Note 64 — LXXX. A Dissertation on the Antiquity of Glass in Windows. In a Letter to the Rev. Tho. Birch, D. D. Secret. R. S. By the Rev. John Nixon, M. A. F.R.S.

In order to justify my placing the testimony of this Father so high, I would observe, that St. Jerome (De Scriptor. Eccles.) says, that Lactantius—Extremâ senectute magister Cæsaris Crispi filii Constantini in Gallia fuit. He must probably have exercised this charge between anno Christi 309, when Constantine began to reign, and 320. If he was then of a great age, he might have composed the treatise, out of which this authority is produced, and which was one of the earliest of his works, that are extant (Vid. Sparkii præf. ad Lactant.), 40 years before, viz. about anno Christi 280; which brings us up to 200 years after the overthrow of Herculaneum, as above.