HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA
Page: 39

says her Majesty, who gives chapter and verse; ["Epist. 28*, edit.
Paris." And Jerome's answer, "Ibid. Epist. 76*."] "and Jerome
answers: 'I followed the Commentaries of Origen, of'"--five or six
different persons, who turned out mostly to be heretics before
Jerome had quite done with them in coming years!--"'And to confess
the honest truth to you,' continues Jerome, 'I read all that;
and after having crammed my head with a great many things, I sent
for my amanuensis, and dictated to him now my own thoughts,
now those of others, without much recollecting the order,
nor sometimes the words, nor even the sense.' In another place (in
the Book itself farther on [ "Commentary on the Galatians,
chap. iii."]), he says: 'I do not myself write;
I have an amanuensis, and I dictate to him what comes into my
mouth. If I wish to reflect a little, to say the thing better or a
better thing, he knits his brows, and the whole look of him tells
me sufficiently that he cannot endure to wait.'"--Here is a sacred
old gentleman, whom it is not safe to depend on for interpreting
the Scriptures, thinks her Majesty; but does not say so, leaving
Father Vota to his reflections.

Then again, coming to Councils, she quotes St. Gregory Nazianzen
upon him; who is truly dreadful in regard to Ecumenic Councils of
the Church,--and indeed may awaken thoughts of Deliberative
Assemblies generally, in the modern constitutional mind. "He says,
[ "Greg. Nazian. de Vita sua." ] No Council
ever was successful; so many mean human passions getting into
conflagration there; with noise, with violence and uproar, 'more
like those of a tavern or still worse place,'--these are his
words. He, for his own share, had resolved to avoid all such
'rendezvousing of the Geese and Cranes, flocking together to
throttle and tatter one another in that sad manner.' Nor had
St. Theodoret much opinion of the Council of Nice, except as a
kind of miracle. 'Nothing good to be expected from Councils,'
says he, 'except when God is pleased to interpose, and destroy the
machinery of the Devil.'"

--With more of the like sort; all delicate, as invisible needle-