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THE LITEEARY FRAUD AND TOEGERY OP DOCUMENTS PURPORTING TO BE 

 THE ECCLESIASTICAL ANNALS OP THE SPANISH CHURCH OP THE POURTH 

 CENTURY, ASCRIBED BY PATHER HIGUERA TO PLAVIUS LUCIUS DEXTER, 

 A COTEMPORARY AND PRIEND OP ST. JEROME. 



The grand literary forgery of Spanish erudite impostors, of an eccle- 

 siastical kind, is coupled with the name of Father Higuera of Toledo, a 

 friend of the celebrated and eminent historian Mariana. A collection of 

 fragments of ecclesiastical Spanish history, said to have been written by 

 Elavius Lucius Dexter, a Christian friend of St. Jerome, of the fourth 

 century, was first published by Eather Higuera, in 1610, and these do- 

 cuments were said to haye come from the monastery of Eulda, near 

 Worms, in 1594. 



The first formally defended promulgation of the fabulous histories" 

 ascribed to i'lavius Lucius Dexter, in a work (small 4to, printed in 

 Madrid, in 1624), was entitled '^Elavio Lucio Dextro, Caballero Espa- 

 nol de Barcelona, Prefecto, Pretorio De Oriente Governador de Toledo 

 Par los Anos del Senor de 400, Defendido por Don Thomas Tamaio de 

 Vargas." In this volume not only E. L. Dexter is made to introduce 

 into Spain St. James, but also Sts. Peter and Paul. 



In the course of forty-five years these ^'fabulosas historias" had 

 gained not only an immense popularity, but a vast extension of details 

 and commentaries on them. 



Perhaps the greatest body of literary falsifications and fabrications 

 of documents purporting to be historical that was ever put together, 

 though not so erudite an imposture as that of Joannes Annius de Yi- 

 terbo, is that which is to be found in the four 4to volumes of the work 

 entitled " Poplacion Ecclesiastica de Espana y l^oticia de sus Prime- 

 ras honras Hallado en los Escritos de Hauberto, Monge de san Penito 

 (tom. i., ii.), elChronicon de Elavio Lucio Dextro (torn, iii.), Los Escri- 

 tos de Marco Maximo Obispo de Zaragoqa y el Chronicon de Liberato 

 Abad." (tom. iv.). 



This ponderous compound of literary forgeries and ecclesiastical 

 frauds was edited, and some portion, in all probability, if not manu- 

 factured as well as commented and eulogized by a learned Benedictine 

 monk, chronicler of his order. El Maestro Eray Gregorio de Argaiz, was 

 published in Madrid, in 1669. These pretended ancient chronicles have 

 been, however, denounced as ^'fabulous histories," not only by the 

 most learned critical men, such as Antonio Augustinus, but also by 

 most competent authorities of the Church of Rome. And yet these 

 forgeries have had an astonishing success up to the end of the seven- 

 teenth century. The catalogues of Spanish martyrs, and Spanish 

 bishops of the different sees, found in them, have been received and dealt 

 with as genuine documents, in most of the several chronicles and histo- 

 ries of the latter part of the sixteenth century. 



And, what is still more surprising, the extensive work of Argaiz (in 

 my possession), in which all these fictions, frauds, and forgeries, are 



R, I. A. PROC, VOL. VIII. 3 C 



