BOOK VI.

THE SIXTH AGE OF THE WORLD.'

CH. I.-FROM B.C. 4 TO A.D. 15.

The Birth of Christ-Question when the Sixth Age of the Wor is properly said to begin-Circumstances attending the Bir and Early Age of Our Saviour—Invective against the Heath Philosophers and their Theories-The Wise Men of the Ea -Herod's Massacre of the Innocents-Account of JosephusViolence of Herod to his own Family-Treachery of Antipat -Cymbeline and his sons in England-Death of Herod H kingdom is divided—Trogus-Archelaus-Death of August

Cæsar.

In the fifty thousand nine hundred and ninety-ninth yea after the creation of the world, in the fifty-second year of th reign of Augustus Cæsar, and the thirtieth of the reign o Herod, Cymbeline, the son of Tennancius, being king o Britain, and in the third year of the hundred and ninety-thir Olympiad, in the fourth indiction,3 in the second existing

1 From this period, our Author no longer divides his work into Book or Chapters, but proceeds without any break to the coronation of Willian the Conqueror. For the divisions into chapters, as given in this volume the Translator is responsible.

2 This looks as if he dated the reign of Augustus from the murder o Julius Cæsar, which, however, took place B.C. 44, not B.C. 42. Th battle of Philippi was B.C. 42. The battle of Actium not till B.c. 31 The era A.D. coincides with the first year of the 195th Olympiad.

3 "The indiction, instituted by Constantine the Great, is properly cycle of tributes orderly disposed for fifteen years, and by it accounts of that kind were kept. Afterwards, in memory of the great victory obtained by Constantine over Megentius, 8 Cal. Oct. (24 Sept.) 312, by which a entire freedom was given to Christianity, the Council of Nice, for the honour of Constantine, ordained that the accounts of years should be no longer kept by Olympiads, which till that time had been done, but that

B.C. 4.

4

WHEN THE SIXTH AGE BEGAN.

5

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epact, and fifth concurrent, on the twenty-fifth day of December, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, in order, by sanctifying the people of the Gentiles, and the Jewish nation, to bind them together, and unite them to himself. And he was born, according to his most exactly ordered arrangement, on the night of the Lord's day; because, if you reckon back in the chronological tables, you will find the fifth concurrent of this year, the third regular of January. And when they are added together, and seven are subtracted, one remains. And so you will find that the first of January on that year fell on a Sunday, which corresponds to my calculation. For on the same day in which God said, "Let there be light, and there was light," the day-star from on high visited us, in order to give light to those who sat in darkness, and to guide them into the way of peace.

And the sixth age began, according to some people, with the Nativity of Christ. According to the Apostle, for instance, who says, "When the fulness of time shall have come," &c. According to others, with the day on which he was baptized, on account of the regenerative power given to the waters.

instead thereof, the indiction should be made use of by which to reckon. and date their years."-Johnson's Dict. in voc. But this can hardly be what our author means. Ducange says, "Indiction is a name given by the Latins to a number of fifteen years, usually added to the years of Christ, to prevent mistakes in chronology." The passage in the text is not very clear, and Ducange confesses that there is great difficulty about the word, on more accounts than one.

4.16

5846

Epact, a number whereby we denote the excess of the solar year above the lunar, and thereby may find out the age of the moon every year. In the solar year consisting of 365 days, and the lunar but of 354; the lunations every year get eleven days before the solar year, and thereby, in nineteen years, the moon completes 20 minutes (times?) 12 lunations, or gets up one whole solar year, and having finished that circuit, begins again with the sun, and so from 19 to 19 years."-Johnson's Dict. in voc. Concurrents is a name given to a number of days never exceeding seven, which, being added to the regulars, make up a festival.”—Ducange in voc. Conc. "In the works of the ecclesiastical chronologers, there are solar and lunar regulars. A solar regular is an invariable number added to a month, which, being added to a concurrent, points out in what day of a week any month of which it is the regular begins. A lunar regular is an invariable number added to a month, in order to find out the moon in the calends of each month."-Ibid. Regularis.

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According to others, with his Passion, because then the door was opened, and the seventh glory of those at rest began. Therefore, Christ put off his Advent to the sixth age, in order that the length of time might not destroy the fulness of the new law. For if he had come before, perhaps the length of time would have effaced all the precepts of the new law. Moreover, it was becoming that he who had made man on the sixth day, should bring him to the fulness of the law in the sixth age of the world, and as the world was now growing old, should refresh it by his new arrival.

As shepherds, at a distance of one mile from Bethlehem, were keeping the watches of the night, in attendance upon their flocks, behold! an angel of the Lord stood near them, announcing that a Saviour had been born in Bethlehem, and as a sign of it, he told them that the child was placed in a manger. For it was a custom from old time among the Gentiles, at each solstice, to keep the watches of the night, on account of their veneration for the sun; and this custom had probably obtained among the Jews, from the practice of those with whom they dwelt.

And when the angel departed, there appeared a multitude of spirits, saying, "Glory to God in the highest," &c. Very deservedly, at the birth of the Lord, is the Song of Peace heard from the angels, because by His birth peace was made between God and man, between angel and man, and between Jew and Gentile. Therefore, the shepherds going to Bethlehem, found there the Great Shepherd in the manger, and related what they had heard and seen. But Mary kept all these things in her heart.

And although Christ was thought the son of Joseph, still his generation was in this manner. For the first creation of a human being was out of the earth; the second out of the side of the man; the third from man and woman; and this one from woman and the Holy Ghost, without a man. And on the eighth day, Christ was circumcised, and his prepuce is said to have been brought down by an angel, in the time of Charlemagne, to the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, and by him to have been transferred to Aix la Chapelle, and afterwards to have been placed by Charles the Bald in the Church of the Saviour, at Carosium, and to have been reverently honoured in that Church.

B.C. 4.

VARIOUS OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS.

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And after the days of the Purification of Mary were accomplished, his parents brought Jesus to Jerusalem, and offered victims for him, a pair of turtle-doves and two young pigeons, and moreover they redeemed him with five pieces of silver. And there was at Jerusalem an old man, named Simeon, who had received an answer from the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death till he had first seen the Lord's Christ; and he came with the Spirit into the temple, and took Jesus in his arms. And in the same hour, Anna, the prophetess, coming in, spoke of him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Israel.

Let, therefore, those philosophers of the Gentiles be confounded, who, by their sagacious investigations, have been able to conjecture that the world and all the courses of things are composed of four elements; and who, seeking for the author of the world in the elements, have never been able to find him. For Thales, the Milesian, having comprehended the calculations of astronomy, began to predict the eclipses of the sun and moon; for he thought himself that water was the origin of all things. Anaximander, his pupil, asserted that all things were derived not from moisture, but from their own several beginnings, and he taught that first principles were infinite in number. And as Thales had asserted that the origin of all things was to be found in water, Anaximenes in air, the Stoics in fire, and Epicurus in atoms, Plato is praised, who was the first person who divided Philosophy into three divisions, namely, Moral Philosophy, which is conversant about actions, Natural Philosophy, which is devoted to contemplation, and Logical Philosophy, by which the truth is distinguished from falsehood.

But the philosopher Pythagoras, when he was asked what he professed, replied, "That he was a philosopher, that is to say, a lover of wisdom." For to profess himself a wise man, appeared to him to be a most arrogant proceeding. But all these men, because they sought for wisdom without faith, perished on account of their folly. Were not these men, the Holy Fathers of the Old and New Testament, wiser than they? for they, being clear-sighted with lynxes' eyes, found God as he is; while those who sought him in the elements, could never find him at all.

Also Abel the Just, by giving tithes and first-fruits, made God

propitious to himself, and was the first person who gained the crown of martyrdom. Enoch, the seventh from God, pleased God, and was translated into Paradise. Noah also by faith delivered himself and his children from the danger of the deluge. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Moses believed, and wrote that the Trinity created the Heaven and the Earth and all that is therein. The holy David and his son Solomon, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, and the rest of the Prophets preached the true God and worshipped him, asserting that the natures which had been created by him, derived the beginning and end of their existence and motion from him; and that he gave all living things that rational spirit which is called the mind; and that he regulated the human race in its beginning and progress, and in its end. Lastly, these men, being inspired with the Holy Spirit, announced to us that the Author and Governor of all things, being fettered by no chains, and divisible into no parts, is confined to no place, is in no part changeable, filling heaven and earth with his power, but with a nature which is in need of nothing; and that he regulates everything which he has created in such a manner that he allows it to practise and exercise its own appropriate motions.

Lastly, among those wise men of the world who are accounted fools before God, there is found to be such excessive disagreement, that it is difficult to perceive in what opinion even a diligent reader may rest. But our writers, though they were not contemporaries or fellow-disciples, are still found to agree with one another, and to be at variance in no respect. For they were the organs of God, and therefore they all, if moved by the divine harmony, knew that there was one beginning, one progress, and one end of all things.

A.D. 2. These astronomers, through their own skilfulness in their art, without any divine inspiration, came to Jerusalem saying, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come with gifts to worship him." And when Herod heard this, he was alarmed, being a man who had no connection with the royal family; and having sent for the doctors of the law, he asked of them where Jesus should be born. And they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judah; for thus it is written in the book of Micah the Prophet. And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not by any means