difference, of such trifling moment and so easily rectified, holds a distinguished place in the list of Misrepresentations which adorn Mr. Davis's Table of Contents.* But to return to Tertullian.

The infernal picture, which I had producedț from that vehement writer, which excited the horror of every humane reader, and which even Mr. Davis will not explicitly defend, has furnished him with a few critical cavils. Happy should I think myself, if the materials of my History could be always exposed to the Examination of the Public; and I shall be content with appealing to the impartial Reader, whether my Version of this Passage is not as fair and as faithful, as the more literal translation which Mr. Davis has exhibited in an opposite column. I shall only justify two expressions which have provoked his indignation. 1. I had observed that the zealous African pursues the infernal description in a long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms; the instances of Gods, of Kings, of Magistrates, of Philosophers, of Poets, of Tragedians, were introduced into my Transla tion. Those which I had omitted, relate to the Dancers, the Charioteers, and the Wrestlers; and it is almost impossible to express those conceits which are connected with the language and manners of the Romans. But the reader will be suffi ciently shocked, when he is informed that Tertul lian alludes to the improvement which the agility

• Davis, p. 19.
+ Gibbon, p. 566.
Davis, p. 29-33.

of

of the Dancers, the red livery of the Charioteers, and the attitudes of the Wrestlers, would derive from the effects of fire. “Tunc histriones cognos-cendi solutiores multo per ignem; tunc spectandus Auriga in flammea rota totus ruber. Tunc Xystici contemplandi, non in Gymnasiis, sed in igne jaculati.” 2. I cannot refuse to answer Mr. Davis's very particular question, Why I appeal to Tertullian for the condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the Pagans? Because I am inclined to bestow that epithet on Trajan and the Antonines, Homer and Euripides, Plato and Aristotle, who are all manifestly included within the fiery description which I had produced.

I am accused of misquoting Tertullian ad Scapulam,* as an evidence that Martyrdoms were lately introduced into Africa. Besides Tertullian, I had quoted from Ruinart (Acta Sincera, p. 84.) the Acts of the Scyllitan Martyrs; and a very moderate knowledge of Ecclesiastical History would have informed Mr. Davis, that the two authorities thus connected establish the proposition asserted in my Text. Tertullian, in the above-mentioned Chapter, speaks of one of the Proconsuls of Africa, Vigellius Saturninus, "qui primus hic gladium in nos egit;" the Acta Sincera represent the same Magistrate as the Judge of the Scyllitan Martyrs; and Ruinart, with the consent of the best critics, ascribes their sufferings to the persecution of Se

Davis, p. 35, 36.

† Gibbon, p. 609. N. 172.

VOL. IV.

N N

verus.

verus. Was it my fault if Mr. Davis was incapable of supplying the intermediate ideas?

Is it likewise necessary that I should justify the frequent use which I have made of Tertullian? His copious writings display a lively and interesting picture of the primitive Church, and the scantiness of original materials scarcely left me the liberty of choice. Yet as I was sensible, that the Montanism of Tertullian is the convenient screen which our orthodox Divines have placed before his errors, I have, with peculiar caution, confined myself to those works which were composed in the more early and sounder part of his life.

As a collateral justification of my frequent appeals to this African presbyter, I had introduced, in the third edition of my History, two passages of Jerom and Prudentius, which prove that Tertullian was the master of Cyprian, and that Cyprian was the master of the Latin Church.* Mr. Davis assures me, however, that I should have done better not to have" added this note,† as I have only accumulated my inaccuracies." One inaccuracy he has indeed detected, an error of the press, Hieronym. de Viris illustribus, c. 53 for 63; but this advantage is dearly purchased by Mr. Davis. Επιδος τον διδασκαλον, which he produces as the original words of Cyprian, has a braver and more learned sound, than Da magistrum; but the quoting in Greek, a sentence which was pronounced,

Gibbon, p. 566. N. 72.

+ Davis, p. 145.

and

and is recorded, in Latin, seems to bear the mark
of the most ridiculous pedantry; unless Mr. Davis,
consulting ror the first time the Works of Jerom,
mistook the Version of Sophronius, which is
printed in the opposite column, for the Text of
his original Author. My reference to Prudentius,
Hymn. xiii. 100. cannot so easily be justified, as I
presumptuously believed that my critics would
continue to read till they came to a full stop. I
shall now place before them, not the first verse
only, but the entire period, which they will find
full, express, and satisfactory. The Poet says of
St. Cyprian, whom he places in Heaven,

Nec minus involitat terris, nec ab hoc recedit orbe :
Disserit, eloquitur, tractat, docet, instruit, prophetat;
Nec Libya populos tantum reget, exit usque in ortum
Solis, et usque obitum ; Gallos fovet, imbuit Britannos,
Presidet Hesperia, Christum serit ultimis Hibernis.

SEVERUS

PAOLO.

VI. On the subject of the imminent dangers SULPICIUS which the Apocalypse has so narrowly escaped," AND FRAMr. Davis accuses me of misrepresenting the sentiments of Sulpicius Severus and Fra-Paolo,† with this difference, however, that I was incapable of reading or understanding the text of the Latin author; but that I wilfully perverted the sense of the Italian historian. These imputations I shall easily wipe away, by shewing that, in the first instance, I am probably in the right; and that, in the second, he is certainly in the wrong.

Gibbon, p. 563, 564. N. 67. ↑ Davis, p. 40—44.

NN 2

1. The

1. The concise and elegant Sulpicius, who has been justly styled the Christian Sallust, afterm entioning the exile and revelations of St. John in the isle of Patmos, observes (and surely the observation is in the language of complaint,) "Librum sacræ Apocalypsis, qui quidem a plerisque aut stulte aut impie non recipitur, conscriptum edidit." I am found guilty of supposing plerique to signify the greater number; whereas Mr. Davis, with Stephens's Dictionary in his hand, is able to prove that plerique has not always that extensive meaning, and that a classic of good authority has used the word in a much more limited and qualified sense. Let the Examiner therefore try to apply his exception to this particular case. For my part, I stand under the protection of the general usage of the Latin language, and with a strong presump tion in favour of the justice of my cause, or at least of the innocence and fairness of my intentions; since I have translated a familiar word, according to its acknowledged and ordinary acceptation.

But, if I had looked into the passage, and found that Sulpicius Severus, there expressly tells us, that the Apocalypse was the work of St. John, I could not have committed so unfortunate a blun der, as to cite this Father as saying, That the greater number of Christians denied its Canonical authority. Unfortunate indeed would have been my blunder, had I asserted that the same Chris

• Davis, p. 270.