of age, of a good family, well educated, honourably married, had a father and mother and two brothers then living, and a young child not yet weaned from her breasts, at the time of her imprisonment: and, as it seems, the whole family was christian, except her father, who did his utmost to persuade his daughter to save her life by renouncing her religion.

C

The author of this history is called Anonymous by" Cave. Some have guessed that Tertullian might be the writer of it. But though that opinion be for the present given up, there is a dispute subsisting among learned men about the character of the writer, whether he was a Montanist or a catholic. Indeed, the composer of this piece is now generally called not an author, but a collector; forz Perpetua here relates her own history herself, with the visions she had in prison, till the very day before her passion. Here is besides a vision of Saturus, said likewise to be written by himself. Tillemont therefore says, That the principal and best part of this piece was written by Perpetua herself on the eve of her martyrdom. There ' is also a vision written by Saturus himself. The rest is 'the work of a contemporary author, as appears from the preface; where he professes to write what he knew, ' appealing to those who were present at the martyrdom.' So Tillemont, and to the like purpose others. Nevertheless, I do not perceive Augustine to allow that Perpetua wrote any part of her passion. However, whether author or collector of these Acts, Basnage, after Henry Valesius, contends stiffly that he was a Montanist. And from the character of the writer of the Acts he farther argues, that s Perpetua, and the rest who suffered martyrdom with her, were all of the same sect. On the contrary, Ruinarth is ▾ Et ego dolebam canos patris mei, quod solus de passione meà gavisurus non esset de toto genere meo. Ibid. n. v. p. 95.

w Hist. Lit. P. i. p. 64.

e

* Vid. Ruinart, ibid. p. 91. n. v. y Inquirendum tandem, quisnam fuerit horum actorum auctor, seu potius collector, cum eorum maximam partem a Perpetuâ et Saturo scriptam fuisse nemo inficiari possit. Ruinart, ibid. Conf. Basnag. 203. n. vi.

z Hæc ordinem totum martyrii sui jam hinc ipsa narrabit, sicut conscriptum manu suâ, et suo sensu reliquit. Ap. Ruinart, ibid. p. 93. n. ii.

a Hoc usque in pridie muneris egi; ipsius autem muneris actum, si quis voluerit, scribat. Ibid. p. 98. n. x. b Sed et Saturus benedictus hanc visionem suam edidit, quam ipse conscripsit. Ibid. p. 98. n. xi. c Tillem. as before, p. 232.

d De fratre autem Sanctæ Perpetuæ Dinocrate, nec scriptura ipsa canonica est, nec illa sic scripsit, vel quicumque illud scripsit, &c. Aug. de Animâ. lib. i. cap. x. • Basn. ann. 203. n. v. 8 Basn. ibid. n. vi.

Vid. Ruinart, Act. M. p. 91. n. vi. h Ruinart, ibid.

persuaded the writer was a catholic. And Dodwell has argued strongly on the same side of the question.

In this piece there are not many texts of scripture, However, we shall observe a few particulars.

1. Here are words of John xvi. 24.

2. The passage of Joel ii. 28, is here at length, the same that is cited by St. Peter, Acts ii. 17. But I do not observe any proof of its being taken out of the book of the Acts.

3. If I mistake not, there is an allusion, m or reference to 1 Cor. xiv. 22.

4. The writer in the preface alludes to the beginning of St. John's first epistle, and adopts some of the words of it; see 1 John i. 1—3.

III. Proculus has been already taken notice of, as mentioned by Tertullian, together with divers other ecclesiastical writers; and on account of the dialogue or conference of Caius upon the point of Montanism, I think it proper to take some farther notice of him in this place.

r

It is undoubted, that the person with whom Caius disputed was then a Montanist. He is expressly called by Eusebius a leader or patron of the Cataphrygian sect, and a follower of Montanus by Jerom and Photius. According to the author of the Catalogue of Heretics at the end of Tertullian's book of Prescription against Heretics, who is supposed by Dodwell and " Pagi to have been contemporary with Tertullian, and by Tillemont, to have written about the year 200, there were two parties of the Montanists; the one called after Proclus or Proculus, the

t

i Diss. Cypr. iv. n. 12, 13.

u

k Sed qui dixerat, petite et accipite, petentibus dedit eum exitum, quem quisque desideraverat. Ap. Ruin. p. 100. n. xix. 1 Ibid. p. 93. n. i.

m Cum semper Deus operetur quæ repromisit, non credentibus in testimonium, credentibus in beneficium. Ibid.

n Et nos itaque, quod audivimus et contrectavimus, annuntiamus et vobis, fratres et filioli, ut et vos, qui interfuistis, rememoremini gloriæ Domini: et qui nunc cognoscitis per auditum, communionem habeatis cum sanctis martyribus, et per illos cum Domino Jesu Christo. Ibid.

• See ch. xxvii. num. i.

P See ch. xxxii. num. i.

4 Προκλῳ της κατα Φρυγας προΐςαμενῳ γνωμης. Η. Ε. 1. 2. cap. 25. p. 67. D. προς Προκλον της κατα Φρυγας αἱρέσεως υπερμαχεντα. id. 1. 6. cap. 20. r Adversum Proculum, Montani sectatorem.

De V. I. cap. 59.
Cod. 48. p. 37. in.
Op. Post.

w Accesserunt

Tertull. art. iv. p. 344, et note vii. alii hæretici, qui dicuntur secundum Phrygas. Sed horum non una doctrina est. Sunt enim qui Kata Proclum dicuntur, sunt qui secundum Æschinem pronuntiantur. ap. Tertull. de Præser. Hær. cap. 52. p. 254. C.

other after Æschines: and the former are reckoned to have been more orthodox than the latter in the doctrine of the Trinity.

It is certain therefore, that there was one Proculus, a Montanist, at the beginning of the third century, with whom Caius disputed. But whether he be the same whom Tertullian mentions and highly commends, together with several ancient ecclesiastical writers, admits a question. Valesiusy thinks they were two different persons; the former an Asiatic, the latter an African. But, by Cave, his arguments are reckoned of no great weight: and Tillemonta allows it to be very probable that one and the same person is intended, and thinks that he whom Tertullian speaks of may have been the means of drawing him into the Montanist scheme.

That Proculus is commended by Tertullian as an excellent example of chastity and christian eloquence. He wrote against the Valentinians; and for that reason is joined by him with Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and other the most eminent writers of the church. But the work itself is not in being; nor doth there remain any other account of it, that I remember.

I have all along supposed, that Proclus and Proculus are one name, only written differently; the former chiefly used by the Greeks, the other by the Latins; for, in speak ing of the same affair, Caius's antagonist is called Proclus by Eusebius and Photius, Proculus by Jerom.

c

About this time there were several of this name; ás Proculus Torpacion, a christian mentioned by Tertullian, as well known to the emperor Severus, of whom we may have occasion to say more at some other season. There was likewise a proconsul of Asia, named & Proclus

* See Caius, in Tillem. Mem. T. 3. P. i. p. 295.

y Ann. in Eus. 1. iv. cap. 20. p. 123.

b

Hist. Lit. p. 65.

a Tillem. as before. See him likewise in Tertullien, art. viii. p. 363, 364, et note xv. p. 552. quas tot jam viri sanctitate et præstantiâ insignes, nec solum nostri antecessores, sed ipsorum hæresiarcharum contemporales, instructissimis voluminibus et prodiderunt et retuderunt: ut Justinus philosophus et martyr, ut Miltiades-ut Irenæus-ut Proculus noster, virginis senectæ, et christianæ eloquentiæ dignitas; quos in omni opere fidei, quemadmodum in isto, optaverim assequi. Tert. adv. Valent. Ipse etiam Severus, pater Antonini, christianorum memor fuit. Nam et Proculum christianum, qui Torpacion cognominabatur, Euhodiæ procuratorem, qui eum per oleum aliquando curaverat, requisivit, et in palatio suo habuit usque ad mortem.

C

Επι Προκλο Κυντιλλιανο ανθυπατε της Ασίας. Chr. Pasch. p. 270. D. Conf. Act. Mart. Ruinart. p. 138, 149, 151, et Tillemont, note v. Sur S Pione, p. 450.

Quintilianus, who pronounced sentence against Pionius: but when that excellent martyr suffered, whether in the time of Marcus Antoninus, or of Decius, is a point much contested by learned men; though Eusebius has expressly mentioned his martyrdom in his Ecclesiastical History.

e

Beside these, there is one Proclus, a bishop, who joins with five other bishops in a letters to Paul of Samosata, supposed to have been written some time between 264 and 270. But the genuineness of that letter has been called in question.

I need not here take notice of any more of this name, who lived a good while before, or after this time: and therefore are in little danger of being confounded with our Proculus, or any of the others just mentioned.

6

IV. Geminus,' says Jerom, in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, presbyter of the church of Antioch, 'composed a few monuments of his wit, flourishing under the emperor Alexander, and Zebennus, bishop of his 'city, chiefly about the time that Heraclas was ordained bishop of the church of Alexandria.'

6

k

In his Chronicle, Eusebius, or rather Jerom, at the sixth of the emperor Alexander, of Christ 227, writes- Geminianus, presbyter of Antioch; and Hippolytus, and Beryllus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia, are esteemed fa• mous writers.'

Here is a small difference; for in the Catalogue Jerom says, Geminus or Geminianus flourished in the time of Zebennus; whereas in the Chronicle he puts him a year before Zebennus was bishop of Antioch, whose ordination is there placed at the seventh year of Alexander. Tillemont reconciles this difference thus: that Geminianus appeared in the world at the year 227, but was more especially famous about the year 231 or 232, when Heraclas was bishop of Alexandria. I think, that in the Chronicle, where Jerom was pleased to name several persons together, and put them at one and the same year, it is not to be expected

e Vid. Ruinart, ibid. p. 137, et seqq. Basnag. ann. 269. n. 21, et seqq. 250. n. 7, 8, et Saint Pione, p. 230, et note ii. p. 445. dans Tillemont, Mem. Ecc. T. iii. P. ii. Lib. 4. cap. 15. p. 135. C. D. 8 Ap. Labb. Concil. T. i. p. 844, &c. b Vid. Basnag. ann. 264. n. vi. vii. i Geminus, Antiochenæ ecclesiæ presbyter, pauca ingenii sui monumenta composuit, florens sub Alexandro principe, et episcopo urbis suæ Zebenno, eo vel maxime tempore, quo Heraclas Alexandrinæ ecclesiæ pontifex ordinatus est. De Vir. Ill. cap. 64.

Geminianus presbyter Antiochenus, et Hippolytus, et Beryllus, episcopus Arabiæ Bostrenus, clari scriptores habentur. Chron. p. 173.

See Saint Urbain. Tillem. Mem. Ecc. T. iii. P. ii. p. 46.

that the time should suit them all alike; and he was at liberty to mention their time more exactly in his Catalogue, if he thought fit, and had room. This writer is placed by Cave at the year 232.

I have formerly mentioned the succession of the bishops in the church of Antioch from the time of the apostles to Serapion, the eighth bishop of that church. Asclepiades the ninth succeeded him in 211. The tenth was n Philetus, ordained about 220. The eleventh Zebennus, or Zebinus, in 288. The twelfth P Babylas, who had the honour to die a martyr for Christ in the Decian persecution, in the year 249 or 250: the year of his ordination is not certain; it is supposed by some to have been 237 or 238. He was succeeded by Fabius, who died " in the beginning of the year 252. His successor was Demetrian; whom Paul of Samosata succeeded in 260.

6

6

r

t

X

W

V. Tryphon,' says Jerom in his Catalogue, 'a disciple of Origen, to whom several of his letters, still extant, were written, was very skilful in the scriptures; as his many pieces every where show, but especially that book which he published about the red heifer in Deuteronomy, [It should be Numbers; see chap, xix.] and the half 'pieces of the living creatures laid by Abraham's pigeon and turtle-dove in Genesis.' See Gen. xv. 9-11. This learned man is placed by Cave at the year 233. His works are not extant.

m See ch. xx. and ch. xxvi.

cap. 21. p. 223. C.

Conf. Eus. Chr. p. 172, 173.

¶ Vid. Basnag. ann. 239. num. iii.

in Tillem. Tom. iii. P. ii. p. 192.

n Eus. H. E. 1. vi.

• Id. ibid. cap. 23. p. 224. C. P Ibid. cap. 29.

See Saint Babylas,

s Vid. Basn. ib. n. i.

et Tillem. ib. p. 288. et note i. et. ii. sur Saint Babylas.

t

Παραπλησίως εν Αντιοχεια τε Βαβυλα μετα την ὁμολογιαν εν δεσμωτηριῳ μεταλλαξοντος, Φαβιος της αυτοθι προΐςαται εκκλησιας. Eus. l. vi. cap. 39. " Vid. Pagi, 252. num. vi. Tillemont, St. Denys d' Alex. sect. vii. Mem. T. iv. P. ii. p. 563, 564. ▾ Vid. Euseb. 1. vi. cap. 46. w Vid. Pagi, 261. n. vi.

p. 248. A. et lib. vii. cap. 14.

X

Tryphon Origenis auditor, ad quem nonnullæ ejus extant epistolæ, in scripturis eruditissimus fuit. Quod quidem et multa ejus sparsim ostendunt opuscula, sed præcipue liber, quem composuit de vaccâ rufâ in Deuteronomio, et de dichomematibus, quæ cum columbâ et turture Abraham ponuntur in Genesi. De V. I. cap. 57.