apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

54 EPISTLES OF S. IGNATIUS.
aliquid quod quasi certain formam habeat constitui potest. Conquirendi
non sunt : si deferantur at arguantur, puniendi sunt, ita tamen ut qui
negaverit se Christianum esse idque re ipsa manifestum fecerit, id
est supplicando dis nostris, quamvis suspectus in praeteritum, veniam
ex poenitentia impetret. Sine auctore vero propositi libelli [in]
nuUo
crimine locum habere debent. Nam et pessimi exempli nee nostri
saeculi est.
The correspondence of Pliny and Trajan is commonly designated the tenth book
of Pliny's letters, being so treated by the early editor Aldus. This however is a wrong
designation. It is a separate work, and Kail in his edition has accordingly reinstated
it in an independent position. He has also restored the original order of the epistles
as found in the ms.
This order has been shown by Mommsen {Hlt/iics hi. p. 53 sq,
1869) to be chronological. It had been changed, apparently by H. Stephens, who
placed first those letters of Pliny to which Trajan's answer has not been preserved.
The earlier editions of Pliny's letters did not contain this correspondence. It was
first published in the beginning of the sixteenth century
from a MS in France, now no
longer extant. The editio princeps by H. Avantius (1502) contained only the later
letters from the 42nd onward. Avantius was followed by two other editors (Ph.
Beroaldus 1502, and Catanaeus 1506), who introduced some corrections of their own,
but made no use of the MS. At length in 1508 Aldus Manutius, — having obtained possession
of the MS, published the whole. For the earlier letters (i 41) he was entirely
dependent on the MS, but the later he appears to have taken from Avantius and previous
editors, introducing some emendations of his own, with little or no consultation
of the MS. Thus the only authorities for the text of the letters relating to the Christians
are the editions of Avantius and Aldus, the latter being of very secondary importance.
The history of the text of this correspondence is given by J. C. Orelli Historia Criiica
Epistolariim Plinii et Trajani usqtie ad Ann. MDLII (Turici, 1833), and in the
preface (p. xxxiii sq) to Keil's edition of Pliny (Lips. 1870). To Keil I am indebted
for the information which I have given. Variot {de Plin. yiin. etc. p. 58 sq) seems
not to have read Keil's preface, and gives a less correct account of the early editions.
This correspondence, thus appearing suddenly,
was received at first with some
slight hesitation; but the preface of Aldus Manutius silenced doubts. From that
time forward the genuineness of these letters does not appear to have been disputed.
Indeed, after Mommsen's investigations on the chronology of Pliny's life, it could
only be questioned by a scepticism bordering on insanity. Whether we regard
the style or the matter, they are equally inconceivable as the invention of a
forger.
With the two letters however, which relate to the persecution of the Christians,
the case has been different. With characteristic recklessness Semler in his Novae
Ohscrvationes Hist, ct Rclig. Christ, etc. saec. ii. p. 37 (Hallae, 1784) took the
initiative in the attack on the genuineness
of these letters. But he has not
succeeded in enlisting many followers. Quite recently however Aube in his
Ilistoire des Persecutions de V Eglise etc. p. 215 sq (1875) has marshalled in detail
the misgivings to which he had already given expression elsewhere (Revue Contemporaine,
2e Serie, LXVIII. p. 401). He does not however definitely decide against
their genuineness, but contents himself with setting forth the objections which might