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496 Credibility of the Gospel History.
The book, published by Baliize, is ascribed* in the Colbertine
manuscript, the only one of it in being', to Lucius
Cecilius. It is not easy to conceive, why the transcriber of
this book should not have added Firmianus Lactantius, if it
is his. And the forenames, Lucius Coelius, or Coecilius, are
very rarely g-iven to Lactantius. Fabricius* mentions only
one author, Barnardinus de Bustis, of the fifteenth century,
and two manuscripts; one of the books commonly ascribed
to Lactantius, the other of his book, Of the Workmanship
of God ; in which Lactantius is called at length Lucius
Coelius, or Crecilius Firmianus Lactantius. Methinks, this"*
is not sufficient g-round for giving- those two names to this
learned ancient; when he is called only Firmianus Lactantius,
or Firmianus, or Lactantius singly, by Jerom, Eucherius,"^
Augustine,''' Apollinaris Sidonius, Honorius of Autun,
Trithemius. Not to say any thing' of Freculph's and Ado's
Chronicles, though they also use the same way of writing-.
And moreover, in almost all the manuscript copies of his
works, or of some part of them, (as is owned,) he is called
only Firmianus Lactantius.
Then the title of the book, published by Baluze, is different
from that of Lactantius in Jerom. It is entitled, Of the
Deaths of Persecutors : but that mentioned by Jerom is. Of
the Persecution : so likewise in Honorius and Trithemius,
without any variation. This appears to me considerable. If
Lactantius's book had been entitled. Of the Deaths of Per-
secutors, it would have been so described by Jerom. If
it had obtained that title, and had been ever so called in a
few ages after, either in manuscripts, or in learned writers
who quoted it ; it is reasonable to suppose that so late writers
as Honorius and Trithemius, one of the twelfth, the other of
" Lucii Caecilii. Incipit liber ad Donatum Confessorem de Mortibus
Persecutorum.
' licet in Sermonibus Bamardini de Bustis nominatus Lucius Caeci-
lius Firmianus, teste Bernardo Moneto. T. 4. Menagiorum, p. 85. Fabr. ubi
supr. in Bib. Ecc. p. 165. Cum denique Lactantium et in Sermonibus Bernard!
ni de Bustis, quos pauIo ante memorabam, et in Codice Colbertino 507,
et Codice Taurinensi libri de Opificio Dei, quern inspexit Pfaffius, Lucium
Coelium Lactantium appellari, non possit negari. Id. ib. p. 166. Conf.
Baluz. Misc. T. ii. p. 352.
" Ausirn et hoc dicere, Firmianum Lactantium Lucii Caecilii nomine nunquam
appellatum fuisse, quod nulla quidem probatione indigere videtur, utpote
nulla antiquioris MS. codicis auctoritate nixum. Pfaff. Diss. Prael. sect. 12.
p. IG. Quid si dixerim, nee Lucium Calium nomen esse ad F. Lactantium
pertinens ; scd a recentioribus solum librariis, nimis saepius, ut par est, sapien-
tibus, additum ? Id. ib. sect. 13. p. 17.
" De Civ. Dei. 1. xviii. c. 23-
" instruit ut Hieronymus, destruitut Lactantius Sidon. lib. iv. Ep. 3.
p. 92.