XVI. Extra-ecclesial testimony of philosophers, poets, Hermes, Sibyls; Casaubon
XVI. Outside the Church is the testimony of gentile philosophers, poets, historians, and legislators, of Mercury Trismegistus and the Sibyls, by which the truth and equity of the Christian faith is sometimes asserted by the fathers. By this testimony, as an argument ad hominem — not truly that I might confirm faith and doctrine revealed from heaven by human testimonies — the Apostle Paul sometimes did not blush to use (Acts 17:23-Acts 17:24, Acts 17:28; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12). This the most learned fathers have not rarely used — Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Gregory Nazianzen, Lactantius, Augustine, and others — whose business was chiefly with atheists and gentiles.
Concerning Mercury and the Sibylline oracles which are still read today, I gladly assent to that highest man Isaac Casaubon (Exercitationes 1 to the Apparatus of the Annals, Numbers XVIII and XIX), concerning which it cannot be denied that in them not a few heads of religion — for example, concerning one God, the most holy Trinity, the Word the Son of God through whom the world was made, Christ to be born of a virgin, his passion and cross, regeneration through baptism into eternal life, the future judgment, and likewise other things — are found so clearly and in perspicuous words set forth that scarcely, indeed scarcely at all, anything similar can be brought from the whole law of Moses and the prophets. But the excellent man frankly professes that all oracles of this kind, whether of this Mercury or of the Sibyls announced beforehand, the more open they are, the more suspect they become to him; and he demonstrates them to be spurious by candid refutations: (1) because Christian mysteries were hidden before Christ (Colossians 1:26; Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:9), which yet are most plainly explained in Mercury's book and the Sibylline songs, which even indicate JESUS CHRIST by acrostic, without circumlocutions or enigmas, by the very name, and narrate his deeds. For it seems contrary to God's Word to think that such deep mysteries were proposed more clearly to the gentiles than to God's people, whom God so instructed by the prophets' voice that through obscure types of future things he led them to Christ as by a pedagogue's hand (Galatians 3:24).
(2) Because the ancient Greeks — Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and so many other most curious scrutinizers of all disciplines — show absolutely no vestige of those things which today we marvel at in this Mercury and the Sibyls. (3) Because it was solemn in the first times of the church, with a good end, to invent false books, that the new doctrine might more easily be admitted by the gentiles' wise men — of which Pope Gelasius in his decree and that of the Roman council enumerates and by best right condemns very many. And into this census are to be referred those Sibylline oracles which explain the secrets of our religion more openly than was ever done by God's prophets; likewise the whole book which under the name of Mercury Trismegistus began some centuries ago to be circulated, pseudepigraphically falsely inscribed — for it is the mere fiction of some Christian or rather semi-Christian, as our Casaubon from the matter and diction solidly demonstrates in many places. (4) Because writings of this sort, as soon as they came forth, were suspect to very many. For most truly blessed Augustine (City of God book 18, chapter 47): Whatever prophecies of others concerning God's grace through Christ Jesus are brought forth can be thought to have been fabricated by Christians. Therefore nothing is firmer for convincing any aliens, if they contend about this matter, and for supporting our own, if they have thought rightly, than that those divine predictions concerning Christ be brought forth which are written in the Jews' codices.
Latin
XVI. Extra ecclesiam est testimonium philosophorum, poetarum, historicorum, legislatorumque gentilium, Mercurii Trismegisti & Sibyllarum, quo veritas & aequitas Christianae fidei a patribus nonnunquam asseritur. Hoc testimonio, tanquam argumento ad hominem, non vero ut fidem & doctrinam caelitus revelatam humanis testimoniis firmarem, usus aliquando non erubuit Apostolus Paulus Act. 17.v.23.24.28. 1. Cor. 15.v.33. Tit. 1.v.12. Hoc non raro usi sunt doctissimi patres, Clemens Alexandrinus, Justinus Martyr, Tertullianus, Gregorius Nazianzenus, Lactantius, Augustinus & alii, quibus cum atheis & gentilibus potissimum negotium fuit. De Mercurio & Sibyllinis oraculis, quae hodieque leguntur, viro summo, Isaaco Casaubono exerc. 1. ad apparat. annal. Num. XVIII. & XIX. lubens adstipulor, de quibus negari non potest, in illis capita religionis non pauca, puta, de uno Deo, de sacrosancta Trinitate, de verbo Filio Dei, per quem mundus fuit conditus, de nascituro Christo ex virgine, de passione ipsius & cruce, de regeneratione per baptismum in vitam aeternam, de futuro judicio, & item alia, sic clare & perspicuis verbis inveniri exposita, ut vix ac ne vix quidem simile quid e tota lege Mosis & prophetis possit afferri. Sed vir eximius ingenue profitetur omnia hujus generis sive hujus Mercurii, sive Sibyllarum oracula ante nuntiata, quo apertiora sunt, eo sibi fieri suspectiora, eaque supposititia candidis redargutionibus demonstrat, 1. quia mysteria Christiana ante Christum fuerunt abscondita, Col. 1.v.26. Rom. 16.v.25. Eph. 3.v.9. quae tamen planissime explicantur in libro Mercurii & Sibyllinis carminibus, quae vel JESUM CHRISTUM acrostichide, sine ambagibus aut aenigmatis, ipso etiam nomine indicant, factaque ipsius narrant. Nam verbo Dei contrarium videtur existimare, tam profunda mysteria gentibus fuisse clarius proposita, quam populo Dei, quem Deus prophetarum voce ita erudivit, ut per obscuros rerum futurarum typos ad Christum, tanquam manu paedagogi deduxerit, Gal. 3.v.24. 2. quia veteres Graeci, Plato, Aristoteles, Theophrastus & tot alii curiosissimi omnium disciplinarum scrutatores, eorum, quae hodie in Mercurio isto & Sibyllis miramur, nullum prorsus vestigium ostendunt. 3. quia solemne fuit primis ecclesiae temporibus bono fine falsos libros fingere, quo facilius nova doctrina a gentium sapientibus admitteretur: quorum plurimos enumerat & jure optimo damnat Gelasius papa decreto suo & Romani concilii. Et in hunc censum referenda sunt oracula illa Sibyllina, quae arcana religionis nostrae apertius explicant, quam factum sit unquam a Dei prophetis: item liber integer, qui sub nomine Mercurii Trismegisti circumferri ab aliquot seculis coepit, pseudepigraphos falso inscriptus, quippe qui Christiani alicujus vel potius semichristiani merum figmentum est, ut Casaubonus noster ex re & dictione multis solide demonstrat. 4. quia ejusmodi scripta quam primum prodierе plurimis fuere suspecta. Nam verissime b. Augustinus lib. 18. de C.D. cap. 47. Quaecunque aliorum prophetiae de Dei per Christum Jesum gratia proferuntur, possunt putari a Christianis esse confictae. Ideo nihil est firmius ad convincendum quoslibet alienos, si de hac re contenderint, nostrosque fulciendos, si recte sapuerint, quam ut divina praedicta de Christo ea proferantur, quae in Judaeorum scripta sunt codicibus.
About this text
Ludwig Crocius — Book IV Chapter 9 On the forensic law. Cap.10 next De Euangelio.
English follows the locked 1636 Bremen Latin of Liber I Cap. 10, reconstructed from SLUB Dresden page images. Same-page OCR (tesseract lat + Vision) used as check. No modern English was copied. Cap. 11 (CAPUT UNDECIMUM / De S. Theologiae distributione) begins. Cap. 9 complete. Liber I still open. No Internet Archive copy was located.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, Liber I Cap. 10 complete (Villerian 1636) (Latin)
- Checked print SLUB per-page OCR of Liber I Cap. 10 pages (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.