72 (return) [ Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter

of the Roman ambassadors, (p. 386—388,) likewise constitute the

merit of the Paschal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps at

Alexandria, under the reign of Heraclius.]

Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is

one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and

last years of a long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave

of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and

impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid

mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness

of the meridian sun; the Arcadius of the palace arose the Caesar

of the camp; and the honor of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously

retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous

campaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine historians to have

revealed the causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this

distance we can only conjecture, that he was endowed with more

personal courage than political resolution; that he was detained

by the charms, and perhaps the arts, of his niece Martina, with

whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous

marriage; 73 and that he yielded to the base advice of the

counsellors, who urged, as a fundamental law, that the life of

the emperor should never be exposed in the field. 74 Perhaps he

was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian

conqueror; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of

a hero, the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the

vicissitudes of fortune, which might threaten the proud

prosperity of Chosroes, and must be favorable to those who had

attained the lowest period of depression. 75 To provide for the

expenses of war, was the first care of the emperor; and for the

purpose of collecting the tribute, he was allowed to solicit the

benevolence of the eastern provinces. But the revenue no longer

flowed in the usual channels; the credit of an arbitrary prince

is annihilated by his power; and the courage of Heraclius was

first displayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of

churches, under the solemn vow of restoring, with usury, whatever

he had been compelled to employ in the service of religion and

the empire. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathized with

the public distress; and the discreet patriarch of Alexandria,

without admitting the precedent of sacrilege, assisted his

sovereign by the miraculous or seasonable revelation of a secret

treasure. 76 Of the soldiers who had conspired with Phocas, only

two were found to have survived the stroke of time and of the

Barbarians; 77 the loss, even of these seditious veterans, was

imperfectly supplied by the new levies of Heraclius, and the gold

of the sanctuary united, in the same camp, the names, and arms,

and languages of the East and West. He would have been content

with the neutrality of the Avars; and his friendly entreaty, that

the chagan would act, not as the enemy, but as the guardian, of

the empire, was accompanied with a more persuasive donative of

two hundred thousand pieces of gold. Two days after the festival

of Easter, the emperor, exchanging his purple for the simple garb

of a penitent and warrior, 78 gave the signal of his departure.

To the faith of the people Heraclius recommended his children;

the civil and military powers were vested in the most deserving

hands, and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was

authorized to save or surrender the city, if they should be

oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy.

73 (return) [Nicephorus, (p. 10, 11,) is happy to observe, that

of two sons, its incestuous fruit, the elder was marked by

Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of

hearing.]

74 (return) [ George of Pisidia, (Acroas. i. 112—125, p. 5,) who

states the opinions, acquits the pusillanimous counsellors of any

sinister views. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous

admonition of Crispus?]

75 (return) [ George Pisid. Acroas. i. 51, &c. p: 4. The

Orientals are not less fond of remarking this strange

vicissitude; and I remember some story of Khosrou Parviz, not

very unlike the ring of Polycrates of Samos.]

76 (return) [ Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rather

transmutation, of barrels, not of honey, but of gold, (Annal.

Eccles. A.D. 620, No. 3, &c.) Yet the loan was arbitrary, since

it was collected by soldiers, who were ordered to leave the

patriarch of Alexandria no more than one hundred pounds of gold.

Nicephorus, (p. 11,) two hundred years afterwards, speaks with

ill humor of this contribution, which the church of

Constantinople might still feel.]

77 (return) [ Theophylact Symocatta, l. viii. c. 12. This

circumstance need not excite our surprise. The muster-roll of a

regiment, even in time of peace, is renewed in less than twenty

or twenty-five years.]

78 (return) [ He changed his purple for black, buckskins, and

dyed them red in the blood of the Persians, (Georg. Pisid.

Acroas. iii. 118, 121, 122 See the notes of Foggini, p. 35.)]

The neighboring heights of Chalcedon were covered with tents and

arms: but if the new levies of Heraclius had been rashly led to

the attack, the victory of the Persians in the sight of

Constantinople might have been the last day of the Roman empire.

As imprudent would it have been to advance into the provinces of

Asia, leaving their innumerable cavalry to intercept his convoys,

and continually to hang on the lassitude and disorder of his

rear. But the Greeks were still masters of the sea; a fleet of

galleys, transports, and store-ships, was assembled in the

harbor; the Barbarians consented to embark; a steady wind carried

them through the Hellespont the western and southern coast of

Asia Minor lay on their left hand; the spirit of their chief was

first displayed in a storm, and even the eunuchs of his train

were excited to suffer and to work by the example of their

master. He landed his troops on the confines of Syria and

Cilicia, in the Gulf of Scanderoon, where the coast suddenly

turns to the south; 79 and his discernment was expressed in the

choice of this important post. 80 From all sides, the scattered

garrisons of the maritime cities and the mountains might repair

with speed and safety to his Imperial standard. The natural

fortifications of Cilicia protected, and even concealed, the camp

of Heraclius, which was pitched near Issus, on the same ground

where Alexander had vanquished the host of Darius. The angle

which the emperor occupied was deeply indented into a vast

semicircle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces; and to

whatsoever point of the circumference he should direct his

attack, it was easy for him to dissemble his own motions, and to

prevent those of the enemy. In the camp of Issus, the Roman

general reformed the sloth and disorder of the veterans, and

educated the new recruits in the knowledge and practice of

military virtue. Unfolding the miraculous image of Christ, he

urged them to revenge the holy altars which had been profaned by

the worshippers of fire; addressing them by the endearing

appellations of sons and brethren, he deplored the public and

private wrongs of the republic. The subjects of a monarch were

persuaded that they fought in the cause of freedom; and a similar

enthusiasm was communicated to the foreign mercenaries, who must

have viewed with equal indifference the interest of Rome and of

Persia. Heraclius himself, with the skill and patience of a

centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tactics, and

the soldiers were assiduously trained in the use of their

weapons, and the exercises and evolutions of the field. The

cavalry and infantry in light or heavy armor were divided into

two parties; the trumpets were fixed in the centre, and their

signals directed the march, the charge, the retreat or pursuit;

the direct or oblique order, the deep or extended phalanx; to

represent in fictitious combat the operations of genuine war.

Whatever hardships the emperor imposed on the troops, he

inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labor, their

diet, their sleep, were measured by the inflexible rules of

discipline; and, without despising the enemy, they were taught to

repose an implicit confidence in their own valor and the wisdom

of their leader. Cilicia was soon encompassed with the Persian

arms; but their cavalry hesitated to enter the defiles of Mount

Taurus, till they were circumvented by the evolutions of

Heraclius, who insensibly gained their rear, whilst he appeared

to present his front in order of battle. By a false motion, which

seemed to threaten Armenia, he drew them, against their wishes,

to a general action. They were tempted by the artful disorder of

his camp; but when they advanced to combat, the ground, the sun,

and the expectation of both armies, were unpropitious to the

Barbarians; the Romans successfully repeated their tactics in a

field of battle, 81 and the event of the day declared to the

world, that the Persians were not invincible, and that a hero was

invested with the purple. Strong in victory and fame, Heraclius

boldly ascended the heights of Mount Taurus, directed his march

through the plains of Cappadocia, and established his troops, for

the winter season, in safe and plentiful quarters on the banks of

the River Halys. 82 His soul was superior to the vanity of

entertaining Constantinople with an imperfect triumph; but the

presence of the emperor was indispensably required to soothe the

restless and rapacious spirit of the Avars.

79 (return) [ George of Pisidia, (Acroas. ii. 10, p. 8) has fixed

this important point of the Syrian and Cilician gates. They are

elegantly described by Xenophon, who marched through them a

thousand years before. A narrow pass of three stadia between

steep, high rocks, and the Mediterranean, was closed at each end

by strong gates, impregnable to the land, accessible by sea,

(Anabasis, l. i. p. 35, 36, with Hutchinson’s Geographical

Dissertation, p. vi.) The gates were thirty-five parasangs, or

leagues, from Tarsus, (Anabasis, l. i. p. 33, 34,) and eight or

ten from Antioch. Compare Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 580, 581.

Schultens, Index Geograph. ad calcem Vit. Saladin. p. 9. Voyage

en Turquie et en Perse, par M. Otter, tom. i. p. 78, 79.]

80 (return) [ Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest

words of Cicero: “Castra habuimus ea ipsa quae contra Darium

habuerat apud Issum Alexander, imperator haud paulo melior quam

aut tu aut ego.” Ad Atticum, v. 20. Issus, a rich and flourishing

city in the time of Xenophon, was ruined by the prosperity of

Alexandria or Scanderoon, on the other side of the bay.]

81 (return) [ Foggini (Annotat. p. 31) suspects that the Persians

were deceived by the of Aelian, (Tactic. c. 48,) an intricate

spiral motion of the army. He observes (p. 28) that the military

descriptions of George of Pisidia are transcribed in the Tactics

of the emperor Leo.]

82 (return) [ George of Pisidia, an eye-witness, (Acroas. ii.

122, &c.,) described in three acroaseis, or cantos, the first

expedition of Heraclius. The poem has been lately (1777)

published at Rome; but such vague and declamatory praise is far

from corresponding with the sanguine hopes of Pagi, D’Anville,

&c.]

Since the days of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder enterprise has

been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the

deliverance of the empire. 83 He permitted the Persians to

oppress for a while the provinces, and to insult with impunity

the capital of the East; while the Roman emperor explored his

perilous way through the Black Sea, 84 and the mountains of

Armenia, penetrated into the heart of Persia, 85 and recalled the

armies of the great king to the defence of their bleeding

country. With a select band of five thousand soldiers, Heraclius

sailed from Constantinople to Trebizond; assembled his forces

which had wintered in the Pontic regions; and, from the mouth of

the Phasis to the Caspian Sea, encouraged his subjects and allies

to march with the successor of Constantine under the faithful and

victorious banner of the cross. When the legions of Lucullus and

Pompey first passed the Euphrates, they blushed at their easy

victory over the natives of Armenia. But the long experience of

war had hardened the minds and bodies of that effeminate peeple;

their zeal and bravery were approved in the service of a

declining empire; they abhorred and feared the usurpation of the

house of Sassan, and the memory of persecution envenomed their

pious hatred of the enemies of Christ. The limits of Armenia, as

it had been ceded to the emperor Maurice, extended as far as the

Araxes: the river submitted to the indignity of a bridge, 86 and

Heraclius, in the footsteps of Mark Antony, advanced towards the

city of Tauris or Gandzaca, 87 the ancient and modern capital of

one of the provinces of Media. At the head of forty thousand men,

Chosroes himself had returned from some distant expedition to

oppose the progress of the Roman arms; but he retreated on the

approach of Heraclius, declining the generous alternative of

peace or of battle. Instead of half a million of inhabitants,

which have been ascribed to Tauris under the reign of the Sophys,

the city contained no more than three thousand houses; but the

value of the royal treasures was enhanced by a tradition, that

they were the spoils of Croesus, which had been transported by

Cyrus from the citadel of Sardes. The rapid conquests of

Heraclius were suspended only by the winter season; a motive of

prudence, or superstition, 88 determined his retreat into the

province of Albania, along the shores of the Caspian; and his

tents were most probably pitched in the plains of Mogan, 89 the

favorite encampment of Oriental princes. In the course of this

successful inroad, he signalized the zeal and revenge of a

Christian emperor: at his command, the soldiers extinguished the

fire, and destroyed the temples, of the Magi; the statues of

Chosroes, who aspired to divine honors, were abandoned to the

flames; and the ruins of Thebarma or Ormia, 90 which had given

birth to Zoroaster himself, made some atonement for the injuries

of the holy sepulchre. A purer spirit of religion was shown in

the relief and deliverance of fifty thousand captives. Heraclius

was rewarded by their tears and grateful acclamations; but this

wise measure, which spread the fame of his benevolence, diffused

the murmurs of the Persians against the pride and obstinacy of

their own sovereign.

83 (return) [Footnote 83: Theophanes (p. 256) carries Heraclius

swiftly into Armenia. Nicephorus, (p. 11,) though he confounds

the two expeditions, defines the province of Lazica. Eutychius

(Annal. tom. ii. p. 231) has given the 5000 men, with the more

probable station of Trebizond.]

84 (return) [ From Constantinople to Trebizond, with a fair wind,

four or five days; from thence to Erzerom, five; to Erivan,

twelve; to Taurus, ten; in all, thirty-two. Such is the Itinerary

of Tavernier, (Voyages, tom. i. p. 12—56,) who was perfectly

conversant with the roads of Asia. Tournefort, who travelled with

a pacha, spent ten or twelve days between Trebizond and Erzerom,

(Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xviii.;) and Chardin

(Voyages, tom. i. p. 249—254) gives the more correct distance of

fifty-three parasangs, each of 5000 paces, (what paces?) between

Erivan and Tauris.]

85 (return) [ The expedition of Heraclius into Persia is finely

illustrated by M. D’Anville, (Memoires de l’Academie des

Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 559—573.) He discovers the

situation of Gandzaca, Thebarma, Dastagerd, &c., with admirable

skill and learning; but the obscure campaign of 624 he passes

over in silence.]

86 (return) [ Et pontem indignatus Araxes.—Virgil, Aeneid, viii.

728. The River Araxes is noisy, rapid, vehement, and, with the

melting of the snows, irresistible: the strongest and most massy

bridges are swept away by the current; and its indignation is

attested by the ruins of many arches near the old town of Zulfa.

Voyages de Chardin, tom. i. p. 252.]

87 (return) [ Chardin, tom. i. p. 255—259. With the Orientals,

(D’Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. p. 834,) he ascribes the

foundation of Tauris, or Tebris, to Zobeide, the wife of the

famous Khalif Haroun Alrashid; but it appears to have been more

ancient; and the names of Gandzaca, Gazaca, Gaza, are expressive

of the royal treasure. The number of 550,000 inhabitants is

reduced by Chardin from 1,100,000, the popular estimate.]

88 (return) [ He opened the gospel, and applied or interpreted

the first casual passage to the name and situation of Albania.

Theophanes, p. 258.]

89 (return) [ The heath of Mogan, between the Cyrus and the

Araxes, is sixty parasangs in length and twenty in breadth,

(Olearius, p. 1023, 1024,) abounding in waters and fruitful

pastures, (Hist. de Nadir Shah, translated by Mr. Jones from a

Persian Ms., part ii. p. 2, 3.) See the encampments of Timur,

(Hist. par Sherefeddin Ali, l. v. c. 37, l. vi. c. 13,) and the

coronation of Nadir Shah, (Hist. Persanne, p. 3—13 and the

English Life by Mr. Jones, p. 64, 65.)]

90 (return) [ Thebarma and Ormia, near the Lake Spauta, are

proved to be the same city by D’Anville, (Memoires de l’Academie,

tom. xxviii. p. 564, 565.) It is honored as the birthplace of

Zoroaster, according to the Persians, (Schultens, Index Geograph.

p. 48;) and their tradition is fortified by M. Perron d’Anquetil,

(Mem. de l’Acad. des Inscript. tom. xxxi. p. 375,) with some

texts from his, or their, Zendavesta. * Note: D’Anville (Mem. de

l’Acad. des Inscript. tom. xxxii. p. 560) labored to prove the

identity of these two cities; but according to M. St. Martin,

vol. xi. p. 97, not with perfect success. Ourmiah. called Ariema

in the ancient Pehlvi books, is considered, both by the followers

of Zoroaster and by the Mahometans, as his birthplace. It is

situated in the southern part of Aderbidjan.—M.]

Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia.—Part IV.

Amidst the glories of the succeeding campaign, Heraclius is

almost lost to our eyes, and to those of the Byzantine

historians. 91 From the spacious and fruitful plains of Albania,

the emperor appears to follow the chain of Hyrcanian Mountains,

to descend into the province of Media or Irak, and to carry his

victorious arms as far as the royal cities of Casbin and Ispahan,

which had never been approached by a Roman conqueror. Alarmed by

the danger of his kingdom, the powers of Chosroes were already

recalled from the Nile and the Bosphorus, and three formidable

armies surrounded, in a distant and hostile land, the camp of the

emperor. The Colchian allies prepared to desert his standard; and

the fears of the bravest veterans were expressed, rather than

concealed, by their desponding silence. “Be not terrified,” said

the intrepid Heraclius, “by the multitude of your foes. With the

aid of Heaven, one Roman may triumph over a thousand Barbarians.

But if we devote our lives for the salvation of our brethren, we

shall obtain the crown of martyrdom, and our immortal reward will

be liberally paid by God and posterity.” These magnanimous

sentiments were supported by the vigor of his actions. He

repelled the threefold attack of the Persians, improved the

divisions of their chiefs, and, by a well-concerted train of

marches, retreats, and successful actions, finally chased them

from the field into the fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In

the severity of the winter season, Sarbaraza deemed himself

secure in the walls of Salban: he was surprised by the activity

of Heraclius, who divided his troops, and performed a laborious

march in the silence of the night. The flat roofs of the houses

were defended with useless valor against the darts and torches of

the Romans: the satraps and nobles of Persia, with their wives

and children, and the flower of their martial youth, were either

slain or made prisoners. The general escaped by a precipitate

flight, but his golden armor was the prize of the conqueror; and

the soldiers of Heraclius enjoyed the wealth and repose which

they had so nobly deserved. On the return of spring, the emperor

traversed in seven days the mountains of Curdistan, and passed

without resistance the rapid stream of the Tigris. Oppressed by

the weight of their spoils and captives, the Roman army halted

under the walls of Amida; and Heraclius informed the senate of

Constantinople of his safety and success, which they had already

felt by the retreat of the besiegers. The bridges of the

Euphrates were destroyed by the Persians; but as soon as the

emperor had discovered a ford, they hastily retired to defend the

banks of the Sarus, 92 in Cilicia. That river, an impetuous

torrent, was about three hundred feet broad; the bridge was

fortified with strong turrets; and the banks were lined with

Barbarian archers. After a bloody conflict, which continued till

the evening, the Romans prevailed in the assault; and a Persian

of gigantic size was slain and thrown into the Sarus by the hand

of the emperor himself. The enemies were dispersed and dismayed;

Heraclius pursued his march to Sebaste in Cappadocia; and at the

expiration of three years, the same coast of the Euxine applauded

his return from a long and victorious expedition. 93

91 (return) [ I cannot find, and (what is much more,) M.

D’Anville does not attempt to seek, the Salban, Tarantum,

territory of the Huns, &c., mentioned by Theophanes, (p.

260-262.) Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 231, 232,) an

insufficient author, names Asphahan; and Casbin is most probably

the city of Sapor. Ispahan is twenty-four days’ journey from

Tauris, and Casbin half way between, them (Voyages de Tavernier,

tom. i. p. 63—82.)]

92 (return) [ At ten parasangs from Tarsus, the army of the

younger Cyrus passed the Sarus, three plethra in breadth: the

Pyramus, a stadium in breadth, ran five parasangs farther to the

east, (Xenophon, Anabas. l. i. p 33, 34.) Note: Now the

Sihan.—M.]

93 (return) [ George of Pisidia (Bell. Abaricum, 246—265, p. 49)

celebrates with truth the persevering courage of the three

campaigns against the Persians.]

Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, the two monarchs who

disputed the empire of the East aimed their desperate strokes at

the heart of their rival. The military force of Persia was wasted

by the marches and combats of twenty years, and many of the

veterans, who had survived the perils of the sword and the

climate, were still detained in the fortresses of Egypt and

Syria. But the revenge and ambition of Chosroes exhausted his

kingdom; and the new levies of subjects, strangers, and slaves,

were divided into three formidable bodies. 94 The first army of

fifty thousand men, illustrious by the ornament and title of the

golden spears, was destined to march against Heraclius; the

second was stationed to prevent his junction with the troops of

his brother Theodorus; and the third was commanded to besiege

Constantinople, and to second the operations of the chagan, with

whom the Persian king had ratified a treaty of alliance and

partition. Sarbar, the general of the third army, penetrated

through the provinces of Asia to the well-known camp of

Chalcedon, and amused himself with the destruction of the sacred

and profane buildings of the Asiatic suburbs, while he

impatiently waited the arrival of his Scythian friends on the

opposite side of the Bosphorus. On the twenty-ninth of June,

thirty thousand Barbarians, the vanguard of the Avars, forced the

long wall, and drove into the capital a promiscuous crowd of

peasants, citizens, and soldiers. Fourscore thousand 95 of his

native subjects, and of the vassal tribes of Gepidae, Russians,

Bulgarians, and Sclavonians, advanced under the standard of the

chagan; a month was spent in marches and negotiations, but the

whole city was invested on the thirty-first of July, from the

suburbs of Pera and Galata to the Blachernae and seven towers;

and the inhabitants descried with terror the flaming signals of

the European and Asiatic shores. In the mean while, the

magistrates of Constantinople repeatedly strove to purchase the

retreat of the chagan; but their deputies were rejected and

insulted; and he suffered the patricians to stand before his

throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk robes, were seated by

his side. “You see,” said the haughty Barbarian, “the proofs of

my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready

to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors.

Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and

inadequate ransom: your wealth and your city are the only

presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourselves, I shall permit

you to depart, each with an under-garment and a shirt; and, at my

entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his

lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has

left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you escape the arms of

the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into the air like

birds, unless like fishes you could dive into the waves.” 96

During ten successive days, the capital was assaulted by the

Avars, who had made some progress in the science of attack; they

advanced to sap or batter the wall, under the cover of the

impenetrable tortoise; their engines discharged a perpetual

volley of stones and darts; and twelve lofty towers of wood

exalted the combatants to the height of the neighboring ramparts.

But the senate and people were animated by the spirit of

Heraclius, who had detached to their relief a body of twelve

thousand cuirassiers; the powers of fire and mechanics were used

with superior art and success in the defence of Constantinople;

and the galleys, with two and three ranks of oars, commanded the

Bosphorus, and rendered the Persians the idle spectators of the

defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed; a fleet of

Sclavonian canoes was destroyed in the harbor; the vassals of the

chagan threatened to desert, his provisions were exhausted, and

after burning his engines, he gave the signal of a slow and

formidable retreat. The devotion of the Romans ascribed this

signal deliverance to the Virgin Mary; but the mother of Christ

would surely have condemned their inhuman murder of the Persian

envoys, who were entitled to the rights of humanity, if they were

not protected by the laws of nations. 97

94 (return) [ Petavius (Annotationes ad Nicephorum, p. 62, 63,

64) discriminates the names and actions of five Persian generals

who were successively sent against Heraclius.]

95 (return) [ This number of eight myriads is specified by George

of Pisidia, (Bell. Abar. 219.) The poet (50—88) clearly indicates

that the old chagan lived till the reign of Heraclius, and that

his son and successor was born of a foreign mother. Yet Foggini

(Annotat. p. 57) has given another interpretation to this

passage.]

96 (return) [ A bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, had been

the present of the Scythian king to Darius, (Herodot. l. iv. c.

131, 132.) Substituez une lettre a ces signes (says Rousseau,

with much good taste) plus elle sera menacante moins elle

effrayera; ce ne sera qu’une fanfarronade dont Darius n’eut fait

que rire, (Emile, tom. iii. p. 146.) Yet I much question whether

the senate and people of Constantinople laughed at this message

of the chagan.]

97 (return) [ The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392—397) gives a minute

and authentic narrative of the siege and deliverance of

Constantinople Theophanes (p. 264) adds some circumstances; and a

faint light may be obtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia,

who has composed a poem (de Bello Abarico, p. 45—54) to

commemorate this auspicious event.]

After the division of his army, Heraclius prudently retired to

the banks of the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive

war against the fifty thousand gold spears of Persia. His anxiety

was relieved by the deliverance of Constantinople; his hopes were

confirmed by a victory of his brother Theodorus; and to the

hostile league of Chosroes with the Avars, the Roman emperor

opposed the useful and honorable alliance of the Turks. At his

liberal invitation, the horde of Chozars 98 transported their

tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains of Georgia;

Heraclius received them in the neighborhood of Teflis, and the

khan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we may

credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore the

purple of the Caesars. Such voluntary homage and important aid

were entitled to the warmest acknowledgments; and the emperor,

taking off his own diadem, placed it on the head of the Turkish

prince, whom he saluted with a tender embrace and the appellation

of son. After a sumptuous banquet, he presented Ziebel with the

plate and ornaments, the gold, the gems, and the silk, which had

been used at the Imperial table, and, with his own hand,

distributed rich jewels and ear-rings to his new allies. In a

secret interview, he produced the portrait of his daughter

Eudocia, 99 condescended to flatter the Barbarian with the

promise of a fair and august bride; obtained an immediate succor

of forty thousand horse, and negotiated a strong diversion of the

Turkish arms on the side of the Oxus. 100 The Persians, in their

turn, retreated with precipitation; in the camp of Edessa,

Heraclius reviewed an army of seventy thousand Romans and

strangers; and some months were successfully employed in the

recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia, whose

fortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still

maintained the important station of Chalcedon; but the jealousy

of Chosroes, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon alienated the

mind of that powerful satrap from the service of his king and

country. A messenger was intercepted with a real or fictitious

mandate to the cadarigan, or second in command, directing him to

send, without delay, to the throne, the head of a guilty or

unfortunate general. The despatches were transmitted to Sarbar

himself; and as soon as he read the sentence of his own death, he

dexterously inserted the names of four hundred officers,

assembled a military council, and asked the cadarigan whether he

was prepared to execute the commands of their tyrant. The

Persians unanimously declared, that Chosroes had forfeited the

sceptre; a separate treaty was concluded with the government of

Constantinople; and if some considerations of honor or policy

restrained Sarbar from joining the standard of Heraclius, the

emperor was assured that he might prosecute, without

interruption, his designs of victory and peace.

98 (return) [ The power of the Chozars prevailed in the viith,

viiith, and ixth centuries. They were known to the Greeks, the

Arabs, and under the name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves. De

Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part ii. p. 507—509. * Note:

Moses of Chorene speaks of an invasion of Armenia by the Khazars

in the second century, l. ii. c. 62. M. St. Martin suspects them

to be the same with the Hunnish nation of the Acatires or

Agazzires. They are called by the Greek historians Eastern Turks;

like the Madjars and other Hunnish or Finnish tribes, they had

probably received some admixture from the genuine Turkish races.

Ibn. Hankal (Oriental Geography) says that their language was

like the Bulgarian, and considers them a people of Finnish or

Hunnish race. Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. p. 268-273. Abel Remusat,

Rech. sur les Langues Tartares, tom. i. p. 315, 316. St. Martin,

vol. xi. p. 115.—M]

99 (return) [ Epiphania, or Eudocia, the only daughter of

Heraclius and his first wife Eudocia, was born at Constantinople

on the 7th of July, A.D. 611, baptized the 15th of August, and

crowned (in the oratory of St. Stephen in the palace) the 4th of

October of the same year. At this time she was about fifteen.

Eudocia was afterwards sent to her Turkish husband, but the news

of his death stopped her journey, and prevented the consummation,

(Ducange, Familiae Byzantin. p. 118.)]

100 (return) [ Elmcain (Hist. Saracen. p. 13—16) gives some

curious and probable facts; but his numbers are rather too

high—300,000 Romans assembled at Edessa—500,000 Persians killed

at Nineveh. The abatement of a cipher is scarcely enough to

restore his sanity]

Deprived of his firmest support, and doubtful of the fidelity of

his subjects, the greatness of Chosroes was still conspicuous in

its ruins. The number of five hundred thousand may be interpreted

as an Oriental metaphor, to describe the men and arms, the horses

and elephants, that covered Media and Assyria against the

invasion of Heraclius. Yet the Romans boldly advanced from the

Araxes to the Tigris, and the timid prudence of Rhazates was

content to follow them by forced marches through a desolate

country, till he received a peremptory mandate to risk the fate

of Persia in a decisive battle. Eastward of the Tigris, at the

end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh had formerly been

erected: 101 the city, and even the ruins of the city, had long

since disappeared; 102 the vacant space afforded a spacious field

for the operations of the two armies. But these operations are

neglected by the Byzantine historians, and, like the authors of

epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the victory, not to the

military conduct, but to the personal valor, of their favorite

hero. On this memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas,

surpassed the bravest of his warriors: his lip was pierced with a

spear; the steed was wounded in the thigh; but he carried his

master safe and victorious through the triple phalanx of the

Barbarians. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs were

successively slain by the sword and lance of the emperor: among

these was Rhazates himself; he fell like a soldier, but the sight

of his head scattered grief and despair through the fainting

ranks of the Persians. His armor of pure and massy gold, the

shield of one hundred and twenty plates, the sword and belt, the

saddle and cuirass, adorned the triumph of Heraclius; and if he

had not been faithful to Christ and his mother, the champion of

Rome might have offered the fourth opime spoils to the Jupiter of

the Capitol. 103 In the battle of Nineveh, which was fiercely

fought from daybreak to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight

standards, besides those which might be broken or torn, were

taken from the Persians; the greatest part of their army was cut

in pieces, and the victors, concealing their own loss, passed the

night on the field. They acknowledged, that on this occasion it

was less difficult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers of

Chosroes; amidst the bodies of their friends, no more than two

bow-shot from the enemy the remnant of the Persian cavalry stood

firm till the seventh hour of the night; about the eighth hour

they retired to their unrifled camp, collected their baggage, and

dispersed on all sides, from the want of orders rather than of

resolution. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admirable in

the use of victory; by a march of forty-eight miles in

four-and-twenty hours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the

great and the lesser Zab; and the cities and palaces of Assyria

were open for the first time to the Romans. By a just gradation

of magnificent scenes, they penetrated to the royal seat of

Dastagerd, 1031 and, though much of the treasure had been

removed, and much had been expended, the remaining wealth appears

to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiated their

avarice. Whatever could not be easily transported, they consumed

with fire, that Chosroes might feel the anguish of those wounds

which he had so often inflicted on the provinces of the empire:

and justice might allow the excuse, if the desolation had been

confined to the works of regal luxury, if national hatred,

military license, and religious zeal, had not wasted with equal

rage the habitations and the temples of the guiltless subject.

The recovery of three hundred Roman standards, and the

deliverance of the numerous captives of Edessa and Alexandria,

reflect a purer glory on the arms of Heraclius. From the palace

of Dastagerd, he pursued his march within a few miles of Modain

or Ctesiphon, till he was stopped, on the banks of the Arba, by

the difficulty of the passage, the rigor of the season, and

perhaps the fame of an impregnable capital. The return of the

emperor is marked by the modern name of the city of Sherhzour: he

fortunately passed Mount Zara, before the snow, which fell

incessantly thirty-four days; and the citizens of Gandzca, or

Tauris, were compelled to entertain the soldiers and their horses

with a hospitable reception. 104

101 (return) [ Ctesias (apud Didor. Sicul. tom. i. l. ii. p. 115,

edit. Wesseling) assigns 480 stadia (perhaps only 32 miles) for

the circumference of Nineveh. Jonas talks of three days’ journey:

the 120,000 persons described by the prophet as incapable of

discerning their right hand from their left, may afford about

700,000 persons of all ages for the inhabitants of that ancient

capital, (Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c., tom. iii. part i. p.

92, 93,) which ceased to exist 600 years before Christ. The

western suburb still subsisted, and is mentioned under the name

of Mosul in the first age of the Arabian khalifs.]

102 (return) [ Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, &c., tom. ii. p. 286)

passed over Nineveh without perceiving it. He mistook for a ridge

of hills the old rampart of brick or earth. It is said to have

been 100 feet high, flanked with 1500 towers, each of the height

of 200 feet.]

103 (return) [ Rex regia arma fero (says Romulus, in the first

consecration).... bina postea (continues Livy, i. 10) inter tot

bella, opima parta sunt spolia, adeo rara ejus fortuna decoris.

If Varro (apud Pomp Festum, p. 306, edit. Dacier) could justify

his liberality in granting the opime spoils even to a common

soldier who had slain the king or general of the enemy, the honor

would have been much more cheap and common]

1031 (return) [ Macdonald Kinneir places Dastagerd at Kasr e

Shirin, the palace of Sira on the banks of the Diala between

Holwan and Kanabee. Kinnets Geograph. Mem. p. 306.—M.]

104 (return) [ In describing this last expedition of Heraclius,

the facts, the places, and the dates of Theophanes (p. 265—271)

are so accurate and authentic, that he must have followed the

original letters of the emperor, of which the Paschal Chronicle

has preserved (p. 398—402) a very curious specimen.]

When the ambition of Chosroes was reduced to the defence of his

hereditary kingdom, the love of glory, or even the sense of

shame, should have urged him to meet his rival in the field. In

the battle of Nineveh, his courage might have taught the Persians

to vanquish, or he might have fallen with honor by the lance of a

Roman emperor. The successor of Cyrus chose rather, at a secure

distance, to expect the event, to assemble the relics of the

defeat, and to retire, by measured steps, before the march of

Heraclius, till he beheld with a sigh the once loved mansions of

Dastagerd. Both his friends and enemies were persuaded, that it

was the intention of Chosroes to bury himself under the ruins of

the city and palace: and as both might have been equally adverse

to his flight, the monarch of Asia, with Sira, 1041 and three

concubines, escaped through a hole in the wall nine days before

the arrival of the Romans. The slow and stately procession in

which he showed himself to the prostrate crowd, was changed to a

rapid and secret journey; and the first evening he lodged in the

cottage of a peasant, whose humble door would scarcely give

admittance to the great king. 105 His superstition was subdued by

fear: on the third day, he entered with joy the fortifications of

Ctesiphon; yet he still doubted of his safety till he had opposed

the River Tigris to the pursuit of the Romans. The discovery of

his flight agitated with terror and tumult the palace, the city,

and the camp of Dastagerd: the satraps hesitated whether they had

most to fear from their sovereign or the enemy; and the females

of the harem were astonished and pleased by the sight of mankind,

till the jealous husband of three thousand wives again confined

them to a more distant castle. At his command, the army of

Dastagerd retreated to a new camp: the front was covered by the

Arba, and a line of two hundred elephants; the troops of the more

distant provinces successively arrived, and the vilest domestics

of the king and satraps were enrolled for the last defence of the

throne. It was still in the power of Chosroes to obtain a

reasonable peace; and he was repeatedly pressed by the messengers

of Heraclius to spare the blood of his subjects, and to relieve a

humane conqueror from the painful duty of carrying fire and sword

through the fairest countries of Asia. But the pride of the

Persian had not yet sunk to the level of his fortune; he derived

a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor; he wept

with impotent rage over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces, and

disregarded too long the rising murmurs of the nation, who

complained that their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to the

obstinacy of an old man. That unhappy old man was himself

tortured with the sharpest pains both of mind and body; and, in

the consciousness of his approaching end, he resolved to fix the

tiara on the head of Merdaza, the most favored of his sons. But

the will of Chosroes was no longer revered, and Siroes, 1051 who

gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, had conspired

with the malcontents to assert and anticipate the rights of

primogeniture. 106 Twenty-two satraps (they styled themselves

patriots) were tempted by the wealth and honors of a new reign:

to the soldiers, the heir of Chosroes promised an increase of

pay; to the Christians, the free exercise of their religion; to

the captives, liberty and rewards; and to the nation, instant

peace and the reduction of taxes. It was determined by the

conspirators, that Siroes, with the ensigns of royalty, should

appear in the camp; and if the enterprise should fail, his escape

was contrived to the Imperial court. But the new monarch was

saluted with unanimous acclamations; the flight of Chosroes (yet

where could he have fled?) was rudely arrested, eighteen sons

were massacred 1061 before his face, and he was thrown into a

dungeon, where he expired on the fifth day. The Greeks and modern

Persians minutely describe how Chosroes was insulted, and

famished, and tortured, by the command of an inhuman son, who so

far surpassed the example of his father: but at the time of his

death, what tongue would relate the story of the parricide? what

eye could penetrate into the tower of darkness? According to the

faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, he sunk without hope

into a still deeper abyss; 107 and it will not be denied, that

tyrants of every age and sect are the best entitled to such

infernal abodes. The glory of the house of Sassan ended with the

life of Chosroes: his unnatural son enjoyed only eight months the

fruit of his crimes: and in the space of four years, the regal

title was assumed by nine candidates, who disputed, with the

sword or dagger, the fragments of an exhausted monarchy. Every

province, and each city of Persia, was the scene of independence,

of discord, and of blood; and the state of anarchy prevailed

about eight years longer, 1071 till the factions were silenced

and united under the common yoke of the Arabian caliphs. 108

1041 (return) [ The Schirin of Persian poetry. The love of Chosru

and Schirin rivals in Persian romance that of Joseph with Zuleika

the wife of Potiphar, of Solomon with the queen of Sheba, and

that of Mejnoun and Leila. The number of Persian poems on the

subject may be seen in M. von Hammer’s preface to his poem of

Schirin.—M]

105 (return) [ The words of Theophanes are remarkable. Young

princes who discover a propensity to war should repeatedly

transcribe and translate such salutary texts.]

1051 (return) [ His name was Kabad (as appears from an official

letter in the Paschal Chronicle, p. 402.) St. Martin considers

the name Siroes, Schirquieh of Schirwey, derived from the word

schir, royal. St. Martin, xi. 153.—M.]

106 (return) [ The authentic narrative of the fall of Chosroes is

contained in the letter of Heraclius (Chron. Paschal. p. 398) and

the history of Theophanes, (p. 271.)]

1061 (return) [ According to Le Beau, this massacre was

perpetrated at Mahuza in Babylonia, not in the presence of

Chosroes. The Syrian historian, Thomas of Maraga, gives Chosroes

twenty-four sons; Mirkhond, (translated by De Sacy,) fifteen; the

inedited Modjmel-alte-warikh, agreeing with Gibbon, eighteen,

with their names. Le Beau and St. Martin, xi. 146.—M.]

107 (return) [ On the first rumor of the death of Chosroes, an

Heracliad in two cantos was instantly published at Constantinople

by George of Pisidia, (p. 97—105.) A priest and a poet might very

properly exult in the damnation of the public enemy but such mean

revenge is unworthy of a king and a conqueror; and I am sorry to

find so much black superstition in the letter of Heraclius: he

almost applauds the parricide of Siroes as an act of piety and

justice. * Note: The Mahometans show no more charity towards the

memory of Chosroes or Khoosroo Purveez. All his reverses are

ascribed to the just indignation of God, upon a monarch who had

dared, with impious and accursed hands, to tear the letter of the

Holy Prophet Mahomed. Compare note, p. 231.—M.]

1071 (return) [ Yet Gibbon himself places the flight and death of

Yesdegird Ill., the last king of Persia, in 651. The famous era

of Yesdegird dates from his accession, June 16 632.—M.]

108 (return) [ The best Oriental accounts of this last period of

the Sassanian kings are found in Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p.

251—256,) who dissembles the parricide of Siroes, D’Herbelot

(Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 789,) and Assemanni, (Bibliothec.

Oriental. tom. iii. p. 415—420.)]

As soon as the mountains became passable, the emperor received

the welcome news of the success of the conspiracy, the death of

Chosroes, and the elevation of his eldest son to the throne of

Persia. The authors of the revolution, eager to display their

merits in the court or camp of Tauris, preceded the ambassadors

of Siroes, who delivered the letters of their master to his

brother the emperor of the Romans. 109 In the language of the

usurpers of every age, he imputes his own crimes to the Deity,

and, without degrading his equal majesty, he offers to reconcile

the long discord of the two nations, by a treaty of peace and

alliance more durable than brass or iron. The conditions of the

treaty were easily defined and faithfully executed. In the

recovery of the standards and prisoners which had fallen into the

hands of the Persians, the emperor imitated the example of

Augustus: their care of the national dignity was celebrated by

the poets of the times, but the decay of genius may be measured

by the distance between Horace and George of Pisidia: the

subjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed from

persecution, slavery, and exile; but, instead of the Roman

eagles, the true wood of the holy cross was restored to the

importunate demands of the successor of Constantine. The victor

was not ambitious of enlarging the weakness of the empire; the

son of Chosroes abandoned without regret the conquests of his

father; the Persians who evacuated the cities of Syria and Egypt

were honorably conducted to the frontier, and a war which had

wounded the vitals of the two monarchies, produced no change in

their external and relative situation. The return of Heraclius

from Tauris to Constantinople was a perpetual triumph; and after

the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he peaceably enjoyed the

Sabbath of his toils. After a long impatience, the senate, the

clergy, and the people, went forth to meet their hero, with tears

and acclamations, with olive branches and innumerable lamps; he

entered the capital in a chariot drawn by four elephants; and as

soon as the emperor could disengage himself from the tumult of

public joy, he tasted more genuine satisfaction in the embraces

of his mother and his son. 110

109 (return) [ The letter of Siroes in the Paschal Chronicle (p.

402) unfortunately ends before he proceeds to business. The

treaty appears in its execution in the histories of Theophanes

and Nicephorus. * Note: M. Mai. Script. Vet. Nova Collectio, vol.

i. P. 2, p. 223, has added some lines, but no clear sense can be

made out of the fragment.—M.]

110 (return) [ The burden of Corneille’s song, “Montrez Heraclius

au peuple qui l’attend,” is much better suited to the present

occasion. See his triumph in Theophanes (p. 272, 273) and

Nicephorus, (p. 15, 16.) The life of the mother and tenderness of

the son are attested by George of Pisidia, (Bell. Abar. 255, &c.,

p. 49.) The metaphor of the Sabbath is used somewhat profanely by

these Byzantine Christians.]

The succeeding year was illustrated by a triumph of a very

different kind, the restitution of the true cross to the holy

sepulchre. Heraclius performed in person the pilgrimage of

Jerusalem, the identity of the relic was verified by the discreet

patriarch, 111 and this august ceremony has been commemorated by

the annual festival of the exaltation of the cross. Before the

emperor presumed to tread the consecrated ground, he was

instructed to strip himself of the diadem and purple, the pomp

and vanity of the world: but in the judgment of his clergy, the

persecution of the Jews was more easily reconciled with the

precepts of the gospel. 1113 He again ascended his throne to

receive the congratulations of the ambassadors of France and

India: and the fame of Moses, Alexander, and Hercules, 112 was

eclipsed in the popular estimation, by the superior merit and

glory of the great Heraclius. Yet the deliverer of the East was

indigent and feeble. Of the Persian spoils, the most valuable

portion had been expended in the war, distributed to the

soldiers, or buried, by an unlucky tempest, in the waves of the

Euxine. The conscience of the emperor was oppressed by the

obligation of restoring the wealth of the clergy, which he had

borrowed for their own defence: a perpetual fund was required to

satisfy these inexorable creditors; the provinces, already wasted

by the arms and avarice of the Persians, were compelled to a

second payment of the same taxes; and the arrears of a simple

citizen, the treasurer of Damascus, were commuted to a fine of

one hundred thousand pieces of gold. The loss of two hundred

thousand soldiers 113 who had fallen by the sword, was of less

fatal importance than the decay of arts, agriculture, and

population, in this long and destructive war: and although a

victorious army had been formed under the standard of Heraclius,

the unnatural effort appears to have exhausted rather than

exercised their strength. While the emperor triumphed at

Constantinople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the confines of

Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some

troops who advanced to its relief; an ordinary and trifling

occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution.

These robbers were the apostles of Mahomet; their fanatic valor

had emerged from the desert; and in the last eight years of his

reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces which he

had rescued from the Persians.

111 (return) [ See Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 628, No. 1-4,)

Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 240—248,) Nicephorus, (Brev. p.

15.) The seals of the case had never been broken; and this

preservation of the cross is ascribed (under God) to the devotion

of Queen Sira.]

1113 (return) [ If the clergy imposed upon the kneeling and

penitent emperor the persecution of the Jews, it must be

acknowledge that provocation was not wanting; for how many of

them had been eye-witnesses of, perhaps sufferers in, the

horrible atrocities committed on the capture of the city! Yet we

have no authentic account of great severities exercised by

Heraclius. The law of Hadrian was reenacted, which prohibited the

Jews from approaching within three miles of the city—a law,

which, in the present exasperated state of the Christians, might

be a measure of security of mercy, rather than of oppression.

Milman, Hist. of the Jews, iii. 242.—M.]

112 (return) [ George of Pisidia, Acroas. iii. de Expedit. contra

Persas, 415, &c., and Heracleid. Acroas. i. 65—138. I neglect the

meaner parallels of Daniel, Timotheus, &c.; Chosroes and the

chagan were of course compared to Belshazzar, Pharaoh, the old

serpent, &c.]

113 (return) [ Suidas (in Excerpt. Hist. Byzant. p. 46) gives

this number; but either the Persian must be read for the Isaurian

war, or this passage does not belong to the emperor Heraclius.]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord.—Part I.

Theological History Of The Doctrine Of The Incarnation.—The Human And

Divine Nature Of Christ.—Enmity Of The Patriarchs Of Alexandria And

Constantinople.—St. Cyril And Nestorius. —Third General Council Of

Ephesus.—Heresy Of Eutyches.—Fourth General Council Of Chalcedon.—Civil

And Ecclesiastical Discord.—Intolerance Of Justinian.—The Three

Chapters.—The Monothelite Controversy.—State Of The Oriental Sects:—I.

The Nestorians.—II. The Jacobites.—III. The Maronites.—IV. The

Armenians.—V. The Copts And Abyssinians.

After the extinction of paganism, the Christians in peace and

piety might have enjoyed their solitary triumph. But the

principle of discord was alive in their bosom, and they were more

solicitous to explore the nature, than to practice the laws, of

their founder. I have already observed, that the disputes of the

Trinity were succeeded by those of the Incarnation; alike

scandalous to the church, alike pernicious to the state, still

more minute in their origin, still more durable in their effects.

It is my design to comprise in the present chapter a religious

war of two hundred and fifty years, to represent the

ecclesiastical and political schism of the Oriental sects, and to

introduce their clamorous or sanguinary contests, by a modest

inquiry into the doctrines of the primitive church. 1

1 (return) [ By what means shall I authenticate this previous

inquiry, which I have studied to circumscribe and compress?—If I

persist in supporting each fact or reflection by its proper and

special evidence, every line would demand a string of

testimonies, and every note would swell to a critical

dissertation. But the numberless passages of antiquity which I

have seen with my own eyes, are compiled, digested and

illustrated by Petavius and Le Clerc, by Beausobre and Mosheim. I

shall be content to fortify my narrative by the names and

characters of these respectable guides; and in the contemplation

of a minute or remote object, I am not ashamed to borrow the aid

of the strongest glasses: 1. The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius

are a work of incredible labor and compass; the volumes which

relate solely to the Incarnation (two folios, vth and vith, of

837 pages) are divided into xvi. books—the first of history, the

remainder of controversy and doctrine. The Jesuit’s learning is

copious and correct; his Latinity is pure, his method clear, his

argument profound and well connected; but he is the slave of the

fathers, the scourge of heretics, and the enemy of truth and

candor, as often as they are inimical to the Catholic cause. 2.

The Arminian Le Clerc, who has composed in a quarto volume

(Amsterdam, 1716) the ecclesiastical history of the two first

centuries, was free both in his temper and situation; his sense

is clear, but his thoughts are narrow; he reduces the reason or

folly of ages to the standard of his private judgment, and his

impartiality is sometimes quickened, and sometimes tainted by his

opposition to the fathers. See the heretics (Cerinthians, lxxx.

Ebionites, ciii. Carpocratians, cxx. Valentiniins, cxxi.

Basilidians, cxxiii. Marcionites, cxli., &c.) under their proper

dates. 3. The Histoire Critique du Manicheisme (Amsterdam, 1734,

1739, in two vols. in 4to., with a posthumous dissertation sur

les Nazarenes, Lausanne, 1745) of M. de Beausobre is a treasure

of ancient philosophy and theology. The learned historian spins

with incomparable art the systematic thread of opinion, and

transforms himself by turns into the person of a saint, a sage,

or a heretic. Yet his refinement is sometimes excessive; he

betrays an amiable partiality in favor of the weaker side, and,

while he guards against calumny, he does not allow sufficient

scope for superstition and fanaticism. A copious table of

contents will direct the reader to any point that he wishes to

examine. 4. Less profound than Petavius, less independent than Le

Clerc, less ingenious than Beausobre, the historian Mosheim is

full, rational, correct, and moderate. In his learned work, De

Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum (Helmstadt 1753, in 4to.,)

see the Nazarenes and Ebionites, p. 172—179, 328—332. The

Gnostics in general, p. 179, &c. Cerinthus, p. 196—202.

Basilides, p. 352—361. Carpocrates, p. 363—367. Valentinus, p.

371—389 Marcion, p. 404—410. The Manichaeans, p. 829-837, &c.]

I. A laudable regard for the honor of the first proselyte has

countenanced the belief, the hope, the wish, that the Ebionites,

or at least the Nazarenes, were distinguished only by their

obstinate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites.

Their churches have disappeared, their books are obliterated:

their obscure freedom might allow a latitude of faith, and the

softness of their infant creed would be variously moulded by the

zeal or prudence of three hundred years. Yet the most charitable

criticism must refuse these sectaries any knowledge of the pure

and proper divinity of Christ. Educated in the school of Jewish

prophecy and prejudice, they had never been taught to elevate

their hopes above a human and temporal Messiah. 2 If they had

courage to hail their king when he appeared in a plebeian garb,

their grosser apprehensions were incapable of discerning their

God, who had studiously disguised his celestial character under

the name and person of a mortal. 3 The familiar companions of

Jesus of Nazareth conversed with their friend and countryman,

who, in all the actions of rational and animal life, appeared of

the same species with themselves. His progress from infancy to

youth and manhood was marked by a regular increase in stature and

wisdom; and after a painful agony of mind and body, he expired on

the cross. He lived and died for the service of mankind: but the

life and death of Socrates had likewise been devoted to the cause

of religion and justice; and although the stoic or the hero may

disdain the humble virtues of Jesus, the tears which he shed over

his friend and country may be esteemed the purest evidence of his

humanity. The miracles of the gospel could not astonish a people

who held with intrepid faith the more splendid prodigies of the

Mosaic law. The prophets of ancient days had cured diseases,

raised the dead, divided the sea, stopped the sun, and ascended

to heaven in a fiery chariot. And the metaphorical style of the

Hebrews might ascribe to a saint and martyr the adoptive title of

Son of God.

2 (return) [ Jew Tryphon, (Justin. Dialog. p. 207) in the name of

his countrymen, and the modern Jews, the few who divert their

thoughts from money to religion, still hold the same language,

and allege the literal sense of the prophets. * Note: See on this

passage Bp. Kaye, Justin Martyr, p. 25.—M. Note: Most of the

modern writers, who have closely examined this subject, and who

will not be suspected of any theological bias, Rosenmüller on

Isaiah ix. 5, and on Psalm xlv. 7, and Bertholdt, Christologia

Judaeorum, c. xx., rightly ascribe much higher notions of the

Messiah to the Jews. In fact, the dispute seems to rest on the

notion that there was a definite and authorized notion of the

Messiah, among the Jews, whereas it was probably so vague, as to

admit every shade of difference, from the vulgar expectation of a

mere temporal king, to the philosophic notion of an emanation

from the Deity.—M.]

3 (return) [ Chrysostom (Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. v. c. 9,

p. 183) and Athanasius (Petav. Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. l. i. c.

2, p. 3) are obliged to confess that the Divinity of Christ is

rarely mentioned by himself or his apostles.]

Yet in the insufficient creed of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites,

a distinction is faintly noticed between the heretics, who

confounded the generation of Christ in the common order of

nature, and the less guilty schismatics, who revered the

virginity of his mother, and excluded the aid of an earthly

father. The incredulity of the former was countenanced by the

visible circumstances of his birth, the legal marriage of the

reputed parents, Joseph and Mary, and his lineal claim to the

kingdom of David and the inheritance of Judah. But the secret and

authentic history has been recorded in several copies of the

Gospel according to St. Matthew, 4 which these sectaries long

preserved in the original Hebrew, 5 as the sole evidence of their

faith. The natural suspicions of the husband, conscious of his

own chastity, were dispelled by the assurance (in a dream) that

his wife was pregnant of the Holy Ghost: and as this distant and

domestic prodigy could not fall under the personal observation of

the historian, he must have listened to the same voice which

dictated to Isaiah the future conception of a virgin. The son of

a virgin, generated by the ineffable operation of the Holy

Spirit, was a creature without example or resemblance, superior

in every attribute of mind and body to the children of Adam.

Since the introduction of the Greek or Chaldean philosophy, 6 the

Jews 7 were persuaded of the preexistence, transmigration, and

immortality of souls; and providence was justified by a

supposition, that they were confined in their earthly prisons to

expiate the stains which they had contracted in a former state. 8

But the degrees of purity and corruption are almost immeasurable.

It might be fairly presumed, that the most sublime and virtuous

of human spirits was infused into the offspring of Mary and the

Holy Ghost; 9 that his abasement was the result of his voluntary

choice; and that the object of his mission was, to purify, not

his own, but the sins of the world. On his return to his native

skies, he received the immense reward of his obedience; the

everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, which had been darkly

foretold by the prophets, under the carnal images of peace, of

conquest, and of dominion. Omnipotence could enlarge the human

faculties of Christ to the extend of is celestial office. In the

language of antiquity, the title of God has not been severely

confined to the first parent, and his incomparable minister, his

only-begotten son, might claim, without presumption, the

religious, though secondary, worship of a subject of a subject

world.

4 (return) [ The two first chapters of St. Matthew did not exist

in the Ebionite copies, (Epiphan. Haeres. xxx. 13;) and the

miraculous conception is one of the last articles which Dr.

Priestley has curtailed from his scanty creed. * Note: The

distinct allusion to the facts related in the two first chapters

of the Gospel, in a work evidently written about the end of the

reign of Nero, the Ascensio Isaiae, edited by Archbishop

Lawrence, seems convincing evidence that they are integral parts

of the authentic Christian history.—M.]

5 (return) [ It is probable enough that the first of the Gospels

for the use of the Jewish converts was composed in the Hebrew or

Syriac idiom: the fact is attested by a chain of fathers—Papias,

Irenaeus, Origen, Jerom, &c. It is devoutly believed by the

Catholics, and admitted by Casaubon, Grotius, and Isaac Vossius,

among the Protestant critics. But this Hebrew Gospel of St.

Matthew is most unaccountably lost; and we may accuse the

diligence or fidelity of the primitive churches, who have

preferred the unauthorized version of some nameless Greek.

Erasmus and his followers, who respect our Greek text as the

original Gospel, deprive themselves of the evidence which

declares it to be the work of an apostle. See Simon, Hist.

Critique, &c., tom. iii. c. 5—9, p. 47—101, and the Prolegomena

of Mill and Wetstein to the New Testament. * Note: Surely the

extinction of the Judaeo-Christian community related from Mosheim

by Gibbon himself (c. xv.) accounts both simply and naturally for

the loss of a composition, which had become of no use—nor does it

follow that the Greek Gospel of St. Matthew is unauthorized.—M.]

6 (return) [ The metaphysics of the soul are disengaged by Cicero

(Tusculan. l. i.) and Maximus of Tyre (Dissertat. xvi.) from the

intricacies of dialogue, which sometimes amuse, and often

perplex, the readers of the Phoedrus, the Phoedon, and the Laws

of Plato.]

7 (return) [ The disciples of Jesus were persuaded that a man

might have sinned before he was born, (John, ix. 2,) and the

Pharisees held the transmigration of virtuous souls, (Joseph. de

Bell. Judaico, l. ii. c. 7;) and a modern Rabbi is modestly

assured, that Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, &c., derived their

metaphysics from his illustrious countrymen.]

8 (return) [ Four different opinions have been entertained

concerning the origin of human souls: 1. That they are eternal

and divine. 2. That they were created in a separate state of

existence, before their union with the body. 3. That they have

been propagated from the original stock of Adam, who contained in

himself the mental as well as the corporeal seed of his

posterity. 4. That each soul is occasionally created and embodied

in the moment of conception.—The last of these sentiments appears

to have prevailed among the moderns; and our spiritual history is

grown less sublime, without becoming more intelligible.]

9 (return) [ It was one of the fifteen heresies imputed to

Origen, and denied by his apologist, (Photius, Bibliothec. cod.

cxvii. p. 296.) Some of the Rabbis attribute one and the same

soul to the persons of Adam, David, and the Messiah.]

II. The seeds of the faith, which had slowly arisen in the rocky

and ungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full

maturity, to the happier climes of the Gentiles; and the

strangers of Rome or Asia, who never beheld the manhood, were the

more readily disposed to embrace the divinity, of Christ. The

polytheist and the philosopher, the Greek and the Barbarian, were

alike accustomed to conceive a long succession, an infinite chain

of angels or daemons, or deities, or aeons, or emanations,

issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strange or

incredible, that the first of these aeons, the Logos, or Word of

God, of the same substance with the Father, should descend upon

earth, to deliver the human race from vice and error, and to

conduct them in the paths of life and immortality. But the

prevailing doctrine of the eternity and inherent pravity of

matter infected the primitive churches of the East. Many among

the Gentile proselytes refused to believe that a celestial

spirit, an undivided portion of the first essence, had been

personally united with a mass of impure and contaminated flesh;

and, in their zeal for the divinity, they piously abjured the

humanity, of Christ. While his blood was still recent on Mount

Calvary, 10 the Docetes, a numerous and learned sect of Asiatics,

invented the phantastic system, which was afterwards propagated

by the Marcionites, the Manichaeans, and the various names of the

Gnostic heresy. 11 They denied the truth and authenticity of the

Gospels, as far as they relate the conception of Mary, the birth

of Christ, and the thirty years that preceded the exercise of his

ministry. He first appeared on the banks of the Jordan in the

form of perfect manhood; but it was a form only, and not a

substance; a human figure created by the hand of Omnipotence to

imitate the faculties and actions of a man, and to impose a

perpetual illusion on the senses of his friends and enemies.

Articulate sounds vibrated on the ears of the disciples; but the

image which was impressed on their optic nerve eluded the more

stubborn evidence of the touch; and they enjoyed the spiritual,

not the corporeal, presence of the Son of God. The rage of the

Jews was idly wasted against an impassive phantom; and the mystic

scenes of the passion and death, the resurrection and ascension,

of Christ were represented on the theatre of Jerusalem for the

benefit of mankind. If it were urged, that such ideal mimicry,

such incessant deception, was unworthy of the God of truth, the

Docetes agreed with too many of their orthodox brethren in the

justification of pious falsehood. In the system of the Gnostics,

the Jehovah of Israel, the Creator of this lower world, was a

rebellious, or at least an ignorant, spirit. The Son of God

descended upon earth to abolish his temple and his law; and, for

the accomplishment of this salutary end, he dexterously

transferred to his own person the hope and prediction of a

temporal Messiah.

10 (return) [ Apostolis adhuc in seculo superstitibus, apud

Judaeam Christi sanguine recente, Phantasma domini corpus

asserebatur. Hieronym, advers. Lucifer. c. 8. The epistle of

Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, and even the Gospel according to St.

John, are levelled against the growing error of the Docetes, who

had obtained too much credit in the world, (1 John, iv. 1—5.)]

11 (return) [ About the year 200 of the Christian aera, Irenaeus

and Hippolytus efuted the thirty-two sects, which had multiplied

to fourscore in the time of Epiphanius, (Phot. Biblioth. cod.

cxx. cxxi. cxxii.) The five books of Irenaeus exist only in

barbarous Latin; but the original might perhaps be found in some

monastery of Greece.]

One of the most subtile disputants of the Manichaean school has

pressed the danger and indecency of supposing, that the God of

the Christians, in the state of a human foetus, emerged at the

end of nine months from a female womb. The pious horror of his

antagonists provoked them to disclaim all sensual circumstances

of conception and delivery; to maintain that the divinity passed

through Mary like a sunbeam through a plate of glass; and to

assert, that the seal of her virginity remained unbroken even at

the moment when she became the mother of Christ. But the rashness

of these concessions has encouraged a milder sentiment of those

of the Docetes, who taught, not that Christ was a phantom, but

that he was clothed with an impassible and incorruptible body.

Such, indeed, in the more orthodox system, he has acquired since

his resurrection, and such he must have always possessed, if it

were capable of pervading, without resistance or injury, the

density of intermediate matter. Devoid of its most essential

properties, it might be exempt from the attributes and

infirmities of the flesh. A foetus that could increase from an

invisible point to its full maturity; a child that could attain

the stature of perfect manhood without deriving any nourishment

from the ordinary sources, might continue to exist without

repairing a daily waste by a daily supply of external matter.

Jesus might share the repasts of his disciples without being

subject to the calls of thirst or hunger; and his virgin purity

was never sullied by the involuntary stains of sensual

concupiscence. Of a body thus singularly constituted, a question

would arise, by what means, and of what materials, it was

originally framed; and our sounder theology is startled by an

answer which was not peculiar to the Gnostics, that both the form

and the substance proceeded from the divine essence. The idea of

pure and absolute spirit is a refinement of modern philosophy:

the incorporeal essence, ascribed by the ancients to human souls,

celestial beings, and even the Deity himself, does not exclude

the notion of extended space; and their imagination was satisfied

with a subtile nature of air, or fire, or aether, incomparably

more perfect than the grossness of the material world. If we

define the place, we must describe the figure, of the Deity. Our

experience, perhaps our vanity, represents the powers of reason

and virtue under a human form. The Anthropomorphites, who swarmed

among the monks of Egypt and the Catholics of Africa, could

produce the express declaration of Scripture, that man was made

after the image of his Creator. 12 The venerable Serapion, one of

the saints of the Nitrian deserts, relinquished, with many a

tear, his darling prejudice; and bewailed, like an infant, his

unlucky conversion, which had stolen away his God, and left his

mind without any visible object of faith or devotion. 13

12 (return) [ The pilgrim Cassian, who visited Egypt in the

beginning of the vth century, observes and laments the reign of

anthropomorphism among the monks, who were not conscious that

they embraced the system of Epicurus, (Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, i.

18, 34.) Ab universo propemodum genere monachorum, qui per totam

provinciam Egyptum morabantur, pro simplicitatis errore susceptum

est, ut e contraric memoratum pontificem (Theophilus) velut

haeresi gravissima depravatum, pars maxima seniorum ab universo

fraternitatis corpore decerneret detestandum, (Cassian,

Collation. x. 2.) As long as St. Augustin remained a Manichaean,

he was scandalized by the anthropomorphism of the vulgar

Catholics.]

13 (return) [ Ita est in oratione senex mente confusus, eo quod

illam imaginem Deitatis, quam proponere sibi in oratione

consueverat, aboleri de suo corde sentiret, ut in amarissimos

fletus, crebrosque singultus repente prorumpens, in terram

prostratus, cum ejulatu validissimo proclamaret; “Heu me miserum!

tulerunt a me Deum meum, et quem nunc teneam non habeo, vel quem

adorem, aut interpallam am nescio.” Cassian, Collat. x. 2.]

III. Such were the fleeting shadows of the Docetes. A more

substantial, though less simple, hypothesis, was contrived by

Cerinthus of Asia, 14 who dared to oppose the last of the

apostles. Placed on the confines of the Jewish and Gentile world,

he labored to reconcile the Gnostic with the Ebionite, by

confessing in the same Messiah the supernatural union of a man

and a God; and this mystic doctrine was adopted with many

fanciful improvements by Carpocrates, Basilides, and Valentine,

15 the heretics of the Egyptian school. In their eyes, Jesus of

Nazareth was a mere mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph and

Mary: but he was the best and wisest of the human race, selected

as the worthy instrument to restore upon earth the worship of the

true and supreme Deity. When he was baptized in the Jordan, the

Christ, the first of the aeons, the Son of God himself, descended

on Jesus in the form of a dove, to inhabit his mind, and direct

his actions during the allotted period of his ministry. When the

Messiah was delivered into the hands of the Jews, the Christ, an

immortal and impassible being, forsook his earthly tabernacle,

flew back to the pleroma or world of spirits, and left the

solitary Jesus to suffer, to complain, and to expire. But the

justice and generosity of such a desertion are strongly

questionable; and the fate of an innocent martyr, at first

impelled, and at length abandoned, by his divine companion, might

provoke the pity and indignation of the profane. Their murmurs

were variously silenced by the sectaries who espoused and

modified the double system of Cerinthus. It was alleged, that

when Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was endowed with a

miraculous apathy of mind and body, which rendered him insensible

of his apparent sufferings. It was affirmed, that these

momentary, though real, pangs would be abundantly repaid by the

temporal reign of a thousand years reserved for the Messiah in

his kingdom of the new Jerusalem. It was insinuated, that if he

suffered, he deserved to suffer; that human nature is never

absolutely perfect; and that the cross and passion might serve to

expiate the venial transgressions of the son of Joseph, before

his mysterious union with the Son of God. 16

14 (return) [ St. John and Cerinthus (A.D. 80. Cleric. Hist.

Eccles. p. 493) accidentally met in the public bath of Ephesus;

but the apostle fled from the heretic, lest the building should

tumble on their heads. This foolish story, reprobated by Dr.

Middleton, (Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii.,) is related, however,

by Irenaeus, (iii. 3,) on the evidence of Polycarp, and was

probably suited to the time and residence of Cerinthus. The

obsolete, yet probably the true, reading of 1 John, iv. 3 alludes

to the double nature of that primitive heretic. * Note: Griesbach

asserts that all the Greek Mss., all the translators, and all the

Greek fathers, support the common reading.—Nov. Test. in loc.—M]

15 (return) [ The Valentinians embraced a complex, and almost

incoherent, system. 1. Both Christ and Jesus were aeons, though

of different degrees; the one acting as the rational soul, the

other as the divine spirit of the Savior. 2. At the time of the

passion, they both retired, and left only a sensitive soul and a

human body. 3. Even that body was aethereal, and perhaps

apparent.—Such are the laborious conclusions of Mosheim. But I

much doubt whether the Latin translator understood Irenaeus, and

whether Irenaeus and the Valetinians understood themselves.]

16 (return) [ The heretics abused the passionate exclamation of

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Rousseau, who has

drawn an eloquent, but indecent, parallel between Christ and

Socrates, forgets that not a word of impatience or despair

escaped from the mouth of the dying philosopher. In the Messiah,

such sentiments could be only apparent; and such ill-sounding

words were properly explained as the application of a psalm and

prophecy.]

IV. All those who believe the immateriality of the soul, a

specious and noble tenet, must confess, from their present

experience, the incomprehensible union of mind and matter. A

similar union is not inconsistent with a much higher, or even

with the highest, degree of mental faculties; and the incarnation

of an aeon or archangel, the most perfect of created spirits,

does not involve any positive contradiction or absurdity. In the

age of religious freedom, which was determined by the council of

Nice, the dignity of Christ was measured by private judgment

according to the indefinite rule of Scripture, or reason, or

tradition. But when his pure and proper divinity had been

established on the ruins of Arianism, the faith of the Catholics

trembled on the edge of a precipice where it was impossible to

recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall and the manifold

inconveniences of their creed were aggravated by the sublime

character of their theology. They hesitated to pronounce; that

God himself, the second person of an equal and consubstantial

trinity, was manifested in the flesh; 17 that a being who

pervades the universe, had been confined in the womb of Mary;

that his eternal duration had been marked by the days, and

months, and years of human existence; that the Almighty had been

scourged and crucified; that his impassible essence had felt pain

and anguish; that his omniscience was not exempt from ignorance;

and that the source of life and immortality expired on Mount

Calvary. These alarming consequences were affirmed with

unblushing simplicity by Apollinaris, 18 bishop of Laodicea, and

one of the luminaries of the church. The son of a learned

grammarian, he was skilled in all the sciences of Greece;

eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in the volumes

of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of religion.

The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian,

he bravely wrestled with the Arians and Polytheists, and though

he affected the rigor of geometrical demonstration, his

commentaries revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the

Scriptures. A mystery, which had long floated in the looseness of

popular belief, was defined by his perverse diligence in a

technical form; and he first proclaimed the memorable words, “One

incarnate nature of Christ,” which are still reechoed with

hostile clamors in the churches of Asia, Egypt, and Aethiopia. He

taught that the Godhead was united or mingled with the body of a

man; and that the Logos, the eternal wisdom, supplied in the

flesh the place and office of a human soul. Yet as the profound

doctor had been terrified at his own rashness, Apollinaris was

heard to mutter some faint accents of excuse and explanation. He

acquiesced in the old distinction of the Greek philosophers

between the rational and sensitive soul of man; that he might

reserve the Logos for intellectual functions, and employ the

subordinate human principle in the meaner actions of animal life.

With the moderate Docetes, he revered Mary as the spiritual,

rather than as the carnal, mother of Christ, whose body either

came from heaven, impassible and incorruptible, or was absorbed,

and as it were transformed, into the essence of the Deity. The

system of Apollinaris was strenuously encountered by the Asiatic

and Syrian divines whose schools are honored by the names of

Basil, Gregory and Chrysostom, and tainted by those of Diodorus,

Theodore, and Nestorius. But the person of the aged bishop of

Laedicea, his character and dignity, remained inviolate; and his

rivals, since we may not suspect them of the weakness of

toleration, were astonished, perhaps, by the novelty of the

argument, and diffident of the final sentence of the Catholic

church. Her judgment at length inclined in their favor; the

heresy of Apollinaris was condemned, and the separate

congregations of his disciples were proscribed by the Imperial

laws. But his principles were secretly entertained in the

monasteries of Egypt, and his enemies felt the hatred of

Theophilus and Cyril, the successive patriarchs of Alexandria.

17 (return) [ This strong expression might be justified by the

language of St. Paul, (1 Tim. iii. 16;) but we are deceived by

our modern Bibles. The word which was altered to God at

Constantinople in the beginning of the vith century: the true

reading, which is visible in the Latin and Syriac versions, still

exists in the reasoning of the Greek, as well as of the Latin

fathers; and this fraud, with that of the three witnesses of St.

John, is admirably detected by Sir Isaac Newton. (See his two

letters translated by M. de Missy, in the Journal Britannique,

tom. xv. p. 148—190, 351—390.) I have weighed the arguments, and

may yield to the authority of the first of philosophers, who was

deeply skilled in critical and theological studies. Note: It

should be Griesbach in loc. The weight of authority is so much

against the common reading in both these points, that they are no

longer urged by prudent controversialists. Would Gibbon’s

deference for the first of philosophers have extended to all his

theological conclusions?—M.]

18 (return) [ For Apollinaris and his sect, see Socrates, l. ii.

c. 46, l. iii. c. 16 Sazomen, l. v. c. 18, 1. vi. c. 25, 27.

Theodoret, l. v. 3, 10, 11. Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques,

tom. vii. p. 602—638. Not. p. 789—794, in 4to. Venise, 1732. The

contemporary saint always mentions the bishop of Laodicea as a

friend and brother. The style of the more recent historians is

harsh and hostile: yet Philostorgius compares him (l. viii. c.

11-15) to Basil and Gregory.]

V. The grovelling Ebionite, and the fantastic Docetes, were

rejected and forgotten: the recent zeal against the errors of

Apollinaris reduced the Catholics to a seeming agreement with the

double nature of Cerinthus. But instead of a temporary and

occasional alliance, they established, and we still embrace, the

substantial, indissoluble, and everlasting union of a perfect God

with a perfect man, of the second person of the trinity with a

reasonable soul and human flesh. In the beginning of the fifth

century, the unity of the two natures was the prevailing doctrine

of the church. On all sides, it was confessed, that the mode of

their coexistence could neither be represented by our ideas, nor

expressed by our language. Yet a secret and incurable discord was

cherished, between those who were most apprehensive of

confounding, and those who were most fearful of separating, the

divinity, and the humanity, of Christ. Impelled by religious

frenzy, they fled with adverse haste from the error which they

mutually deemed most destructive of truth and salvation. On

either hand they were anxious to guard, they were jealous to

defend, the union and the distinction of the two natures, and to

invent such forms of speech, such symbols of doctrine, as were

least susceptible of doubt or ambiguity. The poverty of ideas and

language tempted them to ransack art and nature for every

possible comparison, and each comparison misled their fancy in

the explanation of an incomparable mystery. In the polemic

microscope, an atom is enlarged to a monster, and each party was

skilful to exaggerate the absurd or impious conclusions that

might be extorted from the principles of their adversaries. To

escape from each other, they wandered through many a dark and

devious thicket, till they were astonished by the horrid phantoms

of Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite issues of

the theological labyrinth. As soon as they beheld the twilight of

sense and heresy, they started, measured back their steps, and

were again involved in the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy. To

purge themselves from the guilt or reproach of damnable error,

they disavowed their consequences, explained their principles,

excused their indiscretions, and unanimously pronounced the

sounds of concord and faith. Yet a latent and almost invisible

spark still lurked among the embers of controversy: by the breath

of prejudice and passion, it was quickly kindled to a mighty

flame, and the verbal disputes 19 of the Oriental sects have

shaken the pillars of the church and state.

19 (return) [ I appeal to the confession of two Oriental

prelates, Gregory Abulpharagius the Jacobite primate of the East,

and Elias the Nestorian metropolitan of Damascus, (see Asseman,

Bibliothec. Oriental. tom. ii. p. 291, tom. iii. p. 514, &c.,)

that the Melchites, Jacobites, Nestorians, &c., agree in the

doctrine, and differ only in the expression. Our most learned and

rational divines—Basnage, Le Clerc, Beausobre, La Croze, Mosheim,

Jablonski—are inclined to favor this charitable judgment; but the

zeal of Petavius is loud and angry, and the moderation of Dupin

is conveyed in a whisper.]

The name of Cyril of Alexandria is famous in controversial story,

and the title of saint is a mark that his opinions and his party

have finally prevailed. In the house of his uncle, the archbishop

Theophilus, he imbibed the orthodox lessons of zeal and dominion,

and five years of his youth were profitably spent in the adjacent

monasteries of Nitria. Under the tuition of the abbot Serapion,

he applied himself to ecclesiastical studies, with such

indefatigable ardor, that in the course of one sleepless night,

he has perused the four Gospels, the Catholic Epistles, and the

Epistle to the Romans. Origen he detested; but the writings of

Clemens and Dionysius, of Athanasius and Basil, were continually

in his hands: by the theory and practice of dispute, his faith

was confirmed and his wit was sharpened; he extended round his

cell the cobwebs of scholastic theology, and meditated the works

of allegory and metaphysics, whose remains, in seven verbose

folios, now peaceably slumber by the side of their rivals. 20

Cyril prayed and fasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is

the reproach of a friend) 21 were still fixed on the world; and

the call of Theophilus, who summoned him to the tumult of cities

and synods, was too readily obeyed by the aspiring hermit. With

the approbation of his uncle, he assumed the office, and acquired

the fame, of a popular preacher. His comely person adorned the

pulpit; the harmony of his voice resounded in the cathedral; his

friends were stationed to lead or second the applause of the

congregation; 22 and the hasty notes of the scribes preserved his

discourses, which in their effect, though not in their

composition, might be compared with those of the Athenian

orators. The death of Theophilus expanded and realized the hopes

of his nephew. The clergy of Alexandria was divided; the soldiers

and their general supported the claims of the archdeacon; but a

resistless multitude, with voices and with hands, asserted the

cause of their favorite; and after a period of thirty-nine years,

Cyril was seated on the throne of Athanasius. 23

20 (return) [ La Croze (Hist. du Christianisme des Indes, tom. i.

p. 24) avows his contempt for the genius and writings of Cyril.

De tous les on vrages des anciens, il y en a peu qu’on lise avec

moins d’utilite: and Dupin, (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom.

iv. p. 42—52,) in words of respect, teaches us to despise them.]

21 (return) [ Of Isidore of Pelusium, (l. i. epist. 25, p. 8.) As

the letter is not of the most creditable sort, Tillemont, less

sincere than the Bollandists, affects a doubt whether this Cyril

is the nephew of Theophilus, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 268.)]

22 (return) [ A grammarian is named by Socrates (l. vii. c. 13).]

23 (return) [ See the youth and promotion of Cyril, in Socrates,

(l. vii. c. 7) and Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarchs. Alexandrin. p.

106, 108.) The Abbe Renaudot drew his materials from the Arabic

history of Severus, bishop of Hermopolis Magma, or Ashmunein, in

the xth century, who can never be trusted, unless our assent is

extorted by the internal evidence of facts.]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord.—Part II.

The prize was not unworthy of his ambition. At a distance from

the court, and at the head of an immense capital, the patriarch,

as he was now styled, of Alexandria had gradually usurped the

state and authority of a civil magistrate. The public and private

charities of the city were blindly obeyed by his numerous and

fanatic parabolani, 24 familiarized in their daily office with

scenes of death; and the præfects of Egypt were awed or provoked

by the temporal power of these Christian pontiffs. Ardent in the

prosecution of heresy, Cyril auspiciously opened his reign by

oppressing the Novatians, the most innocent and harmless of the

sectaries. The interdiction of their religious worship appeared

in his eyes a just and meritorious act; and he confiscated their

holy vessels, without apprehending the guilt of sacrilege. The

toleration, and even the privileges of the Jews, who had

multiplied to the number of forty thousand, were secured by the

laws of the Caesars and Ptolemies, and a long prescription of

seven hundred years since the foundation of Alexandria. Without

any legal sentence, without any royal mandate, the patriarch, at

the dawn of day, led a seditious multitude to the attack of the

synagogues. Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable of

resistance; their houses of prayer were levelled with the ground,

and the episcopal warrior, after rewarding his troops with the

plunder of their goods, expelled from the city the remnant of the

unbelieving nation. Perhaps he might plead the insolence of their

prosperity, and their deadly hatred of the Christians, whose

blood they had recently shed in a malicious or accidental tumult.

Such crimes would have deserved the animadversion of the

magistrate; but in this promiscuous outrage, the innocent were

confounded with the guilty, and Alexandria was impoverished by

the loss of a wealthy and industrious colony. The zeal of Cyril

exposed him to the penalties of the Julian law; but in a feeble

government and a superstitious age, he was secure of impunity,

and even of praise. Orestes complained; but his just complaints

were too quickly forgotten by the ministers of Theodosius, and

too deeply remembered by a priest who affected to pardon, and

continued to hate, the præfect of Egypt. As he passed through the

streets, his chariot was assaulted by a band of five hundred of

the Nitrian monks; his guards fled from the wild beasts of the

desert; his protestations that he was a Christian and a Catholic

were answered by a volley of stones, and the face of Orestes was

covered with blood. The loyal citizens of Alexandria hastened to

his rescue; he instantly satisfied his justice and revenge

against the monk by whose hand he had been wounded, and Ammonius

expired under the rod of the lictor. At the command of Cyril his

body was raised from the ground, and transported, in solemn

procession, to the cathedral; the name of Ammonius was changed to

that of Thaumasius the wonderful; his tomb was decorated with the

trophies of martyrdom, and the patriarch ascended the pulpit to

celebrate the magnanimity of an assassin and a rebel. Such honors

might incite the faithful to combat and die under the banners of

the saint; and he soon prompted, or accepted, the sacrifice of a

virgin, who professed the religion of the Greeks, and cultivated

the friendship of Orestes. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the

mathematician, 25 was initiated in her father’s studies; her

learned comments have elucidated the geometry of Apollonius and

Diophantus, and she publicly taught, both at Athens and

Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. In the bloom

of beauty, and in the maturity of wisdom, the modest maid refused

her lovers and instructed her disciples; the persons most

illustrious for their rank or merit were impatient to visit the

female philosopher; and Cyril beheld, with a jealous eye, the

gorgeous train of horses and slaves who crowded the door of her

academy. A rumor was spread among the Christians, that the

daughter of Theon was the only obstacle to the reconciliation of

the præfect and the archbishop; and that obstacle was speedily

removed. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was

torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, and

inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the reader, and a troop

of savage and merciless fanatics: her flesh was scraped from her

bones with sharp cyster shells, 26 and her quivering limbs were

delivered to the flames. The just progress of inquiry and

punishment was stopped by seasonable gifts; but the murder of

Hypatia has imprinted an indelible stain on the character and

religion of Cyril of Alexandria. 27

24 (return) [ The Parabolani of Alexandria were a charitable

corporation, instituted during the plague of Gallienus, to visit

the sick and to bury the dead. They gradually enlarged, abused,

and sold the privileges of their order. Their outrageous conduct

during the reign of Cyril provoked the emperor to deprive the

patriarch of their nomination, and to restrain their number to

five or six hundred. But these restraints were transient and

ineffectual. See the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit. ii. and

Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 276—278.]

25 (return) [ For Theon and his daughter Hypatia. see Fabricius,

Bibliothec. tom. viii. p. 210, 211. Her article in the Lexicon of

Suidas is curious and original. Hesychius (Meursii Opera, tom.

vii. p. 295, 296) observes, that he was persecuted; and an

epigram in the Greek Anthology (l. i. c. 76, p. 159, edit.

Brodaei) celebrates her knowledge and eloquence. She is honorably

mentioned (Epist. 10, 15 16, 33—80, 124, 135, 153) by her friend

and disciple the philosophic bishop Synesius.]

26 (return) [ Oyster shells were plentifully strewed on the

sea-beach before the Caesareum. I may therefore prefer the

literal sense, without rejecting the metaphorical version of

tegulae, tiles, which is used by M. de Valois ignorant, and the

assassins were probably regardless, whether their victim was yet

alive.]

27 (return) [ These exploits of St. Cyril are recorded by

Socrates, (l. vii. c. 13, 14, 15;) and the most reluctant bigotry

is compelled to copy an historian who coolly styles the murderers

of Hypatia. At the mention of that injured name, I am pleased to

observe a blush even on the cheek of Baronius, (A.D. 415, No.

48.)]

Superstition, perhaps, would more gently expiate the blood of a

virgin, than the banishment of a saint; and Cyril had accompanied

his uncle to the iniquitous synod of the Oak. When the memory of

Chrysostom was restored and consecrated, the nephew of

Theophilus, at the head of a dying faction, still maintained the

justice of his sentence; nor was it till after a tedious delay

and an obstinate resistance, that he yielded to the consent of

the Catholic world. 28 His enmity to the Byzantine pontiffs 29

was a sense of interest, not a sally of passion: he envied their

fortunate station in the sunshine of the Imperial court; and he

dreaded their upstart ambition. which oppressed the metropolitans

of Europe and Asia, invaded the provinces of Antioch and

Alexandria, and measured their diocese by the limits of the

empire. The long moderation of Atticus, the mild usurper of the

throne of Chrysostom, suspended the animosities of the Eastern

patriarchs; but Cyril was at length awakened by the exaltation of

a rival more worthy of his esteem and hatred. After the short and

troubled reign of Sisinnius, bishop of Constantinople, the

factions of the clergy and people were appeased by the choice of

the emperor, who, on this occasion, consulted the voice of fame,

and invited the merit of a stranger.

Nestorius, 30 native of Germanicia, and a monk of Antioch, was

recommended by the austerity of his life, and the eloquence of

his sermons; but the first homily which he preached before the

devout Theodosius betrayed the acrimony and impatience of his

zeal. “Give me, O Caesar!” he exclaimed, “give me the earth

purged of heretics, and I will give you in exchange the kingdom

of heaven. Exterminate with me the heretics; and with you I will

exterminate the Persians.” On the fifth day as if the treaty had

been already signed, the patriarch of Constantinople discovered,

surprised, and attacked a secret conventicle of the Arians: they

preferred death to submission; the flames that were kindled by

their despair, soon spread to the neighboring houses, and the

triumph of Nestorius was clouded by the name of incendiary. On

either side of the Hellespont his episcopal vigor imposed a rigid

formulary of faith and discipline; a chronological error

concerning the festival of Easter was punished as an offence

against the church and state. Lydia and Caria, Sardes and

Miletus, were purified with the blood of the obstinate

Quartodecimans; and the edict of the emperor, or rather of the

patriarch, enumerates three-and-twenty degrees and denominations

in the guilt and punishment of heresy. 31 But the sword of

persecution which Nestorius so furiously wielded was soon turned

against his own breast. Religion was the pretence; but, in the

judgment of a contemporary saint, ambition was the genuine motive

of episcopal warfare. 32

28 (return) [ He was deaf to the entreaties of Atticus of

Constantinople, and of Isidore of Pelusium, and yielded only (if

we may believe Nicephorus, l. xiv. c. 18) to the personal

intercession of the Virgin. Yet in his last years he still

muttered that John Chrysostom had been justly condemned,

(Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 278—282. Baronius Annal.

Eccles. A.D. 412, No. 46—64.)]

29 (return) [ See their characters in the history of Socrates,

(l. vii. c. 25—28;) their power and pretensions, in the huge

compilation of Thomassin, (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p.

80-91.)]

30 (return) [ His elevation and conduct are described by

Socrates, (l. vii. c. 29 31;) and Marcellinus seems to have

applied the eloquentiae satis, sapi entiae parum, of Sallust.]

31 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 65, with the

illustrations of Baronius, (A.D. 428, No. 25, &c.,) Godefroy, (ad

locum,) and Pagi, Critica, (tom. ii. p. 208.)]

32 (return) [ Isidore of Pelusium, (l. iv. Epist. 57.) His words

are strong and scandalous. Isidore is a saint, but he never

became a bishop; and I half suspect that the pride of Diogenes

trampled on the pride of Plato.]

In the Syrian school, Nestorius had been taught to abhor the

confusion of the two natures, and nicely to discriminate the

humanity of his master Christ from the divinity of the Lord

Jesus. 33 The Blessed Virgin he revered as the mother of Christ,

but his ears were offended with the rash and recent title of

mother of God, 34 which had been insensibly adopted since the

origin of the Arian controversy. From the pulpit of

Constantinople, a friend of the patriarch, and afterwards the

patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the

abuse, of a word 35 unknown to the apostles, unauthorized by the

church, and which could only tend to alarm the timorous, to

misled the simple, to amuse the profane, and to justify, by a

seeming resemblance, the old genealogy of Olympus. 36 In his

calmer moments Nestorius confessed, that it might be tolerated or

excused by the union of the two natures, and the communication of

their idioms: 37 but he was exasperated, by contradiction, to

disclaim the worship of a new-born, an infant Deity, to draw his

inadequate similes from the conjugal or civil partnerships of

life, and to describe the manhood of Christ as the robe, the

instrument, the tabernacle of his Godhead. At these blasphemous

sounds, the pillars of the sanctuary were shaken. The

unsuccessful competitors of Nestorius indulged their pious or

personal resentment, the Byzantine clergy was secretly displeased

with the intrusion of a stranger: whatever is superstitious or

absurd, might claim the protection of the monks; and the people

were interested in the glory of their virgin patroness. 38 The

sermons of the archbishop, and the service of the altar, were

disturbed by seditious clamor; his authority and doctrine were

renounced by separate congregations; every wind scattered round

the empire the leaves of controversy; and the voice of the

combatants on a sonorous theatre reechoed in the cells of

Palestine and Egypt. It was the duty of Cyril to enlighten the

zeal and ignorance of his innumerable monks: in the school of

Alexandria, he had imbibed and professed the incarnation of one

nature; and the successor of Athanasius consulted his pride and

ambition, when he rose in arms against another Arius, more

formidable and more guilty, on the second throne of the

hierarchy. After a short correspondence, in which the rival

prelates disguised their hatred in the hollow language of respect

and charity, the patriarch of Alexandria denounced to the prince

and people, to the East and to the West, the damnable errors of

the Byzantine pontiff. From the East, more especially from

Antioch, he obtained the ambiguous counsels of toleration and

silence, which were addressed to both parties while they favored

the cause of Nestorius. But the Vatican received with open arms

the messengers of Egypt. The vanity of Celestine was flattered by

the appeal; and the partial version of a monk decided the faith

of the pope, who with his Latin clergy was ignorant of the

language, the arts, and the theology of the Greeks. At the head

of an Italian synod, Celestine weighed the merits of the cause,

approved the creed of Cyril, condemned the sentiments and person

of Nestorius, degraded the heretic from his episcopal dignity,

allowed a respite of ten days for recantation and penance, and

delegated to his enemy the execution of this rash and illegal

sentence. But the patriarch of Alexandria, while he darted the

thunders of a god, exposed the errors and passions of a mortal;

and his twelve anathemas 39 still torture the orthodox slaves,

who adore the memory of a saint, without forfeiting their

allegiance to the synod of Chalcedon. These bold assertions are

indelibly tinged with the colors of the Apollinarian heresy; but

the serious, and perhaps the sincere professions of Nestorius

have satisfied the wiser and less partial theologians of the

present times. 40

33 (return) [ La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p.

44-53. Thesaurus Epistolicus, La Crozianus, tom. iii. p. 276—280)

has detected the use, which, in the ivth, vth, and vith

centuries, discriminates the school of Diodorus of Tarsus and his

Nestorian disciples.]

34 (return) [ Deipara; as in zoology we familiarly speak of

oviparous and viviparous animals. It is not easy to fix the

invention of this word, which La Croze (Christianisme des Indes,

tom. i. p. 16) ascribes to Eusebius of Caesarea and the Arians.

The orthodox testimonies are produced by Cyril and Petavius,

(Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. l. v. c. 15, p. 254, &c.;) but the

veracity of the saint is questionable, and the epithet so easily

slides from the margin to the text of a Catholic Ms]

35 (return) [ Basnage, in his Histoire de l’Eglise, a work of

controversy, (tom l. p. 505,) justifies the mother, by the blood,

of God, (Acts, xx. 28, with Mill’s various readings.) But the

Greek Mss. are far from unanimous; and the primitive style of the

blood of Christ is preserved in the Syriac version, even in those

copies which were used by the Christians of St. Thomas on the

coast of Malabar, (La Croze, Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p.

347.) The jealousy of the Nestorians and Monophysites has guarded

the purity of their text.]

36 (return) [ The Pagans of Egypt already laughed at the new

Cybele of the Christians, (Isidor. l. i. epist. 54;) a letter was

forged in the name of Hypatia, to ridicule the theology of her

assassin, (Synodicon, c. 216, in iv. tom. Concil. p. 484.) In the

article of Nestorius, Bayle has scattered some loose philosophy

on the worship of the Virgin Mary.]

37 (return) [ The item of the Greeks, a mutual loan or transfer

of the idioms or properties of each nature to the other—of

infinity to man, passibility to God, &c. Twelve rules on this

nicest of subjects compose the Theological Grammar of Petavius,

(Dogmata Theolog. tom. v. l. iv. c. 14, 15, p 209, &c.)]

38 (return) [ See Ducange, C. P. Christiana, l. i. p. 30, &c.]

39 (return) [ Concil. tom. iii. p. 943. They have never been

directly approved by the church, (Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. tom.

xiv. p. 368—372.) I almost pity the agony of rage and sophistry

with which Petavius seems to be agitated in the vith book of his

Dogmata Theologica]

40 (return) [ Such as the rational Basnage (ad tom. i. Variar.

Lection. Canisine in Praefat. c. 2, p. 11—23) and La Croze, the

universal scholar, (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 16—20. De

l’Ethiopie, p. 26, 27. The saur. Epist. p. 176, &c., 283, 285.)

His free sentence is confirmed by that of his friends Jablonski

(Thesaur. Epist. tom. i. p. 193—201) and Mosheim, (idem. p. 304,

Nestorium crimine caruisse est et mea sententia;) and three more

respectable judges will not easily be found. Asseman, a learned

and modest slave, can hardly discern (Bibliothec. Orient. tom.

iv. p. 190—224) the guilt and error of the Nestorians.]