who are reported to have been his companions, never put in to those shores. And this very thing will be even more illustrious, I think, if we consider

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marginal letters: A quod Athenarum mentio; B mutuatos exemplum, ea; C nysii successorem, certum; D ostium ad Evangelium
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quid varia breviaria, quae communem fidem nationum de tutelaribus sanctis conservant, de Dionysio deque ejus sociis repraesentent. Multos igitur communium precum codices seu breviaria diversarum ecclesiarum nobis concessit R. D. Florentius Vander Hare, canonicus et thesaurarius ecclesiae collegiatae Sancti Petri Insulis, vir diligentissimus veterum rerum indagator, idemque humanissimus, in quibus perspicue notari video in Galliam eos venisse. Breviarium Parisiense impressum anno 1492, Burgense anno 1502, Morinense 1519, Brugense 1520, Rhemense 1549, Hildesimense 1516, ipsum asserunt a Clemente papa in Gallias missum, Parisiis capite diminutum. Hildesimense vero adjungit ei socios SS. Saturninum, Lucianum, Marcellum. Unde patet, Latinos etiam scriptores pervetustos censuisse, Saturninum longe ante Decii tempora, in Galliis fidem religionemque vulgasse. Parisiense quidem certe in Vita S. Eutropii asseverat, illum cum sancto Dionysio venisse ; sed Burgense anno 1502 editum, rem omnem magnificentius explicat : sic enim S. Eugenii Vitam proponit :

what various breviaries, which preserve the common faith of nations concerning their tutelary saints, set forth concerning Dionysius and his companions. Many codices of common prayers or breviaries of diverse churches have been granted to us by the Reverend Master Florent van der Haer, canon and treasurer of the collegiate church of St. Peter at Lille, a most diligent investigator of ancient matters and at the same time most courteous, in which I see it clearly noted that they came into Gaul. The Parisian Breviary printed in the year 1492, that of Bourges in the year 1502, that of Thérouanne in 1519, that of Bruges in 1520, that of Rheims in 1549, and that of Hildesheim in 1516, assert that he was sent by Pope Clement into Gaul and beheaded at Paris. And that of Hildesheim adjoins to him as companions Saints Saturninus, Lucian, and Marcellus. Whence it is plain that very ancient Latin writers also held that Saturninus spread the faith and religion in Gaul long before the times of Decius. The Parisian Breviary indeed certainly asserts in the Life of St. Eutropius that he came with St. Dionysius; while that of Bourges, published in the year 1502, explains the whole matter more magnificently: for it sets forth the Life of St. Eugenius thus:

« Postquam B. Dionysium Paulus apostolus ad fidem Christi convertit, et Athenarum praefecit episcopum, Romam rediit, ubi non longe post martyrium sumpsit : cujus desiderio B. Dionysius illuc pergens, B. Petrum ac eumdem Paulum martyrio coronatos invenit, sanctumque Clementem apostolicae sedis infula sublimatum reperit, cujus benedictione roboratus, apostolatuque ab eo totius Galliae suscepto, cum pluribus coepiscopis et presbyteris et diaconibus Arelatensium civitatem usque pervenit. Comministros sibi traditos destinavit, videlicet B. Lucianum Belvacensibus, Marcellum Bituricensibus, aliosque quamplures suis in locis, Eugenium vero Toletum mittere studuit : praedictus itaque Dionysius cum sociis Rustico et Eleutherio urbem adiit Parisios, ubi illos contra incredulos dimicantes Fescenninus reperit, eosque multis afficiens tormentis, ad ultimum decollari jussit. Hi sancti viri S. Trinitatem confitentes, trinum pariter compleverunt martyrium. Interea dum haec aguntur, B. Eugenius, cujus inclyta vita in Ecclesiis exstat bonorum operum forma, postquam gentilem populum Toletanae provinciae exemplo honestae vitae, catholica praedicatione, miraculorum confirmatione ad fidem Christianam convertit. »

"After the Apostle Paul converted blessed Dionysius to the faith of Christ, and set him over Athens as bishop, he returned to Rome, where not long afterwards he suffered martyrdom: out of desire for whom blessed Dionysius proceeding thither, found blessed Peter and the same Paul crowned with martyrdom, and found St. Clement exalted with the fillet of the Apostolic See; strengthened by whose blessing, and having received from him the apostolate of all Gaul, with several fellow bishops and presbyters and deacons he arrived as far as the city of Arles. The fellow ministers delivered to him he appointed, namely blessed Lucian to the people of Beauvais, Marcellus to the people of Bourges, and very many others in their places, while Eugenius he took care to send to Toledo: the aforesaid Dionysius therefore with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius went to the city of Paris, where Fescenninus found them striving against the unbelievers, and afflicting them with many torments, at last commanded them to be beheaded. These holy men, confessing the Holy Trinity, accomplished together a threefold martyrdom. Meanwhile, while these things were being done, blessed Eugenius, whose renowned life stands forth in the Churches as a pattern of good works, after he had converted the Gentile people of the province of Toledo to the Christian faith by the example of an upright life, by Catholic preaching, and by the confirmation of miracles..."

Huic historiae lucem feret splendida P. Joannis Marianae e societate nostra animadversio, ex libro IV De rebus Hispaniae, capite 4, circa annum Christi 97 : « Omnium per haec tempora Eugenius primus Toletanus praesul occisus est. Missus fuerat in Hispaniam a Dionysio Areopagita (sic pro constanti traditur) ex Gallia ubi Evangelium propagabat : et Christi religione in ea provincia, ac Toleti praesertim, fundata ; studio Dionysium invisendi, in interiorem Galliam penetravit, cum a Sisinii praefecti satellitibus comprehensus, in vestigio est occisus. Corpus in Marcasium lacum conjectum, Gallia demum Christi sacris populariter imbuta, Herceldus vir primarius divino monitu in Diolum pagum lacui vicinum delatum, templo ejus nomini dicato coluit. Inde in templum Dionysiacum migravit, et rege Castellae Allonso, qui imperator est nuncupatus, ejus brachium primum Toletum relatum est, Ludovico VII Galliae rege concedente in soceri regis gratiam, et Raymundi Toletani praesulis. Nam quo is tempore Eugenio III Romano pontifice ad Rhemensem episcopum conventum festinabat, ex itinere rem omnem de Hispanorum memoria obliteratam praesens exploraverat. Reliquum inde corpus nostra aetate a Carolo IX rege Galliae, Philippo II Hispaniae regi datum, atque in urbem Toletum invectum, principali ac vero incredibili apparatu ante viginti annos, majori religione colitur. Sunt qui putent, Philippum quemdam a Clemente in Hispaniam episcopum

Light will be brought to this history by the splendid observation of Father Juan de Mariana of our Society, from Book IV of On the Affairs of Spain, chapter 4, around the year of Christ 97: "Of all during these times Eugenius, the first Prelate of Toledo, was slain. He had been sent into Spain by Dionysius the Areopagite (so it is constantly handed down) out of Gaul, where he was propagating the Gospel: and having founded the religion of Christ in that province, and especially at Toledo, out of eagerness to visit Dionysius he penetrated into interior Gaul, when, having been seized by the satellites of the prefect Sisinnius, he was slain on the spot. His body having been cast into Lake Marchais, when Gaul was at length popularly imbued with the sacred rites of Christ, Hericold, a leading man, by divine admonition honoured it, when carried to the village of Deuil near the lake, in a church dedicated to his name. Thence it removed to the church of St. Denis, and under Alfonso, King of Castile, who was called Emperor, his arm was first brought back to Toledo, Louis VII, King of France, granting it for the sake of the king his father-in-law, and of Raymond, Prelate of Toledo. For at the time when under the Roman Pontiff Eugenius III he was hastening to the assembly of bishops at Rheims, on the way he had investigated in person the whole matter, which had been obliterated from the memory of the Spaniards. The rest of the body thereafter in our age, given by Charles IX, King of France, to Philip II, King of Spain, and brought into the city of Toledo with princely and truly incredible pomp twenty years ago, is venerated with greater devotion. There are some who think that a certain Philip, sent by Clement into Spain as bibanished

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other: Latin only, no Greek printed; column begins with fragment deremus (from consideremus) and ends mid-word epi-

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amandatum, aut certe Marcellum, quem Philippo socium Dionysius adjunxit ex Gallia (ut Michael Syngelus est auctor) Eugenium ipsum fuisse, atque hoc quidem nomen ab ingenita nobilitate manasse, alterum autem a parentibus accepisse. Quod cum affirmant, nulla meliori conjectura nituntur, quam quod Eugenii nulla mentio exstet in antiquorum scriptis : Philippus et Marcellus quid rerum in Hispania gesserint, penitus lateat. Ex eo suspicantur, nominibus permutatis eumdem Eugenium et Philippum fuisse aut Marcellum. »

as bishop, or certainly that Marcellus, whom Dionysius joined from Gaul as a companion to Philip (as Michael Syncellus is the authority), was Eugenius himself, and that this name indeed flowed from his inborn nobility, whereas he received the other from his parents. When they affirm this, they rely on no better conjecture than that no mention of Eugenius is extant in the writings of the ancients, and what deeds Philip and Marcellus performed in Spain lies wholly hidden. From this they suspect that, with the names interchanged, Eugenius was the very same person as either Philip or Marcellus."

Quod vero dicat, Syngelum censere, S. Marcellum adjunctum S. Dionysio socium eumdem esse cum Eugenio, in Syngelo desideratur. Quare arbitror ipsum existimasse auctorem martyrii S. Dionysii fuisse Syngelum : alius tamen fuit, nimirum S. Methodius. Cuspinianus p. 423, in Consules Cassiodori affirmat, se legisse in vetustis annalibus anno Domini 121 : « Apud Parisios Dionysius episcopus martyrizatur. »

Yet as for what he says, that Syncellus holds that St. Marcellus, joined as a companion to St. Dionysius, is the same person as Eugenius, this is lacking in Syncellus. Wherefore I think that he supposed the author of the martyrdom of St. Dionysius to have been Syncellus; yet it was another, namely St. Methodius. Cuspinianus, p. 423, on the Consuls of Cassiodorus, affirms that he read in ancient annals under the year of the Lord 121: "At Paris Bishop Dionysius is martyred."

Sed haec libasse de B. Dionysio sufficiat, ad infringendam Gregorii Turonensis auctoritatem ; qui pergit, et his episcopis subnectit Stremonium, de quo Vetus Romanum, Ado, Beda, et, ut brevi dicam, omnes qui Martyrologia confecerunt, plane tacent. Martyrologium duntaxat Romanum Baronii ita meminit : « Arvernis Austremonii primi ejusdem civitatis episcopi : » quo tempore floruerit non dicit. Demochares p. 42 : « S. Astremonius seu Austremonius, quem inter Christi discipulos numerant. »

But let it suffice to have touched upon these things concerning Blessed Dionysius in order to weaken the authority of Gregory of Tours; who proceeds and subjoins to these bishops Stremonius, concerning whom the Old Roman Martyrology, Ado, Bede, and, to speak briefly, all who have compiled Martyrologies, are completely silent. Only the Roman Martyrology of Baronius makes mention of him thus: "At Clermont, of Austremonius, first bishop of the same city"; at what time he flourished it does not say. Demochares, p. 42: "St. Astremonius or Austremonius, whom they number among the disciples of Christ."

Extremo in loco ponitur Martialis. Et de tempore quidem quod hic venit in Gallias, nullum, quod sciam, prodit Martyrologium ; observat autem Baronius, Petrum in Catalogo l. VI, c. 29, tradere, eum dudum obiisse anno tertio Vespasiani. Demochares pag. 43, ita scribit : « S. Martialis, unus ex septuaginta discipulis Domini. anno Domini 47 has quatuor sedes episcopales in honorem Dei et beatae Mariae virginis, Anicensem, Ruthenam, Arvernam, Mimiatensem aedificasse ac dedicasse dicitur. Idem quoque sub nomine ac titulo B. Stephani protomartyris, quinque has ecclesias cathedrales, Lemovicensem, Bituricensem, Cadurcensem, Agenensem et Tolosanam construxisse fertur. Sunt et qui eidem tribuunt trium ecclesiarum episcopalium harum, Pictaviensis, Xantoniensis, Engolismensis in honorem sancti Petri apostoli erectionem. Nec desunt qui eumdem dicant ecclesiam Burdegalensem in honorem sancti Stephani ac sancti Andreae apostoli consecrasse. »

In the last place is put Martial. And indeed concerning the time when he came into Gaul, no Martyrology, so far as I know, makes mention; however, Baronius observes that Peter in his Catalogue, book VI, ch. 29, relates that he had died long before in the third year of Vespasian. Demochares, page 43, writes thus: "St. Martial, one of the seventy disciples of the Lord, in the year of the Lord 47 is said to have built and dedicated these four episcopal sees in honour of God and the blessed Virgin Mary: Le Puy, Rodez, Clermont, and Mende. The same also, under the name and title of Blessed Stephen the Protomartyr, is reported to have constructed these five cathedral churches: Limoges, Bourges, Cahors, Agen, and Toulouse. There are also those who attribute to the same man the erection of these three episcopal churches, Poitiers, Saintes, and Angoulême, in honour of Saint Peter the Apostle. Nor are there lacking those who say that the same man consecrated the church of Bordeaux in honour of Saint Stephen and Saint Andrew the Apostle."

Haec propemodum mihi satis esse videbantur, ut ostenderem, Gregorii Turonensis leviorem esse opinionem, quam ut receptam et contestatam omnium saeculorum aetatibus sententiam possit convellere. Sed quoniam tantum sub Decio, fide primum imbutam Galliam ornatamque significat, age nunc ostendamus, quod sumus jam ab initio polliciti, ante illam Decii imperatoris tempestatem multos claros et religione praestantes in imperio Gallicanos fuisse, quos Gregorius ut ignotos homines praeteriit, et de quibus verbum nullum fecit. Non erit certe Gallis hominibus haec inutilis aut ingrata commemoratio, cum videbunt, jam inde ab invento Christiano nomine, tam variis tamque odoratis flosculis coronatam fuisse Galliam, tot veluti stellis clarissimis distinctam, tot divini spiritus tubis resonantem.

These things seemed to me almost sufficient to show that the opinion of Gregory of Tours is of too little weight to be able to overturn a judgement received and attested by the ages of all centuries. But since he indicates that Gaul was first imbued and adorned with the faith only under Decius, come now, let us show what we promised right from the beginning: that before that storm of the Emperor Decius there were in the empire many illustrious Gauls outstanding in religion, whom Gregory passed over as unknown men, and concerning whom he made no word of mention. Certainly this commemoration will not be useless or unwelcome to the men of Gaul, when they see that right from the first introduction of the Christian name Gaul was crowned with such varied and such fragrant blossoms, gemmed, as it were, with so many most brilliant stars, resounding with so many trumpets of the divine spirit.

Occurrunt mihi in primis Rhemenses archiepiscopi tres, magnae viri auctoritatis et sanctimoniae, sanctus Sixtus, sanctus Sinicius, sanctus Amantius, B. Petri apostoli discipuli, qui sub Nerone morte obita, gloriosissime triumpharunt, 1 Septembris.

There meet me in the first place three archbishops of Reims, men of great authority and holiness, Saint Sixtus, Saint Sinicius, and Saint Amantius, disciples of Blessed Peter the Apostle, who, having undergone death under Nero, triumphed most gloriously on the 1st of September.

S. Memmius Catalaunensis episcopus Romanus, beati Petri discipulus, hic apud Dionantum aedem beato Stephano consecravit, ubi et sanctus Maternus Tungrensis beatae Mariae alteram aedem dedicavit anno Domini 120. I. Placentius in Catalogo

St. Memmius, bishop of Châlons, a Roman, disciple of Blessed Peter; he consecrated a church at Dinant to Blessed Stephen, where Saint Maternus of Tongeren also dedicated another church to Blessed Mary in the year of the Lord 120. J. Placentius in his Catalogue

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marginal letters: A scopum amandatum; B scopus martyrizatur; C Mariae virginis; D citi, ante illam
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episcoporum Tungrorum, et Breviarium Rhemense pluribus de eodem agunt.

of the Bishops of Tongeren, and the Breviary of Reims treat of the same man at greater length.

Sanctus Maternus episcopus Tungrorum, 14 Septembris, discipulus sancti Petri apostoli, de quo Demochares : « Sanctus Maternus anno Domini 101 oratorium via publica Christo Salvatori nuncupavit, apud Trajectenses et Tungros aedem Deiparae Virgini consecravit, et anno 102 apud Huvos ad montis umbraculum, quem Mosa alluebat, aedem Virgini matri dedicavit. Deinde Dionantum profectus, ubi invenit sanctum Memmium episcopum Catalaunensem, aedem sanctae Mariae consecravit, alteram Memmius sancto Stephano. Ideo quoque Namurci destructo idolo, aedem beatae Mariae inscripsit, praeter eas quas passim aliis in locis dicitur dedicasse. »

Saint Maternus, bishop of Tongeren, 14th of September, disciple of Saint Peter the Apostle, concerning whom Demochares writes: "Saint Maternus in the year of the Lord 101 dedicated an oratory on the public highway to Christ the Saviour, consecrated a church among the people of Maastricht and Tongeren to the Virgin Mother of God, and in the year 102 at Huy, by the shady shelter of the mountain which the Meuse washed, dedicated a church to the Virgin Mother. Then, having set out for Dinant, where he found Saint Memmius, bishop of Châlons, he consecrated a church to Saint Mary, while Memmius consecrated another to Saint Stephen. Therefore also at Namur, having destroyed the idol, he inscribed a church to Blessed Mary, besides those which he is said to have dedicated here and there in other places."

S. Regulus Silvanectensis episcopus, 30 Martii, discipulus sancti Joannis evangelistae. Vide Petrum in Catalogo libro IV, cap. 15, de quo ita Demochares : « Silvanectensium episcopus primus B. Regulus, qui missam celebravit a beato Joanne evangelista edoctus, a beato Clemente confirmatus. Siquidem de eo legimus in Catalogo sanctorum capite decimo quinto, libro quarto, ad hunc modum : Regulus episcopus natione Graecus, Joannis evangelistae apud Ephesum discipulus fuit. Quo in Patmon insulam relegato, Athenas veniens, Dionysio adhaesit, cum quo Romam perrexit, et una secum, et cum sanctissimis Rustico et Eleutherio, a beato papa Clemente ad Gallias praedicationis gratia destinatur, qui primum Arelatum devenit : ubi a sancto Dionysio Christi nomine invocato, idolum Martis destruitur, et multis conversis templum illud in honorem apostolorum Petri et Pauli consecratur. Missis ergo sociis suis ad diversas urbes, ipse Dionysius, sancto Regulo Arelatensis civitatis ordinato episcopo, Parisios accessit, ubi cum Rustico et Eleutherio martyrii palmam suscepit. Eodem autem die quo passi sunt, dum missam Regulus in Arelato celebraret, et nomina istorum martyrum inadvertenter in canon cum aliis sanctis recitasset, miratus quod dixerat, vidit in altari tres columbas ipsorum martyrum nomina conscripta in rostris habentes. Qua visione cognoscens sanctos per martyrium, migrasse commisso populo cuidam Felici episcopo, Parisios accessit, et a Christiana matrona olim Dionysii discipula Catulla nomine hospitio susceptus, martyres Christi eadem die qua visionem viderat, passos fuisse comperit, et super eorum corpora basilicam aedificavit. Inde Silvanectensem civitatem ire disponens, in villa Lauria idolum Mercurii baculo comminuens, populum convertit, et basilicam Dei Genitricis ibidem construxit. Et in civitate Silvanectensium ad sui ingressum idola corruerunt, et templum in honorem beatae Virginis dedicavit, et omnem populum ad fidem sua praedicatione et miraculis conversum baptizavit. » Haec ibi.

St. Regulus, bishop of Senlis, 30th of March, disciple of Saint John the Evangelist. See Peter in his Catalogue, book IV, ch. 15, concerning whom Demochares writes thus: "The first bishop of Senlis was Blessed Regulus, who celebrated Mass as taught by Blessed John the Evangelist, and was confirmed by Blessed Clement. For we read of him in the Catalogue of the Saints, chapter fifteen, book four, in this manner: Bishop Regulus, a Greek by nation, was a disciple of John the Evangelist at Ephesus. When the latter was banished to the island of Patmos, coming to Athens, he cleaved to Dionysius, with whom he proceeded to Rome, and together with him, and with the most holy Rusticus and Eleutherius, was sent by Blessed Pope Clement to Gaul for the sake of preaching; and he came first to Arles, where, the name of Christ having been invoked by Saint Dionysius, the idol of Mars was destroyed, and when many had been converted, that temple was consecrated in honour of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Having therefore sent his companions to diverse cities, Dionysius himself, after ordaining Saint Regulus bishop of the city of Arles, went to Paris, where with Rusticus and Eleutherius he received the palm of martyrdom. Moreover, on the very day on which they suffered, while Regulus was celebrating Mass in Arles, and had inadvertently recited the names of those martyrs in the canon with the other saints, wondering at what he had said, he saw upon the altar three doves having the names of those very martyrs written in their beaks. Recognizing by this vision that the saints had departed through martyrdom, after committing the people to a certain Bishop Felix, he went to Paris, and being received in hospitality by a Christian matron named Catulla, formerly a disciple of Dionysius, he discovered that the martyrs of Christ had suffered on the very day on which he had seen the vision, and over their bodies he built a basilica. Then, arranging to go to the city of Senlis, in the estate of Louvres he shattered an idol of Mercury with his staff, converted the people, and built there a basilica of the Mother of God. And in the city of Senlis at his entrance the idols fell down, and he dedicated a temple in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and baptized the whole people converted to the faith by his preaching and miracles." Thus far there.

Sanctus Savinianus aut Sabinianus episcopus Senonensis, 31 Decembris, missus cum sancto Potentiano in Gallias a sancto Petro. Petrus De natalibus lib. I, cap. 25. Ado in Martyrologio : « Item apud Senonas, natale beatorum Sabiniani et Potentiani, qui a beatis apostolis ad praedicandum directi, praefatam urbem martyrii sui confessione illustrem fecerunt. »

Saint Savinianus or Sabinianus, bishop of Sens, 31st of December, sent with Saint Potentianus into Gaul by Saint Peter. Peter, On the Feasts of the Saints, book I, ch. 25. Ado in his Martyrology: "Likewise at Sens, the birthday of the blessed Sabinianus and Potentianus, who, having been directed by the blessed apostles to preach, rendered the aforesaid city illustrious by the confession of their martyrdom."

Sanctus Peregrinus episcopus Antisiodorensis, 16 Maii, civis Romanus, a Sixto papa ad Gallias missus, sub Alexandro imperatore, martyr apud S. Dionysium in Francia quiescit. Vincentius lib. X, cap. 119 ; Antoninus pag. 1, titul. 7, cap. 5 ; Petrus in Catalogo lib. V, cap. 5 ; Ciaconius in Vita sancti Sixti anno Domini 129, dicit : « Peregrinus Roma missus in Galliam, unde ibidem fide firmata Romam redivit, ubi in loco eodem in quo Christus sancto Petro cum cruce apparuerat, supplicio affectus est. »

Saint Peregrinus, bishop of Auxerre, 16th of May, a Roman citizen, sent by Pope Sixtus to Gaul under the Emperor Alexander, a martyr, rests at Saint-Denis in France. Vincent, book X, ch. 119; Antoninus, page 1, title 7, ch. 5; Peter in his Catalogue, book V, ch. 5; Ciaconius in the Life of Saint Sixtus, in the year of the Lord 129, says: "Peregrinus was sent from Rome into Gaul, whence, having strengthened the faith there, he returned to Rome, where in the very same place in which Christ had appeared with the cross to Saint Peter, he was put to death."

Sanctus Sanctinus episcopus Meldensis, 22 Septembris, a sancto Dionysio Areopagita episcopus

Saint Sanctinus, bishop of Meaux, 22nd of September, by Saint Dionysius the Areopagite bishop

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ordinatus. Petrus in Catalogo lib. VIII, cap. 108 : Antoninus parte I, tit. 6, cap. 8, et ante omnes homines hos Hincmarus cum agit de sancto Dionysio Areopagita.

ordained. Peter in his Catalogue, book VIII, ch. 108; Antoninus, part I, title 6, ch. 8; and before all these men, Hincmar, when he treats of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite.

Sanctus Nigasius aut Nicasius, episcopus Rhotomagensis, 11 Octobris, a beato Clemente in Gallias missus cum B Dionysio, et caeteris, cujus rei fidem faciunt adhuc, inquit Demochares, et locus martyrii hujus percelebris et sacer, reliquiae et templa sub hujus nomine clara a Rupeforti non multum distantia. Vide Baronium.

Saint Nigasius or Nicasius, bishop of Rouen, 11th of October, sent by Blessed Clement into Gaul with Blessed Dionysius and the rest; of which fact, says Demochares, both the very famous and sacred place of his martyrdom, and the relics and the renowned temples under his name at no great distance from Rochefort, still bear witness. See Baronius.

Sanctus Crescens aut Crescentius episcopus Viennensis, 27 Junii, beati Pauli discipulus et martyr. Vide Baronium ad hunc diem.

Saint Crescens or Crescentius, bishop of Vienne, 27th of June, disciple of Blessed Paul and martyr. See Baronius on this day.

Sanctus Maximus aut Maximinus, episcopus Aquiensis, 8 Junii, qui cum sanctis Lazaro, Maria Magdalena, Martha sororibus, et Cedonio post ascensum Christi in coelum, classe Massiliam appulit. Petrus in Catalogo libro V, cap. 101 et 102.

Saint Maximus or Maximinus, bishop of Aix, 8th of June, who with the saints Lazarus, the sisters Mary Magdalene and Martha, and Cedonius, after the ascension of Christ into heaven, put in by ship at Marseille. Peter in his Catalogue, book V, ch. 101 and 102.

Sanctus Ursinus aut Ursinicus, episcopus Bituricensis, 9 Novembris : hunc quidam dicunt Nathanaelem. Petrus in Catalogo cap. 9, l. I, et cap. 41, libro X. Ado : « Item eodem die apud Bituricas sancti Ursini, qui Romae ordinatus a successoribus apostolorum, primus eidem urbi destinatur episcopus : » sunt ipsissima verba sancti Gregorii Turonensis De gloria confessorum, cap. 80.

Saint Ursinus or Ursinicus, bishop of Bourges, 9th of November: some call him Nathanael. Peter in his Catalogue, ch. 9, book I, and ch. 41, book X. Ado: "Likewise on the same day at Bourges, of Saint Ursinus, who, having been ordained at Rome by the successors of the apostles, was sent as first bishop to the same city": these are the very words of Saint Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Confessors, ch. 80.

Sanctus Eutropius episcopus Santonensis, 30 Aprilis. « a B. Clemente episcopo, inquit Ado, directus in Gallias, » etc. Beatus Gregorius Turonensis De gloria martyrum cap. 56. « Eutropius quoque martyr Santonicae urbis, a B. Clemente episcopo fertur directus in Gallias, » etc Petrus Catalogo lib. IV, cap. 105. Breviarium Parisiense dicit missum fuisse cum sancto Dionysio a B. Clemente.

Saint Eutropius, bishop of Saintes, 30th of April. "Directed by Bishop Blessed Clement into Gaul," says Ado, etc. Blessed Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs, ch. 56: "Eutropius also, martyr of the city of Saintes, is reported to have been directed into Gaul by Bishop Blessed Clement," etc. Peter in his Catalogue, book IV, ch. 105. The Parisian Breviary says that he was sent with Saint Dionysius by Blessed Clement.

Ne tibi, Lector, molestus sim, si diutius in re liquidis te detineam, finem imponam, ubi nomina reliquorum sanctorum qui Gallias ante Decii tempora lumine fidei illustrarunt, indicaro. Tu de illis Baronium et alios consules.

Lest I be tiresome to you, Reader, if I detain you longer in clear matters, I shall put an end once I have indicated the names of the remaining saints who illumined Gaul with the light of faith before the times of Decius. You will consult Baronius and others concerning them.

Sanctus Taurinus Ebroicensis episcopus, 11 Augusti. Sanctus Lucianus Bellovaci, 8 Januarii. Sanctus Valerius Treverensis, 29 Januarii. Sanctus Julianus Cenomanensis, 27 Januarii. Sanctus Zacharias Viennensis, 26 Maii. Sanctus Martinus Viennensis, 10 Julii. Sanctus Verus episcopus Viennensis, 1 Augusti. De his, ut dicebam, omnibus nihil penitus dixit Gregorius, quorum tamen res nec parvae nec obscurae fuerunt, ut qui sanctos Ecclesiae coetus publicasque caeremonias multos annos sint moderati. Ergone de B. Dionysio quae dixit, docti homines tanquam sibyllae folium excipient, et verissima esse contendent? Quid quod multa sunt ab eo praescripta, quae a choro intelligentium omnium repudiantur? Libro I Mirac. cap. 28, de apostolatu magni Petri, quem noster Dionysius coryphaeum et sublimem theologiae verticem nominat, sic habet : « Petrus apostolus, qui ab apostolis caeteris episcopus ordinatus, Romae cathedram locavit. » Quod ita durum est, ut ni commoda expositione molliatur, ferri nequeat, cap. 29 : « Paulus vero, inquit. apostolus, post revolutum anni circulum, ipsa die qua Petrus apostolus passus. » An sectatores haec in re habet multos, qui contrariam omnibus prope historicis sententiam tueantur? Qua de re videndi eruditissimi viri Baronius et noster Deekerius. Libro I Historiae, cap. 30, docet Sixtum pontificem Romanum, et Laurentium archidiaconum sub Decio passos. Atqui illi signiferi pietatis sub Valeriano Romae in excelso et illustri loco purpurea trophaea posuerunt, quod Baronius clare e S. Cypriano demonstrat, et noster Mariana lib. IV De rebus Hispaniae, cap. 10.

Saint Taurinus, bishop of Évreux, 11th of August. Saint Lucian of Beauvais, 8th of January. Saint Valerius of Trier, 29th of January. Saint Julian of Le Mans, 27th of January. Saint Zacharias of Vienne, 26th of May. Saint Martin of Vienne, 10th of July. Saint Verus, bishop of Vienne, 1st of August. Concerning all these, as I was saying, Gregory said nothing at all, although their deeds were neither small nor obscure, inasmuch as they governed the holy assemblies of the Church and the public ceremonies for many years. Will learned men, therefore, receive what he said concerning Blessed Dionysius like a leaf of the Sibyl, and contend that it is most true? What of the fact that many things have been set down by him which are rejected by the chorus of all intelligent men? In Book I of the Miracles, ch. 28, concerning the apostolate of the great Peter, whom our Dionysius names the chief and sublime summit of theology, he has it thus: "The Apostle Peter, who having been ordained bishop by the rest of the apostles, established his chair at Rome." Which is so harsh that unless it be softened by a suitable explanation, it cannot be borne; and in ch. 29: "Moreover, the Apostle Paul," says he, "after the revolution of the circle of a year, suffered on the very same day on which the Apostle Peter suffered." Does he have many followers in this matter who defend an opinion contrary to almost all historians? On which matter the most learned men Baronius and our Deckers are to be seen. In Book I of the History, ch. 30, he teaches that Sixtus, the Roman Pontiff, and Lawrence the Archdeacon suffered under Decius. And yet those standard-bearers of piety raised their purple trophies at Rome in a lofty and illustrious place under Valerian, which Baronius clearly demonstrates from St. Cyprian, and our Mariana in book IV On the Affairs of Spain, ch. 10.

Nulli igitur mirum videatur, Hilduinum hanc erroris

Let it therefore seem wonderful to no one that Hilduin brings forward this

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S. Gregorii Turonensis, et aliorum posteriorum originem afferre. » Fieri enim potest ut diximus, quod textum passionis ipsius sancti Domnini ex authenticis scriptum non habeant, et ideo in hoc errent, quia et nos plures codicillos exinde vidimus, qui in quibusdam sensu videbantur concordare, sed litteratura admodum dissonare, in quibusdam autem nec sensu nec orationis tenore poterant sociari ; quod manifestum est, hujus venerabilis et antiquissimi Petris vetusta longinquitate, et ignotae atque peregrinae linguae, ubi de ejus notitia maxime scriptum erat, inscitia, seu devotione fidelium accidisse, qui non studuere ad priscas historias pro cognitione ejus recurrere, sed ea quae auditu collegerunt, ut Gregorius Turonensis, non votivo errore fallens, videntes insignia magnifica atque innumerabilia per eum fieri, prout unicuique sensu abundavit, curaverunt scriptis committere ; sic et de sanctorum apostolorum gestis ac passionibus factum legimus, et de aliis quibusque historiis Ecclesiae necessariis manifeste comperimus. » Et paulo post : « Caeterum parcendum est simplicitati viri religiosi, Gregorii Turonensis episcopi, qui multa aliter quam se veritas habeat, aestimans, non calliditatis astu, sed benignitatis voto litteris commendavit. Patenter et quidem noscere possumus, non adeo quaedam solerter eum investigasse, quin ei contemporalis exsistens vir prudens, et scholasticissimus Fortunatus, qui plura et frequenter ad eumdem scripserat, hymnum rhythmicae compositionis pulcherrimum de isto gloriosissimo martyre composuerit : in quo commemorat, eum a B. Clemente destinatum, sicut in Latinorum paginis didicit ; de natione autem ejus, et ordinatione episcopatus mentionem non facit, quia linguae Graecae penitus expers fuit. »

origin of the error of St. Gregory of Tours and of other later writers: "For it can happen, as we have said, that they do not have the text of the passion of the holy lord himself written from authentic sources, and therefore err in this, because we also have seen several booklets therefrom which in some things seemed to agree in sense, but differed greatly in wording, while in some things they could be reconciled neither in sense nor in the tenor of the discourse; which manifestly happened through the ancient remoteness of this venerable and most ancient Father, and through ignorance of the unknown and foreign tongue in which the account of him had chiefly been written, or through the devotion of the faithful, who did not take pains to have recourse to ancient histories for knowledge of him, but, seeing magnificent and innumerable signs wrought through him, took care to commit to writing the things that they had gathered by hearsay, as each one abounded in his own sense—like Gregory of Tours, deceiving by no wilful error; thus also we read that it was done concerning the acts and passions of the holy apostles, and we manifestly find it so concerning all other histories necessary to the Church." And a little later: "For the rest, indulgence must be shown to the simplicity of the religious man, Gregory, bishop of Tours, who, reckoning many things otherwise than the truth holds, committed them to writing not through the cunning of craftiness, but through a desire of benignity. Openly indeed we can know that he did not investigate certain things very skilfully, inasmuch as Fortunatus, a prudent and most scholarly man who was his contemporary, and who had written many things and frequently to the same man, composed a most beautiful hymn of rhythmic composition concerning that most glorious martyr, in which he recounts that he was sent by Blessed Clement, just as he had learned in the pages of the Latins; whereas of his nation and of his ordination to the episcopate he makes no mention, because he was wholly unacquainted with the Greek tongue."

Longius fuit hoc cum S. Gregorio Turonensi certamen, quippe Achilles adversariorum habitus fuit, turrisque belli ; caeteri ut velites atque nudi, leviori contentione fundentur Aiunt primo Nicephorum, qui nomina episcoporum, qui suas sedes reliquissent, cum accurate recenseret, de sancto Dionysio tacuisse ; certum igitur, videri Athenis illum vita functum. Sed perfacilis huic est responsio ; clare etenim ipse dicit plurimos se omisisse.

This contest with St. Gregory of Tours has been rather long, inasmuch as he has been regarded as the Achilles of the adversaries and a tower of war; the rest, like light-armed and naked skirmishers, will be routed with a lighter effort. They say, first, that Nicephorus, when accurately recounting the names of the bishops who had left their sees, was silent concerning Saint Dionysius; that it seems certain, therefore, that he ended his life at Athens. But the reply to this is very easy; for he himself clearly says that he omitted very many.

Secundo, Severus Sulpitius B. Martini discipulus, qui circa annum Domini 400 floruit, testis est ; « persecutione demum quinta martyria in Galliis visa fuisse, serius trans Alpes Dei religione suscepta. » Atqui ad hoc tempus, ut vir clarissimus Nicolaus Faber scribebat, Dionysius Areopagita pervenire non potuit, nec ejus martyrium stare sub Domitiano vel Trajauo, in quod tempus id rejiciunt qui diutissime vixisse volunt in Galliis si primum ibi quinta persecutione visi martyres fuere. Sane hoc telum quod acerrimum quidam putant. eruditissimi Fabri quasi armamento et auctoritate contortum, ita leve debileque judico, ut nihil videatur hebetius. Nam Severi quidem Sulpitii dictum, quod meo judicio Faber non comprobat, non potest non indoctae plenum vanitatis temeritatisque videri, nisi opportuna explicatione condiatur. Quid enim ? verum illud esse queat, ante quintam persecutionem, id est ante annum centesimum septuagesimum, nullos in Gallia martyres visos? Quid igitur faciemus generosissimis illis Ecclesiae primae proceribus, quos veterum historiarum fides discipulos apostolorum facit, qui variis in locis Galliae de perfidia, immanitate, supersititione, gloriosissimos triumphos retulerunt ? An forte martyres ii dici minime possunt, quorum in patiendo nobilitata constantia, ferri aciem, uncos, equuleos, et omne genus carnificinae superavit ? Cum ergo scribit Sulpitius, persecutione demum quinta martyria in Galliis visa fuisse, non vult dicere, nullos penitus fuisse martyres, sed tum primum velut

Secondly, Sulpicius Severus, the disciple of Blessed Martin, who flourished around the year of the Lord 400, is witness "that martyrdoms were seen in Gaul only in the fifth persecution, the religion of God having been received rather late beyond the Alps." And yet, as the most illustrious man Nicolas Lefèvre wrote, Dionysius the Areopagite could not have reached down to this time, nor can his martyrdom stand under Domitian or Trajan—to which time those who wish him to have lived very long in Gaul refer it—if martyrs were first seen there in the fifth persecution. Truly, this dart, which some think most sharp, hurled as it were by the weaponry and authority of the most learned Lefèvre, I judge to be so light and weak that nothing seems blunter. For indeed the saying of Sulpicius Severus, which in my judgement Lefèvre does not approve, cannot but seem full of unlearned vanity and rashness unless it be seasoned with a fitting explanation. For what? Could that be true, that before the fifth persecution, that is, before the one hundred and seventieth year, no martyrs were seen in Gaul? What then shall we do with those most noble princes of the early Church whom the credit of ancient histories makes disciples of the apostles, who in various places of Gaul won most glorious triumphs over perfidy, savagery, and superstition? Or can those perchance by no means be called martyrs whose constancy, ennobled in suffering, overcame the edge of the sword, hooks, racks, and every kind of butchery? When therefore Sulpicius writes that martyrdoms were seen in Gaul only in the fifth persecution, he does not mean to say that there had been no martyrs at all, but that then for the first time, as if

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patefactis subito carceribus, illam immanem tyranorum tempestatem fuisse effusam, qua Lugduni et Viennae Vetius, Photinus, Irenaeus, aliisque in locis innumerabiles, alii inter medios cruciatus coronati vixerunt.

with the prisons suddenly thrown open, that savage storm of tyrants was poured forth, whereby at Lyon and Vienne Vettius, Pothinus, Irenaeus, and in other places innumerable others lived crowned amidst the torments.

Tertio. A Graecis fraudem eam manasse contendunt, qui cum ambirent regum Franciae societatem, quos in bello potentissimos esse videbant, et eorum gratiam et munificentiam aucuparentur, sanctum Dionysium, quem in Gallia celebrari didicissent, finxerint esse Dionysium Areopagitam. Respondeo, gravem et non ferendam toti Graeciae fieri injuriam, in qua caeci omnes cupiditate fingantur, nullus patriae veritatisque studiosus, cum nemo hactenus illam suorum levitatem inanitatemque arguerit. Deinde si beati Dionysii corpus in sinu Graciae positum fuit, cur in tantis disertorum hominum monumentis nulla ipsius memoria, mirum potius silentium ? cur nemini unquam imperatori e lipsanis ejus quidpiam concessum, aut Romae ornandae, qua in urbe magister ejus Paulus situs est, aut ad Byzantium aliudve oppidum e pio more cohonestandum ?

Thirdly. They contend that this fraud emanated from the Greeks, who, when they were courting the alliance of the kings of France, whom they saw to be most powerful in war, and were hunting after their favour and munificence, feigned that Saint Dionysius, whom they had learned was celebrated in Gaul, was Dionysius the Areopagite. I reply that a grave and intolerable injury is done to all Greece, in which all are feigned to be blind with greed, and no one zealous for his fatherland and for truth, since no one hitherto has censured that levity and vanity of his countrymen. Next, if the body of Blessed Dionysius was laid in the bosom of Greece, why in so many monuments of eloquent men is there no memory of it, and rather a wondrous silence? Why was nothing from his relics ever granted to any emperor, either to adorn Rome, in which city his master Paul lies buried, or to honour Byzantium or some other town according to pious custom?

Quarto. Cur Stephanus papa S. Dionysii beneficio sanitatem consecutus, os sacrum e brachio sumptum Parisii Romam detulit, exstructumque in ejus honorem templum Graecis monachis augusta religione celebrandum dedit ? an non prius inquirendum fuit, num uspiam Athenis Areopagitae Dionysii exuviae conquiescerent nisi foret illa communis et pervagata omnium regionum populorumque opinio, eum thesaurum, gaza omni et flavissis opulentiorem, Parisiis tantum reperiri ?

Fourthly. Why did Pope Stephen, having obtained health through the kindness of St. Dionysius, carry a sacred bone taken from his arm from Paris to Rome, and give the temple built in his honour to Greek monks to be celebrated with august religion? Ought it not first to have been inquired whether the remains of Dionysius the Areopagite rested anywhere at Athens, unless there were that common and widespread opinion of all regions and peoples, that this treasure, richer than every treasury and temple-vault, was found at Paris alone?

Quinto. Cur perenni cum plurium saeculorum decursu, cum tot homines Graeciam peragrarint, tot Graeci, capta praesertim Constantinopoli, Romam venerint, Italiamque omnem suis scriptis referserint, nullus tamen sit inventus hactenus, qui corpus S. Dionysii coli in Graecia, Parisienses longe sua opinione deceptos esse diceret ?

Fifthly. Why, during the continual course of several centuries, when so many men have travelled through Greece, and so many Greeks, especially after the capture of Constantinople, have come to Rome and filled all Italy with their writings, has no one nevertheless been found hitherto to say that the body of St. Dionysius is venerated in Greece, and that the Parisians are far deceived in their opinion?

Sexto. Infinita prope miracula patrata sunt Dionysii nostri meritis et gratia apud Deum ; evelli non potest aut excuti ex animo haec opinio, Areopagitam hunc esse Dionysium, quem omnium ordinum homines legitimis honoribus celebrant. Estne verisimile, si alius quispiam sit Dionysius qui Lutetiae Parisiorum praesederit, eum honore spoliari, laudem ejus transferri in alium, tot annis inter suos ignotum jacere ? Nam tametsi sanctissimi viri qui cum Deo felicitate potiuntur, laudibus nostris et gratulatione non indigent, pertinet tamen ad divinae mentis providentiam, ut coelites, quorum reliquiae in terris multa prodigia operantur, aliquo gaudio et humanissima voluptate non careant, quam ex hominum cognitione et grati animi significatione percipiunt. Cur igitur tot saeculorum labentibus jam annis, hunc ignotum Dionysium esse voluisset, supposititium autem cultu et honore perfrui ?

Sixthly. Almost infinite miracles have been wrought through the merits and grace of our Dionysius before God; this opinion cannot be plucked out or shaken from the mind, that this Dionysius, whom men of all orders celebrate with due honours, is the Areopagite. Is it likely, if there be some other Dionysius who presided over Paris, that he should be despoiled of honour, that his praise should be transferred to another, and that for so many years he should lie unknown among his own people? For although most holy men who enjoy felicity with God do not stand in need of our praises and congratulation, yet it pertains to the providence of the divine mind that the heavenly ones, whose relics work many prodigies on earth, should not lack some joy and most kindly pleasure, which they receive from the recognition of men and the expression of a grateful mind. Why then, with the years of so many centuries now slipping by, would He have willed this Dionysius to be unknown, and a supposititious one to enjoy veneration and honour?

Sed remota disputandi subtilitate, lubet in historiam intueri, quae nuntia est vetustatis, abditarumque rerum testis. Sunt in manibus mediae aetatis scriptores, qui res Galliae hominum memoriae consecraverunt, eoque excepti a doctis cupidius, quod Pithaei V. C. auspiciis lucem vident. ii tanto ante, nisi refractaria esset hominum mens, dubitationem forte omnem et jactantem sese liberius contentionum libidinem sustulissent. Nam cum tempore Leonis papae IX anno Domini 1050 Ratisbonae in Germania corpus fuisset inventum, tacitae religionis plenum et sanctitatis, quod non nulli Dionysii Areopagitae esse dicebant, mittuntur nuntii ab imperatore in Franciam, qui rescirent, num Parisiis in eo templo, quod Dagobertus aedificaverat, Dionysii corpus Areopagitae D. Pauli discipuli esset, an non esset. Galliae rex Henricus, imperatoris nuntiis comitatus, jussit adesse archiepiscopos, episcopos, et

But setting aside the subtlety of disputation, it is pleasing to look into history, which is the messenger of antiquity and the witness of hidden things. There are in hand writers of the Middle Ages who consecrated the affairs of Gaul to the memory of men, and are received all the more eagerly by the learned because they see the light under the auspices of the most illustrious Pithou. These writers so long ago, were not the mind of men refractory, would perchance have removed all doubt and the lust for contentions that boasts itself too freely. For when in the time of Pope Leo IX, in the year of the Lord 1050, a body had been found at Regensburg in Germany, full of quiet reverence and sanctity, which some said was that of Dionysius the Areopagite, envoys were sent by the emperor into France to ascertain whether the body of Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul, was at Paris in that temple which Dagobert had built, or was not. Henry, King of Gaul, accompanied by the envoys of the emperor, commanded the archbishops, bishops, and

Editors' notes and page, col. 991

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marginal letters: A patefactis subito; B tori e lipsanis; C corpus S. Dionysii; D esse voluisset
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barones totius regni cum Odone charissimo fratre suo, ad Dionysii martyris templum. Cumque preces demississime Deo obtulissent, allata sunt argentea vasa tria, Dionysii, Rustici, et Eleutherii sigillis munita, et in totius populi conspectu posita. « Et aperto vase beati martyris Dionysii, totum corpus ipsius cum capite inventum est (verba sunt Rigordi scriptoris) exceptis duobus ossibus de collo, quae sunt in ecclesia Vergiacensi, et os quoddam de brachio, quod Stephanus papa III secum ad Romanam portavit ecclesiam, et posuit in ecclesia quae hodie Schola Graecorum vocatur. Hoc videntes universi populi, cum lacrymis et suspiriis puras manus levantes ad Dominum, Deo et beatae Mariae virginis, et sanctis martyribus se commendantes, cum gaudio recesserunt. » Sed quid ego scriptorem unum commemoro ? quotus quisque de Gallorum rebus gestis, et tam inclyti dominatus antiquitate quidpiam prodidit ad perennem hominum memoriam, in quo non exstent nostri Dionysii haud obscura et expressa testimonia ? Quoties in bello et in pace, publice, privatim, in omni fortunae conditione S. Dionysius, ille, inquam. Areopagita Dionysius, invocatus, adfuit, seque mirabilem et Deo charum ostendit? Quin gentes quaedam sunt in Gallia atque familiae, veteri prosapia et illustri generis claritate omni vetustate corroborata, quae hoc uno glorientur, quod a S. Dionysio Areopagita primae fuerint sacro fonte ablutae, ab eodem institutae, et veri Numinis religione ornatae. Facerem omnino injuriam religioni et veritati, si gentis Montmorantiorum amplissimum decus, et vetustae pietatis clarissimum testimonium hic dissimulem, quae pietas a sanctissimo nostro Dionysio in agro Parisino primum insita, subito mirabiliter effloruit purpureasque veluti rosas omni gratia et amoenitate uberes in coelum emisit. Stirps illius gentis fuit Lisbius, quem veterum historiarum Annales Parisiacae urbis nobilissimum et splendidissimum virum nominant, qui primus adventantem Lutetiam Parisiorum Areopagitam Dionysium excepit, ab eo primus Christi fidem et religionem hausit, eidem primus locum dedit ad pium templum exaedificandum. Hujus principis et religiosissimi viri filius Visbius, sui parentis, et B. Dionysii gloriosum fatum litteris commendavit, quod opus Hilduinus ante octingentos fere annos, ut oculati testimonium fidum et ingenuum vehementissime commendabat. Atque ut omni posteritati nobilissimi viri pietas ad sempiternam hominum memoriam proderetur, omnium consensione tributum fuit, ut primus baro Christianus Franciae, Montmorantius diceretur : et posteri gentilitio in stemmate, sive insignibus familiae, nota elogia duo ferrent, Gallicum unum : Dieu aide au premier Chrétien, hoc est. Primum Christianum Deus juvet : alterum Graecum, Απλανης erroris expers, quod Lisbius, Montmorantianae familiae progenerator, inter Gallos, tum devios a religione, primus in agro Parisiensi lucem et veri Numinis cognitionem exceperit. Et quidem in clarissimam illam familiam, Dionysiis nostri pietatem penitus insitam et illiminatam fuisse, qui postea consecuti sunt magni heroes, claris facinoribus et perenni catholicae religionis propugnatione declaraverunt. Sciunt hoc omnes, et praedicant uno ore Galli, et etiamnum in Belgio nostro videmus ejusdem generis nominisque multos, qui partim armis inclyti. partim moderatores reipublicae incredibili sapientia, consilio, fide, partim antistites praesidesque religionis, avitae pietatis hunc ardorem in omnium luce atque praedicatione collocant. De quibus nihil dicam amplius, cum D. Raphael Beauchamp, pius et doctus Benedictinae familiae monachus Marchianensis, synopsim Lisbiacam in manibus habeat, ubi et de Lisbio rem omnem accurate et copiose, et Montmorantiorum familiae decora persequitur. Quae diserti hominis commentatio ad

barons of the whole kingdom, with his dearest brother Odo, to be present at the temple of Dionysius the martyr. And when they had most humbly offered prayers to God, three silver vessels were brought forward, sealed with the seals of Dionysius, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, and set in the sight of the whole people. "And when the vessel of the blessed martyr Dionysius had been opened, his whole body with the head was found (the words are those of the writer Rigord), except two bones from the neck, which are in the church of Vergy, and a certain bone from the arm, which Pope Stephen III carried with him to the Roman Church, and placed in the church which today is called the Schola Graecorum. Seeing this, all the people, lifting up pure hands to the Lord with tears and sighs, commending themselves to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the holy martyrs, departed with joy." But why do I mention a single writer? How few are there who have handed down anything concerning the deeds of the Gauls and the antiquity of so renowned a dominion for the perpetual memory of men, in whom there are not extant clear and express testimonies of our Dionysius? How often in war and in peace, publicly, privately, in every condition of fortune, has St. Dionysius—that Areopagite Dionysius, I say—when invoked, been present, and shown himself wonderful and dear to God? Nay, there are certain clans and families in Gaul, of ancient lineage and of illustrious brightness of race confirmed by all antiquity, who glory in this one thing: that they were the first to be washed in the sacred font by St. Dionysius the Areopagite, instructed by the same, and adorned with the religion of the true Deity. I would altogether do an injury to religion and to truth if I were here to pass over in silence the most ample glory of the house of Montmorency, and the most brilliant testimony of its ancient piety—a piety which, first implanted by our most holy Dionysius in the territory of Paris, suddenly flowered wonderfully and sent forth into heaven, as it were, purple roses rich in every grace and loveliness. The stock of that house was Lisbius, whom the Annals of the ancient histories of the city of Paris call a most noble and most splendid man, who was the first to welcome Dionysius the Areopagite upon his arrival at Paris, the first to drink in from him the faith and religion of Christ, and the first to give to the same a site for building a pious temple. The son of this prince and most religious man, Visbius, committed to writing the glorious fate of his parent and of Blessed Dionysius, which work Hilduin nearly eight hundred years ago most earnestly commended as the faithful and candid testimony of an eyewitness. And in order that the piety of this most noble man might be handed down to all posterity for the everlasting memory of men, by the consent of all it was granted that Montmorency should be called the First Christian Baron of France; and that his descendants in their family coat of arms, or insignia of the family, should bear two well-known mottoes, the one French: Dieu aide au premier Chrétien, that is, May God aid the first Christian; the other Greek: Απλανης, free from error, because Lisbius, the progenitor of the family of Montmorency, among the Gauls who had then strayed from religion, was the first in the territory of Paris to receive the light and knowledge of the true Deity. And indeed, that the piety of our Dionysius was deeply implanted and burnished in that most illustrious family, the great heroes who followed afterwards declared by their illustrious deeds and their perennial championship of the Catholic religion. All know this, and the Gauls proclaim it with one voice, and even now in our Belgium we see many of the same race and name, who, partly renowned in arms, partly governors of the commonwealth with incredible wisdom, counsel, and fidelity, partly prelates and presidents of religion, set this ardour of ancestral piety in the light and praise of all. Concerning whom I shall say nothing more, since Dom Raphael Beauchamp, a pious and learned monk of the Benedictine family of Marchiennes, has in hand a Synopsis Lisbiaca, wherein he sets forth both the whole matter concerning Lisbius accurately and copiously, and the glories of the family of Montmorency. Which treatise of an eloquent man, suitable for

Editors' notes and page, col. 992

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marginal letters: A barones totius; B riam, in quo; C siacae urbis; D miliae progenerator
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veterem pietatem illustrandam idonea, propediem, opinor, lucem videbit.

illustrating ancient piety, will shortly, I think, see the light.

Post argumenta tam multa, tamque illustria, quibus coelo terraque faventibus, Areopagitam Hierophantem in Galliam deduximus, an exspectemus dum solum ipsum, dum parietes atque tecta vocem mittant et exclament, et hominum (ut modestissime dicam) plus nimio sibi tribuentium opinionem refutent? nihilne vetustissimum Graecorum templum exstructum Parisiis, nihil S. Dionysii carcer et defossa specus, nihil tot loca late sparsa, tum Dionysii nostri tum discipulorum ejus notata vestigiis, pietate, sanguine, laureisque ornata, ad fidem faciendam valebunt? Illustris mihi in hoc genere visa fuit oratio D. Bocherii, doctoris theologi Sorbonici omni genere litterarum exculti, quam integram hic tibi, Lector, repraesentandam putavi, ne si vel minimum ego commutavero, aliquid de tanti viri sapientia et elegantia dematur : eoque faciam id libentius, quod clari viri disputationem doctor singularis Andreas Duvallius, Sorbonae lumen, suo judicio comprobavit. Ille igitur a me super hac quaestione rogatus, ita per litteras respondit :

After arguments so many and so illustrious, whereby with heaven and earth favouring we have escorted the Areopagite Hierophant into Gaul, shall we wait until the very soil, until the walls and roofs utter a voice and cry aloud, and refute the opinion of men who (to speak most modestly) attribute far too much to themselves? Will the most ancient temple of the Greeks built at Paris, will the prison of St. Dionysius and the sunken cave, will so many places scattered far and wide, noted by the footsteps, piety, and blood, and adorned with the laurels both of our Dionysius and of his disciples, avail nothing towards establishing belief? Illustrious to me in this kind appeared the discourse of Dr. Boucher, a doctor of theology of the Sorbonne cultivated in every kind of letters, which I thought ought to be presented to you here in its entirety, Reader, lest if I altered even the least thing something should be taken away from the wisdom and elegance of so great a man: and I shall do this all the more gladly because that singular doctor André Duval, the light of the Sorbonne, approved the disputation of the illustrious man by his own judgement. He therefore, having been asked by me concerning this question, replied thus by letter:

« Quod a me petis, imo flagitas, mi Lansseli, de utroque circa Areopagitam Dionysium (tuumne dicam an nostrum ? sed verius nostrum atque tuum) problemate quid sentiam, altero, sitne hic noster, id est Parisiorum, idem qui prius Athenarum episcopus, altero, an γνήσια, quae nomine ejus censentur opera atque scripta (quorum alterum ante annos septingentos agitatum ac decisum, saeculi nostri nonnullorum de rebus quantumvis claris dubitandi nodumve, ut dicitur, in scirpo quaerendi κακόηθες renovavit ; alterum dudum sopitum novatorum sibi a tali auctore jure metuentium sic recoxit impietas, ut peperisse videatur) facis tu quidem sic amice et familiariter, ut vicissim me fateri familiaritas jubeat, si judicium meum tantum quaeris, perinde id me accipere, ac si aperto claroque sole quaeras, noctemne anne diem esse putem. Sin ut lucis aliquid addam, perinde ac si jubeas, lychnum me soli admovere. Quippe qui in re tam longa saeculorum memoria tam acribus judiciis indagata, tot eruditorum ac sanctorum confessione, Graecorumque ac Latinorum consensu credita et probata, nec modo principum atque adeo imperatorum et regum, et qui in Oriente et qui in Occidente rerum potiti sunt, sed et pontificum Romanorum auctoritate suffulta et roborata, miraculis denique confirmata, quid multa ? nullo non praescriptionis genere stabilita, ac munita, Pyrrhonicum istud denuo seu ἀπορίας seu σκέψεως aemulari genus (nedum negare ἁπλῶς, et cornicum, ut dicitur, oculos configere) tam pervicacis animi esse putem, quam id probare velle amplius, inutilis operae ac laboris. Maxime vero, ex quo post clara priorum saeculorum Ecclesiae lumina, et quos Oriens tulit, Syngelos, Methodios, Metaphrastas, et quos Occidens Hilduinos et Hincmaros, a quibus haec dudum tam accurate disceptata, discussa, decisa sunt, qui novissime saeculo nostro prodierunt, Genebrardi, Galeni, Baronii, amplissime vero Delrii, causam hanc sic illustrarunt, imo pervicerunt, ut quidquid istud amplius in utroque problemate controversiae, seu potius φιλονεικίας et ambitiosae contentionis erit, non tam ad id dissolvendum ratione aut judicio, quam sensu opus esse videatur. Plane, ut si iis qui negant vel dubitant me adjungam, tam in vitio futurus sim, quam si iis qui aiunt affirmantque, aliud nihil amplius egero, quam ut poetae id usurpem :

"As to what you ask of me, nay demand, my Lansselius, concerning what I think about either problem regarding Dionysius the Areopagite (shall I call him yours or ours? nay, more truly ours and yours): the one, whether this Dionysius of ours, that is, of Paris, is the same who was previously bishop of Athens; the other, whether the works and writings which are reckoned under his name are genuine (the former of which, debated and decided seven hundred years ago, the malignant habit of some men of our century of doubting about matters however clear, or, as the saying goes, of seeking a knot in a bulrush, has renewed; while the latter, long since laid to rest, the impiety of innovators justly fearing for themselves from such an author has so boiled over again that it seems to have given birth to it)—you do this indeed in so friendly and familiar a way, that in turn familiarity bids me confess that if you seek only my judgement, I take it just as if under the open and bright sun you were to ask whether I think it is night or day; whereas if you ask that I add something of light, it is just as if you were to bid me hold a lamp up to the sun. For in a matter examined throughout so long a memory of centuries by such keen judgements, believed and approved by the confession of so many learned men and saints and by the consensus of Greeks and Latins, propped up and strengthened not only by the authority of princes and even of emperors and kings who held sway both in the East and in the West, but also by that of the Roman Pontiffs, and finally confirmed by miracles—why say more?—established and fortified by every kind of prescription, I should think it the mark of so obstinate a mind to emulate anew that Pyrrhonic sort of perplexity or scepticism (to say nothing of denying it outright, and, as the saying goes, piercing the eyes of crows), that to wish to prove it any further is a matter of useless labour and toil. Especially indeed since, after the bright lights of the Church of earlier centuries—both those whom the East bore, the Syncelli, the Methodii, the Metaphrastae, and those whom the West bore, the Hilduins and the Hincmars, by whom these matters were long ago so accurately debated, discussed, and decided—those who have most recently come forth in our own century, the Genebrards, the Galens, the Baroniuses, and most amply of all the Delrios, have so illustrated, nay carried through, this cause, that whatever further there shall be of controversy in either problem, or rather of contentiousness and ambitious strife, there seems to be need not so much of reason or judgement to dissolve it, as of sense. Plainly, just as I should be at fault if I joined myself to those who deny or doubt, so if I join myself to those who say yes and affirm, I shall accomplish nothing else further than to appropriate that saying of the poet:

..... Vitavi denique culpam, Non laudem merui...... HOR., De arte poet., v. 267.

'... In fine, I have avoided blame, I have not merited praise ...' Horace, Ars Poetica, v. 267.

Editors' notes and page, col. 993

Footnotes

([45]) ‹anchor: not visible (left edge of the column cropped in the render)› · call in col 993 […]seph. l. ii, c. 21.

[Jo]seph[us], book 2, chapter 21. [UNSURE: the call numeral and the start of the note are cut off at the image's left edge; (45) is inferred from the next note's (46), and "Joseph." is a likely but unconfirmed reading. Check against the full page.]

(printed under page 514)

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marginal letters: A ⟨p⟩ietatem illustrandam; B ⟨Ide⟩oque faciam; C ⟨perin⟩de id; D ⟨temporu⟩m Ecclesiae
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: Latin only (with inline Greek words γνήσια, ἀπορίας, σκέψεως, ἁπλῶς, φιλονεικίας); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); left edge slightly cropped in scan, clipped letters supplied in ⟨ ⟩

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« Nisi vero, quod ad prius spectat, quod apud Anastasium S. R. E. bibliothecarium S. Methodius Constantinop. episcopus, apud Lipomanum B. Michael Syngelus, apud Surium Simeon Metaphrastes, magni illius Areopagitae Vitae scriptores, et cum iis Nicephorum, Graeci omnes, ejusdem in Gallias adventum uno ore astruunt : et quod apud Hilduinum Tarasius patriarcha Constant. et ipse Graecus, sollicita adhibita inquisitione, id pro certo tandem ac comperto habet ; et quod apud Hincmarum Hilduinum discipulum, ac Rhemensem archiepiscopum, Carolo Calvo regi scribentem sanctus Sanctinus Meldensis episcopus, S. Dionysii discipulus, et historiae martyrii scriptor quam se idem Hincmarus ex vetustissimis membranis descripsisse, et exemplar ejus ad Carolum Calvum mittere ibidem scribit, hunc Areopagitam S. Pauli discipulum per revelationem ordinata sibi commissa Ecclesia Romam venisse, et a B. Clemente papa in Gallias directum fuisse, Parisiosque adeo venisse, disertis verbis ait : quodque iis amplius est, et superioribus belle quadrat, quod apud Eusebium Dionysius Corinthiorum episcopus Dionysio Areopagitae Publium, Publio Quadratum, qui utique ad Adriani imperatoris tempora pertinent, in episcopatu Atheniensi testatur successisse : non commisso utique magno illo apostoli Pauli ut doctrinae sic sanctitatis discipulo, ut de statione decederet, nisi divina urgeret vocatio, uberioris in ea regione messis colligendae causa, ad quam Graeciae orientisque ut eruditionis, sic pietatis divitias conferri praeordinatum divinitus erat. Haec, inquam, omnia tam exigui ponderis sunt, ut prae unius dormitantis aliquando, quod vel bono, id est quantumvis sagaci et attento, Homero accidat, Gregorii Turonensis dicto (pace tanti viri dixerim) qui ad Decii tempora Dionysium nostrum refert, nihil debeant aestimari. Ut ei scilicet, quem viro, quantumvis erudito et sancto, in opere non tam longo quam multiplici et vario, fas fuit somnum obrepere, quemque adeo obrepsisse cum alia multa, tum Trophimi Arelatensis, qui Pauli apostoli discipulus fuit, in Actis apostolorum et secunda ad Timotheum Epistola memoratus, itemque Pauli Narbonensis, qui fuit Sergius Paulus proconsul a sancto Paulo baptizatus, et Martialis Lemovicensis, qui Stephani protomartyris consanguineus puerque ille fuisse traditur qui quinque panes hordeaceos et duos pisces in deserto habuit : missio ad haec ipsa Decii tempora ab ipso relata clamat, quam sub ejusdem Clementis pontificatu fuisse, cum temporis quo vixerunt ratio, tum Martyrologia omnia docent, plus quam tot oculatissimis ac vigilantissimis Orientis et Occidentis luminibus credere sapientes homines oporteat.

"Unless indeed, as regards the former point—the fact that in Anastasius the Librarian of the Holy Roman Church St. Methodius, bishop of Constantinople, in Lipomanus Blessed Michael Syncellus, in Surius Simeon Metaphrastes, the writers of the Life of that great Areopagite, and with them Nicephorus, all of them Greeks, affirm with one voice his coming into Gaul; and the fact that in Hilduin Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, himself also a Greek, having made a careful investigation, holds this at length as certain and ascertained; and the fact that in Hincmar, the disciple of Hilduin and archbishop of Reims, writing to King Charles the Bald, Saint Sanctinus, bishop of Meaux, disciple of St. Dionysius and writer of the history of his martyrdom (which the same Hincmar writes in the same place that he transcribed from most ancient parchments and was sending a copy of it to Charles the Bald), says in express words that this Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul, having set in order by revelation the Church committed to him, came to Rome, and was directed into Gaul by Blessed Pope Clement, and even came to Paris; and what is more than these things, and fits admirably with the foregoing, the fact that in Eusebius Dionysius, bishop of the Corinthians, testifies that Publius succeeded Dionysius the Areopagite, and Quadratus succeeded Publius (who certainly belong to the times of the Emperor Hadrian) in the episcopate of Athens, inasmuch as that great disciple of the Apostle Paul, as in doctrine so in holiness, would certainly not have permitted himself to depart from his post unless a divine calling urged him, for the sake of gathering a richer harvest in that region to which it was divinely foreordained that the riches both of learning and of piety of Greece and the East should be brought—all these things, I say, are of such slight weight that in comparison with the saying of a single man nodding at times (which happens even to good, that is, however sagacious and attentive, Homer), namely Gregory of Tours (may I say it with all respect to so great a man), who refers our Dionysius to the times of Decius, they ought to be esteemed as nothing! So that wise men ought to believe him—upon whom, a man however learned and holy, in a work not so much long as manifold and varied, it was possible for sleep to creep, and that it did indeed creep upon him is proclaimed, along with many other things, by the mission, referred by himself to these very times of Decius, of Trophimus of Arles, who was a disciple of the Apostle Paul, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Second Epistle to Timothy, and likewise of Paul of Narbonne, who was Sergius Paulus the proconsul baptized by Saint Paul, and of Martial of Limoges, who is handed down to have been a kinsman of Stephen the Protomartyr and that boy who had the five barley loaves and two fishes in the desert, a mission which both the reckoning of the time in which they lived and all the Martyrologies teach to have taken place under the pontificate of the same Clement—more than so many most sharp-sighted and most vigilant lights of the East and of the West!

« Quam enim verum sit, divinas istas de oriente in occidentem convehi debuisse merces, quamque de orientis pharetra promi quae mittendae de manu potentis in corda Gallorum sagittae, id est Evangelici verbi praedicatores erant, ob idque id ita fieri Deo placuerit, praeterquam quod id veri solis pendentis in cruce Christi, occidentem, atque adeo Galliam intuentis, in eamque oculo (nam et praedicatores oculi sunt) ab oriente dirigentis ac velut radios vibrantis, neque id tantum, sed et ejus qui Christum proxime referebat Petri de oriente in occidentem venire a Deo nominatim jussit, ut refert Metaphrastes, Galliamque speciali affectu complectentis mysterium exigebat, docent variis temporibus, varia Galliae loca praeter Dionysium istum, Christianae sementis e Graecia et Oriente cultores missi, ut qui de Polycarpi Smyrnensis episcopi schola Lugdunum Irenaei, Augustodunum Andochii et Thyrsi : qui ex Attica Arelatem Aegidii, et qui in Hannoniam Belgicae Galliae provinciam de episcopatu

"For how true it is that those divine wares ought to have been conveyed from the East into the West, and that from the quiver of the East had to be drawn the arrows that were to be shot from the hand of the Mighty One into the hearts of the Gauls, that is, the preachers of the evangelical word, and that on this account it pleased God that it should be done thus—besides the fact that the mystery of the true Sun hanging upon the cross, Christ, looking towards the West and therefore towards Gaul, and directing upon it His eye (for preachers also are eyes) from the East and darting forth rays as it were, and not only that, but also the mystery of him who most closely represented Christ, Peter, commanded by name by God to come from the East into the West, as Metaphrastes relates, and embracing Gaul with special affection, demanded this—is taught at various times by the cultivators of the Christian seed sent from Greece and the East to various places of Gaul besides this Dionysius: such as the Irenaeuses sent to Lyon, the Andochiuses and Thyrsuses to Autun from the school of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna; the Gileses sent from Attica to Arles; and those sent into Hainaut, a province of Belgic Gaul, from the

Editors' notes and page, col. 994

Footnotes

(46) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 994

Euseb. l. iv, c. 23.

Eusebius, [Ecclesiastical History] book 4, chapter 23.

(printed under page 514)

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marginal letters: A « Nisi vero; B rectum fuisse; C multiplici et; D de orientis
old-edition numerals: 625 after qui ad
other: Latin only, no Greek printed; editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); ends mid-word (episco-)
other: the word episcopatu was split at the column break and stands whole here (joined on receipt); check that the English reads whole across the break into col 995

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Atheniensi Gisleni : quin etiam et qui ex Armenia, atque adeo de archiepiscopali fastigio, Tornacum Chrysolii, et qui Santonas Aquitaniae urbem, de regio Persarum sanguine Eutropii, Graeci videlicet sermonis et eruditionis omnes, evangelica nos face collustrarunt.

episcopate of Athens, the Ghislains; nay more, those also from Armenia, and even from the archiepiscopal summit, to Tournai, the Chrysoliuses, and to Saintes, a city of Aquitaine, of the royal blood of the Persians, the Eutropiuses—all of them men of Greek speech and learning, who illumined us with the evangelical torch.

« Quod et in nostro Dionysio tanto illustrius, quod non ut episcopum tantum, sed et ut apostolicae sedis legatum a S. Clemente missum esse, ostendunt ii quos ille ad diversa loca intra et extra Galliam episcopos destinavit. Quales S. Lucianus, S. Petri discipulus Bellovacum, S. Sanctinus, qui et Vitam ejus scripsit, Meldas episcopi missi. Qualis et Arelate missus ab eo Toletum in Hispaniam archiepiscopus Eugenius ejus discipulus, qui et ad invisendum aliquo post tempore magistrum suum Parisios veniens, ibidem martyr occubuit. Cujus etiam impetratae nuper, concedente Carolo IX deque S. Dionysii coenobio levatae a Philippo II Hispaniae rege reliquiae regiis humeris in ecclesiam Toletanam anno 1565 magna celebritate, et regia pietatis significatione illatae sunt.

"Which in our Dionysius also is all the more illustrious because those whom he appointed as bishops to diverse places within and outside Gaul show that he was sent by St. Clement not as a bishop only, but also as a legate of the Apostolic See: such as St. Lucian, the disciple of St. Peter, sent to Beauvais, and St. Sanctinus, who also wrote his Life, sent to Meaux as bishops; such also as his disciple Archbishop Eugenius, sent by him from Arles to Toledo in Spain, who also, coming to Paris some time afterwards to visit his master, fell there as a martyr. Whose relics also, recently obtained by grant of Charles IX and taken up from the monastery of St. Dionysius by Philip II, King of Spain, were borne on royal shoulders into the church of Toledo in the year 1565 with great solemnity and a royal display of piety.

« Ut ne interim paucula haec omittam, quae nec suo in hac causa pondere caritura esse non nemo, ut credo, fatebitur. Primum, quod S. Caraunum Dionysii nostri discipulum (Cheronem Galli dicunt) in agro Carnutensi in Gallia martyrem factum idque per latrones in via, dum ad magistrum invisendum iret (unde et monasterio, quod in ejus honore prope Carnutum constructum est, nomen S. Caraunus de Via) ad Domitiani tempora Martyrologia referunt, 28 Maii. Item et supradictum Lucianum, a Clemente cum Dionysio missum 8 Januarii. Deinde quod qui Athenis itineri se socium Romam primum, deinde in Galliam Dionysio dedit, S. Jon presbyter (Jonam Martyrologia 22 Sept. nominant) vir Graeci ut sanguinis sic nominis, in Gallia pago Castrensium (vulgo Chastes sous Montlehery) martyr factus nominis illic sui memoriam, in monte qui Sancti Jonis dicitur, Graecanicae utique missionis testem, usque nunc dereliquit. Amplius, quod de tribus antiquissimis Lutetiae Parisiorum basilicis, quae a S. Dionysio conditae traduntur, quarum prima sub invocatione SS. Trinitatis quae nunc collegiata S Benedicti ecclesia : altera B. Mariae matris Dei, quae vulgo Nostra Domina de Campis, nunc Discalceatarum de Carmeli ordine virginum coenobium ; tertia S. protomartyris Stephani, quae Graecorum hodieque dicitur : de tribus iis, inquam, duae, prima et postrema, veritatis hujus signa non poenitentenda habent. Illa quidem per vitream antiquissimi operis fenestram, ubi verba haec inscriptas sunt : IN HOC SACELLO S. DIONYSIUS COEPIT INVOCARE NOMEN SS. TRINITATIS. Altera quod vel ipsum Graecorum etiam hodie superstes nomen, ejus a quo aedes illa condita est nationem ac genus prodit, non minus quam quod a Stephano papa, ob memoriam acceptae in Gallia ad sancti Dionysii corpus de morbo difficili curationis, conditum Romae sub invocatione S. Dionysii monasterium Graecis monachis, utique S. Dionysii gentilibus, ab eodem traditum est. Amplius vero, quod et illic pone altare majus antiquissimi operis oratorium, quod S. Dionysii fuisse tradunt, adhuc visitur. Ut taceam de carcere, deque loco tam cruciatuum in civitate, quam supremi extra urbem supplicii, exstructisque ipi totidem ecclesiis, quarum prima S. Dionysius de Carcere, altera S. Dionysius de Passione, tertia Martyrum sacellum, in eo qui olim Mons Mercurii, nunc Mons sacellum, dicitur, ac stupendis quae in martyrio hoc acciderunt miraculis. Quae si quis omnia ad Decii tempora, hoc est ad annum Christi 253. quod Decius imperare coepit, differat, cum necesse sit, siquidem S. Dionysius primus fuit

"Not to omit meanwhile these few little points, which, as I believe, not a few will confess will not lack their own weight in this cause. First, that the Martyrologies refer St. Caraunus, the disciple of our Dionysius (the French call him Chéron), who was made a martyr in the territory of Chartres in Gaul, and that by robbers on the road while he was going to visit his master (whence also the monastery which was built in his honour near Chartres has the name St. Caraunus de Via), to the times of Domitian, on the 28th of May; likewise also the aforesaid Lucian, sent by Clement with Dionysius, on the 8th of January. Next, that he who at Athens joined himself as a companion of the journey to Dionysius first to Rome and then into Gaul, St. Jon the presbyter (the Martyrologies on the 22nd of September call him Jonas), a man Greek in name as well as in blood, having been made a martyr in Gaul in the district of Châtres (commonly called Châtres-sous-Montlhéry), has left behind there even until now the memory of his name on the mount which is called Saint-Yon, a witness assuredly of the Greek mission. Furthermore, that of the three most ancient basilicas of Paris which are handed down to have been founded by St. Dionysius—the first of which is under the invocation of the Most Holy Trinity, now the collegiate church of St. Benedict; the second, of Blessed Mary the Mother of God, commonly called Notre-Dame-des-Champs, now a convent of the Discalced Virgins of the Order of Carmel; the third, of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, which even today is called 'of the Greeks'—of these three, I say, two, the first and the last, possess signs of this truth not to be despised: the former indeed through a glass window of most ancient workmanship, where these words are inscribed: IN THIS CHAPEL ST. DIONYSIUS BEGAN TO INVOKE THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY; the other, because the very name 'of the Greeks' surviving even today betrays the nation and race of him by whom that church was founded, no less than the fact that by Pope Stephen, in memory of the cure from a difficult disease received in Gaul at the body of Saint Dionysius, a monastery founded at Rome under the invocation of St. Dionysius was handed over by the same pope to Greek monks, assuredly the countrymen of St. Dionysius. Furthermore, behind the high altar there, an oratory of most ancient workmanship, which they hand down to have belonged to St. Dionysius, is still visited. Not to speak of the prison, and of the place both of the torments in the city and of the supreme punishment outside the city, and of the just so many churches built there, of which the first is St. Dionysius of the Prison, the second St. Dionysius of the Passion, the third the Chapel of the Martyrs, on that which was formerly called the Mount of Mercury, now Montmartre, and of the stupendous miracles which happened in this martyrdom. All of which, if anyone should postpone to the times of Decius, that is, to the year of Christ 253, when Decius began to reign, since it would be necessary, inasmuch as St. Dionysius was the first

Editors' notes and page, col. 995

Footnotes

(50) ‹anchor: Galliam Dionysio dedit› · call in col 995

Pet. de Fatal., l. viii, c. 106.

Peter [de Natalibus], [Catalogus Sanctorum], book 8, chapter 106. [The print reads "de Fatal."; it is very likely a misprint for "de Natal.", i.e. Petrus de Natalibus.]

(printed under page 515)

(51) ‹anchor: morbo difficili curationis› · call in col 995

Baron. ex Hilduino tom. II.

Baronius, from Hilduin, volume 2.

(printed under page 515)

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marginal letters: A patu Atheniensi; B letanam anno; C factus nominis; D morbo difficili
old-edition numerals: 626 after dicitur,
other: Latin only, no Greek printed; editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); begins mid-word (patu from episcopatu)

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Parisiorum episcopus ad hunc usque annum episcopo caruisse Parisios, ab eo merito quaerendum erit : Qui, fiat, ut cum jam inde a tempore apostolorum, ex quod scilicet Savinianus, Pontentianus et Altinus, qui de LXXII discipulis erant, a S. Petro in Gallias missi, episcopalem sedem Senonibus primum (unde et primatus Senonensis) deinde Carnuti et Trecis posuerunt, ac per vicina totius illius regionis loca Parisiis, Aureliani, Altisiodori, Niverni praedicando effusi sunt, fides Christi in Parisiensi territorio sic viguerit, et uno ejus vico, cui nomen Christolium, qui Parisiis duabus leucis distat, Agoardi et Agluberti, innumerabiliumque cum ipsis promiscui sexus Christianorum martyrium ipso S. Joannis Baptistae die 24 Junii in Parisiensi Breviario celebretur : idque usque adeo antiquum (ac ipso etiam S. Dionysii in Galliam adventu prius) ut quasi ex vico hoc fides Christi in Gallia esse coeperit datus sit per allusionem nominis ejus ad Christianismum proverbio locus, Cresteil premier village de Chrestienite, hoc est, Christolium primus christianitatis vicus : qui fiat, inquam, ut longo tempore, intra quod Carnutenses sextum jam episcopum nomine Servum numerabant, hoc est ab anno 46 Christi, fundatae vero Romanae Ecclesiae secundo, quo dictos Savinianum, Pontentianum et Altinum in Galliam Roma Petrus misit ; usque ad primum Decii annum ducentis ac septem annis, soli sine episcopo et pastore Parisii, et quidem sic ferventibus in ea religione Christianis, esse potuerint.

bishop of Paris, that up to this year Paris lacked a bishop, it will deservedly have to be asked of him: How could it come about that whereas right from the time of the apostles—namely from the time when Savinianus, Potentianus, and Altinus, who were of the seventy-two disciples, sent by St. Peter into Gaul, established an episcopal see first at Sens (whence also the primacy of Sens) and then at Chartres and Troyes, and spread out preaching through the neighbouring places of all that region, at Paris, Orléans, Auxerre, and Nevers—the faith of Christ so flourished in the territory of Paris, and in one village thereof, whose name is Créteil, which is two leagues distant from Paris, the martyrdom of Agoard and Aglubert, and of innumerable Christians of both sexes with them, is celebrated in the Parisian Breviary on the very day of St. John the Baptist, the 24th of June; and that martyrdom is so ancient (and prior even to the coming of St. Dionysius himself into Gaul) that, as though the faith of Christ in Gaul had begun to exist from this village, occasion was given through the allusion of its name to Christianity for the proverb, Cresteil premier village de Chrestienite, that is, Créteil the first village of Christianity: how could it come about, I say, that for a long time, within which the people of Chartres already numbered their sixth bishop, named Servus—that is, from the year 46 of Christ, the second year of the founding of the Roman Church, in which Peter sent the aforesaid Savinianus, Potentianus, and Altinus from Rome into Gaul—right down to the first year of Decius, for two hundred and seven years, the Parisians alone could have been without a bishop and pastor, and that when the Christians were so fervent in that religion?

« Adde, quod nac id sine argumento est, quod qui sextus a S. Dionysio Parisiorum episcopus fuit. nomine Victorinus inter Patres Agrippinensis synodi, quae sub Julio pontifice, anno 346 facta est, absens licet, fuisse memoratur. Nec id quidem absque significatione contractae ex senio infirmitatis, propter quam adesse non potuerit, in eo quod ipso non praesente, sed consentiente et mandante, synodi decreta dicuntur confirmari. Nam cum ab anno 1 Decii, qui fuit 253 usque ad dictum annum 346 intersunt tantum 93 anni, ex quibus si demas 24 quibus Parisiis sedit Dionysius (quem centenario majorem obiisse ex historiis constat) reliqui sunt tantum anni 69, tum vero id certum, breviorem esse numerum hunc annnorum, quam ut sequentibus quinque post Dionysium episcopis, qui fuerunt II Mello, III Massus, qui et historiam martyrii SS. Dionysii et sociorum scripsit, IV Marcus, V Adventinus, et IV Victorinus, possit sufficere. Idque pro ea, quam tum fuisse nascente adhuc Ecclesia pastorum longaevitate, observat Baronius in Martyrologio et Annalibus in anno 76 et 109. Sic utique dispensante Deo, ut quae ipsi longioris aetatis experimento didicissent ac vidissent, efficacius testarentur, ac posteris transmitterent. Quod et experimento in aliis Ecclesiis compertum : quale illud, quod Carnuti, qui post Aventinum, primum ejus sedis episcopum, qui anno 63 obiit, primi quinque fuerunt episcopi, II Optatus, III Valentinus, IV Martinus Candidus. V Avianus, VI Severus annos ducentos et septemdecim, hoc est ab anno 63 usque ad 280, quo Castor VII episcopus electus est, complevisse reperiuntur. Ex quo etiam intelligitur, quanto probabilius sit, numerum ducentorum 27 annorum, qui ab anno 119 qui primus Adriani fuit, quo et mortuus est Dionysius, usque ad 346 qui fuit synodi Agrippinensis, lapsi sunt, a quinque illis dicti Dionysii successoribus episcopis, et quidem VI illo, id est Victorino. defectae jam, ut dictum est, aetatis viro, completum esse, quam ut eorum vita ad 69 annos restringi arctarique possit aut debeat.

"Add that this also is not without proof: that he who was the sixth bishop of Paris from St. Dionysius, named Victorinus, is recorded to have been among the Fathers of the Synod of Cologne, which was held under Pope Julius in the year 346, albeit absent; and that not without an indication of infirmity contracted from old age, on account of which he could not be present, in that the decrees of the synod are said to be confirmed with him not present, but consenting and giving mandate. For since from the 1st year of Decius, which was 253, down to the said year 346 there are only 93 years intervening, from which if you subtract the 24 during which Dionysius sat at Paris (who, as is established from the histories, died more than a centenarian), there remain only 69 years; then indeed this is certain, that this number of years is too short to suffice for the five bishops following after Dionysius, who were: second, Mello; third, Massus, who also wrote the history of the martyrdom of Saints Dionysius and his companions; fourth, Marcus; fifth, Adventinus; and sixth, Victorinus. And this in view of that longevity of pastors which Baronius in his Martyrology and Annals under the years 76 and 109 observes existed at that time while the Church was still in her infancy—God assuredly so dispensing that what they themselves had learned and seen by the experience of a longer life, they might more efficaciously testify and transmit to posterity. Which has also been ascertained by experience in other Churches: such as the fact that at Chartres the first five bishops who came after Aventinus, the first bishop of that see, who died in the year 63—namely, second, Optatus; third, Valentinus; fourth, Martinus Candidus; fifth, Avianus; sixth, Severus—are found to have completed two hundred and seventeen years, that is, from the year 63 down to 280, in which Castor was elected seventh bishop. From which also it is understood how much more probable it is that the number of two hundred and 27 years, which elapsed from the year 119, which was the first of Hadrian and in which Dionysius also died, down to 346, which was the year of the Synod of Cologne, was filled up by those five bishops, the successors of the said Dionysius, and indeed by that sixth one, that is, Victorinus, a man already, as has been said, of spent age, than that their lives can or ought to be restricted and compressed into 69 years.

« Nam quod nonnulli παραδοξότερον adhuc ad ipsa etiam Diocletiani tempora, qui Decio annis triginta

"For as to the fact that some even more paradoxically down to the very times of Diocletian, who after Decius by thirty

Editors' notes and page, col. 996

Footnotes

(52) ‹anchor: fuisse memoratur› · call in col 996

Democh., l. ii Concil., tom. I.

Demochares, [on the] Councils, book 2, volume 1. [The note's numeral prints as "( 2)" with the 5 failing; the call in the text reads (52).]

(printed under page 515)

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duobus junior est, Dionysium rejiciunt, ejusmodi sunt qui S. Piatum, seu Piatonem quem sub Diocletiano et Maximiano cum L. Quintino et sociis Roma in Belgium venisse, ac Tornaci passum esse constat, a S. Dionysio presbyterum factum, et ab eo Tornacum missum dicunt ; inter quos mirum est esse Petrum in Catalogo, quod et in Breviariis quibusdam obtinuit, cum hoc nihil aliud, quam purum ac putum mendum sit, non aliunde forte natum, quam si quis per errorem pro Domitiano, sub quo fuit Dionysius, Diocletianum, sub quo Piatus, similitudine vocis deceptus, posuerit, mirabili certe ἀναχρονισμῷ cum alter altero ducentis annis junior sit, non alio hic remedio, quam simplici litura opus esse judicamus. Postremo, quod cum in eo, ut bene observavit illustrissimus Baronius, nec ipsa rerum suarum tam rigida aemulatrix et vindex Graecia reclamet, queraturve Gallis datum, quos audiens Areopagita Dionysio tam impense gloriantes, sic illis id concedit ultro, ut de eo ipsis etiam gratuletur, non factura utique, ni veritas cogeret ; tanto magis a ratione alienum erit, si Galli ipsi tantum boni a se ultro ac gratis velint vel studeant amoliri.

and two years is younger, reject Dionysius, are of the same sort as those who say that St. Piatus, or Piaton—who, as is established, came from Rome into Belgium under Diocletian and Maximian with Lucian, Quentin, and their companions, and suffered at Tournai—was made a presbyter by St. Dionysius and sent by him to Tournai; among whom it is wonderful that Peter in his Catalogue is found, which has also obtained a place in certain Breviaries, although this is nothing else than a pure and simple blunder, arisen perchance from no other source than that someone by error, deceived by the similarity of the word, put Diocletian, under whom Piatus lived, instead of Domitian, under whom Dionysius lived—by a wonderful anachronism indeed! Since the one is two hundred years younger than the other, we judge that no other remedy is needed here than a simple erasure. Lastly, since in this matter, as the most illustrious Baronius has well observed, not even Greece herself, so strict a rival and vindicator of her own glories, cries out in protest or complains that he has been given to the Gauls, but hearing them glorying so earnestly in Dionysius the Areopagite, so willingly concedes this to them that she even congratulates them upon it—which she would certainly not do unless truth compelled her—so much the more foreign to reason will it be if the Gauls themselves should willingly and gratuitously wish or strive to put away so great a good from themselves.

« Quae de priori problemate cum dicta sint, quo ad alterum, quod de vero librorum horum auctore est, quod sopiti etiam hic dudum anonymorum quorumdam per Theodorum Gazam, Laurentium Vallam, Erasmum et Erasmi sequacem Cajetanum primum, deinde per Lutherum redivivi facti, hodie etiam per novatores, maxime autem Scaligerum cineres excitantur,

"And now that these things have been said concerning the former problem, as regards the second, which concerns the true author of these books—namely, that the ashes of certain anonymous writers, long since laid to rest here also, revived first through Theodore Gaza, Lorenzo Valla, Erasmus, and Erasmus's follower Cajetan, and then through Luther, are stirred up today also through the innovators, and above all through Scaliger,

« Et veterem, ut ait ille, in limo ranae cecinere querelam, » (VIRG., Georg. I, v. 378.)

"'And in the mud,' as the poet says, 'the frogs sang their old complaint'" (Virgil, Georgics I, v. 378),

ut suppositum Areopagitae partum ut pseudo-Dionysium, et, ut loquitur Scaliger ὑποβολιμαῖον dicant : de Christo scriptos versus (quos a D. Paulo tanquam γνησίους approbatos, ab iis quibus praedicabat legi jussos esse, gravissimus auctor est Clemens Alexandrinus ab ethnicis, quod eorum se auctoritate premi a Christianis viderent, non tantum in dubium revocatos ex Valeriani imperatoris apud Vopiscum ad senatum epistola, sed etiam damnatos vetitosque Christianis fuisse ex Justino martyre constat, Quemadmodum et fictitios esse propterea sibi Cicero persuasit, quod rem minus ipsi gratam, quamque nec capere homo ethnicus poterat, continerent, venturum esse Regem, cui parere necesse esset omnes qui salvi esse vellent. Addo et, quo Vetus Testamentum Carpocrates, Cerdon, Severus et Manichaeus ; Evangelia Matthaei, Marci et Joannis idem Cerdon ; Epistolas Pauli Ebion ; Machabaeorum libros, Ecclesiasten, et quam stramineam pro sua modestia vocat, Jacobi Epistolam, Lutherus cum suis gregalibus rejicere praesumpserunt : quodque mirere non minus, quo etiam hodie S. Remigii testamentum, et Gregorii Magni Epistolas ; et quo nihil sub sole illustrius terra vidit, Lateranense concilium. recentes quidam ex scriptis nati aristarchi, quibus dulce contra torrentem niti, templumque Dei replere fumo, falsi insimulant, unoque nomine id solemme haereticis, ac novis semper id genus de abyssi puteo erumpentibus locustis, ut quam sibi quisque, id est furori suo Scripturam contrariam videt, hanc audeat impudentissime traducere, imo etiam expugnare, tantum abest ut propter ἀθυρογλώττους istos, et symbola Dodonaea,

so that they call it a supposititious offspring of the Areopagite, a pseudo-Dionysius, and, as Scaliger speaks, 'spurious': it is established from the letter of the Emperor Valerian to the Senate in Vopiscus that the verses written concerning Christ (which, as Clement of Alexandria is a most weighty authority, were approved by St. Paul as genuine and ordered to be read by those to whom he preached) were not only called into doubt by the pagans, because they saw themselves pressed by the Christians with their authority, but were even condemned and forbidden to Christians, as is established from Justin Martyr; just as Cicero also persuaded himself that they were fictitious for the reason that they contained a matter less pleasing to him, and one which a pagan man could not grasp, namely, that a King was to come whom all who wished to be saved would have to obey. I add also that on the same ground on which Carpocrates, Cerdon, Severus, and Manichaeus presumed to reject the Old Testament; the same Cerdon, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John; Ebion, the Epistles of Paul; and Luther with his comrades, the books of the Maccabees, Ecclesiastes, and what in keeping with his modesty he calls the 'epistle of straw,' the Epistle of James; and, what you may wonder at no less, on which even today certain recent Aristarchuses sprung from writings, to whom it is sweet to struggle against the stream and to fill the temple of God with smoke, accuse of forgery the Testament of St. Remigius, and the Epistles of Gregory the Great, and that than which the earth has seen nothing more illustrious under the sun, the Lateran Council; and in a word, that this is customary for heretics and for the new locusts of that kind ever bursting forth from the pit of the abyss, that whatever Scripture each one sees to be contrary to himself, that is, to his own madness, this he dares most impudently to traduce, nay even to assault—so far is it from being the case that on account of those unbridled tongues and the Dodonaean

Editors' notes and page, col. 997

Footnotes

(q) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 997 [UNSURE: call above the foot crop; column inferred]

Job xxxix, 27.

Job 39:27.

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(r) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 997 [UNSURE: call above the foot crop; column inferred]

I Cor. II, 6.

1 Corinthians 2:6.

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(s) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 997 [UNSURE: call above the foot crop; column inferred]

II Cor. XII, 2.

2 Corinthians 12:2.

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Petrus de Nat., l. ii, cap. 36.

Peter de Natalibus, book 2, chapter 36.

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(54) ‹anchor: Clemens Alexandrinus› · call in col 997

Strom. l. vi.

Stromata, book 6.

(printed under page 516)

(55) ‹anchor: Justino martyre constat› · call in col 997

Just. Orat. ad Anton. Pium.

Justin, Oration [Apology] to Antoninus Pius.

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(56) ‹anchor: salvi esse vellent› · call in col 997

Lib. ii, De divin.

Book 2, On Divination.

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De sacerd. l. iv.

On the Priesthood, book 4.

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foetum hunc auctori suo, hoc est Areopagitae Dionysio, dubitem asserere, ut hoc potius nec levi argumento ducar. quod tenebrionibus istis ac vere terrae filiis id non placeat negentque contentius, veram hanc ejus atque indubitatam prolem esse. Quippe tam dignam aquila, hac, sive, ut loquitur Chrysostomus, πίτεινῷ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ quae in arduis ponit nidum suum solemque firmis et immotis oculis intuetur, quamque propterea aemulari qui studeat, de eo id jure dici possit :

cymbals I should hesitate to assert this offspring for its own author, that is, for Dionysius the Areopagite, that I am rather led by this no slight argument—namely, that it does not please those tricksters of darkness and true sons of the earth, and that they deny it all the more contentiously—to hold that this is his true and undoubted offspring. Since indeed it is so worthy of this eagle, or, as Chrysostom speaks, the 'bird of heaven' which 'places its nest on high' (Job 39:27) and gazes upon the sun with firm and unmoving eyes, and which therefore whoever strives to emulate, of him that saying may justly be uttered:

.... Ceratis ope Daedalea Nititur pennis, vitreo daturus Nomina ponto. HOR. Carm., lib. IV, od. 2.

'... With Daedalean art he strives on waxen wings, about to give his name to the glassy sea.' Horace, Odes, book IV, ode 2.

Quam dignus hic vicissim, cui probato ex hoc signo grandior illa aquila, imo aquilarum mater Paulus, qui sapientiam loquitur inter perfectos sua arcana illa in tertio coelo audita verba, quae non licet homini, id est terram sapienti, loqui, huic jam non homini sed θείῳ, id est divino, ut loquitur Damascenus ; et ut inter suos idem gentilis adhuc audiebat, θεοσόφῳ ; ut vero idem Damascenus alibi vocat ἁγιωτάτῳ καὶ θεολογικωτάτῳ : ut Michael Syngelus ei andreas Cretensis, μεγάλῳ καὶ ἀγγέλῳ, denique ex omni parte γενναίῳ καὶ γνησίῳ ἀετιδεὶ, hoc est generoso ac germano aquilae pullo, dicatur credidisse. Ut nec mirum esse debeat si quantum lucernam hanc ardentem ac lucentem oderunt ac fugiunt noctuae hae, tantum in ejus luce ac splendore qui filii lucis sunt, debeant exsultare.

How worthy is he in turn, upon being proved by this sign, that that grander eagle, nay the mother of eagles, Paul, who speaks wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor. 2:6), should be said to have entrusted his secret words heard in the third heaven, which it is not lawful for a man, that is, one savouring of the earth, to speak (2 Cor. 12:2), to this man, now no longer a mere man, but θείῳ, that is, divine, as Damascene speaks; and as the same man was called among his own people while still a pagan, θεοσόφῳ ('wise in divine things'); and as the same Damascene elsewhere calls him, ἁγιωτάτῳ καὶ θεολογικωτάτῳ ('most holy and most theological'); as Michael Syncellus and Andrew of Crete call him, μεγάλῳ καὶ ἀγγέλῳ ('great and an angel'); in fine, in every respect γενναίῳ καὶ γνησίῳ ἀετιδεὶ, that is, a noble and true-born eaglet! So that neither ought it to be wonderful if, in proportion as these night-owls hate and flee this burning and shining lamp, those who are children of light ought all the more to exult in its light and splendour.

« Nam quod hic forte quis objiciat, ex c. 13 Caelestis hierarchiae, auctorem hunc (licet id non tam suo, quam aliorum, ut ipse confitetur, sensu) supremi ordinis angelos ad inferiora haec mitti sic negare, ut hoc quidquid est de missis apud Isaiam seraphinis, non aliter quam vicaria per minores angelos, majorum personam gerentes, opera factum velit (scitum enim quod vix id theologorum schola probet, quippe reclamante non Scriptura tantum, quae omnes administratorios spiritus in ministerium missos propter eos qui haereditatem capiunt, salutis, esse ait ; imo quae Michaelem, Gabrielem et Raphaelem missos refert, quos de minoribus angelis esse nullo pacto dici potest ; verum etiam de ratione ipsa, quae nihil indignum angelis, quantumvis magnis, esse docet, quod vel in se angelorum creator et Dominus, angelus ipse et apostolus et missus nominatus, Jesus Dei Filius admiserit praeterquam quod dici potest οὐχ ἁπλῶς istud, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐπὶ πολὺ a Dionysio nostro dictum esse, cum certum sit, ut minores angeli superiorum personam aliquando agant, sicuti et gregales homines principum in theatro, nihil hoc prohibere, quin et magni augeli quemadmodum et principes suas ipsi per se obeant operas et functiones (nisi potius hoc totum, sicuti alibi, ut scis. in meo de arca testamenti syntagmate explico, non tam angelicarum ὑποστάσεων, quam rei angeli superioris, id est Christi passionis et sacrificii, signum ac mysterium est) absit ut hoc, quidquid est, tanti monumenti esse debeat, ut fidem libris his, quasi Areopagitae non sint debeat abrogare. Quasi vero, quod prophetis etiam accidere post divum Gregorium auctor est D. Thomas, ut cum non semper actu adsit eis Spiritus Dei, quaedam sint quae vel ignorent ipsi, ut de se Elisaeus confitetur, vel de suo aliter quam res est (Scripturae auctores hic excipio) citra spiritus

"For as to what someone might perchance object here from ch. 13 of the Celestial Hierarchy, that this author (although, as he himself confesses, not so much in his own sense as in that of others) so denies that angels of the supreme order are sent to these lower regions as to wish that whatever is said in Isaiah (Isa. 6) concerning the seraphim being sent was done no otherwise than by vicarious action through lesser angels bearing the person of the greater (for it is well known that the school of theologians scarcely approves this, inasmuch as not only Scripture cries out against it, which says that all are 'ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation' (Heb. 1:14)—nay, which relates that Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael were sent, who can in no way be said to be of the lesser angels—but also reason itself, which teaches that nothing is unworthy of angels, however great, which the Creator and Lord of the angels Himself, Jesus the Son of God, Himself called Angel and Apostle and Sent, admitted in Himself): besides the fact that it can be said that this was spoken by our Dionysius not absolutely, but as holds for the most part—since, granted that lesser angels sometimes act the person of the higher, just as common men act the person of princes in the theatre, it is certain that this in no way prevents great angels also, just like princes, from performing their own works and functions by themselves (unless rather this whole matter, just as I explain elsewhere, as you know, in my treatise on the Ark of the Covenant, is a sign and mystery not so much of angelic hypostases as of the reality of the Higher Angel, that is, of the passion and sacrifice of Christ)—far be it that this, whatever it is, should be of such moment that it ought to abrogate credit from these books, as though they were not the Areopagite's! As if indeed—what St. Thomas after St. Gregory is authority happens even to prophets, namely, that since the Spirit of God is not always actively present to them, there are certain things which either they themselves are ignorant of, as Elisha confesses of himself (4 Kgs. 4:27), or which they utter of their own accord otherwise than the matter stands (I except here the authors of Scripture), without prejudice to the spirit

Editors' notes and page, col. 998

Footnotes

(t) ‹anchor: apud Isaiam› · call in col 998

Cap. vi.

Chapter 6.

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(u) ‹anchor: capiunt, salutis› · call in col 998

Hebr. I, 14.

Hebrews 1:14.

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(v) ‹anchor: missos refert› · call in col 998

Josue v; Dan. VIII; Luc. I

Joshua 5; Daniel 8; Luke 1.

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(x) ‹anchor: creator et Dominus› · call in col 998

Job xii.

Job 12.

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(y) ‹anchor: angelus› · call in col 998

Malach. III, 1.

Malachi 3:1.

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(z) ‹anchor: ipse et apostolus› · call in col 998

Hebr. III, 1.

Hebrews 3:1.

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Joan. IX,

John 9.

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(b) ‹anchor: confitetur› · call in col 998

IV Reg iv, 27.

4 Kings [2 Kings] 4:27.

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Damas cenus De fide, etc., l. I, cap. 12)

Damascene, On the [Orthodox] Faith, book 1, chapter 12.

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Lib ii, De fide, c. 18.

Book 2, On the Faith, chapter 18.

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(60) ‹anchor: D. Thomas› · call in col 998

greg.sup. Ez ceh. D. Thom. 2-2, qu. 171, a. 2.

Gregory on Ezekiel. St Thomas, [Summa theologiae] II-II, question 171, article 2.

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prophetiae praejudicium iuterdum eloquantur, non huic simile hic aliquid, citra ejus, ex quo illa hausta mysteria sunt, Paulini spiritus injuriam ac diminutionem potuerit contigisse. Sed et absit hoc multo magis, ut pro iis, quae hic tam multa et praeclara sunt tantum sit apud nos Novatorum pondus, ut in eorum gratiam, propter ea quae ipsi contra catholicae Ecclesiae fidem, de libero arbitrio, de peccato orginis, de Ecclesiae hierarchia, ac primatu Petri, de fide atque operibus, de sacramento olei, de eucharistia et missae sacrificio, de panis et vini in corpus et sanguinem Christi conversione, de ejus in encharistia adoratione, de vita monastica, de festis, de jejuniis Quadragesimae, et aliis, de sacrarum imaginum in templis usu, de angelorum ac beatorum spirituum invocatione, denique de reliquiarum veneratione, garriunt blaterantque tam improbe, quorum omnium, ut et olim consubstantialis Ariani, tam pulchre hic causam peroratam vident, vel ipsis, quam id male eos habeat quamque Areopagitica haec arma horreant fatentibus, seque adeo, ut olim missione ac silentio. Eusebius, sic judicio suo et garritu velut sorex prodentibus ac mysterium aperientibus, Luthero primum, qui delirum senem et merum somniatorem, auctorem hunc dicere non est veritus, deinde Calvino, ac novissimum Scaligero ; popter haec (inquam) scutum hoc, quod ignea talium vereque igne digna tela restinguat, hanc plusquam Phocionis securim, quae infelices arbores has excaudicet ac rescindat,, hoc fulmen quod absumat exstirpetque radicitus, hunc solem qui tenebras istas discutiat, et bestias has ad sua lustra remittat et compellat, denique hanc plusquam Herculis clavam quae hydram hanc, ac renascentia novitatum capita tam protenter demetat ac conficiat, de manu vel utro abjicere vel eripi nobis pati debeamus. Cui rei si assentiar aut vi fiat, non repugnem, non me eorum tantum qui tot saeculis floruerunt, ac libros hos sub Areopagitae nomine citaverunt sanctorum Patrum et scholasticorum, imo et conciliorum, quorum indicem Delrius tam pulchre ac diligenter texit, premat, damnetque auctoritas, sed et diligentissimi ac perspicacissimi nostri saeculi totius Graecae sapientiae indigatoris et arbriti civisque adeo et gentilis mei (ne domesticum hoc praejudicium sileam) G. Audaei censura reprehendat, qui Ignatios.aqui Hieronymos, ac Chrysostomos fontem hunc sapientiae delibasse, sic agnoscit, ut suas eos illinc de abditissimis rebus, et quas D. Paulo acceptas jure quis ferre debeat, sententias deprompsisse non obscure fateatur.

of prophecy—something similar to this could not have happened here, without injury and diminution to that Pauline spirit from which those mysteries were drawn! But far be this much more, that in comparison with the things that are here so many and so splendid, the weight of the Innovators should be so great with us that for their sake—on account of the things which they themselves prattle and babble so wickedly against the faith of the Catholic Church, concerning free will, original sin, the hierarchy of the Church and the primacy of Peter, faith and works, the sacrament of oil, the Eucharist and the sacrifice of the Mass, the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, the adoration of Him in the Eucharist, the monastic life, feasts, the fasts of Lent and others, the use of sacred images in churches, the invocation of angels and blessed spirits, and finally the veneration of relics, the cause of all of which, just as formerly the Arians saw the cause of the Consubstantial, they see so admirably pleaded here, even confessing themselves how badly this vexes them and how much they dread these Areopagitic arms, and thus betraying themselves like a shrew-mouse and laying open the mystery by their judgement and prattling, just as Eusebius formerly did by omission and silence: first Luther, who did not shrink from calling this author a doting old man and a mere dreamer, then Calvin, and most recently Scaliger—on account of these things (I say) we ought either voluntarily to cast away from our hand or suffer to be snatched from us this shield which quenches the fiery darts of such men, darts truly worthy of the fire; this axe, more than Phocion's, which uproots and cuts down these barren trees; this thunderbolt which consumes and extirpates them by the roots; this sun which scatters those shadows and drives and compels these beasts back to their dens; finally, this club, more than that of Hercules, which so powerfully mows down and destroys this hydra and the regrowing heads of novelties! To which thing, if I should assent, or if it should be done by force and I should not resist, not only would the authority of those holy Fathers and schoolmen who have flourished through so many centuries and cited these books under the name of the Areopagite—nay, of the councils also, the index of which Delrio has woven so admirably and diligently—press upon me and condemn me, but the censure also of the most diligent and most perspicacious investigator and arbiter in our century of all Greek wisdom, and indeed my fellow-citizen and countryman (not to pass over in silence this domestic precedent), Guillaume Budé, would reprove me, who so acknowledges that the Ignatiuses, the Jeromes, and the Chrysostoms tasted of this fountain of wisdom that he not obscurely confesses that they drew thence their utterances concerning the most hidden things, utterances which one ought justly to credit as received from St. Paul.

« Haec habui, quae tibi ut facerem satis de utroque a te proposito problemate non tam dicerem, quam aliunde pene hausta repeterem. Quae si me fixum ac firmum eorum qui aiunt affirmantque, prae illis qui negant vel dubitant (ut aperte quod sentio loquar) probatorum laudatoremque dixero, tam jure id fecero, quam illorum erudita atque firma, horum jejuna ac plane nulla, seu argumenta seu momenta esse ratio ipsa monstrat. Vale, meque, ut facis amare perge, et sacrificiis commendatum habe Tornaci Nerviorum Kalendis Maii 1615. »

"These things I had, not so much to say of myself as to repeat when drawn almost wholly from elsewhere, in order to satisfy you concerning each of the two problems proposed by you. And if in view of them (to speak openly what I think) I call myself a fixed and firm approver and praiser of those who say yes and affirm, above those who deny or doubt, I shall have done so all the more justly inasmuch as reason itself shows that the arguments or weights of the former are learned and firm, whereas those of the latter are meagre and utterly null. Farewell, and continue to love me as you do, and hold me commended in your sacrifices. At Tournai of the Nervii, on the Kalends of May, 1615."

Haec sapientis et copiosi theologi disputatio, non modo perspicue Areopagitam Dionysium Galliae, sed ipsi Dinoysio scripta sua vindicat, quae pars erat nostrae disputationis secunda ; quam necesse est constabiliamus hoc loco atque firmemus, ne quem adhuc in errore versari patiamur. Sunt enim etiam in hac parte haud pauciores, mea opinione, inimicissimi sancti Dionysii hostes, obtrectatores invidi, bono alieno moerentes atque virtute, qui Commentarios divinissime scriptos, quosque omnis mirata est antiquitas, apostolico spiritu et primigenia pietate indignos contendant. Lutherus jampridem, Beza, Calvinusque, tum qui deinde pullularunt

This disputation of a wise and copious theologian not only perspicuously vindicates Dionysius the Areopagite for Gaul, but also vindicates his writings for Dionysius himself, which was the second part of our disputation; and this we must establish and strengthen in this place, lest we suffer anyone still to remain in error. For in this part also there are no fewer, in my opinion, most hostile enemies of Saint Dionysius, envious detractors grieving at another's good and virtue, who contend that Commentaries most divinely written, which all antiquity has admired, are unworthy of the apostolic spirit and primitive piety. Luther long ago, Beza, and Calvin, and then very many who afterwards sprouted

Editors' notes and page, col. 999

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other: Latin only, no Greek printed; editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); begins mid-word (tus from spiritus) and ends mid-word (pullula- for pullularunt)
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eodem satu bene multi, in eosdem non ridicule minus quam furenter declamitarunt. Nuperus scriptor in Batavia, Scaliger, cum se minime hypobolimaeum dici et existimari velit, audet tamen nostrum Dionysium ὑποβολιμαῖον nominare. Iisdem in libris Illyricus genuinum infixit, Erasmus arrosit, Laurentius Valla carpsit, innumeri alii de grege novorum ἀλαζόνων, qui necessarium bellum indixerunt pietati, haec quoque B. Dionysii monumenta repudiaveruut. Ego vero neminem posthac tam mente captum, tam praeposterum, tam projectum ad audendum futurum puto, qui hos libros Areopagitae Dionysio velit deripere, si modo animum, vacuamque malitia mentem, vel ad unicam rationem accommodarit. Nam cum horum Commentariorum scriptor Paulo praeceptore glorietur atque Hierotheo, spectatorem se fuisse dicat exorientis Ecclesiae, et tum primum ad orientem efflorescentis, si is non sit Dionysius Areopagita, quem doctor gentium ab inani superstitione revocavit, quem interpretem religionis esse voluit, Athenisque episcopum ; certe necesse est hominem fuisse monstrifico genere e diversissimis naturis conglutinatum ; hinc virum sanctum, ingeniosum, moderatum, in theologia summum, qui mysteria caeteris bominibus arcana viderit, sapientiae fontes aperuerit, coelestium rerum admirabilitatem magnifico genere orationis et plane divino explicarit ; hinc contra planum, malitiosum, γόητα, qui personatus quasi post siparium delitescens spectatorum animos deluserit, in cothurno alieno incesserit, caeca et inani imitatione e mustaceo lauream nescio quam petere voluerit, qui cum ψεῦδος probe sciret ἔξω τοῦ θείου χοροῦ poni, tabulam tamen subornavit, mendaciorum indignissima varietate et foedissima sutela contextam. Hic autam illud Cassianum audiri velim : Cui bono ? aut quid tandem eo ingenio vir et doctrina, e putida illa sperare fraude potuisset? Atque hanc rationem docte, ut solet, et elegantissimo judicio explicuit P. Leonardus Lessius societatis nostrae theologus, quem non naevo aliquo, sed clarissimis editis operibus jam eruditorum chorus agnovit. Illius sapientiam cum tanquam Pythium Apollinem super hac re consuluissem, breves litteras ad me dedit, quas libens cum Lectore meo communicabo. Fuerunt autem scriptae in haec verba :

from the same seed, have declaimed against the same books no less ridiculously than furiously. A recent writer in Holland, Scaliger, while he wishes himself by no means to be called and esteemed supposititious, yet dares to call our Dionysius ὑποβολιμαῖον ('supposititious'). Upon the same books Illyricus fastened his back tooth, Erasmus gnawed at them, Lorenzo Valla carped at them, and innumerable others from the herd of new braggarts, who have declared inevitable war upon piety, have also rejected these monuments of Blessed Dionysius. Yet I think that hereafter no one will be so bereft of mind, so perverse, so headlong in audacity as to wish to snatch these books away from Dionysius the Areopagite, if only he applies his mind, and an understanding free from malice, even to a single reason. For since the writer of these Commentaries glories in Paul and Hierotheus as his preceptors, and says that he was an eyewitness of the rising Church, then for the first time blossoming in the East, if he is not Dionysius the Areopagite, whom the Doctor of the Gentiles recalled from vain superstition, whom he wished to be an interpreter of religion and bishop at Athens, certainly he must have been a man glued together in a monstrous fashion out of the most diverse natures: on the one side a holy, ingenious, moderate man, supreme in theology, who saw mysteries hidden from other men, opened the fountains of wisdom, and unfolded the marvellousness of heavenly things in a magnificent and utterly divine style of discourse; on the other side, on the contrary, a vagabond, malicious, a charlatan, who, masked and lurking as it were behind the curtain, deluded the minds of the spectators, strutted in another's buskin, and by blind and empty imitation wished to seek some laurel or other in a cake, and who, though he knew full well that falsehood is set outside the divine choir, nevertheless suborned a play woven together out of a most unworthy variety of lies and the foulest patchwork! Here, however, I should wish that saying of Cassius to be heard: Cui bono? Or what, pray, could a man of such genius and learning have hoped for from that disgusting fraud? And this argument Father Leonardus Lessius, a theologian of our Society—whom the chorus of the learned has long since recognized not by some blemish, but by his most illustrious published works—has unfolded learnedly, as is his wont, and with most elegant judgement. When I had consulted his wisdom like Pythian Apollo upon this matter, he sent me a brief letter, which I shall gladly share with my Reader. Now it was written in these words:

« Reverende in Christo Pater, pax Christi.

"Reverend Father in Christ, the peace of Christ.

« Litteras reverentiae vestrae datas Parisiis 14 Aprilis accepi 24 ejusdem. Miror, post patris Martini Delrio Vindicias Areopagiticas, adhuc superesse aliquos, qui de hoc opere dubitent, an auctori illi sit vindicandum ; dissolutis enim adversariorum ratiunculis, tot profert veterum auctorum (inter quos multi summi pontifices, et viri sanctitate illustres) testimonia, quibus scripta illa S. Dionysio Areopagitae tribuuntur, ut vix putem esse aliquod antiquorum Patrum scriptum, quod pluribus testibus suo auctori possit vindicari. Mihi vero res adeo perspicua videtur, ut etiamsi ejusmodi testimonia minime suppeterent, non putem ei, qui attentius expenderit operis conditionem, de auctore ambigendum. Hac enim unica ratione facile convincetur, qua et ego, ex quo auctorem illum legi, convictus sum. Si opus illud non esset magni illius Dionysii Areopagitae qui temporibus apostolorum vixit. sed alicujus posterioris, ut Dionysii Alexandrini, vel Corinthii, vel cujusdam qui aliquot saeculis postea temporibus Justiniani II circa annum Domini sexcentesimum nonagesimum vixerit, ut vult Scaliger ; auctor ejus esset mendax, hypocrita, et impostor. Ait enim, praeceptorem et institutorem in rebus divinis se una cum Timotheo habuisse S. Paulum, deinde S. Hierotheum, ut videre est lib. De ecclesiastica hierarch., c. 2, part. I, et De divinis nom., c. 3. et c. 7. Affert objectionem Elymae magi tanquam aequalis et contemporanei.

"I received on the 24th of April the letter of Your Reverence dated at Paris on the 14th of the same month. I wonder that after the Vindiciae Areopagiticae of Father Martin Delrio there still remain some who doubt concerning this work, whether it is to be vindicated for that author; for after dissolving the petty objections of the adversaries, he brings forward so many testimonies of ancient authors (among whom are many supreme pontiffs and men illustrious for sanctity) whereby those writings are attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, that I scarcely think there is any writing of the ancient Fathers which can be vindicated for its author by more witnesses. To me indeed the matter seems so perspicuous that even if testimonies of that sort were by no means at hand, I do not think that anyone who has more attentively weighed the character of the work could be in doubt concerning its author. For he will easily be convinced by this single reason, whereby I also, ever since I read that author, have been convinced. If that work were not the work of that great Dionysius the Areopagite who lived in the times of the apostles, but of some later writer, such as Dionysius of Alexandria, or of Corinth, or of someone who lived several centuries afterwards in the times of Justinian II around the six hundred and ninetieth year of the Lord, as Scaliger wishes, its author would be a liar, a hypocrite, and an impostor. For he says that he, together with Timothy, had St. Paul as his preceptor and instructor in divine things, and afterwards St. Hierotheus, as may be seen in the book On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, ch. 2, part I, and On the Divine Names, ch. 3 and ch. 7. He brings forward the objection of Elymas the magician as of an equal and contemporary,

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De divinis nominibus cap. 8. Item cap. 3 ait se interfuisse coetui apostolorum et fratum, qui convenerant ad contuendum corpus beatissimae Virginis : ibidem adfuisse Petrum et Jacobum, ejusque rei Timotheum esse probe conscum. Hierotheum praeceptorem ibi post apostolosi excelluisse in laudanda divinitate : scribit epistoalm ad Polycarpum, aliam ad Titum, aliam ad S. Joannem evangelistam in Patmo exsulantem, et in ea narrat sibi revelatam ejus liberationem et reditum in Asiam. Scribit ad Apollophanem, hortatur eum ad fidem Christi, et commonet eclipsis quam simul viderint in Aegypto tempore passionis Dominicae ; quomodo eam conspexerint, quae verba inter se commutarint. Haec et alia scribit ille auctor : quae omnia falsa essent et merae imposturae, si iste non esset magnus Dionysius apostolis σύγχρονος, sed junior alius. Atqui prorsus incredibile est, auctorem illius oporis voluisse tam foede mentiri, et hominibus imponere : hoc enim non cadit in virum probum et sapientia conspicuum. Nam constat, auctorem illius operis tanta fuisse sapientia et rerum divinarum cognitione, ut summis theologis, ex quo in lucem prodiit, fuerit admirationi, et nemo post apostolos ei putetur praeferendus, vel etiam aequandus ; nemo de natura divina, ejusque perfectionibus et operationibus scripsit sublimius aut copiosius ; nemo angelorum ordines, hierarchias, actus hierarchicos, omnemque dispositionem, praeter illum nobis descripsit ; nemo Scripturas sacras, earumque sensus arcanos, sublimius interpretatur. Ille nobis primus theologiam symbolicam et mysticam tradidit. Excidit tamen opus illud De symbolica theologia, et solum diversis locis ejus dat aliquod specimen ; ex quo possumus conjicere quam admirabile et sublime opus illud fuerit. Excidit et aliud θεολογικαὶ ὑποτυπώσεις inscriptum, cujus ipse meminit variis locis. Nemo eorum quae in sacramentis geruntur mysteria, et occultas significationes, profundius aut copiosius patefecit. Jam vero quam sana ubique in tanta sublimitate theoriae de maximis Christianae religionis dogmatibus, doctrina, ut de tribus in simplicissima divinitate hypostasibus seu personis, de earum processione et distinctione, de unitate essentiae, de indivisa operatione, de admirabili unione naturae divinae et humanae in una hypostasi, Verbi de natura mali, de efficia sacramentorum, de augustissimo eucharitiae sacramento, quod ex sententia sui inclyti praeceptoris (Paulum vel Hierotheum intelligens) dicit esse τελετῶν τελετήν, quasi dicas sacramentorum omnium perfectionem. Quod ad elocutionem attinet, eam quoque angelicam potius dixeris quam humanam, adeo sublimis est; nimirum ut conceptionum sublimitatem orationis sublimitas exaequet. Quis post apostolos unquam de divinis ita locutus est : Τριὰς ὑπερούσιε καὶ ὑπέρθεε, καὶ ὑπεράγαθε, κ. τ. λ. Πᾶσα θεία πατριὰ καὶ υἱότης ἐκ τῆς πάντων ἐξρρημένης πατριαρχίας καὶ υἱαρχίας δεδώρηται. Τὸ θεαρχικὸν Πνεῦμα. Προς τὸν ἀρχίφωτον Πατέρα. Πρὸς τὴν ὑπεράρχιον ἀρχήν. Τὴν ἀρχικὴν καὶ ὑπεράρχιον τοῦ θεαρχικοῦ Πατρὸς φωτοδοσίαν ἀΰλοις καὶ ἀτρεμέσι νοὸς ὀφθαλμοῖς εἰσδεξάμενοι Ὑπερουσίως οὐσιώθη. Θεανδρικαὶ ἐνέργειαι. Et mille alia non coacta non laboriose quaesita, sed sponte ex altissima contemplatione fluentia. Legi S. Augustinum de trinitate, et multa S. Gregorii cognomento theologi opuscula, et aliorum Patrum doctissimos tractatus, nemo tamen ex illis visus est mihi Dionysium vel doctrinae sublimitate, vel dicendi majestate aequare. Quam ob causam mirantur illum non solum omnes doctores scholastici (quorum aliquot etiam commentariis illum illustrarunt). sed et SS. Patres qui illum legerunt, ut S. Joannes Damascenus, S. Maximus, Michael Syngelus, et alii multi quos recenset Delrio. Ex quibus constat auctorem istius operis

On the Divine Names, ch. 8. Likewise in ch. 3 he says that he was present at the assembly of the apostles and brethren who had come together to behold the body of the Most Blessed Virgin; that Peter and James were present there, and that Timothy was well aware of that fact; and that his preceptor Hierotheus excelled there after the apostles in praising the Divinity. He writes an epistle to Polycarp, another to Titus, another to St. John the Evangelist in exile on Patmos, and in it he narrates that John's liberation and return into Asia had been revealed to him. He writes to Apollophanes, exhorts him to the faith of Christ, and reminds him of the eclipse which they had seen together in Egypt at the time of the Lord's passion, how they beheld it, and what words they exchanged with one another. These and other things that author writes: all of which would be false and mere impostures if he were not the great Dionysius, contemporary with the apostles, but some younger writer. And yet it is utterly incredible that the author of that work wished to lie so foully and to impose upon men: for this does not befall an upright man conspicuous for wisdom. For it is established that the author of that work was of such great wisdom and knowledge of divine things that to the greatest theologians, ever since he came to light, he has been an object of admiration, and no one after the apostles is thought worthy to be preferred or even equalled to him; no one has written more sublimely or more copiously of the divine nature and of its perfections and operations; no one besides him has described for us the orders of the angels, the hierarchies, the hierarchical acts, and the whole disposition; no one interprets the Sacred Scriptures and their secret senses more sublimely. He first handed down to us symbolic and mystical theology. Yet that work On Symbolic Theology has been lost, and only in diverse places does he give some specimen of it, from which we can conjecture how admirable and sublime that work was. Lost also is another work entitled Theological Outlines, which he himself mentions in various places. No one has laid open more profoundly or more copiously the mysteries that are enacted in the sacraments and their hidden significations. Moreover, how sound everywhere, amid such sublimity of contemplation, is his doctrine concerning the greatest dogmas of the Christian religion: as concerning the three hypostases or persons in the most simple Divinity, their procession and distinction, the unity of essence, the undivided operation, the admirable union of the divine and human natures in one hypostasis of the Word, the nature of evil, the efficacy of the sacraments, and the most august sacrament of the Eucharist, which according to the judgement of his renowned preceptor (meaning Paul or Hierotheus) he calls τελετῶν τελετήν, as if to say the perfection of all sacraments! As far as diction is concerned, you would call it also angelic rather than human, so sublime is it—doubtless so that the sublimity of the discourse may equal the sublimity of the conceptions. Who after the apostles ever spoke thus of divine things: 'Trinity superessential and superdivine and supergood,' etc.; 'Every divine paternity and filiation has been bestowed from the supreme patriarchy and filiarchy transcendent over all'; 'The thearchic Spirit'; 'Towards the Father, the Principle of light'; 'Towards the superoriginal Principle'; 'Having received with immaterial and untrembling eyes of the mind the original and superoriginal light-bestowal of the thearchic Father'; 'He was superessentially substantiated'; 'Theandric energies'; and a thousand other things, not forced, not laboriously sought out, but flowing spontaneously from the highest contemplation. I have read St. Augustine On the Trinity, and many treatises of St. Gregory surnamed the Theologian, and the most learned tracts of other Fathers, yet none of them has seemed to me to equal Dionysius either in sublimity of doctrine or in majesty of speech. Wherefore not only do all the scholastic doctors admire him (several of whom have also illustrated him with commentaries), but also the holy Fathers who read him, such as St. John of Damascus, St. Maximus, Michael Syncellus, and many others whom Delrio recounts. From all of which it is established that the author of that work

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fuisse eminentissimae sapientiae et magnae sanctitatis virum, ut qui totus in rebus divinis et angelicis contemplationibus ubique versetur, et Timotheum passim ad rerum divinarum assiduam theoriam, relictis omnibus quae sub sensum cadunt, hortetur. Quis talem ac tantum virum credat tam putide voluisse mentiri, et tam absurda hypocrisi falsa quadam specie antiquitatis et apostolicae consuetudinis, mundo imposturam facere ? Non cadunt ista in virum probum et sanae mentis, multo minus in sapientissimum et sanctissimum. Denique, quo fine haec omnia fecisset, et se alium finxisset quam revera fuit? an ut labores suos, et gloriam illis debitam, per scelus et ementiam perderet ? Poterat enim nomen suum et veritatem patefaciendo, maximam sibi gloriam toto orbe et omnibus saeclis duraturam comparare, et maximis doctoribus Ecclesiae aequari, vel etiam praeferri. Poterat omnium theologorum qui unquam futuri sunt, admirationem, amorem et benedictionem sibi conciliare, et illustrissima ingenia, ad sui imitationem provocare. Quorsum per mendacia et improba facta, per hypocrisim et imposturas indignissimas et inauditas voluisset tanto se bono privare, et nomen suum aeternis tenebris involvere ?

was a man of most eminent wisdom and great sanctity, inasmuch as he is everywhere wholly occupied in divine things and angelic contemplations, and everywhere exhorts Timothy to the assiduous contemplation of divine things, leaving behind all things that fall under the senses. Who could believe that such and so great a man wished to lie so disgustingly, and by such absurd hypocrisy, under a certain false guise of antiquity and apostolic intimacy, to perpetrate an imposture upon the world? Those things do not befall an upright man of sound mind, much less one most wise and most holy. Finally, to what end would he have done all these things, and feigned himself other than he really was? Was it in order that he might lose his labours, and the glory due to them, through crime and madness? For by making known his own name and the truth, he could have won for himself the greatest glory, destined to endure throughout the whole world and in all centuries, and have been equalled or even preferred to the greatest doctors of the Church. He could have won for himself the admiration, love, and blessing of all theologians who shall ever be, and stirred up the most illustrious minds to the imitation of himself. To what purpose would he have wished, through lies and wicked deeds, through hypocrisy and the most unworthy and unheard-of impostures, to deprive himself of so great a good, and to wrap his own name in eternal darkness?

« Haec ratio me ita convincit, ut nihil de auctore hujus operis possim dubitare : nec quisquam, opinor, dubitabit, qui lecto diligenter opere ista expenderit. Legi saepius, et accurate omnia expendi : itaque mihi placuit, ut hunc Dionysium jam a triginta sex annis in patronum delegerim, et semper in sacrificio missae nominatim invocarim, mihi ejus sapientiam et spiritum imprecans. Dolui subinde, quod non melius esset conversus, nec vis verborum ejus multis locis expressa, sed alia substituta, quae lectorem possent in errorem conjicere, ut plurimis exemplis possem ostendere. Quam ob causam statui ego aliquando illum transferre, et in eum finem multa adnotavi. Verum per alias occupationes nunquam sat otii suppeditavit. Gaudeo, et gratulor tibi, quod hunc laborem susceperis, eoque nomine omnes theologi, praesertim qui Graecae linguae non satis sunt periti, tibi multum debebunt, si facilem illis aditum ad tanti auctoris lectionem et intelligentiam patefeceris. Vale, mi Pater, mei memor. Lovanii, 25 Aprilis 1615. »

"This reason so convinces me that I cannot doubt at all concerning the author of this work; nor, I think, will anyone doubt who, having diligently read the work, weighs those points. I have read it often, and have accurately weighed everything; and therefore it has pleased me for thirty-six years now to choose this Dionysius as my patron, and always to invoke him by name in the sacrifice of the Mass, praying for his wisdom and spirit for myself. I have often grieved that he had not been better translated, and that the force of his words had not been expressed in many places, but other things substituted which could cast the reader into error, as I could show by very many examples. On which account I myself once resolved to translate him, and to that end noted down many things. But through other occupations there was never enough leisure. I rejoice and congratulate you that you have undertaken this labour, and on that account all theologians, especially those who are not sufficiently skilled in the Greek tongue, will owe much to you if you lay open to them an easy access to the reading and understanding of so great an author. Farewell, my Father, mindful of me. At Louvain, 25th of April, 1615."

R. V. Servus in Christo. LEONARDUS LESSIUS.

Your Reverence's servant in Christ, Leonardus Lessius.

Potentissima quidem est, ut aiebam, haec eruditissimi viri argumentatio, neque desunt aliae rationes quae eodem orationis cursu hic a me ponerentur, si certorum hominum voluntates rationibus duci posse constaret. Sed haerent in sententia firmiter, et tanquam in arce causae multis praesidiis septi et circumvallati, nisi turres et propugnacula quatiantur, nisi diluantur objectiones et refellantur, abduci a pristina opinione non possunt, ut obstinati et multarum palmarum gladiatores se dimoveri de suo gradu non sinunt. Age igitur, videamus quae objiciunt, et si non aequa cum superioribus felicitate, pari sane felicitate refutemus.

Most powerful indeed, as I was saying, is this argumentation of the most learned man, nor are there lacking other reasons which might be set down by me here in the same course of discourse, if it were established that the wills of certain men can be led by reasons. But they cling firmly to their opinion, and, hedged in and entrenched as it were in the citadel of their cause by many defences, unless the towers and bulwarks are shaken, unless their objections are dissolved and refuted, they cannot be drawn away from their former opinion; like obstinate gladiators of many palms, they do not allow themselves to be dislodged from their stance. Come, therefore, let us see what they object, and if not with a felicity equal to the foregoing, at least with like felicity let us refute them.

Stylum inprimis Dionysii nostri arguunt atque lacerant, quem obscurum et involutum esse aiunt, tum etiam tumentibus ampullis inflatum, quem negant convenire in illud. tempus, in quo religionis Christianae simplicitas moderatioque lucebat, et minime omnium quadrare in eum virum, qui dictus est Areopagita. Primum lubens ab iis doctoribus quaererem, quemnam esse hominem velint, et qualem tandem Areopagitam Dionysium. Audio quid Laurentius Valla dicat, quid Erasmus, quid alii quidam ex eadem officina fuliginosi. Volunt enim vel vicem fuisse Atheniensem unum de grege, qui a certo loco urbis, Areopagitae nomen tulerit, vel certe de numero judicum fuisse unum, quasi unum

In the first place they censure and tear to pieces the style of our Dionysius, which they say is obscure and involved, and moreover inflated with swelling bombast, which they deny suits that time in which the simplicity and moderation of the Christian religion shone forth, and least of all fits that man who was called the Areopagite. First, I would gladly inquire of those doctors what sort of man they wish him to have been, and what sort of Areopagite Dionysius was, pray. I hear what Lorenzo Valla says, what Erasmus, and what certain other begrimed men from the same workshop say. For they wish him either to have been one Athenian citizen from the herd, who bore the name of Areopagite from a certain quarter of the city, or at any rate to have been one of the number of the judges, just as you might say one

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de centumviris apud Romanos fuisse dicas. Rident proinde de catholicis magnos vivos, qui Dionysium philosophum nominaverunt. Hinc Abrahamus Scultetus solis defectionem sive eclipsim, quam se vidisse ait Dionysius, fabellam indigitat. Itaque hominem pingunt prope idiotam, πραγματικόν, veluti quemdam rabulam fori togatum vulturium, qui pauculas modo Solonis leges tenuerit, qui Axonas manibus pervolutarit, caetera similis aliorum. Mentior si ab ore viri docti quidquam exire potuit insulsius. Ille etenim Dionysius, quem domi nobilem et ornatum, quem principem in urbe virum, quem in eo domicilio litterarum sapientem fuisse accepimus, de quo nobis tam multa ad commemorationem sancti Patres et historiarum monumenta reliquerunt, solus nihil viderit, nihil audierit, in Academiam nunquam aut Lyceum venerit, non ad Platonicos unquam, non ad stoicos, aliasque sectas philosophorum accesserit? Ergone in eo concursu omnium nationum, quae Athenas omnium disciplinarum, emporium confluebant, ea maxime tempestate, cum, ut in sacra B. Lucae historia perscribitur, aliud nihil studerent tum Athenienses, tum aliarum gentium peregrini, quam ut aliquid novi audirent, aut dicerent ubi omnes « caupones fuerunt sapientiae et facundiae, » ut Tertuliani verbis utar ; in eo aestu et ardore quotidianarum scholarum et eruditissimarum disputationum, Dionysius noster solus plumbeus, solus αμουσος et communium litterarum expers fuit, patriaeque institutionis ? Cur igitur non ut claudus sutor domi desedit, cur potius adfuit, cum D. Paulus cum Stoicis et Epicureis disputaret ? cur tanto studio σπερμολόγον illum audiit, cur maturo exquisitoque judicio primus omnium vim divinae religionis agnovit ? Apage tu, Valla, tu, Erasme, convitium, utriusque linguae vitium insoleatis. Erit nobis Dionysius Areopagita qui semper fuit a temporibus apostolorum, dignus Atheniensis Musei alumnus, Atticae cultor Minervae, omnium doctrinarum choragio ornatus et sapiens. Qui aliud sentit, non meo, sed omnium intelligentium judicio sit ὄνος πρὸς λύραν.

of the centumvirs among the Romans. Accordingly, they laugh at the great men among the Catholics who have called Dionysius a philosopher. Hence Abraham Scultetus stigmatizes as a 'little fable' the failing or eclipse of the sun which Dionysius says he saw. And so they paint the man as almost an ignoramus, a pettifogging practitioner, like some toga-clad vulture and wrangler of the forum, who knew only a few little laws of Solon, who thumb-turned the Axones with his hands, in other respects like anyone else. I lie if anything more insipid could issue from the mouth of a learned man! For could that Dionysius—whom we have received as having been noble and distinguished at home, a leading man in the city, and a wise man in that abode of letters, concerning whom the holy Fathers and the monuments of history have left us so many things for remembrance—alone have seen nothing, heard nothing, never come into the Academy or the Lyceum, never approached the Platonists, or the Stoics, and the other sects of philosophers? In that concourse, then, of all nations which streamed together to Athens, the emporium of all disciplines, especially at that season when, as is written in the sacred history of Blessed Luke (Acts 17:21), both the Athenians and the strangers of other nations studied nothing else than either to hear or to tell something new; where all 'were hucksters of wisdom and eloquence,' to use the words of Tertullian; in that heat and ardour of daily lectures and most learned disputations, was our Dionysius alone leaden, alone uncultured and devoid of common letters and of his country's education? Why then did he not sit idle at home like a lame cobbler; why rather was he present when St. Paul disputed with the Stoics and Epicureans? Why did he listen with such great zeal to that 'word-scatterer'; why with mature and exquisite judgement was he the first of all to recognize the power of the divine religion? Away with your abuse, you, Valla, and you, Erasmus, the blemish of an insolent tongue in both languages! Dionysius the Areopagite will be for us what he has always been from the times of the apostles: a worthy foster-son of the Athenian Museum, a cultivator of Attic Minerva, adorned and wise with the equipment of all doctrines. Whoever thinks otherwise, not by my judgement, but by that of all intelligent men, let him be 'an ass at the lyre.'

Hic vir tantus (jam accedo propius ad propositam objectionem de stylo), hic Areopagi splendor ea gravitate et auctoritate, hic in omni parte litteraturae perfectus, de quo Empedocleum illud merito dicam :

This so great man (I now come closer to the proposed objection concerning his style), this splendour of the Areopagus of such gravity and authority, this man perfect in every branch of literature, of whom I may deservedly utter that saying of Empedocles:

.... σοφίας ἐπ' ἄκροισι θαμίζων,

'... haunting the heights of wisdom,'

divinitus afflatus, mustea dogmata quae magno animo conceperat, resque plane divinas atque coelestes, litteris mandare voluit, hominumque judicio committere. Nego scribi de illis rebus potuisse melius aut sapientius, quam quo modo scripsit magnus Dionysius, hoc est obcure, et supra communem modum magnifice. Quis enim nescit hoc in more positum olim apud sapientes fuisse, ut cum abditas arcanasque res et indoctae multitudinis sensum et intelligentiam superantes, vellent tradere, eas de industria caecarent oratione atque inobscurarent, et sapientiae velum obtenderent, seu ut illi ipsi loquebantur, τὰ τῶν λόγων προκαλύμματα? Id Synesius politissimi vir ingenii clarusque antistes, ἀρχαῖον καὶ λίαν Πλατωνικὸν esse ait, κρύπτειν τὰ ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ σπουδαῖα communem illam affert rationem, ne quae perite sunt a doctis hominibus excogitata, pereant, neque tamen ab imperita multitudine ut a profanis, sancta contaminentur. Maximus Tyrius aliam rationem attulit, nimirum conciliandae venerationis gratia et majestatis : Θρασεῖα γὰρ οὖσα ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ψυχὴ, τὰ μὲν ἐν ποσὶν ἧσσον τιμᾷ, τοῦ δὲ ἀπόντος θαυμαστικῶς ἔχει. Ea enim humanae mentis imprudentia est, ut quae exposita sunt atque prompta minoris faciat ; quae abstrusa, vehementer admiretur. Itaque apud philosophos et poetas πάντα μεστὰ αἰνιγμάτων εἶναι. Et quidem Lycei parens Aristoteles, majorum veluti gentium philosophus, cum bipertito suas

being divinely inspired, wished to commit to writing and entrust to the judgement of men the fresh dogmas which he had conceived in his great mind, and things utterly divine and heavenly. I deny that it was possible to write concerning those things better or more wisely than in the manner in which the great Dionysius wrote, that is, obscurely, and magnificently beyond the common measure. For who does not know that this was formerly established as a custom among wise men, that when they wished to hand down hidden and secret things surpassing the sense and understanding of the unlearned multitude, they purposely darkened and obscured them in their discourse, and drew before them a veil of wisdom, or, as they themselves used to say, τὰ τῶν λόγων προκαλύμματα ('the coverings of words')? Synesius, a man of most polished genius and an illustrious prelate, says that it is 'ancient and exceedingly Platonic to hide the serious things in philosophy,' and brings forward that common reason, lest the things that have been skilfully thought out by learned men should perish, and yet lest holy things should be contaminated by the unskilful multitude as by the profane. Maximus of Tyre brought forward another reason, namely, for the sake of winning veneration and majesty: Θρασεῖα γὰρ οὖσα ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ψυχὴ, τὰ μὲν ἐν ποσὶν ἧσσον τιμᾷ, τοῦ δὲ ἀπόντος θαυμαστικῶς ἔχει. For such is the forwardness of the human mind that it esteems less the things that are set forth and ready at hand, whereas it vehemently admires what is abstruse. And so among philosophers and poets 'all things are full of enigmas.' And indeed Aristotle, the parent of the Lyceum, a philosopher as it were of the greater nations, when he had divided his

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marginal letters: A de centumviris; B disciplinarum, emporium; C omnium doctrinarum; D re, eas
old-edition numerals: 631 after solus nihil viderit, nihil
other: Latin only (with inline Greek phrases); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued)

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Commentationes tribuisset, populares sermones, quos θοραίους λόγους nominant, aureo genere orationis, et Gratiis Veneribusque instructos sic emittit, ut ab omnibus capi facile et cognosci queant : sed μυστικοὺς, καὶ ἐν οἷς τὰ τέλη ἱερά, mysticos, et qui sacras initiationes continent, sic inobscuravit ὅπως καὶ ἔχοντες, μὴ ἔχωσιν ἀμύητοι, ut sapientem menini scribere Themistium. Qui aliter facerent, non modo inepti futilisque oris homines, verum etiam in philosophiam ingrati, in mysteria impii judicabantur. Clemens certe Alexandrinus in variegato illo opere suo mirabilis, Hipparchum ait Pythagoreum accusatum, quod σαφῶς aperte scripsisset decreta Pythagorae, expulsum e schola fuisse, et propter ipsum veluti jam mortuum factam esse columnam. Sed periti id studiosissime observant, si quando foret de Deo, de religione, de arcanis coelestibusque mysteriis disputandum. Demetrius Phalereus illud vere Τὰ μυστήρια ἐν ἀλληγορίαις λέγεται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν καὶ φρίκην ὥσπερ ἐν ἀδύτῳ καὶ νυκτί. Mysteria, inquit, allegoriis exprimuntur ad terrorem et horrorem tanquam in adyto et nocte. Itaque videmus sanctissimos viros, religionis catholicae mystas, et pietatis interpretes, cum augustiora illa pertractant, quae non sit utile cognoci ab omnibus, tenebras offundere orationi, et ut verbo utar S. Hieronymi, obliquos esse in dicendo. Sanctus Joannes, abbas Raythu, Scholiis in Climacum, ad gradum 27 id sapienter animadvertit. « Non clare, inquit, narravit contemplationem sanctus, eo quod noluit omnibus talia revelare. » Quid igitur facere is debuit, qui Athenis, hoc est e sinu ipsius philosophiae ad scribendum prodiens de abditis sanctae theologiae arcanis disputationem instituebat ? qui in ejus urbis luce commentabatur, ubi tam multi curiosi atque malevoli tam multi subsessores doctrinarum, tam multi aucupes novitatum, qui ut diuturnam sitim explere cupientes, quae dicebantur, quaeque litteris mandabantur, avidissime excipiebant ? An dubitabimus quale sapientissimi Dionysii consilium hac in re fuerit, qualis mens et voluntas, nec audiemus quae ipse perspicue significavit ? Nam priusquam ad hierarchiam ecclesiasticam proponendam aggrediatur, monet Timotheum, ne divina illa enuntiet profanis et evulget, sed clausa teneat, et veluti honorifico parapetasmate involuta, habeat in pretio et veneratione ; se quidem illa tegere, doctum a theologia, οὕτω γὰρ ὡς ἡ θεολογία τοῖς θιασώταις ἡμῖν παραδέδωκε. Desinant igitur novi censores hanc gravissimi Dionysii obscuritatem impetere ut insolentem, ut tanto viro indignam, ut heroicis illis et apostolicis temporibus non convenientem. Imo potius mecum expendant quid de illa ipsa sentiat, quidve scribat scholae magister S. Thomas, ille theologiae apex, qui nodosas difficilium rerum quaestiones facilius, quam nodum Gordium Alexander solvebat. Illius verba mihi quidem auro contra Erythraeisque gemmis chara, tibi quoque non injucunda, lector, futura, hic apponam. « Est autem considerandum, quod B. Dionysius in omnibus libris suis obscuro utitur stylo. Quod quidem non imperitia, sed ex industria, ut sacra et divina dogmata ab irrisione infidelium occultaret. Accidit etiam difficultas in praedictis libris ex multis. Primo quidem quia plerumque utitur stylo et modo loquendi, quo utebantur Platonici, qui apud modernos est inconsuetus. Secunda autem difficultas accidit in dictis ejus, quia plerumque rationibus efficacibus utitur ad propositum ostendendum, et multoties paucis verbis, vel etiam uno verbo eas implicat. Tertia, quia multoties utitur quadam multiplicatione verborum, quae licet superflua videantur, tamen diligenter considerantibus magnam sententiae profunditatem continere inveniuntur. »

treatises into two classes, sent forth his popular discourses, which they call θοραίους λόγους ('exoteric discourses'), in a golden style of speech and furnished with the Graces and Charms, in such a way that they can easily be grasped and understood by all; whereas the μυστικοὺς, καὶ ἐν οἷς τὰ τέλη ἱερά, the mystical ones, and those which contain the sacred initiations, he so obscured 'that even having them, the uninitiated may not have them,' as I remember the wise Themistius writes. Those who acted otherwise were judged not only men of an inept and futile tongue, but also ungrateful towards philosophy and impious towards the mysteries. Certainly Clement of Alexandria, admirable in that variegated work of his, says that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, accused because he had written down the doctrines of Pythagoras σαφῶς, openly, was expelled from the school, and a pillar was erected for him as though he were already dead. Now skilled men observe this most studiously whenever there is occasion to dispute concerning God, concerning religion, and concerning secret and heavenly mysteries. Demetrius of Phalerum truly said that: Τὰ μυστήρια ἐν ἀλληγορίαις λέγεται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν καὶ φρίκην ὥσπερ ἐν ἀδύτῳ καὶ νυκτί. 'The mysteries,' says he, 'are expressed in allegories for awe and dread, as though in a shrine and by night.' And so we see the most holy men, the initiates of the Catholic religion and interpreters of piety, when they treat those more august matters which it is not profitable should be known by all, casting shadows over their discourse, and, to use the word of St. Jerome, being oblique in speech. Saint John, Abbot of Raithu, in his Scholia on Climacus, at step 27, wisely notes this: 'The saint,' says he, 'did not narrate his contemplation clearly, because he did not wish to reveal such things to all.' What then ought he to have done who, coming forth to write at Athens, that is, from the very bosom of philosophy, was instituting a disputation concerning the hidden secrets of sacred theology? who was composing his commentaries in the light of that city where there were so many curious and ill-disposed men, so many waylayers of doctrines, so many hunters after novelties, who, desiring as it were to slake a long-standing thirst, most eagerly caught up whatever was said and whatever was committed to writing? Shall we doubt what the counsel of the most wise Dionysius was in this matter, what his mind and will, and shall we not hear what he himself perspicuously indicated? For before he proceeds to set forth the ecclesiastical hierarchy, he warns Timothy not to utter or divulge those divine things to the profane, but to keep them closed up, and, wrapped as it were in an honourable curtain, to hold them in price and veneration; saying that he himself indeed covers them, having been taught by theology, 'for thus has theology handed down to us her initiates.' Let the new censors therefore cease to attack this obscurity of the most weighty Dionysius as insolent, as unworthy of so great a man, as unsuited to those heroic and apostolic times. Nay, let them rather weigh with me what the master of the schools, St. Thomas, that summit of theology, who loosed the knotty questions of difficult matters more easily than Alexander loosed the Gordian knot, thinks and writes concerning that very obscurity. His words, dearer to me indeed than gold and Erythraean gems, and which will not be unpleasant to you also, reader, I shall set down here: "Now it is to be considered that Blessed Dionysius in all his books uses an obscure style. And this indeed he did not from unskilfulness, but on purpose, in order that he might hide the sacred and divine dogmas from the derision of unbelievers. Difficulty in the aforesaid books happens also from many causes. First indeed, because for the most part he uses the style and manner of speaking which the Platonists used, which is unfamiliar among moderns. Secondly, difficulty happens in his sayings because for the most part he uses efficacious reasons to show his purpose, and oftentimes folds them up in a few words, or even in a single word. Thirdly, because oftentimes he uses a certain multiplication of words, which, although they may seem superfluous, nevertheless to those who consider them diligently are found to contain a great depth of meaning."

Dixi de obcuritate, consequens modo est ut de styli magnificentia videamus. Ejus enim orationem

I have spoken of his obscurity; it now follows that we should see concerning the magnificence of his style. For his discourse

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marginal letters: A Commentationes tribuisset; B στήρια ἐν; C mandabantur, avidissime; D Erythraeisque gemmis
old-edition numerals: 632 before hierarchiam ecclesiasticam
other: Latin only (with inline Greek quotes); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued)

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aiunt esse ὀγκώδη inflatam, peregrino tumore crepantem, insolentem, vel, ut objectat Illyricus, Asiaticam et redundantiorem, quam ut in eam aetatem et scribendi rationem quadret. Cui haeretico e Novatorum castris hominem unum possunt opponere Isaacum Casaubonum, qui tametsi in oppugnanda veritate sit infelici et timendo fato immortuus, ut erat tamen non derelictus ab ingenio, nec lectionis complurium Auctoru mexpers, Dionysium nostrum vidit divinum quemdam esse hominem et antiquissimum, idque ipsum saepe est non sine praefatione honoris professus, de cujus in scribendo ratione ita laudans, et micantis undique excellentiae magnitudine obstupefactus praedicat : « Fingit voces novas, et compositiones format inusitatas, inauditas, mirificas : quae simpliciter verbo uno aut altero dici poterant, diffundit in plures voces admodum sonoras et magnificas, atque ut vere observat Maximus, διὰ πολυπληθίας λέξεων σκοτοῖ τὸν λόγον, congestis verbis multis obscurat sermonem. » Et alio in loco ait multos Patres, eximie vero prae caeteris Dionysium Areopagitam, de sacramentis novo quodam et inusitato dicendi genere scripsisse, quod a cothurno tragico, vel dithyrambicis ampullis, non multum videatur distare. Hujus ob os, Illyricus credo, os aperire suum non audeat. Quanquam Illyrici quidem temeritatem jejunique animi jactationem, jampridem Matthaeus Galenus, vir praestantis eruditionis, compescuit : docet enim una etiam in aetate, styli varietatem in diversis scriptoribus esse potuisse ; Philonem Judaeum, quem Atticum ; et unum omnium elegantissimum omnes sciunt, cum temporibus iisdem floreret, ita nonnunquam dicendo incitari, ut proprius absit a magno Dionysio, quem proinde meritissime Eusebius τῷ λόγῳ πλατέα, ταῖς διανοίαις ὑψηλὸν καὶ μετέωρον appellat ; id ipsum quod scioli quidam reprehendant a sanctissimis Patribus, qui totius Graeciae facile principes olim audierint, exquisita laude celebrari quippe a Gregorio Nazianzeno dicit viro eloquentissimo, et in rerum gravissimarum intelligentia versato, scripta fuisse a Dionysio κάλλιστά τε καὶ ὑψηλότατα. Haec et alia vir ille doctus copiosissime exponebat. Sed, si lubet pedem propius jam conferre, quid est magnopere mirandum esse videatur, si noster Dionysius ea ingenii subtilitate, quod, ut verbum a poeta mutuer, tenues limarant Athenae, ea institutione atque doctrina quae clarissimum illud domicilium litterarum saperet, iis doctoribus usus, qui a tertio usque coelo devocatam coelestium rerum cognitionem in ejus animum instillassent, cum maxime religio et divinus amor ejus animi inflammationem exsuscitant ; si Dionysius, inquam, sapientum Atheniensium primitiae, in eo ardore pietatis, delibutus liquido gaudio et voluptate, qua divinae mentis illapsu perfruebatur, humum deseruit, extulit se supra se, verba ad animi dominantem affectionem accommodavit, nova et inusitata dicendi ratione evolavit altius, quam nos humi strati queamus suspicere ?

they say is ὀγκώδη, inflated, crackling with foreign tumour, insolent, or, as Illyricus objects, Asiatic and too redundant to square with that age and manner of writing. To which heretic they can oppose a single man from the camp of the Innovators, Isaac Casaubon, who, although he died in the midst of assaulting the truth by an unhappy and dreadful fate, nevertheless, as he was not forsaken by genius nor devoid of the reading of very many authors, saw that our Dionysius was a certain divine and most ancient man, and often professed that very thing not without a preface of honour; praising whose manner of writing, and astounded by the greatness of the excellence gleaming on every side, he proclaims thus: "He fashions new words, and forms unusual, unheard-of, wondrous compounds; things that could have been said simply in one or two words he pours out into several exceedingly sonorous and magnificent words, and, as Maximus truly observes, διὰ πολυπληθίας λέξεων σκοτοῖ τὸν λόγον, by heaping up many words he obscures his discourse." And in another place he says that many Fathers, and pre-eminently above the rest Dionysius the Areopagite, wrote concerning the sacraments in a certain new and unusual style of speech, which seems not far removed from the tragic buskin or dithyrambic bombast. In the face of this man, I believe, Illyricus would not dare to open his own mouth. Although indeed the rashness of Illyricus and the boasting of a meagre mind were long ago curbed by Matthaeus Galenus, a man of outstanding learning: for he teaches that even in one and the same age there could be variety of style in diverse writers; that Philo the Jew, whom all know to be Attic and the most elegant of all, since he flourished in the same times, is sometimes so stirred up in speaking that he is not far removed from the great Dionysius, whom accordingly Eusebius most deservedly calls τῷ λόγῳ πλατέα, ταῖς διανοίαις ὑψηλὸν καὶ μετέωρον ('ample in speech, lofty and soaring in thoughts'); and he says that the very thing which certain smatterers censure is celebrated with exquisite praise by the most holy Fathers, who were easily reckoned in former times the princes of all Greece, inasmuch as by Gregory Nazianzen, a most eloquent man and versed in the understanding of the weightiest matters, the things written by Dionysius are called κάλλιστά τε καὶ ὑψηλότατα ('most beautiful and most sublime'). These and other things that learned man set forth most copiously. But if it pleases us now to come to closer quarters, why is it that it should seem greatly to be wondered at if our Dionysius, with that subtlety of genius which, to borrow a word from the poet, 'fine Athens had filed,' with that education and learning which savoured of that most illustrious abode of letters, having enjoyed those teachers who had instilled into his mind the knowledge of heavenly things called down even from the third heaven, when above all religion and divine love rouse the kindling of his soul—if Dionysius, I say, the first-fruits of the wise Athenians, in that ardour of piety, steeped in the clear joy and delight which he enjoyed through the illapse of the divine mind, forsook the ground, raised himself above himself, adapted his words to the dominant affection of his soul, and by a new and unusual manner of speaking soared higher than we who lie prostrate on the ground are able to look up to?

Si jam Hierothei sacros hymnos videremus, quos olim, aestu quodam ingenii raptus et pietatis, admirabiliter cecinit, sic ut illi qui aderant, vix arcanos orationis sensus intelligentia consequerentur ; repudiaremus, credo et aspernaremur, quod sublimia illa atque magnifica in eam tempestatem non caderent, quod non trito et consueto genere orationis fuisset usus ?

If we were now to see the sacred hymns of Hierotheus, which once, caught up by a certain heat of genius and piety, he sang admirably, so that those who were present scarcely followed the secret senses of the discourse with their understanding, should we reject and spurn them, I trow, because those sublime and magnificent strains did not fit that season, because he had not used a beaten and customary style of speech?

S. Ignatius neque Athenis disputans, neque hymnos pertexens, aut in mediis coelestium animarum choris beato lumine circumfusus, sed epistolas scribens, nonnunquam tamen impetu orationis effervescit, compositiones verborum habet granditate sonantes, novitate mirabiles, stuctura speciosas, ut vel initium epistolae ad Romanos fidem facit. Quis enimvero est tam morosus in probando, tam in judicando stolidus atque procax,

St. Ignatius, neither disputing at Athens, nor weaving hymns, nor encompassed with blessed light in the midst of the choirs of heavenly souls, but writing epistles, nevertheless sometimes boils over with the onrush of his discourse, and has compounds of words sounding with grandeur, wonderful in novelty, splendid in structure, as even the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans bears witness. For who indeed is so peevish in approving, so stolid and insolent in judging,

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marginal letters: A aiunt esse; B ait multos; C rio Nazianzeno; D evolavit altius
old-edition numerals: 633 after in mediis
other: Latin only (with inline Greek phrases); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued)

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qui apostolicis temporibus eas epistolas scriptas, neget?

as to deny that those epistles were written in apostolic times?

Nemo miratur cum Platonem videt Socratem, aliosque in convio cum probum laudant speciosis amoris involueris redimitum, incitari mente stylo assurgre, ἐνθουσιασμόν pati, furere, vaticinari, βακχεύειν : hanc animam divini amoris igne colliquescentem, Deo plenam, supra res omnes adspectabiles amoris alis evectam, divinae bonitatis vim, varietatem, mirabiles et inexplicabiles machinationes canentem, novo singulari genere dicendi attollentem, non feramus ? Id qui volet, tribunat excellentissimi Dionysii genio et consilio, qui cum esset a natura non modo ad singularem animi constantiam et gravitatem, verum etiam ad magnificum et illustre genus dicendi iustructus, in mysteriorum ista explicatione, aliquid etiam ad consuetudinem adjunxerit ornatus et magnificentiae, ne a profanis hominibus facile attingerentur.

No one wonders when he sees Plato, Socrates, and others in the Symposium, when they praise the upright man wreathed in the fair wrappings of love, stirred up in mind, rising in style, experiencing ἐνθουσιασμόν ('enthusiasm'), raging, prophesying, βακχεύειν ('reveling like Bacchants'): shall we not bear with this soul melting in the fire of divine love, full of God, borne aloft on the wings of love above all visible things, singing the power, variety, and wonderful and inexplicable contrivances of the divine goodness, and exalting them in a new and singular style of speech? Let whoever wishes attribute this to the genius and counsel of the most excellent Dionysius, who, since he was furnished by nature not only for a singular constancy and gravity of mind, but also for a magnificent and illustrious style of speaking, in that unfolding of the mysteries added also something of ornament and magnificence to his custom, lest they should easily be reached by profane men.

Ego vero sic sentio divini Numinis imperio et motione haec ab eo fuisse perscripta. Deus profecto rerum omnium opifex qui illo aevo rara quaedam et inusitata patrabat, Dionysii mentem atque linguam habuit pro calamo scribae velociter scribentis : illius ductu atque lumine non politiam modo omnem Christianae religionis, verum etiam coelestium mentium ordines, peragravit. Ille Spiritus qui Dionysio concessit, ut indicta caeteris inauditaque pangeret, verba etiam et mirificum orationis contextum, quo illi ipsa exponeret, suppeditavit. Quare ut Graccho olim orandi, fistula eburneola puer litteratus vocis contentionem et tonum moderabatur, sic divina mens, periti instar phonasci, sanctissimo Dionysio nostro dedit, ut inflaret altius, et cum divinissimo Paulo mente excederet. Certe clarissimus idemque religiosissimus Billius, cujus industria et fructuosissimis laboribus, tot eximios e Graecia Patres explicatos et illuminates habemus, dicere solebat, hoc opus Areopagitae Dionysii, hunc stylum adeo esse θεόπνευστον atque divinum, ut si quotquot in Europa sunt acerrimo ingenio et gravioribus scientiis imbuti, in unum coeant, et simile quidpiam meditentur, vix omni animi contentione atque viribus, sint tantam altitudinem atque praestantiam imitando consecuturi, Quod acroama ex ore tanti viri excepit D. Richardus Stephanus doctor thologus, vir summa humanitate, ut mihi nuper in familiari sermone memorabat. In eadem sententia fuit Marsilius Ficinus, lumen aevi sui, varia abundantique doctrina cujus aureum prountiatum non possum quin totidem verbis hic ponam, ut honorificum nostrae disputationis emblema. Sic igitur habet : « Dionysii Dei numen, Theologi veteres et Platonici, separatarum mentium exstasim et excessum esse putant, quando partim amore nativo, partim instigante Deo, naturales intelligentiae limites supergressae, in amatum Deum mirabiliter transformantur, ubi novo quodam nectaris haustu et inaestimabili gaudio velut ebriae (ut ita dixerim) debacchantur. Hoc genus Dionysiaco mero Dionysius noster ebrius exultat passim, effundit aenigmata, concinit dithyrambos. Itaque quam arduum est profundos ejus sensus intelligentiae penetrare, tam difficile miras verborum compositiones, et quasi Orphicum dicendi characterem imitari, ac Latinis praesertim verbis exprimere. Idem profecto ad id facile consequendum necessarius omnino nobis divinus est furor, etc. »

Yet for my part I think thus: that these things were written down by him at the command and impulse of the divine Deity. Assuredly God, the Maker of all things, Who in that age wrought certain rare and unusual things, held the mind and tongue of Dionysius as the pen of a scribe writing swiftly (Ps. 44:2): under His guidance and light he traversed not only the whole polity of the Christian religion, but also the orders of the heavenly minds. That Spirit Who granted to Dionysius to compose things unsung and unheard of by others, supplied also the words and the wondrous texture of discourse wherewith he might set those very things forth to him. Wherefore, just as formerly for Gracchus when speaking a learned boy regulated the pitch and tone of his voice with a little ivory pipe, so the divine Mind, like a skilled voice-master, granted to our most holy Dionysius to blow a loftier strain, and with the most divine Paul to be beside himself in mind (2 Cor. 5:13). Certainly the most illustrious and at the same time most religious Billy, through whose industry and most fruitful labours we possess so many eminent Fathers from Greece explained and illustrated, used to say that this work of Dionysius the Areopagite, this style, is so divinely inspired and divine that if all in Europe who are of the keenest genius and imbued with the weightier sciences should come together into one and meditate something similar, scarcely with all the striving and powers of their mind would they attain by imitation to such height and excellence. Which pronouncement Dr. Richard Étienne, Doctor of Theology, a man of the highest humanity, received from the mouth of so great a man, as he recently recounted to me in familiar conversation. Of the same opinion was Marsilio Ficino, the light of his age, of varied and abundant learning, whose golden pronouncement I cannot forbear to set down here in so many words, as an honourable emblem of our disputation. Thus then he has it: "The divine inspiration of Dionysius, the ancient theologians and Platonists think to be the ecstasy and transport of separated minds, when, partly by native love, partly at the instigation of God, having transcended the natural limits of intelligence, they are wonderfully transformed into the beloved God, where, intoxicated as it were with a certain new draught of nectar and inestimable joy, they revel (so to speak) like Bacchants. Intoxicated after this manner with Dionysiac wine, our Dionysius exults everywhere, pours forth enigmas, and sings dithyrambs. And therefore, as arduous as it is to penetrate the deep senses of his intelligence, so difficult is it to imitate the wonderful compounds of his words and his quasi-Orphic character of speech, and especially to express them in Latin words. Assuredly the same divine frenzy is altogether necessary for us in order easily to attain to this, etc."

Hac de stylo satis : quid aliud adversus Dionysii nostri monumenta objiciatur videamus. Ecce tibi Scaliger sane infesto animo incurrit in Dionysium : hos libros supposititios ex eo probat, quod de monachis agant, qui nusquam fuerint ; non enim, ut Tertullianus aiebat, Christiano « silvicolas esse aut exsules vitae : « id genus vitae a Paulo primum eremita institutum ; ὑποβολιμαῖον hunc scriptorem in fraudem fuisse inductum ab Eusebio, qui

Enough of these things concerning style; let us see what else is objected against the monuments of our Dionysius. Behold, Scaliger runs upon Dionysius with a truly hostile mind: he proves that these books are supposititious from the fact that they treat of monks, who nowhere existed; for Christians, as Tertullian used to say, are not "forest-dwellers or exiles from life"; that that kind of life was first instituted by Paul the Hermit; and that this supposititious writer was led into fraud by Eusebius, who

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running head: P. LANSSELII DISPUTATIO APOLOGET. 1006
marginal letters: A qui apostolicis; B Ego vero; C Dionysii, hunc; D nectaris haustu
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: Latin only (with inline Greek words ἐνθουσιασμόν, βακχεύειν, θεόπνευστον, ὑποβολιμαῖον); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued)

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monachismum ad nascentis Ecclesiae tempus revocavisset : per Dionysii nostri θεραπευτάς, exsules illos vitae intelligendos, se primum e Trullana synodo aperuisse gloriatur. sed Thrasonem hunc gloriosum κενῆς οἰήσεως ἔμπλεων ἄσκον, insultantem audacius, et in Trullo bullientem, sua confutarunt trua periti non in theologia modo homines, sed in omni litteratura elegantissimi, Martinus Delrio in primis e societate nostra theologus, deinde Joannes a Sancto Francisco, Fuliacensium prior apud Lutetiam, linguarum, cognitione praecellens, in quo nescias ἐγκυκλοπαιδείαν mireris potius scientiarum, an virtutum. Ac videtur mihi quidem Scaliger meticulosos imitari peregrinos aut cerritos, qui quidquid increpuerit, quae res cunque tandem in aures oculosque se injecerit, hostem putant, larvam, infortunium. Sic ille, cum monachorum genus omne et religiosorum Vatiniano quodam odio prosequeretur, si quod tenue religiosi pareat judicium, subito exhorrescit, monachum adesse putat in cucullo silvicolam, exsulem vitae μανδρίτην. Scripsit sanctus Dionysius, Γαΐῳ θέραπευτῇ : Scaliger, quasi in silvestrem Faunum incidisset, panico terrore, furit, monachum exclamat. Minuamus, si fieri potest, homini timorem, eumque a silvis et deserto loco in urbem ducamus. Neque enim therapeutam cum nominat Dionysius, eum intelligit qui in vasta quapiam solitudine oberret, aut qui plane atque omni ratione eorum vitae rationem imitetur, quam in Palaestina primum atque Aegypto, mox ad orientem late solem et occidentem, piorum hominum greges celebrarunt. Ista magna et mirabilia non subito omni perfectione cumulata solent exsistere : levioribus principiis ea quae perennant non natura modo, verum etiam et gratia praetexit. Quid vero temporibus illis θεραπευταὶ fuerint, si quis modo legat animumque accommodet, non est operosum e Dionysio ipso doctore cognoscere. Dividit enim coetum omnem seu populi Christiani complexum duas primum in partes, in sacros videlicet homines, atque laicos.

had recalled monasticism to the time of the nascent Church; and he boasts that he was the first to disclose from the Synod in Trullo that by the θεραπευτάς ('therapeutae') of our Dionysius those exiles from life are to be understood. But this boastful Thraso, 'a wineskin full of empty conceit,' insulting too audaciously and boiling in the Trullan cauldron, has been confuted with their own ladle by men skilled not only in theology, but most accomplished in all literature: in the first place Martin Delrio, a theologian of our Society, and next Jean de Saint-François, Prior of the Feuillants at Paris, pre-eminent in the knowledge of languages, in whom you would not know whether to admire more the encyclopaedic grasp of sciences or of virtues. And indeed Scaliger seems to me to imitate fearful travellers or madmen, who, whatever rustles, whatever thing casts itself upon their ears and eyes, think it an enemy, a spectre, a misfortune. Thus he, since he pursued the whole race of monks and religious with a certain Vatinian hatred, if any slight token of a religious appears, suddenly shudders, and thinks a monk is present in a cowl, a forest-dweller, an exile from life, a μανδρίτην ('mandrite'). Saint Dionysius wrote, Γαΐῳ θέραπευτῇ ('To Gaius the therapeut'): Scaliger, as though he had stumbled upon a woodland Faun, rages with panic terror and cries out, 'A monk!' Let us lessen the man's fear, if it is possible, and lead him from the woods and desert place into the city. For when Dionysius names a therapeut, he does not mean one who wanders in some vast solitude, or who wholly and in every respect imitates that manner of life which flocks of pious men practised first in Palestine and Egypt, and soon widely towards the rising and the setting sun. Those great and wonderful things are not wont to spring into existence all at once heaped with every perfection: not only nature, but grace also weaves out of slighter beginnings the things that endure perennially. Now what the θεραπευταὶ were in those times, if anyone will only read and apply his mind, it is not laborious to learn from Dionysius himself as teacher. For he divides the whole assembly or compass of the Christian people first into two parts, namely into sacred men and laymen.

In illis hierarchae sunt episcopi, presbyteri, et liturgi. In his ordinibus tribus distincti, in primo catechumeni, energumeni, poenitentes ; in secundo populus sanctus, in tertio monachi. Ex his gradibus divinis quadam ratione conserta et composita ecclesiastica hierarchia, mirabiliter secum ipsa consentit ; nam sacrorum hominum functiones in purgando, aut illuminando, aut perficiendo, occupantur, quare ordinem liturgorum καθαρτικὴν τάξιν appellat, purgantem ; presbyterorum φωτιστικήν, illuminantem ; episcoporum τελεστικήν, perficientem. Quibus inferiores tres respondent gradus. Et catechumenorum quidem energumenorum et poenitentium ordinem nominat τάξιν καθαιρομένην, purgatum populi sancti θεωρητικήν, seu φωτιζομένην, illuminatum ; monachorum denique τετελεσμένην. perfectum. In hoc igitur partium concentu, et velut in cantu et fidibus harmonia, monachos locat in numero laicorum, sed qui tamen quasi μεθόριοι quidam existimari possint, sic ut neque in populi humilitate jaceant, neque rursus ad hierarcharum ordinem attollantur, itaque ad adyti januam consistunt, reliqua omni multitudine superiores, inferiores liturgis. Eorum proprium fuit, majorem quamdam vitae sanctimoniam profiteri, piis precationibus dare operam paulo studiosius, ab inanium rerum tumultu recedere, in medio coetu Christianorum ita vivere, ut longe quam vulgus religiosius consecravisse Deo vitam constaret. Nec monachi ideo nuncupantur, quod lucem fugitantes hominumque societatem, in spelaea sese abderent, umbrosasque silvas, sed quod mentem atque voluntatem, quantum fieri posset, ab omni caducarum rerum cupiditate abstraherent, cohiberent animi vires omnes atque potentias, seque vere ἑνιαίους in unius Numinis providentia collocarent.

Among the former, the hierarchs are the bishops, the presbyters, and the ministers. Among the latter, distinguished into three orders, in the first are the catechumens, the energumens, and the penitents; in the second, the holy people; in the third, the monks. Framed and composed in a certain manner out of these divine degrees, the ecclesiastical hierarchy agrees wonderfully with itself; for the functions of the sacred men are occupied in purifying, or illuminating, or perfecting, wherefore he calls the order of ministers καθαρτικὴν τάξιν, the purifying order; that of presbyters φωτιστικήν, the illuminating; that of bishops τελεστικήν, the perfecting. To which the three lower degrees correspond: and the order of catechumens, energumens, and penitents indeed he names τάξιν καθαιρομένην, the order being purified; that of the holy people θεωρητικήν, or φωτιζομένην, the contemplative or illuminated; and lastly that of the monks τετελεσμένην, the perfected. In this concord of parts, therefore, and harmony as it were in song and strings, he places the monks in the number of laymen, yet such as may be reckoned as certain borderers (μεθόριοι), so that they neither lie in the lowliness of the people, nor again are raised to the order of the hierarchs; and accordingly they stand at the door of the sanctuary, higher than all the rest of the multitude, lower than the ministers. Their special mark was to profess a certain greater holiness of life, to devote themselves somewhat more zealously to pious prayers, to withdraw from the tumult of vain things, and so to live in the midst of the assembly of Christians that it was evident they had consecrated their life to God far more religiously than the common crowd. Nor are they called monks because, shunning the light and the society of men, they hid themselves in caves and shady woods, but because they withdrew their mind and will, so far as was possible, from all desire of perishable things, restrained all the powers and faculties of the soul, and placed themselves truly unified (ἑνιαίους) in the providence of the one Deity.

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marginal letters: A monachismum ad; B adesse putat; C populi Christiani; D monachos locat
old-edition numerals: 634 after monachum
other: Latin only (with inline Greek phrases); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); ends mid-word (collo- for collocarent)
other: the word collocarent. was split at the column break and stands whole here (joined on receipt); check that the English reads whole across the break into col 1008

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Hoc eleganter et divine, ut omnia, exponit Dionysius capite 6 Ecclesiasticae hierarchiae : Μοναχοὶ ὀνομάζονται ἐκ τῆς ἀμερίστου καὶ ἑνιαίας ζωῆς ὡς ἑνοποιούσης αὐτοὺς ἐν ταῖς τῶν διαιρετῶν ἱεραῖς συμπτύξεσιν εἰς θεοειδῆ μονάδα καὶ φιλόθεον τελείωσιν. Iidem ipsi non seclusum habebant ullum locum in quo coetus celebrarent suos, sed cum caeteris divinis liturgiis intererant : et tametsi loci honore ut et vitae gradu anteirent caeteros laicos, velo tamen atque janua a liturgis disjungebantur. quibus dignitate cedebant, ut in epistola ad Demophilum therapeutam ab auctore nostro explicatur. Atque haec, opinor, Scaligero, et ejusdem sectae hominibus, ni iniquiores sint, possunt sufficere, quae in Gallica P. Joannis a sancto Francisco Apologia longe uberius ornatiusque dicuntur. Nunc breviter, ut in cursu orationis, Abrahamum Scultetum modestiae, commonefaciamus, qui Medullam Patrum velut excarnificatione direptam, pestilenti veneno infecit. Is de scriptis Dionysii Areopagitae disputans « De undecim, inquit, epistolis, quae eidem tribuuntur, nihil attinet multa dicere, cum nihil memoratu dignum contineant, nisi forte cuipiam fabella de eclipsi passionis Dominicae arrideat, quam Dionysius Heliopoli Aegyptiorum se vidisse scribit epistola ad Polycarpum.

This Dionysius sets forth elegantly and divinely, like everything else, in chapter 6 of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy: 'They are named monks from their undivided and unitary life, as unifying them in the sacred foldings-together of divisible things into a godlike monad and a God-loving perfection.' These same men did not have any secluded place in which to celebrate their own assemblies, but were present with the rest at the divine liturgies; and although in honour of place as well as in degree of life they preceded the rest of the laity, nevertheless they were separated by the veil and door from the ministers, to whom they yielded in dignity, as is explained by our author in the Epistle to Demophilus the therapeut. And these things, I think, can suffice for Scaliger and the men of the same sect, unless they be too unfair—things which are stated far more richly and ornately in the French Apology of Father Jean de Saint-François. Now let us briefly, as in the course of our discourse, remind Abraham Scultetus of modesty, who has infected with pestilent poison the Marrow of the Fathers, torn out as it were by flaying. Disputing concerning the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, he says: "Concerning the eleven epistles which are attributed to the same, there is no need to say much, since they contain nothing worthy of mention, unless perchance the little fable concerning the eclipse of the Lord's passion smiles upon someone, which Dionysius in his epistle to Polycarp writes that he saw at Heliopolis of the Egyptians."

Graeci veteres mare aiunt φύσει καθαρτικὸν εἶναι, labes animi corporisque tollere : sed ne quidem Germanicum omnem oceanum putem hanc effusi hominis temeritatem expurgare posse. Nam si nunquam eas epistolas in manus sumpsit, cur repudiat, et caeco judicio aspernatur ? Si legit et pervolutavit aliquando, qua fronte. quo superbientis animi fastidio ea dicit quae a quolibet, qui oculis modo atque ratione praeditus sit, et refelli et importunae vanitatis convinci possint? Nam ut omittam, sanctum Dionysium semper sui esse similem, illo e sole divinitus illuminato, tum maximis tum mediocribus in rebus, radios spargi rutilantis sapientiae, ubique ab eo sublimium rerum cognitionem attingi, certe epistolis 6 et 7 de tradendis fidei mysteriis communicandisque agit, re videlicet omnium gravissima; de via et ratione tenenda in disputando, ubi haereticum agendi modum incredibili orationis venustate coarguit, de tolerandis aequo animo injuriis. Doctam praeterea, veram, et exquistam de solis cursu et natura disputationem pertexit, tum Scripturae sacrae auctoritate, tum luce rationis comprobatam.

The ancient Greeks say that the sea is 'by nature purifying,' and takes away the stains of soul and body; but I should think that not even the whole German Ocean could purge away this rashness of an unbridled man. For if he never took those epistles into his hands, why does he reject them and spurn them with blind judgement? If he did read and thumb through them at some time, with what brow, with what disdain of an arrogant mind does he say things which can be both refuted and convicted of insolent vanity by anyone who is endowed merely with eyes and reason? For not to mention that Saint Dionysius is always like himself, that from that divinely illumined sun rays of glowing wisdom are scattered both in the greatest and in moderate matters, and that everywhere the knowledge of sublime things is touched upon by him—certainly in Epistles 6 and 7 he treats of handing down and communicating the mysteries of the faith, a matter manifestly the weightiest of all; of the way and method to be observed in disputing, where with incredible charm of discourse he refutes the heretical manner of acting; and of bearing injuries with an even mind. Moreover, he weaves a learned, true, and exquisite disputation concerning the course and nature of the sun, confirmed both by the authority of Sacred Scripture and by the light of reason.

Haec igitur sani ullius judicio, vana, futilia, et explodenda videantur? Epistola 8, Christianam mansuetudinem eximie commendat, privatam exomologesin docet, nocturnis precationibus lucem affert, ecclesiastici fori majestatem exponit, de poenitentibus moerore confectis in Ecclesiae gremium recipiendis monet. Ne hae quidem censorio illo supercilio sint digna ? Epist. 11, plurima illustrat divinae paginae loca, in magna obscuritate posita, Traditionum vim et auctoritatem explicat. Haec nimirum παίγνια sunt homini haeretico. Epistola 10, animi felicitatem, dura et acerba Dei causa tolerantis summis laudibus in coelum vehit.

Could these things, then, in the judgement of any sane man, seem vain, futile, and worthy to be hissed off the stage? In Epistle 8 he pre-eminently commends Christian meekness, teaches private confession, sheds light upon nocturnal prayers, sets forth the majesty of the ecclesiastical tribunal, and admonishes concerning the receiving back into the bosom of the Church of penitents worn out with sorrow. Are not even these things worthy of that censorious brow? In Epistle 11 [9] he illustrates very many passages of the divine page set in great obscurity, and unfolds the force and authority of Traditions. These things, forsooth, are παίγνια ('playthings') to a heretical man! In Epistle 10 he extols to heaven with the highest praises the felicity of a soul enduring hard and bitter things for the sake of God.

Sed jam e dumis spinetisque disputationum egrediens oratio, gestit evolare liberius in amoena vireta sanctissimorum Patrum, atque hortulos omnigena florum varietate convestitos, e quorum dictis, velut rosis atque liliis, coronamenta plectam Dionysio nostro, magno, inclyto, victori, vere Areopagitae, vere Gallico, de invidia hominum, de saeculorum omnium vetustate gloriosissime triumphanti. Nec longe abiero : nam ecce mihi oum plenis calathis R. P. Petrus Cotonus e societate nostra homo eloquentissimus, et magnarum artium cognitione instructissimus, qui Dionysium nostrum, conquisitis summa industria ex omni antiquitate testimoniis, exornavit et defendit. Ejus gravem et eruditam disputationem religio sane esset hic omittere, cum

But now my discourse, stepping forth from the brambles and thickets of disputations, longs to fly forth more freely into the pleasant lawns of the most holy Fathers, and the little gardens clothed with every variety of flowers, from whose sayings, as from roses and lilies, I may twine garlands for our Dionysius, great, renowned, victorious, truly the Areopagite, truly Gallic, triumphing most gloriously over the envy of men and over the antiquity of all centuries. Nor shall I have to go far: for behold, there meets me with full baskets the Reverend Father Pierre Coton of our Society, a most eloquent man and most furnished with the knowledge of great arts, who has adorned and defended our Dionysius with testimonies sought out with the highest industry from all antiquity. Truly it would be a scruple to omit his weighty and learned disputation here, since

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running head: DE S. DIONYSII VITA EJUSQUE SCRIPTIS 1008
marginal letters: A carent. Hoc; B veneno infecit; C lantis sapientiae; D ditionum vim
old-edition numerals: 635 after de solis
other: Latin only (with inline Greek quote and phrases); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); begins mid-word (carent from collocarent)

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tot symbolae sint mihi aliunde quaesitae ad convivii hujus apparatum. Ponam igitur illam ut mel et saccharum et extrema bellaria, in quibus mens tua, lector, conquiescat, et totidem verbis repraesentabo, prout Latinam fecit unus e nostro ordine, qui Gallicam elegantiam Romani styli suavitate aequavit. Sic igitur ille primo libro institutionis catholicae.

so many contributions have been sought out by me from elsewhere for the furnishing of this banquet. I shall therefore set it down as honey and sugar and the final sweetmeats, wherein your mind, reader, may find rest, and I shall present it in so many words, just as one of our Order rendered it into Latin, matching the French elegance with the sweetness of the Roman style. Thus then he writes in the first book of his Catholic Institution:

Sed unius Dionysii Areopagitae auctoritas, qui De coelesti hierarchia librum divine contexuit, quique mysticae theologiae lumen, et eximius doctor fuit Ecclesiae Christianae, rem conficiet. dummodo constet eum Dionysium, qui de coelesti hierarchia scribit, esse verum et genuinum Areopagitam, Pauli discipulum, de quo in Actis apostolorum memoratur. Cujus rei probationes lubet hic apponere, e flore hominum sapientissimorum depromptas, qui quoque saeculo a nato mundi Servatore ad hanc aetatem floruerunt.

"But the authority of Dionysius the Areopagite alone, who divinely wove the book On the Celestial Hierarchy, and who was the light of mystical theology and an eminent doctor of the Christian Church, will settle the matter, provided only it be established that that Dionysius who writes concerning the celestial hierarchy is the true and genuine Areopagite, the disciple of Paul, of whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17). The proofs of which fact it pleases me to set down here, drawn from the flower of the wisest men who have flourished in every century from the birth of the Saviour of the world down to this age.

Saeculo I. D. Lucas ejus nobis describit nomen, conditionem, et ad fidem Christianam conversionem. In II. Dionysius Corinthi episcopus ait illum antistitem fuisse Athenarum. III, Dionysius Alexandrinus, Origenis auditor, luculentos in ejus opera scripsit Commentarios, ut Maximus vir doctissimus prodidit IV. Divus Grogorius Nazianzenus eumdem haud obscure designat, ubi scriptoris antiqui meminit, qui praestabili quadam sapientia disputasset de seraphinis qui tabernaculum operiunt, et τρισάγιον magno animi ardore decantant, cum certum sit, magnum Dionysium librum composuisse περὶ τῶν θείων ὕμνων De divinis hymnis, cujus meminit sub finem capitis septimi De Coelesti hierarchia. In eodem saeculo S. Joannes Chrysostomus eleganter eum nominat πετεινὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ut legitur in Epistola Anastasii Bibliothecarii ad Carolum Calvum. V. Si Liberato Afro, qui anno 520 floruit, adhibemus fidem, S. Cyrillus Alexandrinus antistes eum laudat, in Theodorum et Diodorum agens Nestorianorum primipilos, quod etiam fecit libro De Incarnatione. Saeculo VI. Anastasius episcopus Antiochenus, dictus Sinaita, vir exquisitae eruditionis, et exemplar sanctitatis, ut auctor est Evagrius, in eximio quodam Commentario quem inscripsit Contemplationes anagogicas in Hexaemeron, illum indigitat celeberrimum rerum divinarum mystam, apostolicum Dionysium. D. Gregorius Magnus antiquum veneradumque Patrem nominat, utiturque ejus auctoritate, ut probet angelos tutelares ex infimo esse ordine ultimae hierarchiae. VII. Hoc est circa annum Domini 640, floruit Maximus, excellenti artium cognitione vere maximus, et singulari auctoritate apud Heraclium imperatorem, qui se lubens a comitatu palatioque subduxit, quod pestem in eo grassantem Monothelitarum videret, et religiosis se claustris addixit, in quibus placida quiete perfruens, animique tranquillitate multos edidit confecitque libros, inter quos Scholia sunt in opera Dionysii Areopagitae : tandem ipsi lingua evulsa fuit, haereticorum factione impioque maleficio, inclytusque martyre sordibus custodiae et paedore ad beatae aeternitatis usuram evolavit. Eodem saeculo vigebat Sophronius patriarcha Hierosolymitanus, qui ad Sergium Constantinopolitanum item Patriarcham scribens, litteras quae in undecima actione synodi VI, inseruntur, Dionysii auctoritatem adhibet ad confutandos errores Monothelitarum, eumque Dionysium a

"In the 1st century, St. Luke describes for us his name, his condition, and his conversion to the Christian faith. In the 2nd, Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, says that he was bishop of Athens. In the 3rd, Dionysius of Alexandria, the hearer of Origen, wrote lucid Commentaries upon his works, as Maximus, a most learned man, has handed down. In the 4th, St. Gregory Nazianzen designates the same man not obscurely when he makes mention of an ancient writer who with a certain pre-eminent wisdom had disputed concerning the seraphim that cover the tabernacle and chant the Trisagion with great ardour of soul—since it is certain that the great Dionysius composed a book περὶ τῶν θείων ὕμνων, On the Divine Hymns, which he mentions towards the end of the seventh chapter On the Celestial Hierarchy. In the same century St. John Chrysostom elegantly names him πετεινὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ('the bird of heaven'), as is read in the Epistle of Anastasius the Librarian to Charles the Bald. In the 5th, if we give credit to Liberatus the African, who flourished in the year 520, St. Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, cites him with praise when acting against Theodore and Diodore, the chief centurions of the Nestorians, which he also did in his book On the Incarnation. In the 6th century, Anastasius, bishop of Antioch, called the Sinaite, a man of exquisite learning and a pattern of sanctity, as Evagrius is the authority, in a certain eminent Commentary which he entitled Anagogical Contemplations on the Hexaemeron, points him out as the most celebrated initiate of divine things, the apostolic Dionysius. St. Gregory the Great names him an ancient and venerable Father, and uses his authority to prove that guardian angels are from the lowest order of the last hierarchy. In the 7th, that is, around the year of the Lord 640, flourished Maximus, truly greatest in the excellent knowledge of arts, and of singular authority with the Emperor Heraclius, who gladly withdrew himself from the court and palace because he saw the plague of the Monothelites raging therein, and devoted himself to religious cloisters, in which, enjoying peaceful quiet and tranquillity of mind, he published and composed many books, among which are the Scholia on the works of Dionysius the Areopagite; at length his tongue was torn out by the faction and impious malice of the heretics, and the renowned martyr flew forth from the filth and stench of prison to the enjoyment of blessed eternity. In the same century flourished Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, who, writing to Sergius, likewise patriarch of Constantinople, a letter which is inserted in the eleventh session of the Sixth Synod, employs the authority of Dionysius to confute the errors of the Monothelites, and says that that Dionysius was

Editors' notes and page, col. 1009

Footnotes

Act. XVII.

Acts 17.

(printed under page 522)

(61) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 1009 [column inferred from the numbering]

Euseb., l. vi, c. 23.

Eusebius, [Ecclesiastical History] book 6, chapter 23.

(printed under page 522)

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S. Maxim. in c. 5 Coel. hier.

St Maximus, on chapter 5 of the Celestial Hierarchy.

(printed under page 522)

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Orat. 58.

Oration 58.

(printed under page 522)

(64) ‹anchor: Si Liberato Afro› · call in col 1009

Liberatus Afer diaconus in Breviario de causa Nestor, et Eutych. c. 10.

Liberatus, the African deacon, in the Breviarium on the affair of Nestorius and Eutyches, chapter 10.

(printed under page 522)

(65) ‹anchor: Gregorius Magnus› · call in col 1009

Homil. 34. De Drachma perdita.

Homily 34, On the Lost Drachma.

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(66) ‹anchor: synodi vi, inseruntur› · call in col 1009

Tom. III Concil.

[Collection of the] Councils, volume 3.

(printed under page 522)

Page

running head: 1009 P. LANSSELII DISPUTATIO
marginal letters: A tot symbolae; B Saeculo I.; C dorum agens; D quos Scholia
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: Latin only (with inline Greek phrases); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued)

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divino Paulo captum ait ex Aeropago, Deo mancipatum. Eadem etiam erat usus auctoritate Macarius archiepiscopus Antiochenus, eadem haeresi imbutus, ut constat ex fine Actionis secundae, ubi tametsi vehementer imperator urgeret, distinguere tamen noluit et explicare, quemadmodum intelligeret operationem hominis Dei, quam Dionysius θεανδρικὴν in Epistola ad Caium nuncupaverat. Octavo S. Joannes Damascenus, lux et decus eorum theologorum, qui a praestanti eruditione Scholastici nomen habent, opera saepe illius laudat, neque id fere unquam sine praefationis honoris, meritoque praeconio, quippe nominat « divinum Areopagitam, sanctissimum et eloquentissimum Dionysium ; » et tractatu De iis qui in fide quiescunt, « divinis rebus abundantem profundumqne Dionysium. » Secundum generale concilium Niceae celebratum, anno septingentesimo vigesimo septimo, sub Adriano papa, citat eumdem, et magnum Dionysium appellat. Idem pontifex Maximus scribens ad Carolum Magnum, vocat Areopagitam, « Episcopum Athenarum, hominem apostolicum:» ait dictum fuisse a sanctissimo Gregorio « antiquum Patrem et doctorem, » a sacris item conciliis et decessoribus suis comprobata illis fuisse opera, ex iisdem fuisse laudatas promptasque sententias, et praesertim ex epistola quam ad D. Joannem scribit, ad imaginum cultum et religionem tuendam.

taken by the divine Paul from the Areopagus and given over to God. The same authority had also been used by Macarius, archbishop of Antioch, imbued with the same heresy, as is established from the end of the Second Session, where, although the emperor vehemently urged him, he nevertheless refused to distinguish and explain how he understood the operation of the Man-God which Dionysius had called θεανδρικὴν ('theandric') in the Epistle to Gaius. In the eighth, St. John of Damascus, the light and glory of those theologians who from their outstanding learning bear the name of Scholastics, often cites his works with praise, and scarcely ever without a preface of honour and deserved eulogy, inasmuch as he names him 'the divine Areopagite, the most holy and most eloquent Dionysius'; and in the treatise On Those Who Sleep in the Faith, 'Dionysius abounding in divine things and profound.' The Second General Council celebrated at Nicaea, in the seven hundred and eighty-seventh [printed: seven hundred and twenty-seventh] year, under Pope Hadrian, cites the same man, and calls him the great Dionysius. The same Supreme Pontiff, writing to Charlemagne, calls the Areopagite 'Bishop of Athens, an apostolic man'; he says that he was called by the most holy Gregory 'an ancient Father and doctor,' and likewise by the sacred councils and his predecessors that his works were approved by them, and that sentences were cited and drawn from the same, and especially from the epistle which he writes to St. John, to defend the veneration and religion of images.

Libri autem tanti viri missi in Galliam fuerunt circa nonum saeculum a Michaele imperatore Constantinopolitano, qui eos velut magnificum regiumque munus Ludovico imperatori Occidentis cognomento Pio dedit, cum didicisset, quanta observantia et religione magnum Dionysium prosequeretur, quam etiam videretur habere quasi propriam atque haereditariam, cum eumdem avus atavusque imperator Carolus Magnus et Pipinus coluissent : Ludovicus Pius summa laetitia exceptos evestigio misit ad Hilduinum monasterii S. Dionysii abbatem in Francia. Michael Syngelus qui tum vivebat rem publica laudatione celebravit, et Methodius Graeca lingua confecit Acta in ejus honorem, quae usque in hodiernam diem reperiuntur. Joannes Erigena Scotus Graecis quoque Latinisque litteris doctus paulo post eos libros primus in Latinum vertit, idque jussu Caroli Calvi, qui in imperium paternamque pietatem successerat, anno fere octingentesimo sexagesimo. Anastasius, qui eodem aevo bibliothecarius fuit sanctae sedis apostolicae, ad eumdem scripsit imperatorem litteras, quarum initium est : Inter caetera studia, ubi apparet quantum studii industriaeque poneret summus illae Galliae et totius Occidentis moderator, in scriptis beati Dionysii legendis et intelligendis. Decimo saeculo Simeon Metaphrastes, cujus viri auctoritas in oecumenico Florentino concilio, sess. VII adducitur, S. Dionysii Vitam litteris mandavit, et libros qui in manibus sunt, ut veros et germanos agnovit. Suidas qui eodem scribebat saeculo, de ejus Vita moribusque similia memorat, nec in libris recensendis dissentit. Undecimo fuit Euthymius cognomento Zigabenus, inter doctos suae aetatis clarissimus in Graecia, qui in Panoplia sententias saepe atque flosculos e Dionysio nostro decerptos delectosque laudat. Quod etiam duodecimo saeculo multo saepius facit Hugo a S. Victore, qui sub Ludovico Juniore florebat, dictus vulgo secundus Augusti-

Moreover, the books of so great a man were sent into Gaul around the ninth century by Michael, Emperor of Constantinople, who gave them as a magnificent and royal gift to Louis, Emperor of the West, surnamed the Pious, when he had learned with how great reverence and religion he honoured the great Dionysius—a reverence which he even seemed to hold as his own and hereditary, since his grandfather and forefather, the Emperor Charlemagne and Pepin, had venerated the same saint; and Louis the Pious, having received them with the greatest joy, forthwith sent them to Hilduin, abbot of the monastery of St. Dionysius in France. Michael Syncellus, who was then living, celebrated the event with a public panegyric, and Methodius composed Acts in his honour in the Greek tongue, which are found even to the present day. John Scotus Eriugena, learned in Greek as well as Latin letters, a little later was the first to translate those books into Latin, and that by command of Charles the Bald, who had succeeded to the empire and to his father's piety, around the eight hundred and sixtieth year. Anastasius, who in the same age was Librarian of the Holy Apostolic See, wrote a letter to the same emperor, the beginning of which is Inter caetera studia, wherein it appears how much zeal and industry that supreme ruler of Gaul and of the whole West bestowed upon reading and understanding the writings of Blessed Dionysius. In the tenth century Simeon Metaphrastes, a man whose authority is adduced in the Oecumenical Council of Florence, session VII, committed to writing the Life of St. Dionysius, and acknowledged the books that are in our hands as true and genuine. Suidas, who wrote in the same century, recounts similar things concerning his Life and manners, nor does he dissent in recounting his books. In the eleventh was Euthymius surnamed Zigabenus, the most illustrious in Greece among the learned of his age, who in his Panoplia often cites with praise sentences and blossoms plucked and culled from our Dionysius. Which also in the twelfth century Hugh of Saint-Victor, who flourished under Louis the Younger and was commonly called a second Augustine, does much more frequently,

Editors' notes and page, col. 1010

Footnotes

(67) ‹anchor: S. Joannes Damascenus› · call in col 1010

Damasc. Or. de fid. defunct.

Damascene, Oration on Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in the Faith.

(printed under page 522)

(68) ‹anchor: Niceae celebratum› · call in col 1010

C. 2, tom III Concil.

Chapter 2, [Collection of the] Councils, volume 3.

(printed under page 522)

(69) ‹anchor: sub Adriano papa› · call in col 1010

Adrian. pap. ad Carolum Magnum tom. III Concil. ep. 3, c. 30.

Pope Adrian to Charlemagne, [Collection of the] Councils, volume 3, letter 3, chapter 30.

(printed under page 522)

(70) ‹anchor: vii adducitur› · call in col 1010

Tom. IV Concil.

[Collection of the] Councils, volume 4.

(printed under page 522)

Page

running head: P. LANSSELII DISPUTATIO APOLOGET. 1010
marginal letters: A divino Paulo; B eumdem, et; C vicus Pius; D S. Dionysii
old-edition numerals: 638 after vehementer
misprints kept as printed: Aeropago (for Areopago); profundumqne (for profundumque); evestigio (for e vestigio); illae (for ille); praefationis honoris (sic)
other: Latin only (with inline Greek word θεανδρικὴν); editors' matter: P. Lansselii Disputatio Apologetica (continued); ends mid-word (Augusti- for Augustinus)

PG 4:1011

nus, propter uberrimam elegantissimamque doctrinam et ingenii praestantiam: hic autem splendidissimos et suavissimos Commentarios in Coelestem hierarchiam edidit, quos einem regi dedicavit. Decimo tertio Georgius Pachymeres inter Graecos, polita et exculta paraphsasi Dionysii libros illustravit; et e Latinis D. Thomas celsisissimus apex theologiae, libros de Divinis nominibus luculenter exposuit, et in Theologica Summa, aliisque in locis, citat eos frequenter, ad abstrusissima quaeque mysteria et reconditas fidei quaestiones comprobandas.

on account of his most abundant and most elegant learning and the excellence of his mind; this man, moreover, published most splendid and most delightful Commentaries on the Celestial Hierarchy, which he dedicated to the same king. In the thirteenth [century] George Pachymeres among the Greeks illustrated the books of Dionysius with a polished and refined paraphrase; and among the Latins St Thomas, the loftiest summit of theology, expounded the books On the Divine Names splendidly, and in the Theological Summa and in other places cites them frequently, to establish all the most abstruse mysteries and hidden questions of the faith.

Saeculo XIV. Nicephorus Callixtus Xanthopulus, qui ecclesiasticam Historiam memorabili opera contexuit sub Andronico Palaeologo, inter alia quae de viro sancto memorat, ait illum et lavacro salutari tinctum, et Athenis episcopum renuntiatum manibus D. Pauli; tum indicem proponit eorum voluminum quibus fruimur, quaeque temporum injuria desiderantur.

In the fourteenth century Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopulus, who composed an Ecclesiastical History with memorable labour under Andronicus Palaeologus, among other things which he relates of the holy man, says that he was both dipped in the saving washing and proclaimed bishop of Athens by the hands of St Paul; then he sets out a list of those volumes which we enjoy and of those which are missing through the injury of the times.

Centum post annis saeculo XV, cardinalis Bessario, doctrina sua quam purpura splendidior, eadem scripta vera et legitima esse defendit: Marsilius Ficinus in Latinum convertit librum De divinis nominibus, et quem De mystica theologia scripsit, et rem omnem illustravit commentariis. Iisdem, fere temporibus Joannes Picus Mirandulanus, cujus ingenii magnitudo atque excellentia orbem universum obstupefecit, illum suis laudibus ad coelum extulit, praesertim eo libro quem doctissime elucubravit De ente et uno.

A hundred years later, in the fifteenth century, Cardinal Bessarion, more resplendent for his learning than for his purple, defended the same writings as genuine and legitimate; Marsilio Ficino turned into Latin the book On the Divine Names and the one he wrote On Mystical Theology, and illustrated the whole matter with commentaries. At about the same time Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the greatness and excellence of whose mind astonished the whole world, extolled him to the heavens with his praises, especially in the book which he most learnedly worked out, On Being and the One.

XVI. Eruditissimus Budaeus manuscriptum unum reliquit, curis vigiliisque suis diligenter emendatum, notisque illuminatum, quae Parisiis deinde in lucem prodierunt. Petrus Faber Stapulensis libros eosdem perpetuis annotationibus illustrat: Joachimus Perionius in Latinum vertit. Praestantissimi viri atque illustrissimi, Genebrardus, Baronius, Bellarminus aliique eorum objectiones docte refutarunt, qui et auctorem, et ejus scripta in dubium revocassent.

[In the] XVI [century] the most learned Budé left one manuscript, carefully corrected by his cares and vigils and illuminated with notes, which afterwards came out into the light at Paris. Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples illustrates the same books with continuous annotations; Joachim Périon turned them into Latin. Most excellent and most illustrious men, Génébrard, Baronius, Bellarmine and others, learnedly refuted the objections of those who had called both the author and his writings into doubt.

Editors' notes and page, col. 1011

Footnotes

(71) ‹anchor: not visible (call in the cut 1012 half of the page)› · call in col 1011

Apud Gulielmum Morelium, an. 1562.

Published by Guillaume Morel, in the year 1562.

(printed under page 523)

(72) ‹anchor: Suidas pronuntiat› · call in col 1011, in the dedication below the title band (next unit's text; kept here for reference)

Nempe ita sentit, quod qui ejusmodi libros attentius legerit, expenderitque quo stylo conscripti sunt, οὐκ ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως γεννήματα νομίσει, ἀλλὰ τινὸς ἀκηράτου καὶ θείας δυνάμεως.

That is, he holds that whoever reads such books with some attention, and weighs the style in which they are written, "reckons them the offspring not of human nature but of some pure and divine power."

(printed under page 523)

Page

running head: 1011 S. DIONYSII AREOPA[GITAE] (cut at the image's right edge)
marginal letters: A ‹nus,propter uberrimam› / ‹rio,do›; B (none visible); C (none visible); D (none visible)
old-edition numerals: 627 before the title AREOPAGITÆ (below the unit's end, belongs to the next unit)
other: UNSURE "paraphsasi": the printed letters look like paraphsasi; check at zoom. "de Divinis" looks like "do" on the scan, taken as damaged type for de; "e Latinis" printed with a malformed e.
other: Bessa- at the end of the left column is completed from "rio," at the head of the right column (1012 half of the full-width page).
other: SCAN CUT: the right column of this full-width page's upper text (the 1012 half: "rio,do… scripta… Ficinu… nomin… et rem… fere te… ingeni… sum o… extulit… bravit…", then a paragraph "XVI. reliqu… tum,… in luc… libros… Joachi… simi v… Bellar… tarunt… revoca…") is cut off at the image's right edge; only the first letters are visible, so it was not set by L04 - it was set afterwards by the settle round 1 full_width read and now stands under rail 1011. It holds the close of the disputation; needs a full-width render.
other: BOUNDARY: below the two-column text a full-width title band opens the next work: "AREOPAGITÆ … ADVERSUS HÆRETICUM CALVINISTAM, CAR[ENTONEM] … Sive gemini argumenti adversus B. Dionysii Areopa[gitam] … demonstrata. A clarissimo et nobilissimo viro Joanne domino de Chaumont … Latine reddita." then "EPISTOLA NUNCUPA[TORIA] Ad illustrissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum D. Ph… circa geminum argumentum adversus B. D… haeretico Carentoni ministr…", then "Tibi jampridem …". The --cut-last should move up to that title band (before AREOPAGITÆ): the unit ends with the upper two-column text. Title band partly cut at the right edge as well.
other: foot apparatus (71) and (72) set above (Q1); (72) is called in the next unit's text.
misprints kept as printed: einem (for eidem); paraphsasi (for paraphrasi); celsisissimus (for celsissimus)
other: UNSURE (Q1): Caelestem is printed in italic with what looks like æ; kept.
other: UNSURE (Q2): the source line reads Coelestem though the page looks like Cæ- (italic); not changed at this zoom. Footnote (72): the page seems to print οὐχ (not οὐκ) before ἀνθρωπίνης; not changed, check at zoom. The 1012 column images were missing, so the right-column text (rio, doctrina … revocassent) was not checked by Q2.
running head: 1011 S. DIONYSII AREOPAGITAE 1012
marginal letters: A ‹nus, propter uberrimam› / ‹rio, doctrina sua quam purpura›; B (none); C (none); D (none)
old-edition numerals: (none)

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Editors' notes and page, col. 1012

Footnotes

(none - the foot notes (71) and (72) of page 523 are set under 1011)

Page

running head: 1011 S. DIONYSII AREOPAGITAE 1012
marginal letters: A ‹rio, doctrina sua quam purpura› (text set under 1011); B (none); C (none); D (none)
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: the disputation's text in this page's right-hand column (from "rio, doctrina sua" to "revocassent.") is set under rail 1011, as the driver directs; the rest of the page (the Defensio title, EPISTOLA NUNCUPATORIA, "Tibi jampridem...") is a pointer under other. No layer-1 text left for this rail.