ας μάλιστα λογιώτατος καὶ τῆς γραφῆς εἰδήμων, i. e. “ a person of "eminent judgment and discretion, and knowledge in the "scriptures;" and yet a few pages after he says, he was σpodpa σφόδρα

σμixpòs tòv vov, “a person of an exceeding low and mean geσμικρὸς τὸν "nius;" which being a direct contradiction to the foregoing (but his just character) proves the former to be an insertion or note of some careless reader. This is confirmed, in that Ruffin did not read it in his copies, as appears by his Latin version, which wants it; as also that it is not to be found in the best and most ancient manuscript copies of Eusebius, which Valesius h collated, viz. that which he calls The Medicæan; that of cardinal Mazarine and Fuketius. In like manner in some copies of Eusebius's Chronicon he is made to say, that the "fast "of Lent was instituted by Telesphorus, and the observation "of the Lord's day by Pius, both bishops of Romei."

5. It was more easy for such, an interpolation to be made, because it was the end of a book.

Upon the whole, that which seems clear is, that the epistles and history are spurious, and that Eusebius in some measure too easily believed the report concerning them, though the large account of them in his first book be a plain corruption of some writer after his time, and an addition to the history, as it is certain there were many such things in succeeding ages; some of them I have above mentioned out of Procopius, Euagrius, and Cedrenus, and shall now conclude this whole matter with a fragment which I find published by Jacob Grynæus, among his Orthodoxographa, vol. 1. p. 90, 91. and a few remarks on the subject of it. Περὶ Αὐγάρου τῶν Εδεσσηνῶν βασιλέως καὶ τῆς εἰκόνος Χρίστου.

Φέρεται δὲ καὶ τὶς ἱστορία, ὡς ὁ Κύριος, Αὐγάρου τοῦ τῆς Ἐδέσση νῶν πόλεως βασιλεύοντος, ζωγράφον ἀποστέιλαντος τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου ὁμοιογραφῆσαι εἰκόνα, μὴ δυνηθέντος τοῦ ζωγράφου, διὰ τὴν ἀπο

h Annot. in Eus. ad h. 1.

Concerning Abgarus, king of the

Edessenes, and concerning the image or picture of Christ. There is also a certain history, that when Abgarus, king of the city of the Edessenes, sent a limner to draw the picture of our Saviour, the limner was not able to do it, by reason of the shining. i Loc. cit. p. 44.

στίλβουσαν τοῦ προσώπου λαμπρότητα, αὐτὸς ἱμάτιον τῷ οἰκείῳ προσώπῳ τῷ θείῳ καὶ ζωοποιῷ ἐπιDeis, évateμážato Tų iμarių To ἑαυτοῦ ἀπεικόνισμα, καὶ οὕτως ἀπέστειλε τοῦτο ποθοῦντι τῷ Αὐ γάρῳ. Ὅτι δὲ καὶ πλεῖστα οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἀγράφως παραδεδώκασι, γράφει Παῦλος ὁ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἀπόστολος· Αρα οὖν ἀδελφοὶ, στή xete xai xpatsïte tàs napadóσes ἡμῶν, ἃς ἐδιδάχθητε, εἴτε διὰ λόγου, εἴτε διὰ ἐπιστολῆς ἡμῶν. Καὶ πρὸς Κορινθίους· Επαινῶ δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι πάντα μου μέμmode⋅ xai xatãs tapédwxa úμiv, τὰς παραδόσεις κατέχετε.

brightness of his countenance, but that our Saviour took a cloth, and laying it upon his godlike and enlivening (life-giving) face, he wiped of his face, and impressed on the cloth his own picture, and then sent it according to the desire of Abgarus. Now that the apostles did deliver several histories which are not writen, Paul wrote, saying, (2 Thess. ii. 15.) the apostle of the Gentiles has Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle; and in his Epistle to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. xi. 2.) I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, (traditions,) as I delivered them to you.

Joannes Jacobus Grynæus, who has published this fragment, supposes it probable, that it was taken out of some accounts which were among the Christians in Syria, concerning Christ and Abgarusk, and calls the author anonymus quidam: but though he seems not to have known it, it is taken out of a writer of the eighth century, viz. Joannes Damascenus, lib. 4. de Fide Orthodoxa, c. 17. And the history was very commonly to be met with in the writers of the sixth, seventh, and following centuries. Euagrius, out of Procopius, calls this image DEÓTEUXTOV, "not made by the hands of men, but God;" and relates a surprising miracle wrought by it; viz. "That when "Chosroes besieged Edessa, (of which Abgarus was king,) and "the besieged found all methods of relief ineffectual, they brought this picture forth, which being sprinkled with water, "they sprinkled also some of it upon a vast bulwark, which the besiegers had raised against the walls, whereupon it was con"sumed; and though Chosroes turned a channel of water into * Præfat. in Orthodoxographa, vol. 1. 1 Hist. Eccles. 1. 4. c. 26.

66

"it, the water itself burnt like oil or brimstone." Darius Comes, in an epistle to St. Austin m, relates, that when our Saviour sent his letter to Abgarus, he at the same time gave him assurance, that his city should never be taken by any enemy. To which Procopius adds", that the people of Edessa say, "these "were the last words of Christ's letter to Abgarus, and that

66

they were wont to fix the letter upon their gates, as a bul"wark against besiegers;" although, if we may credit Joannes Xiphilinus out of Dio Cassius," Edessa was taken by Lucius, "who was sent thither by Trajan o;" and Dr. Grabe P has proved out of the Alexandrian Chronicle, that it was also taken by the Persians in the time of the Roman emperor Phocas, who was proclaimed about the year of Christ DCX. But notwithstanding this, the story of Christ's picture wiped off his face, impressed on the cloth, and sent by him to Abgarus, is related in the second council of Nice, called by the Greeks the seventh general synod, by Gregory II. Adrian I. Zonaras, Constantinus Porphyrogenita, Nicephorus, and many otherss. The later writers among the papists have wrote much upon the subject, and I shall not think it a very criminal digression to give the reader the following abstract out of their celebrated monsieur Durant t. 66 Writers," says he, "of the best authority have informed us, that there were four several pictures of our Saviour made during his life on earth.

66

66

“The first is, that which Christ himself sent to Abgarus, "king of Edessa, concerning which there is more full evi❝dence, viz. Procopius cited by Euagrius (lib. 4. cap. 26.) the "seventh synod (Act 5.) which cites Euagrius, and adds these "words of Leo: I went to Edessa, and saw the venerable image of Christ there, which was not made with hands, worshipped and adored by the people: it is mentioned by pope "Adrian I. (ad Carol. Magn. c. 18.) and Damascene (1. 4. de "Orthodox. Fid. c. 17. et Orát. 1. de Imag. Confirm.) Con"stantinus Porphyrogenita has said much of it in an oration

66

66

"before the emperors, clergy, and people, (N. B. There is a "whole treatise of his on the subject published by Combefisius "in Greek and Latin, among his Origines Constantinopoli"tanæ, p. 75. entitled, Narratio de Imagine Christi ab ipso "Servatore ad Abgarum Edessæ regem missa, et ab Edessa Constantinopolin deportata anno DCCCCXLIV. ") spoken "of by Nicephorus, Zonaras, &c.

66

1

66

"The second picture of Christ was stamped or impressed

upon the napkin or handkerchief of Veronica; for when "Christ was led to his crucifixion, Veronica, who followed "Christ, put a handkerchief to his face, on which Christ impressed his picture. This is testified by Methodius, bishop "of Tyre, Constantinus Porphyrogenita, &c.

66

66

66

"The third is that mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 1. 7. C. 18. which was a statue of Christ erected by the woman "whom he cured of the issue of blood. The substance of the account, as it is in Eusebius, is as follows: He calls it a his"tory worthy to be related, and says, the woman, whom our "Saviour cured of the issue of blood mentioned in our Gos"pels, lived at Cæsarea Philippi, called by the Phoenicians "Paneas; that her house was in his time to be seen, and se"veral monuments of our Saviour's miracle wrought for her; "for near her house there was a brasen statue of the woman "fixed on a pedestal of stone, in the posture of a supplicant, "with bended knees, and her hands stretched out. Opposite "to it was the statue of a man made of the same metal, in a "standing posture, with a decent cloak on, and stretching forth "his hand to the woman. At the feet of this statue, and the

86

very basis of the column, grew a certain unknown herb, "which growing up to the hem [of the garment], or brass "cloak, was a present remedy for all sorts of distempers. "This statue (they say) was like to Christ. It continued," says Eusebius, "till my time, and I went to that city, and saw it "myself." He adds, "that it is not to be thought strange, that "the heathens should do this, since he himself saw the pictures "of Peter and Paul, and Christ himself in his time." Thus

u See Dr. Cave's Histor. Liter. vol. 1. p. 577.

* This story is mentioned in the se

In

cond council of Nice just now cited,
Act 4. and several of the ancients.
the chronology of Malela, printed out

66

far Eusebius. I return to Durant, who cites Sozomen and Cassiodorus, as mentioning this story; and says, they add, "that Julian the apostate took down this statue; and placed "his own in the room of ity. Theophylact in Matth. ix. and Epiphanius (Sardin. Concil. 7. seu Nicæn. 2.) Nicephorus "1. 6. c. 15.) have also mentioned it, and many others." To which I would add an excellent writer of the fourth century, viz. Asterius, bishop of Amasea, who says, "the brasen statue, "which the woman erected, continued for a long time, for the "conviction of those, who durst to charge the evangelists with "falsehood; and would," says he, "have continued till our "time, as an evidence at once of Christ's miraculous power, " and the woman's gratitude, if Maximinus, who was the Ro"man emperor before Constantine, and an impious idolater, "had not taken it away

The next picture of Christ, which Durant mentions, is one which Nicodemus made a present of to Gamaliel, which continued for many ages among the Jews at Berytus, and was by them spit upon, smote with a reed, crucified, and pierced with a spear, whence came forth blood and water, of which there is much in the tract of Athanasius, concerning the passion of the image of our Lord Jesus Christa.

After this the author mentions some pictures of Christ, which they have now; particularly one at Rome not made with hands: but of this whole matter I shall think it needless to say any more, referring the reader to Chemnitius, Exam. Concil. Trident. part. 4. p. 45. &c.

of a manuscript in the Bodleian library at Oxford, there is a petition of this woman to Herod, setting forth her great cure, and her desire to erect this statue to the honour of Christ; Herod's permission or grant to her to do it; her erecting it, and its being afterwards translated into a church. But there seems very little regard due to this fabulous writer, whose character see in Dr. Cave's Histor. Literar. vol. 1. p. 442.

y Sozomen says further, that when the apostate had erected his own statue in that place, a fire from heaven smote it, and took off the head and neck, and fixed it in the earth, as, says he, it continues to this day, looking black, as

if it had been burnt with lightning; and though the pagans tore in pieces the statue of Christ, the Christians collected the pieces, and placed them in the church, where, says he, they are still kept. Hist. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 21.

See this in the eloquent homily of this bishop upon Jairus and this woman, preserved by Photius, Biblioth. Cod. CCLXXII. p. 1507.

a This tract is undoubtedly spurious, and largely proved to be so by our countryman Robert Coke, Censur. quorund. veter. Script. p. 93. &c. and after him by Rivet. Critic. Sacr. 1. 3. c. 6. as also by Bellarmine himself, De Scriptor. Eccles. p. 100, &c.