Many of the early fathers believed the story so firmly that they did not hesitate to bring It forward as • proof of the resurrection ; and that, not as an orgamentuns ad hominem, when disputing with heathens, lait seriously, and in writings addressed to converts to Christianity. St.. Clement is the first who uses this argument Voce cit.), in which he is followed by St. Cyril and Tertullian (iveis cit.), and Epiphanius (' Ancor.,' sec. 84, p. 89). The passage in St. Cyril (which also contains two or three additional embellishments) will serve as a specimen. " God knew men's unbelief," says lie (in Mr. Church's translation, Oxford, 1838), "and provided for this purpose a bird called a phoenix. This bird, as Clement writes, and as many more relate, the only one of he race, going to the land of the Egyptians at revolutions of five hundred years, shows forth the reaurrection; and this, not in desert places, lest the mystery which comes to pass should remain unknown, but in a notable city, that men might even handle what they disbelieve. For it makes itself a nest of frankincense and imp" h and other spices ; and entering into this when its years are fulfilled, it evidently dies and moulders away. Then frum the mouldering flesh of the dead a worm springs, and this worm, when grown large, is tranformed into a bird; and do not disbelieve this, for thou seest the offspring of bees also fashioned thus out of worms, and from eggs which are most moist thou hart seen the wings and bones and sinews of birds issue. Afterwards this pie:cilia, becoming fledged and a perfect phoenix, as was the former one, soars up into the air such as it had died, showing forth to men a most evident resurrection from the dead. The phcenix indeed is a wondrous bird, yet is ir rational, nor sings psalms to God ; it flies abroad through the sky, but it knows not the only-begotten Son of God. Is then a resurrection from the dead given unto this irrational creature, which knows not its maker ; and to us, who ascribe glory to God and keep his command ments, shall there no resurrection be granted?" Origen seems to doubt its truth (` Cont. Cels.; lib. iv., cap. 98, p. 229), and Photius blames St. Clement for his credulity in mentioning it
Biblioth.; cod. 126, p. 305); but these two are (so far as the writer is aware) the only two of the ancient authors who did not believe it. This, however, ought not to lessen the authority of the fathers on other matters, nor should it be made a subject of reproach against them that" they were not proficients in a brunch of knowledge which has been a peculiar study of modern times." (See Mr. Newman's preface to Mr. Church's' Translation of St. Cyril,' Oxf., 1833.) It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the more modern authors who, during the middle ages, expressed their belief in the existence of the phcrnix, for the list would include almost all tho writers on natural history, besides a great number of others. Perhaps the most curious circumstance relating to it is what is told us by Camden (' Britaunia,' p. 783, ed. Lond., 1607), namely, that Pope Clement VIII. sent, in 1599, to Lord .Tyrono, the chieftain of the Irish rebels, a plicenix's feather. This was mentioned in his work only eight years after the event took place, but we are not informed how the pope procured the feather, or what had become of it at the time when Camden wrote. Sir Thomas Browne, in his' Vulgar Errors' (of which the first edition was published in 1646), thinks it necessary to state at some length his reasons for disbelieving the existence of the phccnix (book iii. ch. 12); and in 1552 he was attacked fur this and other pieces of incredulity by Alexander Ross, in a work entitled *Areana 3licrocosmi, or the Hid Secrets of Man's Body discovered,' &c. With respect to the phoenix, the writer is not surprised at its seldom making its appearance, its instinct teaching it to keep out of the way of the tyrant of the creation—man; " for had Ileliogabalus, that Roman glutton, met with him, he had devoured him, though there were no more in the world I " (` Arca. 3ticr.,' p. 202.) Alexander Ross, who was really a person of some sense and learning, was probably ono of the last believers in the phoenix, which is now Given up entirely to the poets ; indeed, since the appearance of the 'Rejected Addresses,' almost abandoned even by them.