When Ambrose was informed of the massacr_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

mind was filled with horror and anguish. He retired into the

country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence of

Theodosius. But as the archbishop was satisfied that a timid

silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he

represented, in a private letter, the enormity of the crime;

which could only be effaced by the tears of penitence. The

episcopal vigor of Ambrose was tempered by prudence; and he

contented himself with signifying 96 an indirect sort of

excommunication, by the assurance, that he had been warned in a

vision not to offer the oblation in the name, or in the presence,

of Theodosius; and by the advice, that he would confine himself

to the use of prayer, without presuming to approach the altar of

Christ, or to receive the holy eucharist with those hands that

were still polluted with the blood of an innocent people. The

emperor was deeply affected by his own reproaches, and by those

of his spiritual father; and after he had bewailed the

mischievous and irreparable consequences of his rash fury, he

proceeded, in the accustomed manner, to perform his devotions in

the great church of Milan. He was stopped in the porch by the

archbishop; who, in the tone and language of an ambassador of

Heaven, declared to his sovereign, that private contrition was

not sufficient to atone for a public fault, or to appease the

justice of the offended Deity. Theodosius humbly represented,

that if he had contracted the guilt of homicide, David, the man

after God’s own heart, had been guilty, not only of murder, but

of adultery. “You have imitated David in his crime, imitate then

his repentance,” was the reply of the undaunted Ambrose. The

rigorous conditions of peace and pardon were accepted; and the

public penance of the emperor Theodosius has been recorded as one

of the most honorable events in the annals of the church.

According to the mildest rules of ecclesiastical discipline,

which were established in the fourth century, the crime of

homicide was expiated by the penitence of twenty years: 97 and as

it was impossible, in the period of human life, to purge the

accumulated guilt of the massacre of Thessalonica, the murderer

should have been excluded from the holy communion till the hour

of his death. But the archbishop, consulting the maxims of

religious policy, granted some indulgence to the rank of his

illustrious penitent, who humbled in the dust the pride of the

diadem; and the public edification might be admitted as a weighty

reason to abridge the duration of his punishment. It was

sufficient, that the emperor of the Romans, stripped of the

ensigns of royalty, should appear in a mournful and suppliant

posture; and that, in the midst of the church of Milan, he should

humbly solicit, with sighs and tears, the pardon of his sins. 98

In this spiritual cure, Ambrose employed the various methods of

mildness and severity. After a delay of about eight months,

Theodosius was restored to the communion of the faithful; and the

edict which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days between

the sentence and the execution, may be accepted as the worthy

fruits of his repentance. 99 Posterity has applauded the virtuous

firmness of the archbishop; and the example of Theodosius may

prove the beneficial influence of those principles, which could

force a monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human

punishment, to respect the laws, and ministers, of an invisible

Judge. “The prince,” says Montesquieu, “who is actuated by the

hopes and fears of religion, may be compared to a lion, docile

only to the voice, and tractable to the hand, of his keeper.” 100

The motions of the royal animal will therefore depend on the

inclination, and interest, of the man who has acquired such

dangerous authority over him; and the priest, who holds in his

hands the conscience of a king, may inflame, or moderate, his

sanguinary passions. The cause of humanity, and that of

persecution, have been asserted, by the same Ambrose, with equal

energy, and with equal success.

96 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. li. p. 997-1001. His

epistle is a miserable rhapsody on a noble subject. Ambrose could

act better than he could write. His compositions are destitute of

taste, or genius; without the spirit of Tertullian, the copious

elegance of Lactantius the lively wit of Jerom, or the grave

energy of Augustin.]

97 (return) [ According to the discipline of St. Basil, (Canon

lvi.,) the voluntary homicide was four years a mourner; five a

hearer; seven in a prostrate state; and four in a standing

posture. I have the original (Beveridge, Pandect. tom. ii. p.

47-151) and a translation (Chardon, Hist. des Sacremens, tom. iv.

p. 219-277) of the Canonical Epistles of St. Basil.]

98 (return) [ The penance of Theodosius is authenticated by

Ambrose, (tom. vi. de Obit. Theodos. c. 34, p. 1207,) Augustin,

(de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) and Paulinus, (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24.)

Socrates is ignorant; Sozomen (l. vii. c. 25) concise; and the

copious narrative of Theodoret (l. v. c. 18) must be used with

precaution.]

99 (return) [ Codex Theodos. l. ix. tit. xl. leg. 13. The date

and circumstances of this law are perplexed with difficulties;

but I feel myself inclined to favor the honest efforts of

Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 721) and Pagi, (Critica,

tom. i. p. 578.)]

100 (return) [ Un prince qui aime la religion, et qui la craint,

est un lion qui cede a la main qui le flatte, ou a la voix qui

l’appaise. Esprit des Loix, l. xxiv. c. 2.]

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part V.

After the defeat and death of the tyrant of Gaul, the Roman world

was in the possession of Theodosius. He derived from the choice

of Gratian his honorable title to the provinces of the East: he

had acquired the West by the right of conquest; and the three

years which he spent in Italy were usefully employed to restore

the authority of the laws, and to correct the abuses which had

prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of Maximus, and the

minority of Valentinian. The name of Valentinian was regularly

inserted in the public acts: but the tender age, and doubtful

faith, of the son of Justina, appeared to require the prudent

care of an orthodox guardian; and his specious ambition might

have excluded the unfortunate youth, without a struggle, and

almost without a murmur, from the administration, and even from

the inheritance, of the empire. If Theodosius had consulted the

rigid maxims of interest and policy, his conduct would have been

justified by his friends; but the generosity of his behavior on

this memorable occasion has extorted the applause of his most

inveterate enemies. He seated Valentinian on the throne of Milan;

and, without stipulating any present or future advantages,

restored him to the absolute dominion of all the provinces, from

which he had been driven by the arms of Maximus. To the

restitution of his ample patrimony, Theodosius added the free and

generous gift of the countries beyond the Alps, which his

successful valor had recovered from the assassin of Gratian. 101

Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the

death of his benefactor, and delivering the West from the yoke of

tyranny, the emperor returned from Milan to Constantinople; and,

in the peaceful possession of the East, insensibly relapsed into

his former habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged

his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal

tenderness to the sister, of Valentinian; and posterity, which

admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must

applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use of victory.

101 (return) [ It is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself, (l.

iv. p. 267.) Augustin says, with some happiness of expression,

Valentinianum.... misericordissima veneratione restituit.]

The empress Justina did not long survive her return to Italy;

and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she was not

allowed to influence the government of her son. 102 The

pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian had

imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon erased by the

lessons of a more orthodox education. His growing zeal for the

faith of Nice, and his filial reverence for the character and

authority of Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain the

most favorable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor of the

West. 103 They applauded his chastity and temperance, his

contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and his tender

affection for his two sisters; which could not, however, seduce

his impartial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence against the

meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had

accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed by

domestic treason; and the empire was again involved in the

horrors of a civil war. Arbogastes, 104 a gallant soldier of the

nation of the Franks, held the second rank in the service of

Gratian. On the death of his master he joined the standard of

Theodosius; contributed, by his valor and military conduct, to

the destruction of the tyrant; and was appointed, after the

victory, master-general of the armies of Gaul. His real merit,

and apparent fidelity, had gained the confidence both of the

prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the

allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he was universally esteemed

as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was

secretly determined either to rule, or to ruin, the empire of the

West. The important commands of the army were distributed among

the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the

honors and offices of the civil government; the progress of the

conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of

Valentinian; and the emperor, without power and without

intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent

condition of a captive. 105 The indignation which he expressed,

though it might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of

youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a

prince, who felt that he was not unworthy to reign. He secretly

invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office of a

mediator; as the pledge of his sincerity, and the guardian of his

safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor of the East of his

helpless situation, and he declared, that, unless Theodosius

could speedily march to his assistance, he must attempt to escape

from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna in Gaul, where he

had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the hostile

faction. But the hopes of relief were distant, and doubtful: and,

as every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor, without

strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk an immediate

contest with his powerful general. He received Arbogastes on the

throne; and, as the count approached with some appearance of

respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed him from all

his employments. “My authority,” replied Arbogastes, with

insulting coolness, “does not depend on the smile or the frown of

a monarch;” and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground.

The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one of the guards,

which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was not

without some degree of violence that he was prevented from using

the deadly weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A few

days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had exposed

his resentment and his weakness, the unfortunate Valentinian was

found strangled in his apartment; and some pains were employed to

disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the

world, that the death of the young emperor had been the voluntary

effect of his own despair. 106 His body was conducted with decent

pomp to the sepulchre of Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a

funeral oration to commemorate his virtues and his misfortunes.

107 On this occasion the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make

a singular breach in his theological system; and to comfort the

weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance, that their

pious brother, though he had not received the sacrament of

baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of

eternal bliss. 108

102 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 14. His chronology is very

irregular.]

103 (return) [ See Ambrose, (tom. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c.

15, &c. p. 1178. c. 36, &c. p. 1184.) When the young emperor gave

an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see a handsome

actress, &c. Since he ordered his wild beasts to to be killed, it

is ungenerous in Philostor (l. xi. c. 1) to reproach him with the

love of that amusement.]

104 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 275) praises the enemy of

Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (l. v. c. 25) and

Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35.)]

105 (return) [ Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the

second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a

curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far more

valuable than himself.]

106 (return) [ Godefroy (Dissertat. ad. Philostorg. p. 429-434)

has diligently collected all the circumstances of the death of

Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of

contemporary writers, prove that it was secret.]

107 (return) [ De Obitu Valentinian. tom. ii. p. 1173-1196. He is

forced to speak a discreet and obscure language: yet he is much

bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic, would

have dared to be.]

108 (return) [ See c. 51, p. 1188, c. 75, p. 1193. Dom Chardon,

(Hist. des Sacramens, tom. i. p. 86,) who owns that St. Ambrose

most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of

baptism, labors to reconcile the contradiction.]

The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his

ambitious designs: and the provincials, in whose breast every

sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected,

with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the choice of a

Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of

pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes

himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more advisable to

reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the

purple on the rhetorician Eugenius; 109 whom he had already

raised from the place of his domestic secretary to the rank of

master of the offices. In the course, both of his private and

public service, the count had always approved the attachment and

abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by

the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the

people; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the

throne, may inspire a favorable prejudice of his virtue and

moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately

despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with

affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of

Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to

request, that the monarch of the East would embrace, as his

lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had obtained the

unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces of the West. 110

Theodosius was justly provoked, that the perfidy of a Barbarian,

should have destroyed, in a moment, the labors, and the fruit, of

his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his

beloved wife, 111 to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and

once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of the throne.

But as the second conquest of the West was a task of difficulty

and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents, and an

ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two

years were consumed in the preparations of the civil war. Before

he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious

to discover the will of Heaven; and as the progress of

Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he

consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the

age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity.

Eutropius, one of the favorite eunuchs of the palace of

Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up

the Nile, as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the

remote province of Thebais. 112 In the neighborhood of that city,

and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John 113 had

constructed, with his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had

dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without seeing

the face of a woman, and without tasting any food that had been

prepared by fire, or any human art. Five days of the week he

spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he

regularly opened a small window, and gave audience to the crowd

of suppliants who successively flowed from every part of the

Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the window

with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the

event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favorable

oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor by the

assurance of a bloody, but infallible victory. 114 The

accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means

that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two

master-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit

the numbers, and to revive the discipline of the Roman legions.

The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the ensigns of

their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth,

who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were enlisted

in the service of the same prince; 1141 and the renowned Alaric

acquired, in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of the art

of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the

destruction of Rome. 115

109 (return) [ Quem sibi Germanus famulam delegerat exul, is the

contemptuous expression of Claudian, (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.)

Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to

Paganism (Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22, Philostorg. l. xi. c. 2) is

probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of

Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 276, 277.)]

110 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278) mentions this embassy; but

he is diverted by another story from relating the event.]

111 (return) [ Zosim. l. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280)

that Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the affliction

of her husband was extreme but short.]

112 (return) [ Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of

Said, about the size of St. Denys, which drives a profitable

trade with the kingdom of Senaar, and has a very convenient

fountain, “cujus potu signa virgini tatis eripiuntur.” See

D’Anville, Description de l’Egypte, p. 181 Abulfeda, Descript.

Egypt. p. 14, and the curious Annotations, p. 25, 92, of his

editor Michaelis.]

113 (return) [ The Life of John of Lycopolis is described by his

two friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449) and Palladius, (Hist.

Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738,) in Rosweyde’s great Collection of the

Vitae Patrum. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 718, 720) has

settled the chronology.]

114 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. l. i.

312) mentions the eunuch’s journey; but he most contemptuously

derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the Nile.]

1141 (return) [ Gibbon has embodied the picturesque verses of

Claudian:—

.... Nec tantis dissona linguis Turba, nec armorum cultu diversion

unquam]

115 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 280. Socrates, l. vii. 10.

Alaric himself (de Bell. Getico, 524) dwells with more

complacency on his early exploits against the Romans.

.... Tot Augustos Hebro qui teste fugavi.

Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality of

flying emperors.]

The emperor of the West, or, to speak more properly, his general

Arbogastes, was instructed by the misconduct and misfortune of

Maximus, how dangerous it might prove to extend the line of

defence against a skilful antagonist, who was free to press, or

to suspend, to contract, or to multiply, his various methods of

attack. 116 Arbogastes fixed his station on the confines of

Italy; the troops of Theodosius were permitted to occupy, without

resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the

Julian Alps; and even the passes of the mountains were

negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the bold invader.

He descended from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishment,

the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans, that covered with

arms and tents the open country which extends to the walls of

Aquileia, and the banks of the Frigidus, 117 or Cold River. 118

This narrow theatre of the war, circumscribed by the Alps and the

Adriatic, did not allow much room for the operations of military

skill; the spirit of Arbogastes would have disdained a pardon;

his guilt extinguished the hope of a negotiation; and Theodosius

was impatient to satisfy his glory and revenge, by the

chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing

the natural and artificial obstacles that opposed his efforts,

the emperor of the East immediately attacked the fortifications

of his rivals, assigned the post of honorable danger to the

Goths, and cherished a secret wish, that the bloody conflict

might diminish the pride and numbers of the conquerors. Ten

thousand of those auxiliaries, and Bacurius, general of the

Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory

was not purchased by their blood; the Gauls maintained their

advantage; and the approach of night protected the disorderly

flight, or retreat, of the troops of Theodosius. The emperor

retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a disconsolate

night, without sleep, without provisions, and without hopes; 119

except that strong assurance, which, under the most desperate

circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the contempt

of fortune and of life. The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated by

the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the active and

vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable body of

troops to occupy the passes of the mountains, and to encompass

the rear of the Eastern army. The dawn of day discovered to the

eyes of Theodosius the extent and the extremity of his danger;

but his apprehensions were soon dispelled, by a friendly message

from the leaders of those troops who expressed their inclination

to desert the standard of the tyrant. The honorable and lucrative

rewards, which they stipulated as the price of their perfidy,

were granted without hesitation; and as ink and paper could not

easily be procured, the emperor subscribed, on his own tablets,

the ratification of the treaty. The spirit of his soldiers was

revived by this seasonable reenforcement; and they again marched,

with confidence, to surprise the camp of a tyrant, whose

principal officers appeared to distrust, either the justice or

the success of his arms. In the heat of the battle, a violent

tempest, 120 such as is often felt among the Alps, suddenly arose

from the East. The army of Theodosius was sheltered by their

position from the impetuosity of the wind, which blew a cloud of

dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their ranks, wrested

their weapons from their hands, and diverted, or repelled, their

ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage was skilfully

improved, the violence of the storm was magnified by the

superstitious terrors of the Gauls; and they yielded without

shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who seemed to militate

on the side of the pious emperor. His victory was decisive; and

the deaths of his two rivals were distinguished only by the

difference of their characters. The rhetorician Eugenius, who had

almost acquired the dominion of the world, was reduced to implore

the mercy of the conqueror; and the unrelenting soldiers

separated his head from his body as he lay prostrate at the feet

of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the loss of a battle, in which

he had discharged the duties of a soldier and a general, wandered

several days among the mountains. But when he was convinced that

his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable, the

intrepid Barbarian imitated the example of the ancient Romans,

and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the

empire was determined in a narrow corner of Italy; and the

legitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced the

archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the submission of

the provinces of the West. Those provinces were involved in the

guilt of rebellion; while the inflexible courage of Ambrose alone

had resisted the claims of successful usurpation. With a manly

freedom, which might have been fatal to any other subject, the

archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, 1201 declined his

correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan, to avoid the

odious presence of a tyrant, whose downfall he predicted in

discreet and ambiguous language. The merit of Ambrose was

applauded by the conqueror, who secured the attachment of the

people by his alliance with the church; and the clemency of

Theodosius is ascribed to the humane intercession of the

archbishop of Milan. 121

116 (return) [ Claudian (in iv. Cons. Honor. 77, &c.) contrasts

the military plans of the two usurpers:—

.... Novitas audere priorem Suadebat; cautumque dabant exempla

sequentem. Hic nova moliri praeceps: hic quaerere tuta Providus.

Hic fusis; colectis viribus ille. Hic vagus excurrens; hic

claustra reductus Dissimiles, sed morte pares......]

117 (return) [ The Frigidus, a small, though memorable, stream in

the country of Goretz, now called the Vipao, falls into the

Sontius, or Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the

Adriatic. See D’Anville’s ancient and modern maps, and the Italia

Antiqua of Cluverius, (tom. i. c. 188.)]

118 (return) [ Claudian’s wit is intolerable: the snow was dyed

red; the cold ver smoked; and the channel must have been choked

with carcasses the current had not been swelled with blood.

Confluxit populus: totam pater undique secum Moverat Aurorem;

mixtis hic Colchus Iberis, Hic mitra velatus Arabs, hic crine

decoro Armenius, hic picta Saces, fucataque Medus, Hic gemmata

tiger tentoria fixerat Indus.—De Laud. Stil. l. 145.—M.]

119 (return) [ Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St. Philip,

appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor, on horseback, &c.

This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which

afterwards became so popular in Spain, and in the Crusades.]

120 (return) [ Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis

Obruit adversas acies; revolutaque tela Vertit in auctores, et

turbine reppulit hastas

O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris Aeolus armatas hyemes;

cui militat Aether, Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.

These famous lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, &c. A.D.

396) are alleged by his contemporaries, Augustin and Orosius; who

suppress the Pagan deity of Aeolus, and add some circumstances

from the information of eye-witnesses. Within four months after

the victory, it was compared by Ambrose to the miraculous

victories of Moses and Joshua.]

1201 (return) [ Arbogastes and his emperor had openly espoused

the Pagan party, according to Ambrose and Augustin. See Le Beau,

v. 40. Beugnot (Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme) is more

full, and perhaps somewhat fanciful, on this remarkable reaction

in favor of Paganism, but compare p 116.—M.]

121 (return) [ The events of this civil war are gathered from

Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. lxii. p. 1022,) Paulinus, (in Vit.

Ambros. c. 26-34,) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) Orosius,

(l. vii. c. 35,) Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 24,) Theodoret, (l. v. c.

24,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 281, 282,) Claudian, (in iii. Cons. Hon.

63-105, in iv. Cons. Hon. 70-117,) and the Chronicles published

by Scaliger.]

After the defeat of Eugenius, the merit, as well as the

authority, of Theodosius was cheerfully acknowledged by all the

inhabitants of the Roman world. The experience of his past

conduct encouraged the most pleasing expectations of his future

reign; and the age of the emperor, which did not exceed fifty

years, seemed to extend the prospect of the public felicity. His

death, only four months after his victory, was considered by the

people as an unforeseen and fatal event, which destroyed, in a

moment, the hopes of the rising generation. But the indulgence of

ease and luxury had secretly nourished the principles of disease.

122 The strength of Theodosius was unable to support the sudden

and violent transition from the palace to the camp; and the

increasing symptoms of a dropsy announced the speedy dissolution

of the emperor. The opinion, and perhaps the interest, of the

public had confirmed the division of the Eastern and Western

empires; and the two royal youths, Arcadius and Honorius, who had

already obtained, from the tenderness of their father, the title

of Augustus, were destined to fill the thrones of Constantinople

and of Rome. Those princes were not permitted to share the danger

and glory of the civil war; 123 but as soon as Theodosius had

triumphed over his unworthy rivals, he called his younger son,

Honorius, to enjoy the fruits of the victory, and to receive the

sceptre of the West from the hands of his dying father. The

arrival of Honorius at Milan was welcomed by a splendid

exhibition of the games of the Circus; and the emperor, though he

was oppressed by the weight of his disorder, contributed by his

presence to the public joy. But the remains of his strength were

exhausted by the painful effort which he made to assist at the

spectacles of the morning. Honorius supplied, during the rest of

the day, the place of his father; and the great Theodosius

expired in the ensuing night. Notwithstanding the recent

animosities of a civil war, his death was universally lamented.

The Barbarians, whom he had vanquished and the churchmen, by whom

he had been subdued, celebrated, with loud and sincere applause,

the qualities of the deceased emperor, which appeared the most

valuable in their eyes. The Romans were terrified by the

impending dangers of a feeble and divided administration, and

every disgraceful moment of the unfortunate reigns of Arcadius

and Honorius revived the memory of their irreparable loss.

122 (return) [ This disease, ascribed by Socrates (l. v. c. 26)

to the fatigues of war, is represented by Philostorgius (l. xi.

c. 2) as the effect of sloth and intemperance; for which Photius

calls him an impudent liar, (Godefroy, Dissert. p. 438.)]

123 (return) [ Zosimus supposes, that the boy Honorius

accompanied his father, (l. iv. p. 280.) Yet the quanto

flagrabrant pectora voto is all that flattery would allow to a

contemporary poet; who clearly describes the emperor’s refusal,

and the journey of Honorius, after the victory (Claudian in iii.

Cons. 78-125.)]

In the faithful picture of the virtues of Theodosius, his

imperfections have not been dissembled; the act of cruelty, and

the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of the

greatest of the Roman princes. An historian, perpetually adverse

to the fame of Theodosius, has exaggerated his vices, and their

pernicious effects; he boldly asserts, that every rank of

subjects imitated the effeminate manners of their sovereign; and

that every species of corruption polluted the course of public

and private life; and that the feeble restraints of order and

decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that

degenerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a blush, the

consideration of duty and interest to the base indulgence of

sloth and appetite. 124 The complaints of contemporary writers,

who deplore the increase of luxury, and depravation of manners,

are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation.

There are few observers, who possess a clear and comprehensive

view of the revolutions of society; and who are capable of

discovering the nice and secret springs of action, which impel,

in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions

of a multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any

degree of truth, that the luxury of the Romans was more shameless

and dissolute in the reign of Theodosius than in the age of

Constantine, perhaps, or of Augustus, the alteration cannot be

ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which had gradually

increased the stock of national riches. A long period of calamity

or decay must have checked the industry, and diminished the

wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been

the result of that indolent despair, which enjoys the present

hour, and declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain

condition of their property discouraged the subjects of

Theodosius from engaging in those useful and laborious

undertakings which require an immediate expense, and promise a

slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of ruin and

desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a patrimony,

which might, every hour, become the prey of the rapacious Goth.

And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a

shipwreck, or a siege, may serve to explain the progress of

luxury amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation.

124 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 244.]

The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts and

cities, had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the

camps of the legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by the

pen of a military writer, who had accurately studied the genuine

and ancient principles of Roman discipline. It is the just and

important observation of Vegetius, that the infantry was

invariably covered with defensive armor, from the foundation of

the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of

discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the soldiers

less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the

service; they complained of the weight of the armor, which they

seldom wore; and they successively obtained the permission of

laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy

weapons of their ancestors, the short sword, and the formidable

pilum, which had subdued the world, insensibly dropped from their

feeble hands. As the use of the shield is incompatible with that

of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the field; condemned to

suffer either the pain of wounds, or the ignominy of flight, and

always disposed to prefer the more shameful alternative. The

cavalry of the Goths, the Huns, and the Alani, had felt the

benefits, and adopted the use, of defensive armor; and, as they

excelled in the management of missile weapons, they easily

overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions, whose heads and

breasts were exposed, without defence, to the arrows of the

Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of cities, and

the dishonor of the Roman name, ineffectually solicited the

successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and the cuirasses of

the infantry. The enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the

public defence; and their pusillanimous indolence may be

considered as the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire.

125

125 (return) [ Vegetius, de Re Militari, l. i. c. 10. The series

of calamities which he marks, compel us to believe, that the

Hero, to whom he dedicates his book, is the last and most

inglorious of the Valentinians.]

Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part I.

Final Destruction Of Paganism.—Introduction Of The Worship Of

Saints, And Relics, Among The Christians.

The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the

only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular

superstition; and may therefore deserve to be considered as a

singular event in the history of the human mind. The Christians,

more especially the clergy, had impatiently supported the prudent

delays of Constantine, and the equal toleration of the elder

Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest perfect or

secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to exist. The

influence which Ambrose and his brethren had acquired over the

youth of Gratian, and the piety of Theodosius, was employed to

infuse the maxims of persecution into the breasts of their

Imperial proselytes. Two specious principles of religious

jurisprudence were established, from whence they deduced a direct

and rigorous conclusion, against the subjects of the empire who

still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors: that the

magistrate is, in some measure, guilty of the crimes which he

neglects to prohibit, or to punish; and, that the idolatrous

worship of fabulous deities, and real daemons, is the most

abominable crime against the supreme majesty of the Creator. The

laws of Moses, and the examples of Jewish history, 1 were

hastily, perhaps erroneously, applied, by the clergy, to the mild

and universal reign of Christianity. 2 The zeal of the emperors

was excited to vindicate their own honor, and that of the Deity:

and the temples of the Roman world were subverted, about sixty

years after the conversion of Constantine.

1 (return) [ St. Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Theodos. p. 1208)

expressly praises and recommends the zeal of Josiah in the

destruction of idolatry The language of Julius Firmicus Maternus

on the same subject (de Errore Profan. Relig. p. 467, edit.

Gronov.) is piously inhuman. Nec filio jubet (the Mosaic Law)

parci, nec fratri, et per amatam conjugera gladium vindicem

ducit, &c.]

2 (return) [ Bayle (tom. ii. p. 406, in his Commentaire

Philosophique) justifies, and limits, these intolerant laws by

the temporal reign of Jehovah over the Jews. The attempt is

laudable.]

From the age of Numa to the reign of Gratian, the Romans

preserved the regular succession of the several colleges of the

sacerdotal order. 3 Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their supreme

jurisdiction over all things, and persons, that were consecrated

to the service of the gods; and the various questions which

perpetually arose in a loose and traditionary system, were

submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal. Fifteen grave

and learned Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and

prescribed the actions of heroes, according to the flight of

birds. Fifteen keepers of the Sibylline books (their name of

Quindecemvirs was derived from their number) occasionally

consulted the history of future, and, as it should seem, of

contingent, events. Six Vestals devoted their virginity to the

guard of the sacred fire, and of the unknown pledges of the

duration of Rome; which no mortal had been suffered to behold

with impunity. 4 Seven Epulos prepared the table of the gods,

conducted the solemn procession, and regulated the ceremonies of

the annual festival. The three Flamens of Jupiter, of Mars, and

of Quirinus, were considered as the peculiar ministers of the

three most powerful deities, who watched over the fate of Rome

and of the universe. The King of the Sacrifices represented the

person of Numa, and of his successors, in the religious

functions, which could be performed only by royal hands. The

confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, &c., practised

such rites as might extort a smile of contempt from every

reasonable man, with a lively confidence of recommending

themselves to the favor of the immortal gods. The authority,

which the Roman priests had formerly obtained in the counsels of

the republic, was gradually abolished by the establishment of

monarchy, and the removal of the seat of empire. But the dignity

of their sacred character was still protected by the laws, and

manners of their country; and they still continued, more

especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital,

and sometimes in the provinces, the rights of their

ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. Their robes of purple,

chariotz of state, and sumptuous entertainments, attracted the

admiration of the people; and they received, from the consecrated

lands, and the public revenue, an ample stipend, which liberally

supported the splendor of the priesthood, and all the expenses of

the religious worship of the state. As the service of the altar

was not incompatible with the command of armies, the Romans,

after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the place of

pontiff, or of augur; the seats of Cicero 5 and Pompey were

filled, in the fourth century, by the most illustrious members of

the senate; and the dignity of their birth reflected additional

splendor on their sacerdotal character. The fifteen priests, who

composed the college of pontiffs, enjoyed a more distinguished

rank as the companions of their sovereign; and the Christian

emperors condescended to accept the robe and ensigns, which were

appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when Gratian

ascended the throne, more scrupulous or more enlightened, he

sternly rejected those profane symbols; 6 applied to the service

of the state, or of the church, the revenues of the priests and

vestals; abolished their honors and immunities; and dissolved the

ancient fabric of Roman superstition, which was supported by the

opinions and habits of eleven hundred years. Paganism was still

the constitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or temple,

in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of

Victory; 7 a majestic female standing on a globe, with flowing

garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her

outstretched hand. 8 The senators were sworn on the altar of the

goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire: and

a solemn offering of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of

their public deliberations. 9 The removal of this ancient

monument was the only injury which Constantius had offered to the

superstition of the Romans. The altar of Victory was again

restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian, and once more

banished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian. 10 But the

emperor yet spared the statues of the gods which were exposed to

the public veneration: four hundred and twenty-four temples, or

chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of the people;

and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians was

offended by the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice. 11

3 (return) [ See the outlines of the Roman hierarchy in Cicero,

(de Legibus, ii. 7, 8,) Livy, (i. 20,) Dionysius

Halicarnassensis, (l. ii. p. 119-129, edit. Hudson,) Beaufort,

(Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 1-90,) and Moyle, (vol. i. p.

10-55.) The last is the work of an English whig, as well as of a

Roman antiquary.]

4 (return) [ These mystic, and perhaps imaginary, symbols have

given birth to various fables and conjectures. It seems probable,

that the Palladium was a small statue (three cubits and a half

high) of Minerva, with a lance and distaff; that it was usually

enclosed in a seria, or barrel; and that a similar barrel was

placed by its side to disconcert curiosity, or sacrilege. See

Mezeriac (Comment. sur les Epitres d’Ovide, tom i. p. 60—66) and

Lipsius, (tom. iii. p. 610 de Vesta, &c. c 10.)]

5 (return) [ Cicero frankly (ad Atticum, l. ii. Epist. 5) or

indirectly (ad Familiar. l. xv. Epist. 4) confesses that the

Augurate is the supreme object of his wishes. Pliny is proud to

tread in the footsteps of Cicero, (l. iv. Epist. 8,) and the

chain of tradition might be continued from history and marbles.]

6 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 249, 250. I have suppressed the

foolish pun about Pontifex and Maximus.]

7 (return) [ This statue was transported from Tarentum to Rome,

placed in the Curia Julia by Caesar, and decorated by Augustus

with the spoils of Egypt.]

8 (return) [ Prudentius (l. ii. in initio) has drawn a very

awkward portrait of Victory; but the curious reader will obtain

more satisfaction from Montfaucon’s Antiquities, (tom. i. p.

341.)]

9 (return) [ See Suetonius (in August. c. 35) and the Exordium of

Pliny’s Panegyric.]

10 (return) [ These facts are mutually allowed by the two

advocates, Symmachus and Ambrose.]

11 (return) [ The Notitia Urbis, more recent than Constantine,

does not find one Christian church worthy to be named among the

edifices of the city. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. p. 825)

deplores the public scandals of Rome, which continually offended

the eyes, the ears, and the nostrils of the faithful.]

But the Christians formed the least numerous party in the senate

of Rome: 12 and it was only by their absence, that they could

express their dissent from the legal, though profane, acts of a

Pagan majority. In that assembly, the dying embers of freedom

were, for a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of

fanaticism. Four respectable deputations were successively voted

to the Imperial court, 13 to represent the grievances of the

priesthood and the senate, and to solicit the restoration of the

altar of Victory. The conduct of this important business was

intrusted to the eloquent Symmachus, 14 a wealthy and noble

senator, who united the sacred characters of pontiff and augur

with the civil dignities of proconsul of Africa and praefect of

the city. The breast of Symmachus was animated by the warmest

zeal for the cause of expiring Paganism; and his religious

antagonists lamented the abuse of his genius, and the inefficacy

of his moral virtues. 15 The orator, whose petition is extant to

the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the difficulty and

danger of the office which he had assumed. He cautiously avoids

every topic which might appear to reflect on the religion of his

sovereign; humbly declares, that prayers and entreaties are his

only arms; and artfully draws his arguments from the schools of

rhetoric, rather than from those of philosophy. Symmachus

endeavors to seduce the imagination of a young prince, by

displaying the attributes of the goddess of victory; he

insinuates, that the confiscation of the revenues, which were

consecrated to the service of the gods, was a measure unworthy of

his liberal and disinterested character; and he maintains, that

the Roman sacrifices would be deprived of their force and energy,

if they were no longer celebrated at the expense, as well as in

the name, of the republic. Even scepticism is made to supply an

apology for superstition. The great and incomprehensible secret

of the universe eludes the inquiry of man. Where reason cannot

instruct, custom may be permitted to guide; and every nation

seems to consult the dictates of prudence, by a faithful

attachment to those rites and opinions, which have received the

sanction of ages. If those ages have been crowned with glory and

prosperity, if the devout people have frequently obtained the

blessings which they have solicited at the altars of the gods, it

must appear still more advisable to persist in the same salutary

practice; and not to risk the unknown perils that may attend any

rash innovations. The test of antiquity and success was applied

with singular advantage to the religion of Numa; and Rome

herself, the celestial genius that presided over the fates of the

city, is introduced by the orator to plead her own cause before

the tribunal of the emperors. “Most excellent princes,” says the

venerable matron, “fathers of your country! pity and respect my

age, which has hitherto flowed in an uninterrupted course of

piety. Since I do not repent, permit me to continue in the

practice of my ancient rites. Since I am born free, allow me to

enjoy my domestic institutions. This religion has reduced the

world under my laws. These rites have repelled Hannibal from the

city, and the Gauls from the Capitol. Were my gray hairs reserved

for such intolerable disgrace? I am ignorant of the new system

that I am required to adopt; but I am well assured, that the

correction of old age is always an ungrateful and ignominious

office.” 16 The fears of the people supplied what the discretion

of the orator had suppressed; and the calamities, which

afflicted, or threatened, the declining empire, were unanimously

imputed, by the Pagans, to the new religion of Christ and of

Constantine.

12 (return) [ Ambrose repeatedly affirms, in contradiction to

common sense (Moyle’s Works, vol. ii. p. 147,) that the

Christians had a majority in the senate.]

13 (return) [ The first (A.D. 382) to Gratian, who refused them

audience; the second (A.D. 384) to Valentinian, when the field

was disputed by Symmachus and Ambrose; the third (A.D. 388) to

Theodosius; and the fourth (A.D. 392) to Valentinian. Lardner

(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 372-399) fairly represents the

whole transaction.]

14 (return) [ Symmachus, who was invested with all the civil and

sacerdotal honors, represented the emperor under the two

characters of Pontifex Maximus, and Princeps Senatus. See the

proud inscription at the head of his works. * Note: Mr. Beugnot

has made it doubtful whether Symmachus was more than Pontifex

Major. Destruction du Paganisme, vol. i. p. 459.—M.]

15 (return) [ As if any one, says Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 639)

should dig in the mud with an instrument of gold and ivory. Even

saints, and polemic saints, treat this adversary with respect and

civility.]

16 (return) [ See the fifty-fourth Epistle of the tenth book of

Symmachus. In the form and disposition of his ten books of

Epistles, he imitated the younger Pliny; whose rich and florid

style he was supposed, by his friends, to equal or excel,

(Macrob. Saturnal. l. v. c. i.) But the luxcriancy of Symmachus

consists of barren leaves, without fruits, and even without

flowers. Few facts, and few sentiments, can be extracted from his

verbose correspondence.]

But the hopes of Symmachus were repeatedly baffled by the firm

and dexterous opposition of the archbishop of Milan, who

fortified the emperors against the fallacious eloquence of the

advocate of Rome. In this controversy, Ambrose condescends to

speak the language of a philosopher, and to ask, with some

contempt, why it should be thought necessary to introduce an

imaginary and invisible power, as the cause of those victories,

which were sufficiently explained by the valor and discipline of

the legions. He justly derides the absurd reverence for

antiquity, which could only tend to discourage the improvements

of art, and to replunge the human race into their original

barbarism. From thence, gradually rising to a more lofty and

theological tone, he pronounces, that Christianity alone is the

doctrine of truth and salvation; and that every mode of

Polytheism conducts its deluded votaries, through the paths of

error, to the abyss of eternal perdition. 17 Arguments like

these, when they were suggested by a favorite bishop, had power

to prevent the restoration of the altar of Victory; but the same

arguments fell, with much more energy and effect, from the mouth

of a conqueror; and the gods of antiquity were dragged in triumph

at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius. 18 In a full meeting of the

senate, the emperor proposed, according to the forms of the

republic, the important question, Whether the worship of Jupiter,

or that of Christ, should be the religion of the Romans. 1811 The

liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was destroyed

by the hopes and fears that his presence inspired; and the

arbitrary exile of Symmachus was a recent admonition, that it

might be dangerous to oppose the wishes of the monarch. On a

regular division of the senate, Jupiter was condemned and

degraded by the sense of a very large majority; and it is rather

surprising, that any members should be found bold enough to

declare, by their speeches and votes, that they were still

attached to the interest of an abdicated deity. 19 The hasty

conversion of the senate must be attributed either to

supernatural or to sordid motives; and many of these reluctant

proselytes betrayed, on every favorable occasion, their secret

disposition to throw aside the mask of odious dissimulation. But

they were gradually fixed in the new religion, as the cause of

the ancient became more hopeless; they yielded to the authority

of the emperor, to the fashion of the times, and to the

entreaties of their wives and children, 20 who were instigated

and governed by the clergy of Rome and the monks of the East. The

edifying example of the Anician family was soon imitated by the

rest of the nobility: the Bassi, the Paullini, the Gracchi,

embraced the Christian religion; and “the luminaries of the

world, the venerable assembly of Catos (such are the high-flown

expressions of Prudentius) were impatient to strip themselves of

their pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the old serpent; to

assume the snowy robes of baptismal innocence, and to humble the

pride of the consular fasces before tombs of the martyrs.” 21 The

citizens, who subsisted by their own industry, and the populace,

who were supported by the public liberality, filled the churches

of the Lateran, and Vatican, with an incessant throng of devout

proselytes. The decrees of the senate, which proscribed the

worship of idols, were ratified by the general consent of the

Romans; 22 the splendor of the Capitol was defaced, and the

solitary temples were abandoned to ruin and contempt. 23 Rome

submitted to the yoke of the Gospel; and the vanquished provinces

had not yet lost their reverence for the name and authority of

Rome. 2311

17 (return) [ See Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. xviii. p.

825-833.) The former of these epistles is a short caution; the

latter is a formal reply of the petition or libel of Symmachus.

The same ideas are more copiously expressed in the poetry, if it

may deserve that name, of Prudentius; who composed his two books

against Symmachus (A.D. 404) while that senator was still alive.

It is whimsical enough that Montesquieu (Considerations, &c. c.

xix. tom. iii. p. 487) should overlook the two professed

antagonists of Symmachus, and amuse himself with descanting on

the more remote and indirect confutations of Orosius, St.

Augustin, and Salvian.]

18 (return) [ See Prudentius (in Symmach. l. i. 545, &c.) The

Christian agrees with the Pagan Zosimus (l. iv. p. 283) in

placing this visit of Theodosius after the second civil war,

gemini bis victor caede Tyranni, (l. i. 410.) But the time and

circumstances are better suited to his first triumph.]

1811 (return) [ M. Beugnot (in his Histoire de la Destruction du

Paganisme en Occident, i. p. 483-488) questions, altogether, the

truth of this statement. It is very remarkable that Zosimus and

Prudentius concur in asserting the fact of the question being

solemnly deliberated by the senate, though with directly opposite

results. Zosimus declares that the majority of the assembly

adhered to the ancient religion of Rome; Gibbon has adopted the

authority of Prudentius, who, as a Latin writer, though a poet,

deserves more credit than the Greek historian. Both concur in

placing this scene after the second triumph of Theodosius; but it

has been almost demonstrated (and Gibbon—see the preceding

note—seems to have acknowledged this) by Pagi and Tillemont, that

Theodosius did not visit Rome after the defeat of Eugenius. M.

Beugnot urges, with much force, the improbability that the

Christian emperor would submit such a question to the senate,

whose authority was nearly obsolete, except on one occasion,

which was almost hailed as an epoch in the restoration of her

ancient privileges. The silence of Ambrose and of Jerom on an

event so striking, and redounding so much to the honor of

Christianity, is of considerable weight. M. Beugnot would ascribe

the whole scene to the poetic imagination of Prudentius; but I

must observe, that, however Prudentius is sometimes elevated by

the grandeur of his subject to vivid and eloquent language, this

flight of invention would be so much bolder and more vigorous

than usual with this poet, that I cannot but suppose there must

have been some foundation for the story, though it may have been

exaggerated by the poet, or misrepresented by the historian.—M]

19 (return) [ Prudentius, after proving that the sense of the

senate is declared by a legal majority, proceeds to say, (609,

&c.)—

Adspice quam pleno subsellia nostra Senatu Decernant infame Jovis

pulvinar, et omne Idolum longe purgata ex urbe fugandum, Qua vocat

egregii sententia Principis, illuc Libera, cum pedibus, tum corde,

frequentia transit.

Zosimus ascribes to the conscript fathers a heathenish courage,

which few of them are found to possess.]

20 (return) [ Jerom specifies the pontiff Albinus, who was

surrounded with such a believing family of children and

grandchildren, as would have been sufficient to convert even

Jupiter himself; an extraordinary proselyted (tom. i. ad Laetam,

p. 54.)]

21 (return) [

Exultare Patres videas, pulcherrima mundi Lumina; Conciliumque

senum gestire Catonum Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum

Sumere; et exuvias deponere pontificales.

The fancy of Prudentius is warmed and elevated by victory]

22 (return) [ Prudentius, after he has described the conversion

of the senate and people, asks, with some truth and confidence,

Et dubitamus adhuc Romam, tibi, Christe, dicatam In leges transisse

tuas?]

23 (return) [ Jerom exults in the desolation of the Capitol, and

the other temples of Rome, (tom. i. p. 54, tom. ii. p. 95.)]

2311 (return) [ M. Beugnot is more correct in his general

estimate of the measures enforced by Theodosius for the abolition

of Paganism. He seized (according to Zosimus) the funds bestowed

by the public for the expense of sacrifices. The public

sacrifices ceased, not because they were positively prohibited,

but because the public treasury would no longer bear the expense.

The public and the private sacrifices in the provinces, which

were not under the same regulations with those of the capital,

continued to take place. In Rome itself, many pagan ceremonies,

which were without sacrifice, remained in full force. The gods,

therefore, were invoked, the temples were frequented, the

pontificates inscribed, according to ancient usage, among the

family titles of honor; and it cannot be asserted that idolatry

was completely destroyed by Theodosius. See Beugnot, p. 491.—M.]

Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part II.

The filial piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to

proceed, with some caution and tenderness, in the reformation of

the eternal city. Those absolute monarchs acted with less regard

to the prejudices of the provincials. The pious labor which had

been suspended near twenty years since the death of Constantius,

24 was vigorously resumed, and finally accomplished, by the zeal

of Theodosius. Whilst that warlike prince yet struggled with the

Goths, not for the glory, but for the safety, of the republic, he

ventured to offend a considerable party of his subjects, by some

acts which might perhaps secure the protection of Heaven, but

which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human

prudence. The success of his first experiments against the Pagans

encouraged the pious emperor to reiterate and enforce his edicts

of proscription: the same laws which had been originally

published in the provinces of the East, were applied, after the

defeat of Maximus, to the whole extent of the Western empire; and

every victory of the orthodox Theodosius contributed to the

triumph of the Christian and Catholic faith. 25 He attacked

superstition in her most vital part, by prohibiting the use of

sacrifices, which he declared to be criminal as well as infamous;

and if the terms of his edicts more strictly condemned the

impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the victim, 26

every subsequent explanation tended to involve in the same guilt

the general practice of immolation, which essentially constituted

the religion of the Pagans. As the temples had been erected for

the purpose of sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent prince

to remove from his subjects the dangerous temptation of offending

against the laws which he had enacted. A special commission was

granted to Cynegius, the Prætorian praefect of the East, and

afterwards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two officers of

distinguished rank in the West; by which they were directed to

shut the temples, to seize or destroy the instruments of

idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and to

confiscate the consecrated property for the benefit of the

emperor, of the church, or of the army. 27 Here the desolation

might have stopped: and the naked edifices, which were no longer

employed in the service of idolatry, might have been protected

from the destructive rage of fanaticism. Many of those temples

were the most splendid and beautiful monuments of Grecian

architecture; and the emperor himself was interested not to

deface the splendor of his own cities, or to diminish the value

of his own possessions. Those stately edifices might be suffered

to remain, as so many lasting trophies of the victory of Christ.

In the decline of the arts they might be usefully converted into

magazines, manufactures, or places of public assembly: and

perhaps, when the walls of the temple had been sufficiently

purified by holy rites, the worship of the true Deity might be

allowed to expiate the ancient guilt of idolatry. But as long as

they subsisted, the Pagans fondly cherished the secret hope, that

an auspicious revolution, a second Julian, might again restore

the altars of the gods: and the earnestness with which they

addressed their unavailing prayers to the throne, 28 increased

the zeal of the Christian reformers to extirpate, without mercy,

the root of superstition. The laws of the emperors exhibit some

symptoms of a milder disposition: 29 but their cold and languid

efforts were insufficient to stem the torrent of enthusiasm and

rapine, which was conducted, or rather impelled, by the spiritual

rulers of the church. In Gaul, the holy Martin, bishop of Tours,

30 marched at the head of his faithful monks to destroy the

idols, the temples, and the consecrated trees of his extensive

diocese; and, in the execution of this arduous task, the prudent

reader will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid of

miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons. In Syria, the divine and

excellent Marcellus, 31 as he is styled by Theodoret, a bishop

animated with apostolic fervor, resolved to level with the ground

the stately temples within the diocese of Apamea. His attack was

resisted by the skill and solidity with which the temple of

Jupiter had been constructed. The building was seated on an

eminence: on each of the four sides, the lofty roof was supported

by fifteen massy columns, sixteen feet in circumference; and the

large stone, of which they were composed, were firmly cemented

with lead and iron. The force of the strongest and sharpest tools

had been tried without effect. It was found necessary to

undermine the foundations of the columns, which fell down as soon

as the temporary wooden props had been consumed with fire; and

the difficulties of the enterprise are described under the

allegory of a black daemon, who retarded, though he could not

defeat, the operations of the Christian engineers. Elated with

victory, Marcellus took the field in person against the powers of

darkness; a numerous troop of soldiers and gladiators marched

under the episcopal banner, and he successively attacked the

villages and country temples of the diocese of Apamea. Whenever

any resistance or danger was apprehended, the champion of the

faith, whose lameness would not allow him either to fight or fly,

placed himself at a convenient distance, beyond the reach of

darts. But this prudence was the occasion of his death: he was

surprised and slain by a body of exasperated rustics; and the

synod of the province pronounced, without hesitation, that the

holy Marcellus had sacrificed his life in the cause of God. In

the support of this cause, the monks, who rushed with tumultuous

fury from the desert, distinguished themselves by their zeal and

diligence. They deserved the enmity of the Pagans; and some of

them might deserve the reproaches of avarice and intemperance; of

avarice, which they gratified with holy plunder, and of

intemperance, which they indulged at the expense of the people,

who foolishly admired their tattered garments, loud psalmody, and

artificial paleness. 32 A small number of temples was protected

by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the

civil and ecclesiastical governors. The temple of the Celestial

Venus at Carthage, whose sacred precincts formed a circumference

of two miles, was judiciously converted into a Christian church;

33 and a similar consecration has preserved inviolate the

majestic dome of the Pantheon at Rome. 34 But in almost every

province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without

authority, and without discipline, invaded the peaceful

inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity

still displays the ravages of those Barbarians, who alone had

time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction.

24 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 10, Genev. 1634,

published by James Godefroy, and now extremely scarce) accuses

Valentinian and Valens of prohibiting sacrifices. Some partial

order may have been issued by the Eastern emperor; but the idea

of any general law is contradicted by the silence of the Code,

and the evidence of ecclesiastical history. Note: See in Reiske’s

edition of Libanius, tom. ii. p. 155. Sacrific was prohibited by

Valens, but not the offering of incense.—M.]

25 (return) [ See his laws in the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit.

x. leg. 7-11.]

26 (return) [ Homer’s sacrifices are not accompanied with any

inquisition of entrails, (see Feithius, Antiquitat. Homer. l. i.

c. 10, 16.) The Tuscans, who produced the first Haruspices,

subdued both the Greeks and the Romans, (Cicero de Divinatione,

ii. 23.)]

27 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 245, 249. Theodoret. l. v. c.

21. Idatius in Chron. Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud

Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 52. Libanius (pro Templis,

p. 10) labors to prove that the commands of Theodosius were not

direct and positive. * Note: Libanius appears to be the best

authority for the East, where, under Theodosius, the work of

devastation was carried on with very different degrees of

violence, according to the temper of the local authorities and of

the clergy; and more especially the neighborhood of the more

fanatican monks. Neander well observes, that the prohibition of

sacrifice would be easily misinterpreted into an authority for

the destruction of the buildings in which sacrifices were

performed. (Geschichte der Christlichen religion ii. p. 156.) An

abuse of this kind led to this remarkable oration of Libanius.

Neander, however, justly doubts whether this bold vindication or

at least exculpation, of Paganism was ever delivered before, or

even placed in the hands of the Christian emperor.—M.]

28 (return) [ Cod. Theodos, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8, 18. There is

room to believe, that this temple of Edessa, which Theodosius

wished to save for civil uses, was soon afterwards a heap of

ruins, (Libanius pro Templis, p. 26, 27, and Godefroy’s notes, p.

59.)]

29 (return) [ See this curious oration of Libanius pro Templis,

pronounced, or rather composed, about the year 390. I have

consulted, with advantage, Dr. Lardner’s version and remarks,

(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 135-163.)]

30 (return) [ See the Life of Martin by Sulpicius Severus, c.

9-14. The saint once mistook (as Don Quixote might have done) a

harmless funeral for an idolatrous procession, and imprudently

committed a miracle.]

31 (return) [ Compare Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 15) with Theodoret,

(l. v. c. 21.) Between them, they relate the crusade and death of

Marcellus.]

32 (return) [ Libanius, pro Templis, p. 10-13. He rails at these

black-garbed men, the Christian monks, who eat more than

elephants. Poor elephants! they are temperate animals.]

33 (return) [ Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud Baronium;

Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 58, &c. The temple had been shut

some time, and the access to it was overgrown with brambles.]

34 (return) [ Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, l. iv. c. 4, p. 468.

This consecration was performed by Pope Boniface IV. I am

ignorant of the favorable circumstances which had preserved the

Pantheon above two hundred years after the reign of Theodosius.]

In this wide and various prospect of devastation, the spectator

may distinguish the ruins of the temple of Serapis, at

Alexandria. 35 Serapis does not appear to have been one of the

native gods, or monsters, who sprung from the fruitful soil of

superstitious Egypt. 36 The first of the Ptolemies had been

commanded, by a dream, to import the mysterious stranger from the

coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the inhabitants

of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so imperfectly

understood, that it became a subject of dispute, whether he

represented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy monarch of the

subterraneous regions. 37 The Egyptians, who were obstinately

devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to admit this

foreign deity within the walls of their cities. 38 But the

obsequious priests, who were seduced by the liberality of the

Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the power of the god

of Pontus: an honorable and domestic genealogy was provided; and

this fortunate usurper was introduced into the throne and bed of

Osiris, 39 the husband of Isis, and the celestial monarch of

Egypt. Alexandria, which claimed his peculiar protection, gloried

in the name of the city of Serapis. His temple, 40 which rivalled

the pride and magnificence of the Capitol, was erected on the

spacious summit of an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps

above the level of the adjacent parts of the city; and the

interior cavity was strongly supported by arches, and distributed

into vaults and subterraneous apartments. The consecrated

buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico; the stately

halls, and exquisite statues, displayed the triumph of the arts;

and the treasures of ancient learning were preserved in the

famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with new splendor

from its ashes. 41 After the edicts of Theodosius had severely

prohibited the sacrifices of the Pagans, they were still

tolerated in the city and temple of Serapis; and this singular

indulgence was imprudently ascribed to the superstitious terrors

of the Christians themselves; as if they had feared to abolish

those ancient rites, which could alone secure the inundations of

the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of

Constantinople. 42

35 (return) [ Sophronius composed a recent and separate history,

(Jerom, in Script. Eccles. tom. i. p. 303,) which has furnished

materials to Socrates, (l. v. c. 16.) Theodoret, (l. v. c. 22,)

and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22.) Yet the last, who had been at

Alexandria before and after the event, may deserve the credit of

an original witness.]

36 (return) [ Gerard Vossius (Opera, tom. v. p. 80, and de

Idoloaltria, l. i. c. 29) strives to support the strange notion

of the Fathers; that the patriarch Joseph was adored in Egypt, as

the bull Apis, and the god Serapis. * Note: Consult du Dieu

Serapis et son Origine, par J D. Guigniaut, (the translator of

Creuzer’s Symbolique,) Paris, 1828; and in the fifth volume of

Bournouf’s translation of Tacitus.—M.]

37 (return) [ Origo dei nondum nostris celebrata. Aegyptiorum

antistites sic memorant, &c., Tacit. Hist. iv. 83. The Greeks,

who had travelled into Egypt, were alike ignorant of this new

deity.]

38 (return) [ Macrobius, Saturnal, l. i. c. 7. Such a living fact

decisively proves his foreign extraction.]

39 (return) [ At Rome, Isis and Serapis were united in the same

temple. The precedency which the queen assumed, may seem to

betray her unequal alliance with the stranger of Pontus. But the

superiority of the female sex was established in Egypt as a civil

and religious institution, (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. i. p. 31,

edit. Wesseling,) and the same order is observed in Plutarch’s

Treatise of Isis and Osiris; whom he identifies with Serapis.]

40 (return) [ Ammianus, (xxii. 16.) The Expositio totius Mundi,

(p. 8, in Hudson’s Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.,) and Rufinus, (l.

ii. c. 22,) celebrate the Serapeum, as one of the wonders of the

world.]

41 (return) [ See Mémoires de l’Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ix.

p. 397-416. The old library of the Ptolemies was totally consumed

in Caesar’s Alexandrian war. Marc Antony gave the whole

collection of Pergamus (200,000 volumes) to Cleopatra, as the

foundation of the new library of Alexandria.]

42 (return) [ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 21) indiscreetly provokes

his Christian masters by this insulting remark.]

At that time 43 the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was

filled by Theophilus, 44 the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue;

a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold

and with blood. His pious indignation was excited by the honors

of Serapis; and the insults which he offered to an ancient temple

of Bacchus, 4411 convinced the Pagans that he meditated a more

important and dangerous enterprise. In the tumultuous capital of

Egypt, the slightest provocation was sufficient to inflame a

civil war. The votaries of Serapis, whose strength and numbers

were much inferior to those of their antagonists, rose in arms at

the instigation of the philosopher Olympius, 45 who exhorted them

to die in the defence of the altars of the gods. These Pagan

fanatics fortified themselves in the temple, or rather fortress,

of Serapis; repelled the besiegers by daring sallies, and a

resolute defence; and, by the inhuman cruelties which they

exercised on their Christian prisoners, obtained the last

consolation of despair. The efforts of the prudent magistrate

were usefully exerted for the establishment of a truce, till the

answer of Theodosius should determine the fate of Serapis. The

two parties assembled, without arms, in the principal square; and

the Imperial rescript was publicly read. But when a sentence of

destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the

Christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, whilst the

unfortunate Pagans, whose fury had given way to consternation,

retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded, by their flight

or obscurity, the resentment of their enemies. Theophilus

proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis, without any other

difficulties, than those which he found in the weight and

solidity of the materials: but these obstacles proved so

insuperable, that he was obliged to leave the foundations; and to

content himself with reducing the edifice itself to a heap of

rubbish, a part of which was soon afterwards cleared away, to

make room for a church, erected in honor of the Christian

martyrs. The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or

destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of

the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every

spectator, whose mind was not totally darkened by religious

prejudice. 46 The compositions of ancient genius, so many of

which have irretrievably perished, might surely have been

excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the amusement and

instruction of succeeding ages; and either the zeal or the

avarice of the archbishop, 47 might have been satiated with the

rich spoils, which were the reward of his victory. While the

images and vases of gold and silver were carefully melted, and

those of a less valuable metal were contemptuously broken, and

cast into the streets, Theophilus labored to expose the frauds

and vices of the ministers of the idols; their dexterity in the

management of the loadstone; their secret methods of introducing

a human actor into a hollow statue; 4711 and their scandalous

abuse of the confidence of devout husbands and unsuspecting

females. 48 Charges like these may seem to deserve some degree of

credit, as they are not repugnant to the crafty and interested

spirit of superstition. But the same spirit is equally prone to

the base practice of insulting and calumniating a fallen enemy;

and our belief is naturally checked by the reflection, that it is

much less difficult to invent a fictitious story, than to support

a practical fraud. The colossal statue of Serapis 49 was involved

in the ruin of his temple and religion. A great number of plates

of different metals, artificially joined together, composed the

majestic figure of the deity, who touched on either side the

walls of the sanctuary. The aspect of Serapis, his sitting

posture, and the sceptre, which he bore in his left hand, were

extremely similar to the ordinary representations of Jupiter. He

was distinguished from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which

was placed on his head; and by the emblematic monster which he

held in his right hand; the head and body of a serpent branching

into three tails, which were again terminated by the triple heads

of a dog, a lion, and a wolf. It was confidently affirmed, that

if any impious hand should dare to violate the majesty of the

god, the heavens and the earth would instantly return to their

original chaos. An intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and armed

with a weighty battle-axe, ascended the ladder; and even the

Christian multitude expected, with some anxiety, the event of the

combat. 50 He aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of

Serapis; the cheek fell to the ground; the thunder was still

silent, and both the heavens and the earth continued to preserve

their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier

repeated his blows: the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in

pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged

through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcass was burnt

in the Amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many

persons attributed their conversion to this discovery of the

impotence of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of religion,

that propose any visible and material objects of worship, have

the advantage of adapting and familiarizing themselves to the

senses of mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the

various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the

idolater is exposed. It is scarcely possible, that, in every

disposition of mind, he should preserve his implicit reverence

for the idols, or the relics, which the naked eye, and the

profane hand, are unable to distinguish from the most common

productions of art or nature; and if, in the hour of danger,

their secret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own

preservation, he scorns the vain apologies of his priests, and

justly derides the object, and the folly, of his superstitious

attachment. 51 After the fall of Serapis, some hopes were still

entertained by the Pagans, that the Nile would refuse his annual

supply to the impious masters of Egypt; and the extraordinary

delay of the inundation seemed to announce the displeasure of the

river-god. But this delay was soon compensated by the rapid swell

of the waters. They suddenly rose to such an unusual height, as

to comfort the discontented party with the pleasing expectation

of a deluge; till the peaceful river again subsided to the

well-known and fertilizing level of sixteen cubits, or about

thirty English feet. 52

43 (return) [ We may choose between the date of Marcellinus (A.D.

389) or that of Prosper, ( A.D. 391.) Tillemont (Hist. des Emp.

tom. v. p. 310, 756) prefers the former, and Pagi the latter.]

44 (return) [ Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441-500. The

ambiguous situation of Theophilus—a saint, as the friend of Jerom

a devil, as the enemy of Chrysostom—produces a sort of

impartiality; yet, upon the whole, the balance is justly inclined

against him.]

4411 (return) [ No doubt a temple of Osiris. St. Martin, iv

398-M.]

45 (return) [ Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 411) has

alleged beautiful passage from Suidas, or rather from Damascius,

which show the devout and virtuous Olympius, not in the light of

a warrior, but of a prophet.]

46 (return) [ Nos vidimus armaria librorum, quibus direptis,

exinanita ea a nostris hominibus, nostris temporibus memorant.

Orosius, l. vi. c. 15, p. 421, edit. Havercamp. Though a bigot,

and a controversial writer. Orosius seems to blush.]

47 (return) [ Eunapius, in the Lives of Antoninus and Aedesius,

execrates the sacrilegious rapine of Theophilus. Tillemont (Mem.

Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 453) quotes an epistle of Isidore of

Pelusium, which reproaches the primate with the idolatrous

worship of gold, the auri sacra fames.]

4711 (return) [ An English traveller, Mr. Wilkinson, has

discovered the secret of the vocal Memnon. There was a cavity in

which a person was concealed, and struck a stone, which gave a

ringing sound like brass. The Arabs, who stood below when Mr.

Wilkinson performed the miracle, described sound just as the

author of the epigram.—M.]

48 (return) [ Rufinus names the priest of Saturn, who, in the

character of the god, familiarly conversed with many pious ladies

of quality, till he betrayed himself, in a moment of transport,

when he could not disguise the tone of his voice. The authentic

and impartial narrative of Aeschines, (see Bayle, Dictionnaire

Critique, Scamandre,) and the adventure of Mudus, (Joseph.

Antiquitat. Judaic. l. xviii. c. 3, p. 877 edit. Havercamp,) may

prove that such amorous frauds have been practised with success.]

49 (return) [ See the images of Serapis, in Montfaucon, (tom. ii.

p. 297:) but the description of Macrobius (Saturnal. l. i. c. 20)

is much more picturesque and satisfactory.]

50 (return) [

Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda Majestate loci, si

robora sacra ferirent In sua credebant redituras membra secures.

(Lucan. iii. 429.) “Is it true,” (said Augustus to a veteran of

Italy, at whose house he supped) “that the man who gave the first

blow to the golden statue of Anaitis, was instantly deprived of

his eyes, and of his life?”—“I was that man, (replied the

clear-sighted veteran,) and you now sup on one of the legs of the

goddess.” (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 24)]

51 (return) [ The history of the reformation affords frequent

examples of the sudden change from superstition to contempt.]

52 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 20. I have supplied the

measure. The same standard, of the inundation, and consequently

of the cubit, has uniformly subsisted since the time of

Herodotus. See Freret, in the Mem. de l’Academie des

Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344-353. Greaves’s Miscellaneous

Works, vol. i. p. 233. The Egyptian cubit is about twenty-two

inches of the English measure. * Note: Compare Wilkinson’s Thebes

and Egypt, p. 313.—M.]

The temples of the Roman empire were deserted, or destroyed; but

the ingenious superstition of the Pagans still attempted to elude

the laws of Theodosius, by which all sacrifices had been severely

prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whose conduct was

less opposed to the eye of malicious curiosity, disguised their

religious, under the appearance of convivial, meetings. On the

days of solemn festivals, they assembled in great numbers under

the spreading shade of some consecrated trees; sheep and oxen

were slaughtered and roasted; and this rural entertainment was

sanctified by the use of incense, and by the hymns which were

sung in honor of the gods. But it was alleged, that, as no part

of the animal was made a burnt-offering, as no altar was provided

to receive the blood, and as the previous oblation of salt cakes,

and the concluding ceremony of libations, were carefully omitted,

these festal meetings did not involve the guests in the guilt, or

penalty, of an illegal sacrifice. 53 Whatever might be the truth

of the facts, or the merit of the distinction, 54 these vain

pretences were swept away by the last edict of Theodosius, which

inflicted a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans. 55

5511 This prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and

comprehensive terms. “It is our will and pleasure,” says the

emperor, “that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or

private citizens, however exalted or however humble may be their

rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any place,

to worship an inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless

victim.” The act of sacrificing, and the practice of divination

by the entrails of the victim, are declared (without any regard

to the object of the inquiry) a crime of high treason against the

state, which can be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The

rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody and

atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and

honor of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and

libations of wine, are specially enumerated and condemned; and

the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household

gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any

of these profane and illegal ceremonies, subjects the offender to

the forfeiture of the house or estate, where they have been

performed; and if he has artfully chosen the property of another

for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge,

without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of gold, or

more than one thousand pounds sterling. A fine, not less

considerable, is imposed on the connivance of the secret enemies

of religion, who shall neglect the duty of their respective

stations, either to reveal, or to punish, the guilt of idolatry.

Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, which

were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud

and unanimous applause of the Christian world. 56

53 (return) [ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17) pleads their

cause with gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest

age, such feasts had enlivened the country: and those of Bacchus

(Georgic. ii. 380) had produced the theatre of Athens. See

Godefroy, ad loc. Liban. and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 284.]

54 (return) [ Honorius tolerated these rustic festivals, (A.D.

399.) “Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ulla superstitione

damnabili.” But nine years afterwards he found it necessary to

reiterate and enforce the same proviso, (Codex Theodos. l. xvi.

tit. x. leg. 17, 19.)]

55 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin

(Remarks on Eccles. History, vol. iv. p. 134) censures, with

becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this intolerant

law.]

5511 (return) [ Paganism maintained its ground for a considerable

time in the rural districts. Endelechius, a poet who lived at the

beginning of the fifth century, speaks of the cross as Signum

quod perhibent esse crucis Dei, Magnis qui colitur solus

inurbibus. In the middle of the same century, Maximus, bishop of

Turin, writes against the heathen deities as if their worship was

still in full vigor in the neighborhood of his city. Augustine

complains of the encouragement of the Pagan rites by heathen

landowners; and Zeno of Verona, still later, reproves the apathy

of the Christian proprietors in conniving at this abuse. (Compare

Neander, ii. p. 169.) M. Beugnot shows that this was the case

throughout the north and centre of Italy and in Sicily. But

neither of these authors has adverted to one fact, which must

have tended greatly to retard the progress of Christianity in

these quarters. It was still chiefly a slave population which

cultivated the soil; and however, in the towns, the better class

of Christians might be eager to communicate “the blessed liberty

of the gospel” to this class of mankind; however their condition

could not but be silently ameliorated by the humanizing influence

of Christianity; yet, on the whole, no doubt the servile class

would be the least fitted to receive the gospel; and its general

propagation among them would be embarrassed by many peculiar

difficulties. The rural population was probably not entirely

converted before the general establishment of the monastic

institutions. Compare Quarterly Review of Beugnot. vol lvii. p.

52—M.]

56 (return) [ Such a charge should not be lightly made; but it

may surely be justified by the authority of St. Augustin, who

thus addresses the Donatists: “Quis nostrum, quis vestrum non

laudat leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia

Paganorum? Et certe longe ibi poera severior constituta est;

illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est.” Epist. xciii.

No. 10, quoted by Le Clerc, (Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. viii. p.

277,) who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of

the victorious Christians. * Note: Yet Augustine, with laudable

inconsistency, disapproved of the forcible demolition of the

temples. “Let us first extirpate the idolatry of the hearts of

the heathen, and they will either themselves invite us or

anticipate us in the execution of this good work,” tom. v. p. 62.

Compare Neander, ii. 169, and, in p. 155, a beautiful passage

from Chrysostom against all violent means of propagating

Christianity.—M.]

Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part III.

In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian, Christianity had

been proscribed, as a revolt from the ancient and hereditary

religion of the empire; and the unjust suspicions which were

entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were, in some

measure, countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid

conquests of the Catholic church. But the same excuses of fear

and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian emperors who

violated the precepts of humanity and of the Gospel. The

experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as well as folly,

of Paganism; the light of reason and of faith had already

exposed, to the greatest part of mankind, the vanity of idols;

and the declining sect, which still adhered to their worship,

might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the

religious costumes of their ancestors. Had the Pagans been

animated by the undaunted zeal which possessed the minds of the

primitive believers, the triumph of the Church must have been

stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might

have embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their lives

and fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate zeal

was not congenial to the loose and careless temper of Polytheism.

The violent and repeated strokes of the orthodox princes were

broken by the soft and yielding substance against which they were

directed; and the ready obedience of the Pagans protected them

from the pains and penalties of the Theodosian Code. 57 Instead

of asserting, that the authority of the gods was superior to that

of the emperor, they desisted, with a plaintive murmur, from the

use of those sacred rites which their sovereign had condemned. If

they were sometimes tempted by a sally of passion, or by the

hopes of concealment, to indulge their favorite superstition,

their humble repentance disarmed the severity of the Christian

magistrate, and they seldom refused to atone for their rashness,

by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the

Gospel. The churches were filled with the increasing multitude of

these unworthy proselytes, who had conformed, from temporal

motives, to the reigning religion; and whilst they devoutly

imitated the postures, and recited the prayers, of the faithful,

they satisfied their conscience by the silent and sincere

invocation of the gods of antiquity. 58 If the Pagans wanted

patience to suffer they wanted spirit to resist; and the

scattered myriads, who deplored the ruin of the temples, yielded,

without a contest, to the fortune of their adversaries. The

disorderly opposition 59 of the peasants of Syria, and the

populace of Alexandria, to the rage of private fanaticism, was

silenced by the name and authority of the emperor. The Pagans of

the West, without contributing to the elevation of Eugenius,

disgraced, by their partial attachment, the cause and character

of the usurper. The clergy vehemently exclaimed, that he

aggravated the crime of rebellion by the guilt of apostasy; that,

by his permission, the altar of victory was again restored; and

that the idolatrous symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were

displayed in the field, against the invincible standard of the

cross. But the vain hopes of the Pagans were soon annihilated by

the defeat of Eugenius; and they were left exposed to the

resentment of the conqueror, who labored to deserve the favor of

Heaven by the extirpation of idolatry. 60

57 (return) [ Orosius, l. vii. c. 28, p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat.

in Psalm cxl apud Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 458)

insults their cowardice. “Quis eorum comprehensus est in

sacrificio (cum his legibus sta prohiberentur) et non negavit?”]

58 (return) [ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without

censure the occasional conformity, and as it were theatrical

play, of these hypocrites.]

59 (return) [ Libanius concludes his apology (p. 32) by declaring

to the emperor, that unless he expressly warrants the destruction

of the temples, the proprietors will defend themselves and the

laws.]

60 (return) [ Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. c. 26. Augustin de

Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 26. Theodoret, l. v. c. 24.]

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of

their master, who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not

proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.

Theodosius might undoubtedly have proposed to his Pagan subjects

the alternative of baptism or of death; and the eloquent Libanius

has praised the moderation of a prince, who never enacted, by any

positive law, that all his subjects should immediately embrace

and practise the religion of their sovereign. 61 The profession

of Christianity was not made an essential qualification for the

enjoyment of the civil rights of society, nor were any peculiar

hardships imposed on the sectaries, who credulously received the

fables of Ovid, and obstinately rejected the miracles of the

Gospel. The palace, the schools, the army, and the senate, were

filled with declared and devout Pagans; they obtained, without

distinction, the civil and military honors of the empire. 6111

Theodosius distinguished his liberal regard for virtue and genius

by the consular dignity, which he bestowed on Symmachus; 62 and

by the personal friendship which he expressed to Libanius; 63 and

the two eloquent apologists of Paganism were never required

either to change or to dissemble their religious opinions. The

Pagans were indulged in the most licentious freedom of speech and

writing; the historical and philosophic remains of Eunapius,

Zosimus, 64 and the fanatic teachers of the school of Plato,

betray the most furious animosity, and contain the sharpest

invectives, against the sentiments and conduct of their

victorious adversaries. If these audacious libels were publicly

known, we must applaud the good sense of the Christian princes,

who viewed, with a smile of contempt, the last struggles of

superstition and despair. 65 But the Imperial laws, which

prohibited the sacrifices and ceremonies of Paganism, were

rigidly executed; and every hour contributed to destroy the

influence of a religion, which was supported by custom, rather

than by argument. The devotion or the poet, or the philosopher,

may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, and study; but

the exercise of public worship appears to be the only solid

foundation of the religious sentiments of the people, which

derive their force from imitation and habit. The interruption of

that public exercise may consummate, in the period of a few

years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory of

theological opinions cannot long be preserved, without the

artificial helps of priests, of temples, and of books. 66 The

ignorant vulgar, whose minds are still agitated by the blind

hopes and terrors of superstition, will be soon persuaded by

their superiors to direct their vows to the reigning deities of

the age; and will insensibly imbibe an ardent zeal for the

support and propagation of the new doctrine, which spiritual

hunger at first compelled them to accept. The generation that

arose in the world after the promulgation of the Imperial laws,

was attracted within the pale of the Catholic church: and so

rapid, yet so gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only

twenty-eight years after the death of Theodosius, the faint and

minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the

legislator. 67

61 (return) [ Libanius suggests the form of a persecuting edict,

which Theodosius might enact, (pro Templis, p. 32;) a rash joke,

and a dangerous experiment. Some princes would have taken his

advice.]

6111 (return) [ The most remarkable instance of this, at a much

later period, occurs in the person of Merobaudes, a general and a

poet, who flourished in the first half of the fifth century. A

statue in honor of Merobaudes was placed in the Forum of Trajan,

of which the inscription is still extant. Fragments of his poems

have been recovered by the industry and sagacity of Niebuhr. In

one passage, Merobaudes, in the genuine heathen spirit,

attributes the ruin of the empire to the abolition of Paganism,

and almost renews the old accusation of Atheism against

Christianity. He impersonates some deity, probably Discord, who

summons Bellona to take arms for the destruction of Rome; and in

a strain of fierce irony recommends to her other fatal measures,

to extirpate the gods of Rome:—

Roma, ipsique tremant furialia murmura reges. Jam superos terris

atque hospita numina pelle: Romanos populare Deos, et nullus in

aris Vestoe exoratoe fotus strue palleat ignis. Ilis instructa

dolis palatia celsa subibo; Majorum mores, et pectora prisca

fugabo Funditus; atque simul, nullo discrimine rerum, Spernantur

fortes, nec sic reverentia justis. Attica neglecto pereat facundia

Phoebo: Indignis contingat honos, et pondera rerum; Non virtus sed

casus agat; tristique cupido; Pectoribus saevi demens furor

aestuet aevi; Omniaque hoec sine mente Jovis, sine numine sumimo.

Merobaudes in Niebuhr’s edit. of the Byzantines, p. 14.—M.]

62 (return) [ Denique pro meritis terrestribus aequa rependens

Munera, sacricolis summos impertit honores.

Dux bonus, et certare sinit cum laude suorum, Nec pago implicitos

per debita culmina mundi Ire viros prohibet. Ipse magistratum tibi

consulis, ipse tribunal

Contulit. Prudent. in Symmach. i. 617, &c.

Note: I have inserted some lines omitted by Gibbon.—M.]

63 (return) [ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that

Theodosius should thus distinguish a man, who even in his

presence would swear by Jupiter. Yet this presence seems to be no

more than a figure of rhetoric.]

64 (return) [ Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Ex-advocate

of the Treasury, reviles, with partial and indecent bigotry, the

Christian princes, and even the father of his sovereign. His work

must have been privately circulated, since it escaped the

invectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to Evagrius,

(l. iii. c. 40-42,) who lived towards the end of the sixth

century. * Note: Heyne in his Disquisitio in Zosimum Ejusque

Fidem. places Zosimum towards the close of the fifth century.

Zosim. Heynii, p. xvii.—M.]

65 (return) [ Yet the Pagans of Africa complained, that the times

would not allow them to answer with freedom the City of God; nor

does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the charge.]

66 (return) [ The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserved the

Mahometan religion above a century, under the tyranny of the

Inquisition, possessed the Koran, with the peculiar use of the

Arabic tongue. See the curious and honest story of their

expulsion in Geddes, (Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 1-198.)]

67 (return) [ Paganos qui supersunt, quanquam jam nullos esse

credamus, &c. Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 22, A.D. 423.

The younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied, that his

judgment had been somewhat premature. Note: The statement of

Gibbon is much too strongly worded. M. Beugnot has traced the

vestiges of Paganism in the West, after this period, in monuments

and inscriptions with curious industry. Compare likewise note, p.

112, on the more tardy progress of Christianity in the rural

districts.—M.]

The ruin of the Pagan religion is described by the sophists as a

dreadful and amazing prodigy, which covered the earth with

darkness, and restored the ancient dominion of chaos and of

night. They relate, in solemn and pathetic strains, that the

temples were converted into sepulchres, and that the holy places,

which had been adorned by the statues of the gods, were basely

polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs. “The monks” (a race

of filthy animals, to whom Eunapius is tempted to refuse the name

of men) “are the authors of the new worship, which, in the place

of those deities who are conceived by the understanding, has

substituted the meanest and most contemptible slaves. The heads,

salted and pickled, of those infamous malefactors, who for the

multitude of their crimes have suffered a just and ignominious

death; their bodies still marked by the impression of the lash,

and the scars of those tortures which were inflicted by the

sentence of the magistrate; such” (continues Eunapius) “are the

gods which the earth produces in our days; such are the martyrs,

the supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to the

Deity, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects of the

veneration of the people.” 68 Without approving the malice, it is

natural enough to share the surprise of the sophist, the

spectator of a revolution, which raised those obscure victims of

the laws of Rome to the rank of celestial and invisible

protectors of the Roman empire. The grateful respect of the

Christians for the martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by time and

victory, into religious adoration; and the most illustrious of

the saints and prophets were deservedly associated to the honors

of the martyrs. One hundred and fifty years after the glorious

deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian road

were distinguished by the tombs, or rather by the trophies, of

those spiritual heroes. 69 In the age which followed the

conversion of Constantine, the emperors, the consuls, and the

generals of armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a

tentmaker and a fisherman; 70 and their venerable bones were

deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the bishops of the

royal city continually offered the unbloody sacrifice. 71 The new

capital of the Eastern world, unable to produce any ancient and

domestic trophies, was enriched by the spoils of dependent

provinces. The bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy,

had reposed near three hundred years in the obscure graves, from

whence they were transported, in solemn pomp, to the church of

the apostles, which the magnificence of Constantine had founded

on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus. 72 About fifty years

afterwards, the same banks were honored by the presence of

Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of Israel. His ashes,

deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a silken veil, were

delivered by the bishops into each other’s hands. The relics of

Samuel were received by the people with the same joy and

reverence which they would have shown to the living prophet; the

highways, from Palestine to the gates of Constantinople, were

filled with an uninterrupted procession; and the emperor Arcadius

himself, at the head of the most illustrious members of the

clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary guest, who

had always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. 73 The

example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed the faith and

discipline of the Catholic world. The honors of the saints and

martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual murmur of profane reason,

74 were universally established; and in the age of Ambrose and

Jerom, something was still deemed wanting to the sanctity of a

Christian church, till it had been consecrated by some portion of

holy relics, which fixed and inflamed the devotion of the

faithful.

68 (return) [ See Eunapius, in the Life of the sophist Aedesius;

in that of Eustathius he foretells the ruin of Paganism.]

69 (return) [ Caius, (apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 25,) a

Roman presbyter, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, (A.D.

202-219,) is an early witness of this superstitious practice.]

70 (return) [ Chrysostom. Quod Christus sit Deus. Tom. i. nov.

edit. No. 9. I am indebted for this quotation to Benedict the

XIVth’s pastoral letter on the Jubilee of the year 1759. See the

curious and entertaining letters of M. Chais, tom. iii.]

71 (return) [ Male facit ergo Romanus episcopus? qui, super

mortuorum hominum, Petri & Pauli, secundum nos, ossa veneranda

... offeri Domino sacrificia, et tumulos eorum, Christi

arbitratur altaria. Jerom. tom. ii. advers. Vigilant. p. 183.]

72 (return) [ Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) bears witness to these

translations, which are neglected by the ecclesiastical

historians. The passion of St. Andrew at Patrae is described in

an epistle from the clergy of Achaia, which Baronius (Annal.

Eccles. A.D. 60, No. 34) wishes to believe, and Tillemont is

forced to reject. St. Andrew was adopted as the spiritual founder

of Constantinople, (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 317-323, 588-594.)]

73 (return) [ Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) pompously describes the

translation of Samuel, which is noticed in all the chronicles of

the times.]

74 (return) [ The presbyter Vigilantius, the Protestant of his

age, firmly, though ineffectually, withstood the superstition of

monks, relics, saints, fasts, &c., for which Jerom compares him

to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, &c., and considers him only

as the organ of the Daemon, (tom. ii. p. 120-126.) Whoever will

peruse the controversy of St. Jerom and Vigilantius, and St.

Augustin’s account of the miracles of St. Stephen, may speedily

gain some idea of the spirit of the Fathers.]

In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed between

the reign of Constantine and the reformation of Luther, the

worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect

simplicity of the Christian model: and some symptoms of

degeneracy may be observed even in the first generations which

adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation.

I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics of saints were

more valuable than gold or precious stones, 75 stimulated the

clergy to multiply the treasures of the church. Without much

regard for truth or probability, they invented names for

skeletons, and actions for names. The fame of the apostles, and

of the holy men who had imitated their virtues, was darkened by

religious fiction. To the invincible band of genuine and

primitive martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary heroes, who

had never existed, except in the fancy of crafty or credulous

legendaries; and there is reason to suspect, that Tours might not

be the only diocese in which the bones of a malefactor were

adored, instead of those of a saint. 76 A superstitious practice,

which tended to increase the temptations of fraud, and credulity,

insensibly extinguished the light of history, and of reason, in

the Christian world.

75 (return) [ M. de Beausobre (Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p.

648) has applied a worldly sense to the pious observation of the

clergy of Smyrna, who carefully preserved the relics of St.

Polycarp the martyr.]

76 (return) [ Martin of Tours (see his Life, c. 8, by Sulpicius

Severus) extorted this confession from the mouth of the dead man.

The error is allowed to be natural; the discovery is supposed to

be miraculous. Which of the two was likely to happen most

frequently?]

II. But the progress of superstition would have been much less

rapid and victorious, if the faith of the people had not been

assisted by the seasonable aid of visions and miracles, to

ascertain the authenticity and virtue of the most suspicious

relics. In the reign of the younger Theodosius, Lucian, 77 a

presbyter of Jerusalem, and the ecclesiastical minister of the

village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the city,

related a very singular dream, which, to remove his doubts, had

been repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable figure

stood before him, in the silence of the night, with a long beard,

a white robe, and a gold rod; announced himself by the name of

Gamaliel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter, that his own

corpse, with the bodies of his son Abibas, his friend Nicodemus,

and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian

faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added, with

some impatience, that it was time to release himself and his

companions from their obscure prison; that their appearance would

be salutary to a distressed world; and that they had made choice

of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation

and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still

retarded this important discovery were successively removed by

new visions; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the

presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of

his son, and of his friend, were found in regular order; but when

the fourth coffin, which contained the remains of Stephen, was

shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an odor, such as that

of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the various

diseases of seventy-three of the assistants. The companions of

Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of Caphargamala:

but the relics of the first martyr were transported, in solemn

procession, to a church constructed in their honor on Mount Sion;

and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blood, 78 or

the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, in almost every

province of the Roman world, to possess a divine and miraculous

virtue. The grave and learned Augustin, 79 whose understanding

scarcely admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the

innumerable prodigies which were performed in Africa by the

relics of St. Stephen; and this marvellous narrative is inserted

in the elaborate work of the City of God, which the bishop of

Hippo designed as a solid and immortal proof of the truth of

Christianity. Augustin solemnly declares, that he has selected

those miracles only which were publicly certified by the persons

who were either the objects, or the spectators, of the power of

the martyr. Many prodigies were omitted, or forgotten; and Hippo

had been less favorably treated than the other cities of the

province. And yet the bishop enumerates above seventy miracles,

of which three were resurrections from the dead, in the space of

two years, and within the limits of his own diocese. 80 If we

enlarge our view to all the dioceses, and all the saints, of the

Christian world, it will not be easy to calculate the fables, and

the errors, which issued from this inexhaustible source. But we

may surely be allowed to observe, that a miracle, in that age of

superstition and credulity, lost its name and its merit, since it

could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the ordinary and

established laws of nature.

77 (return) [ Lucian composed in Greek his original narrative,

which has been translated by Avitus, and published by Baronius,

(Annal. Eccles. A.D. 415, No. 7-16.) The Benedictine editors of

St. Augustin have given (at the end of the work de Civitate Dei)

two several copies, with many various readings. It is the

character of falsehood to be loose and inconsistent. The most

incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and softened by

Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 9, &c.)]

78 (return) [ A phial of St. Stephen’s blood was annually

liquefied at Naples, till he was superseded by St. Jamarius,

(Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal p. 529.)]

79 (return) [ Augustin composed the two-and-twenty books de

Civitate Dei in the space of thirteen years, A.D. 413-426.

Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608, &c.) His learning is

too often borrowed, and his arguments are too often his own; but

the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design,

vigorously, and not unskilfully, executed.]

80 (return) [ See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 22, and

the Appendix, which contains two books of St. Stephen’s miracles,

by Evodius, bishop of Uzalis. Freculphus (apud Basnage, Hist. des

Juifs, tom. vii. p. 249) has preserved a Gallic or a Spanish

proverb, “Whoever pretends to have read all the miracles of St.

Stephen, he lies.”]

III. The innumerable miracles, of which the tombs of the martyrs

were the perpetual theatre, revealed to the pious believer the

actual state and constitution of the invisible world; and his

religious speculations appeared to be founded on the firm basis

of fact and experience. Whatever might be the condition of vulgar

souls, in the long interval between the dissolution and the

resurrection of their bodies, it was evident that the superior

spirits of the saints and martyrs did not consume that portion of

their existence in silent and inglorious sleep. 81 It was evident

(without presuming to determine the place of their habitation, or

the nature of their felicity) that they enjoyed the lively and

active consciousness of their happiness, their virtue, and their

powers; and that they had already secured the possession of their

eternal reward. The enlargement of their intellectual faculties

surpassed the measure of the human imagination; since it was

proved by experience, that they were capable of hearing and

understanding the various petitions of their numerous votaries;

who, in the same moment of time, but in the most distant parts of

the world, invoked the name and assistance of Stephen or of

Martin. 82 The confidence of their petitioners was founded on the

persuasion, that the saints, who reigned with Christ, cast an eye

of pity upon earth; that they were warmly interested in the

prosperity of the Catholic Church; and that the individuals, who

imitated the example of their faith and piety, were the peculiar

and favorite objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes,

indeed, their friendship might be influenced by considerations of

a less exalted kind: they viewed with partial affection the

places which had been consecrated by their birth, their

residence, their death, their burial, or the possession of their

relics. The meaner passions of pride, avarice, and revenge, may

be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast; yet the saints

themselves condescended to testify their grateful approbation of

the liberality of their votaries; and the sharpest bolts of

punishment were hurled against those impious wretches, who

violated their magnificent shrines, or disbelieved their

supernatural power. 83 Atrocious, indeed, must have been the

guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism, of those men,

if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine agency,

which the elements, the whole range of the animal creation, and

even the subtle and invisible operations of the human mind, were

compelled to obey. 84 The immediate, and almost instantaneous,

effects that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence,

satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor and

authority which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme

God; and it seemed almost superfluous to inquire whether they

were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace;

or whether they might not be permitted to exercise, according to

the dictates of their benevolence and justice, the delegated

powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had

been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation and worship

of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of

adoration as were more proportioned to its gross conceptions and

imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the

primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the Monarchy of

heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded

by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to

restore the reign of polytheism. 85

81 (return) [ Burnet (de Statu Mortuorum, p. 56-84) collects the

opinions of the Fathers, as far as they assert the sleep, or

repose, of human souls till the day of judgment. He afterwards

exposes (p. 91, &c.) the inconveniences which must arise, if they

possessed a more active and sensible existence.]

82 (return) [ Vigilantius placed the souls of the prophets and

martyrs, either in the bosom of Abraham, (in loco refrigerii,) or

else under the altar of God. Nec posse suis tumulis et ubi

voluerunt adesse praesentes. But Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) sternly

refutes this blasphemy. Tu Deo leges pones? Tu apostolis vincula

injicies, ut usque ad diem judicii teneantur custodia, nec sint

cum Domino suo; de quibus scriptum est, Sequuntur Agnum quocunque

vadit. Si Agnus ubique, ergo, et hi, qui cum Agno sunt, ubique

esse credendi sunt. Et cum diabolus et daemones tote vagentur in

orbe, &c.]

83 (return) [ Fleury Discours sur l’Hist. Ecclesiastique, iii p.

80.]

84 (return) [ At Minorca, the relics of St. Stephen converted, in

eight days, 540 Jews; with the help, indeed, of some wholesome

severities, such as burning the synagogue, driving the obstinate

infidels to starve among the rocks, &c. See the original letter

of Severus, bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin. de Civ.

Dei,) and the judicious remarks of Basnage, (tom. viii. p.

245-251.)]

85 (return) [ Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 434) observes, like a

philosopher, the natural flux and reflux of polytheism and

theism.]

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When Ambrose was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica, his