from a Curate that he should prefent him the Sprin kle, to take fome Holy Water with his Hand. The Abbot declares that fuch a Pretenfion is unjuft, contrary to the Practice of the Ancient Times, and injuious to the Church. The Afperfion (fays he) is made in the Church to purify the Congregation of the Faithful. The Lord of a Manor is one of the Faithful: He ftands in need of that Spiritual Remedy as well as the People; and therefore he ought to receive it, as others do, (that every Body may know the Spiritual Authority which God has bestowed upon the Priefts over all the Laity,) and not in a man, ner unworthy of those who minifter at the Altar. If fuch a Novelty be introduced into the Church, (continues the Abbot,) "we fhall fee, to the Dif

66

grace of the Clergy, the Curates, who reprefent "Jefus Chrift, when they perform the Function of "their Ministry, obliged to hear for a Quarter of an Hour the Compliments of the Ladies and Gentlemen, who fit in the Lord's Pew. The Minister of Jefus Chrift must stand still bare-headed, in his Albe "and Surplice, till all the Compliments are over, and "hold the Sprinkle in his Hand till my Lady pulls off her Glove ".

A curious Differtation concerning Tithes has been inferted in this Work.

ARTICLE

ARTICLE XXXII.

ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΔΑΜΑΣΚΗΝΟΥ, Μοναχε, καὶ Πρεσβυτέρο Ιεροσολύμων, τὰ εὑρισκόμμα πάν]α. Sandi Patris noftri JOANNIS DAMASCENI, Monachi & Presbyteri Hierofolymitani, Opera omnia quæ exftant, & ejus nomine circumferuntur. Ex variis Editionibus, & Codicibus manu exaratis, Gallicanis, Italicis, & Anglicis, collecta, recenfita, Latinè verfa, atque annotationibus illuftrata, cum præviis Differtationibus, & copiofis Indicibus. Opera & ftudio P. MICHAELIS LEQUIEN, Morino-Bolonienfis, Ordinis F. F. Prædicatorum. Parifiis, apud Joannem-Baptiftam Delespine, viâ Jacobæâ, ad Infigne Divi Pauli, prope Fontem S. Severini. 1712.

That is,

THE WORKS of St. JOHN DAMASCEN, a Monk and Priest of Jerufalem, collected, revifed, tranflated into Latin, and illuftrated with Notes: To which are added fome

Preg

66

.

Preliminary Differtations, and large Indexes. By Father MICHAEL LEQUIEN, of the Order of St. Dominick. Paris 1712. Two Volumes in Folio. Vol. I. Pagg. 710. befides the Prolegomena, Vol. II. Pagg. 926.

T

HE following Extract is taken from the "Journal des Sçavans, printed at Paris.

*

"I have heretofore published a small Piece "relating to this Edition, which was then in the "Prefs.

T

HIS is a complete Edition of St. John Damafcen The Publick wifhed for it a long time: Several Perfons went about it with little Suc cefs; and it is at laft brought to its Perfection by Father Lequien, whofe Capacity, already known by fome other Performances, made every body fenfible that this Work would answer their Expectation. Many Qualifications were requifite to fucceed in fuch a Defign; a great Skill in the Greek and Latin Languages; an exact Knowledge of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory; an indefatigable Application in collating the Printed and Manufcript Copies; a great Sagacity to make a right Choice among fo many Variations. All thofe Qualities are to be found in the Learned Editor; and yet if we may believe his Epiftle Dedicatory, we fhould be deprived ftill of the Fruits of his Labour, had it not been for the Help and Protection of the Abbot Bignon, whereby Father Lequien was enabled to overcome the Difficulties, which appeared to him infurmountable with refpect to the printing of this Work. A Bookfel

ler

See Art. XL. in the First Volume.

ler undertook willingly the Impreffion of it; and has been fo fuccessful, that it may be faid he fhares in fome Measure with the Editor, the Glory that may arife from a Project fo well executed.

In order to fhew, that this Edition is above all those, that have been published hitherto, we need only give an Account of what we find about it in the Editor's Preface. What he fays, runs upon Two Heads. 1. Upon the different Tranflations and Editions of St. John Damafcen. 2. Upon those Things, wherein this new Edition differs from all others.

I. The firft Piece of St. John Damafcen, that was Tranflated into Latin, is his Treatife de Fide Orthodoxa, which may be accounted the beft. A Man, called Burgundio, born at Pifa, and Officer of the Emperor Barbaroffa, undertook that Tranflation, under the Pontificate of Eugenius III. And we are told, it difcovers the Barbaroufnefs and Ignorance that prevailed at that Time. From whence Father Lequien is apt to believe, that the Tranflation of fome other Pieces of St. John Damafcen, which he found in a Manufcript in the King's Library, and which was publifhed by Henry Gravius in his Collections, might have been made by the fame Burgundio. However it be, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and the other School, men of the XIIIth and XIVth Centuries, knew not the Writings of that Father of the Church, but by that imperfect Tranflation. There was no other Verfion of St. John Damafcen, till the Beginning of the XVIth Century, when Faber Stapulenfis tranflated into Latin the fame Book, concerning the Orthodox Faith, and had it printed by Henry Stephens, in 1507, in 4to. It was Reprinted in 1512. aud then in 15 19. with the Notes of Jodocus Clibtov.cus.

At laft it came out in Greek the first Time in 1531, and was published by Donatus of Verona, who added to it the Sermon concerning those who died in the Faith, and dedicated both to Pope Clement VII. New Editions were Printed in feveral Places, Two at Bafil,

and

and one at Cologne; and by Degrees feveral new Pieces of that Father, never before published, were ́added to them. The Cologne Edition, being the largeft, was Reprinted at Bafil in 1548. and then in 1559, By Matthew Hopper, who inferted the Greek with the Latin, only in the Two Books abovementioned. But in 1575, the fame Hopper put out a third Edition very much enlarged, in which the greatest Part of the Tracts were attended with the Greek Text. Much about the fame Time, Billius being little fatiffied with the Latin Verfion, which was unintelligible in many Places, by Reafon of its barbarous Style, undertook to revife it; and to compare the Text with fome Manuscripts. That new Tranflation of Billius was Printed at Paris in 1577, and then in 1603, and 1619, with fome new Pieces added to it by Father Fronton le Duc (Fronto Ducæus.)

But because the Original Text was wanting in all thofe Editions, the Clergy of France, in the Affembly of the Year 1635, and 1636, charged John Aubert, Doctor of the Sorbonne, to put out a Greek and Latin Edition of the Works of St. John Damafcen, as he had lately published the Works of St. Cyril of Alexandria. Aubert, being taken up with that new Edition, and alfo with that of St Ephrem, which he was preparing, to publish it firft, finifhed neither of them. Which moved fome Prelates to appoint in his Room Father Combefis, a Dominican, who was earneftly follicited by feveral Learned Men, especially by the Famous Allatius, to apply himself wholly to that Work. Father Combefis wanted neither a good Will, nor the neceffary Qualifications for it; but because he could not get from Aubert fome Tracts which Allatius had fent him from Rome, aud which the new Editor wanted, he gave over that Undertaking, and applied himfelf to fome other Study. In the mean Time Father Labbe published in 1562, A Project of a new Edition of St. John Damafcen, wherein he defigned to divide the Works of that Father into Four Toines; but because he did not take a fufficient View of them, his Divifion was not fo juft as it should have been. That

Learned