Note N14 — St. PETER (continued 3)

Thus the very Letter of Liberius is put in the Place where the Letter of the Council of Sardica to the Emperor Constantius ought to have been, as is manifest from what is said immediately before it. A few Lines after, instead of the Letter from the Council of Egypt to Liberius, which Hilarius promises, we find one from Liberius to the Bishops of Italy, written after the Death of Constantius upon a quite different Subject. What comes immediately after the Letter of Liberius to the Eusebians, ought, in all Likelihood, to have been placed after the above-mentioned Letter of the Council of Sardica to Constantius: for to me it appears no less improbable than it does or can do to Baronius[1], that Hilarius, a most zealous Stickler for the Orthodox Faith, should approve of the Pope’s scandalous Letter, tending utterly to subvert it, and express his Approbation in these Terms; What is there in this Letter that is not holy? What is there that does not proceed from the Fear of God? However, I cannot conclude, and much less demonstratively, with the Annalist, that the Letter has been forged by the Arians. All I think can be inferred from thence is, that the Letters, like most other Pieces there, have been misplaced; and that the above-mentioned Words of Hilarius ought to be put after the Letter of the Council to Constantius, and not after that of Liberius to the Arians.