hop: most of the
inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to the coast of Spain;
and the unhappy remnant, refusing all communion with the usurper,
still presumed to hold their pious, but illegal, assemblies. Their
disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Hunneric. A military count was
despatched from Carthage to Tipasa: he collected the Catholics in the
Forum, and, in the presence of the whole province, deprived the
guilty of their right hands and their tongues. But the holy confessors
continued to speak without tongues; and this miracle is attested by
Victor, an African bishop, who published a history of the persecution
within two years after the event. "If any one," says Victor, "should
doubt of the truth, let him repair to Constantinople, and listen to the
clear and perfect language of Restitutus, the sub-deacon, one of these
glorious sufferers, who is now lodged in the palace of the emperor
Zeno, and is respected by the devout empress." At Constantinople we
are astonished to find a cool, a learned, and unexceptionable witness,
without interest, and without passion. AEneas of Gaza, a Platonic
philosopher, has accurately described his own observations on these
African sufferers. "I saw them myself: I heard them speak: I diligently
inquired by what means such an articulate voice could be formed without
any organ of speech: I used my eyes to examine the report of my ears;
I opened their mouth, and saw that the whole tongue had been completely
torn away by the roots; an operation which the physicians generally
suppose to be mortal." The testimony of AEneas of Gaza might be confirmed
by the superfluous evidence of the emperor Justinian, in a perpetual
edict; of Count Marcellinus, in his Chronicle of the times; and of Pope
Gregory the First, who had resided at Constantinople, as the minister of
the Roman pontiff. They all lived within the compass of a century; and
they all appeal to their personal knowledge, or the public notoriety,
for the truth of a miracle, which was repeated in several instances,
displayed on the greatest theatre of the world, and submitted, during
a series of years, to the calm examination of the senses. This
supernatural gift of the African confessors, who spoke without tongues,
will command the assent of those, and of those only, who already
believe, that their language was pure and orthodox. But the stubborn
mind of an infidel, is guarded by secret, incurable suspicion; and
the Arian, or Socin