that Fleuri, in his Ecclesiastical History, relates such a prodigious number of similar incidents, being much more inducive of scandal than edification.

You will also remark, that in this year 303, in which it is pretended that Dioclesian was present at this fine affair in Antioch, he was at Rome, and passed all that year in Italy. It is said that it was at Rome, and in his presence, that St. Genestus, a comedian, was converted on the stage, while playing in a comedy against the christians. This play shows clearly that the taste of Plautus and Terence no longer existed: that which is now called comedy, or Italian farce, seems to have originated at this time. St. Genestus represented an invalid; the physician asked him what was the matter with him," I am too unwieldy," said Genestus.— "Would you have us exorcise you to make you lighter?" said the physician; "No," replied Genestus, "I will die a christian, to be raised again of a finer stature." Then the actors, dressed as priests and exorcists, came to baptise him, at which moment Genestus really became a christian; and, instead of finishing his part, began to preach to the emperor and the people. The Acta Sincera relate this miracle also.

It is certain that there were many true martyrs, but it is not true that the provinces were inundated with blood, as it is imaginéd. Mention is made of about two hundred martyrs towards the latter days of Dioclesian in all the extent of the Roman empire, and it is averred, even in the letters of Constantine, that Dioclesian had much less part in the persecution than Galerius.

Dioclesian fell ill this year, and feeling himself weakened, he was the first who gave the world the example of the abdication of empire. It is not easy to know whether this abdicatian was forced or not; it is true, however, that having recovered his health, he lived nine years equally honoured and peaceable in his retreat of Salonica, in the country of his birth. He said that he only began to live from the day of his retirement, and when he was pressed to remount the throne, he replied, that the throne was not worth the tranquillity of his life, and that he took more pleasure in cultivating his

garden than he should have in governing the whole earth. What can be concluded from these facts, but that with great faults he reigned like a great emperor, and finished his life like a philosopher!

DIONYSIUS, ST. (THE AREOPAGITE),

AND THE FAMOUS ECLIPSE.

THE author of the article APOCRYPHA has neglected to mention a hundred works recognised for such, and which, being entirely forgotten, seem not to merit the honour of being in his list. We have thought it right not to omit St. Dionysius, surnamed the areopagite, who is pretended to have been for a long time the disciple of St. Paul, and of one Hierotheus, an unknown companion of his. He was, it is said, consecrated bishop of Athens by St. Paul himself. It is stated, in his life, that he went to Jerusalem to pay a visit to the holy Virgin, and that he found her so beautiful and majestic, that he was strongly tempted to adore her.

After having a long time governed the church of Athens, he went to confer with St. John the evangelist at Ephesus, and afterwards with pope Clement at Rome; from thence he went to exercise his apostleship in France; and knowing, says the historian, that Paris was a rich, populous, and abundant town, and like other capitals, he went there to plant a citadel, to lay hell and infidelity in ruins.

He was regarded, for a long time, as the first bishop of Paris. Harduinus, one of his historians, adds, that at Paris he was exposed to wild beasts, but having made the sign of the cross on them, they crouched at his feet. The pagan Parisians then threw him into a hot oven, from which he walked out fresh and in perfect health; he was crucified, and he began to preach from the top of the cross.

They imprisoned him with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherus. He there said mass; St. Rusticus performing the part of deacon, and Eleutherus that of sub-deacon. Finally, they were all three carried to

Montmartre, where their heads were cut off, after which they no longer said mass.

But according to Harduinus, there appeared a still greater miracle. The body of St. Dionysius took its head in its hands, and accompanied by angels singing "Gloria tibi, Domine, alleluia!" carried it as far as the place where they afterwards built him a church, which is the famous church of St. Denis.

Mestaphrastus, Harduinus, and Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, say, that he was martyred at the age of ninety-one years; but cardinal Baronius proves that he was a hundred and ten,* in which opinion he is supported by Ribadeneira, the learned author of the Flower of the Saints. For our own part, we have no opinion on the subject.

Seventeen works are attributed to him, six of which we have unfortunately lost; the eleven which remain to us have been translated from the Greek by Duns Scotus, Hugh de St. Victor, Albert Magnus, and several other illustrious scholars.

It is true, that since wholesome criticism has been introduced into the world, it has been discovered that all the books attributed to Dionysius were written by an impostor in the year 362 of our era, so that there no longer remains any difficulty on that head.

Of the great Eclipse noticed by Dionysius.

A fact related by one of the unknown authors of the life of Dionysius has, above all, caused great dissension among the learned. It is pretended that this first bishop of Paris being in Egypt, in the town of Diospolis, or No-Ammon, at the age of twenty-five years, before he was a christian, he was there, with one of his friends, witness of the famous eclipse of the sun which happened at the full moon, at the death of Jesus Christ, and that he cried, in Greek, "Either God suffers, or is afflicted at the sufferings of the criminal."

These words have been differently related by different authors, but in the time of Eusebius of Cæsarea, it is

* Baron, vol. ii. page 37.

pretended that two historians, the one named Phlegon, and the other Thallus, had made mention of this miraculous eclipse.* Eusebius of Cæsarea quotes Phlegon, but we have none of his works now existing. He said, (at least it is pretended so) that this eclipse happened in the fourth year of the two hundredth olympiad, which would be the eighteenth year of Tiberius's reign. There are several versions of this anecdote; we distrust them all and should much more so, if it were possible to know whether they reckoned by olympiads in the time of Phlegon, which is very doubtful.

This important calculation interested all the astronomers. Hodgson, Whiston, Gale, Maurice, and the famous Halley, demonstrated that there was no eclipse of the sun in this first year; but that on the 24th of November, in the year of the hundred and second olympiad, an eclipse took place which obscured the sun for two minutes, at a quarter past one, at Jerusalem.

It has been carried still farther: a jesuit, named Greslon, pretended that the Chinese preserved in their annals the account of an eclipse which happened near that time, contrary to the order of nature. They desired the mathematicians of Europe to make a calculation of it; it was pleasant enough to desire the astronomers to calculate an eclipse which was not natural. Finally it was discovered, that the Chinese annals do not in any way speak of this eclipse.

It appears from the history of St. Dionysius the areopagite, the passage from Phlegon, and from the letter of the jesuit Greslon, that men like to impose upon one another. But this prodigious multitude of lies, far from harming the christian religion, only serves, on the contrary, to show its divinity, since it is more confirmed every day in spite of them.

* See ECLIPSE.

END OF VOLUME THE SECOND.

REYNELL, PRINTER, BROAD-STREET, GOLDEN-SQUARE.