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Sanohnnisthon THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 196

This usage seems to have been followed with especial malignity and persistence, gaps in the series being filled from the records, and even those who had been exempted from wearing the sanbenito were represented by the article in the church. That the crime might be brought home to the family, a duplicate was sometimes made and hung in the church which was the parish home of the family. The inscriptions were renewed as they faded through time and handling. Naturally these articles were at times stolen from the depositaries, but were often replaced by the Holy Office. This exhibition was at times supplemented by lists made out and suspended separately, in order the more securely to perpetuate the memory of the heretic and his crime. During the second half of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, the zeal of the Inquisition in this natter relaxed, and there was connivance at the burial of the custom. The Cortes of Cadiz, Jan. 22, 1813, abolished the Inquisition, and a decree of the same date, citing Article 305 of the constitution, called attention to the provision that punishment was not to extend beyond the criminal, and directed that records or articles perpetuating the memory of punishment inflicted by the Inquisition be removed or destroyed within three days. The condition of Spain, however, could not ensure obedience to this order, and not for some time subsequently was the abolition of these garments completely carried out.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. C. Lea, Inquisition of Spain, iii. 162172, i. 258, 280, ii. 401-402, 409, iii. 103, 125, 158, 163, 184, iv. 527, New York, 1906-07.

SANCHUNIATHON, san-cil-nai'a-then. The Assumed Author (§ 1). Philo's Introduction (§ 2). Pre-Hesiodic Theogony and Creation (§ 3). Theogony Based on the Greek (§ 4). Antiquity of Material not Supported (§ 5). Complexity of Sources (§ 8). Semitic Material Employed (§ 7). Sanchuniathon is the name givers to an assumed

Phenician writer, alleged to have belonged to the city

of Berytus (Beirut), the putative author of a work

cited as "Phenician History" or "Things Pheni

cian." This work Philo Byblius (q.v.) claims to have

translated from the Phenician language

i. The As- into Greek, and it is known only by

sumed quotations from this alleged transla

Author. tion extant principally in Eusebius'

Preeparatio Evangedica, 32 e-41d (Eng.

transl., 2 vols., Oxford, 1903). The known frag

ments are collected elsewhere, best in C. Miiller,

Fragments historicorum Grwcorum, iii. 560 sqq.

(4 vols., Paris, 1841-51). According to Eusebius

(ut sup., 31d), Philo Byblius describes Sanchunia

thon as a man of great learning, given to research

into universal history, and especially interested in

the god Thoth (Tsautos), the Hermes of the Greeks,

whom he held to be the inventor of letters and wri

ting, with whom the writing of history began.

Eusebius (ut sup., 31a-c) cites also Porphyry, the

anti-Christian polemist, as asserting that the

"truest history of the affairs of the Jews" was

written by this Sancbuniathon, "who received the

records from Hierombalos, the priest of the god

Ieuo" and dedicated his history to King Abibalus of

Berytus. Porphyry adds that "the times of these men (i.e., evidently of Sanchuniathon, Hierombalos, and Abibalus] fall before the date of the Trojan war and approach nearly to the time of Moses, as shown by the succession of the kings of Phenicia [cf. Eusebius, ut sup., 484-486, where he uses these data to confirm the antiquity of Moses]. And Sanchuniathon . . . lived in the days of Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians, who is recorded as living before the Trojan war or in those very times." Porphyry further declares that his authority made "a complete collection of ancient history from the records in the various cities and from the registers in the temples, and wrote in the Phenician language with a love of truth." Porphyry adds his testimony that these works were translated into Greek by Philo of Byblos. Mention of Sanchuniathon appears to be confined to post-Christian writers, such as the grammarian Athenmus (fl. about 225 A.D.). The character and intrinsic interest of the material presented by Eusebius, the high antiquity claimed for it, and the line of transmission by which it has come down have combined to raise a number of problems which are of more than usual interest and are by no means merely academic. Renan voices a quite general opinion, justified by the amount of discussion the subject has raised, when he remarks that "few problems in the circle of Semitic studies and of ancient history . . . are of more importance" (Memoirs, p. 6). The worth of the material is surpassing if it be of the antiquity claimed ; it is great if it be of a period anterior to the Christian era; it is well worth study if it reflect truly either the priestly or the popular belief of the period of the "translator"; and it is in any case worthy of study as a presentation of a theory of the origin of religion if it date no earlier than the translator himself.

According to Eusebius (ut sup., 31d), the work was by Philo divided into nine books; Porphyry (De abatinentia) reports that it was in eight, possibly counting the first book merely

s. Philo's as an introduction. Eusebius makes Introduc- it clear that Philo prefaced his "trans- tion. lation " with an introduction. This describes Sanchuniathon as given to historical research, and laying the foundation of his history with Thoth-Hermes. Philo then asserts that " the most recent" writers on religion [by whom he means apparently those near the age of Sanchu niathon] rejected facts, invented allegories and myths, employed fictitiously cosmic phenomena, and overlaid them with absurdities. But Sanchu niathon happened on the "secret writings of the Ammoneans" in the shrines, studied them, and put aside the myths and allegories. But the priests who followed him restored the mythical character of the narratives, and this was the origin of the legends and myths prevalent in the Greek world. Philo is then quoted as setting forth briefly his syncretistic theory of the origin of religion. He declares that the "most ancient barbarians," especially the Phenicians and Egyptians, who in these matters were the teachers of mankind, regarded as the greatest gods those who had discovered the necessaries of life or . . done good to the nations," worshiped them as gods after