true Schismatic_, says _Firmilian, who departs from the Unity of the Church, which thou hast done, O_ Stephen; _for, by attempting to separate others from thee, thou hast separated thyself from all other Churches. How much Sin hast thou heaped upon thyself by cutting thyself off from so many Flocks[451]!_ _Firmilian_’s Letter was translated into _Latin_ by St. _Cyprian_ himself, as is manifest from the Style. It was unknown, it seems, to St. _Austin_; for he never quotes it, nor, in confuting the Opinion of Sr. _Cyprian_, takes any notice of some Reasons alleged in that Letter to support it. [Sidenote: Stephen _dies, but not a Martyr_.] There was no Hope of seeing an End put to this Dispute, so long as _Stephen_ lived; but he dying, his Successor, who was a Man of a quite different Temper, laid the Storm, which his furious and ungovernable Passion had raised. He died on the 2d of _August_ 257. according to the most probable Opinion[452]. The Church of _Rome_, upon the Authority of his Acts, ranks him among the Martyrs; but that Honour is not paid him either by St. _Austin_, or by _Vincentius Lirinensis_, who, naming him together with St. _Cyprian_, as they often do, give constantly the Title of Martyr to the latter, and never to the former. [Sidenote: _His Acts fabulous._] As for his Acts, they flatly contradict, in several Points, the most unexceptionable Writers among the Antients[453], and therefore by no means deserve the Credit which _Baronius_ would have us give them[454]. Even _Anastasius_ seems to have made no Account of them, if in his Time they were yet composed, which may be questioned; for the Account he gives us of _Stephen_’s Death differs widely from that which we read in those Acts[455]. But he had made a bold Attempt towards extending the Power and Authority of the See of _Rome_, and therefore was to be placed among the Saints for the Encouragement of others. To say he had merited that Honour by his Virtues, either as a Christian or a Bishop, had been carrying the Imposture too far: the only Means therefore left of making him a Saint, was to make him a Martyr, that, by his glorious Death, he might be thought to have deserved what it was manifest from the Records of those Times he had not deserved by his Christian Life. Hence Acts were forged, setting forth his heroic Confession of the Faith before the Emperor, his Sufferings on that Account, the stupendous Miracles he wrought, _&c._ which, however incredible, might, in Process of Time, by their Antiquity alone, gain Credit with the greater Part of Mankind. [Sidenote: _His Reliques._] _Stephen_ was buried in the Cœmetery of _Callistus_[456]; whence his Body was translated about the Year 762. by _Paul_ I. to a Monastery of _Greek_ Monks, which that Pope had built in _Rome_, as we read in _Anastasius_[457]. How it got from thence to _Trani_ in _Apulia_ nobody knows; but from that City it was conveyed with great Pomp in 1682. to