saintsh; of heretics mistaken for orthodox', and of

calendar, its title, St. Almanacum, Sanctum Almanacum, has been, by some ignorant monk in the dark ages, mistaken for an ancient saint? And it was easy to frame St. Almachius of St. Almanacum, especially if we suppose it written in the old way of abbreviation. If any one, in opposition to this conjecture, should urge the word Almanacum to be modern, the answer is, that it is a word as old as Porphyry, as appears by a quotation from him by Eusebius, P. Evan. lib. iii. c. 4. But whatever be the fate of St. Almachius, whether a real saint or only an almanac, another instance of a nonentity converted into a saint we have in Siridon, whose festival is on the 2nd of January. Baronius, in his note on this place, where we read Sancti Siridonis Episcopi, professes himself entirely ignorant who this Siridon was, and where bishop. And well he might; for Dr. Geddes tells us, that in some old MSS. of the Martyrology the true reading appears, and the martyr is found to be Domnus-Antiochiæ Syriæ, Domni; these two last words being so corrupted as to form Siridon, a person who never existed. On the 16th of February we have Sancti Juliani Martyris, cum aliis quinq; millibus. In this place, for five soldiers, quinque militibus, writ in abbreviation Mil. we now find millibus. But what is the multiplying five soldiers into five thousand saints, when we can produce an instance of a spear metamorphosed into a soldier? On the 15th of March is the festival of St. Longinus, who pierced our Saviour's side. From the Greek word λóyxn, which signifies a spear, and used by St. John in the relating this fact, has been deduced the name of the soldier to whom it belonged; and the spear being once made a man, the man was easily made a saint. I shall give but one instance more, and as strange as the last; of fourscore and three miles converted into so many martyrs. Under the 24th of July we read Amiterni in Vestinis passio Sanctorum militum octaginta trium. Now, from the old MSS. Martyrologies, it is evident we ought to read, At Amiternum, 83 miles from Rome, of St. Victorinus: the abbreviation of Milliaria being mistaken for Milites. These instances are so flagrant, that to mention more were superfluous. Whoever would see more, may meet with them in the Tracts of Dr. Geddes.

h Not to mention Evodia, taken notice of by Mabillon in his

moral and Christian virtues personified into martyrs and miracle workersk. However, as the scenes of

Itiner. Italicum, nor St. Viarius, whose miracles were famous all round Evora in Portugal, till Resendius shewed that no such person had ever existed, by reading the inscription which referred to two heathens who had been appointed Viarum Curandarum, to repair the highways; which inscription, though very easy to be understood, was beyond the reach of Portuguese priests. Not to mention these as instances, because not countenanced by any public act of the church, the authentic Martyrology presents us with a St. Bacchus, a St. Quirinus, a St. Mercurius, a St. Romulus, a St. Nilammon, a St. Hippolytus, &c. &c. all which savour much of a pagan original. And, in particular, if we compare what the Romish church says of St. Hippolytus, with the fable of Ovid concerning the son of Theseus, of the same name, it cannot be doubted that the one story is a copy of the other. For as the pagan Hippolytus was torn asunder by wild horses, so, if we turn to the Martyrology, under the 13th of August, we read that the same fate attended the Christian martyr of that name. What still confirms this, is the giving St. Hippolytus a nurse ; for the Martyrology, after relating his fate, addeth passi sunt eodem die beata Concordia ejus Nutrix, &c. Every one knows what share a nurse had in the story of Phædra and Hippolytus.

i Instances of heretics canonized we have in Theodotus, an Arian, on the 2nd of November; of Paphnutius, a Milesian heretic, on the 11th of September; of Felix, a schismatic, on the 29th of July, &c. &c. &c.

* We read in the Martyrology, on the 1st of August: "Romæ passio sanctarum virginum Fidei, Spei, et Charitatis, quæ "sub Hadriano Principe martyrii coronam adeptæ sunt." Now that there should ever be three young women of the names of Faith, Hope, and Charity, or, if there were three such young wo. men, that they should happen to suffer martyrdom together, must be owned to be highly improbable. And if we take it into consideration that a day was set apart, in the old pagan calendar of Rome, to Hope, this creates a strong suspicion, that these three are imaginary martyrs, and inserted by way of accommodation to pagan prejudices, a respect to which has been demonstrated by Dr. Middleton, in the postscript to his letter from

the Romish miracles are not altogether in terra incognita, I shall take particular notice of one or two of their most boasted pretensions, which may give you a specimen of what you are to expect in most of the rest. The instances I propose to mention are the miracles ascribed to the two famous heroes of the order of the Jesuits; Ignatius, the founder of their order, and Francis Xavier, their apostle in the East Indies.

Ignatius, according to Bouhours, Maffei, and several other writers of the order of Jesus, (for above twenty of them have been his biographers,) was not inferior to any of the saints, either for the number or the strangeness of his miracles. But that these miracles were impudently forged, long after he was dead, by an order of men remarkable for their forgeries, and with the obvious intention of extending their own power, by exalting the reputation of their founder, will, I think, be pretty evident from the following particulars.

Ribadeneira, a Spanish Jesuit, was the first who undertook to give the world a life of this saint; and that he undertook it with a view to exalt the character of the head of his order, we might have supposed, even although he had not told us so himself, when he says, that he was well qualified to write the history of Ignatius, having, from his youth, been an eyewitness and admirer of his most holy life'. As, therefore, we cannot but suppose that Ribade

Rome, to have given rise to the glaring heathenism, as I may call it, of many rites and practices of the Romish church.

1 Cujus ego viri historiam quoniam a puero sanctissimæ ipsius vitæ spectator atque admirator fui, pleniorem et majori rerum fide scribere potero. Ribaden. in Præfat.

neira, a contemporary, must have heard of Ignatius's miracles, if any had been pretended to, so it cannot be doubted that such a biographer would have gladly laid hold of an opportunity of relating them; as the ascribing of miracles to his hero would have advanced his reputation more than any thing else that could be related of him.

Does then Ribadeneira ascribe any miracles to Ignatius? So far is he from doing this, that we are certain, from his own declaration, not only that he himself did not believe his saint had ever performed miracles, but, farther, that this was a point universally known and agreed upon. For he enters upon an inquiry, in his book, whence it could happen, that so holy a man had not the gift of miracles bestowed upon him; and the elaborate and sensible reasons which he assigns for this", are a demonstration that

m Lib. v. c. 13. p. 539. Sed dicat aliquis, si vera hæc sunt, ut profecto sunt, quid causæ est quamobrem illius sanctitas minus est testata miraculis? et ut multorum sanctorum vita, signis declarata, virtutumque operationibus insignita.

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n The following specimen of them deserves our perusal: "Hæc "dixerim non ut miraculorum vim elevem, sed ut prudens lector intelligat, rem totam Deo committendam; qui dona sua unicuique distribuit prout vult. Potuit ille pro sua occulta sapi"entia nostræ hoc imbecillitati dare, ne miracula unquam jac"tare possemus. Potuit utilitati, ut authore instituti minus illustri, a Jesu potius, quam ab illo, nomen traheremus: et nos"tra nos appellatio sacra moneret, ne ab illo oculos unquam dimoveremus: quem non solum, ut communem humani generis "liberatorem ac principem, sed etiam ut præcipuum ducem co'lere, atque imitari debemus, minimam hanc societatem sui no"minis glorioso titulo decorantem. Potuit hoc etiam tribuere temporibus, quibus hæc miracula necessaria non sunt." P. 542,

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543.

The vein of humility which runs through this passage agrees but very ill with the character and conduct of the Jesuits, who

it was, at that time, looked upon as an indisputed fact, that Ignatius had not been vested with any such power.

As Ignatius died in 1557, and as Ribadeneira did not publish his Life till 1572, we may be certain that the miracles ascribed to this saint had not been invented or thought of during the first sixteen years after his death. Nay, we are certain that they were not thought of during the first thirty years; for, in 1587, Ribadeneira published a second edition of the Life of Ignatius; and though in this edition he tells us he has added many new particulars, which he had learnt since he published the first, from some of Ignatius's most intimate friends, and other matters, which before had appeared doubtful, but in consequence of his diligent examination he now found to be certain; yet, after all this care and diligent in

have, ever since the foundation of their order, given the world too many fatal proofs of their arrogance and ambition; and instead of endeavouring to deserve the glorious appellation assumed by them, by a blind obsequiousness to the pretensions of the court of Rome-pretensions inconsistent with the security and independency of the civil magistrate-and by their odious attempts to sap the foundations of Christian morality, have rendered the appellation of Jesuit odious even among the moderate part of the church of Rome; and have made the penal laws of protestant states, particularly of ours, against the religion they have propagated by treasons, assassinations, massacres, and villainies of every kind, to be acts necessary for our own preservation, and not to be charged to a spirit of persecution.

o Multa mihi necessario addenda judicavi. Primum nova quædam, quæ post libellum excusum, gravissimi viri, et Ignatio valde familiares, et ante societatem conditam intimi necessarii, quasi testes oculati de ipso Ignatio nobis retulerunt. Tum alia, quæ dubia antea mihi erant, et diligenti postea inquisitione investigata, certa esse comperi. Ribaden. in Præf. ed. 1587.