CHAPTER VI

§ 32. In the flight above mentioned, a certain man, who possessed much power beyond the river Tyne, named Gillo-Michael, or “Michael’s Boy,” though he deserved to have been called the “Devil’s Boy,” caused much injury to the fugitives, by impeding their journey, annoying and plundering them, and doing all the ill he could to them. But he did not do this with impunity; for when the Holy Body had been deposited in the island, one of the clerks, an aged man, was sent home by the Bishop, to see how things were going on in the church at Durham. He had already made some little way on his journey, when he stopped at the approach of night to rest himself in a field, and falling asleep, saw clearly a vision relating to the death of Gillo-Michael, which, as many persons have heard it from his own mouth, I shall so set down in order.

§ 33. “I arrived,” said he, “at Durham, as it seemed, and was standing in the church, when I saw two men of great authority standing at the altar, with their faces turned to the East. The one was a middle-aged man, clothed in episcopal robes, venerable in manner and severe in countenance, and it was clear that he was a Bishop of great reverence. The other, standing at his right hand, with a red-coloured mantle, and of rather a long face, with a beard still tender, and tall in stature, presented the appearance of a handsome young man. After a short interval they turned their eyes towards the altar, and up and down the church: whereupon the Bishop, mourning its desolation, exclaimed, ‘Woe to thee, Cospatrick! woe to thee, Cospatrick! who hast stripped my church of its possessions, and hast turned it into a desert!’ Now it was this Cospatrick in particular who had given the advice that they should desert the church, and it was he who had taken with him the greatest part of its ornaments. During this time I wished to approach them, but was not able, whereupon the young man beckoning with his finger, addressed me by my own name in a low voice, and asked me if I knew who that episcopal person was. When I replied, that I did not know, he answered, ‘That is your Master, St. Cuthbert.’ I immediately fell at his feet, and entreated him to aid his church and suffering followers. A short time after, they reverently bent their heads towards the altar, and walked away together with a slow and steady pace, until they came to the door, when the younger went out first and walked on a little, but the Bishop stopped at the door, and looking back on me, who was following at a distance, he called me, and said, ‘Do you know, Ernau, who that young man is?’—‘No, my Lord,’ said I, ‘I do not know.’—‘That,’ said he, ‘is St. Oswald.’ Then they went from thence a little further to the southern part of the city, where they stopped and called me. I accordingly went, and was told to look downwards. I did so, and beheld a valley of immense depth full of the souls of men, and among them was Gillo-Michael suffering most horrible torments. For he lay stretched out in a most horrid place, and a mower’s scythe was passing backwards and forwards through his body, which caused him dreadful pain. The wretched man cried aloud, uttering lamentation and woe without any intermission, and he was not allowed to rest a single hour: the same also was the case with the others. St. Cuthbert asked me if I recognized any of them. I answered that I recognized Gillo. ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘this is he; he is dead, and this pain and misery is his portion.’—‘My Lord,’ said I, ‘he is not dead; he was not long ago feasting safe and sound in his own house to a late hour, and a great banquet is awaiting him in such and such a place.’—‘I tell you he is dead,’ replied the Bishop, ‘for he and the others, whom you saw with him, are enduring these torments, because they broke my peace, and injured me in the persons of my followers.’

§ 34. “After this I awoke, and exhorted my companions to follow me quickly. When they wondered at my haste, I told them the above-named man was dead, as I had seen it in the vision. This they could not credit, and they ridiculed me for believing it. We travelled all the night, and in the morning turned aside a little from the way to hear mass at the nearest church. On being asked what news I brought with me, I told them of Gillo’s death. They said it was not true, for they had seen him in good health the day before; until at last some of his family came and said that their master had died in the night. Upon my diligently inquiring before all of them at what hour he died, I found he had died at the very time that St. Cuthbert pointed him out to me, suffering torture. When I told Cospatrick of his sufferings, and also what I had heard about himself, he trembled, and afterwards walked barefoot to the island, where the holy corpse had been, and asked pardon for his offences with prayers and oblations. But he never recovered his former credit, but was expelled from his attendance, and suffered, as long as he lived, much adversity and affliction.”

§ 35. When the blessed Saint’s body had been carried back, as we have related, to Durham, Egilwin, in the fifteenth year of his episcopacy, embarked on board a ship in order to leave England, having with him some of the treasures of the church. But the wind drove him back to Scotland, and he was afterwards taken at Elig by the king’s men and brought to Abendune, where he was kept by the king’s command in strict custody. Though he was frequently admonished to restore what he had taken from the church, he persisted with an oath that he had taken nothing. But one day, as he was washing his hands before he sat down to table, a bracelet fell from his arm down to his hand, in the sight of all, and thus convicted the Bishop of perjury. Wherefore he was, by the king’s command, cast into prison, where his anguish of mind would not allow him to eat, and he died of vexation and want of food.

§ 36. In the time of Bishop Walcher, the first of the clerical order who was Bishop of the church of Durham, except one who acted simoniacally, and who died a few months after, King William aforesaid, returning with his army from Scotland, entered Durham, and inquired diligently whether St. Cuthbert’s body lay therein. Every body assured him with an oath that it was there, but he would not believe them. He therefore determined to examine with his own eyes, having with him bishops and abbots who would do as he bade them: for he had determined, if the body should not be found there, to put to death all the oldest and most noble among them. All were therefore in alarm, and implored God’s mercy through the merits of St. Cuthbert, and on the festival of All Saints, when the aforesaid bishop celebrated the mass, the king, wishing to accomplish what he had determined on, was on a sudden seized with such a violent heat, that it was hardly possible for him to endure it. He therefore left the church in haste, and mounting his horse, urged him to speed until he reached the Tees. By which sign he acknowledged that God’s Holy Confessor, St. Cuthbert, reposed in that place.

§ 37. After some time, the king sent one Ranulf to collect the tribute from the people of the Saint, but they, unwilling to consent, implored as usual the aid of St. Cuthbert. Wherefore, as the night before he was going to exact payment was drawing to a close, the Holy Saint stood by him in a dream, and striking him with his pastoral staff which he held in his hand, rebuked him with pontifical authority and with a threatening look, saying that his presumption should not go unpunished, and unless he departed it should be still worse for him. When he awoke from his sleep, he felt such weakness in all his limbs, that he could not rise from his bed. Afterwards, in presence of all, he related what he had seen and heard, and begged them to intercede with the Holy Father in his behalf; he sent also a mantle to his tomb, and promised to be his faithful and devoted servant if the Saint would forgive him his offence, and remit its punishment. But as his infirmity continued at its height, he caused himself to be carried about through all the diocese in a litter, and showed to all the crime which he had committed, and the vengeance it had drawn down. As long as he remained at any place belonging to the bishoprick, he suffered from this malady, but, when he left it and returned home, he immediately recovered.

§ 38. After the horrible and well-known murder of Walcher, Bishop of Durham, the glorious King William sent an army to avenge such an atrocious deed; but all the ringleaders and murderers hid themselves in the woods and mountains. The common people, trusting in their innocence, (as it is written, “The just man hath the confidence of a lion,”) sought, as usual, the trusty patronage of the Holy Confessor, and carried their effects into the monastery. Meanwhile, one of those who were in the castle, by birth a Frenchman, seeing so many chests, with no one to guard them, (for the guards had other matters to attend to in the inner part of the monastery, and did not suppose that any one would steal in the temple of the Lord, whatever they might do elsewhere,) prompted by the spirit of the Evil One, fancied that he had an opportunity of plundering. So having fixed on a certain night when he might do this favourably, he asked the guards of the monastery to allow him to watch there, according to the custom of his country. They, suspecting no harm, listened to his pretended devotion, and granted him his request, as was their custom to do to all the pious. Leave being thus obtained, the hypocrite no sooner saw the guards asleep, than he put in execution the theft which he had meditated. A few days after, there was still no suspicion of what he had done, because no one suspects theft in a church, when, on a sudden, he was seized with a severe illness, and a burning fever as hot as fire. By the pain of which he was driven to madness, and leaped from his bed, and rushing with only his shirt on, into a field, mounted his horse, which was grazing there, and galloped to the monastery, where he threw himself before the crucifix, and exclaimed aloud, “Pity me, O Holy Cuthbert, pity and spare me, though I know you will not, because I stole such and such things,” (naming what he had taken,) “out of your monastery.” Thus he ran in a state of phrensy up and down the monastery, uttering these words, until he was brought back to the house, and bound with strong cords; for he tore in pieces, like a dog, every thing he could seize in his mouth, or in his hands. Three or four nights he spent in this state of madness and torment, until at last, by what means I know not, he escaped from his bonds, and rushed like mad into the monastery. He then fell down before the tomb of God’s beloved Confessor, and, whilst the choir was singing “Te Deum laudamus,”—for it was the hour of nightly thanksgiving,—he howled aloud, using, besides others, the expressions I have before mentioned, “Pity me, Holy Cuthbert!” to which he now added, “but I know you will not, because you smote me so heavily with your staff.” For he acknowledged that the Holy Confessor had come to him in a vision by night, and in anger inflicted three severe blows on him, the smart of which had penetrated to his heart, and tormented him to death. This, and much more, he called aloud, accompanied with gesticulations and clamour, until at length he became convulsed in all his body, and his wretched soul left its covering only to plunge into a greater and eternal torment.

§ 39. Now at the other place where the Saint’s body had been laid, miracles began to be performed, and those who were ill recovered their strength. For, when some time had elapsed, a Scottish woman, who had been weak in her body from her infancy, was brought to Durham, and every body sympathized with her under her affliction,—for her feet and legs were twisted behind her back, and she dragged them along after her, and so crawling on her hands moved herself, in a most wretched manner, from one place to another. Now it happened that she dragged herself to the above-named place, where the Holy Saint’s body had rested for a few days. Here she suddenly, by the action of her nerves, began to jump up, and again to fall to the ground, and to alarm all by her cries. After a while she stood upright on her feet, and gave thanks to her Saviour Christ, by the intercession of St. Cuthbert. When this became known, the whole city hastened to the church, the signals were given, and, whilst the clergy chaunted “Te Deum laudamus,” the people raised up their voices aloud in praise of God, and the great St. Cuthbert, his beloved servant. But the woman who had been healed travelled through many countries and people, and performed the whole journey on foot. She went to Rome, also, to offer up her prayers; and on her return crossed over into Ireland, proclaiming everywhere the glory of God displayed in the miracle which had been wrought upon her, and the exceeding sanctity of his beloved Confessor. We have often heard this story, just as we have related it, from certain old priests of religious and simple habits, who themselves had seen it.

II

A CHRONICLE

OF THE

SIX AGES OF THE WORLD

COMPILED BY

VENERABLE BEDE

OF the six ages of this world, and of the seventh and eighth when we shall rest in heaven, we have already spoken elsewhere, whilst describing the narrative of the first week in which the world was created, and now again, in treating of the life of a single man, which by the Greek philosophers is termed microcosmos, or the little world, we shall discuss the same subject rather more diffusely.

The first age of this world, from Adam to Noah, containing 1656 years according to the Hebrew verity, but, as the Septuagint has it, 2242, is divided, according to both these texts, into ten generations. This age was destroyed by the deluge, and in the same way are the first years of every man’s life buried in oblivion, for who is there that can remember his own infancy?

The second age, from Noah to Abraham, contains, according to the Hebrew text, ten generations, and 292 years; but the Septuagint reads 1072 years, and eleven generations. This may be considered as the childhood of God’s people, and in it therefore language was invented, i.e. the Hebrew language. For in childhood we first begin to speak, and this comes after infancy, which is so called from infantia, which means in Latin, not speaking.

The third age, from Abraham to David, contains, according to both texts, fourteen generations, 1442 years. This is, as it were, the adolescence of God’s people, from which period man begins to propagate his species; and for this reason Matthew the Evangelist has deduced his genealogy from Abraham, who became the Father of nations, when he changed his name.

The fourth generation, from David to the Babylonish captivity, has 473 years according to the Hebrew verity, but 485 according to the Septuagint translation. In both texts the generations are seventeen: but the Evangelist Matthew, for the sake of a certain mystery, gives the number fourteen. This may be called the youthful period of God’s people, wherein kings first began to reign, for man’s youth is best adapted for governing a kingdom.

The fifth age, or age of senility, from the Babylonish captivity to our Lord and Saviour’s coming in the flesh, is also divided into fourteen generations, and extends through 589 years, wherein the Hebrew people, old and enfeebled, is shaken by repeated misfortunes.

The sixth age is that in which we are now living; it has no certain division of times or generations, but like the imbecility of decrepit old age, will end in universal death.

Whosoever shall by a happy decease overcome these ages of calamity and toil, will enter upon the seventh age of one endless Sabbath, and may expect to see the eighth age of a happy resurrection, wherein they will reign for ever with the Lord.

THE FIRST AGE

In the first age, when the world was first created, and on the first day of this age, God made the light, and called it day. On the second, he poised the firmament of heaven in the midst of the waters; for the waters themselves and the land, together with the upper heaven, and the virtues which were there placed to celebrate their Maker, had already been created before the beginning of these six days. On the third day, the waters, which before covered every thing, were gathered into their place, and the dry land was made to appear. On the fourth day he placed the stars in the firmament of heaven; and this day, as far as we can conjecture by the Equinox, is now called the twenty-first of March. On the fifth day he made those animals which swim and fly. On the sixth day he made the land-animals and the man Adam, from whose side, whilst he slept, he produced Eve, the mother of all living; and that day, as seems probable to me, is now called the twenty-third of March. Wherefore it is justly thought, if no more probable conjecture can be made, that Christ was crucified on the same twenty-third of March, as has been written by the blessed Theophilus, in the disputation which he held about Easter, with many other bishops, not only of Palestine, but of other countries also. For thus it would seem fitting, that on the same day, not only of the week, but also of the month, the Second Adam, to redeem the human race, should die that he might rise again, and by the heavenly Sacraments which he produced out of his own side, sanctify to himself his bride, the church; for on this same day he had himself created the first Adam, the parent of the human race, and taking a rib out of his side formed a woman, to assist in propagating the human race.

A.M. 130 [230]

Adam was 130 years old when he begat Seth, after whose birth he lived 800 years. But the Septuagint translators make it 230 years before Seth’s birth, and 500 afterwards. Seth means resurrection, and typifies the rising of Christ from the dead, whose death at the hands of the Jews is pointed out by Abel; i.e. sorrow, who was slain by his brother Cain.

A.M. 235 [435]

Seth, at the age of 105 years, begat Enos, and lived afterwards 807 years. The Septuagint makes it 205 years before the birth of Enos, and 707 afterwards. Enos is interpreted man, of whom it is well said, “He began to call on the name of the Lord;” for it is the peculiar property of mankind to remember their own frailty and to invoke the aid of their Maker; at least of all such as live in the faith of Christ, and rejoice to become sons of the resurrection.

A.M. 325 [625]

Enos lived 90 years and begat Cainan, after which he lived 815. But the Septuagint makes it 190 years before the birth of Cainan, and 715 afterwards.

A.M. 395 [795]

Cainan was 70 years old when he begat Malaleel, after whose birth he lived 840 years. The Septuagint allows 170 years before Malaleel’s birth, and 740 afterwards.

A.M. 460 [960]

Malaleel lived 65 years and begat Jareth; after which he lived 830 years. The Septuagint gives 165 years before Jareth’s birth, and 730 afterwards.

A.M. 622 [1122]

Jareth lived 162 years and begat Enoch, after whose birth he lived 800 years. In this generation there is no discrepancy between the copies. We learn from the Apostle St. Jude that this Enoch composed some divine writings. But, as St. Augustine says: “It is not in vain that they are not found in that canon of the Holy Scriptures, which was preserved by the care of succeeding priests in the temple of the Hebrew people, but that they are considered for their antiquity of doubtful authenticity, nor can it be discovered, whether these are what he wrote or not.” Wherefore what now passes under his name, and contains those fables about the Giants, and their not having had men for their fathers, is considered by good judges to be spurious.

A.M. 687 [1287]

Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah, after which he lived 300 years, and walked with God. The Septuagint makes it 165 years before the birth of Methuselah, and 200 afterwards. And it happened most appropriately, that in the seventh generation, Enoch, which means dedication, was taken from the world by God; for the communion of the elect, after labouring in God’s cause during these six ages of the world, expect to obtain the glory of consecration in the seventh—their future sabbath.

But, because the reprobate are contented with their present happiness, Cain consecrates the city which he built, not in the seventh generation, but in his first-born son Enoch.

A.M. 874 [1454]

Methuselah was 187 years old when he begat Lamech, after whose birth he lived 782 years, i.e. till the time of the deluge. The Septuagint reckons 167 years before the birth of Lamech, and 802 afterwards. This number, as the reader will easily perceive, passes beyond the date of the deluge, by 20 years according to the Hebrew calculation, and 14 by their own system. On this famous question those learned fathers, Jerome and Augustine, have treated at length, the former in his book of Hebrew Questions; the latter in the fifteenth book of his work on “the City of God.”

A.M. 1056 [1642]

Lamech, at the age of 182 years, begat Noah, whose birth he outlived 595 years. The Septuagint calculates 188 years before Noah’s birth, and 565 years afterwards. This is the only generation about the length of which there is a difference; for the Hebrew text makes Lamech to have lived 24 years longer than the copies of the Septuagint translation.

A.M. 1656 [2242]

In the 600th year of Noah’s life came the deluge, in the second month, and the seventeenth day of the month. If any one should be disposed to taunt me with having raised new questions about the difference in the number of years between the Hebrew text and the Septuagint, let him read the treatises of the above-named fathers, and he will see that this difference was well known long ago. The origin of it has been inquired into by Augustine, who, among other remarks in the above-named thirteenth chapter, has the following:—“One may think it very likely that such a thing would happen when the work was first copied from the library of Ptolemy in one transcript, and originally copied from thence, so that it would spread more widely, and moreover there was a possibility of the writer’s making an error; and this it is not unreasonable to suppose may have happened in the life of Methuselah.” A little further on he adds: “I should not make the least hesitation, if I found a difference between the two copies, to give the preference to that language from which the other was only a translation, for both cannot be historically correct.”

THE SECOND AGE

In the second age of the world, and on the first day of it, which is the twenty-seventh of the second month, Noah went out of the ark, in which a few, i.e. eight souls, were saved by water. This is mentioned in his epistle by the holy apostle Peter, who has taken care to explain it most wonderfully, by subjoining these words, [1 Pet. 3:21,] “The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God.” He shows that baptism is typified in the water of the deluge, the church and her faithful children in the ark and the things which it contained, and by the number, eight souls, the mystery of our Lord’s resurrection in whose faith we are baptized.

A.M. 1658 [2244]

Shem lived 100 years and begat Arphaxad, two years after the deluge. Jerome writes that the Chaldæans derived their origin from Arphaxad. Shem lived after the birth of Arphaxad 500 years, i.e. till the 50th year after the birth of Jacob.

A.M. 1693 [2379]

Arphaxad lived 35 years and begat Salah. The Septuagint makes one generation more than the Hebrew verity; for they say that Arphaxad, at the age of 135, begat Cainan, who, when he was 130 years old, begat Salah. The Evangelist St. Luke seems to have followed their translation in this passage. But the Grecian chronologists, in correcting the series of generations by the authority of the Hebrew text, have taken away the generation of Cainan, but have not taken care to correct, on the same authority, the number of years in the generations which they had in common with them, and so have, on their own authority, assigned to this age a sum total, less by 130 years than the Seventy Translators; but longer by 650 years than the Hebrew verity: in fact 942 years. But Arphaxad lived 303 years after the birth of Salah, though the Septuagint says he lived 430 years after the birth of Cainan, and Cainan 338 years after the birth of Salah.

A.M. 1723 [2639]

Salah lived 30 years and begat Eber; after whose birth he lived 403 years. The Septuagint makes it 130 years before Eber’s birth, and 330 afterwards. From this Eber the Hebrews are descended, and they derive their name from him.

A.M. 1757 [2773]

Eber lived 34 years and begat Peleg; after whose birth he lived 430 years. The Septuagint reckons 134 years before the birth of Peleg, and 270 years afterwards. Peleg is interpreted division, and this name was given to him by his parents, because at the time of his birth the earth was divided by the confusion of tongues. Of this division Arnobius the Rhetorician makes mention in his Exposition of the 104th Psalm, as follows: “Shem, the first-born of Noah, had his portion from Persia and the Bactrians, as far as India and Rhinocoruræ.” This extent of country comprises twenty-seven barbarian languages, and among these are tribes of 406 countries, not of different languages, but, as I said, of different countries. For instance, whereas the Latin tongue is but one, under this one tongue there are several countries, the country of the Brutii, the Lucanians, the Apulians, the Calabrians, the Picentes, the Tuscans, so among these also, as one might say, it is the same.

But Ham, the second son of Noah, had his portion from Rhinocoruræ to Gadira, containing languages in the Punic dialect on the side of the Garamantes, in Latin on the north, in the barbarian dialect on the south and on the side of the Ethiopians and Egyptians, and twenty-two languages of the inland barbarians in various dialects, and in 394 countries.

But Japhet was the third, extending from Media to Gadira towards the north. Japhet has the river Tigris, dividing Media from Babylonia, in 200 countries, speaking various dialects, in twenty-three languages. All together, therefore, are seventy-two languages, and 1000 countries, placed in this order in a three-fold generation. Japhet has, as we have stated, the river Tigris, dividing Media and Babylonia; Shem has the Euphrates; Ham the Gihon, which is also called the Nile.

A.M. 1787 [2903]

Peleg, at the age of 30, begat Reu; after whose birth he lived 209 years. The Septuagint reckons 130 years before the birth of Reu, and 209 years afterwards. In these times temples were first constructed, and certain chieftains were adored as deities by their people.

A.M. 1819 [3035]

Reu was 32 years old when he begat Serug; he lived after this 207 years. The Septuagint reckons 132 years before Serug’s birth, and 207 years afterwards. The kingdom of the Scythians is said to have had its beginning: their first king was Tanaus.

A.M. 1849 [3165]

Serug was 30 years old when he begat Nahor; he lived after this 200 years. The Septuagint counts 130 years before Nahor’s birth and 200 afterwards. The kingdom of the Egyptians is said to have now had its beginning; and that their first king was Zoves.

A.M. 1878 [3244]

Nahor, at the age of 29 years, begat Terah; after which he lived 119 years. The Septuagint reckons 79 years before the birth of Terah, and 129 years afterwards. The kingdoms of the Assyrians and Sicyonians begin; the former under King Belus, the latter under Ægialeus.

A.M. 1948 [3314]

Terah, at the age of 70, begat Abraham; and lived 135 years afterwards.

So far extends the second age of the world. St. Augustine, in the tenth chapter of his 16th book on “the City of God,” concludes his review of it thus: “From the deluge, therefore, to Abraham is a period of 1072 years according to the common chronology, i.e. according to the Seventy Translators. It is said that, in the Hebrew copies, the number of years is much less; but for this no reason is given, or, at least, a very difficult reason.”

THE THIRD AGE

A.M. 2023 [3389]

The third age of the world begins with the birth of the Patriarch Abraham, who, when he was 75 years old, left the land of his fathers, and came, at the command of God, into the land of Canaan, receiving a promise that a Saviour should be born from his seed, in whom all nations should be blessed, and at the same time that himself should become a great nation. Of these promises one is a spiritual promise; the other is after the flesh. At this time Ninus and Semiramis reign in Assyria.

A.M. 2034 [3400]

Abraham was 86 years old when he begat Ismael, from whom the Ismaelites are descended; but Ismael begat twelve leaders, and lived 136 years.

A.M. 2048 [3414]

The same Abraham, at the age of 100 years, begat Isaac, the first and only one, who is said in the Old Testament to have been circumcised on the eighth day; a great privilege not granted but in a great mystery to the son of promise.

A.M. 2108 [3474]

Isaac was 60 years old when he begat Esau and Jacob, the Patriarchs of the Idumæan and Israelitish nations: after their birth he lived 120 years. At this time lived Inachus, the first king of Argos: he reigned 50 years, and had a daughter Io, worshipped by the Egyptians, who have changed her name to Isis.

A.M. 2238 [3604]

Jacob was 130 years old when he went down to Egypt, in number seventy souls. In his time Memphis in Egypt was built by Apes, king of the Argives. (Sparta.) Also Sparta was built by Spartus, son of Phoroneus, king of the Argives.

A.M. 2453 [3819]

The habitation of Israel in Egypt lasted 430 years, at the end of which, on the same day, all the army of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt, as written in the book of Exodus: the sum total of these years is reckoned by chronologists from the seventy-fifth year of the birth of Abraham, when he entered the land of promise. In this they follow the Septuagint version, which says, “The habitation of the sons of Israel in Egypt and in the land of Canaan, both themselves and their fathers, was 430 years.” And that this is the calculation which we must adopt, is shown by the Hebrew verity, which relates, that Kohath, son of Levi, who was born in Canaan, lived 133 years, and his son Amram, father of Moses, 137 years, and that Moses himself was 80 years old when they came out of Egypt; for the sum total of these numbers cannot be 430 years. The Apostle also assents to their interpretation, when he says, [Gal. 3:16, 17,] “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.”

A.M. 2493 [3859]

Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and governed them in the wilderness 40 years. In the first year he constructed a tabernacle for the Lord. In seven months the work was finished, and in the first month of the second year, on the fifth day of the month, was it set up. Up to this period, as Eusebius observes, the five books of Moses contain the history of 3730 years, according to the interpretation of the seventy. The number, however, as contained in the Hebrew verity, is thus stated by Josephus, in his first book against Appian the grammarian; “The books which we possess are not numerous, nor do they disagree among themselves, but only twenty-two, which contain a history of the world, and are justly believed to have been written by divine inspiration. Of these, five are the books of Moses, and extend to the end of his life, containing rules of life, and a pedigree of the human race, and embrace a series of little less than 3000 years.”

A.M. 2519 [3885]

Joshua governed Israel 26 years, according to Josephus: for the Holy Scripture does not state how many. For what reason Eusebius in his Chronicles has made it 27, we shall say by and by. In the first year of his rule, in the first month, on the tenth day of the month, the bed of the Jordan was made bare, and Joshua led the people through into the land of promise. In the selfsame year, as we read in the Chronicles of the aforesaid Eusebius, was the beginning of the fifty-first Jubilee among the Hebrews; that is, 2500 years were completed from the beginning of the world, 50 years being counted to each Jubilee. Nevertheless our researches have led to a different result; for it appears that there were 1656 years to the deluge, and thence to Abraham 292. Abraham was 75 years old when he received the promise of God. The years of the promise were 430. Moses governed Israel 40 years. Now surely the sum of all this is, not 2500 years, but 7 years less; namely 2493, as we have noted before.

A.M. 2559 [3925]

Othniel, of the tribe of Judah, the first Judge of Israel, by the appointment of the Lord, ruled them for 40 years, in the early part of which period the children of Israel served Cushan Risathaim 8 years.

A.M. 2639 [4005]

Aoth [Ehud], the son of Gera, a Benjamite, who could use either hand, judged Israel 80 years. In his early days Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, 18 years, till he delivered them by slaying Eglon. (Cyrene founded.) At this time the city of Cyrene was founded in Libya.

A.M. 2679 [4045]

Deborah, a prophetess of the tribe of Ephraim, with Barak of the tribe of Naphtalim, judged Israel 40 years. Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, oppressed Israel 20 years; but Sisera, the captain of his host, having been slain, he was at length brought low and destroyed. (Miletus founded.) At this period Miletus was founded.

A.M. 2719 [4085]

Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh, judged Israel 40 years. In his days Israel served the Midianites and Amalekites 7 years, but Gideon by his valour delivered them. (Tyre founded.) Tyre was founded 40 years before the temple of Jerusalem, according to Josephus.

A.M. 2722 [4088]

Abimelech, son of Gideon, reigned 3 years in Sichem. Hercules sacks Troy.

A.M. 2745 [4111]

Tola, son of Puah, an uncle of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, who dwelt in Shamir in Mount Ephraim, judged Israel 23 years. At this period was the war of the Lapithæ and the Centaurs, who, according to Palephatus, in his first book on the Marvellous, were famous Thessalian horsemen. (Priam, King, of Troy.) Priam succeeded Laomedon as king of Troy.

A.M. 2767 [4133]

Jair, of the tribe of Manasseh, judged Israel 22 years. Hercules instituted the Olympian games, from which time unto the first Olympiad, 430 years are computed.

A.M. 2773 [4139]

Jephthah, the Gileadite, judged Israel 6 years. The Philistines and Ammonites oppress Israel. The Ammonites are conquered by Jephthah, who, in the book of Judges, says that 300 years are computed from the time of Moses to himself.

A.M. 2780 [4146]

Ibzan, of Bethlehem, judged Israel 7 years. Agamemnon reigned in Mycenæ 35 years, and in the 15th year of his reign Troy is taken.

A.M. 2790.

Elon, of Zebulon, judged Israel 10 years. He, with his 10 sons, is not mentioned by the Seventy; for supplying which loss, Eusebius assigned more years to Joshua, the son of Nun, to Samuel, and to Saul, whose years the Scripture does not mention, than he found allotted to them in Josephus; by which means he obtained the sum of 380 years, which the Scripture gives as the interval between the departure from Egypt, and the building of the Temple.

A.M. 2798 [4154]

Abdon, of the tribe of Ephraim, judged Israel 8 years. In his third year Troy was taken, 375 years from the first year of Cecrops, who first reigned in Attica, and 835 years from the 43rd of the reign of Ninus, king of the Assyrians. After the death of Abdon, Israel served the Philistines 40 years.

A.M. 2818 [4174]

Samson, of the tribe of Dan, judged Israel 20 years. Thus far the book of Judges marks the times, comprising a period of 299 years, and 12 Judges. Three years after the taking of Troy, or according to some, 8 years, Æneas reigned 3 years over the Latins, who afterwards were called Romans. After him Ascanius reigned 38 years. Before Æneas, Janus, Saturn, Picus, Faunus, and Latinus, reigned in Italy about 150 years. Ascanius, son of Æneas, founded the city of Alba.

A.M. 2858 [4194]

Eli, the priest, judged Israel 40 years, according to the Hebrew text: the Septuagint translation says 20. The sons of Hector recovered Troy, having with the aid of Helenus expelled the posterity of Antenor. Sylvius, son of Æneas, the third king of the Latins, reigned 29 years: from his having been born after his father’s death, and having been educated in the country, he was surnamed Sylvius and Posthumus; the former of which was given to all the kings of Alba. Sicyon ceased to be governed by kings, after a succession for 962 years, from Ægialeus to Zeuxippus. It was afterwards governed by the priests of Carnus.

A.M. 2870 [4206]

Samuel judged Israel 12 years according to Josephus, for the Holy Scripture does not state how long. From this period the times of the Prophets begin. Æneas Sylvius, the fourth king of the Latins, reigned 31 years.

A.M. 2890 [4226]

Saul, the first king of the Hebrews, reigned 20 years. We have given the length of his reign from the Antiquities of Josephus, the canonical Scripture being silent on this head. Eurystheus, the first king of Lacedæmon, reigned 42 years. Alethis, the first king of Corinth, reigned 35 years.

THE FOURTH AGE

The fourth age of the world begins not only with the commencement of the Jewish kingdom, but also with a renewal of the promise of the kingdom of Christ which was made to the fathers; the Lord swearing to David, by his truth, that the fruit of his bowels should sit upon his throne.

A.M. 2930 [4266]

David, the first king of the tribe of Judah, reigned 40 years. Latinus Sylvius, the fifth king of the Latins, reigned 50 years. Ephesus was founded by Andronicus; Carthage by Chalcedon of Tyre according to some; according to others, by Dido, his daughter, in the 143rd year after the fall of Troy.

A.M. 2970 [4306]

Solomon, son of David, reigned 40 years. In the fourth year of his reign, in the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, 480 years from the departure of Israel from Egypt, as we learn from the book of Kings; and that this might be a type of the whole of time, inasmuch as the Church of Christ is built in this world and perfected in the next, he finished the work in seven years, and dedicated it in the seventh month of the eighth year. Alba Sylvius, son of Silvius Æneas, the sixth king of the Latins, reigned 39 years. The queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

A.M. 2987 [4323]

Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned 17 years. Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, separated ten tribes from the house of David and from the Lord; a type of heretics, who separate their followers from Christ and the Church. In the fifth year of his reign, Sesac, king of Egypt, came to Jerusalem and spoiled the temple. Ægyptus Silvius, seventh king of the Latins, son of Alba, the former king, reigned 24 years. Samos was founded, and Smyrna enlarged to the size of a city.

A.M. 2990 [4326]

Abijah, son of Rehoboam, reigned 3 years. He overcame Jeroboam, who fought against him, and slew 500,000 of his army, because he put his trust in the Lord.

A.M. 3031 [4367]

Asa, son of Abijah, reigned 41 years. Benhadad, king of Syria, whose chief city was Damascus, being persuaded by Asa to war against Israel, smote all the land of Naphtalim. Capys Silvius, eighth king of the Latins, son of Ægyptus, the former king, reigns 28 years. Asa destroys the idols, cleanses the temple, overthrows, with all his army, Zerah the Æthiopian, who came out against him. Ambri [Omri], king of Israel, buys the mountains of Samaria of Somer for two talents of silver, and builds Samaria. Ahiel of Bethel rebuilds Jericho.

A.M. 3056 [4392]

Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, reigned 25 years. Elijah the Tishbite restrained the rain for three years and a half on account of the sins of Ahab and of the people of Israel, and among his other acts anointed Elisha, the son of Sophal, of Abel-meholah, to be prophet in his own stead. Capetus Sylvius, ninth king of the Latins, son of Capys the former king, reigned 13 years. After him his son Tiberinus Sylvius reigned 8 years. From him the river Tyber received its name, which before was Albula. After him his son Agrippa Sylvius reigned 40 years. Jehoshaphat did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

A.M. 3064 [4400]

Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, reigned 8 years. Elijah is carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and Elisha left as his successor in the prophetic office, who, for his first miracle, heals the waters of Jericho. In the days of Jehoram, Edom revolted against Judah, and made itself a king. But Jehoram walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, whose daughter he had married.

A.M. 3065 [4401]

Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, reigned 1 year. Jonadab, the son of Rechab, is an illustrious man of this period. Ahaziah, with his son Joash, and grandson Amaziah, for their enormous wickedness, and because there was nothing good in either of them, the Evangelist Matthew excludes from the genealogy of our Lord and Saviour.

A.M. 3071 [4408]

Athaliah, mother of Ahaziah, reigned 5 years. When she saw that her son Ahaziah was slain by Jehu, king of Israel, she slew all the seed royal of the house of Jehoram, except only Joash, a son of Azariah, who was saved from the midst of the king’s sons by Josabeth, sister of Ahaziah, and wife of Jehoiada, the High Priest. The Septuagint states that Athaliah reigned 7 years.

A.M. 3111 [4448]

Joash, son of Ahaziah, reigned 40 years. His beginning was good, his end most evil. At the beginning he repaired the temple; in the end, among other enormities, he ordered Zacharias, son of Jehoiada, who formerly preserved him, and restored his kingdom, to be stoned between the temple and the altar. This man is for his worth styled by our Lord, in the Gospel, the son of Barachias, or the blessed Lord. Aremulus Sylvius, the twelfth king of the Latins, and son of Agrippa, the former king, reigned 19 years: he placed a garrison of Albans among the mountains where Rome now stands. His son was Julius, the great grandfather of Julius Proculus, who, migrating with Romulus to Rome, became the founder of the Julian family.

A.M. 3140 [4477]

Amaziah, son of Joash, reigned 29 years. Elisha the prophet died, and was buried in Samaria. Hazael, king of Syria, afflicted Israel. Aventinus Sylvius, thirteenth king of the Latins, and elder son of Aremulus, the former king, reigned 37 years, and died and was buried on that hill which is now part of the city, and to which he gave an imperishable name.

A.M. 3192 [4529]

Azariah, who is also called Uzziah, son of Amaziah, reigned 52 years. Thonosconcoleros, whose name in Greek is Sardanapalus, the thirty-sixth king of the Assyrians, built Tarsus and Anchiale; he was conquered in battle by Arbaces the Mede, and destroyed himself by fire. Up to this time history records that there were kings of Assyria for a period of 1197 years. The whole period from the first year of Ninus is computed to be 1240 years. Procas Sylvius, fourteenth king of the Latins, and son of Aventinus, the former king, reigned 23 years. After him, Amulius Sylvius, the fifteenth king, reigned 44 years. Arbaces the Mede destroyed the Assyrian empire, and transferred the dominion to the Medes, over whom he reigned 28 years as their first king. (Macedon.) The kingdom of Macedon commenced under Caranus its first king, who reigned 28 years. There is a failure of the kings of Lacedæmon: the line of the Lydian kings commenced.

A.M. 3208 [4545]

Jotham, son of Uzziah, reigned 16 years. The first Olympiad is established by the Elians, 405 years after the taking of Troy. Remus and Romulus are born from Mars and Ilia. Jotham, among his other good deeds, built a very lofty gate to the house of the Lord, the same which in the Acts of the Apostles is called Beautiful; forasmuch as all the gates of the temple were on the ground, except the Beautiful Gate, which was suspended on high, and was called by the Hebrews, Jotham’s Gate.

A.M. 3224 [4561]

Ahaz, son of Jotham, reigned 16 years. At his instigation, Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, slew Rezin, king of Syria, and carried away the inhabitants of Damascus to Cyrene. Rome was founded on the Palatine Hill, on the twentieth of April, by the twins Remus and Romulus, sons of Rhea Sylvia, daughter of Numitor, brother of King Amulius, and a vestal virgin, but deflowered. At the Consualian games the Sabine women were ravished, in the third year from the building of the city. Remus was slain with a shepherd’s crook by Fabius, the general of Romulus.

A.M. 3253 [4590]

Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, reigned 29 years. In the sixth year of his reign, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, took Samaria, and carried Israel captive into Assyria, in the 260th year of their kingdom, from Jeroboam their first king. On the death of Romulus, after a reign of 38 years, the Senators ruled in turn for five days each for a whole year. After them, Numa Pompilius reigned 41 years: he built the Capitol from its foundations.

A.M. 3308 [4645]

Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, reigned 55 years. For his sins he was carried in fetters to Babylon, but on his repentance and prayers he was restored to his kingdom.Tullus Hostilius, the third king of Rome, reigned 32 years. He was the first of the Roman kings that used the purple and the fasces: he enlarged the city by taking in Mount Cœlius.

A.M. 3310 [4647]

Amon, son of Manasseh, reigned 2 years according to the Hebrew text, 12 according to the Septuagint. The town of Histrus was founded in Pontus. Amon is slain by his servants.

A.M. 3341 [4689]

Josiah, son of Amon, reigned 31 years. After cleansing Judea and Jerusalem, and having repaired the temple, and removed the pollutions of idolatry, he celebrated the Passover to the Lord with all circumstances of solemnity, in the 28th year of his reign, and having engaged with Necho, king of Ægypt, he is slain in the field of Megiddo, which is now called Maximianopolis. Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome, son of Numa’s daughter, reigned 23 years. He added the hills Aventine and Janiculum to the city, and built Ostia on the sea, sixteen miles from the city. After him Tarquinius Priscus reigned 37 years. He built the Circus, increased the number of the Senate, instituted the Roman games, built the city walls, constructed sewers, and reared the Capitol. In the Hebrew text Josiah is said to have reigned 31 years; in the Septuagint, 32. Eusebius, too, has added another year between his reign and that of Jehoiachin, in respect of six months, during which Jehoahaz or Jehoiachin reigned. But the truth will appear from Jeremiah, who declares that he prophesied 23 years, from the thirteenth of Josiah to the fourteenth of Jehoiachin; and that Nebuchadnezzar began to reign in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; and that in the nineteenth year of his reign Jerusalem was destroyed.

A.M. 3352 [4700]

Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, reigned 11 years. After Josiah, his son Jehoahaz reigned 3 months: he was bound and carried into Egypt by Necho, who made Jehoiakim king. In the third year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, and carries away many captives, among whom were Daniel, Azariah, Hananias, and Mishael, and carries part of the vessels of the temple to Babylon. The Scripture dates the reign of Nebuchadnezzar from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, because from that time he began to reign not only over the Chaldees and Jews, but also over the Assyrians, Egyptians, Moabites, and innumerable other nations. Jehoiachin, who is also Jechonias, son of Jehoiakim, reigned 3 months and 10 days. When Jerusalem was surrounded by the Chaldees, he went forth to the king of Babylon with his mother, and was carried to Babylon with his people, in the eighth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.

A.M. 3363 [4711]

Zedekiah, who is also called Mathias, son of Josiah, reigned 11 years. In the eleventh year of his reign, but in the nineteenth of the king of Babylon, the king of Judah was carried captive to Babylon, and the temple of the Lord burned with fire, in the 430th year from its foundation. The Jews who were left fled into Egypt, which after five years being smitten by the Chaldees, they too went into Babylon.

THE FIFTH AGE

The fifth age of the world began with the captivity of the kingdom of Judah, which lasted 70 years, according to the prophet Jeremiah.

A.M. 3377 [4725]

In the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, which is the twenty-fifth of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, with whom Ezechiel was carried away captive, the same Ezechiel, being brought in the visions of God into the land of Israel, saw the restitution of the city, and of the temple and its ceremonies. Servius, the sixth king of Rome, reigned 33 years: he added three hills to the city,—the Quirinal, the Esquiline, and the Viminal. He dug trenches around the walls, and first instituted the census of the Roman people.

A.M. 3389 [4737]

In the twenty-sixth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, being the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachim, king of Judah, out of prison, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah speaks before of this time, when he writes: “Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And when 70 years are accomplished, I will visit the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the lands of the Chaldæans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” And in another place, when writing to the captivity which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon with King Jechoniah, he says: “After 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, and bring you back to this place, saith the Lord.” Again, it is thus recorded in the Chronicles, concerning the same period: “He that escaped from the sword was carried to Babylon, where he served the king and his sons until the time of the reign of the king of the Persians: to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths. For all the days that she lay desolate she kept sabbath, until 70 years were fulfilled. But in the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord, which He had spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of the Persians, etc.” From which it appears, that when the Chaldæans spoiled Judæa, they did not introduce other colonists, as the Assyrians did to Samaria, but left the land desolate till the Jews themselves returned thither after 70 years. With this agrees Josephus, who, in the tenth book of his Antiquities, writes that the temple, and Jerusalem, and all Judæa remained desolate 70 years; and again, in enumerating the kings of Babylon, (if, indeed, he really so wrote, and the manuscript be not corrupted,) he says, that nearly 100 years intervened between the overthrow of Jerusalem and that of the kingdom of the Chaldæans. For he writes that, after Nebuchadnezzar, who, according to Holy Scripture, lived 25 years after the overthrow of Jerusalem, his son Evilmerodach reigned 18 years: that next to him his son Neriglissar reigned 40 years, and was succeeded by his son Laborosoarchod, who reigned 9 months; on whose death the kingdom passed to Belshazzar, surnamed Nabonadius; that after he had reigned 18 years, Babylon was taken by Cyrus king of the Persians, and Darius king of the Medes. Darius, son of Astyages, who, with his kinsman Cyrus, destroyed the Babylonian empire, was 62 years old when Babylon was attacked: he was called by the Greeks by another name. He took with him the prophet Daniel into Media, where he was held in high honour. Of this Darius Daniel himself thus makes mention. “In the first year of Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who ruled over the kingdom of the Medes, I, Daniel, understood from books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that 70 years should be fulfilled in the desolation of Jerusalem.” Eusebius, in his book of Chronicles, reckons 30 years from the overthrow of Jerusalem to the beginning of the reign of Cyrus king of the Persians; but Julius Africanus reckons 70. Furthermore, Jerome, in his exposition of the prophet Daniel, says as follows: “The Hebrews have a tradition of this sort down to the seventieth year, in which Jeremiah had said that the captivity of the Jewish people should be loosed.” Zacharias, too, in the beginning of his book, speaks of the same. Now Belshazzar, thinking the promise of God vain and falsified, in his wantonness made a great feast; at which, in a manner, he derided the hope of the Jews, and profaned the vessels of God’s temple. But speedily vengeance overtook him.

A.M. 3423 [4771]

Cyrus, the first king of the Persians, reigned 30 years. That the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled, he, in the first year of his reign, loosed the captivity of the Hebrews, causing nearly 50,000 of them to return to Judæa, and restoring to them the gold and silver vessels of the temple of the Lord, to the number of 5400. These assembled at Jerusalem and built the altar in the seventh month; and from the first day of the same month they offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord. Moreover, in the second year, in the second month, they laid the foundations of the temple, in the seventy-second year after it had been burnt, according to Africanus; but in the thirty-second according to Eusebius’s Chronicles. But the work was interrupted until the second year of Darius, through the opposition of the Samaritans, who, in the reign of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, wrote an accusation against the Jews, whereupon Artaxerxes gave commandment that Jerusalem should not be built. Tarquin, the seventh king of Rome, reigned 35 years, and was driven from the kingdom for the sake of the younger Tarquin, his son, because he had ravished Lucretia.

A.M. 3431 [4779]

Cambyses, son of Cyrus, reigned 8 years. He conquered Egypt, and from abhorrence of its religion, pulled down its temples and interrupted its worship. He built Babylon in Egypt. They say that he was called Nebuchadnezzar the second by the Hebrews, to whose reign the history of Judith belongs.

A.M. 3432 [4780]

The Magi brethren reigned 7 months. The illustrious men of this period are Jeshua the high priest, and Zerubbabel the prince of the Jewish nation, the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, and Pythagoras the natural philosopher.

A.M. 3468 [4816]

Darius reigned 36 years. We find in the books of the Chronicles of Eusebius, that two Magi brethren reigned between Darius and Cambyses. But Jerome, in his exposition of Daniel, writes that Smerdos the Magian reigned after Cambyses, whose daughter Pantaphthe he married, and that he was slain by seven Magi, and that Darius succeeded to the empire, and married the same Pantaphthe, who bore him his son Xerxes.

In the second year of Darius, the seventieth year of the captivity of Jerusalem is completed, according to Eusebius, who cites the prophet Zechariah, where in the second year of Darius the angel says, O Lord of Hosts, how long will thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? Again, in the fourth year of King Darius, it is written in the same prophet, When ye fasted and mourned these seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me?

In the sixth year of Darius, the building of the temple is completed, on the third day of the month Adar, which is the forty-sixth year from that in which its foundations were laid under Cyrus. Hence the Jews say in the Gospel, Forty and six years was this temple in building. Now they began to build in the second year of Darius, in the sixth month, on the twenty-fourth day of the month; and, as has been said, in the sixth year, in the twelfth month, on the third day of the month, they completed it. From which it appears that the work had advanced in no small degree before that period, and that 70 years are to be computed from its destruction until full liberty was given for its restoration. The kings being expelled from the city, after it had been subject to their rule for 243 years, Rome with difficulty retained its dominion within a limit of 19 miles. The kings were succeeded first by consuls, beginning with Brutus, and then by tribunes of the people and dictators, and again by consuls, who governed the commonwealth for nearly 404 years, until Julius Cæsar, who first grasped the sole authority in the 183rd [184th] Olympiad.

A.M. 3488 [4836]

Xerxes, son of Darius, reigned 20 years. He recovers Egypt, which had revolted from Darius, and makes an expedition against Greece, in which his armament is said to have consisted of 700,000 fighting men from his own kingdom, and 300,000 from his allies, also of 1200 ships of war and 3000 transports. Nevertheless he was defeated, and returned a fugitive to his country. Herodotus the historian, and Zeuxis the painter, flourished at this period.

A.M. 3489 [4837]

Artabanus reigned 7 months. Socrates is born.

A.M. 3529 [4877]

Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus, or Longhanded, reigned 40 years. In the seventh year of his reign, on the first day of the first month, Esdras the priest, and a scribe of the law of God, went up from Babylon with letters from the king, and on the first day of the fifth month came to Jerusalem with 1700 men. Among his other noble acts, he separated the children of the captivity from their strange wives. In the twentieth year of the same reign, Nehemiah the cupbearer came from the city of Susa, and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem in fifty-two days, and governed the people for twelve years. Hitherto the divine writings afford a continued chronicle. But the subsequent history of the Jews is presented to the reader from the book of the Maccabees, and the writings of Josephus and Africanus, who wrote a universal history from this period down to the times of the Romans. Africanus, in the fifth book of his Chronicles, thus speaks of this period:—The work, therefore, remained unfinished until Nehemiah and the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, which was the 115th of the Persian monarchy, and the 185th of the captivity of Jerusalem. And now for the first time Artaxerxes commanded the walls of Jerusalem to be built. Nehemiah superintended the work, and the street was built, and the walls raised. And from that time, if you reckon, you will find seventy weeks of years unto Christ. Xerxes reigned 2 months; and after him Sogdianus reigned 7 months. Plato is born. Hippocrates is an illustrious physician.

A.M. 3548 [4896]

Darius, surnamed Nothus, reigned 19 years. Egypt revolted from the Persians. The Jews, after their return from captivity, were governed not by kings, but by the high priests, until Aristobulus, who with the priestly dignity began to usurp the regal title also.

A.M. 3588 [4936]

Artaxerxes, surnamed Mnemon, son of Darius and Parysatis, reigned 40 years. The history of Esther belongs to his reign, since he is called Ahasuerus by the Hebrews, and Artaxerxes by the Seventy. The Athenians increased their alphabet from sixteen to twenty-four letters. The Carthaginians carried on a famous war. The Senogalli, under Brennus, assaulted Rome, and, except the Capitol, burnt the whole, and sacked it for six months. The consuls gave place to military tribunes. Aristotle, at the age of eighteen, became a pupil of Plato.

A.M. 3614 [4962]

Artaxerxes, who is also called Ochus, reigned 26 years. He united Egypt to his empire, and drove Nectanebus, its king, into Ethiopia, with whom perished the Egyptian monarchy. Demosthenes the orator is universally celebrated. The Romans conquer the Gauls. Plato dies, and is succeeded in the Academy by Speusippus.

A.M. 3618 [4966]

Arses, son of Ochus, reigned 4 years. Jaddua, the Pontiff of the Jews, is an illustrious man: his brother Manasses built a temple on Mount Gerizim. Speusippus dies, and is succeeded by Xenocrates. In the fourth year of Ochus, Alexander, son of Philip and Olympias, begins to reign over the Macedonians, in the twentieth year of his age.

A.M. 3624 [4972]

Darius, son of Arsanes, reigned 6 years. Alexander, after fighting successfully against the Illyrians and Thracians, and overthrowing Thebes, turned his arms against Persia, and after defeating the king’s generals at the river Granicus, he takes Sardis, and afterwards Tyre. He then invades Judæa; where being favourably received, he offers sacrifices to God, and treats the Pontiff Jaddua with distinguished honours, and dismisses Andromachus the governor. In the seventh year of his reign he founded Alexandria in Egypt, and Darius being slain, he straightway possessed himself of Babylon, by which the Persian monarchy was ended, after a continuance of 231 years. At the same time the Latins were subdued by the Romans.

A.M. 3629 [4977]

Alexander reigned 5 years after the death of Darius, having reigned 7 years previously. He subdued the Hyrcani and Marsi, and on his return built Parætonium in Ammo. He penetrated India as far as the Ocean, in a series of victories rather than of battles, and having returned to Babylon, he died from drinking poison, in the thirty-second year of his age, and the twelfth of his reign. His empire was divided. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, obtained Egypt. Philip, who is also called Arideus, brother of Alexander, obtained Macedon. Syria, Babylon, and all the kingdoms of the East fell to Seleucus Nicanor. Antigonus reigned over Asia. These are designated in the book of Daniel, as the four horns of the he-goat which smote the ram.

A.M. 3669 [5017]

Ptolemy, son of Lagus, and first king of Egypt, reigned 40 years. Appius Claudius Cœcus was an illustrious Roman: he constructed the Claudian aqueduct and the Appian way. Ptolemy, by craft, reduced Jerusalem and Judea under his rule, and carried many of the people into Egypt. Onias, son of Jaddua, was an illustrious Jewish High Priest … In the thirteenth year of Ptolemy, Seleucus Nicanor begins to reign over Syria and Babylon, and the upper regions; from which time the Hebrew history of the Maccabees dates the dominion of the Greeks, and the Edesseni their chronicles. Seleucus founded the cities of Seleucia, Laodicea, Antioch, Apamia, Edessa, Berœa, and Pella. Simon, the Jewish Pontiff, and son of Onias, was distinguished for his devotion and piety. He left an infant son, Onias, and was succeeded in the priesthood by his brother Eleazar. Seleucus transfers many Jews to his new cities, and grants them equal civil privileges with the Greeks.

A.M. 3707 [5055]

Ptolemy Philadelphus reigned 38 years. Sostratus, of Pharos, built the tower of Pharos at Alexandria. Ptolemy granted the Jews who were in Egypt their liberty, and sent many presents to Eleazar the Pontiff, and vessels for the service of the temple, requesting that seventy interpreters might be sent to him to translate the Holy Scriptures into the Greek language. Aratus is a distinguished man. After Eleazar, his uncle, Manasses, succeeded to the Jewish priesthood. Such was the greatness of this Ptolemy Philadelphus, that he surpassed Ptolemy his father; for it is recorded that he had 200,000 footmen, 20,000 horse, 20,000 chariots, 500 elephants, which he was the first to bring from Ethiopia, and other such like things.

A.M. 3733 [5081]

Ptolemy Euergetes, brother of the former king, reigned 26 years. He was called Euergetes by the Egyptians, because, when he made himself master of Syria and Cilicia, and nearly all Asia, among the immense quantity of silver and precious vessels which he took, he also recovered their gods which Cambyses had carried away into Persia when he conquered Egypt. The Jewish Pontiff Onias, son of Simon the Just, is distinguished; and no less so is his son Simon, under whom Jesus the son of Syrach wrote the book of Wisdom, which is called Panareton, and in which he makes mention of Simon.

A.M. 3750 [5098]

Ptolemy Philopater, son of Euergetes, reigned 17 years. Antiochus, king of Syria, defeated Philopater, and annexed Judæa to his kingdom. Onias, son of Simon, is an illustrious Jewish Pontiff, to whom Arius, king of the Lacedæmonians, sent ambassadors.

A.M. 3774 [5122]

Ptolemy Epiphanes, son of Philopater, reigned 24 years. The second book of the Maccabees narrates the events of this period among the Jews. Onias the high priest, with a number of the Jews, fled into Egypt, where he was honourably received by Ptolemy, and obtained of him a grant of the region called Heliopolis, and permission to erect a temple like that of the Jews, which continued 250 years, unto the reign of Vespasian. During the pontificate therefore of Onias, innumerable swarms of Jews fled into Egypt, which was also at that time filled with multitudes of Cyrenians. The cause of Onias and the others fleeing into Egypt was this: Antiochus the Great and the generals of Ptolemy were contending together, and Judæa, which lay between both, was torn with opposite factions,—some favouring Antiochus, and others Ptolemy.

A.M. 3809 [5157]

Ptolemy Philometor reigned 35 years. Aristobulus, a Jew by nation, is a distinguished Peripatetic philosopher: he addressed to Ptolemy Philometor commentaries on the books of Moses. Antiochus Epiphanes, who reigned 11 years in Syria after Seleucus, with the surname of Philopater, in his hatred of the Jewish law, filled every place with idolatrous pollutions, and placed an image of Olympian Jupiter in the temple. Moreover, at the request of the Samaritans themselves, he built a temple to Jupiter Peregrinus, on the summit of Mount Gerizim in Samaria. But Mattathias, a priest, zealous of the laws of his fathers, took up arms against the generals of Antiochus, and on his death, his son Judas Maccabæus succeeded to the command, in the 146th year of the Grecian monarchy, in the twentieth of Ptolemy, and in the 155th Olympiad. He eventually drives the generals of Antiochus out of Judæa, and having released the temple from idols, restores to his people the laws of their fathers, after an interval of three years. Wherefore, after the flight of Onias into Egypt, of which we have spoken above, and the death of Alcimus, who unworthily sought to obtain the pontificate after he had driven out Onias, by the universal consent of the Jews, it devolved on Maccabæus, and after his death was still more ably administered by his brother Jonathan, for nineteen years.

A.M. 3838 [5186]

Ptolemy Euergetes reigned 29 years. Jonathan, the captain and high priest of the Jews, makes an alliance with the Romans and Spartans. On his being slain by Triphon, the priesthood devolves on his brother Simon, in the seventh year of Euergetes. After ably filling the office for eight years, he left it to his son John. He made war with the Hyrcani, whence he received the name of Hyrcanus; and on his application he was, by a decree of the Senate, enrolled among the friends of the Roman people. He besieged Samaria, and took it and levelled it to the ground; it was afterwards rebuilt by Herod, and named by him Sebaste, in compliment to Augustus.

A.M. 3855 [5203]

Ptolemy Physcon, who is also called Physcon, reigned 17 years. Cicero is born at Arpinum: his mother was named Helvia; his father was of equestrian rank, of the royal family of the Volsci. Hyrcanus, after holding the priesthood twenty-six years, is succeeded by Aristobulus for one year, who, equally king and high priest, first assumed the diadem among the Jews 484 years after the Babylonish captivity. After him reigned Jannæus, surnamed Alexander, for 27 years; he also held the priesthood, and ruled with excessive cruelty.

A.M. 3865 [5213]

Ptolemy, who is also named Alexander, reigned 10 years. In the seventh year of his reign, Philip and Gabinus were taken prisoners, and Syria fell under the Roman sway. Ptolemy Physcon was driven from Egypt by his mother Cleopatra, and retired into Cyprus.

A.M. 3873 [5221]

Ptolemy, who had been driven out by his mother, returned after an exile of eight years, and obtained the kingdom; the people having driven out Alexander, his predecessor, for slaying his mother. Sylla spoils the Athenians.

A.M. 3903 [5251]

Ptolemy Dionysius reigned 30 years. From the fifth year of his reign, Alexandra, after the death of the pontiff, Alexander, her husband, reigned 9 years in Judæa, during which period the Jews were a prey to anarchy and slaughter. After her death, her sons, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, by their contentions for the throne, afforded an opportunity to the Romans of invading Judæa. Accordingly, Pompey came to Jerusalem and took the city: he entered the temple and went even into the most holy place. Carrying away Aristobulus with him in fetters, he confirmed Hyrcanus in the pontificate, which he filled for 34 years, and made Antipater, son of Herod of Ascalon, governor of Palestine. Virgilius Maro is born in a village called Andes, not far from Mantua. In the consulship of Pompey and Crassus, Pompey takes Jerusalem, and makes the Jews tributary. Virgil studies at Cremona. Cæsar conquers the Germans and Gauls, and compels the Britons, who were previously unacquainted even with the name of the Romans, to give hostages and pay tribute.

A.M. 3905 [5253]

Cleopatra, sister of Ptolemy, reigned 22 years. For a civil war having broken out between Cæsar and Pompey, the latter being defeated fled to Alexandria, where he was slain by order of Ptolemy, from whose hands he looked for succour. And when Cæsar shortly after came to Alexandria, Ptolemy would have cut him off also; but perished himself in the war which he then kindled. Cæsar, having made himself master of Alexandria, gave the kingdom to Cleopatra, with whom he had had an adulterous intercourse. In the third year of her reign he obtained the sole dominion over the Romans, and from him the Roman princes were called Cæsars. Cleopatra made her entry into the city with royal state.

A.M. 3910 [5258]

Upwards of seventy Roman senators and knights having conspired against Cæsar on account of his overbearing conduct, he was stabbed to death in the senate-house four years and six months from the commencement of his reign. Cassius conquers Judæa and spoils the temple.

A.M. 3966 [5314]

Octavianus Cæsar Augustus, the second of the Roman princes, from whom all his successors assumed the title of Augustus, reigned 56 years and 6 months; 15 in Cleopatra’s lifetime, and 41 after her death. In the eleventh year of Augustus, on the Jewish priesthood becoming vacant, Herod, an entire stranger, whose father, Antipater, was a native of Ascalon, and his mother, Cypris, an Arabian, was made king by the Romans. He reigned 36 years; and that his ignoble and foreign extraction might not be known, he burned all the books in which the lineage of the Jewish nobility was registered in the temple; that, by the suppression of the proofs to the contrary, he might himself be deemed to have belonged to it. Moreover, that his own offspring might partake of the royal blood, he put away Dosis, a woman of Jerusalem, whom he had married when in a private station, together with his son Antipater, whom he had gotten by her, and took to wife Marianne, daughter of Alexander, and grand-daughter of Aristobulus, the brother of Hyrcanus, his predecessor. By her he had five sons, two of whom, Aristobulus and Alexander, he put to death in Samaria; and not long after their mother also, whom he passionately loved. Of these sons, Aristobulus had, by Berenice, a son, Herod, who, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was smitten by an Angel. A third war having arisen between Augustus and Antony, because the latter, who had Asia and the East, had put away the sister of Augustus and married Cleopatra, Antony and Cleopatra are overcome, and slay themselves. From which period some date the first year of the reign of Augustus. Up to this time, the descendants of Lagus had reigned in Egypt 295 years.

THE SIXTH AGE

A.M. 3952 [A.D. 1]

In the forty-second year of Augustus Cæsar, in the twenty-seventh from the death of Antony and Cleopatra, when Egypt became a Roman province, in the third year of the 193rd Olympiad, and in the 752nd from the building of the city, in the year when all commotions of nations were stilled throughout the whole world, and, by the appointment of God, Cæsar had established real and durable tranquillity, Jesus Christ consecrated by his advent the sixth age of the world. In the forty-seventh year of the reign of Augustus, Herod died a miserable and justly merited death, his body being dropsical and swarming with worms. His son Archelaus was appointed in his stead by Augustus, and reigned 9 years unto the end of Augustus’s reign. For then the Jews, no longer able to endure his ferocity, made accusation against him before Augustus; whereupon he was banished to Vienne, a town of Gaul; and with a view to lessen the greatness of the kingdom of Judæa, and to bridle the insolence of the people, his four brothers, Herod, Antipater, Lysias, and Philip, were made Tetrarchs: of whom Philip and Herod, who was before called Antipas, had been made Tetrarchs, while Archelaus was yet alive.

A.M. 3979 [38]

Tiberius, step-son of Augustus, being the son of his wife Livia by a former husband, reigned 23 years. In the twelfth year of his reign he appointed Pilate governor of Judæa. (Herod the Tetrarch.) Herod the Tetrarch, who ruled over the Jews 23 years, built Tiberias and Libias in honour of Tiberius and his mother Livia.

A.M. 3981 [30]

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Lord, after the baptism which John preached, announces to the world the kingdom of heaven, 4000 years from the beginning of the world, according to the Hebrews, as Eusebius says in his Chronicles; remarking that the sixteenth year of Tiberius was the commencement of the 81st, Jubilee, according to the Hebrews. But why our computation gives eleven years less, will be easily seen by those who have read the former parts of this book. But according to the same Chronicles, which Eusebius himself wrote from either computation as it seemed good to him, there are 5228 years.

A.M. 3984 [33]

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Lord by his passion redeemed the world, and the Apostles, previously to their preaching throughout the coasts of Judæa, ordain James, the brother of the Lord, to be bishop at Jerusalem; they moreover ordain seven deacons; and after the stoning of Stephen, the church is scattered throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria. Agrippa, surnamed Herod, son of Aristobulus, the son of Herod the king, having gone to Rome to accuse Herod the tetrarch, is cast into prison by Tiberius, where he made many friends, and, in particular, Caius, son of Germanicus.

A.M. 3993 [42]

Caius, surnamed Caligula, reigned 3 years, 10 months, and 8 days. He released his friend, Herod Agrippa, from prison, and made him king of Judæa, where he reigned 7 years, until the fourth year of Claudius, when, being smitten by an angel, he was succeeded in the kingdom by his son Agrippa, who reigned 25 years, until the destruction of the Jews. Herod the Tetrarch went to Rome, at the instigation of Herodias, to court the favour of Caius; but, being accused by Agrippa, he lost the tetrarchy, and, retiring to Spain with Herodias, there died of grief. Pilate, who had condemned Christ to death, was treated with such severity by Caius, that he perished by his own hand. Caius, numbering himself among the gods, profanes the holy places of the Jews with the pollutions of idols. Matthew wrote his gospel while preaching in Judæa.

A.M. 4007 [56]

Claudius reigned 14 years, 7 months, and 28 days. The apostle Peter founded the church of Antioch, and afterwards went to Rome, where he occupied the episcopal chair for twenty-five years, until the last year of Nero. Mark was sent by Peter into Egypt, where he preached the gospel which he had written at Rome. A severe famine, mentioned by Luke [Acts 11:28,] took place in the fourth year of Claudius. In the same year Claudius went to Britain, whither no one had ventured before or since the days of Julius Cæsar; and in a very few days he reduced the greater part of the island without any fighting or bloodshed. He also added the Orkneys to the Roman empire, and returned to Rome after an absence of six months. In the 9th year of his reign he banished the restless and seditious Jews from Rome, as Luke [Acts 18:2,] narrates. In the following year Rome was distressed by a most grievous famine.

A.M. 4021 [70]

Nero reigned 14 [13] years, 7 months, and 27 days. In the second year of his reign Festus succeeded Felix as procurator of Judæa: he sent Paul bound to Rome, where he remained two years at large, though a prisoner; after which he is sent to preach, the wickedness of Nero not having yet reached to such a head as history records of him. James, the brother of our Lord, after ruling the church of Jerusalem thirty years, is, in the seventh year of Nero, stoned to death by the Jews, who wreaked on him the vengeance which Paul had escaped. Festus is succeeded in office by Albinus, Albinus by Florus. Impatient of the luxury and avarice of the latter, the Jews rebelled against the Romans, whereupon Vespasian was sent against them with an army, and took most of the cities of Judæa. Above all his other enormities, Nero first persecutes the Christians; of whom the most illustrious victims were Peter and Paul, the former of whom was crucified, the latter slain with the sword. He attempted no military expedition whatever, and well nigh lost Britain; for under him two of the noblest towns there were taken and destroyed.

A.M. 4031 [80]

Vespasian reigned 9 years, 11 months, and 22 days. He was saluted Emperor by the army in Judæa, and committing the war to his son Titus, he sets out for Rome by way of Alexandria. In the second year Titus overthrew the kingdom of Judæa, and levelled the temple to the ground in the eighteen hundred and ninth year from the building of it. This war was brought to a close in four years,—two while Nero lived, and two after his death. Vespasian, among his other exploits, while yet a subject, was sent by Claudius into Germany, and thence to Britain: he engaged thirty-two times with an enemy: he added to the Roman empire two very potent nations, twenty cities, and the Isle of Wight, nigh to Britain. A colossal figure a hundred and seven feet high is erected to him.

A.M. 4033 [82]

Titus reigned 2 years and 2 months. He was endued with such excellent virtues of every kind, that he was called the idol and delight of mankind. He builds an Amphitheatre at Rome, and slays 5000 wild beasts at its dedication.

A.M. 4049 [98]

Domitian, younger brother of Titus, reigned 15 years and 5 months. He was the next after Nero who persecuted the Christians; under him the Apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, and Flavia Domitilla, grand-daughter of the sister of Flavius Clemens the consul, was exiled to the island of Pontia for her testimony to the faith. It is also said that he plunged John himself into a vessel of boiling oil, but that John escaped unhurt, inasmuch as he was ever exempt from the evils of mortality.

A.M. 4050 [99]

Nerva reigned 1 year, 4 months, and 8 days. By his first edict he recalled all the exiles; and by this general indulgence the Apostle John, too, was liberated, and returned to Ephesus. And because he found the faith of the church much shaken by heretics during his absence, he presently confirmed it by setting forth in his gospel the eternity of the Word of God.

A.M. 4069 [118]

Trajan reigned 19 years, 6 months, and 15 days. The Apostle John tranquilly expired at Ephesus in the sixty-eighth year after the Lord’s passion, and in the ninety-eighth of his age. In the persecution stirred up by Trajan against the Christians, Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, is crucified, being the same with Simon the son of Cleophas; and Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, is brought to Rome, and exposed to wild beasts. Alexander, too, bishop of Rome, gains the martyr’s crown, and is buried seven miles from the city in the Numentan road, where he was beheaded. Pliny the younger, of Novocomum, is esteemed an excellent orator and historian: many of his learned works remain. The Pantheon at Rome, which Domitian had built, was burnt by lightning: the name was given it as marking its designation to be the abode of all the gods. The Jews are deservedly slaughtered for exciting sedition in various parts of the world. Trajan widely extended the boundaries of the Roman empire, which, since the days of Augustus, had been rather maintained than amplified.

A.M. 4090 [139]

Adrian, the son of a female cousin of Trajan, reigned 21 years. Having become acquainted with some books on the Christian religion, through Quadrata, a disciple of the Apostles, and Aristides an Athenian, a man full of faith and wisdom, and Serenus Granius, one of his lieutenants, he enjoined by a letter that the Christians should not be condemned unless something criminal were laid to their charge. By a further slaughter he humbled the Jews, who a second time rebelled; and even forbad them to enter Jerusalem, which he restored to its best condition, and rebuilt its walls, and ordered it to be called Ælia, from his own name. He was learned both in the Greek and Latin tongue, and built a library at Athens of a wonderful structure. Marcus is made first Gentile bishop of Jerusalem; fifteen Jewish bishops having presided nearly 107 years from the Lord’s passion.

A.M. 4112 [161]

Antoninus, surnamed the Pious, with his sons Aurelius and Lucius, reigned 22 years and 3 months. Justin the philosopher delivered to him a book on Christianity, and brought him to regard the Christians with favour. This man, not long after, shed his blood for Christ, under Pius, bishop of Rome, when Crescens the Cynic stirred up a persecution. A pastor named Hermes wrote a book, which gives the command of an angel that Easter should be kept on the Lord’s day. Polycarp, by coming to Rome, delivered from the infection of heresy many who had been latterly corrupted by the doctrines of Valentine and Cerdon.

A.M. 4131 [180]

Marcus Antoninus Verus, with his brother Lucius Aurelius Commodus, reigned 18 years and 1 month. These first exercised a joint administration, there having been up to this period only one Augustus at a time: they made war against the Parthians with wonderful valour and success. Polycarp and Pionius bore their martyrdom during a persecution in Asia; in Gaul, too, very many nobly shed their blood for Christ. Not long after, in punishment of wickedness, a pestilence devastated many provinces far and wide, and especially Italy and Rome. His brother Commodus having died, Antoninus associated his son Commodus with him in the empire. Melito Asianus, bishop of Sardis, delivered to the Emperor Antoninus an Apology for the Christians. Lucius, a king of Britain, in a letter to Eleutherus, bishop of Rome, requests to be made a Christian. Apollinaris Asianus, and Dionysius are esteemed illustrious bishops; the former of Hierapolis, the latter of Corinth.

A.M. 4144 [193]

Lucius Antoninus Commodus reigned 13 years after his father’s death. He warred with success against the Germans; but, a slave to luxury and obscenity, he manifested nothing of his father’s virtue and piety. Irenæus, bishop of Lyons, is a man worthy of note. Commodus ordered the head of the Colossus to be taken off, and an image of his own to be placed on it.

A.M. 4145 [194]

Ælius Pertinax reigned 6 months. He is slain in the palace by the wickedness of Julian, a lawyer, whom, in the seventh month of his reign, Severus conquered in war, and slew at the Milvian Bridge. Victor, the thirteenth bishop of Rome, ordained, by letters widely circulated, that Easter should be kept on the Lord’s day which occurs between the fifteenth and twenty-first day of the moon of the first month, in conformity with his predecessor Eleutherus: in favour of whose decrees, Theophilus, bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine, together with other bishops present at the same Council, wrote a synodical and very useful letter against such as celebrate Easter on the 14th day of the moon, like the Jews.

A.M. 4163 [212]

Severus Pertinax reigned 18 years. Clement, a presbyter of the church at Alexandria, and Pantænus, a Stoic philosopher, are deemed most eloquent and subtle in disputation respecting our religion. Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, Theophylus of Cæsarea, Polycarp and Bachylus, bishops of the churches of Asia, deserve particular notice. During a persecution of the Christians, very many in various provinces attained the crown of martyrdom, among whom was Leonides, father of Origen. Clodius Albinus, who had proclaimed himself Cæsar in Gaul, having been slain at Lyons by Severus, the latter transfers the war to Britain, and there, in order to make the provinces which he had recovered more secure from the invasions of the barbarians, he dug a great trench, and constructed a stout rampart which he strengthened with many towers, from sea to sea, a length of 132 miles, and died at York. Perpetua and Felicitas were sentenced to the wild beasts for Christ’s sake, in the camp at Carthage in Africa, on the nones of March.

A.M. 4170 [219]

Antoninus, surnamed Caracalla, son of Severus, reigned 7 years. Alexander, a bishop of Cappadocia, having, from his love to the holy places, come to Jerusalem, while Narcissus, bishop of that city, and a very old man, was yet living, is himself there ordained bishop, the Lord having vouchsafed a revelation directing it to be done. Tertullian of Africa, the son of a centurion, is extolled in all the churches.

A.M. 4171 [220]

Macrinus reigned 1 year. Abgarus, a holy man, reigned at Edessa, according to Africanus. Macrinus, with his son Diadumenus, by whose aid he usurped the purple, is slain in a tumult of the soldiers at Archilaides.

A.M. 4175 [224]

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus reigned 4 years. The city of Nicopolis, which before was called Emmaus, was built in Palestine; Julius Africanus, a writer of the times, engaging for it the zeal of the proconsul. This is that Emmaus, which the Lord vouchsafed to make holy by entering it after his resurrection, as St. Luke narrates. Hippolytus, a bishop, and author of many small works, brought down his chronicles to this period: he also found out the sedecennal cycle of Easter, acting on which hint, Eusebius brought out the decennovenal cycle.

A.M. 4188 [237]

Aurelius Alexander reigned 13 years. He was singularly dutiful to his mother Mammea, and was on that account beloved by all. Urbanus, bishop of Rome, persuaded many of the nobles to faith in Christ, and to bear their testimony. Origen of Alexandria is famous throughout the whole world; Mammea, the mother of Alexander, was anxious to hear him, and sent for him to Antioch, with signal marks of honour.

A.M. 4191 [240]

Maximin reigned 3 years. He persecutes the priests and clergy, that is, the teachers of the churches, principally on account of Christiana, the wife of Alexander, his predecessor, and the family of Mammea, his mother, and especially on account of Origen, the presbyter. Pontian and Anther, bishops of Rome, were crowned with martyrdom, and buried in the tomb of Callistus.

A.M. 4197 [246]

Gordian reigned 6 years. Julius Africanus is famous among ecclesiastical writers; he alleges in his Chronicles, that he hastened to Alexandria, emulous of the fame of Heraclas, a man deeply versed in divine and philosophic studies, and Grecian learning of every kind. Origen, at Cæsarea in Palestine, imbued with divine philosophy the youthful brothers, Theodorus, surnamed Gregory, and Athenodorus, who afterwards were most Worthy bishops of Pontus.

A.M. 4204 [253]

Philip, with his son of the same name, reigned 7 years. He was the first Christian emperor; and with the third year of his reign was completed the 1000th from the building of Rome: thus this natal year, the most august of all that preceded it, was celebrated by a Christian emperor with most costly games and spectacles. Origen made a reply in eight books to a certain Celsus, an Epicurean philosopher, who had written against us: this man, I may say in a few words, was so diligent a writer, that Jerome in one place has recorded, that he had himself read 6000 of his books.

A.M. 4205 [254]

Decius reigned 1 year and 3 months. Having slain the Philips, father and son, through his hatred of them he excites a persecution of the Christians, in which Fabian was crowned with martyrdom at Rome, and left his bishopric to Cornelius, who also attained the martyr’s crown. Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, and Babylas are slain, the one at Cesarea in Palestine, the other at Antioch. But this persecution, according to Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, had not its origin from the emperor’s command; but for a whole year, says he, a ministering dæmon, whom our state alleged to be from the gods, anticipated the principal edicts, and stirred up the superstitious vulgar against us.

A.M. 4207 [256]

Gallus, with his son Volusianus, reigned 2 years and 4 months. Dionysius, prelate of Alexandria, thus speaks of his reign:—“Now Gallus could neither discern nor avoid the misfortune of Decius, but stumbled over the same stone of offence; for when his reign was prosperous in the beginning, and a clear course was open before him, he persecuted the holy men who prayed to God, the Most High, for the peace of his kingdom, and with them departed both his prosperity and quiet. Origen died, and was buried in the city of Tyre, not having fully completed his seventieth year. Cornelius, bishop of Rome, at the request of a certain matron named Lucina, disinterred in the night-time the bodies of the apostles Paul and Peter, who had been buried, the one in the Via Hostiensis, where he was beheaded, and the other near the spot where he was crucified, and placed them among the bodies of the holy bishops in the temple of Apollo, in the Golden Mount, on the Vatican Hill of Nero’s Palace, on the 3rd of the calends of July.

A.M. 4222 [271]

Valerian, with his son Gallienus, reigned 15 years. Having stirred up a persecution of the Christians, he was immediately thereupon made captive by Sapor, king of the Persians, and there, with his eyes put out, he spent his days in miserable slavery. Whereupon Gallienus, frightened at so manifest a judgment of God, granted us rest; but notwithstanding, either as a punishment for his own lust, or his father’s impiety, he sustained many calamities from the barbarians who assailed the Roman dominions. In this persecution, Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, whose very learned works still remain, obtains the martyr’s crown: his deacon Pontius, who was with him in exile unto the day of his death, has left an admirable account of his life and suffering. Theodorus, surnamed Gregory, bishop of Neocæsarea in Pontus, of whom we have spoken before, is renowned for his wonderful heavenly endowments; as an instance of which, he by his prayers removed a mountain to make room for the site of a church. Stephen and Xistus, bishops of Rome, suffered martyrdom.

A.M. 4224 [273]

Claudius reigned 1 year and 9 months: he conquers the Goths, who had now wasted Illyricum and Macedonia for fifteen years; in memory of which a shield of gold was hung up in the senate house, and his image of gold was placed in the Capitol. Malchion, a very eloquent presbyter of the church of Antioch, and who had taught rhetoric in the same city, disputed with Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who taught that Christ was a mere man partaking of our common nature only: the Dialogue, which was taken down by notaries, remains to this day.

A.M. 4229 [278]

Aurelian reigned 5 years and 6 months. Having stirred up a persecution against us, a thunderbolt fell at his feet, to the great terror of the bystanders, and not long after he was slain by the soldiers, in the midst of a march between Constantinople and Heraclea, near the ruins of an old town named Cœnofrurium Eutychian, bishop of Rome, obtained the martyr’s crown, and was buried in the cemetery of Callistus, having himself buried 313 martyrs with his own hands.

A.M. 4230 [279]

Tacitus reigned 6 months. Having been slain at Pontus, Florian possessed the empire 88 days, and was then slain at Tharsus. Anatolius, by birth an Alexandrian, bishop of Laodicea in Syria, and versed in philosophic learning, is celebrated in the writings of many; a proof of the vastness of his intellect may be found in his book on Easter, and his ten books on arithmetic.

A.M. 4236 [285]

Probus reigned 6 years and 4 months. He conquered the barbarians in many severe engagements, and wholly freed the Gallic provinces which they had for a long while occupied. The foolish heresy of the Manichæans sprung up to the general misfortune of mankind in the second year of his reign, being, as we read in the Chronicles of Eusebius, the 325th year according to the reckoning of Antioch, the 402nd according to that of Tyre, the 324th according to that of Laodicea, the 588th according to that of Edessa, the 380th according to that of Ascalon, the beginning of the 86th Jubilee, or the year 4250, according to that of the Hebrews. Archelaus, a bishop of Mesopotamia, wrote in the Syriac tongue a book containing his disputation with a Manichæan who came out of Persia, though some think it a translation by some Greeks.

A.M. 4238 [287]

Carus, with his sons Carinus and Numerianus, reigned 2 years. Gaius, bishop of the Roman church, who suffered martyrdom under Dioclesian, is eminent at this period. Pierius, a presbyter of Alexandria, most ably taught the people under Theon the bishop, and such was the elegance that he exhibited both in his sermons and in the many tracts of his which remain to this day, that he was styled the younger Origen; he was a man who denied himself to a wonderful degree, and of his own accord embraced poverty; after the persecution he passed the rest of his life at Rome.

A.M. 4258 [307]

Dioclesian, with Herculius Maximian, reigned 20 years. Carausius assumed the purple, and seized on Britain. Narseus, king of the Persians, made war in the East. The Quinquegentiani ravaged Africa. Achilleus seized on Egypt. On which account Constantius and Galerius Maximian were associated in the administration, with the title of Cæsars. Constantius married Theodora, daughter of the wife of Herculius, and by her he had six children, brothers of Constantine; Galerius married Valeria daughter of Dioclesian. After ten years the Britannic provinces were recovered to the Empire by the præfect Asclepiodotus. In the nineteenth year of his reign, Dioclesian in the East, and Maximian Herculius in the West, directed that the churches should be wasted, and the Christians persecuted and put to death. But in the second year of the persecution, Dioclesian laid aside the purple at Nicomedia, and Maximian at Milan; the persecution, however, once begun, did not cease to rage till the seventh year of Constantine. Constantius, a man of remarkable mildness and humanity, died in Britain at York, in the sixteenth year of his administration. Such was the flagrant cruelty and continuance of this persecution, that in one month 17,000 suffered martyrdom for Christ; passing the limits of the ocean, it extended itself to Britain, and there condemned to a happy death Albanus, Aaron, and Julius, with many others, both men and women. By it suffered the presbyter Pamphilus, friend of Eusebius bishop of Cæsarea, whose life he wrote in three books.

A.M. 4259 [308]

In the third year of the persecution, the same in which Constantius died, Maximin and Severus were made Cæsars by Galerius Maximian. To his persecutions of the Christians, Maximin added his rapes and other flagitious acts. In that storm, Peter of Alexandria suffered with many other bishops of Egypt; Lucian too, a presbyter of Antioch, a man remarkable for his morality, his moderation, and learning. Timothy also suffered at Rome on the 10th of the calends of July.

A.M. 4290 [339]

Constantine, son of Constantius by Helena his concubine, was made emperor in Britain, and reigned 30 years and 10 months. From the fourth year of the persecution, Maxentius, son of Herculius Maximian, is styled Augustus. Licinius, husband of Constantia, Constantine’s sister, is made emperor at Carnuntum. From a persecutor Constantine becomes a Christian. In the council at Nice, the Catholic faith is set forth, during the consulate of Paulinus and Julian, being the 636th year after Alexander, on the 19th day of the month Desius, according to the Greeks, which is the 13th day of the calends of July. Constantine built at Rome, where he was baptized, a church to the blessed John the Baptist, which was named the church of Constantine; also a church to the blessed Peter in the temple of Apollo, and another to the blessed Paul, and encased each with Cyprian brass to the height of five feet; he built another in the Sessorian Palace, which he named the Jerusalem church, and where he put a fragment of our Lord’s cross; also a church to the holy martyr Agnes, at the request of his daughter, and a baptistery in the same place, where his sister Constantia was baptized together with his daughter Augusta; also a church to the blessed martyr Laurence in the Via Tiburtina in the field of Verus; also one in the Via Lavicana, between two laurels, to the blessed martyrs Peter and Marcellinus; and a mausoleum, in which he laid his mother in a purple sarcophagus; also a church to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and John the Baptist, in the town of Hostia, nigh to the port of the city of Rome; also a church to St. John the Baptist in the town of Alba; also a church in the city of Neapolis; he also rebuilt the town of Drepana in Bithynia, in honour of the martyr Lucian, who was buried there, and called it Helenopolis after his mother’s name; he also built a city in Thrace, which he called after his own name, purposing that it should be the seat of the Roman empire, and the capital of the whole East; he also ordered the pagan temples to be closed, which was effected without any bloodshed.

A.M. 4314 [363]

Constantius, with his brothers Constantine and Constans, reigned 24 years, 5 months, and 13 days. James is made bishop of Nisibis, and in answer to his prayers the city was often saved in time of danger. The Arian impiety, strengthened by the countenance of Constantius, inflicted first on Athanasius, and then on all the bishops who were not of its own party, exile, imprisonment, and afflictions of every kind. Maximin of Treves is an illustrious bishop; he nobly sheltered Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, when he was in danger from the vindictiveness of Constantius. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, who was banished into Phrygia by the Arians, presented a book in his defence to Constantine at Constantinople, and received permission to return to Gaul.

A.M. 4316 [365]

Julian reigned 2 years and 8 months. He returned to the worship of idols, and persecuted the Christians. The pagans at Sebaste, a city of Palestine, attack the sepulchre of John the Baptist, and scatter his bones; they again collect and burn them, and scatter them again; but by the providence of God there were there some monks from Jerusalem, who, mixing with those who were collecting them, brought as many as they could carry away to their father Philip; who straightway, not thinking himself worthy to be the guardian of so great a treasure, sent them by Julian, his deacon, to Athanasius the archbishop, who received them in the presence of a few witnesses, and shut them up in a hole of the wall of a chapel, declaring by the spirit of prophecy that they should be a blessing to a succeeding generation; which came to pass in the reign of Theodosius by the instrumentality of Theophilus bishop of that city, who, when the temple of Serapis was destroyed, consecrated on the same spot a church to St. John.

A.M. 4317 [366]

At a synod held at Antioch by Miletius and his clergy, the terms homousion and anomoion were rejected, and homoiousion was adopted as a mean between the two, agreeably to the Macedonian tenets. Profiting by the error of his predecessor Constantius, Jovian courts Athanasius with flattering letters, and receives from him a formulary of faith and a scheme of church government.

A.M. 4328 [377]

Valentinian, with his brother Valens, reigned 10 years. Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, composed a number of books on our religion, but subsequently erred from the faith, and was the author of a heresy which has been named after him. Damasus, bishop of Rome, built a church to St. Laurence near the theatre, and another over against the catacombs, where lay the holy bodies of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in which place he adorned with verses the Platonia, where the holy bodies lay. Valens, having been baptized by Eudoxius, an Arian bishop, persecutes our people. Gratian, son of Valentinian, was made emperor at Amiens, in the third year of his age. The martyrdom of the apostles is celebrated at Constantinople. On Ambrose being made bishop of Milan, on the death of Auxentius, at an advanced age, the whole of Italy returns to the true faith. Bishop Hilary dies at Poictiers.

A.M. 4332 [381]

Valens, with Gratian and Valentinian, sons of his brother Valentinian, reigned 4 years. Valens ordered that the monks should serve in the armies, and that such as refused should be beaten to death. The nation of the Huns, for ages shut up by inaccessible mountains, moved by a sudden fury, burst forth upon the Goths, and drove them in consternation from their ancient seats. The fugitives, crossing the Danube, were received by Valens without being required to lay down their arms; they were afterwards driven to rebellion by the avarice of Maximus, the Roman general, and having beaten the army of Valens, they poured themselves over Thrace, desolating all with fire, sword, and rapine.

A.M. 4338 [387]

Gratian, with his brother Valentinian, reigned 6 years. Theodosius, made emperor by Gratian, overthrew in many and important battles the Scythian nations, the Alans, Huns and Goths; the Arians, rather than conform to him, vacated after forty years the churches of which they had violently possessed themselves. A synod of 150 fathers is held in the city of Augusta under Damasus, bishop of Rome, against the Macedonian heresy. Theodosius associates his son Arcadius with him in the empire. From the second year of Gratian, in his fifth consulate with Theodosius, Theophilus composes his calculation of Easter. Maximus, in other respects a brave and upright man, and worthy of the purple if he had not attained it by the violation of his oath, having been made emperor against his will by the army in Britain, passed over into Gaul, and there slew the Emperor Gratian, circumvented by treachery at Lyons, and drove his brother Valentinian out of Italy; who nevertheless, together with his mother Justina, justly merited exile, because he was both himself infected with the Arian heresy, and had perfidiously and vexatiously besieged Ambrose, the most distinguished bulwark of the Catholic faith, and did not cease from his wicked attempt till the remains of the blessed martyrs Gervase and Protasius were exposed to view, fresh and uncorrupted, God himself having revealed the spot where they lay.

A.M. 4349 [398]

Theodosius, who had now ruled the East for 6 years in the lifetime of Gratian, reigned 11 years more after his death. Himself and Valentinian, whom he had hospitably entertained on his expulsion from Italy, slay the tyrant Maximus at the third milestone from Aquileia. As Maximus had spoiled Britain of almost all its armed youth and military power, which had followed him into Gaul, and never more returned home, the barbarous transmarine nations, the Scots from the West, and the Picts from the North, seeing the island denuded of its strength, invade and miserably ravage it for many years. Jerome, the expositor of sacred history, writes a book on the worthies of the church, and brought it down to the fourteenth year of the reign of Theodosius.

A.M. 4362 [411]

Arcadius, son of Theodosius, reigned with his brother Honorius 13 years. The bodies of the Holy Prophets Abacuc and Micha are brought to light by divine revelation. The Goths invade Italy, the Vandals and Alans Gaul. Innocent, bishop of Rome, consecrated the church of the most blessed martyrs Gervase and Protasius, built by the testamentary bounty of a devout and noble lady named Vestina. Pelagius, a Briton, impugns the grace of God.

A.M. 4377 [426]

Honorius, with Theodosius the younger, his brother’s son, reigned 15 years. Alaric, king of the Goths, attacked Rome, and burned part of it with fire, on the ninth of the calends of September, in the 1164th year from the building of it; the sack of the city lasted six days, at the end of which he quitted it. Lucian, a presbyter, to whom in the seventh year of Honorius, God revealed the spot where were interred the remains of the first blessed martyr Stephen, and of Gamaliel and Nicodemus, of whom we read in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, wrote an account of that revelation in Greek, and sent it to the head of each of the churches; the presbyter Avitus, a Spaniard by birth, turned it into Latin, and by the presbyter Orosius transmitted it to the western churches; (Orosius.) this same Orosius was sent to the Holy Land by Augustine, to Jerome, to enquire of his soul’s welfare, and there he obtained the relics of the blessed Stephen and brought them home with him to the west.

The Britons, dreadfully infested by the Scots and Picts, send to Rome and submissively ask for aid against the enemy: forthwith a legion is sent to them which slew a great multitude of the barbarians, and drove the rest from the British territories; before taking their departure, the Romans persuaded their allies, with a view to repel the enemy, to build a wall from sea to sea across the island; which they accordingly did, but with so little skill, constructing it rather with turf than stone, that it availed them nothing. For no sooner had the Romans departed than their old foes returned in their vessels, and slaughtered, trod down, and devoured like standing corn whatever withstood them. At their entreaties the Romans again fly to their aid, and routing the enemy drive them beyond the seas; and then in conjunction with the Britons they build a wall from sea to sea, between two towns, which had been built there from fear of the enemy, and they construct it not as before of earth and sand, but of solid stone. They also build towers at intervals along the southern coast, because an enemy was to be apprehended from that quarter also; after which bidding their allies farewell, they depart to return no more.

Boniface, bishop of Rome, made an Oratory in the cemetery of St. Felicitas, and beautified her sepulchre and that of St. Silvanus. Jerome, the presbyter, died in the twelfth year of Honorius, on the day before the calends of October, in the 91st year of his age.

A.M. 4403 [452]

Theodosius the younger, son of Arcadius, reigned 56 years. Valentinian the younger, son of Constantius, is made emperor at Ravenna. Placidia, his mother, is styled Augusta. A fierce people, composed of Vandals, Alans, and Goths, passing from Spain into Africa, desolated the whole province with fire, sword, and rapine, and moreover carried with them the infection of Arian impiety; but Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo, whose instruction had been a blessing to all the churches, did not witness the ruin of his city, for he departed to the Lord in the third month of the siege, on the 5th of the calends of September, in the 76th year of his age, having been either presbyter or bishop nearly 40 years. The Vandals at the same time took Carthage, and devastated Sicily: this capture is mentioned by Paschasinus, prelate of Lilybæum, in a letter which he wrote to Pope Leo on the manner of keeping Easter. The Scots having been converted to the faith, Pope Clementine sent to them Palladius, and ordained him as their bishop, in the 8th year of Theodosius. The Roman army having finally retired from Britain, the Picts and Scots return and occupy the whole of the northern part of the island as far as the wall, and straightway having slain, taken, or routed its defenders, and broken through the wall itself, the cruel ravagers roam at large within it. The Britons address a most sorrowful letter to Ætius the Roman general, now for the third time consul in the 23rd year of Theodosius, but fail of obtaining help. Meanwhile the fugitives were visited with famine, on which some submitted to the enemy, others maintained a desperate resistance from their forests and mountain fortresses, and made great slaughter of the enemy. The Scots return home, to come back again ere long: the Picts keep possession of the north part of the island, and thenceforth permanently occupy it. The aforesaid famine was followed by an abundance of the fruits of the earth, abundance produced luxury and supineness; a dreadful pestilence ensued, and ere long a still more terrible plague in the arrival of new enemies, the Angles. The Britons in council with Vortigern their king, had unanimously invited them over to defend their country, but soon found them to be their most strenuous assailants. Xistus, bishop of Rome, consecrated the church of St. Mary the mother of the Lord, which was formerly called the Temple of Liberty. Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius, returning from Jerusalem, brought with her the relics of the most blessed Stephen the first martyr, which were with all veneration deposited in the church of St. Laurence. Blaedla and Attila, brothers, and kings of many nations, devastated Illyricum and Thrace.

A.M. 4410 [459]

Martian and Valentinian reigned 7 years. A body of Angles or Saxons came to Britain in their ships of war; and on the news of their successful expedition being brought home, a stronger band is sent forth, who, joining the former, first attacked and drove out the enemy, and then turning their arms against their allies, reduced by fire and sword nearly all the island, from east to west, on the pretext that the Britons did not give them sufficient pay for their services. John the Baptist reveals to two monks, who had come from the west to Jerusalem to worship, the spot where his head lay, near the dwelling of Herod, formerly the king of the country; they brought it to Emisa, a city of Phœnicia, where due honor was paid it. The Pelagian heresy disturbs the faith of the Britons, who implore help from the Gallic bishops, from whom they receive, as defenders of the faith, Germanus, bishop of the church of Auxerre, and Lupus, of Troyes, equally prelates of apostolical faith. These prelates confirm the Britons in the faith, by the Word of Truth and by miraculous signs; moreover, by miraculous power, they stay the war which at that time the Picts and Scots, with united forces, made against the Britons; for Germanus himself being appointed leader, turns the fierce enemy to flight, not by the sound of the trumpets, but by the whole army, with uplifted voice, shouting “Alleluia!” Germanus, after this, went to Ravenna, where he was received with the utmost honour by Valentinian and Placidia, and then departed to Christ: his body was buried at Auxerre, with every circumstance of honour, and with the accompaniment of miracles. The Patrician Ætius, the great stay of the western empire, and formerly the terror of King Attila, is put to death by Valentinian; with him fell the western empire, never more to rise.

A.M. 4427 [476]

Leo reigned 17 years. He addressed circular letters to all the orthodox bishops throughout the whole world, respecting the Decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, and requiring their opinion touching the said Decrees; their replies agreed so wonderfully as to the true incarnation of Christ, that they all might have been written at the same time, from the mouth of one person dictating. Theodoretus, bishop of a city named Cyrus, from its founder, the king of Persia, writes on the true incarnation of our Saviour and Lord, against Eutyches and Dioscorus, bishops of Alexandria, who deny that Christ took human flesh; he also wrote an Ecclesiastical History, continuing the account of Eusebius down to his own time, that is, to the reign of Leo, in which he died. Victorius, at the command of Pope Hilary, framed a calendar of Easter for 532 years.

A.M. 4444 [493].

Zeno reigned 17 years. The body of the Apostle Barnabas, and the Gospel of Matthew in his handwriting, are brought to light by revelation from himself. Odoacer, king of the Goths, made himself master of Rome, which from that time continued to be governed for a season by kings of that people. On the death of Theodoric, son of Triarius, Theodoric surnamed Valamer, obtained the sovereignty of the Goths, and after depopulating Macedonia and Thessaly, and burning many towns nigh to the metropolis itself, he next invaded and made himself master of Italy. Honoric, king of the Vandals in Africa, an Arian, banished more than 334 catholic bishops, and closed their churches; he moreover inflicted tortures of all kinds on their people, even amputatiug the hands, aud cutting out the tongues of multitudes, but after all he could not silence the confession of the Catholic faith. The Britons under Ambrose Aurelian, a man of great modesty, and perhaps the only one of Roman descent that had survived the Saxon slaughter, his noble parents having fallen victims to the same, ventured forth against the Saxons to gain a victory over that hitherto victorious people; from that time they fought with varied success, until by the arrival of more formidable numbers, the entire island was after a long season subdued.

A.M. 4472 [521]

Anastasius reigned 28 years. Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, closed the Catholic churches, and banished 220 bishops into Sicily. Pope Symmachus, besides numerous churches which he either built or restored, founded an hospital in honor of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Laurence, and for a whole year supplied the exiled bishops with money and clothing in Africa or Sardinia. Anastasius, for favoring the heresy of Eutyches, and persecuting the Catholics, was struck with lightning and died.

A.M. 4480 [529]

Justin the elder reigned 8 years. John, pontiff of the Roman church, visited Constantinople, and in the midst of great multitudes who came out to meet him, restored sight to a blind beggar at the Golden gate; and on his return to Ravenna, was together with his companions thrown into fetters by Theodoric, who was jealous at the honorable entertainment he had met with from Justin the defender of the Catholic religion; Theodoric had in the same year, in the consulship of the younger Probus, put to death Symmachus the patrician at Ravenna, and in the year following, himself died suddenly, leaving his grandson Athalaric, to succeed him on the throne. Hilderic, king of the Vandals, gave orders for the return of the bishops from exile, and for the restoration of the churches, after 74 years of heretical profanation. The abbot Benedict was conspicuous for his glorious miracles; of which the blessed Pope Gregory has given an account in his book of Dialogues.

A.M. 4518 [567]

Justinian, son of Justin’s sister, reigned 38 years. Belisarius the Patrician was sent by Justin into Africa, where he overthrew the Vandals. Carthage too was recovered in the 96th year from its loss, the Vandals utterly routed, and their king Gelismer made prisoner, and sent to Constantinople. The body of St. Antony the monk is discovered by revelation, and brought to Alexandria, where it is interred in the church of Saint John the Baptist. Dionysius gives the cycles of Easter, beginning at the 532nd year from our Lord’s incarnation, which is the 248th year from Diocletian, from the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, being the year in which the Code of Justinian was given to the world. Victor, also, bishop of Capua, in a book which he wrote on Easter, confutes the errors of Victorius.

A.M. 5529 [578]

Justin the younger, reigned 11 years. Narsis the Patrician, conquered and slew Totila king of the Goths, in Italy; but by the envy of the Romans, for whom he had done such great things against the Goths, being accused before Justin and his wife Sophia, of having enslaved Italy, he retired to Naples in Campania, and invited the Lombards to come and make themselves masters of Italy. John, pontiff of the Roman church, built and consecrated the church of the Apostles Philip and James, which his predecessor Pelagius had begun.

A.M. 4536 [585]

Tiberius Constantine reigned 7 years. Gregory who was at first the nuncio at Constantinople, and afterwards bishop of Rome, wrote an exposition of the book of Job, and in the presence of Tiberius, convicted Entychius, bishop of Constantinople, of doctrinal error in the matter of the resurrection; insomuch that the emperor condemned to the flames that prelate’s book, as destructive of the articles of our faith. For this Eutychius taught, that in the glorious resurrection, our bodies will be impalpable, and more subtle than air; which is opposed to what our Lord said, “Touch and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” The Lombards, under their king Alboin, invaded Italy, spreading famine and death through the whole land, and besieged and sacked the city of Rome.

A.M. 4557 [606]

Maurice reigned 21 years. Hirminigild, son of Levigild, king of the Goths, for his indomitable constancy in adhering to the catholic faith, was stripped of the ensigns of dignity by his father, who was an Arian, and thrown into prison laden with fetters, where at length, on the holy night of our Lord’s resurrection, he was put to death by a blow on the head with an axe, and thus entered, a king and martyr, the heavenly in exchange for an earthly kingdom. His brother Richard, who succeeded his father in the kingdom, and ruled over the whole of the Gothic nations, embraced the catholic faith at the instance of Leander, bishop of Seville, who had been the instructor of his brother. Gregory, pontiff of Rome, and a distinguished doctor of the church, in the 13th year of the reign of Maurice, and in the 13th indiction, summoned a council of 24 bishops to the shrine of the blessed apostle Peter, and made decrees concerning essential church matters. He also sent to Britain Augustine, Mellitus, and John, and with them many other godly monks, who converted the English to Christ; moreover Ethelbert, on being converted to the grace of Christ, with the kingdom of Kent which he governed, and the adjacent provinces, rewarded his instructor Augustine and the other holy prelates, with an episcopal seat. The nations of the Angles to the north of the Humber, under Ella and Ethelfrid, had not yet heard the word of life. In the 19th year of Maurice, in the 4th indiction, Gregory, in a letter to Augustine, directed that the bishops of London and York should be metropolitans, on receiving a pall from the Apostolic See.

A.M. 4565 [614]

Phocas reigned 8 years. In the 2nd year of his reign, in the 8th indiction, Pope Gregory departed to the Lord. At the request of Pope Boniface, Phocas, decreed that the see of the Roman and apostolic church should be the head of all the churches; whereas the church of Constantinople claimed this dignity. At the request of another Pope Boniface, he ordered that the old temple, called the Pantheon, should be purged of its idolatrous pollutions, and be converted into a church of the ever blessed Virgin and all the martyrs; so that in the spot where all the devils were worshipped, the memory of all the saints was thenceforth venerated. The Persians were most formidable enemies of the empire, and took away many Roman provinces, and among the rest Jerusalem itself; moreover they destroyed the churches and profaned whatever was holy, spoiling every place of its ornaments, not sparing even the Cross of our Lord, which they took away.

A.M. 4591 [640]

Heraclius reigned 26 years. Anastasius, a Persian monk, nobly suffered martyrdom for Christ: born in Persia he was early instructed in the learning of the Magi by his father, but having heard the name of Christ from some Christian captives, he presently turned to him with all his heart, and leaving Persia he came to Chalcedon, and Hierapolis, and thence to Jerusalem, seeking Christ; then, after receiving the grace of baptism, he entered the monastery of the abbot Anastasius, four miles from the city, in which order he lived 7 years; after which having gone to Cæsarea in Palestine to preach, he was there taken by the Persians, and after undergoing, from the sentence of Marzabanes, a long imprisonment diversified by frequent scourgings, he was at length sent to Persia to their king Chosroes, by whose command he was scourged three times, and finally, after being suspended by one hand for three hours, was beheaded with 70 others, and thus completed his martyrdom. A certain man possessed with a devil was afterwards cured by putting on his vest. Meanwhile the emperor Heraclius, coming over with an army, overthrew the Persians, and brought back the Christian captives rejoicing. The relics of this blessed martyr Anastasius were taken first to his own monastery and thence to Rome, where they are venerated in the monastery of St. Paul the Apostle of Aquæ Salviæ. In the sixteenth year of the reign of Heraclius, in the fifteenth indiction, Edwin I., a most excellent king of a nation of the Angles in Britain to the north of the Humber at the preaching of Bishop Paulinus, who was sent from Canterbury by the venerable Archbishop Justus, received the word of salvation with his people, in the eleventh year of his reign, and 180 years, more or less, after the coming of the Angles into Britain, and rewarded Paulinus with the episcopal see of York. This king, as he grew in the faith of the heavenly kingdom, so also did he increase in earthly power and dominion, insomuch that he reigned over the whole British realm, both over his own nation and the Britons likewise, which none of the Angles did before him. Pope Honorius, in an epistle, refuted the quartadeciman error respecting the observance of Easter, which had at that time sprung up among the Scots; moreover, John, who was elected to the pontificate after Severinus the successor of Honorius, wrote to them on the same subject, and on the Pelagian heresy which had begun to revive among them.

A.M. 4593 [642]

Heraclonas with his mother Martina reigned two years. Cyrus, Bishop of Alexandria, and Sergius and Pyrrhus, Patriarchs of Constantinople, revived the heresy of the Acephali, and taught that there was in Christ one operation and one will of the godhead and manhood. Pyrrhus afterwards, under Pope Theodore, came from Africa to Rome, and with a feigned repentance, as it afterwards appeared, presented that pontiff, in the presence of the clergy and all the people, with a recantation which he had subscribed, condemnatory of every thing which either himself or his predecessors had said or done against the catholic faith; wherefore, he was graciously received as the pontiff of a royal city. But when Pope Theodore heard that on his return to his home, he had also returned to his domestic error, he summoned all the priests and clergy to the church of the blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, and pronounced on him the sentence of excommunication.

A.M. 4594 [643]

Constantius, son of Heraclius, reigned 6 months. Paul succeeded Pyrrhus not only in his outrageous doctrine, like his predecessors, but even openly persecuted the Catholics, and threw the nuncios of the holy Roman Church who were sent for his correction, into fetters, or banished, or scourged them. Moreover he overthrew an altar of the Catholics which had been consecrated in an oratory in the house of Placidia, and forbad the performance of divine service there. Wherefore, like his predecessors, the just sentence of deposition was pronounced on him by the Catholic see.

A.M. 4622 [671]

Constantine, son of Constantine, reigned 28 years. He was deceived by Paul, as his grandfather, Heraclius, had been by Sergius, bishop of the same royal city, and put forth an edict against the catholic faith, declaring that neither one nor two wills or operations should be confessed to be in Christ, as it were a doctrine of faith that Christ neither willed nor operated at all. Wherefore Pope Martin assembled a council of 105 bishops at Rome, and anathematized the aforesaid Cyrus, Sergius, Pyrrhus, and Paul as heretics. After this the Emperor sent the Exarch Theodore, who took Pope Martin from the church of Constantine, and brought him to Constantinople; after which he was banished to the Chersonese, where he ended his days, eminent even to this day for the many miracles which he wrought there. The aforesaid council was held in the 9th year of the reign of Constantine, in the month of October, in the 8th indiction. On the ordination of Pope Vitalian, Constantine made an offering to the blessed Apostle Peter of the Gospels in gold, set with brilliants, of an extraordinary size. After some years, in the 9th indiction, he came to Rome himself, and presented on the altar of the same church a pall of gold cloth, while his whole army filled the building, holding wax tapers. In the following year was an eclipse of the sun at the 10th hour of the 5th day of the nones of May, within the memory of this generation. Theodore, (Constantine murdered.) an archbishop, and Adrian, an abbot of equal erudition, were sent by Vitalian into Britain, where they greatly improved the discipline of the church by ecclesiastical doctrine. Constantine, after many un-heard of depredations committed on the provinces, was murdered in his bath; and not long after Vitalian departed to heaven.

A.M. 4639 [688]

Constantine, son of the former emperor of that name, reigned 17 years. The Saracens invade Sicily, and return to Alexandria laden with immense booty. Pope Agatho, at the request of Constantine, Heraclius, and Tiberius, three most pious princes, with a view to the unity of God’s holy churches, sent his legates to the metropolis, and among them John, at that time deacon, and not long afterwards bishop of the Church of Rome. These were most graciously received by Constantine, a very devout defender of the catholic faith, and by him exhorted to lay aside philosophical disputations, and in peaceful convents to inquire touching the true faith; and for this purpose he supplied them out of the library of Constantinople with all the writings of the ancient fathers which they required. Moreover there were present 150 bishops, under the presidency of George, patriarch of Constantinople, and Macarius, bishop of Antioch. Those who asserted that there was one will and one energy only in Christ were convicted of contradicting the catholic fathers. The result was that George acknowledged his error; but Macarius was anathematized as well as his followers, as also his predecessors, Cyrus, Sergius, Honorius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, and Theophanius, an abbot from Sicily, made bishop of Antioch in his place; and in so great favour were the legates by whom the peace of the Church had been brought about, that the beforenamed John, who was of their number, celebrated divine service in Latin before the emperor and patriarch in the church of St. Sophia, on the Sunday before Easter. This the sixth general council was held at Constantinople, and recorded in the Greek tongue in the time of Agatho, under the auspices of that most pious prince, Constantine, which consisted of the legates of the apostolic see, and 150 bishops. The first general council was held at Nice against Arius, consisting of 318 fathers, in the time of Pope Julius, under the Emperor Constantine; the second, consisting of 150 fathers, was held at Constantinople, against Macedonius and Edoxius, in the time of Pope Damasus and the Emperor Gratian, when Nectarius was made bishop of that city; the third, consisting of 200 fathers, was held at Ephesus, against Nestorius, bishop of the city of Augusta, under Theodosius the Great and Pope Celestine; the fourth was held at Chalcedon, consisting of 630 fathers, in the time of the Emperor Martian, against Eutyches, the head of a body of most impious monks; the fifth was held at Constantinople, in the time of Pope Vigilius, under the Emperor Justinian, against Theodore and all heretics; the sixth is that of which we have spoken above.

Etheldrida, a holy and ever chaste virgin in Christ, daughter of Anna, king of the Angles, given first in marriage to a great nobleman, and afterwards as wife to King Egfrid, after preserving her marriage-bed undefiled for twelve years, takes the veil, and from a queen becomes a holy virgin: then straightway, that she might become a pious mother and nurse to holy virgins, she erects a nunnery in a chosen spot, called Elge. Her undying merits were testified even by her mortal flesh, which, sixteen years after her burial, was found uncorrupted, together with the garment in which she had been wrapped.

A.M. 4649 [698]

Justinian, younger son of Constantine, reigned 10 years. He made a truce with the Saracens for ten years by sea and land; moreover the province of Africa was subjected to the Roman empire, whereas it was before held by the Saracens, who had even taken and destroyed Carthage itself. The Roman pontiff Sergius of blessed memory, having refused to countenance the synod which Justinian held at Constantinople, and to subscribe to its rambling decrees, the emperor sent his Prefect of the Law, Zachary, with orders to bring him to Constantinople; but the militia of the city of Ravenna and of the neighbouring parts withstood the impious prince, and repelled Zachary from Rome with loss and shame. The same Pope Sergius created that venerable man, Wilbrord, surnamed Clement, bishop of the Frisons, in which country, even unto this day, he labours for eternity; for being by birth a Briton, of the nation of the Angles, he has quitted his own land for ever, passing his time in combating the evil one, and advancing the interests of Christianity. Justinian, stripped for his perfidy of the royal dignity, returns as an exile unto Pontus.

A.M. 4652 [701]

Leo reigned 3 years. The Lord disclosed to Pope Sergius a silver casket, which had long lain out of sight in an obscure corner of the chapel of the blessed Apostle Peter, and in which was found a cross adorned with costly and precious stones. Having taken off the four lids in which the jewels had been set, he found deposited within the recess, a portion of the healing wood of the Cross of our Lord, of extraordinary size; which from that time is lifted up every year and adored by all the people in the Church of our Saviour, called Constantiniana. The most pious Cuthbert, who from an anchorite, became prelate of the church of Lindisfarne, in Britain, was from infancy to old age eminent for his miracles; after his body had remained buried for eleven years, it was found, together with the garment in which it was wrapped, as fresh as at the hour of his death; as we ourselves recorded some years ago in the Book of his Life and Miracles, in prose, and more recently in hexameter verse.

A.M. 4659 [708]

Tiberius reigned 7 years. The Synod held at Aquileia, from want of experience refuses to recognise the fifth general council; but being instructed by the salutary admonitions of the blessed Pope Sergius, it also assents to the acts of that council with all the other churches of Christ. Gisulph, leader of the Lombards of Beneventum, wasted the Campania with fire and sword, and made many captives; and when there was no one to resist his violence, the apostolic Pope John sent to him a host of priests with many gifts, ransomed all the captives, and thus caused the enemy to return home. He was succeeded by another John, who, among his many celebrated deeds constructed a chapel of exquisite workmanship to the holy Mother of God, within the church of Saint Peter, the Apostle. Herebert, king of the Lombards, restored to the jurisdiction of the Apostolic See, many courts and patrimonies in the Cottian Alps, which had once belonged to it, but which had been taken away at various times by the Lombards; and sent the grant hereof to Rome, written in letters of gold.

A.M. 4665 [714]

Justinian reigned again six years with his son Tiberius. By the help of Terbellus, king of the Bulgarians, he recovered the throne, and slew those patricians who had expelled him from it, as well as Leo who had usurped his place, and Tiberius who had succeeded him, and who, at the time he was deprived of the throne, had for a season kept him in confinement. He put out the eyes of the patriarch Callinicus and sent him to Rome, and gave his see to Cyrus, an abbot of Pontus, who had supported him in his exile. Pope Constantine came to him at his request, and was both entertained and dismissed with honour; so much so that during his stay he was commanded to celebrate the mass on the Lord’s Day, the Emperor receiving the communion at his hands. Then prostrate on the earth imploring him to make intercession for his sins, he renewed all the privileges to the Church. Contrary to the Pope’s prohibition, he sent an army into Pontus to seize Philippicus whom he had sent there; but the whole army went over to Philippicus, made him emperor there, and returning with him to Constantinople, fought a battle with Justinian at the twelfth milestone from the city, and having defeated and slain him, Philippicus succeeded him on the throne.

A.M. 4667 [716]

Philippicus reigned 16 months. He removed Cyrus from the Pontificate, and commanded him to return to Pontus, and there resume as abbot the government of his monastery. He also sent to Pope Constantine letters, with impious commands, which the latter, with the advice of the Apostolic See, returned to him with disdain, and moreover, set up in the portico of St. Peter, pictures containing the acts of the six holy general councils; for Philippicus had commanded that all such pictures, which were in the metropolis, should be removed; on which account the Roman people determined that they would neither have the name of an heretical emperor in their deeds, nor his statue amongst them; and accordingly neither was his statue introduced into the churches, nor his name in the celebration of divine service.

A.M. 4670 [719]

Anastasius reigned three years. He took Philippicus prisoner, and put out his eyes, but did not put him to death. He sent a letter to Rome to Pope Constantine, by Scholasticus, a patrician and exarch of Italy, in which he declared himself to be favourable to the Catholic faith, and a defender of the sixth holy council. Lithbrand, King of the Lombards, admonished by the venerable Pope Gregory, confirmed the grant of the patrimony of the Cottian Alps, which King Herebert had made, but which he had sought to resume. Egbert, a holy man of the nation of the Angles, an ornament to the priesthood in his monastic life, quitted his own home in search of an immortal one, and by his pious preaching brought back many provinces of the Scottish people to the canonical observation of Easter, in the year of our Lord’s Incarnation, 716.

A.M. 4671 [720]

Theodosius reigned 1 year. Being chosen emperor, he overthrew Anastasius, in a severe engagement near the city of Nice, and having taken the oath, he caused him to enter holy orders and to be ordained a priest. On acquiring the throne, as a good Catholic he replaced the revered painting in which the six holy councils had been depicted, and which Philippicus had removed. The river Tiber left its channel and did great damage to the city of Rome; insomuch that in the Via Lata it rose half as high again as the human stature, and taking a course from the door of St. Peter’s it resumed its channel at the Milvian Bridge; thus it remained for seven days, and after the offering up of many prayers by the people, it returned to its bed on the eighth.

In those days a multitude of the English nation, high and low, men and women, gentle and simple, impelled by love to God, journeyed from Britain to Rome; and amongst them also my most beloved Abbot Ceolfrid, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, (forty-seven of which he had been a priest, and thirty-five an abbot,) went as far as the Ligones, where he died, and was buried in the church of the blessed Twin Martyrs. Amongst his other offerings, he sent to our church of St. Peter a Pandect translated partly out of Hebrew and partly out of Greek into Latin by Saint Jerome.

A.M. 4680 [729]

Leo reigned 9 years. The Saracens come with an immense army and besiege Constantinople in the third year, until at the earnest prayers of the citizens to God, a vast number of the enemy perished from famine, cold, and pestilence; insomuch that they abandoned the siege from exhaustion; on their return they attack the Bulgarians, a people on the other side of the Danube, by whom they were beaten and compelled to flee to their ships; though no sooner had they put out to sea, than a sudden storm arose, in which the greater part of them perished by shipwreck. Lithbrand, on hearing that the Saracens had desolated Sardinia, and were defiling the spot to which at the time of the inroad of the barbarians the remains of St. Augustine had been conveyed, and where they had been buried, sent forthwith, and obtaining them for a large sum, transferred them to Pavia, where they were buried with all the honour due to so illustrious a father.