Nicolaus de Lestocq, Disquisitio de auctore libri cui titulus De Mortibus persecutorum, qui Lactantio tribui solet

A DISQUISITION

ON THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK ENTITLED: OF LUCIUS CAECILIUS, ON THE DEATHS OF THE PERSECUTORS, WHICH IS COMMONLY ATTRIBUTED TO FIRMIANUS LACTANTIUS.

By Nicolas de Lestocq, Doctor and Fellow of the Sorbonne, Dean of the Cathedral Church of Amiens, Vicar General of the Bishop of Amiens, and Abbot of Saint-Acheul.

In a manuscript codex of the Colbert library, now the Royal library, that most learned man Monsieur Étienne Baluze found a book with this title: Of Lucius Cecilius,

the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors. He ascribed it to Firmianus, and in the year 1679, by order of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, he had it printed at Paris, in the second volume

of his Miscellanea, with this inscription prefixed: The book of Lucius Cecilius Firmianus Lactantius on the Deaths of the Persecutors.

Afterwards other editions of this book came out in various parts of Europe, in which, with the greatest agreement, the words Firmianus Lactantius were prefixed in the title to the names Lucius Cecilius or Caelius.

But Dom Nicolas le Nourry, a monk of the Order of St Benedict and a most learned man indeed, by whose zeal and labour a new edition of the book on the Deaths of the Persecutors was prepared at Paris in the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, left only the names Lucius Cecilius in the title and did not add the words Firmianus Lactantius. And he did this both because that manuscript codex does not have the names Firmianus Lactantius, and because he judged the arguments by which this book is attributed to Lactantius to be weak, and considered that there were others available, as it seemed to him, and not of the least weight, by which it might be taken away from him.

On this matter D. Étienne Baluze and Dom Nicolas le Nourry agree that the manuscript codex, which alone survives and from which this book on the Deaths of the Persecutors was printed, is, besides some gaps and lacunae, infected with very many errors. Dom le Nourry shows furthermore that there are very many places in that codex which have been depraved and thoroughly corrupted not only, as usually happens, by the copyist's drowsiness and negligence or by excessive haste in writing, but also, as he says on p. 119, by great ignorance of the Latin language.

Whatever things, therefore, in the book on the Deaths of the Persecutors are written sluggishly, coarsely, obscurely and faultily, and appear foreign to the clarity and elegance of style, or even to the opinions, of Lactantius, these are to be imputed to the scribe and not to the author; nor on account of faults of this kind is the book on the Deaths of the Persecutors to be taken away from Lactantius. Yet from this the learned religious of the Benedictine fraternity seizes the occasion to prove that this book is not Lactantius's.

With this single preliminary observation, however, it will be clear even to one paying slight attention that a number of the arguments by which Dom le Nourry strives to overthrow the opinion that attributes the book on the Deaths of the Persecutors to Lactantius collapse and are dissolved.

Already in the year 1715 D. de la Crose had attacked Dom Nicolas le Nourry more harshly than is fitting in the Critical Observations which he had had published in volume VII of the Literary Journal, part I (Journal Littéraire of the year 1715, at The Hague), where he learnedly overturned the principal points of Nicolas le Nourry: but our Disquisition will be much more peaceable.

With these things noted beforehand, I shall weigh the things that favour the common opinion about the Author of this book, and at the same time, among the arguments which Dom le Nourry thinks are opposed to it, those which have seemed to me to need a particular reply.

1. The title of the book on the Deaths of the Persecutors displays the names LUCIUS, or LYCIUS CECILIUS, which indeed seem

to be two praenomina of Firmianus Lactantius. For although Lactantius is commonly called Caelius, and the names Firmianus Lactantius are lacking in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, yet in several manuscripts of undoubted works of Lactantius he is named Lucius Cecilius, and in certain other manuscripts the names Lucius Caelius are missing, as Dom le Nourry admits: of these we shall treat at the end of this Disquisition. Moreover, no writer among the ecclesiastical writers except Lactantius is recorded as Lucius Cecilius; utterly unknown is any other of the same name to whom the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors could be ascribed.

2° Saint Jerome, in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, mentions one book of Lactantius On Persecution. But this book On Persecution does not seem to be other than the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors. For that book is a single one, just as the book On Persecution also is; and in that book it treats not only of the deaths of the persecutors, but also of the bitter persecution stirred up against the Christians by various emperors: hence it could bear either title. Indeed the difference between these two inscriptions is very slight; for he who speaks of persecution must also treat of the persecutors: these things are surely connected with one another. Thus Lactantius himself did not separate them, in chapter 53 of the Epitome, where he speaks jointly of persecution, that is, of the punishments of the Christians, and at the same time of the deaths of the persecutors.

3° The book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is addressed to Donatus; Lactantius also addressed the book On the Anger of God to Donatus. The author of each book calls Donatus "dearest". It seems, therefore, that it is one and the same Donatus to whom both books are dedicated: Dom le Nourry, however, asserts that the Donatus to whom the book On the Anger of God is dedicated by Lactantius is different from the Donatus to whom the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is addressed; which he proves thus: Donatus, to whom Lactantius dedicated the book On the Anger of God, is called by him in express words a novice entangled in the affairs of the world, not sufficiently imbued with Christian doctrine. But when Lactantius wrote the book On the Anger of God, he could not have called Donatus a novice entangled in the affairs of the world and not sufficiently imbued with Christian doctrine, if he were the same as the Donatus to whom the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is addressed; since the book On the Anger of God was written many years after the persecution had ended, in which Donatus had for six years been bound in chains and prison for the name of Christ, had nine times fought against the tyrants, and had stood unconquered, as is found in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors. Who would believe that so outstanding a confessor could afterwards have been called a novice, entangled in the affairs of the world and not sufficiently imbued with the Christian religion?

But that reasoning is not so certain, with respect to the view and opinion which Dom le Nourry strives to establish. For nowhere in the book On the Anger of God is Donatus called by Lactantius in express words a novice entangled in the affairs of the world and not sufficiently imbued with the Christian religion. Not only is that not found concerning Donatus in

Lactantius in express words; but also nothing at all occurs in him from which anyone could suspect that he thought so of Donatus.

In only two places in the book On the Anger of God does Lactantius turn his discourse to Donatus, namely in chapter 1, where he says this: I have often noticed, Donatus, that very many people think that God is not angry........ whose error, because it is very great and tends to the overthrow of the state of human life, must be refuted by us, lest you yourself be deceived, driven by the authority of men who think themselves wise. The other place is read in chapter 22, where Lactantius speaks thus: These are the things I had to say on the Anger of God, dearest Donatus, so that you might know how to refute those who make God immovable..... All the Prophets, filled with the divine Spirit, speak of nothing other than the grace of God towards the just and the anger of God against the impious, whose testimonies are indeed enough for us; but because those men do not believe them, who flaunt wisdom by their hair and dress, they had to be refuted by us with reason and arguments as well.

From these places it is clear that Lactantius's design was to instruct Donatus concerning the providence of God in such a way that he could refute, by the weight of reasons, the Philosophers themselves who did away with it. But so far is he from calling him a novice entangled in the business of the world and not sufficiently imbued with the Christian religion, that it may be gathered from Lactantius's words that Donatus was not ignorant of what all the Prophets said of the grace of God towards the just and of His anger against the impious, and that their testimonies were so well known to Donatus that they were enough for him, just as for Lactantius himself: whose testimonies, he says, are enough for us.

I for my part think that there were very many excellent martyrs well imbued with the Christian religion, and that there are even now some Christians conspicuous for piety, who nevertheless could not, by reason and arguments (as Lactantius tried to do in that book On the Anger of God), extricate themselves from the arguments of the philosophers against the providence of God. For those arguments are of such a kind that Lactantius says in chapter 13 that most of the Philosophers who defend providence are usually confounded by them, and are almost driven against their will to admit that God cares for nothing.

Dom le Nourry seems, by a lapse of memory, to attribute to Donatus what Lactantius says to Demetrianus in the book On the Workmanship of God. For he had dedicated that book On the Workmanship of God to Demetrianus, and addresses him as a novice thus: A teacher even now, but of a more honourable matter and a better doctrine... I admonish you, repeating it, and I shall admonish you again, not to believe that you hold those delights of the earth for great or true goods. And in the last chapter: If God grants, he says, you to true philosophy's

teaching I shall exhort both more plainly and more truly. These are certainly the words of Lactantius as a teacher addressing a novice not sufficiently imbued with the Christian religion; but they concern Demetrianus, not Donatus.

4° That Lactantius is the author of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is proved from this: that Lactantius too, like the author of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, was living at Nicomedia in Bithynia at the time when the persecution raged against the Christians and the temple of God was overthrown. Lactantius testifies this very thing about himself in book 5 of the Institutes, chapter 2, where he speaks thus: When I, having been summoned to Bithynia, was teaching oratorical letters, and it had come about that at the same time the temple of God was being overthrown. He kept silent the name of the city in which he taught; but Jerome did not pass it over, for he says in the place cited above that Lactantius taught rhetoric at Nicomedia. The author of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, too, does not in fact say that he remained at Nicomedia while the persecution itself was raging and when the temple of God was levelled to the ground; but he narrates the whole affair in no. 12 in such a way that it is understood to have been done before his eyes. Suddenly, he says, while the light was still uncertain, [the prefect] came to the church...; and when the doors had been torn off, the image of God is searched for, the Scriptures that are found are burned, plunder is given to all: there is seizing, trembling, running about. They themselves (the emperors), however, on their watch-posts (for the church, set on high ground, could be seen from the palace), long disputed among themselves whether fire ought rather to be set to it. Diocletian prevailed in his opinion, taking care lest, if a great fire were made, some part of the city should burn. So the Praetorians came in battle array with axes and other iron tools, and, let loose from every side, they nevertheless levelled that very lofty building to the ground in a few hours. And in no. 13: On the next day an edict was posted, by which it was provided that men of that religion should be deprived of all honour and rank, should be subject to tortures... This edict a certain man, though not rightly, yet with great courage tore down and cut to pieces... and immediately brought forth, he was not only racked but also cooked according to law, and finally, with admirable patience, burned up. Moreover, what is found in no. 17 about the illness from which Diocletian suffered at Nicomedia, and in no. 35 about the edict of Galerius posted at Nicomedia and about the day on which the death of Galerius became known at Nicomedia, these things amply prove that this author of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors lived for some time at Nicomedia.

5° The style of the author of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors and that of Lactantius are the same. That this may be the more clearly evident, I have here copied out matters, sentiments and expressions, and those peculiar and proper to Lactantius, which are found alike in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors and in other undoubted works of Lactantius, and have placed them side by side before the eyes.

These things are read in book 4 of the Institutes, ch. 10: Under the rule of Tiberius Caesar, in whose fifteenth year, that is, when the two Gemini were consuls, on the seventh day before (so many editions) the Calends of April, the Jews crucified Christ.

And in chapter 22 of the same book: He will cease to marvel that God was tormented by men.

is said that under Tiberius Caesar Christ was tormented by the Jews, the two Gemini being consuls.

But there are two points in which the text of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors seems to conflict with the text of chapter 10 of Book IV of the Institutes.

The first is that according to the text of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors Christ was crucified in the last times of Tiberius Caesar, and according to the text of Book IV of the Institutes in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. But since Tiberius reigned for twenty-two years, if Christ was crucified in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, He was not crucified in the last times of Tiberius.

The answer is that the author of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors spoke thus because the fifteenth year of Tiberius inclines towards the end of his reign rather than towards its beginning, and in that place the matter is not one of an exact reckoning of years.

These words are read in the same number 2 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors: When He had risen again on the third day, He gathered together the disciples, whom fear of His arrest had put to flight, and having stayed with them for forty days He opened their hearts and interpreted the Scriptures, which up to that time had been obscure and wrapped up; and He ordained them and instructed them for the preaching of His teaching and doctrine, setting in order the solemn discipline of the New Testament. When this office was fulfilled, a storm of cloud enveloped Him, and withdrawing Him from the eyes of men caught Him up into heaven. And thence the disciples... were scattered into all the earth... and throughout all the provinces and cities they laid the foundations of the Church.

That text of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is like the other texts of Lactantius placed opposite it, both as to matter and as to words. Nevertheless Dom le Nourry concludes from these words of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, they laid the foundations of the Church, that this book was not written by Lactantius. For what author of good Latinity, he says, ever said to lay (mittere) foundations? Certainly that is not Lactantius, who wrote better, they cast (jecerunt) the foundations of the Church everywhere.

To refute that argument, it must be observed first that in the text of chapter 20 of Book IV of Lactantius's Institutes there stands not the foundations of the Church everywhere THEY CAST (jecerunt), but THEY PLACED (posuerunt); next, that these words jacere and mittere are used by Cicero in the same sense in the book whose title is Orator, where he says that the orator uses wit in throwing and casting a jest. Moreover Horace said MITTERE in place of jacere and ponere in Satire 3 of Book II:

to throw myself with covered head into the river;

And in Satire 1 of the same book:

These words are read in the same number 2 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors: The disciples... were scattered through all the earth to preach the Gospel, as that MASTER, THE LORD, had commanded, and... throughout all the provinces and cities they laid the foundations of the Church. And when Nero was now reigning, Peter came to Rome, and having performed certain miracles, which he wrought by the power of God Himself, power having been given him by God, he converted many to RIGHTEOUSNESS and established for God a FAITHFUL and stable temple. When this matter was reported to Nero... he sprang forth to overthrow the heavenly temple and to destroy RIGHTEOUSNESS. And he was the first of all to persecute the servants of God; he fastened Peter to a cross, and killed Paul. Yet he did not go unpunished... Cast down therefore from the height of empire, and rolled down from the summit, the tyrant

The second point on which these two texts seem to conflict is that in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors we read that Christ was crucified after the tenth day of the Kalends, but in the book of the Institutes we read before the seventh day of the Kalends.

The reply is that the notes to the text of the book of the Institutes in the 1660 edition of Lactantius observe that some manuscripts have before the tenth day of the Kalends, and that those notes cite these words of Paul the jurist: Before the tenth day of the Kalends and after the tenth day of the Kalends: by either expression the eleventh day is meant. If that is so, all conflict between these texts vanishes. Yet it cannot be denied that some error about the number of days has crept into those texts, but this must be put down to the copyists.

These words are read in book 4 of the Institutes, ch. 19: On the third day... having come forth alive from the tomb, He set out into Galilee to seek His disciples.

And from the same book, ch. 20: When the disciples had been gathered together again, He laid open to them the writings of holy Scripture, that is, the secrets of the Prophets, which before He suffered could in no way be discerned... what was written after His resurrection is called the New Testament.

And from the same book, ch. 21: Once the preaching of the Gospel and of His name had been set in order for His disciples, a cloud suddenly enveloped Him and took Him up into heaven, on the fortieth day after the passion... But the disciples, dispersed through the provinces, laid the foundations of the Church everywhere.

he would throw the dice into the dice-tower;

And in the book on the Art of Poetry:

verses sent onto the stage with great weight.

Indeed Lactantius himself uses mittere for jacere interchangeably in book 1 of the Institutes, ch. 21, where he says: Saturn was worshipped in Latium with the same kind of sacrifice; not, indeed, so that a man was sacrificed at an altar, but so that he was thrown into the Tiber from the Milvian bridge... But that kind of sacrifice... is said to have been abolished, though the rite remained, so that images were thrown in place of real men. Lactantius confirms this from Ovid, whose verses he quotes, in which mittere and jacere are used without distinction in the same sense:

that he threw Quirites of straw into the water:

after the example of Hercules, throw false bodies.

Then too the virgin, images of the men of old,

made of rushes, is wont to throw from the oaken bridge.

These passages, I think, prove more than enough that those words, fundamenta miserunt, are not only good Latin but also accord with the style of Lactantius.

These words are read in book 4 of the Institutes, ch. 21: But the disciples, dispersed through the provinces, laid the foundations of the Church everywhere, themselves also working, in the name of God their MASTER, great and almost incredible miracles; because at His departure He had furnished them with power and authority... Peter and Paul preached at Rome... when Nero had put them to death, etc.

From the same book, ch. 14: It is evident that all the prophets announced concerning Christ that it would come to pass at some time that... He would establish an eternal temple for God, which is called the Church..... this is the FAITHFUL house, this the IMMORTAL TEMPLE.

From book 5 of the Institutes, ch. 1: They torture the worshippers of the supreme God, that is, just men.

powerless, suddenly appeared nowhere, so that not even a place of burial on the earth was to be seen for so evil a BEAST.

And in number 3: After him another tyrant, no less... reigned a very long time and in safety, until he stretched out impious hands against the Lord. But once he was incited by the instigation of demons to persecute the JUST PEOPLE, then he was delivered into the hands of his enemies and paid the penalty.

And number 4: Who would persecute JUSTICE but a wicked man.

And number 9: Maximian... worse than all the wicked men who have ever been. There was in this BEAST a natural barbarity.

And number 21: The bodies already burned, the bones gathered up and ground to powder, were cast into river and sea.

And number 32: The BEAST grieves and bellows.

And in the same book, chap. 2: At the very time when the just people was being wickedly torn to pieces.

And in the same book, chap. 7: Justice is nothing else than the pious and religious worship of the one God.

And in the same book, chap. 11: They violently exercise their impiety against the JUST, and not undeservedly are they named BEASTS by the prophets... For what Caucasus, what India, what Hyrcania ever reared BEASTS so savage, so bloodthirsty... that is the true BEAST, at whose single command

Black gore is shed everywhere, everywhere cruel grief, everywhere dread, and death in many a shape.

No one can describe as it deserves the savagery of so great a monster, which, lying in one place, yet rages through the whole world with iron teeth; and it not only tears apart the limbs of men, but grinds the very bones to pieces, and rages on even against their ashes, so that no place of burial may remain.

And in the same work, book V of the Institutes, chap. 23: Let the most unjust persecutors... not think that they will go unpunished... for they will be punished by the judgement of God... therefore He promises that He will swiftly take vengeance on them, and will root out the evil BEASTS from the earth.

The sense and the words in these texts agree. In both places the persecutors of the Church are called beasts; the bones of the martyrs are said to have been ground to ashes. Attention should also be paid to these expressions, which are alike on both sides: Master Lord, Master God, a faithful and stable temple, an eternal temple, a faithful house, to set up for God, to establish for God; the just people, the Just, for the worshippers of the true God; justice, for the worship of the one God.

This is read in the same number 3 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors: The Church... in the ages... in the times when good princes held the helm and government of the Roman empire... stretched out her hands into the East and the West, so that there was now no corner of the earth so remote that the religion of God had not reached it, and, lastly, no nation living by customs so savage that it did not take up the worship of God and grow gentle towards the works of justice.

This is read in book VII of the Institutes, chap. 15: Rome... when Carthage, so long the rival of the Roman Empire, had been destroyed, stretched out her hands over the whole world by land and sea...

And in book V of the Institutes, chap. 13: But since from the rising of the sun to its setting the divine law has been received, and every sex, every age, every nation and region serve God with united and equal minds.

According to these texts, there is no people, no nation, that has not taken up the worship of God; and the greatness of the Church and of the Roman Empire is described in the same words.

This is read in numbers 9 and 10 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors: Diocletian... but what cause he had for persecuting I shall set out. Being, out of fear, a searcher into things to come, he used to sacrifice cattle and look for the future in their livers. Then certain of his attendants who knew the Lord, standing by him as he sacrificed, set on their FOREHEADS the IMMORTAL SIGN. At this the demons were put to flight and the rites were thrown into confusion. The haruspices trembled, and did not see the usual marks in the entrails; and as though the omens had not been favourable, they sacrificed again and again. But the victims slain time after time showed nothing, until Tagis, that master of the haruspices, whether from suspicion or from something he saw, said that the sacrifices gave no answer because profane men were present at the divine rites. Then in the wrath of his FURY he ordered not only those who served at the sacrifices but all who were in the palace to sacrifice, and any who refused to be punished with stripes.

This is read in book IV of the Institutes, chap. 27: When they sacrifice to their gods, if anyone stands by bearing a signed forehead, the sacrifices yield no favourable omen at all;

Nor can the seer, consulted, give his answers.

And this was often the chief cause why wicked kings persecuted justice. For when certain of our people in service stood by their masters as they sacrificed, they set the sign on their FOREHEADS and put the masters' gods to flight, so that these could not trace the future in the entrails of the victims. When the haruspices understood this, at the instigation of the same demons to whom they offer the cut entrails, they complained that profane men were present at the rites, and drove their princes into fury, so that they assailed the temple of God and defiled themselves with true sacrilege, to be expiated by the heaviest punishments of the persecutors. But since they cannot approach those..... whom the IMMORTAL SIGN has fortified.

In both texts not only is the same cause assigned to the persecution, but the event is also set out in the same way and in almost the same words.

This is read in number 16 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors: So the whole earth was harried, and, apart from the Gauls, from the East to the West three most savage beasts were raging.

Had I a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, and a voice of iron, I could not take in all the forms of the crimes, nor run through all the names of the punishments

which the judges throughout the provinces inflicted on the just and the innocent.

In the same book, number 15: People of every sex and age were seized for burning..... unheard-of kinds of torment were devised.

In book V of the Institutes, chap. 11, this is read: But what each of them did throughout the whole world it is impossible to recount. For what number of volumes will hold kinds of cruelty so endless and so varied? For once they had received power, each raged according to his own character..... And so it cannot be told how many and how grievous kinds of torment judges of this sort devised.

And book VI, chap. 17: The punishments of the worshippers of God have been seen, and are still seen, throughout the world, and new and unheard-of torments have been devised for torturing them.

The fury of the persecutors is the same in the texts on either side, and is expressed in almost the same way.

This is found in number 38 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors:

And book VI of the Institutes, chap. 23: What shall I say of those who

But that capital [vice] of his, beyond all who have ever been, his lust for corrupting: what to call it I do not know, unless blind and unbridled; and yet [it] cannot, for its indignation, express it in these words. The magnitude of the crime overcomes the office of the tongue.

practise not a lust to be abhorred, but rather a madness?.... With what words, or with what indignation, shall I pursue so great a wickedness? The magnitude of the crime overcomes the office of the tongue.

In these two texts entirely similar expressions occur. The text of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is, however, faulty; but if the word mens is added, which could have dropped out through a copyist's fault, it will have to be read thus: And yet the mind, for its indignation, cannot express it in these words; and the sense will be plain and clear. So all the more learned have emended it.

This is read in number 5 of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors: Is it not a marvel that anyone dared... to plot against the majesty of the one God, who rules and holds together all things?

And number 12: In a few hours they levelled the temple with the ground.

And number 15: Constantius....... allowed the meeting-places, that is, the walls, which could be restored, to be pulled down.

Number 16: Author and counsellor in carrying out the persecution; it is said of Hierocles.

In the same number: You have triumphed over the world with its terrors.

In the same number: Having scorned the wicked command. Jussio is a Lactantian word.

In the same number: Let no snare lead [them] in.

Number 18 of On the Deaths of the Persecutors: He had sought out for himself the hatred of many; a Lactantian word, for acquisivisset.

In the same number: Just so.

On the Deaths of the Persecutors, number 21: That they give themselves over IN SERVITIUM; that is, into servitude.

On the Deaths of the Persecutors, number 23: He killed against every law of humanity.

On the Death of the Persec., number 24: The judgement of God has now drawn near to him.

In the same number: He handed the empire down to him.

On the Deaths of the Persec., number 26: He was seeking quatenus. Quatenus in that place stands for quomodo, "how".

On the Deaths of the Persec., number 27: Inflamed with anger; so also above, number 14: Inflamed with anger.

On the Deaths of the Persec., number 28: He was driven out like another Proud One. He is speaking of Tarquin.

On the Deaths of the Persec., number 30: He went unpunished for it.

And number 33: God struck him with an incurable wound.

In the same number: Forinsecus; an unusual word.

In the same number: A countless swarm was teeming.

On the Deaths of the Persec., number 36: For the present.

And number 38: Freeborn maidens, once he had violated them, he would give to his slaves.

In number 44 of the book On the Deaths of the Persec. it runs thus: And although Maxentius kept himself at Rome, because he had received an answer that he would perish if he went out beyond the gates of the city... Constantine was warned in his sleep to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields.

This is read in chap. 1 of book I of the Institutes: You have both recognized and honoured the majesty of the one and true God.

And book IV of the Institutes, chap. 21: They said that it would come to pass that... he would level their cities with the ground.

And book V of the Institutes, chap. 11: One in Phrygia... burned a whole people together with their very meeting-place.

Book V of the Divine Institutes, chap. 11: Another wrote on the same subject more bitingly; he was then one of the Judges, and was foremost among the authors of CARRYING OUT THE PERSECUTION. This too is of Hierocles.

Book IV of the Divine Institutes, chap. 26: That He might triumph over death WITH ITS TERRORS; and book VI, chap. 23.

Lact., Inst., book IV, chap. 15, uses the same word jussio, and book V, chaps. 11 and 13.

Lact., book VI of the Div. Inst., chap. 21: they are led into the same snares.

So Lact., Div. Inst. book I, chap. 20; book II, chap. 12; book IV, chap. 1; book V, chap. 1; book VII, chaps. 11, 14 and 15; Epitome, chaps. 4, 20 and 27: in all these places quaerere for acquirere.

Lact., Div. Inst., book I, chap. 11; book II, chap. 2: Ita plane, in the same way.

Lact., Epit., chap. 52: He will deliver all the Nations IN SERVITIUM, in the same sense.

Lact., book V of the Div. Inst., chaps. 19 and 22: Against the law of humanity; book VI, chap. 10: Against the law of humanity and all that is right they plunder, torture, kill, destroy.

Lact., Div. Inst., book VII, chap. 14: I shall show that the time of this judgement is drawing near; and chap. 24: And that now that supreme day of the final conclusion is drawing near. Lactantius uses propinquare in the same way in the Epitome, at the beginning of chap. 71.

Lact., Div. Inst. book II, chap. 4: He lived to old age, and handed the kingdom down to his son.

Lact., Div. Inst. book II, chap. 21: quatenus is likewise taken in the same sense, as also in book IV, chap. 27; book VII, chap. 6.

Lact., Div. Inst. book VII, chap. 17: inflamed with anger.

Lact., Div. Inst. book IV, chap. 14: Tarquin the Proud was driven out.

Lact., Epitome, chap. 53: He went unpunished for it; and chap. 55: going unpunished for it.

And book VII of the Institutes, chap. 15: God struck Egypt with an incurable plague.

Lact., On the Workmanship of God, chap. 2: Forinsecus, in the same sense.

Lact., Divine Institutes book I, chap. 16; the book On Anger, chap. 10; the Epitome, chap. 72: Inaestimabilis, in the same sense.

Lact., Divine Institutes book VII, chaps. 6, 10 and 15, and On Anger, chap. 22: ad praesens is used in the same sense.

And book I of the Institutes, chap. 10: I pass over the maidens whom he violated.

In book II of the Institutes, number 7, it runs thus: For Jupiter is said to have appeared in sleep to Tiberius Atinius, a man of the common people.

And afterwards, speaking of Augustus, it runs thus: The likeness of Minerva appeared before his physician Artorius, warning that Caesar should not keep himself in camp on account of his bodily weakness.

Note these similar expressions in the two texts: kept himself at Rome; should keep himself in camp; was warned in his sleep; warning in sleep.

On the Deaths of the Persecutors, no. 44: "And its own proper"; words wholly Lactantian.

On the Deaths of the Persecutors, no. 47: "Quiverunt" [they were able], a word frequent in Lactantius.

And no. 49: "With unbearable pain he was carried even to madness of mind."

And no. 52, which is also the last: "God has deigned to restore and gather again His flock, partly laid waste by ravening wolves and partly scattered, and to root out the evil beasts." And no. 50: "Thus all the impious, by the true and just judgement of God, received the same things that they had done."

These texts agree on both sides. It is to be noted that this word, "insustentabili", is perhaps found in no other author.

Dom le Nourry had not compared these turns of speech carefully enough, which beyond doubt represent one and the same author: otherwise, as I think, he would not so freely have gone over to that opinion, from which all the most learned men entirely differ. Further, if he had resolved to embrace it, he ought to have used arguments that were not feeble, not light, not empty: rather it was his task to bring forward firm, indeed the weightiest, reasons, by which the learned might be moved from their former view. Nor let Nourry say that it was only by chance and accident that similar expressions were found in both authors. That indeed can happen once or twice, but not everywhere, and forty times and more, as occurs in a little book of about sixty pages; and above all when it is a question of formulas so singular that you would scarcely find them in any writers.

From these passages, therefore, which I have copied out not only from the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors but also from the undoubted works of Lactantius, it is established that the style of the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors and that of Lactantius are the same.

The book On the Deaths of the Persecutors certainly displays an eloquent writer, easy in expression, polished and clear, and one who had read through the authors of the liberal arts, which are also the gifts of Lactantius.

Finally, it further argues that the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors is to be attributed to Lactantius that, just as the author of that book teaches in nos. 1 and 50 that all the persecutors of the Christian name were vanquished by the supreme God and destroyed by a fitting vengeance, so Lactantius in book 5 of the Institutes, chapters 22 and 23, relates that God avenged the harassments of His people upon wicked princes and most unjust persecutors, and that it always happened that vengeance followed.

Whoever brings these reasons together will not be surprised that, as soon as the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors came to light, this was the judgement of all men of letters, that it was to be ascribed to Lactantius.

Let us now deal with the chief argument of Nicolas le Nourry. The manuscript codex On the Deaths of the Persecutors, he says, bears the name of Lycius, or Lucius Cecilius; therefore it is not Lactantius's. I am surprised that the learned editor did not remember here what he himself nevertheless admitted, that the scribe who wrote this codex, whether through drowsiness and negligence or excessive haste in writing, and also through ignorance of the Latin language, corrupted many things in that book, com-

Lactantius, Divine Institutes, book 3 chapter 10; book 4 chapter 14; book 5 chapter 11; On the Workmanship [of God], chapter 2, where suum proprium, suo proprio, sua propria are always employed.

Lactantius, Divine Institutes, book 2 chapter 5; book 5 chapter 22, where quiverunt and quiverint are also used with the same meaning.

And book 7 of the Institutes, chapter 16: He will harass the world with an unbearable domination.

And book 5 of the Institutes, chapter 23: They will be punished by the judgement of God... He promises that He will swiftly take vengeance on them, and will destroy the evil beasts from the earth... their reward will come, will come to the rabid and ravenous wolves.

tusque to have corrupted. Since these things are so, could not that copyist have omitted the last two names, of Lucius Caecilius Lactantius Firmianus? But it is nowhere to be found, says Dom le Nourry, that Lactantius was distinguished by the praenomina of Lycius Coelius, or of Lucius Caecilius. But this, certainly, much less (these are the editor's words) can be found in the title of any book written by him. Who would not believe a man supremely devout as well as learned when he affirms a thing so? I myself would swear by the words of the learned editor that he had collated all the manuscript codices, as many as could be found among our countrymen, and that in them the praenomina Lucius Coelius and Lucius Caecilius are nowhere read ascribed to Lactantius. Yet it is far otherwise. Dom le Nourry, when he published the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, was then living at Paris. For what reason, then, did he not search through the Library of the Most Christian King? In this Royal Treasury he himself saw many codices, and he names them in his Apparatus to the Library of the Holy Fathers, volume 2. Why did he not examine them more carefully and attentively? But what Nourry through carelessness did not do, let us carry out more accurately.

The first codex, then, nine hundred years old, number 1662, has these words, at folio 25:

Here ends the first book of Caecilius Firmianus On False Religion.

Here begins the second book of Lactantius Caecilius Firmianus On the Origin of Error, to the Emperor Constantine.

At the end of the seventh book it is written thus: Here ends the seventh book of the Divine Institutes of Caecilius Firmianus, On the Blessed Life.

At folio 179 verso is read: Here ends book 7 of Caecilius Firmianus On the Divine Wrath.

At folio 191: Here ends book 8 of Caecilius Firmianus On the Workmanship of God.

In these places, indeed, the praenomen Lucius has been omitted.

Likewise in manuscript codex number 1664, at the end of the third book, you may read thus: L. Coelius Firmianus, the name Lactantius being omitted.

At the end of the sixth book there stands: Here ends book 6 of Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, On True Worship.

Codex 1663 has thus: Here begins the book of the Divine Institutes of Firmianus. But in the margin of the codex is read, in uncial letters: Of Celius Firmianus, On Religion and Divine Matters, to the Emperor Constantine.

And at the end of the first book is written: Of L. Caelius