rigen
himself; or, as it used to be called, the Penitence of Origen. (In the
Paris edition of 1519 it is called "Planctus, seu Lamentum Origenis."
Pope Gelasius refers to it as "Poenitentia Origenis.") That this work
has no pretensions whatever to be regarded as Origen's, has been long
placed beyond doubt. Even in the edition of 1545, this treatise is
prefaced by Erasmus in these words, "This Lamentation was neither
written by Origen nor translated by Jerome, but is the fiction of some
unlearned man, who attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace
upon Origen." [Basil, 1545. vol. i. p. 498.] In the Benedictine edition
(Paris, 1733.) no trace of this work is to be found. They do not admit
it among the doubtful, or even the spurious works; they do not so {136}
much as give room for it in the appendix; on the contrary, they drop it
altogether as utterly unworthy of being any longer preserved. Instead,
however, of admitting the work itself, these editors have supplied
abundant reason for its exclusion, by inserting the sentiments of
Huetius, or Huet, the very learned bishop of Avranches. He tells us,
that formerly to Origen's work on Principles used to be appended a
treatise called, the Lament of Origen, the Latin translation of which
Guido referred to Jerome. After quoting the passage of Erasmus (as above
cited from the edition of 1545) in proof of its having been "neither
written by Origen nor translated by Jerome, but the fabrication of some
unlearned man, who attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace on
Origen, just as they forged a letter in Jerome's name, lamenting that he
had ever thought with Origen," Huet proceeds thus: "And Gelasius in the
Roman Council writes, 'The book which is called The Repentance of
Origen, apocryphal.' It is wonderful, therefore, that without any mark
of its false character, it should be sometimes cited by some theologians
in evidence. Here we may smile at the supineness of a certain heterodox
man of the present age, who thought the 'Lament,' ascribed to Origen, to
be something different from the Book of Repentance." [Vol. iv. part ii.
p. 326.]

The Decree here referred to of Pope Gelasius, made in the Roman Council,
A.D. 494, by that pontiff, in conjunction with seventy bishops, contains
these strong expressions, before enumerating some few of the books then
condemned: "Other works written by heretics and schismatics, the
Catholic and Apostolic Church by {137} no means recei