Christianity.—Part III.
The different motives which influenced the reason, or the
passions, of the Barbarian converts, cannot easily be
ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental; a dream,
an omen, the report of a miracle, the example of some priest, or
hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, above all, the
fortunate event of a prayer, or vow, which, in a moment of
danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. 80 The
early prejudices of education were insensibly erased by the
habits of frequent and familiar society, the moral precepts of
the gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues of the
monks; and a spiritual theology was supported by the visible
power of relics, and the pomp of religious worship. But the
rational and ingenious mode of persuasion, which a Saxon bishop
81 suggested to a popular saint, might sometimes be employed by
the missionaries, who labored for the conversion of infidels.
“Admit,” says the sagacious disputant, “whatever they are pleased
to assert of the fabulous, and carnal, genealogy of their gods
and goddesses, who are propagated from each other. From this
principle deduce their imperfect nature, and human infirmities,
the assurance they were born, and the probability that they will
die. At what time, by what means, from what cause, were the
eldest of the gods or goddesses produced? Do they still continue,
or have they ceased, to propagate? If they have ceased, summon
your antagonists to declare the reason of this strange
alteration. If they still continue, the number of the gods must
become infinite; and shall we not risk, by the indiscreet worship
of some impotent deity, to excite the resentment of his jealous
superior? The visible heavens and earth, the whole system of the
universe, which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or
eternal? If created, how, or where, could the gods themselves
exist before creation? If eternal, how could they assume the
empire of an independent and preexisting world? Urge these
arguments with temper and moderation; insinuate, at seasonable
intervals, the truth and beauty of the Christian revelation; and
endeavor to make the unbelievers ashamed, without making them
angry.” This metaphysical reasoning, too refined, perhaps, for
the Barbarians of Germany, was fortified by the grosser weight of
authority and popular consent. The advantage of temporal
prosperity had deserted the Pagan cause, and passed over to the
service of Christianity. The Romans themselves, the most powerful
and enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient
superstition; and, if the ruin of their empire seemed to accuse
the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved
by the conversion of the victorious Goths. The valiant and
fortunate Barbarians, who subdued the provinces of the West,
successively received, and reflected, the same edifying example.
Before the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe
might exult in the exclusive possession of the temperate
climates, of the fertile lands, which produced corn, wine, and
oil; while the savage idolaters, and their helpless idols, were
confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen
regions of the North. 82
80 (return) [ To such a cause has Socrates (l. vii. c. 30)
ascribed the conversion of the Burgundians, whose Christian piety
is celebrated by Orosius, (l. vii. c. 19.)]
81 (return) [ See an original and curious epistle from Daniel,
the first bishop of Winchester, (Beda, Hist. Eccles. Anglorum, l.
v. c. 18, p. 203, edit Smith,) to St. Boniface, who preached the
gospel among the savages of Hesse and Thuringia. Epistol.
Bonifacii, lxvii., in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xiii.
p. 93]
82 (return) [ The sword of Charlemagne added weight to the
argument; but when Daniel wrote this epistle, (A.D. 723,) the
Mahometans, who reigned from India to Spain, might have retorted
it against the Christians.]
Christianity, which opened the gates of Heaven to the Barbarians,
introduced an important change in their moral and political
condition. They received, at the same time, the use of letters,
so essential to a religion whose doctrines are contained in a
sacred book; and while they studied the divine truth, their minds
were insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of
nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the
Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their
conversion, must excite among their clergy some curiosity to read
the original text, to understand the sacred liturgy of the
church, and to examine, in the writings of the fathers, the chain
of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved
in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inestimable
monuments of ancient learning. The immortal productions of
Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian
Barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign of
Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation
of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect
state; and the flame of science was secretly kept alive, to warm
and enlighten the mature age of the Western world.
In the most corrupt state of Christianity, the Barbarians might
learn justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel; and if the
knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions,
or to regulate their passions, they were sometimes restrained by
conscience, and frequently punished by remorse. But the direct
authority of religion was less effectual than the holy communion,
which united them with their Christian brethren in spiritual
friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to
secure their fidelity in the service, or the alliance, of the
Romans, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the
insolence of conquest, and to preserve, in the downfall of the
empire, a permanent respect for the name and institutions of
Rome. In the days of Paganism, the priests of Gaul and Germany
reigned over the people, and controlled the jurisdiction of the
magistrates; and the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or
more ample, measure of devout obedience, to the pontiffs of the
Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was
supported by their temporal possessions; they obtained an
honorable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and
freemen; and it was their interest, as well as their duty, to
mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce spirit of the
Barbarians. The perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the
frequent pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing
authority of the popes, cemented the union of the Christian
republic, and gradually produced the similar manners, and common
jurisprudence, which have distinguished, from the rest of
mankind, the independent, and even hostile, nations of modern
Europe.
But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by the
unfortunate accident, which infused a deadly poison into the cup
of Salvation. Whatever might be the early sentiments of Ulphilas,
his connections with the empire and the church were formed during
the reign of Arianism. The apostle of the Goths subscribed the
creed of Rimini; professed with freedom, and perhaps with
sincerity, that the Son was not equal, or consubstantial to the
Father; 83 communicated these errors to the clergy and people;
and infected the Barbaric world with a heresy, 84 which the great
Theodosius proscribed and extinguished among the Romans. The
temper and understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted
to metaphysical subtilties; but they strenuously maintained, what
they had piously received, as the pure and genuine doctrines of
Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the
Scriptures in the Teutonic language promoted the apostolic labors
of Ulphilas and his successors; and they ordained a competent
number of bishops and presbyters for the instruction of the
kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and
the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin
clergy, 85 preferred the more intelligible lessons of their
domestic teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith
of the warlike converts, who were seated on the ruins of the
Western empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a
perpetual source of jealousy and hatred; and the reproach of
Barbarian was imbittered by the more odious epithet of Heretic.
The heroes of the North, who had submitted, with some reluctance,
to believe that all their ancestors were in hell, 86 were
astonished and exasperated to learn, that they themselves had
only changed the mode of their eternal condemnation. Instead of
the smooth applause, which Christian kings are accustomed to
expect from their royal prelates, the orthodox bishops and their
clergy were in a state of opposition to the Arian courts; and
their indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and might
sometimes be dangerous. 87 The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ
of sedition, resounded with the names of Pharaoh and Holofernes;
88 the public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of a
glorious deliverance; and the seditious saints were tempted to
promote the accomplishment of their own predictions.
Notwithstanding these provocations, the Catholics of Gaul, Spain,
and Italy, enjoyed, under the reign of the Arians, the free and
peaceful exercise of their religion. Their haughty masters
respected the zeal of a numerous people, resolved to die at the
foot of their altars; and the example of their devout constancy
was admired and imitated by the Barbarians themselves. The
conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach, or
confession, of fear, by attributing their toleration to the
liberal motives of reason and humanity; and while they affected
the language, they imperceptiby imbibed the spirit, of genuine
Christianity.
83 (return) [ The opinions of Ulphilas and the Goths inclined to
semi-Arianism, since they would not say that the Son was a
creature, though they held communion with those who maintained
that heresy. Their apostle represented the whole controversy as a
question of trifling moment, which had been raised by the
passions of the clergy. Theodoret l. iv. c. 37.]
84 (return) [ The Arianism of the Goths has been imputed to the
emperor Valens: “Itaque justo Dei judicio ipsi eum vivum
incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui, vitio erroris arsuri
sunt.” Orosius, l. vii. c. 33, p. 554. This cruel sentence is
confirmed by Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 604-610,) who
coolly observes, “un seul homme entraina dans l’enfer un nombre
infini de Septentrionaux, &c.” Salvian (de Gubern. Dei, l. v p.
150, 151) pities and excuses their involuntary error.]
85 (return) [ Orosius affirms, in the year 416, (l. vii. c. 41,
p. 580,) that the Churches of Christ (of the Catholics) were
filled with Huns, Suevi, Vandals, Burgundians.]
86 (return) [ Radbod, king of the Frisons, was so much
scandalized by this rash declaration of a missionary, that he
drew back his foot after he had entered the baptismal font. See
Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. ix p. 167.]
87 (return) [ The epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under
the Visigotha, and of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, under the
Burgundians, explain sometimes in dark hints, the general
dispositions of the Catholics. The history of Clovis and
Theodoric will suggest some particular facts]
88 (return) [ Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity
with which he punished such indiscreet allusions. Victor
Vitensis, l. 7, p. 10.]
The peace of the church was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics
were indiscreet, the Barbarians were impatient; and the partial
acts of severity or injustice, which had been recommended by the
Arian clergy, were exaggerated by the orthodox writers. The guilt
of persecution may be imputed to Euric, king of the Visigoths;
who suspended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or, at least, of
episcopal functions; and punished the popular bishops of Aquitain
with imprisonment, exile, and confiscation. 89 But the cruel and
absurd enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole people was
undertaken by the Vandals alone. Genseric himself, in his early
youth, had renounced the orthodox communion; and the apostate
could neither grant, nor expect, a sincere forgiveness. He was
exasperated to find that the Africans, who had fled before him in
the field, still presumed to dispute his will in synods and
churches; and his ferocious mind was incapable of fear or of
compassion. His Catholic subjects were oppressed by intolerant
laws and arbitrary punishments. The language of Genseric was
furious and formidable; the knowledge of his intentions might
justify the most unfavorable interpretation of his actions; and
the Arians were reproached with the frequent executions which
stained the palace and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms and
ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the monarch of the
sea. But Hunneric, his inglorious son, who seemed to inherit only
his vices, tormented the Catholics with the same unrelenting fury
which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends
and favorites of his father; and even to the Arian patriarch, who
was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of Carthage. The religious
war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce; persecution
was made the serious and important business of the Vandal court;
and the loathsome disease which hastened the death of Hunneric,
revenged the injuries, without contributing to the deliverance,
of the church. The throne of Africa was successively filled by
the two nephews of Hunneric; by Gundamund, who reigned about
twelve, and by Thrasimund, who governed the nation about
twenty-seven, years. Their administration was hostile and
oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundamund appeared to emulate,
or even to surpass, the cruelty of his uncle; and, if at length
he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and restored the freedom
of Athanasian worship, a premature death intercepted the benefits
of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the greatest
and most accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in
beauty, prudence, and magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous
character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful
clemency. Instead of threats and tortures, he employed the
gentle, but efficacious, powers of seduction. Wealth, dignity,
and the royal favor, were the liberal rewards of apostasy; the
Catholics, who had violated the laws, might purchase their pardon
by the renunciation of their faith; and whenever Thrasimund
meditated any rigorous measure, he patiently waited till the
indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious
opportunity. Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death;
and he exacted from his successor a solemn oath, that he would
never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius. But his successor,
Hilderic, the gentle son of the savage Hunneric, preferred the
duties of humanity and justice to the vain obligation of an
impious oath; and his accession was gloriously marked by the
restoration of peace and universal freedom. The throne of that
virtuous, though feeble monarch, was usurped by his cousin
Gelimer, a zealous Arian: but the Vandal kingdom, before he could
enjoy or abuse his power, was subverted by the arms of
Belisarius; and the orthodox party retaliated the injuries which
they had endured. 90
89 (return) [ Such are the contemporary complaints of Sidonius,
bishop of Clermont (l. vii. c. 6, p. 182, &c., edit. Sirmond.)
Gregory of Tours who quotes this Epistle, (l. ii. c. 25, in tom.
ii. p. 174,) extorts an unwarrantable assertion, that of the nine
vacancies in Aquitain, some had been produced by episcopal
martyrdoms]
90 (return) [ The original monuments of the Vandal persecution
are preserved in the five books of the history of Victor
Vitensis, (de Persecutione Vandalica,) a bishop who was exiled by
Hunneric; in the life of St. Fulgentius, who was distinguished in
the persecution of Thrasimund (in Biblioth. Max. Patrum, tom. ix.
p. 4-16;) and in the first book of the Vandalic War, by the
impartial Procopius, (c. 7, 8, p. 196, 197, 198, 199.) Dom
Ruinart, the last editor of Victor, has illustrated the whole
subject with a copious and learned apparatus of notes and
supplement (Paris, 1694.)]
The passionate declamations of the Catholics, the sole historians
of this persecution, cannot afford any distinct series of causes
and events; any impartial view of the characters, or counsels;
but the most remarkable circumstances that deserve either credit
or notice, may be referred to the following heads; I. In the
original law, which is still extant, 91 Hunneric expressly
declares, (and the declaration appears to be correct,) that he
had faithfully transcribed the regulations and penalties of the
Imperial edicts, against the heretical congregations, the clergy,
and the people, who dissented from the established religion. If
the rights of conscience had been understood, the Catholics must
have condemned their past conduct or acquiesced in their actual
suffering. But they still persisted to refuse the indulgence
which they claimed. While they trembled under the lash of
persecution, they praised the laudable severity of Hunneric
himself, who burnt or banished great numbers of Manichæans; 92
and they rejected, with horror, the ignominious compromise, that
the disciples of Arius and of Athanasius should enjoy a
reciprocal and similar toleration in the territories of the
Romans, and in those of the Vandals. 93 II. The practice of a
conference, which the Catholics had so frequently used to insult
and punish their obstinate antagonists, was retorted against
themselves. 94 At the command of Hunneric, four hundred and
sixty-six orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage; but when they
were admitted into the hall of audience, they had the
mortification of beholding the Arian Cyrila exalted on the
patriarchal throne. The disputants were separated, after the
mutual and ordinary reproaches of noise and silence, of delay and
precipitation, of military force and of popular clamor. One
martyr and one confessor were selected among the Catholic
bishops; twenty-eight escaped by flight, and eighty-eight by
conformity; forty-six were sent into Corsica to cut timber for
the royal navy; and three hundred and two were banished to the
different parts of Africa, exposed to the insults of their
enemies, and carefully deprived of all the temporal and spiritual
comforts of life. 95 The hardships of ten years’ exile must have
reduced their numbers; and if they had complied with the law of
Thrasimund, which prohibited any episcopal consecrations, the
orthodox church of Africa must have expired with the lives of its
actual members. They disobeyed, and their disobedience was
punished by a second exile of two hundred and twenty bishops into
Sardinia; where they languished fifteen years, till the accession
of the gracious Hilderic. 96 The two islands were judiciously
chosen by the malice of their Arian tyrants. Seneca, from his own
experience, has deplored and exaggerated the miserable state of
Corsica, 97 and the plenty of Sardinia was overbalanced by the
unwholesome quality of the air. 98 III. The zeal of Genseric and
his successors, for the conversion of the Catholics, must have
rendered them still more jealous to guard the purity of the
Vandal faith. Before the churches were finally shut, it was a
crime to appear in a Barbarian dress; and those who presumed to
neglect the royal mandate were rudely dragged backwards by their
long hair. 99 The palatine officers, who refused to profess the
religion of their prince, were ignominiously stripped of their
honors and employments; banished to Sardinia and Sicily; or
condemned to the servile labors of slaves and peasants in the
fields of Utica. In the districts which had been peculiarly
allotted to the Vandals, the exercise of the Catholic worship was
more strictly prohibited; and severe penalties were denounced
against the guilt both of the missionary and the proselyte. By
these arts, the faith of the Barbarians was preserved, and their
zeal was inflamed: they discharged, with devout fury, the office
of spies, informers, or executioners; and whenever their cavalry
took the field, it was the favorite amusement of the march to
defile the churches, and to insult the clergy of the adverse
faction. 100 IV. The citizens who had been educated in the luxury
of the Roman province, were delivered, with exquisite cruelty, to
the Moors of the desert. A venerable train of bishops,
presbyters, and deacons, with a faithful crowd of four thousand
and ninety-six persons, whose guilt is not precisely ascertained,
were torn from their native homes, by the command of Hunneric.
During the night they were confined, like a herd of cattle,
amidst their own ordure: during the day they pursued their march
over the burning sands; and if they fainted under the heat and
fatigue, they were goaded, or dragged along, till they expired in
the hands of their tormentors. 101 These unhappy exiles, when
they reached the Moorish huts, might excite the compassion of a
people, whose native humanity was neither improved by reason, nor
corrupted by fanaticism: but if they escaped the dangers, they
were condemned to share the distress of a savage life. V. It is
incumbent on the authors of persecution previously to reflect,
whether they are determined to support it in the last extreme.
They excite the flame which they strive to extinguish; and it
soon becomes necessary to chastise the contumacy, as well as the
crime, of the offender. The fine, which he is unable or unwilling
to discharge, exposes his person to the severity of the law; and
his contempt of lighter penalties suggests the use and propriety
of capital punishment. Through the veil of fiction and
declamation we may clearly perceive, that the Catholics more
especially under the reign of Hunneric, endured the most cruel
and ignominious treatment. 102 Respectable citizens, noble
matrons, and consecrated virgins, were stripped naked, and raised
in the air by pulleys, with a weight suspended at their feet. In
this painful attitude their naked bodies were torn with scourges,
or burnt in the most tender parts with red-hot plates of iron.
The amputation of the ears the nose, the tongue, and the right
hand, was inflicted by the Arians; and although the precise
number cannot be defined, it is evident that many persons, among
whom a bishop 103 and a proconsul 104 may be named, were entitled
to the crown of martyrdom. The same honor has been ascribed to
the memory of Count Sebastian, who professed the Nicene creed
with unshaken constancy; and Genseric might detest, as a heretic,
the brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival. 105
VI. A new mode of conversion, which might subdue the feeble, and
alarm the timorous, was employed by the Arian ministers. They
imposed, by fraud or violence, the rites of baptism; and punished
the apostasy of the Catholics, if they disclaimed this odious and
profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the
will, and the unity of the sacrament. 106 The hostile sects had
formerly allowed the validity of each other’s baptism; and the
innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can be imputed
only to the example and advice of the Donatists. VII. The Arian
clergy surpassed in religious cruelty the king and his Vandals;
but they were incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard,
which they were so desirous to possess. A patriarch 107 might
seat himself on the throne of Carthage; some bishops, in the
principal cities, might usurp the place of their rivals; but the
smallness of their numbers, and their ignorance of the Latin
language, 108 disqualified the Barbarians for the ecclesiastical
ministry of a great church; and the Africans, after the loss of
their orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public exercise of
Christianity. VIII. The emperors were the natural protectors of
the Homoousian doctrine; and the faithful people of Africa, both
as Romans and as Catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to
the usurpation of the Barbarous heretics. During an interval of
peace and friendship, Hunneric restored the cathedral of
Carthage; at the intercession of Zeno, who reigned in the East,
and of Placidia, the daughter and relict of emperors, and the
sister of the queen of the Vandals. 109 But this decent regard
was of short duration; and the haughty tyrant displayed his
contempt for the religion of the empire, by studiously arranging
the bloody images of persecution, in all the principal streets
through which the Roman ambassador must pass in his way to the
palace. 110 An oath was required from the bishops, who were
assembled at Carthage, that they would support the succession of
his son Hilderic, and that they would renounce all foreign or
transmarine correspondence. This engagement, consistent, as it
should seem, with their moral and religious duties, was refused
by the more sagacious members 111 of the assembly. Their refusal,
faintly colored by the pretence that it is unlawful for a
Christian to swear, must provoke the suspicions of a jealous
tyrant.
91 (return) [ Victor, iv. 2, p. 65. Hunneric refuses the name of
Catholics to the Homoousians. He describes, as the veri Divinae
Majestatis cultores, his own party, who professed the faith,
confirmed by more than a thousand bishops, in the synods of
Rimini and Seleucia.]
92 (return) [ Victor, ii, 1, p. 21, 22: Laudabilior... videbatur.
In the Mss which omit this word, the passage is unintelligible.
See Ruinart Not. p. 164.]
93 (return) [ Victor, ii. p. 22, 23. The clergy of Carthage
called these conditions periculosoe; and they seem, indeed, to
have been proposed as a snare to entrap the Catholic bishops.]
94 (return) [ See the narrative of this conference, and the
treatment of the bishops, in Victor, ii. 13-18, p. 35-42 and the
whole fourth book p. 63-171. The third book, p. 42-62, is
entirely filled by their apology or confession of faith.]
95 (return) [ See the list of the African bishops, in Victor, p.
117-140, and Ruinart’s notes, p. 215-397. The schismatic name of
Donatus frequently occurs, and they appear to have adopted (like
our fanatics of the last age) the pious appellations of Deodatus,
Deogratias, Quidvultdeus, Habetdeum, &c. Note: These names appear
to have been introduced by the Donatists.—M.]
96 (return) [ Fulgent. Vit. c. 16-29. Thrasimund affected the
praise of moderation and learning; and Fulgentius addressed three
books of controversy to the Arian tyrant, whom he styles piissime
Rex. Biblioth. Maxim. Patrum, tom. ix. p. 41. Only sixty bishops
are mentioned as exiles in the life of Fulgentius; they are
increased to one hundred and twenty by Victor Tunnunensis and
Isidore; but the number of two hundred and twenty is specified in
the Historia Miscella, and a short authentic chronicle of the
times. See Ruinart, p. 570, 571.]
97 (return) [ See the base and insipid epigrams of the Stoic, who
could not support exile with more fortitude than Ovid. Corsica
might not produce corn, wine, or oil; but it could not be
destitute of grass, water, and even fire.]
98 (return) [ Si ob gravitatem coeli interissent vile damnum.
Tacit. Annal. ii. 85. In this application, Thrasimund would have
adopted the reading of some critics, utile damnum.]
99 (return) [ See these preludes of a general persecution, in
Victor, ii. 3, 4, 7 and the two edicts of Hunneric, l. ii. p. 35,
l. iv. p. 64.]
100 (return) [ See Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 7, p. 197,
198. A Moorish prince endeavored to propitiate the God of the
Christians, by his diligence to erase the marks of the Vandal
sacrilege.]
101 (return) [ See this story in Victor. ii. 8-12, p. 30-34.
Victor describes the distress of these confessors as an
eye-witness.]
102 (return) [ See the fifth book of Victor. His passionate
complaints are confirmed by the sober testimony of Procopius, and
the public declaration of the emperor Justinian. Cod. l. i. tit.
xxvii.]
103 (return) [ Victor, ii. 18, p. 41.]
104 (return) [ Victor, v. 4, p. 74, 75. His name was Victorianus,
and he was a wealthy citizen of Adrumetum, who enjoyed the
confidence of the king; by whose favor he had obtained the
office, or at least the title, of proconsul of Africa.]
105 (return) [ Victor, i. 6, p. 8, 9. After relating the firm
resistance and dexterous reply of Count Sebastian, he adds, quare
alio generis argumento postea bellicosum virum eccidit.]
106 (return) [ Victor, v. 12, 13. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom.
vi. p. 609.]
107 (return) [ Primate was more properly the title of the bishop
of Carthage; but the name of patriarch was given by the sects and
nations to their principal ecclesiastic. See Thomassin,
Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p. 155, 158.]
108 (return) [ The patriarch Cyrila himself publicly declared,
that he did not understand Latin (Victor, ii. 18, p. 42:) Nescio
Latine; and he might converse with tolerable ease, without being
capable of disputing or preaching in that language. His Vandal
clergy were still more ignorant; and small confidence could be
placed in the Africans who had conformed.]
109 (return) [ Victor, ii. 1, 2, p. 22.]
110 (return) [ Victor, v. 7, p. 77. He appeals to the ambassador
himself, whose name was Uranius.]
111 (return) [ Astutiores, Victor, iv. 4, p. 70. He plainly
intimates that their quotation of the gospel “Non jurabitis in
toto,” was only meant to elude the obligation of an inconvenient
oath. The forty-six bishops who refused were banished to Corsica;
the three hundred and two who swore were distributed through the
provinces of Africa.]