[P. 879. See Leo. vol. i. p.
1215. Epist. cxix.]
It is moreover much to be regretted that in making the extract from John
Damascenus those who employ it as evidence of primitive belief, have not
presented it to their readers whole and entire. In the present case the
system of quoting garbled extracts is particularly to be lamented,
because the paragraphs omitted in the quotation carry in themselves
clear proof that Juvenal's answer, as it now appears in John Damascenus,
could not have been made by Juvenal to Marcian and Pulcheria. For in it
is quoted from Dionysius the Areopagite by name, a passage still found
in the works ascribed to him; whereas by the judgment of the most
learned Roman Catholic writers, those spurious works did not make their
appearance in Christendom till the beginning of the sixth century, fifty
years after the Council of Chalcedon, to assist at which {313} Juvenal
is said to have been present in Constantinople when the emperor and
empress held the alleged conversation with him.
The remainder of the passage from the history of Euthymius, rehearsed in
this oration of John Damascenus, is as follows: "There were present with
the Apostles at that time both the most honoured Timothy the Apostle,
and first bishop of the Ephesians, and Dionysius the Areopagite,
himself, as the great Dionysius testifies in the laboured words
concerning the blessed Hierotheus, himself also then being present, to
the above-named apostle Timothy, saying thus, Since with the inspired
hierarchs themselves, when we also as thou knowest, and yourself, and
many of our holy brethren had come together to the sight of the body
which gave the principle of life; and there was present too James the
brother of the Lord ([Greek: adelphotheos]), and Peter the chief and the
most revered head of the apostles ([Greek: theologon]); then it seemed
right, after the spectacle, that all the hierarchs (as each was able)
should sing of the boundless goodness of the divine power.
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