y, by those who were present, [Greek: hoi
parontes]: Eusebius says, [Greek: polloi]: Rufinus _plurimi_, very
many. A voice from heaven must certainly be sensibly discerned to be
more than human, and manifest itself sufficiently, to be perceived
that it could not come from the crowd.
10. L. 71.
11. Or. 20, 21, 22, 41.
12. The great council of Asia seems to have been held at that time in
Smyrna, instead of Ephesus, which the Arundelian marbles show
sometimes to have been done.
13. Or president of the public games, chosen yearly by the
common-council of Asia.
14. Dr. Middleton ridicules the mention of a dove issuing out of the
wound of the side; but this is only found in some modern MSS. by the
blunder of a transcriber: it is not in Eusebius, Rufinus,
Nicephorus, or the Greek Menaea; though the last two would have
magnified a prodigy if they had found the least authority for any.
According to Le Moyen, (Proleg. ad varia sacra.) Ceillier, &c., the
true reading is [Greek: ep apisera], on the left side; which some
transcriber blundered into [Greek: perisera], a dove. As to the
foregoing miracle, that a wind should naturally divest the fire of
its property of burning, and form it into an arch about the body, is
a much more wonderful supposition of the doctor's than any miracle.
15. St. Polycarp says himself, "That he had served Christ eighty-six
years." Basnage thinks he had been bishop so long, and was a hundred
and twenty years old when he suffered: but it is far more probable
that this is the term he had been a Christian, having been converted
in his youth, and dying about one hundred years old or upwards, as
Tillemont understands it.
16. 1 John iv. 3.
17. Some of the Philippians had seen St. Ignatius in chains, and perhaps
at Rome. The primitive martyrs, Zozimus and Rufus, are commemorated
in the Martyrologies on the 18th of December.

ST. PAULA, WIDOW.

This illustrious pattern of widows surpassed all other Roman ladies in
riches, birth, and the endowments of mind. She was born on the 5th of
May, in 347. The blood of the Scipios, the Gracchi, and Paulus AEmilius,
was centred in her by her mother Blesilla. Her father derived his
pedigree from Agamemnon, and her husband Toxotius his from Iulus and
AEneas. By him she had a son called also Toxotius, and four daughters,
namely, Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina. She sho