DE DIONYSIO AREOPAGITA original: ON DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

VII.

These writings were that apple of discord a reference to the mythological golden apple that caused strife among goddesses which produced so many and such great quarrels among the learned: some, indeed, judging that all these things proceeded from that Dionysius whose name they bear, the Areopagite; others, on the contrary, judging them to be entirely and utterly alien to him and considering them to be adulterated and falsely attributed to such a great man. Although even these, when the matter comes down to defining the genuine author of the same, depart again into diverse factions. Those who favor the former opinion proclaim the unanimous consensus of antiquity from the sixth century onwards; and Nicolas de Nourry, in the same place, chapter 4, p. 175, lists the patrons of that view in order of centuries. You should not be surprised to find many Papists among them, since you may see that these same writings, in turn, support their shameful dogmas concerning the invocation of saints, Purgatory, and so forth. But the defenders of the Opposing Side are equipped with such a weight of reasons that they have dragged even the more astute among the Papists, especially the French, into agreement, even against their will. It would be necessary now to weigh the arguments of both parties and recall them to a fair scale of truth, which they bring forward for the sake of establishing their opinion, were it not too prolix and somewhat alien to our purpose. However, to satisfy the reader who is desirous of these things, we refer him to the principal defenders of both opinions. For those AFFIRMING the cause have strenuously argued it before others, such as Antonio Possevino, Sacred Apparatus, Vol. I, p. 401, following edition, Venice 1606; Andreas Schott, Jesuit, Scholarly remarks to Codex I of the Library of Photius; Baronius, Annals, Vol. II, to the year of Christ 109, p. 41 and following; Bellarmine, On Ecclesiastical Writers, p. 64; Matthæus Galenus in his Preface