Sacred historians' candor, and pagan myths as shadows of the true history
Moreover sincerity and candor build faith for the sacred historians — candor so great that they do not hide their own vices, and often brand themselves and their own with many marks of ignominy. Nay, the poets' very fables make Scripture's history credible. For if anyone diligently inspects the ancient poets' fables and compares them with sacred history, he will find those fables to be shadows of things whose body Scripture has, and to have drawn their origin from true histories spread through the whole world by the tradition of Noah's sons, and later corrupted and interpolated by the lapse of time: which could be made plain by many examples, and which learned men who have labored in this matter have made easy to see.
Latin
XL. Praeterea Historicis sacris fidem astruit sinceritas et candor eorum, qui tantus est, ut vitia sua non dissimulent, et saepe sibi suisque multas inurant ignominiae notas. Imo Scripturae historiam credibilem reddunt ipsae poetarum fabulae. Si quis enim veteres poetarum fabulas diligenter inspiciat, et cum historia sacra conferat, reperiet istas fabulas umbras quasdam esse rerum, quarum corpus Scriptura habet, et originem traxisse e veris historiis quae traditione filiorum Noe per totum orbem disseminatae sunt, et tandem lapsu temporis corruptae et interpolatae: ut multis exemplis posset fieri manifestum, et rem facilem reddiderunt viri docti, qui hac in re operam posuerunt.