y general
Councils." He maintains that expressions tho' new, ought to be received
in Theology[616], when they are supported by the authority of General
Councils. This was in opposition to the Protestants, who maintained that
the term transubstantiation ought to be rejected on account of its
novelty. He is positive that such as depart from what was practised by
the whole Church, and confirmed by Councils[617], are guilty of a most
insolent folly, as St. Augustine said. He acknowledged the utility of
tradition. Had he lived in the time of the Apostles he would have
believed, he tells us, what they said, as well as what they wrote[618].
He was persuaded that the goodness of God[619] had not permitted the
doctrine of the universal Church to be corrupted, though the manners of
the Pastors of the Church might be reprehensible. He entertained the
same opinion, he tells us[620], concerning the authority of the Fathers
as the illustrious Father Petavius in the Prolegomena prefixed to his
most useful body of Divinity.

The works of the Apostolical Fathers were, next to the Scriptures,
Grotius's favourite study. When he heard that the Epistle of St.
Clement, which had been long lost to the world, was published in England
by Junius[621], from a Manuscript brought from Egypt, and written about
the time of the Council of Nice, he expressed his satisfaction to
Descordes[622], in a letter from Hamburg, dated June 1, 1633. "You gave
me great pleasure by informing me of the discovery of the Epistle of St.
Clement of Rome. No pains should be spared to recover those Fragments,
which partake much of the nature of the apostolical Writings: and they
ought not to be wholly rejected on account of interpolations: we must do
with them as with metals, separate the dross from the pure metal. Would
to God that Father Sirmond, or some one of his society like him, would
give us the Epistle of Barnabas, from which there are some quotations in
Clement of Alexandria. I remember to have heard Father Sirmond himself
say that the Jesuits have this letter."

St. Clement's Epistle was not sent to Grotius till after his departure
from Hamburg, and arrival at Francfort[623]. He examined it immediately,
and wrote his thoughts of it, July 17, to the famous Jerom Bignon,
Advocate-General: After reading it over and over, he remained satisfied
that it was the same which Photius had seen, and which St. Jerom,
Clement of Alexandria, and before them St. Irenaeus, had;