In the works of some of
these editors, far more than in others, we perceive the same
reigning principle--a principle which some will regard as an
uncompromising adherence to the faith of the Church; but which
others can regard only in the light of a prejudice, and a rooted
habit of viewing all things through the eyes of Rome.]
The Benedictine editors begin their preface thus: "That this discourse
is spurious, there is NO LEARNED MAN WHO DOES NOT NOW ADJUDGE ... The
style proves itself more clear than the sun, to be different from that
of Athanasius. Besides this, very many trifles show themselves here
unworthy of any sensible man whatever, not to say Athanasius ... and a
great number of expressions unknown to Athanasius ... so that it savours
of inferior Greek. And truly his subtle disputation {183} on the
hypostasis of Christ, and on the two natures in Christ, persuades us,
that he lived after the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon; of which
councils moreover he uses the identical words, whereas his dissertation
on the two wills in Christ seems to argue, that he lived after the
spreading of the error of the Monothelites. But (continue these
Benedictine editors) we would add here the dissertation of Baronius on
this subject, sent to us by our brethren from Rome. That illustrious
annotator, indeed, having read only the Latin version of Nannius, which
is clearer than the Greek, did not observe the astonishing perplexity of
the style[65].
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