CHA P. X.

Of the DANGER of FALSE LEGENDS and

PERSECUTION.

MAN

ANKIND have been too long impofed upon by falfhood: it is therefore time that we fhould come to the knowledge of the few truths that can be diftinguished from amidft the clouds of fiction which cover the Roman History from the times of Tacitus and Suetonius, and with which the annals of the other nations of antiquity have almost always been obfcured.

Can any one, for example, believe that the Romans, a grave and modeft people, could have condemned Chriftian virgins, the children of perfons of the firft quality, to common profi tution? This is affuredly very inconfiftent with the noble aufterity of that nation, from whom we received our laws, and who punished fo rigorously the leaft tranfgreffion of chastity in their veftals. Thefe fhameful ftories may in deed be found in the Altes finceres of Ruinart.

But fhould we believe thofe acts before the acts of the Apoftles? The Actes Sinceres tell us from Bollandus, that there were in the city of Ancira feven Christian virgins, each of them upwards of feventy, whom the governor Theodectes ordered to be deflowered by the young men of the place; but thefe poor maidens having escaped this difafter (as indeed there was great reason they should), he compelled them to affift stark naked at the mysteries of Diana, at which, by the way, no one ever affifted but in a veil. St. Theodotus, who, though indeed nothing more than an inn-keeper, was not the lefs pious for that, befought God devoutly that he would be pleased to take away the lives of thefe holy maidens, left they fhould yield to temptation. God heard his prayer. The governor ordered them all to be thrown into a lake with a ftone about their neck; immediately after which they appeared to Theodotus, and begged of him," that he would not suffer their bodies to be devoured by the fishes." Thefe, it feems, were their own words.

Hereupon the inn-keeper faint, and some of his companions, went in the night-time to the hide of the lake, which was guarded by a party

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of foldiers, a heavenly torch going all the way before, to light them. When they came to the place where the guards were pofted, they faw a heavenly horseman armed cap-a-pee, with a launce in his hand, who fell upon the foldiers and difperfed them, while St. Theodotus drew the dead bodies of the virgins out of the water. He was afterwards carried before the governor, who ordered his head to be ftruck off, without the heavenly horfeman interfering to prevent it. However difpofed we may be to pay all due reverence to the true martyrs of our holy religion, we must confefs it is very hard to believe the story of Bollandus and Buinart..

Need I add to this the legend of young St.. Romanus? Eufebius tells us, that having been. condemned to be burnt, he was accordingly thrown into the fire, when fome Jews, who were prefent, made a mock of Jesus Christ, who fuffered his followers to be burnt when God had delivered Shadrac, Mefchec, and Abednego out of the firy furnace. No fooner had: the Jews uttered this blafphemy, than they beheld St. Romanus walking triumphant and unhurt from forth the flaming pile: this being reported to the emperor, he gave orders for his F 6 being

being pardoned, telling the judge that he would not have an affair upon his hands with God, (a ftrange expreffion for Dioclefian!) Thejudge, however, notwithstanding the emperor's clemency, ordered St. Romanus to have his tongue cut out; and, though he had executioners at hand, commanded the operation to be performed by a furgeon. Young Romanus, who had from his birth laboured under on impediment of fpeech, no fooner loft his tongue than he spoke diftinctly and with great volubility. Upon this, the furgeon received a fevere reprimand; when, in order to show that he had performed his operation, fecundum artem, he laid hold of a man who was going by, from whom he cut juft the fame portion of tongue, as he had done from St. Romanus, of which the patient inftant. ly died, for, adds our author very learnedly, ་་ Anatomy teaches us, that a man cannot live "without his tongue." If Eufebius did really write such stuff, and it has not been added by fome other hand, what degree of credit can we give to his history?

We have the relation of the martyrdom of St. Felicity and her feven children, who are faid

to have been condemned to death by the wife and pious Antoninus, but without giving us the author's name; who, moft probably, poffeffed of more zeal than veracity, had a mind to imitate the history of the Maccabees. He begins his relation in the following manner: "St. "Felicity was by birth a Roman, and lived in "the reign of Antoninus:" it is clear by these words, that the author did not live at the fame time with St. Felicity. He fays, that they were judged before the pretor in the Campus Martius whereas the Roman prefect's tribunal was not in the Campus Martius, but in the capitol; for, although the Comiti had been held there formerly, yet at this time it was used only as a place for reviewing the foldiers, for chariotraces, and for military games: this alone is fuf: ficient to detect the fiction.

The author adds furthermore, that after fentence was paffed, the emperor committed the care of feeing it executed to different judges; a circumftance which is entirely repugnant to the usual forms in those times, and in every other.

We alfo read of St. Hypolitus, who is faid to have been drawn in pieces by horfes, as was

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