Note 342 — Chapter X · THE CHURCH.

Prosper, Chron. 431. He affirms that Pope Celestine deputed Germanus at the instance of Palladius (Chron. 429). Constantius of Lyons, in his life of Germanus, never alludes to the Pope, but attributes the mission of Germanus and Lupus to a Council of Gallican Bishops, assembled on account of the representations of the British Church. Beda, who must have had both accounts before him (for he quotes from both authorities), has literally transcribed the narrative of Constantius; and as he must have had some reason for this preference, I do not feel inclined to dissent from the venerable historian. Some clue may perhaps be afforded to the reasons for such opposite versions of the same story, by the remark of the Benedictine compiler of L’Art de verifier les Dates, etc., “Ce pape (Zozimus) l’année précédente (i.e., 417) avait accordé le Vicariat du Saint Siege dans les Gaules à Patrocle, Evêque d’Arles; c’était une nouveauté pour les Gaules, ou elle excita de grandes contestations.” Prosper may have chosen to give a colouring to the proceeding which the Gallican Bishops would have been unwilling, at that time, to admit.