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Stephen Dolet, a printer at Paris, and one who was ranged among the learned, being condemned to the stake in 1543 as a Calvinist, (which he bore with a courage and resolution equalling the intrepidity of primitive martyrs,) was on that score deemed to merit, as a wicked wretch, and be esteemed the author of the book De Tribus Impostoribus.

Lucilio Vanini, a Neapolitan, was, at the instigation of his enemies, condemned as an atheist to the fire by the parliament of Thoulouse. It little availed him to produce proofs to his judges, how firmly he believed a God and Providence. He was charged to be, if not the writer, at least the receiver, of the book aforesaid; as have been Ochimo, Postel, Pomponne, Poggio, Companello, &c. all having held opinions condemned by the church of Rome.

The many things which celebrated critics have from time to time advanced and published with relation to this book, have excited the curiosity of the great and learned to search after it, but in vain. I had, like abundance of others, heard of it, though I was only a searcher after antiquities, or a collector of manuscripts; yet I accidentally met with the very treatise at a time when I had not the least thought of it or its author.

Certain affairs having occasioned my going to Frankfort upon the river Maine in April 1706, a fortnight after the fair annually held there, I found a friend of mine, named Frecht, a Lutheran doctor. Being one day at his house, I desired him to accompany me to the shop of a German bookseller, to serve me as interpreter. By the way we met with a certain Jew, whom we took along with us. Being come to the bookseller's, whose warehouse was extremely well stocked with all kinds of printed books, we were examining his catalogue, when we saw come in a German officer, who asked the bookseller, if he did not design, in the name of all the devils, to conclude the bargain he had begun? otherwise he would go and agree with some other

bookseller.

My friend Frecht knowing him, whose name was Taussendorf, saluted him, and renewing their acquaintance, ook occasion to inquire what the afair was between him and the bookeller? Taussendorf replied, that he VOL. VIII.

had a couple of manuscripts, and a very ancient book, whereby he wanted to raise a small sum of money, to fit him out for the approaching campaign, and the bookseller and he differed about 50 dollars, offering him only 450, whereas he insisted on having 500 for those three books. So large a sum for only two manuscripts and a little old book, raised our curiosities. Frecht, therefore, asked the officer if he might not have a sight of those pieces. Immediately Taussendorf drew out of a great pocket he had in his surtout coat, a parchment bundle, bound about with a yellow silk twist, in which were the three books. The Jew and I, who hitherto had been only spectators of what had passed, drew near to Frecht, who had them, and was going to look over them in another part of the shop.

The first opened was a printed book in Italian, the title whereof had been torn; instead of which had been written, Specchio de la Bestia Trionphante. The impression of this book did not appear to be of any great antiquity. I believe it is the same piece the English version of which Toland caused to be printed some years ago, and which carried so high a price. This title had no date, nor any name of either author or printer.

We thence passed to the second, which was a manuscript in Latin, and without a title. On the first was this inscription, in large capitals, Othoni Illustrissimo amico meo Charissimo, F.1.S.D. &c. The work begins with a letter or epistle, whereof the transla❤ tion is at the end of this dissertation.

The third manuscript was also in Latin, without a title. It begins with the words of Cicero, in his first book De Natura Deorum, Qui Deos esse dixerunt, &c.

We made no long stay on the Italian book, which our Jew, who was well versed in that language, amused himself with in running over, and found that it contained satirical strokes against religion, and likewise arguments to form a complete system of atheism.

But it was the other manuscript concerning which we had heard so many problematical discourses, as of a work proper to destroy whatever relates to such religions as are grounded upon revelations and miracles, which alone monopolized all our attention, 2 Q

and seemed to us extremely fit to illuminate and clear up those multitudes of different histories which have been published on this famous and important subject. This induced Frecht to take aside his friend Taussendorf, and having cautioned him not to make any abatement in the sum of 500 rix-dollars, which he demanded of the bookseller for those three pieces, we quitted the shop, and went away directly to Frecht's house; and he, in order to procure an opportunity of passing a more leisurely examination on that MS. of the Three Impostors, immediately sent for wine, when, requesting Taussendorf to inform us how and by what means those books fell into his hands, he acquainted us, while he was, to his own share, emptying six bottles of old Moselle, that after the victory at Hochstet, and the Elector of Bavaria's flight, he chanced to be among those who entered Munich, and even the palace of his Electoral Highness, wherein, after traversing the apartments, he went into the library, and there accidentally cast his eyes on this packet or bundle, whose parchment coat and silk string made him fancy it might contain papers of consequence, or some very curious book; and so he could not resist the temptation, but crammed it into his pocket, and found afterwards that he was not quite deceived in selecting it from such a number of other books.

This recital was accompanied with so many military digressions, and with such a quick succession of bumpers, that the liquor having at length begun to attack the brain of this champion, Frecht, who, during all these interruptions, was poring over the manuscript, run the hazard of exposing himself to a refusal, and requested his friend to leave with him the little tract till the morrow.

Taussendorf being somewhat intoxicated wth swallowing so much wine, which hindered him from making serious reflection, did not refuse Frecht's request. But yet, on agreeing to lend him his manuscript, he exacted from him a solemn oath, that he would not either copy it himself, nor get it copied by any other; which assurance having been given him, he delivered the manuscript into Frecht's hands, saying, he would call again for it on the Sunday following, when he intended to empty a few more bottles

of that same wine, which he found very much to his palate and liking.

No sooner had our obliging officer left us, being on Friday night at ten o'clock, but Frecht and I set about deciphering the MS., which was an oc tavo, and only of twenty single leaves, excluding the letter which introduces it, but written so close, and in so small a character, without any points, stops, or breaks, and withal, so crowded with abbreviations, that we were hard put to it to pick out the sense of its first page in two hours.

But having at length somewhat ac customed ourselves to that piece of conjuration, the reading became much easier, and more familiar to us; when we found the contents so very rational, and the subject handled with such care and perspicuity, that both of us grew extremely desirous of obtaining a copy; and to this purpose, used much Jesuitical equivocation. He told me, at length, that without falsifying the oath taken, ad mentem interrogan tis-respecting his meaning, it is probable, that Taussendorf's intention, in extorting the oath not to copy book, was only that we should not actually transcribe it, but that his opi nion was, we might very safely make a translation.

the

This method of his, seemed to me not over and above equitable; how ever, the strong desire I had to be possessed of this rare and celebrated treatise, made me consent to the expedient, considering withal, that I myself had not given Taussendorf either oath or promise, not to trans late or transcribe his MS.

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The French version, which we took in hand, was completed on Saturday towards midnight, and having time after revised our performance at leisure, we took each a fair copy.

Taussendorf fetched away his book, which he disposed of for 500 rix-dol lars to the same bookseller, who was commissioned to purchase it by s Prince of the House of Saxony, who knew of its having been conveyed away out of the Munich Library when, on the defeat of the French and Bavarians at Hochstet, possession was taken of that city as aforesaid.

Thus have I related how this book came into my hands. Abundance of people would much rather we could have produced the original; but our abilities would not admit our making

such a purchase; and besides, the bookseller who bought it, had a precise order from the said Saxon Prince not to spare any cost to procure it, in case he could discover where it was. This made him give so great a price for it to Taussendorf, who in a few days went abroad, having treated us in his turn.

Let us now treat of the origin of this book and its author, of which no true account could have been given but by considering the book itself, of which the epistle at the beginning of it, which we remarked to be in a handwriting different from that of the book, may afford some sort of light into this matter, as it goes addressed to the illustrious Otho.

The capital city of Bavaria, where this manuscript was found, and that name Otho, joined together, do sufficiently authorise the conjecture of its having been addressed to Otho, Duke of Bavaria, surnamed the Illustrious, who was grandson of Otho the Great, Count of Shiren and Wiselspach, from whom the Bavarians and Palatine House deduce their origin. The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, made him a donation of Bavaria, as a recompense for his singular fidelity to him, having taken it from Henry the Lion to chastise him for his inconstancy, and having sided with his enemies. Lewis the First succeeded his father Otho the Great, and having been disquieted in the possession of Bavaria by Henry the Lion, he left it to his son Otho, the Illustrious, who secured to himself that dominion, by marrying Henry the Lion's daughter, about the year 1260. When Frederic the Second, Emperor of Germany, returned from Jerusaem, where he had been to war against the Saracens, after his being excommunicated by Pope Gregory the Ninth, who persecuted him even in Syria, where, by his intrigues, he hindered the Imperial army from obeying that nonarch, whose patience was at length so tried and worn out, that, at his reurn home, he went and besieged this Pope at Rome, after having ravaged all he circumjacent provinces; nor was the peace, which he afterwards struck ap with him, of any long continuence, and was followed by such a violent animosity between this Emperor and that Pontiff, that it ended only with the breath of the latter,

who bursted with mere envy and rage, to see Frederic triumph over him, despise his vain fulminations, and even expose him terribly, by enumerating his enormities in sarcastical verses, which he got dispersed all over Germany, Italy, and France.

Otho, the Illustrious, not unmindful of the obligations which his family had to that of the Emperor, espoused Frederic's cause, and remained firmly attached to his interest, notwithstanding the many vicissitudes of that monarch's fortune.

These historical facts, the truth whereof is incontestible, are quite proper to support our conjecture, that the copy of this treatise was addressed to this Otho the Illustrious, our opinion being, that the meaning of these two capitals, F. J., which are followed by S. D., and those preceded by the words Amico meo Charissimo, at the head of that epistle which introduces this piece, cannot be any other than Fredericus Imperator Salutem dicit. The result of which must be, that the tract in question was addressed to Otho the Illustrious, by the Emperor Frederic the Second, son of Henry the Sixth, and grandson of Frederic Bar barosa, who, succeeding them in the empire, did likewise inherit their hatred to the Roman Pontiff.

What reader is there, who, having perused the history of the Western Church, and the Chronicle of the German Empire, does not retain in his memory, with what pride and insolence Pope Alexander the Third trode on the neck of this very Emperor Frederic Barbarosa, when he went to solicit him for peace. And who can be ignorant of the mischiefs which the Holy See (as they style it) procured to the son of that monarch, Henry Sixth, against whom his very wife took up arms, at the Pope's instigation? But finally, when Frederic the Second assumed the same resolution, which he had remarked in his father and grandfather, he found raised against him a Gregory the Ninth, who united in his own breast all the gall and bitterness of the Alexanders, the Innocents, and the Honorius's, against Imperial Majesty.One carried fire and sword into every quarter, the other plied his thunderbolts of excommunication like a very fury. Over and above all which, they

mutually defamed each other with biting satires, and the cruellest invectives.

This seems sufficient to maintain the conjecture, that it was by command of this Emperor, irritated against Religion by the enormous vices of its high priest, and of such as were the creatures and members of his pontifical court, that Doctissimus ille vir, of whom mention is made in the epistle, directed Othoni Illustrissimo, did compose this treatise, which consequently owes not its birth to any inquiry after truth, but a spirit of hatred and implacable animosity.

A still greater confirmation of the preceding conjecture will be to take notice, that this book was never heard of till the reign of this emperor, and that it was fathered upon him even in his life-time; in so much, that Peter de Vignes, his secretary, thought himself obliged to dissipate this rumour in one of his letters, and to retort the calumny on the enemies of that monarch his sovereign, who had been loaded with it in order to make him odious.

There remains then nothing for us to do, but to make some inquiry who was the doctissimus vir, with whom Otho the Illustrious had discoursed on this subject of the Three Impostors, and who had methodized the same in this treatise. Certain it is, that its date or epoch being such as we have been proving it, cannot be attributed to any one of those who have been taxed with being its author, since (Averroes only excepted, who died before Frederic was born) all of whom lived a long while, nay, even whole ages after this tract was composed. We cannot, however, deny, but that it will be much more difficult for us to discover this author, than to mark out the time when the book itself began to exist. But on which side soever we turn ourselves, we shall not be able to meet with any one upon whom it may with more probability be fixed, than upon the before cited Peter de Vignes.

If we had not his treatise De protes tate imperiali, his epistles suffice to demonstrate how very zealously he sided with Frederick the II. whose secretary he was, in his resentments against the Holy See.

They who have written concerning him, as Sigonious Trithemus and Ri

naldi, drew so advantageons a picture, both of his learning and parts, that all this, put together, is doubtless very favourable to our conjecture, and particularly when he mentions this book in his epistles, sharply reproaching his master's adversaries with their falsely spreading the report, then current, of this prince's being the Author. For, from hence we may infer, that he himself had the greatest share in the composition, and that the great pains he took to destroy this malignant rumour, was a mere effect of his apprehension or dread, lest the accusation, in case it gathered strength by continuing much longer to pass from one to another, might at last drop from the monarch and light upon the secretary, who most apparently was a much properer person to pen such a piece, than was a great and martial emperor, constantly busied in feats of warfare, and often attacked with thunder from the Vatican. In short, than a prince, who, though a gallant personage, had little leisure to be a casuist; not like Peter de Vignes, who had allowed himself all the time and application necessary to perfect his studies, and who owed his post and the affec tion of his sovereign, to his great fund of erudition.

Now, from all this it may be readily concluded, that this little book was composed since the year 1230, by order of the emperor Frederick the II. in hatred to the court of Rome, and that there is very great probability that Peter de Vignes, that monarch's secretary, did compose it by his command.

This is the sum of what I judged necessary for me to advance in the front of this tract, in order to give some tolerable idea of its history, and withal, to prevent its being any longer attributed to persons who perhaps never thought of it.

THE EPISTLE.

Frederic the Emperor, to the most

illustrious Otho, greeting. MY DEAREST FRIEND.-I took care to get copied out the treatise, which I ordered to be composed and digested on the Three famous Impostors, by that most learned man with whom you discoursed on the same topic in my closet; and though you did not ask me for it, I nevertheless made haste to send you the manuscript, well

knowing how ardently you long to peruse it. So I am persuaded nothing can afford you greater satisfaction, except indeed it should be the joyful tidings of my having utterly crushed my cruel and inveterate enemies, and that my foot was actually on the Romish Hierarchy's throat, whose skin is not yet tinged red enough with the blood of so many millions of men, whom her fury has sacrificed to her abominable pride. Rest assured, that I shall neglect nothing in order one day to convince you of my absolute triumph over her, or my determination is to perish in the pursuit; for what reverses soever

I may undergo, the world shall never behold me kneeling at the feet of that strumpet like my predecessor. I hope for all things from my sword, and from the fidelity of the members of my empire; your counsel and assistance will contribute not a little to my success, though nothing in nature would so effectually bring all about, as the finding means how to inspire all Germany with the sentiments of this book; that is easy to be wished; but where are the men capable of putting in execution such a project. I recommend to you our mutual interest. Live happy, and I shall always be your F. I. friend.

TRANSLATIONS FROM THE LESS FAMILIAR LATIN CLASSICS.

DEAR SIR,

No III.

Seneca, the Tragic Poet.

TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH, ESQ.

THERE seems to have been some confusion respecting the origin of the tragedies which bear the name of Seneca. Whatever may be thought of their style, they seem to be too voluminous for a forgery of the middle ages. The hypothesis of modern fabrication may be plausible when applied to the Elegies of Gallus; but to believe that some obscure monk should succeed in palming upon the world a collection of ten tragedies, requires the imagination of a Pere Hardouin. It has been by a hasty guess, probably, that they were first attributed to the philosopher Seneca. That a man should write a tragedy, of which he himself is one of the dramatis persone, appears a strange thing. To obviate this improbability, some commentators appear to hold that Seneca (that is to say, L. Annæus Seneca) was the author only of three or four of these plays, and have added a Seneca Tragicus as the author of the rest. Others have adopted three authors for them-Seneca, Seneca Tragicus, and an unknown hand. All of these hypotheses are liable to objection. The tragedies, whoever may be their author, are written throughout in one style. That style does not possess the superabundance of point and antithesis which is peculiar to Seneca the philosopher. It is as improbable, too, that the tragedy of Octavia should have been written in Nero's lifetime, as that his tutor should be the author. The style of these productions, indeed, includes far too little of the artificial for the age of Seneca. Flatness is their characteristic. They have little passion, and less novelty of thought-little point, and little felicity of metaphor. That sort of snip-snap dialogue, in which the interlocutors keep up a "keen encounter of their wits," and play at battledore and shuttlecock in alternate lines, occurs in them, but scarcely so often as it does in the Greek tragedies. The Hercules Furens and the Troas are, I believe, thought the best. The Edipus, however, is the best subject; but the author had to steer clear of Sophocles, whom, after all, it is evident, he had in his eye. It will not be objected, I presume, to the chorus given below, that it does not, like the Greek, include the regularity of strophe, antistrophe, and epode. The lyrie measures, into which the

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