[N4]. This Pontifical, well known to Cuspinian, F. Petau, and other Chronologers, was published by Bucherius the Jesuit, in 1633. with the Paschal Cycle of Victorius. It is a Catalogue of the Bishops of Rome, from the Foundation of that See to the Time of Liberius, who was chosen in 352. As the Election of Liberius is marked, and not his Death, the Catalogue is supposed by some to have been written in his Time. His Election is marked thus; Liberius fuit temporibus Constancii ex die xi. Kalendas Junias in diem--a Consulibus Constantio V. & Constantio Cæsare--By Constantius Cæsar is meant Gallus, the Son of Julius Constantius, who, by his Father Constantius Chlorus, was Half-brother to Constantine the Great. Gallus was raised by the Emperor Constantius to the Dignity of Cæsar in the Year 351. on which Occasion he gave him his own Name[[1]], and the following Year took him for his Collegue in his Fifth Consulship, as appears from Idatius, from Prosper, and from the Alexandrian Chronicle. The above-mentioned Pontifical is very faulty in the Times preceding the Pontificate of Pontianus, who was chosen in 230. nay, if we believe Bucherius, Anicetus, Eleutherius, and Zephyrinus, are omitted in it. I said, If we believe Bucherius; for Bollandus, another Jesuit, who perused the same Manuscript, assures us, that he found there the Names of those three Bishops, which Bucherius assures us were not to be found there[[2]]. Which of the two Jesuits is the honester is hard to determine in any Case, but impossible in this, unless the original Manuscript should be produced, which both perused. F. Pagi, the Franciscan, seems to favour Bucherius; for he complains of Bollandus for interpolating the Manuscript, and not publishing it with all its Faults and Charms, as Bucherius had done. But then he does not tell us, that he had seen the original Manuscript. Bollandus on the other hand complains of Bucherius for undervaluing such an unvaluable Piece; and settles by it his whole Chronology of the Popes, pretending it to have been sent by Pope Damasus to St. Jerom[[3]]. But for this the only Ground he has are some Letters from Damasus to St. Jerom, and from Jerom to Damasus, which, by the best Judges, are all thought supposititious. But even allowing it to have been sent by Damasus to St. Jerom, that ought not to recommend it more to our Esteem than it did to his; and he seems to have paid very little Regard to it: for in his Book of Illustrious Men, which he wrote after the Death of Damasus, he places Clement after Anacletus, though that Pontifical puts Anacletus after Clement[[4]]. What I have hitherto said is to be understood with respect to the Times preceding the Pontificate of Pontianus; for, from his Time, the Pontifical of Bucherius is almost quite exact to the End, that is, to the Election of Liberius; and the more exact, the nearer it comes to his Time. I said almost, for it is not even thenceforth free from all Faults; but it has fewer than any other antient Record that has reached us; and it is on this Consideration that, from the Time of Pontianus, I have preferred it to all others. With respect to his Predecessors, I have adopted the Chronology of Eusebius, where it does not appear that he was mistaken; for that he was mistaken in some Points, is but too plain; and, for aught we know, he may have been so in many others. But as in those dark Times we have no authentic Records, no indisputable Authorities, to depend on, I thought it more adviseable to tread in the Footsteps of so famous and antient a Writer, than, by attempting to open a new Way, perplex and confound both myself and the Reader, as Pearson, Dodwell, and Pagi, have done. And it was not, I must own, without some Concern, that I found a Man of Dr. Pearson’s Learning reduced, by undervaluing the Authority of Eusebius, to take for his Guide a Writer of no Authority at all, viz. Eutychius of Alexandria, who flourished so late as the Tenth Century, and is only famous for his Blunders, even in what relates to his own Church. To the Pontifical were annexed, in the same antient Manuscript, several other small Pieces; viz. 1. A List of the Consuls from the Year 205. to 354. with the Epacts, Bissextile Years, and the Day of the Week, with which each Year began. There are some Mistakes in the Epacts, but the rest is done with great Exactness. 2. Another List of the Consuls and Governors of Rome, from the Year 254. to 354. 3. A short Necrology of the Bishops of Rome, in which are marked, according to the Order of the Months, the Day on which each of them died, and the Place where he was buried. It begins with Lucius, and ends with Julius. In this List, Sixtus II. and Marcellus are omitted; the latter probably by a Mistake of the Transcriber, confounding him with his Predecessor Marcellinus; and the former, perhaps, because he is set down in the Calendar of Martyrs annexed to the Necrology. These Pieces, as well as the Pontifical, all end at the Year 354. whence Cardinal Noris[[5]] and others are of Opinion, that they were written that Year.
[1]. Aurel. Vict. p. 518. Socr. l. 2. c. 28.
[2]. Bolland. Apr. t. 1. p. 22-24.
[3]. Bolland. ib. p. 3. n. 10.
[4]. Hier. de vir. illustr. c. 15.
[5]. Fast. consular. p. 23.
| Maximinus. | ANTERUS, Eighteenth Bishop of Rome. |
Year of Christ 235.