XLIV. We have not as yet said any thing of the fictitious chronicles,
and supposititious Histories imputed to various authors, such as
Dictys of Crete, Abdias of Babylon, the many fabricated by Annias of
Viterbo, Bervosus, Manethon, Megasthenes, and Fabius Pictor; the Cave of
Magdeburgh, cited by Ruxnerus, the Encolpio inverted by Thomas Elliot;
together with the Chronicles of Flavius Dexter, Marcus Maximus, Aubertus,
and many others, of which in Spain there has been so much talk. These
supposititious histories were the fountains, from whence were derived
innumerable errors, for before the imposture of them was discovered,
many writers, who were men of veracity, deduced accounts from them,
which they afterwards came to be named as the authors of; nor was the
circumstance of their having imbibed them at those vitiated fountains,
ever adverted to. This species of writings, may be compared to the
doblons, which they say are put into peoples hands by the Devil; they
at first have the appearance of gold, but are afterwards found to be
charcoal. How great was the transport of Wolfangus Lacy, a man in other
respects very learned, when he fancied that in a corner of Corinthia,
he had met with the manuscript of Abdias of Babylon. Great numbers of
editions of this book were published in a short space of time, it being
universally thought, that the world had found in it a most precious
treasure. It may be easily conceived, that a work of an author of such
eminence as one of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord Christ, and the
Bishop of Babylon, established by the apostles themselves, would have
been thought of inestimable value, provided it had been genuine. But the
deception was afterwards discovered, by the very context of the relation;
and Pope Paul the Fourth, condemned the book as apocryphal.