The works of Nathaniel Lardner - The Christian Researcher - Home

VicTORiNus. A. D. 290. 167
which is ;, scribed to Victorinus ; but its genuineness is not
unquestioned. Cave'' says, ' it either is not his, or has been
' greatly interpoUited : for Jerom informs us, that Victorinus
' held the niiilenarian opinion, which the author of this work
* dislikes.' 13asnage' rejected this Connnentary. Lanipe''
thought the more probable opinion to be that it is not his.
Du Pin, after having observed the arguments for and against
the genuineness of this work, concludes :
' We' cannot there-
* fore be positive that this Commentary is not a work of
* Victorinus : on the contrary, there is some probability that
* it is his.' Tillemont has" treated this question modestly
and carefully, as usual. He owns thaf there are some reasons
to doubt of it : but it seems that there are yet more to
believe it a genuine remain of the many works of this holy
martyr ; only it must be allowed that what he had written
in favour of the millenarian opinion has been altered : and
he" offers some reasons for thinking- that what is now found
in this Commentary upon that point is an interpolation, or
addition. That passage is at the end of the piece, and it
appears to be of a different style from the rest of the >vork.
Moreover'! there is some reason to suspect that alterations
have been made in divers ancient writers who held that
opinion : and what may more especially increase the suspicion
here, is, that in this very Commentary there still seem
to be some traces of that sentiment; Avhere'^ it is said that
all the saints shall be assembled together in Judea to worship
Christ. Whether it be Victorinus's or not, it is supposed to
have in it divers marks of antiquity. Tillemont^ understands
the author to speak of the senate of Rome, as still employing
its name and authority for persecuting the church. What
he says of Nero, that' he is to be raised up to be antichrist,
*
'
Cav. ubi supr.
A Victorino tamen abjudicandum esse existimamiis. Basnag. Ann. 303.
n. xvi. ^ Quod eo minus congruum, cum librum hunc falso
adscribi Victorino Pictaviensi, seu, ut aliis potius videtur, Petabionensi, qui
sub fine seculi tertii floruit, valde sit probabile. Lampe, Proleg. in Joan. I. i. c.
4. n. xii. ' p. 66. Du Pin, Bib. des Aut. Ec. T. i. p. 194.
" Au contraire il y a quelque apparence qu'il est de lui. ibid.
" See St. Victorin de Pettau, Mem. Ec. T. v. P. ii. p. 218, et note 2.
° lb. p. 218. P lb. note ii. p. 444, et 445.
1 See Les Millenaires in Mem. Ec. T. ii. P. ii. p. 251.
•
in Judaea, ubi omnes sancti conventuri sunt, et Dominum suura
adoratiiri. Victorin. ap. Bib. Patr. T. iii. p. 415. D.
* Et vidi, inquit, mulierem ebriam de sanguine sanctorum, decreto senatus
illius consummatae nequitiae, et omnem contra fidei praedicationem etiam latam
indulgentiam ipse dedit decretum in univeisis gentibus. Id. ib. p. 420. H.
' Unum autem de capitibus occisum in morte, et plaga mortis ejus curafcj
est, Neronera dicit. Constat enira, dum insequeretur eum equitatus missus a