Opera Omnia; cum Scholiis S. Maximi et Paraphrasi Pachymerae

...[considera]tion, if I should think myself able to devise anything better or more elegant in this genre than what the most illustrious Baronius has provided, a man great in every respect, of whom I would not hesitate to pronounce that saying of the Laconians: θεῖος ἀνήρ [a divine man]. For he argues thus: Regarding the fact that Bede and Ado treat Dionysius the Areopagite on the 3rd day of October, but Dionysius of the Parisians on the 9th day, as if the latter were different from the former, we say they borrowed the example from the Greeks; for on 그날 the Greeks treat of the Areopagite, whereas it is certain that in Rome it was customary to observe this day based on ancient monuments of the churches, perhaps for another reason. For we have often seen it happen that the Greeks celebrate the festival of the same Saint for one reason, and the Latins for another; indeed, even among the Latins themselves you will find the same diversity, namely that some celebrate the birthday [of his martyrdom], others the discovery or translation [of his relics], or perhaps the dedication of a church—for which reasons you will easily find that a solemnity is observed a second time for one and the same saint.

In addition, if it be more closely considered what Bede and Ado say on that day, October 3rd, concerning Dionysius the Areopagite, they themselves seem rather to favor our cause than to contradict it: since they testify that Saint Dionysius fulfilled his martyrdom under Emperor Hadrian. At which time it is certain that Bishop Quadratus presided over the Athenian Church, and before him Publius, the predecessor of this man [Quadratus] and the successor of Dionysius: for this is testified by Eusebius in the 4th book of his History, chapter 22; by Saint Jerome in On Ecclesiastical Writers under the entry for Quadratus; and finally by the other historians who have followed those times. Indeed, if we give credit to the booklet of Hippolytus on the 72 disciples, it must be said that Narcissus, a disciple of the Lord, sat [on the throne] at Athens before those aforementioned, after Dionysius. What cause then could there have been that, while Dionysius was still surviving, up until the times of Hadrian, three bishops, or at least two, were substituted in his place? It is by no means to be believed that such and so great a man, a pillar of the Church, sent back word of resignation to his ecclesiastical see and spent his life in idleness. And thus there is nothing that seems more fitting to be said than what his Acts indicate: that he was dispatched to the Gauls by Pope Saint Clement to undertake a greater Province. By which example it appears to have happened that Saint Polycarp also sent many of his own disciples from Asia to the same place, when he saw so great a door standing open for the propagation of the Gospel, and that in so great a harvest the laborers were very few.

Thus far Baronius. Who, when he names Saint Clement, suggests, in my opinion, a most powerful argument to prove the same matter. For it will not be found in the Lives of the Pontiffs that Dionysius was sent to Gaul by anyone other than Clement, who, as the public minister of religion and president of the Roman throne, with equal counsel and authority dispatched the fellow-soldiers of the Blessed Dionysius, from whom the peoples of Italy and Germany, as well as those who are in Spain, received the light of faith. It would be necessary [to conclude] that these peoples, deluded by a futile opinion, have hitherto lain in the greatest ignorance, and that every tradition of the ancestors must be thought empty—and finally, that those things contained in the archives and registries of the churches are old wives' fictions—if Dionysius the Areopagite, and those who are said to be his companions, never landed upon those shores. And this very point will be, I think, more illustrious if we consider what the various Breviaries (which preserve the common faith of nations concerning their tutelary saints) represent concerning Dionysius and his companions. Accordingly, the Reverend Lord Florentius Vanderhare, Canon and Treasurer of the Collegiate Church...