St Athanasius the Great LETTERS, Part I, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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This Part: 128 Pages

Page 3

(3)

lxxii "

xiv "

(4)

xv "

xxii "

(5)

iv "

'exact result'

xvii years

vi months

xx days

Now the exact result of the figures as they stand is 182 months, 9 days, i.e. 15 years 2 months and 9 days, or 2 years 4 months and 11 days too little. Moreover of the well-known 'five exiles,' only four are accounted for. An exile has thus dropped out, and an item of 2 years 4 months 11 days. Now this corresponds exactly with the interval from Epiphi 17 (July 11), 335 (departure for Tyre, Fest. Ind. viii), to Athyr 27 (Nov. 23), 337 (return to Alexandria F. I. x). The annalist then (followed apparently by Theodt. H. E. ii. 1) reckoned the first exile at the above figure. But what of the first figure in our table, xc months iii days? It again exactly coincides with the interval from Pharm. 21 (Apr. 16, Easter Monday), 339 to Paophi 24 (Oct. 21), 346, on which day (S:1) Athan. returned from his second exile. This double coincidence cannot be an accident. It demonstrates beyond all dispute that the missing item of 'ann. ii, mens. iv, d. xii' has dropped out after 'Treveris in Galliis,' and that 'mens. xc, dies iii' relates to the second exile, so that, in S:1 also, the annalist wrote not 'annos vi' but 'annos vii menses vi dies iii,' which he repeats S:17 by its equivalent 'mens. xc, d. iii,' while words have dropped out in S:1 to the effect of what is supplied in brackets. (Hefele, ii. 50, Eng. Tr., is therefore in error here).

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