Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/294

 and martyr. The numerous particulars of fictitious miracles and persecutions might be amusing, but cannot deserve a place in this work, to the exclusion of serious matters of fact. A cursory view of the fables, however, may be allowed, even by these contracted limits.

The earliest story about Andrew is, that he was sent to Scythia first, when the apostles divided the world into provinces of duty. His route is said to have been through Greece, Epirus, and then directly northward into Scythia. Another later writer however, makes a different track for him, leading from Palestine into Asia Minor, through Cappadocia, Galatia and Bithynia;—thence north through the country of the cannibals and to the wild wastes of Scythia;—thence south along the northern, western and southern shores of the Black sea, to Byzantium, (now Constantinople,) and after some time, through Thrace, southwestwards into Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia, in which last, his life and labors are said to have ended. By the same author, he is also in another passage said to have been driven from Byzantium by threats of the persecution, and therefore to have crossed over the Black sea to city of Argyropolis, on its southern coast, where he preached two years, and constituted Stachys bishop of a church which he there founded; and thence to Sinope in Paphlagonia. It is said by others that, on his great northern journey, he went not only into Scythia but into Sogdiana, (now Tartary,) and even to the Sacae, (near the borders of Thibet,) and to India.

The earliest mention made of the apostle Andrew, by any writer whatever, after the evangelists, is by Origen, (about A. D. 230 or 240,) who speaks of him as having been sent to the Scythians. (Com. in Genes. 1. 3.) The passage is preserved only in the Latin translation of his writings, the original Greek of that part having been lost. The date of the original however, is too late to deserve any credit. A story making its first appearance nearly two centuries after the occurrence which it commemorates, with no reference to authorities, is but poor evidence. Eusebius (H. E. III. 1.) mentions barely the same circumstance as Origen, (A. D. 315.) Gregory Nazianzen (orat. in Ar.) is the first who says that Andrew went to Greece. (A. D. 370.) Chrysostom also (Hom. in xii. apost.) mentions this. (A. D. 398.) Jerom (Script. Ecc.) quotes Sophronius, as saying that Andrew went also to the Sogdians and Sacans. (A.D. 397.)

Augustin (de fid. contra Manich.) is the first who brings in very much from tradition, respecting Andrew; and his stories are so numerous and entertaining in their particulars, as to show that before his time, fiction had been most busily at work with the apostles;—but the details are all of such a character as not to deserve the slightest credit. The era of his writings moreover, is so late, (A. D. 395,) that he along with his contemporaries, Jerom and Chrysostom, may be condemned as receivers of late traditions, and corrupters of the purity of historical as well as sacred truth.

But the later writers go beyond these unsatisfactory generalities, and enter into the most entertaining particulars, making out very interesting and romantic stories. The monkish apostolical