Edward Gibbon: The Destruction of Paganism and the Rise of the Cult of Saints [Chapter
XXVIII of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part I.
Final Destruction Of Paganism. - Introduction Of The Worship Of
Saints, And Relics, Among The Christians.
The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only example of the
total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition; and may therefore deserve to be
considered as a singular event in the history of the human mind. The Christians, more
especially the clergy, had impatiently supported the prudent delays of Constantine, and
the equal toleration of the elder Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest perfect
or secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to exist. The influence which
Ambrose and his brethren had acquired over the youth of Gratian, and the piety of
Theodosius, was employed to infuse the maxims of persecution into the breasts of their
Imperial proselytes. Two specious principles of religious jurisprudence were established,
from whence they deduced a direct and rigorous conclusion, against the subjects of the
empire who still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors: that the magistrate is, in
some measure, guilty of the crimes which he neglects to prohibit, or to punish; and, that
the idolatrous worship of fabulous deities, and real daemons, is the most abominable crime
against the supreme majesty of the Creator. The laws of Moses, and the examples of Jewish
history, ^1 were hastily, perhaps erroneously, applied, by the clergy, to the mild and
universal reign of Christianity. ^2 The zeal of the emperors was excited to vindicate
their own honor, and that of the Deity: and the temples of the Roman world were subverted,
about sixty years after the conversion of Constantine.
[Footnote 1: St. Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Theodos. p. 1208) expressly praises
and recommends the zeal of Josiah in the destruction of idolatry The language of Julius
Firmicus Maternus on the same subject (de Errore Profan. Relig. p. 467, edit. Gronov.) is
piously inhuman. Nec filio jubet (the Mosaic Law) parci, nec fratri, et per amatam
conjugera gladium vindicem ducit, &c.]
[Footnote 2: Bayle (tom. ii. p. 406, in his Commentaire Philosophique)
justifies, and limits, these intolerant laws by the temporal reign of Jehovah over the
Jews. The attempt is laudable.]
From the age of Numa to the reign of Gratian, the Romans preserved the regular
succession of the several colleges of the sacerdotal order. ^3 Fifteen Pontiffs exercised
their supreme jurisdiction over all things, and persons, that were consecrated to the
service of the gods; and the various questions which perpetually arose in a loose and
traditionary system, were submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal Fifteen grave
and learned Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and prescribed the actions of heroes,
according to the flight of birds. Fifteen keepers of the Sibylline books (their name of
Quindecemvirs was derived from their number) occasionally consulted the history of future,
and, as it should seem, of contingent, events. Six Vestals devoted their virginity to the
guard of the sacred fire, and of the unknown pledges of the duration of Rome; which no
mortal had been suffered to behold with impunity. ^4 Seven Epulos prepared the table of
the gods, conducted the solemn procession, and regulated the ceremonies of the annual
festival. The three Flamens of Jupiter, of Mars, and of Quirinus, were considered as the
peculiar ministers of the three most powerful deities, who watched over the fate of Rome
and of the universe. The King of the Sacrifices represented the person of Numa, and of his
successors, in the religious functions, which could be performed only by royal hands. The
confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, &c., practised such rites as might
extort a smile of contempt from every reasonable man, with a lively confidence of
recommending themselves to the favor of the immortal gods. The authority, which the Roman
priests had formerly obtained in the counsels of the republic, was gradually abolished by
the establishment of monarchy, and the removal of the seat of empire. But the dignity of
their sacred character was still protected by the laws, and manners of their country; and
they still continued, more especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital,
and sometimes in the provinces, the rights of their ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction.
Their robes of purple, chariotz of state, and sumptuous entertainments, attracted the
admiration of the people; and they received, from the consecrated lands, and the public
revenue, an ample stipend, which liberally supported the splendor of the priesthood, and
all the expenses of the religious worship of the state. As the service of the altar was
not incompatible with the command of armies, the Romans, after their consulships and
triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff, or of augur; the seats of Cicero ^5 and Pompey
were filled, in the fourth century, by the most illustrious members of the senate; and the
dignity of their birth reflected additional splendor on their sacerdotal character. The
fifteen priests, who composed the college of pontiffs, enjoyed a more distinguished rank
as the companions of their sovereign; and the Christian emperors condescended to accept
the robe and ensigns, which were appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when
Gratian ascended the throne, more scrupulous or more enlightened, he sternly rejected
those profane symbols; ^6 applied to the service of the state, or of the church, the
revenues of the priests and vestals; abolished their honors and immunities; and dissolved
the ancient fabric of Roman superstition, which was supported by the opinions and habits
of eleven hundred years. Paganism was still the constitutional religion of the senate. The
hall, or temple, in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of Victory;
^7 a majestic female standing on a globe, with flowing garments, expanded wings, and a
crown of laurel in her outstretched hand. ^8 The senators were sworn on the altar of the
goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire: and a solemn offering of
wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of their public deliberations. The removal of
this ancient monument was the only injury which Constantius had offered to the
superstition of the Romans. The altar of Victory was again restored by Julian, tolerated
by Valentinian, and once more banished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian. ^10 But the
emperor yet spared the statues of the gods which were exposed to the public veneration:
four hundred and twenty-four temples, or chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion
of the people; and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians was offended by
the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice. ^11 [Footnote 3: See the outlines of the Roman
hierarchy in Cicero, (de Legibus, ii. 7, 8,) Livy, (i. 20,) Dionysius Halicarnassensis,
(l. ii. p. 119 - 129, edit. Hudson,) Beaufort, (Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 1 - 90,)
and Moyle, (vol. i. p. 10 - 55.) The last is the work of an English whig, as well as of a
Roman antiquary.]
[Footnote 4: These mystic, and perhaps imaginary, symbols have given birth to
various fables and conjectures. It seems probable, that the Palladium was a small statue
(three cubits and a half high) of Minerva, with a lance and distaff; that it was usually
enclosed in a seria, or barrel; and that a similar barrel was placed by its side to
disconcert curiosity, or sacrilege. See Mezeriac (Comment. sur les Epitres d'Ovide, tom i.
p. 60 - 66) and Lipsius, (tom. iii. p. 610 de Vesta, &c. c 10.)]
[Footnote 5: Cicero frankly (ad Atticum, l. ii. Epist. 5) or indirectly (ad
Familiar. l. xv. Epist. 4) confesses that the Augurate is the supreme object of his
wishes. Pliny is proud to tread in the footsteps of Cicero, (l. iv. Epist. 8,) and the
chain of tradition might be continued from history and marbles.]
[Footnote 6: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 249, 250. I have suppressed the foolish pun
about Pontifex and Maximus.]
[Footnote 7: This statue was transported from Tarentum to Rome, placed in the
Curia Julia by Caesar, and decorated by Augustus with the spoils of Egypt.]
[Footnote 8: Prudentius (l. ii. in initio) has drawn a very awkward portrait of
Victory; but the curious reader will obtain more satisfaction from Montfaucon's
Antiquities, (tom. i. p. 341.)]
[Footnote 9: See Suetonius (in August. c. 35) and the Exordium of Pliny's
Panegyric.]
[Footnote 10: These facts are mutually allowed by the two advocates, Symmachus
and Ambrose.]
[Footnote 11: The Notitia Urbis, more recent than Constantine, does not find one
Christian church worthy to be named among the edifices of the city. Ambrose (tom. ii.
Epist. xvii. p. 825) deplores the public scandals of Rome, which continually offended the
eyes, the ears, and the nostrils of the faithful.]
But the Christians formed the least numerous party in the senate of Rome: ^12 and it
was only by their absence, that they could express their dissent from the legal, though
profane, acts of a Pagan majority. In that assembly, the dying embers of freedom were, for
a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of fanaticism. Four respectable deputations
were successively voted to the Imperial court, ^13 to represent the grievances of the
priesthood and the senate, and to solicit the restoration of the altar of Victory. The
conduct of this important business was intrusted to the eloquent Symmachus, ^14 a wealthy
and noble senator, who united the sacred characters of pontiff and augur with the civil
dignities of proconsul of Africa and praefect of the city. The breast of Symmachus was
animated by the warmest zeal for the cause of expiring Paganism; and his religious
antagonists lamented the abuse of his genius, and the inefficacy of his moral virtues. ^15
The orator, whose petition is extant to the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the
difficulty and danger of the office which he had assumed. He cautiously avoids every topic
which might appear to reflect on the religion of his sovereign; humbly declares, that
prayers and entreaties are his only arms; and artfully draws his arguments from the
schools of rhetoric, rather than from those of philosophy. Symmachus endeavors to seduce
the imagination of a young prince, by displaying the attributes of the goddess of victory;
he insinuates, that the confiscation of the revenues, which were consecrated to the
service of the gods, was a measure unworthy of his liberal and disinterested character;
and he maintains, that the Roman sacrifices would be deprived of their force and energy,
if they were no longer celebrated at the expense, as well as in the name, of the republic.
Even scepticism is made to supply an apology for superstition. The great and
incomprehensible secret of the universe eludes the inquiry of man. Where reason cannot
instruct, custom may be permitted to guide; and every nation seems to consult the dictates
of prudence, by a faithful attachment to those rites and opinions, which have received the
sanction of ages. If those ages have been crowned with glory and prosperity, if the devout
people have frequently obtained the blessings which they have solicited at the altars of
the gods, it must appear still more advisable to persist in the same salutary practice;
and not to risk the unknown perils that may attend any rash innovations. The test of
antiquity and success was applied with singular advantage to the religion of Numa; and
Rome herself, the celestial genius that presided over the fates of the city, is introduced
by the orator to plead her own cause before the tribunal of the emperors. "Most
excellent princes," says the venerable matron, "fathers of your country! pity
and respect my age, which has hitherto flowed in an uninterrupted course of piety. Since I
do not repent, permit me to continue in the practice of my ancient rites. Since I am born
free, allow me to enjoy my domestic institutions. This religion has reduced the world
under my laws. These rites have repelled Hannibal from the city, and the Gauls from the
Capitol. Were my gray hairs reserved for such intolerable disgrace? I am ignorant of the
new system that I am required to adopt; but I am well assured, that the correction of old
age is always an ungrateful and ignominious office." ^16 The fears of the people
supplied what the discretion of the orator had suppressed; and the calamities, which
afflicted, or threatened, the declining empire, were unanimously imputed, by the Pagans,
to the new religion of Christ and of Constantine.
[Footnote 12: Ambrose repeatedly affirms, in contradiction to common sense
(Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 147,) that the Christians had a majority in the senate.]
[Footnote 13: The first (A.D. 382) to Gratian, who refused them audience; the
second (A.D. 384) to Valentinian, when the field was disputed by Symmachus and Ambrose;
the third (A.D. 388) to Theodosius; and the fourth (A.D. 392) to Valentinian. Lardner
(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 372 - 399) fairly represents the whole transaction.]
[Footnote 14: Symmachus, who was invested with all the civil and sacerdotal
honors, represented the emperor under the two characters of Pontifex Maximus, and Princeps
Senatus. See the proud inscription at the head of his works.
Note: Mr. Beugnot has made it doubtful whether Symmachus was more than Pontifex
Major. Destruction du Paganisme, vol. i. p. 459. - M.]
[Footnote 15: As if any one, says Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 639) should dig in
the mud with an instrument of gold and ivory. Even saints, and polemic saints, treat this
adversary with respect and civility.] [Footnote 16: See the fifty-fourth Epistle of the
tenth book of Symmachus. In the form and disposition of his ten books of Epistles, he
imitated the younger Pliny; whose rich and florid style he was supposed, by his friends,
to equal or excel, (Macrob. Saturnal. l. v. c. i.) But the luxcriancy of Symmachus
consists of barren leaves, without fruits, and even without flowers. Few facts, and few
sentiments, can be extracted from his verbose correspondence.]
But the hopes of Symmachus were repeatedly baffled by the firm and dexterous opposition
of the archbishop of Milan, who fortified the emperors against the fallacious eloquence of
the advocate of Rome. In this controversy, Ambrose condescends to speak the language of a
philosopher, and to ask, with some contempt, why it should be thought necessary to
introduce an imaginary and invisible power, as the cause of those victories, which were
sufficiently explained by the valor and discipline of the legions. He justly derides the
absurd reverence for antiquity, which could only tend to discourage the improvements of
art, and to replunge the human race into their original barbarism. >From thence,
gradually rising to a more lofty and theological tone, he pronounces, that Christianity
alone is the doctrine of truth and salvation; and that every mode of Polytheism conducts
its deluded votaries, through the paths of error, to the abyss of eternal perdition. ^17
Arguments like these, when they were suggested by a favorite bishop, had power to prevent
the restoration of the altar of Victory; but the same arguments fell, with much more
energy and effect, from the mouth of a conqueror; and the gods of antiquity were dragged
in triumph at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius. ^18 In a full meeting of the senate, the
emperor proposed, according to the forms of the republic, the important question, Whether
the worship of Jupiter, or that of Christ, should be the religion of the Romans. ^* The
liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was destroyed by the hopes and fears
that his presence inspired; and the arbitrary exile of Symmachus was a recent admonition,
that it might be dangerous to oppose the wishes of the monarch. On a regular division of
the senate, Jupiter was condemned and degraded by the sense of a very large majority; and
it is rather surprising, that any members should be found bold enough to declare, by their
speeches and votes, that they were still attached to the interest of an abdicated deity.
^19 The hasty conversion of the senate must be attributed either to supernatural or to
sordid motives; and many of these reluctant proselytes betrayed, on every favorable
occasion, their secret disposition to throw aside the mask of odious dissimulation. But
they were gradually fixed in the new religion, as the cause of the ancient became more
hopeless; they yielded to the authority of the emperor, to the fashion of the times, and
to the entreaties of their wives and children, ^20 who were instigated and governed by the
clergy of Rome and the monks of the East. The edifying example of the Anician family was
soon imitated by the rest of the nobility: the Bassi, the Paullini, the Gracchi, embraced
the Christian religion; and "the luminaries of the world, the venerable assembly of
Catos (such are the high-flown expressions of Prudentius) were impatient to strip
themselves of their pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the old serpent; to assume the
snowy robes of baptismal innocence, and to humble the pride of the consular fasces before
tombs of the martyrs." ^21 The citizens, who subsisted by their own industry, and the
populace, who were supported by the public liberality, filled the churches of the Lateran,
and Vatican, with an incessant throng of devout proselytes. The decrees of the senate,
which proscribed the worship of idols, were ratified by the general consent of the Romans;
^22 the splendor of the Capitol was defaced, and the solitary temples were abandoned to
ruin and contempt. ^23 Rome submitted to the yoke of the Gospel; and the vanquished
provinces had not yet lost their reverence for the name and authority of Rome. ^*
[Footnote 17: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. xviii. p. 825 - 833.) The
former of these epistles is a short caution; the latter is a formal reply of the petition
or libel of Symmachus. The same ideas are more copiously expressed in the poetry, if it
may deserve that name, of Prudentius; who composed his two books against Symmachus (A.D.
404) while that senator was still alive. It is whimsical enough that Montesquieu
(Considerations, &c. c. xix. tom. iii. p. 487) should overlook the two professed
antagonists of Symmachus, and amuse himself with descanting on the more remote and
indirect confutations of Orosius, St. Augustin, and Salvian.]
[Footnote 18: See Prudentius (in Symmach. l. i. 545, &c.) The Christian
agrees with the Pagan Zosimus (l. iv. p. 283) in placing this visit of Theodosius after
the second civil war, gemini bis victor caede Tyranni, (l. i. 410.) But the time and
circumstances are better suited to his first triumph.]
[Footnote *: M. Beugnot (in his Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme en
Occident, i. p. 483 - 488) questions, altogether, the truth of this statement. It is very
remarkable that Zosimus and Prudentius concur in asserting the fact of the question being
solemnly deliberated by the senate, though with directly opposite results. Zosimus
declares that the majority of the assembly adhered to the ancient religion of Rome; Gibbon
has adopted the authority of Prudentius, who, as a Latin writer, though a poet, deserves
more credit than the Greek historian. Both concur in placing this scene after the second
triumph of Theodosius; but it has been almost demonstrated (and Gibbon - see the preceding
note - seems to have acknowledged this) by Pagi and Tillemont, that Theodosius did not
visit Rome after the defeat of Eugenius. M. Beugnot urges, with much force, the
improbability that the Christian emperor would submit such a question to the senate, whose
authority was nearly obsolete, except on one occasion, which was almost hailed as an epoch
in the restoration of her ancient privileges. The silence of Ambrose and of Jerom on an
event so striking, and redounding so much to the honor of Christianity, is of considerable
weight. M. Beugnot would ascribe the whole scene to the poetic imagination of Prudentius;
but I must observe, that, however Prudentius is sometimes elevated by the grandeur of his
subject to vivid and eloquent language, this flight of invention would be so much bolder
and more vigorous than usual with this poet, that I cannot but suppose there must have
been some foundation for the story, though it may have been exaggerated by the poet, or
misrepresented by the historian. - M]
[Footnote 19: Prudentius, after proving that the sense of the senate is declared
by a legal majority, proceeds to say, (609, &c.) - Adspice quam pleno subsellia nostra
Senatu Decernant infame Jovis pulvinar, et omne Idolum longe purgata ex urbe fugandum, Qua
vocat egregii sententia Principis, illuc Libera, cum pedibus, tum corde, frequentia
transit.
Zosimus ascribes to the conscript feathers a heathenish courage, which few of
them are found to possess.]
[Footnote 20: Jerom specifies the pontiff Albinus, who was surrounded with such
a believing family of children and grandchildren, as would have been sufficient to convert
even Jupiter himself; an extraordinary proselyted (tom. i. ad Laetam, p. 54.)]
[Footnote 21: Exultare Patres videas, pulcherrima mundi Lumina; Conciliumque
senum gestire Catonum Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum Sumere; et exuvias deponere
pontificales. The fancy of Prudentius is warmed and elevated by victory]
[Footnote 22: Prudentius, after he has described the conversion of the senate
and people, asks, with some truth and confidence, Et dubitamus adhuc Romam, tibi, Christe,
dicatam In leges transisse tuas?]
[Footnote 23: Jerom exults in the desolation of the Capitol, and the other
temples of Rome, (tom. i. p. 54, tom. ii. p. 95.)] [Footnote *: M. Beugnot is more correct
in his general estimate of the measures enforced by Theodosius for the abolition of
Paganism. He seized (according to Zosimus) the funds bestowed by the public for the
expense of sacrifices. The public sacrifices ceased, not because they were positively
prohibited, but because the public treasury would no longer bear the expense. The public
and the private sacrifices in the provinces, which were not under the same regulations
with those of the capital, continued to take place. In Rome itself, many pagan ceremonies,
which were without sacrifice, remained in full force. The gods, therefore, were invoked,
the temples were frequented, the pontificates inscribed, according to ancient usage, among
the family titles of honor; and it cannot be asserted that idolatry was completely
destroyed by Theodosius. See Beugnot, p. 491. - M.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part II.
The filial piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to proceed, with some caution
and tenderness, in the reformation of the eternal city. Those absolute monarchs acted with
less regard to the prejudices of the provincials. The pious labor which had been suspended
near twenty years since the death of Constantius, ^24 was vigorously resumed, and finally
accomplished, by the zeal of Theodosius. Whilst that warlike prince yet struggled with the
Goths, not for the glory, but for the safety, of the republic, he ventured to offend a
considerable party of his subjects, by some acts which might perhaps secure the protection
of Heaven, but which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human prudence. The
success of his first experiments against the Pagans encouraged the pious emperor to
reiterate and enforce his edicts of proscription: the same laws which had been originally
published in the provinces of the East, were applied, after the defeat of Maximus, to the
whole extent of the Western empire; and every victory of the orthodox Theodosius
contributed to the triumph of the Christian and Catholic faith. ^25 He attacked
superstition in her most vital part, by prohibiting the use of sacrifices, which he
declared to be criminal as well as infamous; and if the terms of his edicts more strictly
condemned the impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the victim, ^26 every
subsequent explanation tended to involve in the same guilt the general practice of
immolation, which essentially constituted the religion of the Pagans. As the temples had
been erected for the purpose of sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent prince to
remove from his subjects the dangerous temptation of offending against the laws which he
had enacted. A special commission was granted to Cynegius, the Praetorian praefect of the
East, and afterwards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two officers of distinguished
rank in the West; by which they were directed to shut the temples, to seize or destroy the
instruments of idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and to confiscate the
consecrated property for the benefit of the emperor, of the church, or of the army. ^27
Here the desolation might have stopped: and the naked edifices, which were no longer
employed in the service of idolatry, might have been protected from the destructive rage
of fanaticism. Many of those temples were the most splendid and beautiful monuments of
Grecian architecture; and the emperor himself was interested not to deface the splendor of
his own cities, or to diminish the value of his own possessions. Those stately edifices
might be suffered to remain, as so many lasting trophies of the victory of Christ. In the
decline of the arts they might be usefully converted into magazines, manufactures, or
places of public assembly: and perhaps, when the walls of the temple had been sufficiently
purified by holy rites, the worship of the true Deity might be allowed to expiate the
ancient guilt of idolatry. But as long as they subsisted, the Pagans fondly cherished the
secret hope, that an auspicious revolution, a second Julian, might again restore the
altars of the gods: and the earnestness with which they addressed their unavailing prayers
to the throne, ^28 increased the zeal of the Christian reformers to extirpate, without
mercy, the root of superstition. The laws of the emperors exhibit some symptoms of a
milder disposition: ^29 but their cold and languid efforts were insufficient to stem the
torrent of enthusiasm and rapine, which was conducted, or rather impelled, by the
spiritual rulers of the church. In Gaul, the holy Martin, bishop of Tours, ^30 marched at
the head of his faithful monks to destroy the idols, the temples, and the consecrated
trees of his extensive diocese; and, in the execution of this arduous task, the prudent
reader will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid of miraculous powers, or of
carnal weapons. In Syria, the divine and excellent Marcellus, ^31 as he is styled by
Theodoret, a bishop animated with apostolic fervor, resolved to level with the ground the
stately temples within the diocese of Apamea. His attack was resisted by the skill and
solidity with which the temple of Jupiter had been constructed. The building was seated on
an eminence: on each of the four sides, the lofty roof was supported by fifteen massy
columns, sixteen feet in circumference; and the large stone, of which they were composed,
were firmly cemented with lead and iron. The force of the strongest and sharpest tools had
been tried without effect. It was found necessary to undermine the foundations of the
columns, which fell down as soon as the temporary wooden props had been consumed with
fire; and the difficulties of the enterprise are described under the allegory of a black
daemon, who retarded, though he could not defeat, the operations of the Christian
engineers. Elated with victory, Marcellus took the field in person against the powers of
darkness; a numerous troop of soldiers and gladiators marched under the episcopal banner,
and he successively attacked the villages and country temples of the diocese of Apamea.
Whenever any resistance or danger was apprehended, the champion of the faith, whose
lameness would not allow him either to fight or fly, placed himself at a convenient
distance, beyond the reach of darts. But this prudence was the occasion of his death: he
was surprised and slain by a body of exasperated rustics; and the synod of the province
pronounced, without hesitation, that the holy Marcellus had sacrificed his life in the
cause of God. In the support of this cause, the monks, who rushed with tumultuous fury
from the desert, distinguished themselves by their zeal and diligence. They deserved the
enmity of the Pagans; and some of them might deserve the reproaches of avarice and
intemperance; of avarice, which they gratified with holy plunder, and of intemperance,
which they indulged at the expense of the people, who foolishly admired their tattered
garments, loud psalmody, and artificial paleness. ^32 A small number of temples was
protected by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the civil and
ecclesiastical governors. The temple of the Celestial Venus at Carthage, whose sacred
precincts formed a circumference of two miles, was judiciously converted into a Christian
church; ^33 and a similar consecration has preserved inviolate the majestic dome of the
Pantheon at Rome. ^34 But in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of
fanatics, without authority, and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and
the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those
Barbarians, who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction.
[Footnote 24: Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 10, Genev. 1634, published by
James Godefroy, and now extremely scarce) accuses Valentinian and Valens of prohibiting
sacrifices. Some partial order may have been issued by the Eastern emperor; but the idea
of any general law is contradicted by the silence of the Code, and the evidence of
ecclesiastical history.
Note: See in Reiske's edition of Libanius, tom. ii. p. 155. Sacrific was
prohibited by Valens, but not the offering of incense. - M.]
[Footnote 25: See his laws in the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 7 - 11.]
[Footnote 26: Homer's sacrifices are not accompanied with any inquisition of
entrails, (see Feithius, Antiquitat. Homer. l. i. c. 10, 16.) The Tuscans, who produced
the first Haruspices, subdued both the Greeks and the Romans, (Cicero de Divinatione, ii.
23.)]
[Footnote 27: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 245, 249. Theodoret. l. v. c. 21. Idatius in
Chron. Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 52.
Libanius (pro Templis, p. 10) labors to prove that the commands of Theodosius were not
direct and positive.
Note: Libanius appears to be the best authority for the East, where, under
Theodosius, the work of devastation was carried on with very different degrees of
violence, according to the temper of the local authorities and of the clergy; and more
especially the neighborhood of the more fanatican monks. Neander well observes, that the
prohibition of sacrifice would be easily misinterpreted into an authority for the
destruction of the buildings in which sacrifices were performed. (Geschichte der
Christlichen religion ii. p. 156.) An abuse of this kind led to this remarkable oration of
Libanius. Neander, however, justly doubts whether this bold vindication or at least
exculpation, of Paganism was ever delivered before, or even placed in the hands of the
Christian emperor. - M.]
[Footnote 28: Cod. Theodos, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8, 18. There is room to
believe, that this temple of Edessa, which Theodosius wished to save for civil uses, was
soon afterwards a heap of ruins, (Libanius pro Templis, p. 26, 27, and Godefroy's notes,
p. 59.)]
[Footnote 29: See this curious oration of Libanius pro Templis, pronounced, or
rather composed, about the year 390. I have consulted, with advantage, Dr. Lardner's
version and remarks, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 135 - 163.)]
[Footnote 30: See the Life of Martin by Sulpicius Severus, c. 9 - 14. The saint
once mistook (as Don Quixote might have done) a harmless funeral for an idolatrous
procession, and imprudently committed a miracle.]
[Footnote 31: Compare Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 15) with Theodoret, (l. v. c. 21.)
Between them, they relate the crusade and death of Marcellus.]
[Footnote 32: Libanius, pro Templis, p. 10 - 13. He rails at these black- garbed
men, the Christian monks, who eat more than elephants. Poor elephants! they are temperate
animals.]
[Footnote 33: Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud Baronium; Annal. Eccles.
A.D. 389, No. 58, &c. The temple had been shut some time, and the access to it was
overgrown with brambles.]
[Footnote 34: Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, l. iv. c. 4, p. 468. This
consecration was performed by Pope Boniface IV. I am ignorant of the favorable
circumstances which had preserved the Pantheon above two hundred years after the reign of
Theodosius.]
In this wide and various prospect of devastation, the spectator may distinguish the
ruins of the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria. ^35 Serapis does not appear to have been
one of the native gods, or monsters, who sprung from the fruitful soil of superstitious
Egypt. ^36 The first of the Ptolemies had been commanded, by a dream, to import the
mysterious stranger from the coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the
inhabitants of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so imperfectly understood,
that it became a subject of dispute, whether he represented the bright orb of day, or the
gloomy monarch of the subterraneous regions. ^37 The Egyptians, who were obstinately
devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to admit this foreign deity within the
walls of their cities. ^38 But the obsequious priests, who were seduced by the liberality
of the Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the power of the god of Pontus: an
honorable and domestic genealogy was provided; and this fortunate usurper was introduced
into the throne and bed of Osiris, ^39 the husband of Isis, and the celestial monarch of
Egypt. Alexandria, which claimed his peculiar protection, gloried in the name of the city
of Serapis. His temple, ^40 which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the Capitol, was
erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps above the
level of the adjacent parts of the city; and the interior cavity was strongly supported by
arches, and distributed into vaults and subterraneous apartments. The consecrated
buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico; the stately halls, and exquisite
statues, displayed the triumph of the arts; and the treasures of ancient learning were
preserved in the famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with new splendor from its
ashes. ^41 After the edicts of Theodosius had severely prohibited the sacrifices of the
Pagans, they were still tolerated in the city and temple of Serapis; and this singular
indulgence was imprudently ascribed to the superstitious terrors of the Christians
themselves; as if they had feared to abolish those ancient rites, which could alone secure
the inundations of the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of Constantinople.
^42
[Footnote 35: Sophronius composed a recent and separate history, (Jerom, in
Script. Eccles. tom. i. p. 303,) which has furnished materials to Socrates, (l. v. c. 16.)
Theodoret, (l. v. c. 22,) and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22.) Yet the last, who had been at
Alexandria before and after the event, may deserve the credit of an original witness.]
[Footnote 36: Gerard Vossius (Opera, tom. v. p. 80, and de Idoloaltria, l. i. c.
29) strives to support the strange notion of the Fathers; that the patriarch Joseph was
adored in Egypt, as the bull Apis, and the god Serapis.
Note: Consult du Dieu Serapis et son Origine, par J D. Guigniaut, (the
translator of Creuzer's Symbolique,) Paris, 1828; and in the fifth volume of Bournouf's
translation of Tacitus. - M.]
[Footnote 37: Origo dei nondum nostris celebrata. Aegyptiorum antistites sic
memorant, &c., Tacit. Hist. iv. 83. The Greeks, who had travelled into Egypt, were
alike ignorant of this new deity.]
[Footnote 38: Macrobius, Saturnal, l. i. c. 7. Such a living fact decisively
proves his foreign extraction.]
[Footnote 39: At Rome, Isis and Serapis were united in the same temple. The
precedency which the queen assumed, may seem to betray her unequal alliance with the
stranger of Pontus. But the superiority of the female sex was established in Egypt as a
civil and religious institution, (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. i. p. 31, edit. Wesseling,)
and the same order is observed in Plutarch's Treatise of Isis and Osiris; whom he
identifies with Serapis.] [Footnote 40: Ammianus, (xxii. 16.) The Expositio totius Mundi,
(p. 8, in Hudson's Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.,) and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22,) celebrate the
Serapeum, as one of the wonders of the world.]
[Footnote 41: See Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 397 - 416.
The old library of the Ptolemies was totally consumed in Caesar's Alexandrian war. Marc
Antony gave the whole collection of Pergamus (200,000 volumes) to Cleopatra, as the
foundation of the new library of Alexandria.]
[Footnote 42: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 21) indiscreetly provokes his Christian
masters by this insulting remark.]
At that time ^43 the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was filled by Theophilus, ^44
the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately
polluted with gold and with blood. His pious indignation was excited by the honors of
Serapis; and the insults which he offered to an ancient temple of Bacchus, ^* convinced
the Pagans that he meditated a more important and dangerous enterprise. In the tumultuous
capital of Egypt, the slightest provocation was sufficient to inflame a civil war. The
votaries of Serapis, whose strength and numbers were much inferior to those of their
antagonists, rose in arms at the instigation of the philosopher Olympius, ^45 who exhorted
them to die in the defence of the altars of the gods. These Pagan fanatics fortified
themselves in the temple, or rather fortress, of Serapis; repelled the besiegers by daring
sallies, and a resolute defence; and, by the inhuman cruelties which they exercised on
their Christian prisoners, obtained the last consolation of despair. The efforts of the
prudent magistrate were usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce, till the answer
of Theodosius should determine the fate of Serapis. The two parties assembled, without
arms, in the principal square; and the Imperial rescript was publicly read. But when a
sentence of destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the Christians set
up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst the unfortunate Pagans, whose fury had given way
to consternation, retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded, by their flight or
obscurity, the resentment of their enemies. Theophilus proceeded to demolish the temple of
Serapis, without any other difficulties, than those which he found in the weight and
solidity of the materials: but these obstacles proved so insuperable, that he was obliged
to leave the foundations; and to content himself with reducing the edifice itself to a
heap of rubbish, a part of which was soon afterwards cleared away, to make room for a
church, erected in honor of the Christian martyrs. The valuable library of Alexandria was
pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty
shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator, whose mind was not totally
darkened by religious prejudice. ^46 The compositions of ancient genius, so many of which
have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry,
for the amusement and instruction of succeeding ages; and either the zeal or the avarice
of the archbishop, ^47 might have been satiated with the rich spoils, which were the
reward of his victory. While the images and vases of gold and silver were carefully
melted, and those of a less valuable metal were contemptuously broken, and cast into the
streets, Theophilus labored to expose the frauds and vices of the ministers of the idols;
their dexterity in the management of the loadstone; their secret methods of introducing a
human actor into a hollow statue; ^* and their scandalous abuse of the confidence of
devout husbands and unsuspecting females. ^48 Charges like these may seem to deserve some
degree of credit, as they are not repugnant to the crafty and interested spirit of
superstition. But the same spirit is equally prone to the base practice of insulting and
calumniating a fallen enemy; and our belief is naturally checked by the reflection, that
it is much less difficult to invent a fictitious story, than to support a practical fraud.
The colossal statue of Serapis ^49 was involved in the ruin of his temple and religion. A
great number of plates of different metals, artificially joined together, composed the
majestic figure of the deity, who touched on either side the walls of the sanctuary. The
aspect of Serapis, his sitting posture, and the sceptre, which he bore in his left hand,
were extremely similar to the ordinary representations of Jupiter. He was distinguished
from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which was placed on his head; and by the emblematic
monster which he held in his right hand; the head and body of a serpent branching into
three tails, which were again terminated by the triple heads of a dog, a lion, and a wolf.
It was confidently affirmed, that if any impious hand should dare to violate the majesty
of the god, the heavens and the earth would instantly return to their original chaos. An
intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and armed with a weighty battle-axe, ascended the
ladder; and even the Christian multitude expected, with some anxiety, the event of the
combat. ^50 He aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis; the cheek fell to the
ground; the thunder was still silent, and both the heavens and the earth continued to
preserve their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier repeated his
blows: the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were
ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcass was burnt in
the Amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many persons attributed their
conversion to this discovery of the impotence of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of
religion, that propose any visible and material objects of worship, have the advantage of
adapting and familiarizing themselves to the senses of mankind: but this advantage is
counterbalanced by the various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater
is exposed. It is scarcely possible, that, in every disposition of mind, he should
preserve his implicit reverence for the idols, or the relics, which the naked eye, and the
profane hand, are unable to distinguish from the most common productions of art or nature;
and if, in the hour of danger, their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for
their own preservation, he scorns the vain apologies of his priests, and justly derides
the object, and the folly, of his superstitious attachment. ^51 After the fall of Serapis,
some hopes were still entertained by the Pagans, that the Nile would refuse his annual
supply to the impious masters of Egypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inundation
seemed to announce the displeasure of the river-god. But this delay was soon compensated
by the rapid swell of the waters. They suddenly rose to such an unusual height, as to
comfort the discontented party with the pleasing expectation of a deluge; till the
peaceful river again subsided to the well-known and fertilizing level of sixteen cubits,
or about thirty English feet. ^52
[Footnote 43: We may choose between the date of Marcellinus (A.D. 389) or that
of Prosper, ( A.D. 391.) Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 310, 756) prefers the
former, and Pagi the latter.]
[Footnote 44: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441 - 500. The ambiguous
situation of Theophilus - a saint, as the friend of Jerom a devil, as the enemy of
Chrysostom - produces a sort of impartiality; yet, upon the whole, the balance is justly
inclined against him.]
[Footnote *: No doubt a temple of Osiris. St. Martin, iv 398 - M.]
[Footnote 45: Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 411) has alleged
beautiful passage from Suidas, or rather from Damascius, which show the devout and
virtuous Olympius, not in the light of a warrior, but of a prophet.]
[Footnote 46: Nos vidimus armaria librorum, quibus direptis, exinanita ea a
nostris hominibus, nostris temporibus memorant. Orosius, l. vi. c. 15, p. 421, edit.
Havercamp. Though a bigot, and a controversial writer. Orosius seems to blush.]
[Footnote 47: Eunapius, in the Lives of Antoninus and Aedesius, execrates the
sacrilegious rapine of Theophilus. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 453) quotes an
epistle of Isidore of Pelusium, which reproaches the primate with the idolatrous worship
of gold, the auri sacra fames.] [Footnote *: An English traveller, Mr. Wilkinson, has
discovered the secret of the vocal Memnon. There was a cavity in which a person was
concealed, and struck a stone, which gave a ringing sound like brass. The Arabs, who stood
below when Mr. Wilkinson performed the miracle, described sound just as the author of the
epigram. - M.]
[Footnote 48: Rufinus names the priest of Saturn, who, in the character of the
god, familiarly conversed with many pious ladies of quality, till he betrayed himself, in
a moment of transport, when he could not disguise the tone of his voice. The authentic and
impartial narrative of Aeschines, (see Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique, Scamandre,) and the
adventure of Mudus, (Joseph. Antiquitat. Judaic. l. xviii. c. 3, p. 877 edit. Havercamp,)
may prove that such amorous frauds have been practised with success.] [Footnote 49: See
the images of Serapis, in Montfaucon, (tom. ii. p. 297:) but the description of Macrobius
(Saturnal. l. i. c. 20) is much more picturesque and satisfactory.]
[Footnote 50: Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda Majestate loci, si
robora sacra ferirent In sua credebant redituras membra secures.
(Lucan. iii. 429.) "Is it true," (said Augustus to a veteran of Italy,
at whose house he supped) "that the man who gave the first blow to the golden statue
of Anaitis, was instantly deprived of his eyes, and of his life?" - "I was that
man, (replied the clear-sighted veteran,) and you now sup on one of the legs of the
goddess." (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 24)] [Footnote 51: The history of the
reformation affords frequent examples of the sudden change from superstition to contempt.]
[Footnote 52: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 20. I have supplied the measure. The same standard, of
the inundation, and consequently of the cubit, has uniformly subsisted since the time of
Herodotus. See Freret, in the Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344 - 353.
Greaves's Miscellaneous Works, vol. i. p. 233. The Egyptian cubit is about twenty- two
inches of the English measure.
Note: Compare Wilkinson's Thebes and Egypt, p. 313. - M.]
The temples of the Roman empire were deserted, or destroyed; but the ingenious
superstition of the Pagans still attempted to elude the laws of Theodosius, by which all
sacrifices had been severely prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whose conduct was
less opposed to the eye of malicious curiosity, disguised their religious, under the
appearance of convivial, meetings. On the days of solemn festivals, they assembled in
great numbers under the spreading shade of some consecrated trees; sheep and oxen were
slaughtered and roasted; and this rural entertainment was sanctified by the use of
incense, and by the hymns which were sung in honor of the gods. But it was alleged, that,
as no part of the animal was made a burnt-offering, as no altar was provided to receive
the blood, and as the previous oblation of salt cakes, and the concluding ceremony of
libations, were carefully omitted, these festal meetings did not involve the guests in the
guilt, or penalty, of an illegal sacrifice. ^53 Whatever might be the truth of the facts,
or the merit of the distinction, ^54 these vain pretences were swept away by the last
edict of Theodosius, which inflicted a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans. ^55
^* This prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and comprehensive terms.
"It is our will and pleasure," says the emperor, "that none of our
subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however exalted or however humble may
be their rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place, to worship an
inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim." The act of sacrificing, and
the practice of divination by the entrails of the victim, are declared (without any regard
to the object of the inquiry) a crime of high treason against the state, which can be
expiated only by the death of the guilty. The rites of Pagan superstition, which might
seem less bloody and atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and honor
of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine, are specially
enumerated and condemned; and the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household
gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any of these profane and
illegal ceremonies, subjects the offender to the forfeiture of the house or estate, where
they have been performed; and if he has artfully chosen the property of another for the
scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, without delay, a heavy fine of
twenty-five pounds of gold, or more than one thousand pounds sterling. A fine, not less
considerable, is imposed on the connivance of the secret enemies of religion, who shall
neglect the duty of their respective stations, either to reveal, or to punish, the guilt
of idolatry. Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, which were
repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud and unanimous applause of the
Christian world. ^56
[Footnote 53: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17) pleads their cause with
gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest age, such feasts had enlivened the
country: and those of Bacchus (Georgic. ii. 380) had produced the theatre of Athens. See
Godefroy, ad loc. Liban. and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 284.]
[Footnote 54: Honorius tolerated these rustic festivals, (A.D. 399.)
"Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ulla superstitione damnabili." But nine years
afterwards he found it necessary to reiterate and enforce the same proviso, (Codex
Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 17, 19.)]
[Footnote 55: Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin (Remarks on Eccles.
History, vol. iv. p. 134) censures, with becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of
this intolerant law.]
[Footnote *: Paganism maintained its ground for a considerable time in the rural
districts. Endelechius, a poet who lived at the beginning of the fifth century, speaks of
the cross as Signum quod perhibent esse crucis Dei, Magnis qui colitur solus inurbibus.
In the middle of the same century, Maximus, bishop of Turin, writes against the
heathen deities as if their worship was still in full vigor in the neighborhood of his
city. Augustine complains of the encouragement of the Pagan rites by heathen landowners;
and Zeno of Verona, still later, reproves the apathy of the Christian proprietors in
conniving at this abuse. (Compare Neander, ii. p. 169.) M. Beugnot shows that this was the
case throughout the north and centre of Italy and in Sicily. But neither of these authors
has adverted to one fact, which must have tended greatly to retard the progress of
Christianity in these quarters. It was still chiefly a slave population which cultivated
the soil; and however, in the towns, the better class of Christians might be eager to
communicate "the blessed liberty of the gospel" to this class of mankind;
however their condition could not but be silently ameliorated by the humanizing influence
of Christianity; yet, on the whole, no doubt the servile class would be the least fitted
to receive the gospel; and its general propagation among them would be embarrassed by many
peculiar difficulties. The rural population was probably not entirely converted before the
general establishment of the monastic institutions. Compare Quarterly Review of Beugnot.
vol lvii. p. 52 - M.]
[Footnote 56: Such a charge should not be lightly made; but it may surely be
justified by the authority of St. Augustin, who thus addresses the Donatists: "Quis
nostrum, quis vestrum non laudat leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia
Paganorum? Et certe longe ibi poera severior constituta est; illius quippe impietatis
capitale supplicium est." Epist. xciii. No. 10, quoted by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque
Choisie, tom. viii. p. 277,) who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of the
victorious Christians. Note: Yet Augustine, with laudable inconsistency, disapproved of
the forcible demolition of the temples. "Let us first extirpate the idolatry of the
hearts of the heathen, and they will either themselves invite us or anticipate us in the
execution of this good work," tom. v. p. 62. Compare Neander, ii. 169, and, in p.
155, a beautiful passage from Chrysostom against all violent means of propagating
Christianity. - M.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part III.
In the cruel reigns of Decius and Dioclesian, Christianity had been proscribed, as a
revolt from the ancient and hereditary religion of the empire; and the unjust suspicions
which were entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were, in some measure,
countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid conquests of the Catholic church. But the
same excuses of fear and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian emperors who
violated the precepts of humanity and of the Gospel. The experience of ages had betrayed
the weakness, as well as folly, of Paganism; the light of reason and of faith had already
exposed, to the greatest part of mankind, the vanity of idols; and the declining sect,
which still adhered to their worship, might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and
obscurity, the religious costumes of their ancestors. Had the Pagans been animated by the
undaunted zeal which possessed the minds of the primitive believers, the triumph of the
Church must have been stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might have
embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their lives and fortunes at the foot of
their altars. But such obstinate zeal was not congenial to the loose and careless temper
of Polytheism. The violent and repeated strokes of the orthodox princes were broken by the
soft and yielding substance against which they were directed; and the ready obedience of
the Pagans protected them from the pains and penalties of the Theodosian Code. ^57 Instead
of asserting, that the authority of the gods was superior to that of the emperor, they
desisted, with a plaintive murmur, from the use of those sacred rites which their
sovereign had condemned. If they were sometimes tempted by a sally of passion, or by the
hopes of concealment, to indulge their favorite superstition, their humble repentance
disarmed the severity of the Christian magistrate, and they seldom refused to atone for
their rashness, by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the Gospel. The
churches were filled with the increasing multitude of these unworthy proselytes, who had
conformed, from temporal motives, to the reigning religion; and whilst they devoutly
imitated the postures, and recited the prayers, of the faithful, they satisfied their
conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of the gods of antiquity. ^58 If the
Pagans wanted patience to suffer they wanted spirit to resist; and the scattered myriads,
who deplored the ruin of the temples, yielded, without a contest, to the fortune of their
adversaries. The disorderly opposition ^59 of the peasants of Syria, and the populace of
Alexandria, to the rage of private fanaticism, was silenced by the name and authority of
the emperor. The Pagans of the West, without contributing to the elevation of Eugenius,
disgraced, by their partial attachment, the cause and character of the usurper. The clergy
vehemently exclaimed, that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by the guilt of apostasy;
that, by his permission, the altar of victory was again restored; and that the idolatrous
symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were displayed in the field, against the invincible
standard of the cross. But the vain hopes of the Pagans were soon annihilated by the
defeat of Eugenius; and they were left exposed to the resentment of the conqueror, who
labored to deserve the favor of Heaven by the extirpation of idolatry. ^60 [Footnote 57:
Orosius, l. vii. c. 28, p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat. in Psalm cxl apud Lardner, Heathen
Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 458) insults their cowardice. "Quis eorum comprehensus est
in sacrificio (cum his legibus sta prohiberentur) et non negavit?"] [Footnote 58:
Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without censure the occasional conformity, and
as it were theatrical play, of these hypocrites.]
[Footnote 59: Libanius concludes his apology (p. 32) by declaring to the
emperor, that unless he expressly warrants the destruction of the temples, the proprietors
will defend themselves and the laws.]
[Footnote 60: Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. c. 26. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. v.
c. 26. Theodoret, l. v. c. 24.]
A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master, who, in
the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and
oppression. Theodosius might undoubtedly have proposed to his Pagan subjects the
alternative of baptism or of death; and the eloquent Libanius has praised the moderation
of a prince, who never enacted, by any positive law, that all his subjects should
immediately embrace and practise the religion of their sovereign. ^61 The profession of
Christianity was not made an essential qualification for the enjoyment of the civil rights
of society, nor were any peculiar hardships imposed on the sectaries, who credulously
received the fables of Ovid, and obstinately rejected the miracles of the Gospel. The
palace, the schools, the army, and the senate, were filled with declared and devout
Pagans; they obtained, without distinction, the civil and military honors of the empire.
^* Theodosius distinguished his liberal regard for virtue and genius by the consular
dignity, which he bestowed on Symmachus; ^62 and by the personal friendship which he
expressed to Libanius; ^63 and the two eloquent apologists of Paganism were never required
either to change or to dissemble their religious opinions. The Pagans were indulged in the
most licentious freedom of speech and writing; the historical and philosophic remains of
Eunapius, Zosimus, ^64 and the fanatic teachers of the school of Plato, betray the most
furious animosity, and contain the sharpest invectives, against the sentiments and conduct
of their victorious adversaries. If these audacious libels were publicly known, we must
applaud the good sense of the Christian princes, who viewed, with a smile of contempt, the
last struggles of superstition and despair. ^65 But the Imperial laws, which prohibited
the sacrifices and ceremonies of Paganism, were rigidly executed; and every hour
contributed to destroy the influence of a religion, which was supported by custom, rather
than by argument. The devotion or the poet, or the philosopher, may be secretly nourished
by prayer, meditation, and study; but the exercise of public worship appears to be the
only solid foundation of the religious sentiments of the people, which derive their force
from imitation and habit. The interruption of that public exercise may consummate, in the
period of a few years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory of
theological opinions cannot long be preserved, without the artificial helps of priests, of
temples, and of books. ^66 The ignorant vulgar, whose minds are still agitated by the
blind hopes and terrors of superstition, will be soon persuaded by their superiors to
direct their vows to the reigning deities of the age; and will insensibly imbibe an ardent
zeal for the support and propagation of the new doctrine, which spiritual hunger at first
compelled them to accept. The generation that arose in the world after the promulgation of
the Imperial laws, was attracted within the pale of the Catholic church: and so rapid, yet
so gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only twenty-eight years after the death of
Theodosius, the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the
legislator. ^67
[Footnote 61: Libanius suggests the form of a persecuting edict, which
Theodosius might enact, (pro Templis, p. 32;) a rash joke, and a dangerous experiment.
Some princes would have taken his advice.]
[Footnote *: The most remarkable instance of this, at a much later period,
occurs in the person of Merobaudes, a general and a poet, who flourished in the first half
of the fifth century. A statue in honor of Merobaudes was placed in the Forum of Trajan,
of which the inscription is still extant. Fragments of his poems have been recovered by
the industry and sagacity of Niebuhr. In one passage, Merobaudes, in the genuine heathen
spirit, attributes the ruin of the empire to the abolition of Paganism, and almost renews
the old accusation of Atheism against Christianity. He impersonates some deity, probably
Discord, who summons Bellona to take arms for the destruction of Rome; and in a strain of
fierce irony recommends to her other fatal measures, to extirpate the gods of Rome: -
Roma, ipsique tremant furialia murmura reges. Jam superos terris atque hospita
numina pelle: Romanos populare Deos, et nullus in aris Vestoe exoratoe fotus strue palleat
ignis. Ilis instructa dolis palatia celsa subibo; Majorum mores, et pectora prisca fugabo
Funditus; atque simul, nullo discrimine rerum, Spernantur fortes, nec sic reverentia
justis. Attica neglecto pereat facundia Phoebo: Indignis contingat honos, et pondera
rerum; Non virtus sed casus agat; tristique cupido; Pectoribus saevi demens furor aestuet
aevi; Omniaque hoec sine mente Jovis, sine numine sumimo.
Merobaudes in Niebuhr's edit. of the Byzantines, p. 14. - M.]
[Footnote 62: Denique pro meritis terrestribus aequa rependens Munera,
sacricolis summos impertit honores. Dux bonus, et certare sinit cum laude suorum, Nec pago
implicitos per debita culmina mundi Ire viros prohibet. Ipse magistratum tibi consulis,
ipse tribunal Contulit. Prudent. in Symmach. i. 617, &c. Note: I have inserted some
lines omitted by Gibbon. - M.]
[Footnote 63: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that Theodosius should thus
distinguish a man, who even in his presence would swear by Jupiter. Yet this presence
seems to be no more than a figure of rhetoric.]
[Footnote 64: Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Ex-advocate of the Treasury,
reviles, with partial and indecent bigotry, the Christian princes, and even the father of
his sovereign. His work must have been privately circulated, since it escaped the
invectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 40 - 42,) who
lived towards the end of the sixth century.
Note: Heyne in his Disquisitio in Zosimum Ejusque Fidem. places Zosimum towards
the close of the fifth century. Zosim. Heynii, p. xvii. - M.]
[Footnote 65: Yet the Pagans of Africa complained, that the times would not
allow them to answer with freedom the City of God; nor does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the
charge.]
[Footnote 66: The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserved the Mahometan religion
above a century, under the tyranny of the Inquisition, possessed the Koran, with the
peculiar use of the Arabic tongue. See the curious and honest story of their expulsion in
Geddes, (Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 1 - 198.)]
[Footnote 67: Paganos qui supersunt, quanquam jam nullos esse credamus, &c.
Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 22, A.D. 423. The younger Theodosius was afterwards
satisfied, that his judgment had been somewhat premature. Note: The statement of Gibbon is
much too strongly worded. M. Beugnot has traced the vestiges of Paganism in the West,
after this period, in monuments and inscriptions with curious industry. Compare likewise
note, p. 112, on the more tardy progress of Christianity in the rural districts. - M.]
The ruin of the Pagan religion is described by the sophists as a dreadful and amazing
prodigy, which covered the earth with darkness, and restored the ancient dominion of chaos
and of night. They relate, in solemn and pathetic strains, that the temples were converted
into sepulchres, and that the holy places, which had been adorned by the statues of the
gods, were basely polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs. "The monks" (a
race of filthy animals, to whom Eunapius is tempted to refuse the name of men) "are
the authors of the new worship, which, in the place of those deities who are conceived by
the understanding, has substituted the meanest and most contemptible slaves. The heads,
salted and pickled, of those infamous malefactors, who for the multitude of their crimes
have suffered a just and ignominious death; their bodies still marked by the impression of
the lash, and the scars of those tortures which were inflicted by the sentence of the
magistrate; such" (continues Eunapius) 'are the gods which the earth produces in our
days; such are the martyrs, the supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to the
Deity, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects of the veneration of the
people." ^68 Without approving the malice, it is natural enough to share the surprise
of the sophist, the spectator of a revolution, which raised those obscure victims of the
laws of Rome to the rank of celestial and invisible protectors of the Roman empire. The
grateful respect of the Christians for the martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by time and
victory, into religious adoration; and the most illustrious of the saints and prophets
were deservedly associated to the honors of the martyrs. One hundred and fifty years after
the glorious deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian road were
distinguished by the tombs, or rather by the trophies, of those spiritual heroes. ^69 In
the age which followed the conversion of Constantine, the emperors, the consuls, and the
generals of armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a tentmaker and a fisherman; ^70
and their venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the bishops
of the royal city continually offered the unbloody sacrifice. ^71 The new capital of the
Eastern world, unable to produce any ancient and domestic trophies, was enriched by the
spoils of dependent provinces. The bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy, had
reposed near three hundred years in the obscure graves, from whence they were transported,
in solemn pomp, to the church of the apostles, which the magnificence of Constantine had
founded on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus. ^72 About fifty years afterwards, the same
banks were honored by the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of
Israel. His ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a silken veil, were
delivered by the bishops into each other's hands. The relics of Samuel were received by
the people with the same joy and reverence which they would have shown to the living
prophet; the highways, from Palestine to the gates of Constantinople, were filled with an
uninterrupted procession; and the emperor Arcadius himself, at the head of the most
illustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary guest,
who had always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. ^73 The example of Rome and
Constantinople confirmed the faith and discipline of the Catholic world. The honors of the
saints and martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual murmur of profane reason, ^74 were
universally established; and in the age of Ambrose and Jerom, something was still deemed
wanting to the sanctity of a Christian church, till it had been consecrated by some
portion of holy relics, which fixed and inflamed the devotion of the faithful.
[Footnote 68: See Eunapius, in the Life of the sophist Aedesius; in that of
Eustathius he foretells the ruin of Paganism.]
[Footnote 69: Caius, (apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 25,) a Roman
presbyter, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, (A.D. 202 - 219,) is an early witness of
this superstitious practice.] [Footnote 70: Chrysostom. Quod Christus sit Deus. Tom. i.
nov. edit. No. 9. I am indebted for this quotation to Benedict the XIVth's pastoral letter
on the Jubilee of the year 1759. See the curious and entertaining letters of M. Chais,
tom. iii.]
[Footnote 71: Male facit ergo Romanus episcopus? qui, super mortuorum hominum,
Petri & Pauli, secundum nos, ossa veneranda ... offeri Domino sacrificia, et tumulos
eorum, Christi arbitratur altaria. Jerom. tom. ii. advers. Vigilant. p. 183.]
[Footnote 72: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) bears witness to these translations, which
are neglected by the ecclesiastical historians. The passion of St. Andrew at Patrae is
described in an epistle from the clergy of Achaia, which Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 60,
No. 34) wishes to believe, and Tillemont is forced to reject. St. Andrew was adopted as
the spiritual founder of Constantinople, (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 317 - 323, 588 - 594.)]
[Footnote 73: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) pompously describes the translation of
Samuel, which is noticed in all the chronicles of the times.]
[Footnote 74: The presbyter Vigilantius, the Protestant of his age, firmly,
though ineffectually, withstood the superstition of monks, relics, saints, fasts, &c.,
for which Jerom compares him to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, &c., and considers
him only as the organ of the Daemon, (tom. ii. p. 120 - 126.) Whoever will peruse the
controversy of St. Jerom and Vigilantius, and St. Augustin's account of the miracles of
St. Stephen, may speedily gain some idea of the spirit of the Fathers.]
In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed between the reign of
Constantine and the reformation of Luther, the worship of saints and relics corrupted the
pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian model: and some symptoms of degeneracy may be
observed even in the first generations which adopted and cherished this pernicious
innovation.
I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics of saints were more valuable than gold
or precious stones, ^75 stimulated the clergy to multiply the treasures of the church.
Without much regard for truth or probability, they invented names for skeletons, and
actions for names. The fame of the apostles, and of the holy men who had imitated their
virtues, was darkened by religious fiction. To the invincible band of genuine and
primitive martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary heroes, who had never existed, except
in the fancy of crafty or credulous legendaries; and there is reason to suspect, that
Tours might not be the only diocese in which the bones of a malefactor were adored,
instead of those of a saint. ^76 A superstitious practice, which tended to increase the
temptations of fraud, and credulity, insensibly extinguished the light of history, and of
reason, in the Christian world.
[Footnote 75: M. de Beausobre (Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 648) has
applied a worldly sense to the pious observation of the clergy of Smyrna, who carefully
preserved the relics of St. Polycarp the martyr.]
[Footnote 76: Martin of Tours (see his Life, c. 8, by Sulpicius Severus)
extorted this confession from the mouth of the dead man. The error is allowed to be
natural; the discovery is supposed to be miraculous. Which of the two was likely to happen
most frequently?]
II. But the progress of superstition would have been much less rapid and victorious, if
the faith of the people had not been assisted by the seasonable aid of visions and
miracles, to ascertain the authenticity and virtue of the most suspicious relics. In the
reign of the younger Theodosius, Lucian, ^77 a presbyter of Jerusalem, and the
ecclesiastical minister of the village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the city,
related a very singular dream, which, to remove his doubts, had been repeated on three
successive Saturdays. A venerable figure stood before him, in the silence of the night,
with a long beard, a white robe, and a gold rod; announced himself by the name of
Gamaliel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter, that his own corpse, with the bodies
of his son Abibas, his friend Nicodemus, and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of
the Christian faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added, with some
impatience, that it was time to release himself and his companions from their obscure
prison; that their appearance would be salutary to a distressed world; and that they had
made choice of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation and their
wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still retarded this important discovery were
successively removed by new visions; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the
presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of his son, and of his
friend, were found in regular order; but when the fourth coffin, which contained the
remains of Stephen, was shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an odor, such as that
of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the various diseases of seventy-three of the
assistants. The companions of Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of
Caphargamala: but the relics of the first martyr were transported, in solemn procession,
to a church constructed in their honor on Mount Sion; and the minute particles of those
relics, a drop of blood, ^78 or the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, in almost
every province of the Roman world, to possess a divine and miraculous virtue. The grave
and learned Augustin, ^79 whose understanding scarcely admits the excuse of credulity, has
attested the innumerable prodigies which were performed in Africa by the relics of St.
Stephen; and this marvellous narrative is inserted in the elaborate work of the City of
God, which the bishop of Hippo designed as a solid and immortal proof of the truth of
Christianity. Augustin solemnly declares, that he has selected those miracles only which
were publicly certified by the persons who were either the objects, or the spectators, of
the power of the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted, or forgotten; and Hippo had been
less favorably treated than the other cities of the province. And yet the bishop
enumerates above seventy miracles, of which three were resurrections from the dead, in the
space of two years, and within the limits of his own diocese. ^80 If we enlarge our view
to all the dioceses, and all the saints, of the Christian world, it will not be easy to
calculate the fables, and the errors, which issued from this inexhaustible source. But we
may surely be allowed to observe, that a miracle, in that age of superstition and
credulity, lost its name and its merit, since it could scarcely be considered as a
deviation from the ordinary and established laws of nature.
[Footnote 77: Lucian composed in Greek his original narrative, which has been
translated by Avitus, and published by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 415, No. 7 - 16.)
The Benedictine editors of St. Augustin have given (at the end of the work de Civitate
Dei) two several copies, with many various readings. It is the character of falsehood to
be loose and inconsistent. The most incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and
softened by Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 9, &c.)]
[Footnote 78: A phial of St. Stephen's blood was annually liquefied at Naples,
till he was superseded by St. Jamarius, (Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal p. 529.)]
[Footnote 79: Augustin composed the two-and-twenty books de Civitate Dei in the
space of thirteen years, A.D. 413 - 426. (Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608,
&c.) His learning is too often borrowed, and his arguments are too often his own; but
the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design, vigorously, and not unskilfully,
executed.]
[Footnote 80: See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 22, and the Appendix,
which contains two books of St. Stephen's miracles, by Evodius, bishop of Uzalis.
Freculphus (apud Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 249) has preserved a Gallic or a
Spanish proverb, "Whoever pretends to have read all the miracles of St. Stephen, he
lies."]
III. The innumerable miracles, of which the tombs of the martyrs were the perpetual
theatre, revealed to the pious believer the actual state and constitution of the invisible
world; and his religious speculations appeared to be founded on the firm basis of fact and
experience. Whatever might be the condition of vulgar souls, in the long interval between
the dissolution and the resurrection of their bodies, it was evident that the superior
spirits of the saints and martyrs did not consume that portion of their existence in
silent and inglorious sleep. ^81 It was evident (without presuming to determine the place
of their habitation, or the nature of their felicity) that they enjoyed the lively and
active consciousness of their happiness, their virtue, and their powers; and that they had
already secured the possession of their eternal reward. The enlargement of their
intellectual faculties surpassed the measure of the human imagination; since it was proved
by experience, that they were capable of hearing and understanding the various petitions
of their numerous votaries; who, in the same moment of time, but in the most distant parts
of the world, invoked the name and assistance of Stephen or of Martin. ^82 The confidence
of their petitioners was founded on the persuasion, that the saints, who reigned with
Christ, cast an eye of pity upon earth; that they were warmly interested in the prosperity
of the Catholic Church; and that the individuals, who imitated the example of their faith
and piety, were the peculiar and favorite objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes,
indeed, their friendship might be influenced by considerations of a less exalted kind:
they viewed with partial affection the places which had been consecrated by their birth,
their residence, their death, their burial, or the possession of their relics. The meaner
passions of pride, avarice, and revenge, may be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast; yet
the saints themselves condescended to testify their grateful approbation of the liberality
of their votaries; and the sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled against those impious
wretches, who violated their magnificent shrines, or disbelieved their supernatural power.
^83 Atrocious, indeed, must have been the guilt, and strange would have been the
scepticism, of those men, if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine agency,
which the elements, the whole range of the animal creation, and even the subtle and
invisible operations of the human mind, were compelled to obey. ^84 The immediate, and
almost instantaneous, effects that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence,
satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor and authority which the saints
enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme God; and it seemed almost superfluous to inquire
whether they were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace; or whether
they might not be permitted to exercise, according to the dictates of their benevolence
and justice, the delegated powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which
had been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation and worship of the Universal
Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of adoration as were more proportioned to
its gross conceptions and imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the
primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the Monarchy of heaven, already clouded
by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which
tended to restore the reign of polytheism. ^85
[Footnote 81: Burnet (de Statu Mortuorum, p. 56 - 84) collects the opinions of
the Fathers, as far as they assert the sleep, or repose, of human souls till the day of
judgment. He afterwards exposes (p. 91, &c.) the inconveniences which must arise, if
they possessed a more active and sensible existence.]
[Footnote 82: Vigilantius placed the souls of the prophets and martyrs, either
in the bosom of Abraham, (in loco refrigerii,) or else under the altar of God. Nec posse
suis tumulis et ubi voluerunt adesse praesentes. But Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) sternly
refutes this blasphemy. Tu Deo leges pones? Tu apostolis vincula injicies, ut usque ad
diem judicii teneantur custodia, nec sint cum Domino suo; de quibus scriptum est,
Sequuntur Agnum quocunque vadit. Si Agnus ubique, ergo, et hi, qui cum Agno sunt, ubique
esse credendi sunt. Et cum diabolus et daemones tote vagentur in orbe, &c.]
[Footnote 83: Fleury Discours sur l'Hist. Ecclesiastique, iii p. 80.]
[Footnote 84: At Minorca, the relics of St. Stephen converted, in eight days,
540 Jews; with the help, indeed, of some wholesome severities, such as burning the
synagogue, driving the obstinate infidels to starve among the rocks, &c. See the
original letter of Severus, bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin. de Civ. Dei,) and
the judicious remarks of Basnage, (tom. viii. p. 245 - 251.)]
[Footnote 85: Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 434) observes, like a philosopher,
the natural flux and reflux of polytheism and theism.]
IV. As the objects of religion were gradually reduced to the standard of the
imagination, the rites and ceremonies were introduced that seemed most powerfully to
affect the senses of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the fifth century, ^86
Tertullian, or Lactantius, ^87 had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the
festival of some popular saint, or martyr, ^88 they would have gazed with astonishment,
and indignation, on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual
worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of the church were thrown open,
they must have been offended by the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the
glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noonday, a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their
opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they approached the balustrade of the altar, they made
their way through the prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most part, of strangers and
pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of the feast; and who already felt the
strong intoxication of fanaticism, and, perhaps, of wine. Their devout kisses were
imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred edifice; and their fervent prayers were
directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or the
ashes of the saint, which were usually concealed, by a linen or silken veil, from the eyes
of the vulgar. The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of
obtaining, from their powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more especially
of temporal, blessings. They implored the preservation of their health, or the cure of
their infirmities; the fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the safety and happiness of
their children. Whenever they undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they requested,
that the holy martyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and if they
returned without having experienced any misfortune, they again hastened to the tombs of
the martyrs, to celebrate, with grateful thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory
and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with symbols of the favors
which they had received; eyes, and hands, and feet, of gold and silver: and edifying
pictures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion,
represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same
uniform original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the most distant ages and
countries, the same methods of deceiving the credulity, and of affecting the senses of
mankind: ^89 but it must ingenuously be confessed, that the ministers of the Catholic
church imitated the profane model, which they were impatient to destroy. The most
respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more
cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they found some resemblance, some
compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, in less
than a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but the victors themselves were
insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals. ^90 ^* [Footnote 86: D'Aubigne
(see his own Memoires, p. 156 - 160) frankly offered, with the consent of the Huguenot
ministers, to allow the first 400 years as the rule of faith. The Cardinal du Perron
haggled for forty years more, which were indiscreetly given. Yet neither party would have
found their account in this foolish bargain.]
[Footnote 87: The worship practised and inculcated by Tertullian, Lactantius
Arnobius, &c., is so extremely pure and spiritual, that their declamations against the
Pagan sometimes glance against the Jewish, ceremonies.]
[Footnote 88: Faustus the Manichaean accuses the Catholics of idolatry. Vertitis
idola in martyres .... quos votis similibus colitis. M. de Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du
Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 629 - 700,) a Protestant, but a philosopher, has represented,
with candor and learning, the introduction of Christian idolatry in the fourth and fifth
centuries.] [Footnote 89: The resemblance of superstition, which could not be imitated,
might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has seized this idea, which he distorts,
by rendering it too general and absolute, (Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126, &c.)]
[Footnote 90: The imitation of Paganism is the subject of Dr. Middleton's
agreeable letter from Rome. Warburton's animadversions obliged him to connect (vol. iii.
p. 120 - 132,) the history of the two religions, and to prove the antiquity of the
Christian copy.]
[Footnote *: But there was always this important difference between Christian
and heathen Polytheism. In Paganism this was the whole religion; in the darkest ages of
Christianity, some, however obscure and vague, Christian notions of future retribution, of
the life after death, lurked at the bottom, and operated, to a certain extent, on the
thoughts and feelings, sometimes on the actions. - M.]
Source: http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/decline3.txt
Scanned by David Reed. Public Domain material.
Edward Gibbon. History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. With notes
by the Rev. H. H. Milman . Vol. 3, 1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
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