History of Christianity from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of ...

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■ » WIBEiVEM

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FROM TH£ LIBRARY OF

PHIUP HOWES SEARS

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GIVEN IN HIS MHMORy '
BY HIS CHILDREN

RICHARD SEARS, '91
FRANCIS PHIUP SEARS, *9i

EVELYN SEARS

MDCCCCXXXIV

SK^PBIWS W™iRri i^™-HWiiHn» WnSw^w'WSiiWS i^W'SWS

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THE

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO THE ABOLITION OF
PAGANISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

By HENBY hart MILMAN, D.D.,

DEASf OF ST. PAUL'S.

IN THRBB YOLtTHBS.

VOL. n.

A HBW AND REYISBD EDITIOH.

NEW YORK:

W. J. WIDDLETON, PUBLISHER.

1866.

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C \^(c2. 4o.?

MMVARD COLLEGE UBRAIT

FROM THE LIBRAmr OF

PHIUP HOWES 8EAR8

MNUAir 5t 1934

CAMBRIDGE :

BTSBEOTTPED AND PRINTBD BT

JOHK WILSON AND BON.

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CONTENTS OF YOL. II.

BOOK U. — Continued.
CHAPTER IV.

Page
Christianity to the Close of the First Centiuy— Constitu-
tion of Christian Churches 5

CHAPTER V.
Christianity and Orientalism 34

CHAPTER VI.

Christianity during the Prosperous Period of the Roman
Empire 91

CHAPTER Vn.

Christianity and Marcus Aurelius the Philosopher . . . . 115

CHAPTER Vm.

Fourth Period — Christianity under the Successors of Mar^
cus Aurelius 152

CHAPTER rX.

The Persecution under Diocletian 207

[iu]

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IV CONTENTS OF VOL. U.

BOOK in.

CHAPTER I.

Paft
Con8t4&ntine 245

CHAPTER n.
Constantine becomes sole Emperor 816

CHAPTER m.
Fotmdation of Constantinople 334

CHAPTER rV.
Trinitarian Controversy 354

CHAPTER V.
Christianity under the Sons of Constantine 409

CHAPTER VI.
Julian 453

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HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY.

BOOK 11. — GonUnued.

CHAPTER IV.

Christiiuiity to the Close of the Fint Centoiy — Gonstitadon of Christiaii
Churches.

The changes in the moral are usually wrought as im-
perceptibly as those in the physical world, oreatwro-
Had any wise man, eitlier convinced of the and gnMiaai.
divine origin of Christianity, or even contemplating
with philosophical sagacity the essential nature of the
new religion and the existing state of the human
mind, ventured to predict that from the ashes of these
obscure men would arise a moral sovereignty more
extensive and lasting than that of the Caesars; that
buildings more splendid than any which adorned the
new marble city, now rising from the ruins of the con-
flagration, would be dedicated to their names, and
maintain their reverence for an incalculably longer
period, — such vaticinations would have met the fate
inseparable from the wisdom which outstrips its age,
would have been scorned by contemporary pride, and
only admired, after their accomplishment, by late pos-
terity. The slight and contemptuous notice excited
by Christianity during the first century of its pro-
lyl

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6 FOUR PERIODS OF IMPERIAL fflSTORT. . Book n.

mulgation is in strict accordance with this ordinary
development of the great and lasting revolutions in
human affairs. The moral world has sometimes,
indeed, its volcanic explosions, which suddenly and
violently convulse and reform the order of things ; but
its more enduring changes are in general produced
by the slow and silent workings of opinions, remotely
prepared and gradually expanding to their mature and
irresistible influence. In default, therefore, of real
information as to the secret but simultaneous progress
of Christianity in so many quarters, and among all
ranks, we are left to speculate on the influence of the
passing events of the time, and of the changes in
the public mind, whether favorable or prejudicial to the
cause of Christianity, catcliing only faint and uncer-
tain gleams of its peculiar history through the con-
fused and rapidly changing course of public affairs.

The imperial history, from the first promulgation of
Imperial Christianity down to the accession of Con-
diTidS stantine, divides itself into four distinct but
perioda. uucqual pcriods. More than thirty years
are occupied by the line of the first Caesars, rather
less by the conflicts which followed the death of Nero,
and the government of the Flavian dynasty. The
first years of Trajan, who ascended the imperial
throne A.D. 98, nearly synchronize with the opening
of the second century of Christianity ; and that splen-
did period of internal peace and advancing civilization,
of wealth, and of prosperity, which has been described
as the happiest in the annals of mankind, extends
over the first eighty years of that century.^ Down to

1 Among the writers who have discussed this question may be con/mlted
Hegewischi whose work has been translated by M. Solvet, under the title of
Essai sur TEpoque de THistoire Romaine la plus heureuse pour le Genre
Humain. Paris, 1884.

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Chap. IV. FIRST PERIOD, TO DEA.TH OF NERO. 7

fhe acceBsion of Constantine, nearly at the commence;
ment of the fourth century, the empire became, like
the great monarchies of the East, the prize of success-
ful ambition and enterprise : ahnost every change of
ruler is a change of dynasty ; and already the borders
of the empire have ceased to be respected by the men-
acing, the conquering Barbarians.

It is remarkable how singularly the political char-
acter of each period was calculated to ad- lintpeiiod,
vance the growth of Christianity. arN«ro.

During the first of these periods, the Oovernment,
though it still held in respect the old republican insti-
tutions, was, if not in form, in its administration
purely despotic. The state centred in the person of
the emperor. This kind of hereditary autocracy is
essentially selfish; it is content with averting or
punishing plots against the person, or detecting and
crushing conspiracies against the power, of the exist-
ing monarch. To those more remote or secret changes
which are working in the depths of society, eventually
perhaps threatening the existence of the monarchy
or the stability of all the social relations, it is blind or
indifferent.^ It has neither sagacity to discern, intel-
ligence to comprehend, nor even the disinterested zeal
for the perpetuation of its own despotism, to counteract
such distant and contingent dangers. Of all innova-
tions, it is, in general, sensitively jealous ; but they
must be palpable and manifest, and directly clashing
with the passions or exciting the fears of the sover^
eign. Even these are met by temporary measures.
When an outcry was raised against the Egyptian reli-

1 " Sttvi proximis ingnmnt." In this one pregnant sentence of Tiicitiis
is explained the political secret, that the mass of the people have sometimM
been oompantively nnoppreseed under the most sanguinary tyranny.

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8 CHRISTIANITT UNDER NEEO, Book H.

gion as dangerous to public morality, an edict com-
manded the expulsion of its Yotaries from the citj.
When the superstition of the emperor shuddered at
the predictions of the mathematicians, the whole fra-
ternity fell under the same interdict. When the pub-
lic peace was disturbed by the dissensions among the
Jewish population of Rome, the summary sentence of
Claudius visited both Jews and Christians with the
same indiflFerent severity. So the Neronian persecu-
tion was an accident arising out of the fire at Rome,
no part of a systematic political plan for the suppres-
sion of foreign religions. It might have fallen on any
other sect or body of men who might have been desig-
nated as victims to appease the popular resentment.
The provincial administrations would be actuated by
the same principles as the central government, and be
alike indifferent to the quiet progress of opinions,
however dangerous to the existing order of things.
Unless some breach of the public peace demanded their
interference, they would rarely put forth their power ;
and, content with the maintenance of order, the regu-
lar collection of the revenue, the more rapacious with
the punctual payment of their own exactions, the more
enlightened with the improvement and embellishment
of the cities under their charge, they would look on
the rise and propagation of a new religion with no
more concern than that of a new philosophic sect,
particularly in the eastern part of the empire, where
the religions were in general more foreign to the char-
acter of the Greek or Roman Polytheistn. The pop-
ular feeling, during this first period, would only under
peculiar circumstances outstrip the activity of the
Government. Accustomed to the separate worship
of the Jews, to the many Christianity appeared at

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chap.iy. its gradual progbess. 9

first only as a modification of that belief. Local jeal-
ousies or personal animosities might in difierent places
excite a more active hostility. In Home it is evident
that the people were only worked up to find inhuman
delight in the sufierings of the Christians, by the
misrepresentations of the Government, by superstitious
solicitude to find some victims to appease the angry
gods, and that strange consolation of human misery,
the delight of wreaking vengeance on whomsoever it
can possibly implicate as the cause of the calamity.

During the whole, then, of this first period, to the
death of Nero, both the primitive obscurity of Chris-
tianity, and the transient importance it assumed, as a
dangerous enemy of the people of Rome, and subse-
quently as the guiltless victim of popular vengeance,
would tend to its eventual progress. Its own innate
activity, with all the fbrce which it carried with it,
both in its internal and external impulse, would prop-
agate it extensively in the inferior and middle classes
of society ; while, though the great mass of the higher
orders would still remain unacquainted with its real
nature, and with its relation to its parent Judaism,
it was quite enough before the public attention to
awaken the curiosity of the more inquiring, and to
excite the interest of those who were seriously con-
cerned in the moral advancement of mankind. In
many quarters, it is far from impossible that the strong
revulsion of the public mind against Nero, after his
death, may have extended some commiseration towards
his innocent victims:^ that the Christians were ac-
quitted by the popular feeling of any real connection

1 This WM the case even in Rome. " Unde qnanqaam adveisus sontes et
novissima exempla meritos, miseratio oriebator, tanqoam non utilitate piib-
lic&j sed in Bnvitiam nnius abeumerentnr." — Tac, Ann. xv. 44.

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10 SECOND PERIOD— TRAJAN. Book H.

with the fire at Rome, appears evident from Tacitus^
who retreats into vague expressions of general scorn
and animosity.^ At all events, the persecution must
have had the efiect of raising the importance of Chris-
tianity, so as to force it upon the notice of many who
might otherwise have been ignorant of its existence.
The new and peculiar fortitude with which the suflFer-
ers endured their unprecedented trials would strongly
recommend it to those who were dissatisfied with the
moral power of their old religion ; while, on the other
hand, it was yet too feeble and obscure to provoke a
systematic plan for its suppression.

During the second period of the first century, from
g^j^^ A.D. 68 to 98, the date of the accession of
SS^JI^jJSJton Trajan, the larger portion was occupied by
of Ti^jan. ^YiQ reign of Domitian, a tyrant in whom the
successors of Augustus might appear to revive, both
in the monstrous vices of his personal character and
of his government. Of the Flavian dynasty, the father
alone, Vespasian, from the comprehensive vigor of his
mind, perhaps firom his knowledge of the Jewish char-
acter and religion, obtained during his residence in
the East, was likely to estimate the bearings and
future prospects of Christianity. But the total sub-
jugation of Judaea, and the destruction of the Temple
of Jerusalem, having reduced the religious parents of
the Christians to so low a state, — tiieir nation, and
consequently their religion, being, according to the
ordinary course of events, likely to mingle up with
and become absorbed in the general population of the
Roman empire, — Christianity, it might reasonably
be supposed, would scarcely survive its original stock,
and might be safely left to bum out by the same grad-

1 ** Odio hnmani generis oonyicti."

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Chap. IV. THE STOICS. 11

ual process of extinction. Besides this, the strong
mind of Vespasian was fully occupied by the restora-
tion of order in the capital and in the provinces, and
in fixing on a firm basis the yet-unsettled authority
of the Flavian dynasty. A more formidable, because
more immediate, danger threatened the existing order
of things. The awful genius of Roman liberty had
entered into an alliance with the higher philosophy of
the time. Republican stoicism, brooding in g^,^ ^^^^
the noblest minds of Rome, looked back, with i««>p»>«»-
vain though passionate regret, to the free institutions
of their ancestors, and demanded the old liberty of
action. It was this dangerous movement — not the
new and humble religion, which calmly acquiesced in
all political changes, and contented itself with liberty
of thought and opinion — that put to the test the pru-
dence and moderation of the Emperor Vespasian. It
was the spirit of Cato, not of Christ, which he found
it necessary to control. The enemy before whom he
trembled was the patriot Thrasea, not the apostle St.
John, who was silently winning over Ephesus to the
new faith. The edict of expulsion from Rome fell not
on the worshippers of foreign religions, but on the
philosophers; a comprehensive term, but which was
probably limited to those whose opinions were consid-
ered dangerous to the imperial authority.^

It was only with the new fiscal regulations of the
rapacious and parsimonious Vespasian that the Chris-
tians were accidentally implicated. The emperor
continued to levy the capitation tax, which had been
willingly and proudly paid by the Jews throughout the
empire for the maintenance of their own Temple at

1 Tacit., Hist. iv. 4-0. Dion Caasiua, Izvi. 18. SnetoniuSy Vespas. 15,
Tillemont, Hist des Empereuis: Vespasian. Art. 16.

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12 TEMPLE TAX. Book U.

Jerusalem, for the restoration of the idolatrous fane of

the Capitoline Jupiter, which had been destroyed in

the civil contests. The Jew submitted with

Temple tax. •,•, ^ , . . , .

sullen reluctance to this msultmg exaction ;
but even the hope of escaping it would not incline him
to disguise or dissemble his faith. But the Judaizing
Christian, and even the Christian of Jewish descent,
who had entirely thrown oflF his religion, yet was
marked by the indelible sign of his race, was placed in
a singularly perplexing position.^ The rapacious pub-
lican, who farmed the tax, was not likely to draw any
true distinction among those whose features, connec-
tions, names, and notorious descent, still designated
them as liable to the tax : his coarser mind would con-
sider the profession of Christianity as a subterfuge to
escape a vexatious impost. But to the Jewish Christian
of St. Paul's opinions, the unresisted payment of the
burthen, however insignificant, and to which he was
not bound, either by the letter or the spirit of the
edict, was an acknowledgment of his unconverted
Judaism, of his being still under the Law, as well as
an indirect contribution to tlie maintenance of Heathen-
ism. It is diflBcult to suppose that those who were
brought before the public tribunal, as claiming an ex-
emption from the tax, and exposed to the most inde-
cent examination of their Jewish descent, were any
other than this class of Judaizing Christians.

In other respects, the connection of the Christians
with the Jews could not but affect their place in that
indiscriminating public estimation which still, in gen-
eral, notwithstanding the Neronian persecution, con-

1 Dion Cassias, edit Reimar, with his notes, lib. IxvL p. 1062. Sneto-
nius in Dom. t. 12. Martial, vii. 14. Basnage, Histoire des Jui&. vol. viL
ch. xi. p. 304.

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Chap. IV. CONDITION OF JEWS AFTER THE WAR. 13

founded them together. The Jewish war appears to
have made a great alteration both in the con- change in the

condition and

dition of the race of Israel, and in the popular estimation

^ *^ "^ of the Jewi

sentiment towards them. From aversion, afto^tiio^w-
as a sullen and unsocial, they were now looked upon
with hatred and contempt, as a fierce, a desperate, and
an enslaved race. Some of the higher orders, Agrippa
and Josephus the historian, maintained a respectable,
and even an eminent, rank at Rome ; but the provinces
were overrun by swarms of Jewish slaves or miserable
fiigitives, reduced by necessity to the meanest occupa-
tions, and lowering their minds to their sordid and
beggarly condition.^ As, then, to some of the Romans
the Christian assertion of religious freedom would
seem closely allied with the Jewish attempt to obtain
civil independence, they might appear, especially to
those in authority, to have inherited the intractable
and insubordinate spirit of their religious forefathers ;
so, on the other hand, in some places, the Christian
might be dragged down, in the popular apprehension,
to the level of the fallen and outcast Jew. Thus,
while Christianity in fact was becoming more and more
alienated from Judaism, and even assuming the most
hostile position, the Roman rulers would be the last to
discern the widening breach, or to discriminate be-
tween that religious confederacy which was destined
to absorb within it all the subjects of the Roman em-
pire, and that race which was to remain, in its social
isolation, neither blended into the general mass of
mankind, nor admitting any other within its The descend-

• i_T t Ti» 1 • 1 antB of the

msuperable pale. If the singular story re- hrethnmof

t , t t -rr . o . 1 /. .1 our Lord

lated by Hegesippus^ concermng the family brought
of our Lord deserves credit, even the de- tribunat

1 Compare Hist of the Jews, ii. 464. ^ Eusebios, iiL 20.

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14 30-CALLED EDICT OF DOMITIAN. Book IL

»cendaat8 of his house were endangered by their yetr
unbroken connection with the Jewish race. Domitian
is said to have issued an edict for the extermination
of the whole hou^e of David, in order to annihilate for
ever the hope of the Messiah, which still brooded with
dangerous excitement in the Jewish mind. The
grandsons of St. Jude, " the brother of the Lord,"
were denounced by certain heretics as belonging to the
proscribed family, and brought before the tribunal of
the emperor, or, more probably, that of the Procurator
of Judaea.^ They acknowledged their descent from
the royal race, and their relationship to the Messiah ;
but in Christian language they asserted that the king-
dom which they expected was purely spiritual and
angelic, and only to commence at the end of the world,
after the return to judgment. Their poverty, rather
than their renunciation of all temporal views, was
their security. They were peasants, whose hands
were hardened with toil, and whose whole property
was a farm of about twenty-four English acres, and of
the value of nine thousand drachms, or about three
hundred pounds sterling. This they cultivated by
their own labor, and regularly paid the appointed trib-
ute. They were released as too humble and too harm-
less to be dangerous to the Roman authority; and
Domitian, according to the singularly inconsistent
account, proceeded to annul his edict of persecution
against the Christians.

Like all the stories which rest on the sole authority
of Hegesippus, this has a very fabulous air. At no
period were the hopes of the Messiah entertained by
the Jews so little likely to awaken the jealousy of the

1 Gibbon thus modifies the story, to which he appears to gire some
credit.

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CHAF.iy. FLAYinS CLElfENS. 15

emperor as in the reign of Domitian. The Jewish
mind was still stunned, as it were, hj the recent blow :
the whole land was in a state of iron subjection. Nor
was it till the latter part of the reign of Trajan, and
that of Hadrian, that they rallied for their last despe^
rate and conclusive struggle for independence. Nor,
however indistinct the line of demarcation between
the Jews and the Christians, is it easy to trace the
connection between the stern precaution for the pres-
ervation of the peace of the Eastern world and the
stability of the empire against any enthusiastic aspirant
after an imiversal sovereignty, with what is some-
times called the second great persecution of Chris-
tianity ; for the exterminating edict was aimed at a
single family, and at the extinction of a purely Jewish
tenet, though it may be admitted, that, even yet, the
immediate return of the Messiah to reign on earth
was dominant among most of the Jewish Christians
of Palestine. Even if true, this edict was rather the
hasty and violent expedient of an arbitrary sovereign,
trembling for his personal security, and watchful to
avert danger from Ids throne, than a profound and
vigorous policy, which aimed at the suppression of a
new religion, declaredly hostile, and threatening the
existence of the established Polytheism.

Christianity, however, appears to have forced itself
upon the knowledge and the fears of Domitian in a
more unexpected quarter, — the bosom of his own
fieanily.^ Of his two cousins-german, the sons of
Flavins Sabinus, the one fell an early victim to his
jealous apprehensions. The other. Flavins j.^^^
Clemens, is described by the epigrammatic ^«°*«°*
biographer of the Caasars as a man of the most con-

1 Siietoniiu, in Bomit c 15. Dion Coasiiu, Izrii. 14. Eoaebim, ilL 18.

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16 PERSECUTION UNDER DOMITIAN. Book H.

temptible indolence of character. His peaceful kins-
man, instead of exciting the fears, enjoyed for some
time the favor, of Domitian. He received in marriage
Domitilla, the niece of the emperor; his children
were adopted as heirs to the throne ; Clemens himself
obtained the consulship. On a sudden, these harmless
kinsmen became dangerous conspirators; they were
arraigned on the unprecedented charge of Atheism
and Jewish manners ; the husband, Clemens, was put
to death ; the wife, Domitilla, banished to the desert
island, either of Pontia or Pandataria. The crime of
Atheism was afterwards the common popular charge
against the Christians, — the charge to which, in aU
ages, those are exposed who are superior to the vulgar
notion of the Deity. But it was a charge never
advanced against Judaism: coupled, therefore, with
that of Jewish manners, it is unintelligible, uijless it
refers to Christianity. Nor is it improbable that the
contemptible want of energy, ascribed by Suetonius to
Flavins Clemens, might be that unambitious superiority
to the world which characterized the early Christians.
Clemens had seen his brother cut oflF by the sudden
and capricious fears of the tyrant ; and his repugnance
to enter on the same dangerous public career, in
pursuit of honors which he despised, if it had assumed
the lofty language of philosophy, might have com-
manded the admiration- of his contemporaries, but,
connected with a new religion, of which the sublimer
notions and principles were altogether incomprehen-
sible, only exposed him to their more contemptuous
scorn. Neither in his case was it the peril apprehended
from the progress of the religion, but the dangerous
position of the individuals professing the religion, so
near to the throne, which was fatal to Clemens and

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Chap, IV. DEATH OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE. 17

Domitilla. It was the pretext, not the cause, of their
punishment; and the first act of the reign of Nerva
was the reversal of these sentences by the authority
of the senate. The exiles were recalled ; and an act,
prohibiting all accusations of Jewish manners,^ seems
to have been intended as a peace-offering for the
execution of Clemens, and for tiie especial protection
of the Christians.

But Christian history cannot pass over another in-
cident assigned to the reign of Domitian, i,egrod«of
since it relates to the death of St. John the S'tSf^'*"*
apostle. Christian gratitude and reverence SiSre"*"*^
soon began to be discontented with the ~'***^"-
silence of the authentic writings as to the fate of the
twelve chosen companions of Christ. It began first
with some modest respect for truth, but soon, with
bold defiance of probability, to brighten their obscure
course, till each might be traced by the blaze of miracle
into remote regions of the world, where it is clear,
that, if they had penetrated, no record of their exist-
ence was likely to survive.^ These religious invaders,
according to the later Christian romance, made a
regular partition of the world, and assigned to each the
conquest of his particular province. Thrace, Scyth-
ia, Spain, Britain, Ethiopia, the extreme parts of
Africa, India, the name of which mysterious region
was sometimes assigned to the southern coast of
Arabia, had each its apostle, whose spiritual triumphs
and cruel martyrdom were vividly portrayed and
gradually amplified by the fertile invention of the
Greek and Syrian historians of the early D^^thor
Church. Even the history of St. John, ^^'^"^

1 Dion CaasioB, Izviil. 1.

s Euseb., Ecc Hut. iu. 1. The tndition is here in its simpler and dearij
more genuine fonn.

VOL. II. 2

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18 DEATH OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE. Book H.

whose later days were chiefly passed in the populous
and commercial city of Ephesus, has not escaped.
Yet legend has delighted in harmonizing its tone with
the character of the beloved disciple drawn in the
Gospel, and illustrated in his own writings. Even if
purely imaginary, these stories show that another
spirit was workmg in the mind of man. While, then,
we would reject, as the oflspring of a more angry and
controversial age, the story of his flying in fear and
indignation' from a bath polluted by the presence of
the heretic Cerinthus, we might admit the pleasing
tradition, that, when he grew so feeble from age as to
be xmable to utter any long discourse, his last, if we
may borrow the expression, his cycnean voice dwelt
on a brief exhortation to mutual charity.^ His whole
sermon consisted in these words, " Little children,
love one another;" and, when his audience remon-
strated at the wearisome iteration of the same words,
he declared that in these words was contained the
whole substance of Christianity. The depoi'tation of
the apostle to the wild island of Patmos, where gen-
eral tradition places his writing the Book of Revela-
tions, is by no means improbable, if we suppose it to
have taken place under tlie authority of the Proconsul
of Asia, on account of some local disturbance in
Ephesus, and, notwithstanding the authority of Ter
tullian, reject the trial before Domitian at Rome, and
the plunging him into a cauldron of boiling oil, from
which he came forth unhurt.^ Such are the few ves-
tiges of the progress of Christianity, which we dimly

1 Easeb., Eoc. Hiat iii. 22.

3 "Ubi (in Rom&) apostolus Johannes, postea qoam in olenm igneum
demersns, nihil passns esf Mosheim suspects, that, in this passage of Ter-
tullian, a metaphor has been oonyerted into a fact — De Reb. Christ ante
Constant p. 111.

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Chap. IV. ORIGIN OF ORDERS IN THE CHURCH. 19

trace in the obscurity of the latter part of the first
century. During this period, however, took oonsatution

, of Christian

place the regular formation of the young churones.
Christian republics, in all the more considerable cities
of the empire. The primitive constitution of these
churches is a subject which it is impossible to decline :
though few points in Christian history rest on more
dubious and imperfect, in general or inferential evi-
dence, yet few have been contested with greater perti-
nacity.

Tlie whole of Christendom, when it emerges out of
the obscurity of the first century, appears uniformly
governed by certain superiors of each community,
called " bishops." But the origin and extent of this
superiority, and the manner in which the bishop as-
sumed a distinct authority from the inferior presbyters,
is one of those diflScult questions of Christian history,
which, since the Reformation, has been more and more
darkened by those fatal enemies to candid and dis-
passionate inquiry, — Prejudice and Interest. The
earliest Christian communities appear to have been
iniled and represented, in the absence of the apostle
who was their first founder, by their elders, who
are likewise called " bishops," or " overseers of the
churches." These presbyter bishops and the deacons
are the only two orders which we discover at first in
the church of Ephesus, at Philippi, and perhaps in
Crete.^ On the other hand, at a very early period,
one religious functionary, superior to the rest, appears
to have been almost universally recognized ; at least,
it is difficult to imderstand how, in so short a time,
among communities, though not entirely'disconnected,
yet scattered over the whole Roman world, a scheme of

1 Acts zx. 17, compared with 28; PhlL i. 1 ; Titos i. 6-7.

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20 THE ANGEL, OR BISHOP. Book U.

government popular, or rather aristocratical, should
become, even in form, monarchical. Neither the times
nor the circumstances of the infant Church, nor the
primitive spirit of the religion, appear to favor a gene-
ral, a systematic, and an unauthorized usurpation of
power on the part of the supreme religious functionary.^
Yet the change has already taken place within the apos-
tolic times. The church of Ephesus, which in the Acts
is represented by its elders, in the Revelations ^ is rep-
resented by its angel or bishop. We may, perhaps,
arrive at a more clear and intelligible view of tliis
subject, by endeavoring to trace the origin and devel-
opment of the Christian communities.

1 The moBt plausible way of accounting fbr this total revolution is hj
supposing that the affairs of each community or church were governed by a
college of presbyters, one of wnom necessarily presided at their meetings,
and gradually assumed, and was recognized as possessing, a superior func-
tion and authority. In expressing my dissatisfaction with a theory adopted
by Mosheim, by Gibbon, by Neander, and by most of the learned foreign
writers, I have scrutinized my own motives with the utmost suspicion, and
can only declare that I believe myself actuated only by the calm and candid
desire of truth. But the universal and almost simultaneous elevation of
the bishop, under such circumstances, in eveiy part of the world (though
it must be admitted that he was for a long time assisted by the presbyters in
the discharge of his office), appears to me an insuperable objection to this
hypothesis. The later the date which is assumed for the general establish-
ment of the episcopal authority, the less likely was it to be general. It was
only during the first period of undivided unity that such an usurpation (for
such it must have been according to this theoiy ) could have been universally
acquiesced in without resistance. All presbyters, according to' this view,
with one consent, gave up, or allowed themselves to be deprived of, their co-
ordinate and co-equal dignity. The fiirtherwe advance in Christian his-
tory, the more we discover the common motives of human nature at work.
In this case alone, are we to suppose them without influence? Yet we dis-
cover no struggle, no resistance, no controversy. The uninterrupted line of
bishops is traced by the ecclesiastical historian up to the apostles : but no
murmur of remonstrance against this usurpation has transpired ; no schism,
no breach of Christian unity, followed upon this momentous innovation.
Nor does any such change appear to have taken place in the office of elder
in the Jewish conmiunities: the Rabbinical teachers took the form of a regu-
lar hierarchy; their patriarch grew up into a kind of pope, but ^ntcopal
authority never took root in the synagogue.

s Chap. ii. 1.

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Chap. IV. CHURCHES FORMED FROM SYNAGOGUES. 21

The Christian Church was almost universally formed
hy a secession from a Jewish synagogue. Some syna-
gogues may have become altogether Christian; but,
in general, a certain part of an existing community of
Jews and Gentile proselytes incorporated christian
themselves into a new society, and met for fo,SJSftom,
the purpose of divine worship in some pri- ^cro?the
vate chamber, — sometimes, perhaps, in a ^°*8**8™-
public place, as rather later, during the times of per-
secution, in a cemetery. The first of these may have
answered to a synagogue ; the latter, to an un walled
proseucha. The model of the ancient community
would naturally, as far as circumstances might admit,
become that of the new. But in their primary consti-
tution there was an essential point of difference. The
Jews were a civil as well as a religious, the Christians
exclusively a religious, community. Everywhere that
the Jews were settled, they were the colony of a
nation ; they were held together by a kindred, as well
as by a religious, bond of union. The governors,
therefore, of the community, the Zakinim or elders,
the Parnasim or pastors (if this be an early appella-
tion), were by on means necessarily religious func-
tionaries.^ Another kind of influence besides that of
piety — age, worldly experience, wealth — would ob-
tain the chief and ruling power in the society. The
government of these elders neither rested on, nor
required, spiritual authority. Their grave example
would enforce the general observance, their censure
repress any flagrant departure from the Law: they

1 In some places, the Jews seem to have been ruled by an Ethnarch,
recognized by the Roman civil, authorities. Strabo, quoted by Josephus,
Antiq. xiv. 12, speaks of the Ethnarch in Alexandria. Josephus mentions
their Archon or chief, in Antioch. The more common constitution seems to
have been the yepauoit and dwarol, the elders or authorities.

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22 DIFFERENCE OF CHURCH AND SYNAGOGUE. Book II.

might be consulted on any difficult or unusual point
of practice; but it was not till the new Rabbinical
priesthood was established, and the Mischna and the
Talmud universally received as the national code, that
the foreign Jews fell under what may be considered
sacerdotal dominion. At this time, the synagogue
itself was only supplementary to the great national
EsMQtiai religious ceremonial of the Temple. The
wwTthe Levitical race claimed no peculiar sanctity,
tu?^^* at least it discharged no priestly office, b^
***"*• yond the bounds of the Holy Land, or the
precincts of the Temple ; nor was an authorized in-
structor of the people necessary to the service of the
synagogue. It was an assembly for the purpose of
worship, not of teaching. The instructor of the peo-
ple, the copy of the Law, lay in the ark at the east
end of the building ; it was brought forth with solemn
reverence, and an appointed portion read during the
service. But oral instruction, though it might some-
times be, and no doubt frequently was, delivered, was
no necessary part of the ceremonial. Any one, it
should seem, who considered himself qualified, and
obtained permission from the Archisynagogi, tlie gov-
ernors of the community, who exercised a sort of
presidence in the synagogue, might address the as-
sembly. It was in this character that the Christian
apostle usually began to announce his religion. But
neither the Chazan, or angel ^ of the synagogue (which
was a purely ministerial, comparatively a servile,
office), nor the heads of the assembly, possessed any
peculiar privilege, or were endowed with any official
function as teachers ^ of the people. Many of the

1 The " angel " here seems to bear its lower meaning, — a messenger or
minister.

'^ Vitringa labors to prove the point, that the chief of the synagogue exex-

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Chap. IV. MODEL OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 23

more remote synagogues can rarely have been honored
by the presence of the " Wise Men," as. they were
afterwards called, — the lawyers of this period. . The
Jewish religion was, at this time, entirely ceremonial ;
it did not necessarily demand exposition; its form
was moulded into the habits of the people ; and till
disturbed by the invasion of Christianity, or among
very flourishing communities, where it assumed a
more intellectual tone, and extended itself by the
proselytism of, the Gentiles, it was content to rest in
that form.^ In the great days of Jewish intellectual
activity, the adjacent Law-school, usually inseparable
from the synagogue, might rather be considered the
place of religious instruction. This was a kind of
chapter-house or court of ecclesiastical, with the Jews
identical with their national, law. Here knotty points
were pubUcly debated ; and " the Wise," or the more
distinguished of the lawyers or interpreters of the
Law, as the Rabbinical hierarchy of a later period,
established their character for sagacious discernment
of the meaning and intimate acquaintance with the
whole body of the Law.

Thus, then, the model upon which the Church might
be expected to form itself, may be called purely aristo-
cratical. The process by which it passed into the
monarchical form, however limited the supreme power
of the individual, may be traced to tlie existence of a
monarchical principle anterior to their religious oli-
garchy, and which distinguished the Christian Church

cised an office of this kind, bat, in my opinion, without sacoess. It appears
to have been a regular part of the Essenian service, a distinction which
Vitringa has neglected to observe. — De Syn. Vet. lib. iii. c. 6, 7.

1 The reading of the Law, prayers, and psalms, were the ceremonial of
the synagogue. Probably the greater part of their proselytism took place in
private, though, as we know from Horace, the Jewish synagogue was even
in Rome a place of resort to the curious, the speculative, and the idle.

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24 INDIVIDUAL HEADSHIP OF CHURCH. Book IL

in it8 first origin from the Jewish synagogue. The
Christians from the first were a purely religious com-
munity ; this was their primary bond of union ; they
had no national law which held them together as a
separate people. Their ciyil union was a subordinate
efiect, arising out of their incorporation as a spiritual
body. The submission of their temporal concerns to
the adjudication of their own community was a con-
sequence of their respect for the superior justice and
wisdom which sprung from their religious principles,
and an aversion from the litigious spirit engendered
by the complicated system of Roman jurisprudence.^
cbriidaa ^^ their Origin, tliey were almost universally a
to^'^ round commimity, formed, as it were, round an in-
M indiriduai. ^iyi^u^jj^ fhe apostlc, or primitive teacher,
was installed at once in the office of chief religious
functionary; and the chief religious functionary is
the natural head of a purely religious commmiity.
Oral instruction, as it was the first, so it must have
continued to be the living, conservative, and expansive
principle of the community.^ It was, anterior to the
existence of any book, the inspired record and supreme
authority of the faith. As long as this teacher re-
mained in the city, or as often as he returned, he

1 The apostle enjoined thiB secession from the ordinary courts of justice.
— ICor. vi. 1-8.

2 For some time, indeed, as in the Jewish synagogue, what was called
the gift of prophecy seems to have been more general : any individual who
professed to speak under the direct impulse of the Holy Spirit was heard
with attentive reverence. But it may be questioned, whether this, and the
display of the other xop^^f^'^o^ recounted by the apostle, 1 Cor. xii. 4-10,
were more than subsidiary to the regular and systematic teaching of the
apostolic founder of the community. The question is, not whether each
member was not at liberty to contribute, by any faculty which had been be-
stowed on him by God, to the general edification; but whether, above and
anterior to all this, there was not some recog^ed parent of each church,
who was treated with paternal deference, and exercised, when present, pater-
nal authority.

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CiiAr. IV. THE SENATE OF ELDERS. 25

would be recognized as the legitimate head of the
society. But not only the apostle, in general the
primitive teacher likewise, was a missionary, travelling
incessantly into distant regions for the general dis-
semination of Christianity, rather than residing in
one spot to organize a local community.^ In his ab-
sence, the government, and even the instruction, of the
community devolved upon the senate of elders, who
were likewise overseers, miawmot (no doubt the name
was used interchangeably for some time) ; * yet there
was still a recognized supremacy in the founder of the
church.^ The wider, however, the dissemination of
Christianity, the more rare, and at longer intervals^
the presence of the apostle. An appeal to his au-
thority, by letter, became more precarious and inter-
rupted ; while at the same time, in many communities,
the necessity for his interposition became more fre-
quent and manifest;* and in the common order of

1 Yet we have an account of a residence even of St Paul of eighteen
months at Corinthf of two years at Ephesus, and he was two years during
his first imprisonment at Rome. — Acts xviii. 11 ; xix. 10; xxviii. 80.

2 I have now read with care the best and fairest book on this subject,
Bothe, Anfange der Christlicher Kirche. Though my view of the original
monarchical principle is stronger than Kothe*8, 1 see no reason to retract or
modify my statement (1868.)

Rothe's argument (pp. 227-288) against what are called " lay elders/*
seems to me oonclasive.

< St Paul considered himself invested with the superintendence of all the
churches which he had planted. — 2 Cor. xi. 28.

* St Jerome, quoted by Hooker (Ecdes. Polity, b. vii. vol. iii. p. 180),
assigns the origin of episcopacy to the dissensions in the Church, which
required a stronger coercive authority. ** Till, through instinct of the Devil,
there grew in the Church factions, and among the people it began to be pro-
fessed, I am of Paul, I of ApoUos, and I of Cephas, churches were governed
by the common advice of presbyters; but when every one began to reckon
those whom he had baptized his own, and not Christ^s, it was decreed tn (hs
whole toorld that one chosen out of the presbyters should be placed above the
rest, to whom all care of the church should belong, and so all seeds of schism
be removed."

The government of the Church seems to have been considered a suboidi-

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26 AUTHORITY OF THE BISHOP. Book H.

nature, even independent of the danger of persecution,
the primitive founder, the legitimate head of the com-
munity, would vacate his place by death. That the
apostle should appoint some distinguished individual
as the delegate, the representative, the successor, to
his authority, as primary instructor of the community ;
invest him in an episcopacy or overseership, superior
to that of the co-ordinate body of elders, — is, in
itself, by no means improbable : it harmonizes with the
period in which we discover, in the Sacred Writings,
this change in the form of the permanent government
of the diflferent bodies ; accounts most easily for the
general submission to the authority of one religious
chief magistrate, so unsatisfactorily explained by the
accidental pre-eminence of the president of a college
of co-equal presbyters; and is confirmed by general
tradition, which has ever, in strict unison with every
other part of Christian history, preserved the names
of many successors of the apostles, the first bishops
in most of the larger cities in which Cliristianity was
first established.

But the authority of the bishop was that of influence.
Authority of Tathcr than of power. After the first nomi-
the bishop. j^ai^Qji by ii^Q apostle (if such nomination, as
we suppose, generally took place), his successor was
elective by that kind of acclamation which raised at
once the individual most eminent for his piety and
virtue to the post, which was that of danger, as well
as of distinction. For a long period, the sufirages of
the community ratified the appointment. Episcopal
government was thus, as long as Christianity remained
unleavened by worldly passions and interests, essen-

nate ftmctioo. " And God hath set some in the Chnrch, first apostles, sec-
ondly prophets, thirdly teachers; ajler that, miracles, the gifts of healing,
helps, government, divenities of tongues." — ! Cor. zii. 28.

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Chap, TV, THE PRESBTTEES. 27

tially popular. The principle of subordination was
inseparable from the humility of the first converts.
Rights are never clearly defined till they are contested ;
nor is authority limited so long as it rests upon gen-
eral reverence. When on the one side aggression,
on the other jealousy and mistrust, begin, then it
must be fenced by usage and defined by law. Thus,
while I am inclined to consider the succession of
bishops from the apostolic times to be undeniable, the
nature and extent of the authority which they derived
from the apostles are altogether uncertain. The or-
dination or consecration, whatever it might be, to that
oflSce, of itself conveyed neither inspiration nor the
power of working miracles, which, with the direct
commission from the Lord himself, distinguished and
set apart the primary apostles from the rest of man-
kind. It was only in a very limited and imperfect
sense that they could, even in the sees founded by the
apostles, be called the successors of the apostles.

The presbyters were, in their origin, the ruling
powers of the young communities ; but, in a society
founded solely on a religious basis, religious qualifica-
tions would be almost exclusively considered. In the
absence, therefore, of the primary teacher, they would
assume that oflSce likewise. In this they Thepiw-
would differ from the Jewish elders. As the ^^'®"'
most eminent in piety and Christian attainments, they
would be advanced by, or at least with, the general
cohsent, to their dignified station. The same piety
and attainments would designate them as best qualified
to keep up and to extend the general system of in-
struction. They would be the regular and perpetual
expositors of the Christian law,^ — the reciters of the

^ Here, likewise, the poasesson of the ;tap£a/uaTa would be the cuual and

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28 OFFICE OF THE DEACONS. Book H.

life, the doctrines, the death, the resurrection, of
Christ: till the (Jospels were written, and generally
received, they would be the living Evangelists, the oral
Scriptures, the spoken Gospel. They would not merely
regulate and lead the devotions, administer the rites
of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but repeat again
and again, for the fiirther confirmation of the believ-
ers and the conversion of Jews and Heathens, the facts
and the tenets of the new religion. Tlie government,
in fact, in communities bound together by Christian
brotherhood (such as we may suppose to have been
the first Christian churches, which were happily un-
distracted by the disputes arising out of the Judaical
controversy), would be an easy office, and entirely
subordinate to that of instruction and edification.
The communities would be almost self-governed by
the principle of Christian love which first drew them
together. The deacons were from the first an inferior
order, and exercised a purely ministerial office, — dis-
tributing the common fund to the poorer members,
though the administration of the pecuniary concerns
of the Church soon became of such importance as to
require the superintendence of the higher rulers. The
other functions of the deacons were altogether of a
subordinate character.

Such would be the ordinary development of a
Christian community, in the first case monarchical, as
fomided by an individual apostle or recognized teacher

subsidiary instmcton, or rather the gifted promoters of Christian piety, each
in his separate sphere, according to his distinctive grace. But besides these,
even if they were found in all churches, which is by no means clear, regular
and systematic teachers would be necessaiy to a religion which probably
could only subsist, certainly could not propagate itself with activity or to
any great extent, except by this constant exposition of its principles in the
public assembly, as well as in the more private communications of indi-
viduals.

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Chap. IV. PECULIARITY OF THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH. 29

of Christianity; subsequentlj, in the absence of that
teacher, aristocratical, under a senate formed accord-
ing to Jewish usage, though not precisely on Jewish
principles ; until, the place of the apostle being sup-
plied bj a bishop, in a certain sense his representative
or successor, it would revert to a monarchical form,
limited rather by the religion itself than by any ap-
pointed controlling power. As long as the same holy
spirit of love and charity actuated the whole body, the
result would be an harmony, not from the counter-
acting powers of opposing forces, but from the con-
sentient will of the general body ; and the will of tlie
government would be the expression of the universal
popular sentiment.^ Where, however, from the first,
the Christian community was formed of conflicting par-
ties, or where conflicting principles began to operate
immediately upon the foundation of the society, no sin-
gle person would be generally recognized as the authori-
tative teacher, and the assumption and recognition of
the episcopate would be more slow, or, indeed, would
not take place at all till the final triumph of one of the
conflicting parties. These communities retained, of
necessity, the republican form. Such was the chuwh of
state of the Corinthian church, which was JSptiaS!*
from its origin, or almost immediately after, divided
into three separate parties, with a leading teacher or
teachers at the head of each.^ The Petrine, or the

1 Such is the theory of episcopal government in a pleasing passage in the
Epistles of Ignatius: 'Odev npeTrei ifdv awrpkxeiv ry tw eiriOKonov yvoyy.
bntp Koi imuire. Td ydp &^uJv6fiaaT0V vfiuv Trpeo^vriptov^ tov ^eov a^tov
ovTug ainfifpfiooTtu r^ iiriOKOTnp Ctg x^^P^ luOapgi' 6tit tovto kv ry bjuvol^
iffiuv, Kcu avfi^Wf} iiydiry ^Iriaov^ Xptaroc uderai Kot ol KaT* &v6pa Sk x^P^
yiveaOe, ha avfupcjvoi bvrti kv d/wvoi^, XP^f^ ^^^ hi^ovreg kv kv&njn^
adtre kv ^<jv^ /u^ dta ^Ifjaov XpnTTOv vp narplj k.t^ — Ad Ephes. p. 12, edit
CoteL I speak of these Epistles in a subsequent note.

3 I was led to conjecture that the distracted state of the church of Cor-

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30 THE FIRST HIERARCHY. Book H.

TiltranJudaic, the ApoUine, or more moderate Jewish
party, contested the supremacy with the followers of
St. Paul. DiflFerent individuals possessed, exercised,
and even abused different gifts. The authority of Paul
himself appears clearly, by his elaborate vindication of
his apostolic office, by no means to have been generally
recognized. No apostolic head, therefore, would as-
sume an uncontested supremacy, nor would the parties
coalesce in the choice of a superior. Corinth, prob-
ably, was the last conmiunity which settled down imder
the general episcopal constitution.

The manner and the period of the separation of a
distinct class, a hierarchy, from the general body of
the commimity, and the progress of the great division
between the clergy and the laity ,^ are equally obscure
with the primitive constitution of the Church. Like
the Judaism of the provinces, Christianity had no
sacerdotal order. But as the more eminent members
of the community were admitted to take the lead, on
account of their acknowledged religious superiority,
from their zeal, their talents, their gifts, their sanctity,
the general reverence would, of itself, speedily set them
apart as of a higher order ; they would form the purest
aristocracy, and soon be divided by a distinct line of
demarcation from the rest of the community. What-

inth might induce the apostles to establish elsewhere a more firm and vigor-
ous authority, before I remembered the passage of St Jerome quoted above,
which coincides with this view. Corinth has been generally taken as the
model of the early Christian constitution: I suspect that it was rather an
anomaly.

1 Already the 2mkoi are a distinct class in the Epistle of Clemens to the
Corinthians (c. xL p. 170, edit Coteler). This Epistle is confidently ap-
pealed to by both parties in the controversy about church-government, and
altogether satisfies neither. It is clear, however, from the tone of the whole
Epistle, that the church at Corinth was any thing rather than a model of
church-government: it had been rent with schisms ever since the da}^ of the
ai)o»tle.

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Chap. IV. ORDINATION OF BISHOPS. 81

ever the ordination might be which designated them
for their peculiar function, whatever power or author-
ity might be commimicated by the "imposition of
hands," it would add little to the reverence with which
they were invested. It was at first the Christian who
sanctified the function : afterwards the function sanc-
tified the man. But the civil and religious concerns
of the Church were so moulded up together, or, rather,
the temporal were so absorbed by the spiritual, that
not merely the teacher, but the governor, — not merely
the bishop, properly so called, but the presbyter, in
his character of ruler as well as of teacher, — shared
in the same pecuUar veneration. The bishop would
be necessarily mingled up in the few secular afiairs of
the community, the governors bear their part in the
religious ceremonial. In this respect, again, they
difiered from their prototypes, or elders of the syna-
gogue. Their oflSce was, of necessity, more religious.
The admission of members into the Jewish synagogue,
except in the case of proselytes of righteousness, was
a matter of hereditary right: circumcision was a
domestic, not a public, ceremony. But baptism, or
the initiation into the Christian community, was a sol-
emn ceremonial, requiring previous examination and
probation. The governing power would possess and
exercise the authority to admit into the community.
They would perform, or at all events superintend, the
initiatory rite of baptism. The other distinctive rite
of Christianity, the celebration of the Lord's Supper,
would require a more active interference and co-opera-
tion on the part of those who presided over the com-
munity. To this there was nothing analogous in the
oflSce of the Jewish elder. Order would require that
tliis ceremony should be administered by certain funo-

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32 BISHOPS FIRST CALLED PONTIFFS. Book H.

tionaries. If the bishop presided, after his appoint-
ment, both at the Lord's Supper itself and in the
agape or feast which followed it, the elders would
assist, not merely in maintaining order, but would offi-
ciate throughout the ceremony. In proportion to the
reverence for the consecrated elements would be
the respect towards those under whose especial prayers,
and in whose hands, probably from the earliest period,
they were sanctified for the use of the assembly. The
presbyters would likewise possess the chief voice, a
practical initiative, in the nomination of the bishop.
Prom all these diflFerent fimctions, the presbyters, and
at length the deacons, became, as well as the bishop, a
sacred order. But, the exclusive or sacerdotal prin-
ciple once admitted in a religious community, its own
corporate spirit and the public reverence would cause
it to recede further and further, and draw the line of
demarcation with greater rigor and depth. They
would more and more insulate themselves from the
commonalty of the Cliristian republic; they would
become a senate, a patrician, or a privileged order ;
and this secession into their peculiar sphere would be
greatly facilitated by the regular gradations of the
faithful and the catechumen, the perfect and the im-
perfect, the initiate and half-initiate. Christians. The
greater the variety, the more strict the subordination
of ranks.

Thus the bishop gradually assumed the title of pon-
tiflF: the presbyters became a sacerdotal order. Prom
the Old Testament, and even from Paganism, the
Christians, at jfirst as ennobling metaphors, adopted
their sacred appellations. Insensibly the meaning of
these significant titles worked into the Christian sys-
tem. They assumed, as it were, a privilege of nearer

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Chap. IV. THE PRIESTLY CASTE. 83

approach to the Deity ; and a priestly caste grew rap-
idly up in a religion which, in its primary institution,
acknowledged only one mediator between earth and
heaven. I shall subsequently trace the growth of the
sacerdotal principle, and the universal establishment
of the hierarchy.

TOL. II.

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84 CHRISTUKITT ASD OKIENTALISM. Book IL

CHAPTER V.

ChiiBtianity and OrientaliBm.

Christianity had not only to contend with the Juda-
Q^^t^ i&m of its native region and the Paganism
leiigions. ^f ^^Q Western world, but likewise with the
Asiatic religions, which, in the Eastern provinces of
the Roman empire, maintained their ground, or min-
gled themselves with the Grecian Polytheism, and had
even penetrated into Palestine. In the silence of its
authentic records, the direct progress of Christianity
in the East can neither be accurately traced nor clearly
estimated : its conflict with Orientalism is chiefly visi-
ble in the influence of the latter upon the general sys-
tem of Christianity, and in the tenets of the different
sects which, from Simon Magus to Manes, attempted
to reconcile the doctrines of the Gospel with the theo-
gonical system of Asia. In the West, Christianity
advanced with gradual but unobstructed and unrece-
ding progress, till first the Roman empire, and success-
ively the barbarous nations who occupied or subdued
the rest of Europe, were brought within its pale. No
new religion arose to dispute its supremacy ; and the
feeble attempt of Julian to raise up a Platonic Pagan-
ism in opposition to the religion of Christ must have
failed, even if it had not been cut short in its first
growth by the death of its imperial patron. In Asia,
the progress of Christianity was suddenly arrested
by the revival of Zoroastrianism, after the restoration

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Chap.v. influence of obientalism. 35

of the Persian kingdom upon the ruins of the Parthian
monarchy ; and, at a later period, the vestiges of its
former success were ahnost entirely obliterated by the
desolating and all-absorbing conquests of Mohamm^
danism. The Armenian was the only national church
which resisted alike the persecuting edicts of the Sas-
sanian fire-worshippers, and, submitting to the yoke
of the Mohammedan conqueror, rejected the worship of
the Prophet. The other scattered communities of
Christians, disseminated through various parts of Asia,
on the coast of Malabar, perhaps in China, have no
satisfactory evidence of apostolic or even of very early
date : they are so deeply impregnated with the Nesto-
rian system of Christianity, which, during the interval
between the decline of the reformed Zoroastrianism
and the first outburst of Islamism, spread to a great
extent throughout every part of the Eastern Continent,^
that there is every reason to suppose them Nestorian
in their origin.^ The contest, then, of Christianity
with the Eastern religions must be traced in their
re-action upon the new religion of the West. By
their treacherous alliance, they probably operated more
extensively to the detriment of the Evangelic religion
than Paganism by its open opposition. Asiatic influ-
ences have worked more completely into the body and
essence of Christianity than any other foreign elements ;
and it is by no means improbable, that tenets, which
had their origin in India, have for many centuries pre-
dominated in, or materially aflfected, tiie Christianity
of the whole Western world.
Palestine was admirably situated to become the

1 There is on extremelj good view of the origin and histoiy of the Chxiii-
tian commnnities in India, in Bohlen, Das alte Indien.

^ Compare the new edition of Gibbon and the editor's note on the Nes-
torian Christians with the fiunons inscription of Siganfti, viiL 847.

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36 SITUATION OF PALESTINE— JUDAISM. Book H.

centre and point of emanation for an imiversal religion*
atuatkm On the confines of Asia and Europe, yet
fk^nbie suflSciently secluded from both to be out of
KUgkm. the way of the constant flux and reflux of a
foreign population, it commanded Egypt, and, through
Egypt, associated Africa with the general moral
kingdom. But it was not merely calculated for the
birthplace of an universal faith by its local position.
Judaism, as it were, in its character (putting
out of sight, for an instant, its diyine origin)
stood between the religions of the East and the West.
It was the connecting link between the European and
the Asiatic mind. In speculative sublimity, the doc-
trine of the Divine Unity soared to an equal height
with the vast and imaginative cosmogonies of the East ;
while, in its practical tendencies, it approximated to
the active and rational genius of the West.

The religions of Asia appear, if not of regularly
affiliated descent, yet to possess a common and generic
character, modified, indeed, by the genius of the dififer*
ent people, and perhaps by the prevailing tone of mind
in the authors and founders of new doctrines. From
the banks of the Gknges, probably from the shores
of the Yellow Sea and the coasts of further India, to
the Phoenician borders of the Mediterranean and the
undefined limits of Phrygia in Asia Minor, there was
that connection and similitude, that community of
certain elementary principles, that tendency to certain
combinations of physical and moral ideas, which may
be expressed by the term Orientalism.^ The spectda-

1 Compare Windiflchman, Phflosophie in Fortgang der Welt-Geschichte.
Wmdlschmaa was a fiiand — I believe I may venture to say a disciple — of
F. Schlegel, and belongs to the high Boman-Gathollc school in Gennany.
His book, which is full of abstruse thought and learning, develops the
theory of a primitive tradition diffused through the East

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Crap. Y. CHARA.CTER OF OBIENTALISM. 87

tive theology of the higher, the sacerdotal order, which
in some countries left the superstitions of oenemi
the vulgar undisturbed, or allowed their own orieoti

more sublime conceptions to be lowered to their rude
and limited material notions, aspired to the primal
Source of Being. The Emanation system of India,
according to which the whole worlds flowed from the
Gtodhead, and were finally to be re-absorbed into it ;
the Pantheism into which this degenerated, and which
made the collective Universe itself the Deity; the
Dualism of Persia, according to which the antagonist
powers were created by, or proceeded jfrom, the One
Supreme and Uncreated; the Chaldean doctrine of
divine energies or intelligences, the prototypes of the
Cabalistic Sephiroth, and of the later Onostic JBons,
the same, no doubt, under difierent names, with the
jEon and Protogenes, the Genos and Genea, with
their regularly coupled descendants in the Phoenician
cosmogony of Sanchoniathon ; and, finally, the primi-
tive and simpler worship of Egypt, — all these are
either branches of one common stock, or expressions
of the same state of the human mind, working with
kindred activity on the same visible phenomena of
nature, and with the same object.

The Asiatic mind impersonated, though it did not,
with the Greek, humanize every thing. Light and
Darkness, Good and Evil, the Creative and Destructive
energy of nature, the active and passive Powers of
generation, moral Perfection and Wisdom, Reason and
Speech, even Agriculture and the Pastoral life, each
was a distinct and intelligent being; they wedded
each other according to their apparent correspond-
ences ; they begat progeny according to the natural
affiliation or consequence of ideas.

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88 UNIVERSAL PRIMARY PRINCIPLE. Book H.

One great elementary principle pervaded the whole
religious systems of the East, — the connection of moral
Purity of with physical ideas ; the inherent purity j the
MaiLroity divinity , of mind or spirit; the inalienable evil
of Matter. Qf i^ antagonist, mMter. Whether Matter
co-existed with the First Great Cause ; whether it was
created by his power, but, from its innate malignity,
became insubordinate to his will; whether it was
extraneous to his existence, necessarily subsisting,
though without form, till its inert and shapeless mass
was worked upon by the Deity himself, or by his
primal Power or Emanation, the Demiurge or Creator
of the existing worlds, — on these points the different
national creeds were endlessly diversified. But, in its
various forms, the principle itself was the universal
doctrine of the Eastern world ; it was developed in
their loftiest philosophy (in fact, their higher philoso-
phy and their speculative religion were the same
thing) ; it gave a kind of coloring even to their vulgar
superstition, and operated, in many cases almost to
an incredible extent, on their social and political
system.

This great primal tenet is alike the elementary prin-
The uniTcr- ciplc of the higher Brahminism and the more
^nciiSto*'^ moral Buddhism of India and the remoter
East. The theory of the division of castes supposes,
that a larger portion of the pure mind of the Deity is
infused into the sacerdotal and superior orders ; they
are nearer the Deity, and with more immediate hope
of being re-absorbed into the divine essence ; while
the lower classes are inore inextricably immersed
in the grosser matter of the world, their feeble por-
tion of the essential spirit of the Divinity contracted
and lost in the predominant mass of corruption and

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Chap. V. SOURCE OF ASCETICISM. 89

malignity.^ The Buddhist, substiniting a moral for a
hereditary approximation to the pure and elementary
mind, rests, nevertheless, on the same primal theory,
and carries the notion of the abstraction of the spirit-
ual part from the foul and corporeal being to an equal,
if not a greater, height of contemplative mysticism.^
Hence the sanctity of fire among the Persians ; ^ that
element which is most subtle and defecated from all
material corruption : it is therefore the representative
of pure elementary mind, of Deity itself.* It exists
independent of the material forms in which it abides,
the sun and the heavenly bodies. To infect this holy
element with any excretion or emanation from the
material form of man, to contaminate it with the
putrescent effluvia of the dead and soulless corpse,
was the heiglit of guilt and impiety.

This one simple principle is the parent of that ascefr
icism which maintained its authority among sonm or
all the older religions of the remoter East, ■**'*°**™-
forced its way at a very early period into Cliristianity,
where, for some centuries, it exercised a predominant
influence, and subdued even the active and warlike
genius of Mohammedanism to its dreamy and ecstatic
influence. On the cold table-lands of Thibet, in the
forests of India, among the busy population of China,
on the burning shores of Siam, in Egypt and in Pales-

1 The scl^xisting power declared the purest part of him to be the mouth.
Since the Brahmen sprung from the most excellent part; since he was the
first-bom, and since he possesses the Veda, — he is by right the chief of the
whole creation. — Jones's Menu, i. 92, 98.

2 See the tracts of Mahony, Joinville, Hodgson, and Wilson, in the
Asiatic Researches; Schmidt, Qeschichte der Ost Mongolen; Bergman,
Nomadische Streifereyen, &c

« Hyde, De Relig. Penarum, p. 18, tt alibi. Kleuker, Anhang znm Zen-
davesta, vol. i. p. 116, 117. De Goigniaut, Religions de TAnUquit^, 1. il. c.
8, p. 838.

4 Kleuker, Anhang zom Zendaresta, vol. i. pt 2, p. 147. De Guigniaut,
fibiittprou

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40 CELIBAGT. Book IL

tine, in Christianized Europe, in iSfohammedanized
Asia, the Worshipper of the Lama, the Faquir, the
Bonze, the Talapoin, the Essene, the Therapeutist,
the Monk, and the Dervish, have withdrawn from the
society of man, in order to abstract the pure mind
from the dominion of foul and corrupting matter.
Under each system, the perfection of human nature
was estrangement from the influence of the senses, —
those senses which were enslaved to the material ele-
ments of the world ; an approximation to the essence
of the Deity, by a total secession from the afiairs, the
interests, the passions, the thoughts, the common
being and nature of man. The practical operation
of this elementary principle of Eastern religion has
deeply influenced the whole history of man. But it
had made no progress in Europe till after the intro-
duction of Christianity. The manner in which it
allied itself with, or rather incorporated itself into, a
system, to the original nature and design of which
it appears altogether foreign, will form a most impor-
tant and perhaps not uninteresting chapter in the
History of Christianity.

Celibacy was the ofibpring of asceticism, but it

does not appear absolutely essential to it;

whether insulted nature re-asserts its rights,
and reconciles to the practice that which is in appar-
ent opposition to the theory, or whether it revenges,
as it were, this rebellion of nature on one point, by
its more violent and successful invasions upon its
unconquerable propensities on others. The Muni in
India is accompanied by his wife, who shares his
solitude, and seems to offer no impediment to his
sanctity,^ though in some cases it may be that all

^ Abandoning all food eaten in towns, and all his honsehold utensils, let

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Chap. Y. EA8TEBN ASCETICISM. 41

connubial intercourse is sternly renounced. In Pales-
tine, the Essene, in his higher state of perfection,
stood in direct opposition to the spirit of the books
of Moses, on which he still looked with the profound-
cst reverence, b; altogether refraining from marriage.
It was perhaps in this form that Eastern asceticism
first crept into Christianity. It assumed the elevating
and attractive character of higher personal purity ;
it drew the line of demarcation more rigidly against
the loose morality of the Heathen ; it afforded the
advantage of detaching the first itinerant preachers
of Christianity more entirely firom worldly interests ;
enabled them to devote their whole, undistracted atten-
tion to the propagation of the faith ; and left them,
as it were, more loose from the world, ready to break
the few and slender ties which connected them with
it at the first summons to a glorious martyrdom.^
But it was not, as we shall presently observe, till
Gnosticism began to exercise its influence on Chris-
tianity ,2 that emulous of its dangerous rival, or

him repair to the lonelj wood, committing the care of his wife to his sons, or
accompanied by her, if she choose to attend him. — Sir W. Joneses Menu,
▼i. 8. I venture to refer to the pathetic tale of the hermit with his wife and
son, from the MahA Bh&rata, in my translations from the Sanskrit Compare
Vishnu Purana, p. 296.

In the very curious account of the Buddhist monks (the 2af<avaioi, — the
Schamans) in Porphyrins de Abstinentilk, lib. iv. 17, the Buddhist ascetic
abandons his wife; and this, hi general, agrees with the Buddhist theory.
Female contact is unlawfhl to the Buddha ascetic. See a carious instance in
Mr. Wilson's Hindu Theatre, — The Toycart, Act viii., injine.

1 Clement of Alexandria, however, asserts that St. Paul was really mar-
ried, but left his wife behind him, lest she should interfere with his ministiy.
This is his interpretation of 1 Cor. ix. 6.

3 Tertullian adv. Marc. i. 29. ** Non tingitur apud ilium caro, nisi virgo,
nisi vidua, nisi cselebs, nisi divortio baptismum mereatnr . . . nee pnescri-
bimus sed suademus sanctitatem . . . tunc denique conjnginm exerts de-
fendentes cum inimic^ accusatur spurdtiie nomine in destroctionem creatoris
qui proinde conjugium pro rei honestate benedizit, incrementum generis
humani." . . •

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42 6B£CIAN AND ROMAN STSTESiS. Book n.

infected with its foreign opinions, the Church, in its
general sentiment, espoused and magnified the pre-
eminent virtue of celibacy.^

The European mind of the older world, as repre-
unknownin scutcd bv the Grccks and Romans, repelled
Rome. for a loug time, in the busy turmoil of politi-

cal development and the absorbing career of war and
conquest, this principle of inactivity and secession
from the ordinary affairs of life. No sacerdotal caste
established this principle of superiority over the active
warrior, or even over the laborious husbandman.
With the citizen of the stirring and factious republics
of Greece, the highest virtue was of a purely political
and practical character. The whole man was public :
his individuality, the sense of which was continually
suggested and fostered under the other system, was
lost in the member of the commonwealth. That
which contributed nothing to the service of the state
was held in no respect. The mind, in its abstracted
flights, obtained little honor : it was only as it worked
upon the welfare, the amusement, or the glory of the
republic, that its dignity was estimated. The philoso-
pher might discuss the comparative superiority of
the practical or the contemplative life ; but liis loftiest
contemplations were occupied with realities, or what
may be considered idealizing those realities to 8l higher
degree of perfection : to make good citizens was the
utmost ambition of his wisdom ; an Utopia was his
heaven. The Cynic, who in the East, or in Europe
after it became impregnated with Eastern doctrines,

^ Compare the whole aigoment of the third book of the Stromata of
Clement of Alexandria. In one passage he condemns cclibacj, as leading to
misanthropy, ^vvopco ^ bnoq r^ 'Kpo^aau rov ydftov ol fitv aireaxih
fdvoi TovTou^ foi Kort lijv dyiav yvuatv^ eif fuaavOpoiriav imej^fntriacaf^
Kxd rd 7% aYamK olx^<u Trap* o^rcxf. — Strom. liL 0.

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Chap. V. PLATO. 43

would have retired into the desert to his solitary her-
mitage, in order to withdraw himself entirely from
the common interests, sentiments, and connections of
mankind; in Greece, took up his station in the
crowded forum, or, pitching his tub in the midst of
the concourse at the pubUc games, inveighed against
the vices and follies of mankind. Plato, if he had
followed the natural bent of his genius,
might have introduced, and indeed did intro-
duce, as much as the Grecian mind was capable of
imbibing of this theory of the. opposition of mind and
matter, with its ordinary consequences. The commu-
nities of his older master Pythagoras, who had proba-
bly visited the East, and drank deep of the Oriental
mysticism, approached in some respects nearer to the
contemplative character of monastic institutions. But
the active mind of the Greek predominated ; and the
followers of Pythagoras, instead of foimding coeno-
bitic institutions, or secluding themselves in medita-
tive solitude, settled some of the flourishing republics
of Magna Graecia. The great master, in whose steps
Plato professed to tread more closely, was so essen-
tially practical and unimaginative as to bind his
followers down to a less Oriental system of philoso-
phy. While, therefore, in his Timaeus, Plato at-
tempted to harmonize parts of the cosmogonical
theories of Asia with the more humanized mythology
of Greece, the work which was more accordant to the
genius of his country was his Republic, in which all
his idealism was, as it were, confined to the earth.
Even his religion, though of much sublimer cast than
the popular superstition, was yet considered chiefly
in its practical operation on the welfare of the state.
It was his design to elevate humanity to a higher

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44 PHILOSOPHY OF ROME. Book U.

state of moral dignity ; to cultiyate the material body,
as well as the immaterial soul, to the height of per-
fection ; not to sever, as far as possible, the connection
between these ill-assorted companions, or to withdraw
the purer mind from its social and political sphere,
into solitary and inactive communion with the Deity.
In Rome, the general tendency of the national
mind was still more essentially public and
political. In the republic, — except in a
few less distinguished men, the Laslii and the Attici,
— even their philosophy was an intellectual recreation
between the more pressing avocations of their higher
duties: it was either to brace and mature the mind
for future service to the state, or as a solace in hours
of disappointed ambition or the haughty satiety of
glory. Civil science was the end and aim of all their
philosophic meditation. Like their ancient king, if
they retired for communion with the Egeria of philoso-
phy, it was in order to bring forth, on their return,
more ample stores of political and legislative wisdom.
Under the imperial government, they took refuge in
the lofty reveries of the porch, as they did in inordi-
nate luxury, from the degradation and enforced
inactivity of servitude. They fled to the philosophic
retirement, from the barrenness, in all high or stirring
emotions, which had smitten the senate and the
Comitia ; still looking back with a vain but lingering
hope, that the state might summon ^them again from
retirement without dignity, from a contemplative life,
which by no means implied an approximation to the
divine, but rather a debasement of the human nature.
Some, indeed, degraded their high tone of philosophy
by still mingling in the servile politics of the day:
Seneca lived and died the votary and the victim of

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Chap. V. ORIENTALISM IN WESTERN ASIA. 45

court intrigue. The Thraseas stood aloof, not in ec-
static meditation on the primal Author of Being, but
on the departed liberties of Rome ; their soul aspired
no higher than to unite itself with the ancient genius
of the republic.

Orientalism had made considerable progress towards
the West before the appearance of Chris- orientaitan
tianity. While the popular Pharisaism of aoa.
the Jews had embodied some of the more practical
tenets of Zoroastrianism, the doctrines of the remoter
East had found a welcome reception with the Essene.
Yet, even with him, regular and unintermitting labor,
not inert and ii[ieditative abstraction, was the principle
of the ascetic community. It might almost seem that
there subsisted some secret and indelible congeniality,
some latent consanguinity, whether from kindred,
common descent, or from conquest, between the caste-
divided population on the shores of the Ganges, and
the same artificial state of society in the valley of the
Nile, so as to assimilate in so remarkable a manner
their religion .^ It is certain, that the genuine Indian
mysticism first established a permanent Western set-
tlement in the deserts of Egypt. Its first combina-
tion seems to have been with the Egyptian Judaism
of Alexandria, and to have arisen from the dreaming
Platonism, which, in the schools of that city, had
been engrafted on the Mosaic Institutes. The Egyp-
tian Monks were the lineal descendants of the Jewish
Therapeutae, described by Philo.^ Though the Thera-

1 Bohlen'8 work, Das alte Indien, — of which the excelleDce in all other
respects, as a condensed abstract of all that onr own conntrymen and the
scholars of Germany and France have collected concerning India, will be
universally acknowledged, — la written to maintain the ttieoiy of the early
connection of India and Egypt

3 Philonis Opera, Mangey, vol. ii. p. 471.

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46 EGYPTIAN MYSTICISM. Book IL

peutae, like the Essenes, were in some respects a
productive community, yet they approached much
nearer to the contemplative and indolent fraternities
of the farther East. The arid and rocky desert
around them was too stubborn to make much return
to their less regular and less systematic cultivation :
visionary indolence would grow upon them by degrees.
The communities either broke up into the lairs of
solitary hermits, or were constantly throwing oflF their
more enthusiastic votaries deeper into the desert:
the severer mortifications of the flesh required a
more complete isolation from the occupations, as
well as the amusements or enjoyments, of life. To
change the wilderness into a garden by patient industry
was to inthrall the spirit in some degree to the service
of the body; and, in process of time, the principle
was carried to its height. The more dreary the
wilderness, the more unquestioned the sanctity of its
inhabitant ; the more complete and painful the priva-
tion, the more holy the worshipper; the more the
man put off his own nature, and sank below the
animal to vegetative existence, the more consummate
his spiritual perfection. The Ml growth of this
system was of a much later period : it did not come
to maturity till after Christianity had passed through
its conflict with Gnosticism; but its elements were,
no doubt, floating about in the different Western
regions of Asia, and either directly through Gnosti-
cism, or from the emulation of the two sects, which
outbid each other, as it were, in austerity, it worked,
at length, into the very intimate being of the Gospel
religion.

The singular felicity, the skill and dexterity, if I
may so speak, with which Christianity at first wound its

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Chap. V. ORIENTALISM AND CHBISTUNTTY UNITE. 47

way through these conflicting elements, combining
what was pure and lofty in each, in some in- combination
stances unavoidably speaking their language, £!,?!j?{h^"
and simplifying, harmonizing, and modifying ^*»^***^*y-
each to its own peculiar system, increases our admira-
tion of its unrivalled wisdom, its deep insight into the
universal nature of man, and its pre-acquaintance, as
it were, with the countiess diversities of human charac-
ter prevailing at the time of its propagation. But,
unless the same profound wisdom had watched over
its inviolable preservation, which presided over its
origin; unless it had been constantly administered
with the same superiority to the common passions and
interests and speculative curiosity of man, — a re-
action of the several systems over which it prevailed
was inevitable. On a wide and comprehensive survey
of the whole history of Christianity, and considering it
as left altogether to its own native force and impulse,
it is difficult to estimate how far the admission, even
the predominance, of these foreign elements, by which
it was enabled to maintain its hold on difierent ages
and races, may not have contributed both to its origi-
nal success and its final permanence. The Eastern
asceticism outbid Christianity in that austerity, that
imposing self-sacrifice, that intensity of devotion, which
acts with the greatest rapidity, and secures the most
lasting authority over rude and unenlightened minds.
By coalescing to a certain point with its antagonist, it
embraced within its expanding pale those who would
otherwise, according to the spirit of their age, have
been carried beyond its sphere by some enthusiasm
more popular and better suited to the genius of the
time, or the temperament of the individual. If it
lost in purity, it gained in power, perhaps in perma-

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48 SIMON MAGUS. Book H.

nence. No doubt, in its first contest with Orientalism
were sown those seeds which grew up at a later period
into Monasticism ; it rejected the tenets, but admitted
the more insidious prmciple of Gnosticism : yet there
can be little doubt that in the dark ages, the monastic
spirit was among the great conserrative and influential
elements of Christianity.

The form in which Christianity first encoimtered
this wide-spread Orientalism was either Gnosticism,^
or, if that philosophy had not then become consoli-
dated into a system, those opinions which subsequently
grew up into that prevalent doctrine of Western Asia.
The first Orientalist was Simon Magus. In the conflict
with St. Peter, related in the Acts, nothing:

Simon Magus. °

transpires as to the personal history of this

^ In this view of Gnosticism, besides constant reference to the original
aathorities, I must acknowledge my obligations to Brucker, Hist. Phil. vol. ii.
p. 1, c. 8; to Mosheim, De Beb. Christ ante Const Mag. ; to Beausobre, Hist
du Manich^isme; but, above all, to the excellent Histoire da Gnosticisme, by
M. Matter of Strasburg, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1828. Since the first publication
of this work, new light has been thrown on Gnosticism and the Gnostic teach-
ing by the discovery of the (imperfect) Phitosophumena, first erroneously
attributed to Origen by the editor £. Miller, first and conclusively proved by
the learning and sagacity of Bonsen to be the work of Hippolytus, Bishop of
Porto near Rome, in the early part of the third century. On this point al-
most all are agreed, — even Bunsen^s most learned antagonists on other
questions raised by this book, Dr. Wordsworth and Dollinger. On this con-
troversy I have expressed my judgment fully in a note to Latin Christianity,
vol i. p. 86. I think Bunsen triumphant in most points. In the Epistles to
Archdeacon Hare, and in the Analecta published by Bunsen, in his great
work Christianity and Mankind, will be found selected and illustrated the
chief texts of the Philosophumena which bear on the rise and development
of Gnosticism. Perhaps, as usual, Bunsen's bold and imaginative divination
sees much which eyes not less keen, but endowed with less magnify^ing pow-
ers, will fail to discern.

Besides this work, the Christliche Gnosis of Baur, and the mature opin-
ions of Neander in the second edition of his History, will satisfy readers who
care to plunge into that dim labyrinth of Gnosticism, and to investigate its
mysteries at greater length than the extent and proportions of my work, and
my judgment as to the unportance of such researches, permit me to expand
into. (1868.)

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Chap. V. SIMON MAGUS. 49

remarkable man, excepting the extensive success with
which he had practised his magical arts in Samaria,
and the Oriental title which he assumed, — "the Power
of God." His first overtures to the apostle appear as
though he were desirous of conciliating the friendship
and favor of the new teacher, and would not have been
unwilling to have acted a subordinate part in the for-
mation of his increasing sect. But, f^om his first
rejection, Simon Magus was an opponent, if there be
any truth in the wild legends, which are still extant,
the rival, of Christianity.^ On the arrival of the
Christian teachers in Samaria, — where, up to that
period, his influence had predominated, — Simon paid
homage to the reality of his miracles, by acknowledg-
ing their superiority to his own. Still, it should seem
that he only considered them as more adroit wonder-
workers, or, as is more probable, possessed of some
peculiar secrets beyond his own knowledge of the laws
of nature, or possibly (for imposture and superstition
are ever closely allied) he may have supposed that
they had intercourse with more powerful spirits or
intelligences than his own. Jesus was to him either
some extraordinary proficient in magic, who had
imparted his prevailing gifts to his followers, the apos-
tles; or some superior genius, who lent himself to
their bidding ; or, what Simon asserted himself to be,
some power emanating more directly from the primal
Deity. The "gift of the Holy Ghost" seemed to
communicate a great portion, at least, of this magic

1 It is among the most hopeless difficulties in early Christian histoiy to
decide, to one's own satisfaction, what groundwork of tmth there may be in
those works which bear the name of St. Clement, and relate the contests of
St Peter and Simon Magus. That in their present form they are a kind
of religious romance, few will doubt; but they are certainly of great anti-
quity, and it is difficult to suppose tliem either pure invention or mere em^
bellishments of the simple history in the Acta.

YOL. II. 4

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50 SIMON MAGUS. fiooK H.

influence, and to place the initiated in possession of
some mighty secrets, or to endow him with the con-
trol of some potent spirits. Simon's offer of pecuniary
remuneration betrays at once either that his own
object was sordid, as he suspected theirs to be ; or, at
the highest, he sought to increase, by a combination
with them, his own reputation and influence. Nor, on
the indignant refusal of St. Peter, does his entreaty for
tlieir prayers, lest he should incur the wrath of their
offended Deity, by any means imply a more accurate
and Christian conception of their religion : it is
exactly the tone of a man, half impostor and half
enthusiast, who trembles before tlie offended anger
of some mightier superhuman being, whom his inef-
fectual magic has no power to control or to appease.
We collect no more than this from the narrative in the
Acts.i

Yet, unless Simon was in fact a personage of con-
siderable importance during the early history of Chris-
tianity, it is difiicult to account for his becoming, as he
is called by Beausobre, the hero of the Romance of
Heresy. If Simon was the same with that magician, a
Cypriot by birth, who was employed by Felix as agent
in his intrigue to detach Drusilla from her husband,^
this part of his character accords with the charge of
licentiousness advanced both against his life and his
doctrines by his Christian opponents. This is by no
means improbable ; and indeed, even if he was not a
person thus politically prominent and influential,
the early writers of Christianity would scarcely have
concurred in representing him as a formidable and
dangerous antagonist of the faith, as a kind of

1 Acts yiii. 9, 24.

s Joseph., Ant zx. 5, 2. Compare Knbs and Knlnoel, in loco Acta
Apost.

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Chap.V. his character AND TENETS. 61

personal rival of St. Peter, without some other ground-
work for the fiction besides the collision recorded
in the Acts. The doctrines which are ascribed to
him and to his followers, who continued to exist
for two or three centuries,^ harmonize with the
glimpse of his character and tenets in the writings of
St. Luke.

Simon probably was one of that class of adventurers
which abounded at this period, or like Apollo- his nwi
nius of Tyana and others at a later time, with «»d tenets,
whom the opponents of Christianity attempted to con-
found Jesus and his apostles. His doctrine was Ori-
ental in its language and in- its pretensions.^ He was
the first -^on or Emanation, or rather perhaps the first
manifestation, of the primal Deity. He assumed, not
merely the title of the Great Power or Virtue of God,
but all the other appellations, — the Word, the Perfec-
tion, the Paraclete, the Almighty, the whole combined
attributes of the Deity .^ He had a companion,
Helena, according to the statement of his
enemies, a beautiful prostitute,* whom he found at
Tyre, who became in like manner the first conception
(the Ennoea) of the Deity ; but who, by her conjunc-
tion with matter, had been enslaved to its malignant
influence, and, having fallen under the power of evil

^ Origen denies the existence of living Simonians in his day (Contra
Cels. lib. i.) ; which implies that they had subsisted nearly up to that time.

3 Irenaeos, lib. i. c. 20; the fullest of the early authorities on Simon.
Compare Grabe's notes. The personal conflict with St. Peter in Rome, and
the famous inscription, ** Semoni Sanco," must, I think, be abandoned to
legend. That Simon was a heresiarch, and a heresiarch of great power
and wide influence, not a mythical personage created out of the passage in
the Acts of the Apostles, is further and still more conclusively shown in the
Sixth Book of the Philosophumena.

' " Ego sum Sermo Dei, ego sum Speciosus, ego Paracletus, ego Onmipo-
tens, ego omnia Doi." — Hieronym. in Matth., Op. iv. 114.

^ Iremeus, as above.

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52 SmOlf'S HELENA. Book IL

angels, had been in a constant state of transmigration,
and, among other mortal bodies, had occupied that
of the famous Helen of Troy. Beausobre,^ who ele-
vates Simon into a Platonic philosopher, explains the
Helena as a sublime allegory. She was the Psyche of
his philosophic romance. The soul, by evil influences,
had become imprisoned in matter. By her the Deity
had created the angels: the angels, enamoured of
her, had inextricably entangled her in that polluting
bondage, in order to prevent her return to heaven.
To fly from their embraces, she had passed from
body to body. Connecting this fiction with the
Grecian mythology, she was Minerva, or imperson-
ated Wisdom;* perhaps, also, Helena, or embodied
Beauty.*

It is by no means inconsistent with the character of
Orientalism, or with the spirit of the times, to recon-
cile much of these different theories. According to
the Eastern system of teaching by symbolic action,
Simon may have carried ahout a living and real illus-
tration of his allegory : his Helena may have been to
his disciples the mystic image of an Emanation from
the Divine Mind ; her native purity, indeed, originally
defiled by the contagious malignity of matter, but
under the guidance of the Hierophant, or rather by her
sanctifying association with the "Power of God,"
either soaring again to her primal sanctity, or even,

1 Beaiuobre, Hist, da Manich^me, i. 86.

3 His disciples worshipped two stataes, — of Simon as Zens, of Helen aa
Athene. Eixova re nv ^ifujyos Ixawiv ei( Aide fiop^, Koi t^C 'E^-
VTfC iv f*op^ A9Tfvac, kcU nsvrof npoaicovovm, rdv fitv KoXovvrec Kvpiiov, r^
dt Kvpiav, — PhUosophumena, vi. p. 176.

* Ij^rtf 6^1 KaTOYtvofihnj kv ywai^v krapaaoe rdf kv leSafUft dwofutc dtit
rd &imrip^^TOV abrvc ko^Xoc, p. 174. The Trojan war seems to hare
been held as a type of this strife among the world-ruling angels, caused by
Hden.

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Chap. V. PROBABILITY OF HISTOBT OF SIMON. 53

while the grosser body was still abandoned to its
inalienable corruption, emancipating the uninfected
and unparticipant soul from all the depravation, almost
from the consciousness, of corporeal indul- Piobabmcj
gence. Be this as it may; whether the ofsimon.**"^
opinions of Simon were derived frt)m Platonism, or, as
it is much more likely, immediately from Eastern
sources, — his history is singularly characteristic of
the state of the public mind at this period of the
world. A man assuming the lofty appellation of
the Power of God, and, with his female associate,
personating the male and female Energies or Intel-
ligences of the Deity, appears to our colder European
reason a fiction too monstrous even for the proverbial
credulity of human kind. But this Magianism of
Simon must be considered in reference to the whole
theory of theurgy or magic, and the prevalent theoso-
phy or notions of the divine nature. In the East,
superstition had in general repudiated the grossly
material forms in which the Western anthropomor-
phism had embodied its gods; it remained more
spiritual, but it made up for this by the fantastic
manner in which it multiplied^ the gradations of spiiv
itual beings more or less remotely connected with the
first great Supreme. The more subtile the spirits, in
general they were the more beneficent; the more
intimately associated with matter, the more malignant.
The avowed object of Simon was to destroy the
authority of the evil spirits,- and to emancipate man-
kind from their control. This peopling of the universe
with a regularly descending succession of beings was
common to the whole East ; perhaps, in great part, to
the West. The later Jewish doctrine of angels and
devils approached nearly to it; it lurked in Platonism,

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A \

54 THE SmONIAN DOCTRINE. Book H.

and assumed a higher form in the Eastern cosmogo-
nies. In these it not merely assigned guardian or
hostile beings to individuals or to nations, but its
peculiar creator to the material universe, from which
it aspired altogether to keep aloof the origin and
author of the spiritual world; though the latter supe-
rior and benignant Being was ordinarily introduced as
interfering in some manner to correct, to sanctify, and
to spiritualize the world of man ; and it was in accord-
ance with this part of the theory that Simon pro-
claimed himself the representative of Deity. That
such was the Simonian doctrine, I think there can
be no doubt: a very small part, however, only its
elementary notions, can with any probability be traced
to Simon himself. He was but the remote parent
of a numerous, wide-spread, and inventive line of
successors.^

1 According to the Philosophnmena, Simon of Gcttim in Samaria called
himself a god, in imitation of a certain ApsethuSf who in Libya trained some
parrots to say, " Apsethus is a god," and then let them loose. They flew
abroad, all over Libya and as far as Greece. He obtained divine worship.
But a clever Greek found out the trick, caught some of the parrots, and taught
them to say, "Apsethus shut us up, and taught us to say, * Apeethus is a
god.* " He let them fly to Libya. Upon which the Libyans burned Apse-
thuB as an impostor. This is an old story told of Hanno the Carthaginian.
— iBlian, Var. Hist, xiv. 80. Its introduction, and the stress laid upon it by
Hippolytus, do not give a veiy high notion either of the learning or the fair-
ness of the ** Refuter of Heresies." But what is really curious and valuable
in the work is the citations firom the ian^aai^ fieyaXij (the Great Announce-
ment, the Scriptures, it may be called, of the Simonian sect). Of the exist"
ence of this book there can be no doubt That it was written by the Simon
Magus of the Acts, it were utter absurdity to suppose. It may have been the
work of Dositheus or Menander, op of both of them, the true founders and
inventors of Simonianism. Yet there can be no doubt that it was accepted by
Hippolytus as the authentic work of Simon. The chaos of opinions which
it discloses is almost inconceivable. Simon must have been well read in
Plato and Aristotle, if not in Pythagoras (Hippolytus everywhere discerns
the influence, almost the exclusive influence, of Greek philosophy). He
quotes the poet Empedodes. His Helena (he also allegorized the wooden
horse) is derived from Homer and Stesichorus. He is equally familiar with
the Old Testament (among other points he holds fire to be the Primal God-

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Chaf. y. SIMONIANISM. 55

But Simon himself was at no time a Christian;
neither was the heir and successor of his doctrines,
Menander;^ and it was not till it had made some

head: tiiis he borrowed, according to Hippolytiu, fix>m the saying of Moses,
** Our God is a consuming fiie ") and with the New: his Helena is the " lost
sheep " of the Gospels. And we read the following strange parody, to our ears
profane, on the great truths of Christianity : ** As he had redeemed his Helena,
so by his own wisdom (lirc/Mjffecjf, his Gnosis) he had brought salvation
to the world. For the angels, through their ambition, having administered
the world badly, he had come for the restoration of all tilings, metamorphosed
and made equal to the Principalities and Powers, and to the Angels, so as to
appear as a man, not being man, and to suffer seemingly in Judiea, though
he did not suffer [with Bunsen, I erase the xai], and appeared to the Jews as
the Son, in Samaria as the Father, among the Gentiles as the Holy Ghost.
But he permitted hhnself to be called by any name by which men chose to
call him. The prophets, he aven, altered their prophecies inspired by the
angels who created the world [the evil Demiurge], whom therefore the be-
lievers in Simon and Helena do not regard, but assert their own perfect free-
dom. For they say that they are saved by his grace [the grace of Simon].*'
j[Bunsen, by one of his arbitrary decisions, to my judgment in contradiction
to the whole text, supposes all this to be the Simonian description of our Sa-
vior, Jesus, not that of Simon.)

Indeed, the most remarkable part of this doctrine is its strong opposition
to that of the Clementine Homilies. Here throughout Simon is the Saviour;
he is the Christ, He that hath stood, that stands, that will stand (Hippolytus
would show that he is not the Saviour), on xptorbc oifK ^ liifiav, 6 kard^,
ardc, OTTfOOfievoc, p. 162.

In the Acts we read that Simon's followers said, *^ This man is the great
Power of God" {dwofu^ tov Oeov if fieya?.7f) ; and, according to all this sys-
tem, the great Power was the efflux of the Ineffable, Unapproachable, Un-
known Godhead, the Redeemer of the materialized souls of men. In the
Clementines he is the antagonist of St. Peter. Even in his end, there is a sin-
gular peculiarity in the fable. Here, too, in Rome, he is opposed to St. Peter.
But instead of attempting to fly, as in the vulgar tradition ( Apost. Const vi. 9),
and falling and breaking his neck, Simon offered to be buried alive, and de-
clared that he would rise again on the third day. His disciples buried him
in a deep trench; ^ but to this day,'* says Hippolytus, " they await his resur-
PBction."

Neander dismisses Simon and the Simonians almost with contempt The
Philosophumena, I think, show that I am right in attaching more importance
to these doctrines, as an early source and manifestation of Gnostic opinions.

1 Menander baptized in his own name, being sent by the Supreme Power
of God. His baptism conferred a resurrection not only to eternal life, but to
eternal youth. An opinion, as M. Matter justly observes, not easily recon-
cilable to those who considered the body the unworthy prison of the soul. —
Irenseus, i. 21. Matter, L 219.

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56 GNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY. Book U.

progress in the Syrian and Asiatic cities, that Chris-
tianity came into closer contact with those Gnostic or
pre-Gnostic systems, which, instead of opposing it with
direct hostility, received it with more insidious venera-
tion, and warped it into an unnatural accordance with
their own principles. As the Jew watched the appear-
ance of Jesus, and listened to his announcement as
the Messiah, in anxious suspense, expecting that even
yet He would assume those attributes of temporal
grandeur and visible majesty which, according to his
conceptions, were inseparable from the true Messiah ;
as, even after the death of Jesus, the Jewish Chris-
tians still eagerly anticipated his immediate return to
judgment, his millennial reign, and his universal
anosticbm dominiou, — so many of the Oriental specu-
iSSff^Hh latists, as soon as Christianity began to be
chrtetianity. devcloped, hailed it as the completion of
their own wild theories, and forced it into accordance
with their universal tenet of distinct intelligences
emanating from the primal Being. Thus Christ, who
to the vulgar Jew was to be a temporal king, to the
Cabalist or the Chaldean, or to men of kindred
opinions, became a Sepliiroth, an ^on, an emanation
from the one Supreme. While the author of the
religion remained on earth, and while the religion
itself was still in its infancy, Jesus was in danger of
being degraded into a King of the Jews ; his Gospel,
of becoming the code of a new religious republic.^

I The Ebionitefl of Neander. Neonder's chapter on the Ebionites and
Nazarenea is excellent I acquiesce in his explanation of Ebion (from the
Hebrew word li"^^K, the poor); but instead of taking the word, as Origen
did, in his allegoric vein, as a contemptuous appellation from their poverty
of doctrine, I would suppose that these refugees who fled during the war of
Titus and the war of Hadrian, and stole back to Jerusalem, were poor as
compared with the Gentile Christians, and the earlier Christians of Palestine
addressed bj St. James in his Epistle, " Go to now, ye rich men."

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Chap.V. EPHESUS— ST. JOHN. 67

Directly it got beyond the borders of Palestine, and
the name of Christ had acquired sanctity and venerar
lion in the Eastern cities, he became a kind of meta-
physical impersonation, while the religion lost its
purely moral cast, and assumed the character of a
speculative theogony.

Ephesus is the scene of the iBirst collision between
Christianity and Orientalism of which we can
trace any authentic record. Ephesus I have
before described as the great emporium of magic arts,
and the place where the unwieldy allegory of the East
lingered in the bosom of the more elegant Grecian
humanism.^ Here the Greek, the Oriental, the Jew,
the philosopher, the magician, the follower of John the
Baptist, the teacher of Christianity, were no doubt
encouraged to settle by the peaceful opulence of the
inhabitants, and the constant influx of strangers, under
the proudly indifferent protection of the municipal
authorities and of the Roman Government. In Ephe-
sus, according to universal tradition, survived the
last of the apostles; and here the last of

^ , St. John.

the Gospels — some have supposed, I tliink
rightly, the latest of the writings of the New Testament
— appeared in the midst of this struggle with the for-
eign elements of conflicting systems. This Gospel was
written, I conceive, not against any peculiar
sect or individual, but to arrest the spirit of
Orientalism, which was working into the essence of
Christianity, destroying its beautifiil simplicity, and
threatening altogether to change both its design and
its effects upon mankind. In some points, it nece&-

^ The Temple of Diana was the trimnph of pore Grecian architecture ; bat
her statue was not that of the divine Huntress, like that twin sister of the
Belvidere Apollo in the galleiyat Paris: she was the Diana multimamma,
the emblematic impersonation of All-prodnctiye, All-nBtritive Nature.

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68 NICOLAITANS— CERINTHUS. Book 11.

Barily spoke the language, which was common alike,
though not precisely with the same meaning, to the
Platonism of the West and the Theogonism of the
East. But how different and peculiar its sense ! It
kept the moral and religious, if not altogether distinct
from the physical notions, yet clearly and invariably
predominant. While it appropriated the well-known
and almost universal term, the Logos, or Word of
God, to the divine author of Christianity,^ and even
adopted some of the imagery from the hypothesis of
conflicting light and darkness; yet it altogether re-
jected all the wild cosmogonical speculations on the
formation of the world: it was silent on that ele-
mentary distinction of the Eastern creed, the separation
of matter from the ethereal mind. The union of the
soul with the Deity, tliough in the writings of John it
takes something of a mystic tone, is not the Pantheistic
absorption into the parent Deity: it is an union by
the aspiration of the pious heart, the conjunction by
pure and holy love with the Deity, who, to the ecstatic
moral affection of the adorer, is himself pure love.
It insists not on abstraction from matter, but from sin,
from hatred, from all fierce and corrupting passions :
its new life is active as well as meditative ; a social
principle, which incorporates together all pure and holy
men, and conjoins them with their federal head, Christ,
the image and representative of the God of love : it is
no principle of isolation in solitary and rapturous medi-
tation ; it is a moral, not an imaginative purity.

Among the opponents to the holy and sublime

Christianity of St. John, during his residence at Ephe-

sus, the names of the Nicolaitans and of

Nlootoltoni.

Cerinthus alone have survived.^ Of the

1 Compare Burton (Bampton Lectures), who fully admits this.

* Genual tradition derived the Nicolaitans from Nicolas, one of the seren

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Chap. V. CERINTHUS. 69

tenets of the former, and the author of the doc-
trine, nothing precise is known; but the indignant
language with which they are alluded to in the Sacred
Writings implies, that they were not merely hostile
to the abstract doctrines, but also to the moral effects
of the Gospel. Nor does it appear quite clear that
the Nicolaitans were a distuxct and organized sect.

Cerinthus was the first, of whose tenets we have any
distinct statement, who, admitting the truth
of Christianity, attempted to incorporate with
it foreign and Oriental tenets.^ Cerinthus was of
Jewish descent, and educated in the Judaso-Platonic
school of Alexandria.^ His system was a singular
and apparently incongruous fusion of Jewish, Chris-
tian, and Oriental notions. He did not, like Simon or
Menander, invest himself in a sacred and mysterious
character, though he pretended to angelic revelations.^
Like all the Orientals, his imagination was haunted
with the notion of the malignity of matter ; and his
object seems to have been to keep both the primal
Being and the Christ uninfected with its contagion.

deaconSf Acts vi. 6. Eiisebins (Eccl. Hist. 1. iii. c. 29) relates a story, that
Nicolas, accused of being jealous of his beautiful wife, offered her in matri-
mony to whoever chose to take her. His followers, on this example, founded
the tenet of promiscuous concubinage. Wetstein, with whom Michaelis and
Bosenmliller are inclined to agree, supposed that Nicolas was a translation of
the Hebrew word Bileam, both signifying, in their respectire languages, the
subduer or the destroyer of the people. Michaelis, Eichhom, and Storr sup-
pose, therefore, that it was the name rather of a sect than an individual, and
the same with those mentioned in 2 Pet. 11. 10, 18, 18; iii. 8; Jude 8, 16. See
Rosenmiiller on Rev. ii. 6. The Philosophumena takes the popular view
of the Nicolaitans from Nicolas the deacon : it is precisely the same view and
in the same words with Irensus.

1 See Mosheim, De Rebus ante C. M. p. 199. Matter, i. 221.

^ Theodoret, ii. c. 3. This is expressed by the Philosophumena. It con-
firms also Neander*s ingenious connection of the tenets with those of Philo.

* Eusebius, £. H. iii. 28, from Caius the presbyter, TeparoXoyia^ rifdv 6f
6C hyyOjunf aXrrt^ de^ic^^uvai ^evdo/ievof.

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60 STSTEM OF GERnrrHUS. Book H.

The Creator of the material world, therefore, was a
secondary being, — an angel or angels; as Gerinthns
seems to have adhered to the Jewish, and did not
adopt the Oriental language.^ But his national and
hereditary reverence for the Law withheld him from
that bold and hostile step which was taken by most of
the other Gnostic sects, to which, no doubt, the gen-
eral animosity to the Jews in Syria and Egypt con-
curred, — the identification of the Gk>d of the Jewish
covenant with the inferior and malignant author of
the material creation. He retained, according to one
account, his reverence for the rites, the ceremonies,
the Law, and the Prophets^ of Judaism, to which he
was probably reconciled by the allegoric interpretations
of Philo. The Christ, in his theory, was of a higher
order than those secondary and subordinate beings
who had presided over the older world. But, with
the jealousy of all the Gnostic sects, lest the pure
Emanation from the Father should be unnecessarily
contaminated by too intimate a conjunction with a
material and mortal form, he relieved him from the
degradation of a human birth, by supposing that the
Clirist above descended on the man Jesus at his
baptism; and from the ignominy of a mortal death,
by making him re-ascend before that crisis, having
accomplished his mission of making known ^^the
Unknown Father," the pure and primal Being, of
whom the worshippers of the Creator of the material
imiverse, and of the Jehovah of the Jews, were alike
ignorant. But the most inconsequential part of the
doctrine of Cerinthus was his retention of the Jew-

^ Epiphanii H«r. viii. 28. According to Irennus, ^* a virtute quadam yaldd
separat&j et distante ab ed piincipalitate qiue est anper nniTersa et ignonmte
emn qui est snper omnia Deuin." — Iren., i. 26.

2 Inferior angela to thoee of the Law inspired tlie prophets.

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Cbap. V. THE LATER GNOSTICS. 61

ish doctrine of the millennium. It must, indeed, have
been purified from some of its grosser and more
sensual images; for the Ghristos, the immaterial
Emanation from the Father, was to preside during its
long period of harmony and peace.^

The later Gnostics were bolder but more consistent
innovators on the simple scheme of Chris- j^^
tianity. It was not till the second century o»**>«-
that the combination of Orientalism with Christianity
was matured into the more perfect Gnosticism. This
was, perhaps, at its height from about the year 120 to
140. In all the great cities of the East, in which
Christianity had established its most flourishing com-
munities, sprang up this rival, which aspired to a stiU
higher degree of knowledge than was revealed in the
Gospel, and boasted that it soared almost as much
above the vulgar Christianity as above the vulgar
Paganism. Antioch, where the first church of the
Christians had been opened, beheld the followers of
Saturninus withdrawing, in a proud assurance of their
superiority, from the common brotherhood of believers,
and insulating themselves as the gifted possessors of
still higher spiritual secrets. Edessa, whose king
very early Christian fable had exalted into a personal
correspondent with the Saviour, rang with the mystic
hymns of Bardesanes ; to the countless religious and
philosophical factions of Alexandria were added those
of Basilides and Valentinus ; until a still more un-
scrupulous and ardent enthusiast, Marcion of Pontus,
threw aside in disdain the whole existing religion of
the Gospel, remodelled the sacred books, and estab-

1 Cerinthna waa considered by some early writen the anthor of the Apoca^
lypse, because that work appeared to contain his grosser doctrine of the mil-
lennial reign of Christ — Dionysiiis apod Enseb., iil. 282; yii. 25.

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62 GNOSTiaSM— THE PLEROMA. Book U.

lished himself as the genuine hierophant of the real
Christian mysteries.

Gnosticism, though very diflFerent from Christianity,
Th« primal was of a sublime and imposing character as
onosticum. au imaginative creed, ahd not more unreason-
able than the other attempts of human reason to solve
the inexplicable secret, the origin of evil. Though
variously modified, the systems of the different teach-
ers were essentially the same. The primal Deity
remained aloof in his unapproachable majesty; the
Unspeakable, the Ineffable, the Nameless, the Self-
existing.^ The Pleroma, the fulness of the
"°** Godhead, expanded itself in still outspread-
ing circles, and approached, till it comprehended, the
universe. Prom the Pleroma emanated all spiritual
being, and to the Pleroma all such being was to
return and mingle again in indissoluble unity. By
their entanglement in malign and hostile matter, —
the source of moral as well as physical evil, — all
outwardly existing beings had degenerated from their
high origin : their redemption from this foreign bond-
age, their restoration to purity and peace in the
bosom of Divinity, the universal harmony of all
immaterial existence, thus resolved again into the Pie-
The^n roma, was the merciful design of the uEon
Chris*. Christ, who had for this purpose invaded
and subdued the foreign and hostile provinces of the
presiding Energy, or Deity, of matter.

In all the Oriental sects, this primary principle, the
malignity of matter, haimted the imagination; and

1 The aatfaor of the Apostolic Constitutions asserts, as the first principle of
all the early heresies, rdv fttv iravroKparopa Qebv phurt^fielv, dyvotrrmf
(fo^aCnv, Kol fjo^ dvcu Uaripa tov Xpiarov, iiqSk tov Koofwu dijfuovpyd^',
dXX' uXeKTOv, af>/^Tov, iucaTovoftaoTov^ aitToyhed^ov. — Lib. vi. c 10.

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Chap. V. MALIGNITT OF MATTER. 68

to this principle every tenet must be accommodated.
The sublimest doctrines of the Old Testa- ^tixigoityat
ment — the creative omnipotence, the sever- "*''*'•
eignty, the providence of God, as well as the grosser
and anthropomorphic images, in which the acts and
passions and even the form of man are assigned to
the Deity — fell under the same remorseless proscrip-
tion. It was pollution, it was degradation to the pure
and elementary spirit, to mingle with, to approximate,
to exercise even the remotest influence over, the
material world. The creation of the visible universe
was made over, according to all, to a secondary, with
most to a hostile, Demiurge. The hereditary rever-
ence which had modified the opinions of Cerinthus,
with regard to the Jehovah of his fathers, had no hold
on the Syrian and Egyptian speculatists. They fear-
lessly pursued their system to its consequences, and
the whole of the Old Testament was abandoned to the
inspiration of an inferior and evil demon: the Jews
were left in exclusive possession of their national
Deity, whom the Gnostic Christians dis- Rejection of
dained to acknowledge as bearing any resem- Testament
blance to the abstract, remote, and impassive Spirit.
To them the mission of Christ revealed a Deity
altogether unknown in the dark ages of a world wliich
was the creation and the domain of an inferior being.
They would not, like the philosophizing Jews, take
refuge in allegory to explain the too material images
of the works of the Deity in the act of creation, and
his subsequent rest ; the intercourse with man in the
garden of Eden ; the trees of knowledge and of life ;
the serpent, and the fall. They rejected the whole,
as altogether extraneous to Christianity, belonging
to another world, with which the God revealed by

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64 REJECTION OF THE SCBIPTUBES. Book IL

Christ had no concern or relation. If they conde-
scended to discuss the later Jewish history, it was
merely to confirm their preconceived notions. The
apparent investiture of the Jehovah with the state
and attributes of a temporal sovereign, the imperfeo-
tion of the Law, the barbarity of the people, the
bloody wars in which they were engaged; in short,
whatever in Judaism was irreconcilable with a purely
intellectual and morally perfect system, — argued its
origin from an imperfect and secondary author.

But some tenets of primitive Christianity came no
Of some less iuto dircct collision with the leading
the New. principles of Orientalism. The human na-
ture of Jesus was too deeply impressed upon all the
Gospel history, and perplexed the whole school, as
well the precursors of Gnosticism as the more perfect
Gnostics. His birth and death bore equal evidence
to the unspiritualized materialism of his mortal body.
The Gnostics seized with avidity the distinction be-
tween the divine and human nature ; but the Christ,
the iEon, which emanated from the pure and primal
Deity, as yet unknown in the world of the inferior
creator, must be relieved as far as possible from the
degrading and contaminating association with the
mortal Jesus. The simpler hypothesis of the union
of the two natures, mingled too closely, according to
their views, the ill-assorted companions. The human
birth of Jesus, though guarded by the virginity of
his mother, was still ofifensive to their subtler and
more fastidious purity. The Christ, therefore, the
Emanation from the Pleroma, descended upon the
man Jesus at his baptism. The death of Jesus was
a still more serious cause of embarrassment. They
seem never to have entertained the notion of an

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Chap.V. satubninus. 65

expiatory sacrifice ; and the connection of the ethereal
mind with the pains and sufferings of a carnal body
was altogether repulsive to their strongest prejudices.
Before the death, therefore, of Jesus, the Christ had
broken off his temporary association with the perish-
able body of Jesus, and surrendered it to the impotent
resentment of Pilate and of the Jews ; or, according
to the theory of the Docetse, adopted by almost all the
Gnostic sects, the whole union with the material
human form was an illusion upon the senses of men ;
it was but an apparent human being, an impassive
phantom, which seemed to undergo all the insults and
the agony of the cross.

Such were the general tenets of the Gnostic sects,
emanating from one simple principle. But the details
of tlieir cosmogony, their philosophy, and their reli-
gion, were infinitely modified by locd circumstances,
by the more or less fanciful genius of their founders,
and by the stronger infusion of the different elements
of Platonism, Cabalism, or that which, in its stricter
sense, may be called Orientalism. The number of
circles or emanations or procreations which mteiv
vened between the spiritual and the material world ;
the nature and the rank of the Creator "of that mate-
rial world ; his more or less close identification with
the Jehovah of Judaism; the degree of malignity
which they attributed to the latter ; the oflBce and the
nature of the Christos, — these were open points,
upon which they admitted, or, at least, assumed, the
utmost latitude.

The earliest of the more distinguished Gnostics is
Saturninus, who is represented as a pupil of ^^
Menander, the successor of Simon Magus.^

^ On Satunmiifl, see Lreneas, i. 22; Etueb., iy. 7; Epiphtn., Haer. 28;
TOL. II. 5

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66 DOCTJBINE OF SATURNIKnS. Book U,

But this Samaritan sect was always in direct hostility
with Christianity, while Saturninus departed less from
the Christian system than most of the wilder and more
imaginative teachers of Gnosticism. The strength of
the Christian party in Antioch may in some degree
have overawed and restrained the aberrations pf his
fancy. Saturninus did not altogether exclude the
primal spiritual Being from all concern or interest
in the material world. For the Creator of the visible
universe, he assumed the seven great angels (which
the later Jews had probably borrowed, though with
different powers, from the seven Amschaspands of
Zoroastrianism). or rather the chief of these seven,
who was the God of the Jews. Neither were these
angels essentially evil, nor was the domain on which
they exercised their creative power altogether surren-
dered to the malignity of matter: it was a kind of
debatable ground between the powers of evil and of
good. The historian of Gnosticism has remarked the
singular beauty of the fiction regarding the creation
of man. ^^The angels tried their utmost efforts to
form man ; but there arose under their creative influ-
ence only * a worm creeping upon the earth.' God,
condescending to interpose, sent down his Spirit,
which breathed into the reptile the living soul of
man." It is not quite easy to connect with this view
of the origin of man the tenets of Saturninus, that
human kind was divided into two distinct races, the
good and the bad. Whether the latter became so
from receiving a feebler and less influential portion
of the Divine Spirit, or whether they were a subse-

Theodoret, Haer. Fab. lib. iii. ; Tertullian, De Animft, 28; De Prsscrip. eont.
Hsr. c. 46. Of the moderns, Moeheim, p. 886; Matter, i. 276. Bb Irred
under Hadrian.

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Chap.v. doctrine of saturjonus. 67

quent creation of Satan, who assumes the station of
the Ahriman of the Persian system, does not clearly
appear.^ But the descent of Christ was to separate
finally these two conflicting races. He was to rescue
the good from the predominant power of the wicked ;
to destroy the kingdom of the spirits of evil, who,
emanating in countless numbers from Satan their
chief, waged a fatal war against the good; and to
elevate them far above the power of the chief of the
angels, the Gk)d of the Jews, for whose imperfect laws
were to be substituted the purifying principles of
asceticism, by whieh the children of light were re-
united to the source and origin of light. The Christ
himself was the Supreme Power of God, immaterial,
incorporeal, formless, but assuming the semblance of
man; and his followers were, as far as possible, to
detach themselves from their corporeal bondage,
and assimilate themselves to his spiritual being.
Marriage was the invention of Satan and his evil
spirits, or, at best, of the great Angel, the God of
the Jews, in order to continue the impure generation.
The elect were to abstain from propagating a race of
darkness and imperfection. Whether Satuminus,
with the Essenes, maintained this total abstinence
as the especial privilege of the higher class of his
followers, and permitted to the less perfect the con-
tinuation of their kind, or whether he abandoned
altogether this perilous and degrading office to the
wicked, his system appears incomplete, as it seems
to yield up as desperate the greater part of the human
race; to perpetuate the dominion of evil; and to

^ The latter opinion is that of Moaheim. M. Matter, on the contrary^ sajs,
*' Satan n'a pas pourtant cr^^ ces hommes, il les a trouy^ tout faits, il 8*en
est empar^ ; c'est Ilk sa sphere d'activit^ et la limite de sa puissance." — t i. p.
285.

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68 ALEXANDRIA --BJLSIUDfiS. Book n.

want the general and final absorption of all existence
into the purity and h^piness of the primal Being.

Alexandria, the centre, as it were, of the specula-
tive and intellectual activity of the Roman
world, to which ancient Egypt, Asia, Pales-
tine, and Greece furnished the mingled population
of her streets and the conflicting opinions of her
schools, gave birth to the two succeeding and most
widely disseminated sects of Gnosticism, — those of
Basilides and Yalentinus.

Basilides was a Syrian by birth, and by some is sup-
posed to have been a scholar of Mcnander,
at the same time with Saturninus. He
claimed, however, Glaucias, a disciple of St. Peter,
as his original teacher; and his doctrines assumed
the boastful title of the Secret Traditions of the great
Apostle.^ He also had some ancient prophecies, those
of Cham and Barkaph,^ peculiar to his sect. Accord-
ing to another authority, he was a Persian ; but this
may have originated from the Zoroastrian cast of his
primary tenets.* From the Zendavesta, Basilides drew
the eternal hostility of mind and matter, of light and
darkness ; but the Zoroastrian doctrine seems to have
accommodated itself to the kindred systems of Egypt.
In fact, the Gnosticism of Basilides appears to have
been a fusion of the ancient sacerdotal religion of
Egypt with the angelic and demoniac theory of Zoro-
aster.^ Basilides did not, it seems, maintain his one

1 According to tbe Phflosophnmena, the Basilidians professed to derire
their doctrines from the apostle Mat^u.

3 Irenseus differs, in his view of the Basilidian theory, from the remains of
the Basilidian books appealed to by Clement of Alexandria, Strom, vi. p.
875, 796 ; Theodoret, UmtetL FabuL 1, 3 ; Enseb., £. H. iv. 7. Basilides pub-
lished twenty-fonr volnmee of £xegetica, or interpretations of his doctrines.

* Clemens Alex., Stramata, yi. 648. Easeb., H. E. iv. 7.

^ The Philosophnmena enters at some length into the doctrines of Bas^

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Chap.Y. the JSONS of GNOSTICISM. 69

abstract unapproachable Deity far above the rest of
the universe, but connected him^ by a long and insen*
gible gradation of intellectual developments or mani*
festations, with the visiUe and material world. From
the Father preceded seven beings, who together with
him made up an ogdoad; constituted the first scale
of intellectual beings; and inhabited the highest
heaven, the purest intellectual sphere. According to
their names, — Mind, Reason, Intelligence (^^^qw^aus)^
Wisdom, Power, Justice, and Peace, — they are merely,
in our language, the attributes of the Deity, imperson-
ated in this system.

The number of these primary -^ns is the same as
the Persian system of the Deity and the seven Am-
Bchaspands, and the Sephiroth of the Cabala, and
probably, as far as that abstruse subject is known, of
the ancient Egyptian theology.^

The seven primary effluxes of the Deity went on
producing and multiplying, each forming its own
realm or sphere, till they reached the number of 365.*

lides, and has, seemingly, many citations ih)m his writings. Hippolytus, as
IS his wont, traces the origin of them to the Greek philosopher. According
to the Philosophumena, the primal Deity was so absolutely secluded fh>m all
beings as himself to cease to be a being. Basilides went on in his negation
till he denied the existence of God. It ia a strange passage, which Bunsen
seems to me to have eluded: 'E^reZ ob^ tjv, ohx 6^, oifK ohaia, oIk 6,voih-
oiov, obx iff^^wv, oh (jwderov, oh voTfrdv, ohx dvaiadiiTov, oOk dvOpuKOi, ohn
dyye^f, oh i^edf, ohSk bTjjq ti tuv dvofia^fievov ff 6C alad^ae<jg hifi^avo-
fdvciv ^ voffTuv vpayfiarav, (W^* ohro ^^JtrofiepOTopof iravruv dir^ Tre-
ptyeypoftfievuv, ovk Cm ^edf

(ov 'Aparrorc^ koX^ voijoof vwfoeuCf ovroi Sk oOk Hvra)
avoflToq, avaurefrroc, i/JoiiAwc, dirpocuptrcii, iuraecjg^ 6eveTn9vfi;^iJC Koofiov
ifiiT^oe nooiaoL (p. 68, m Bun^n's Analecta). The first seems to have been
a purely intellectnal or metaphysical evolution. But this Being, or no Being,
contained within itself the seed of the whole universe, the Cosmos.

^ See Matter, vol. ii. p. 5-87.

« It is difficult to suppose, that this number, either as originally borrowed
from the Egyptian theology or as invented by Basilides, had not some astro-

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70 THE MYSTICAL ABRAXAS. Book H.

The total number formed the mystical Abraxas,^ the
legend which is found on so many of the ancient
gems, the greater part of which are of Gnostic origin ;
though as much of this theory was from the doctrines
of ancient Egypt, not only the mode of expressing
their tenets by symbolic inscriptions, but even the
inscription itself, may be originally Egyptian.^ The

nomical reference. All thU, observes Bonsen, is merely the mythological
form of psychologic speculation, based npon the simple words of the Pro-
logue and coupled with the imaginary astronomy of the ancient world. Bun-
sen goes on to describe exceedingly well the next process, according to the
Philosophumena: ** It is stated in our extracts, that the words, ' Let there be
light,* produced the germ or seed of the world, which, adds Basilides, is
the light that came into the world (John i.)< The beauty of divine good-
ness attracts the element of life in matter; this divine element Basilides
calls the Sonship. There are three classes of Sonship. The most refined
element flies by its own nature up to the Inefiable Father; the second Son-
ship uses the Holy Spirit as a wing, but rises by its assistance to the paternal
glory, from whence the Holy Spirit, being repulsed by the Ineflable (and
attracted by matter), sinks into an intermediate state below the Inefikble
(purely intellectual), but still above this earth (the mere psychical or animal).
The essence of the life of this earth is concentrated in the Demiui^os, or
Spirit of the material world, whose Son (conscious realization ?) is much more
elevated than himself. This material world 'in its brute resistance, in its
blind hostility to the divine formative and limiting power is the evil princi-
ple." — Christianity and Mankind, vol. i. p. 18. In the original, of which
this is the summanr, there is much grace and fancy of imagery; but how far
are we from the simplicity of the Gospel, even frx>m that part of St John
which borders most closely on the mystic?

1 Iremeus, i. 28. See in M. Matter (ii. 49, 64) the countless interpretations
of this mysterious word. We might add others to those collected by his m-
dustiy. M. Matter adopts, though with some doubt, the opinion of M. Beller-
man and M. Hunter. "Le premier de ces ^rivains explique le mot
d* Abraxas par le kopte, qui est incontestablement ik Tancienne langue
d'Egypte ce que la grec modeme est au langage de Tancienne Gr^ce. La
syllable sadtch^ que les Grecs ont dii convertir en oro^, ou orof, ou oa^
n'ayant pu exprimer la demifere lettre de cette syllable, que par les lettres
X, 2, ou Z, signifierait parole, et abrak &lm, satnt, adorable^ en sorte que le
mot d' Abraxas tout entier ofirirait le sens de paroie 8acr^€. M. Munter ne
B'^loigne de cette interpretation, que pour les syllables cdfrak qu*il prend pour
le mot kopte * berra,' noweau, oe qui donne k Tensemble le sens de paroU
nouveoii." — Matter, ii. 40.

3 See, in the supplement to M. Matter's work, a very curious collection of
these Egyptian and E^gypto-Grecian medals; and a work of Dr. Walsh

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chap.v. the basiledian system. 71

lowest of these worlds bordered on the realm of
matter. On this confine the first confusion and inva-
sion of the hostile elements took place. At length
the chief angel of this sphere, on the verge of Intel-
lectual being, was seized with a desire of reducing the
confused mass to order. With his assistant angels,
he became the Creator. Though the form was of a
higher origin, it was according to the idea of Wisdom,
who, with the Deity, was part of the first and highest
Ogdoad. Basilides professed the most profound rever-
ence for Divine Providence ; and, in Alexandria, the
God of the Jews, softened ofiF, as it were, and harmo-
nized to the philosophic sentiment by the. school of
Philo, was looked upon in a less hostile light than by
the Syrian and Asiatic school. The East lent its
system of guardian angels, and the assistant angels
of the Demiurge were the spiritual rulers of the na-
tions, while the Creator himself was that of the Jews.
Man was formed of a triple nature, — his corporeal
form of brute and malignant matter ; his animal soul,
the Psychic principle, which he received from the
Demiurge; the higher and purer spirit, with which
he was endowed from a loftier region. This pure and
ethereal spirit was to be emancipated from its impure
companionship ; and Egypt, or rather the whole East,
lent the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, in
order to carry this stranger upon earth through the
gradations of successive purification, till it was re-
admitted to its parent heaven.

Basilides, in the Christian doctrine which he inter-
wove with this imaginative theory, followed the usual
Gnostic course.^ The Christ, the first -^n of the

on these coins. Compaze, likewise, Beaven's Lettres k M. Letronne, par-
ticularij p. 28.

1 Irensns, i. 29, compared with the other authors cited aboye.

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72 VALENTINTTS, Book IL

Deity, descended on the man Jesus at his baptism;
but, by a peculiar tenet of their own, the Basilidiana
rescued even the man Jesus from the degrading suflFer-
ings of the cross. Simon the Cjrenian was changed
into the form of Jesus ; on him the enemies of the
Crucified wasted their wrath, while Jesus stood aloof
in the form of Simon, and mocked their impotent
malice. Their moral perceptions must have been
singularlv blinded by their passion for their favorite
tenet, nor to discern how much they lowered their
Saviour by making Him thus render up an innocent
victim as his own substitute.

Yalentinus appears to have been considered the
most formidable and dangerous of tliis school
of Gnostics.^ He was twice excommuni-
cated, and twice received again into the bosom of the
Church. He did not confine his dangerous opiniona
to the school of Alexandria : he introduced the wild
Oriental speculations into the more peaceful West;
taught at Rome; and, a third time being expelled
from the Christian society, retired to Cyprus, — an
island where the Jews were formerly numerous tUL
the fatal insurrection in the time of Hadrian, and
where probably the Oriental philosophy might not find
an unwelcome reception, on the border, as it were, of
Europe and Asia.^

V^entinus annihilated the complexity of pre-existing
heavens, which perhaps connected the system of Basi-
lides with that of ancient Egypt, and did not interpose

1 Irenicns, Hjbt. v. Clemens. Alex., Strom. Origen, De Princip. oontrm
Celsnm. The author of the Didascalia Orientalise at the end of the works of
Clement of Alexandria. Tertulllan adversus Valentin. Theodoret, Fab.
Hsr. i. 7. Epiphanius, Hsr. 81. Fhilosophomena, p. 177, et seqq. Bun-
aen's Analecta, vol. i. p. 70-96.

3 Tertull. adveis. Valentin., c. 4. Epiphan. Massnet. (Diiia. in lien. p.
z. U) doubts this part of the Histoiy of Valentinus.

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Chap. V. SYSTEM OF VALENTnOJS. 75

the same infinite niunber of gradations between the
primal Deity and the material world. He descended
much more rapidly into the sphere of Christian images
and Christian language; or^ rather, he carried up
many of the Christian notions and terms^ and enshrined
ihem in the Pleroma, the region of spiritual and inac-
cessible light. The fundamental tenet of Orientalism,
the Incomprehensibility of the Great Supreme, was the
essential principle of his system, and was represented
in terms pregnant with mysterious sublimity. The
first Father, the Monad, was called Bythos, the Abyss,
the Depth, the Un&thomable, who dwelt alone in
inscrutable and inefiable height, with his own first
Conception, his Ennoia, who bore the emphatic and
awful name of Silence.^ The first development took
place after endless ages, in which the Unfathomable
dwelt in his majestic solitude, but he found not delight
in his solitude. Love was his motive. Love must
have an object, — something to love.^ This develop-
ment or self-manifestation was Mind (Nous), whose
appropriate consort was Aletheia, or Trutli. These
formed the first great quaternion, the highest scale
of being. Prom Mind and Truth proceeded the Word
and Life (Logos and Zoe) : their manifestations were
Man and the Church, Anthropos and Ecclesia ; and so
the first ogdoad was complete. From the Word and
Life proceeded ten more iBons : but these seem, firom
their names, rather qualities of the Supreme ; at least

1 Accoiding to Hippolytos (yi. 29-80), the Btricj; Valentinians did not
allow that Sig^ was to be reckoned as Sizygoe, but they maiDtained that
BythoB alone produced the Mobb] and this appears to have been the doctrine
of Valentinus. Bossers Pictore of the Valentinian System. Bunsen, L
148.

2 ^iXeprifioc y(ip oOk ifv- 'Aydjny ydp^ fqalv, ^ bhtg, tj 6k oydmy oOk
toTtv &yami, iav fjo^i rd ieyanufievov, — Philosophnmena^ p. 184. Hippoly*
tus traces all Valentinianism to Pythagoras and the Timieas of Plato.

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74 YALENTINIANISIL Book IL

the five masculine names, for the femmine appear to
imply some departure from the pure elementary and
unimpassioned nature of the primal Parent. The
males are, — Buthios, profound, with his consort Mixis,
conjunction ; Ageratos, that grows not old, with Heno-
sis, or union ; Autophyes, self-subsistent, with Hedone,
pleasure; Akinetos, motionless, with Syncrasis, com-
mixture ; the Only -begotten and Blessedness. The
offspring of Man and the Church were twelve, and in.
the females we seem to trace the shadowy prototypes
of the Christian graces, — the Paraclete and Faitli;
the Paternal and Hope; the Maternal and Charity; the
Ever-intelligent and Prudence ; Ecclesiasticos (a term
apparently expressive of church union) and Eternal
Happiness ; Will and Wisdom (Theletos and Sophia).
These thirty uEons dwelt alone within the sacred
and inviolable circle of the Pleroma : they were all, in
one sense, manifestations of the Deity, all purely intel-
lectual, an universe apart. But the peace of this
metaphysical hierarchy was disturbed; and here we
are presented with a noble allegory, which, as it were,
brings these abstract conceptions within the reach of
human sympathy. The last of the dodecarchy which
sprang from Man and the Church was Sophia, or Wis-
dom. Without intercourse with her consort Will,
Wisdom was seized with an irresistible passion for
that knowledge and intimate imion with the primal
Father, the Unfathomable, which was the sole privilege
of the first-born, Mind. She would comprehend the
Incomprehensible : love was the pretext, but temerity
the motive. Pressing onward under this strong im-
pulse, she would have reached the remote sanctuary,
and would finally have been absorbed into the primal
Essence, had she not encountered Horus (the imper-

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Chap. V. VALENTINIANISM. 75

Bonated boundary between knowledge and the Deity).
At the persuasion of this " limitary cherub '' (to borrow
Milton's words), she acknowledged the incomprehen-
sibility of the Father, returned in humble acquiescence
to her lowlier sphere, and allayed the passion begot
of Wonder. But the harmony of the intellectual world
was destroyed ; a redemption, a restoration, was neces-
sary ; and (for now Yalentinus must incorporate the
Christian system into his own) from the first JEon,
the divine Mind, proceeded Christ and the Holy Ghost.
Christ communicated to the listening JBons the mys-
tery of the imperishable nature of the Father, and
their own procession from Him ; the delighted JBons
commemorated the restoration of the holy peace, by
each contributing his most splendid gift to form Jesus,
encircled with his choir of angels.^

Yalentinus did not descend immediately from his
domain of metaphysical abstraction : he interposed an
intermediate sphere between that and the material
world. The desire or passion of Sophia, impersonated,
became an inferior Wisdom ; she was an outcast from
the Pleroma, and lay floating in the dim and formless
chaos without. The Christos in mercy gave her form
and substance ; she preserved, as it were, some fra-
grance of immortality. Her passion was still strong
for higher things, for the light which she could not
apprehend ; and she incessantly attempted to enter
the forbidden circle of the Pleroma, but was again

1 Each JEon took the best that he possessed, and* with these they fbnned
a happy image to the praise of the Heavenly Father, who is also called Saviour
(Soter), and Christos and Logos, and the Whole, because he bears within hun
the flower of eveiy thing; and they surrounded him with ministering an-
gels to be his companions. — Rossel in Bunsen, p. 149. According to Hip*
polytns (Bunsen adds in a note), this ideal Christ Jesus is also called Logos,
but distinct from the Logos of the inmost divine sphere, called the heavenly
Logos.

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79 TALENTINIANISBI. Boot^ IL

arrested by Horns, who uttered the mystic name of
Jao. Sadly she returned to the floating elements
of inferior being; she was surrendered to Passion^
and with his assistance produced the material world*
The tears which she shed, at the thought of her out-
cast condition, formed the humid element ; her smiles^
when ^be thought of the region of glory, the light ;
her fears and her sorrows, the grosser elements.
Christ descended no more to her assistance, but sent
Jesus, the Paraclete, the Saviour, with his angels ;
and, with his aid, all substance was divided into mate-
rial, animal, and spiritual. The spiritual, however^
altogetlier emanated from the light of her divine assist-
ant ; the first formation of the animal (the Psychic)
was the Demiurge, the Creator, the Saviour, the
Father, the king of all that was consubstantial with
himself, and, finally, the material of which he was only
the Demiurge or Creator. Thus were formed the
seven intermediate spheres, of which the Demiurge
and his assistant angels (the seven agam of the Per*
sian system), with herself, made up a second Ogdoad,
— the image and feeble reflection of the former ; Wis-
dom representing the primal Parent ; the Demiurge,
the Divine Mind, though he was ignorant of his
mother, more ignorant than Satan himself; the other
sidereal angels, the rest of the JBons. By the Demi-
urge the lower world was formed.

Mankind consisted of three classes, — the spiritual,
who are enlightened with the divine ray from Jesus ;
the animal or psychic, the ofispring and kindred of
the Demiurge ; the material, the slaves and associates
of Satan, the prince of the material world. They
were represented, as it were, by Seth, Abel, and Cain.
This organization or distribution of mankind harmo-

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Chap. V. BABDESANES. 77

nized with tolerable facUity witii the Christian scheme^
But, by multiplying his spiritual beings, Vale^tinus
embarrassed himself in the work of redemption or
restoration of this lower and still degenerating worid.
With him, it was the Christos, or rather a faint image
and reflection (for all his intelligences multiplied
themselves by this reflection of their being), who
passed through the material form of the Virgin, like
water through a tube. It was Jesus who descended
upon the Saviour at his baptism, in the shape of a
dove ; and Yalentinus admitted the common fantastic
theory with regard to the death of Jesus. At the
final consummation, the latent fire would burst out
(here Valentinus admitted the theory common to
Zoroastrianism and Christianity), and consume the
very scoria of matter ; the material men, with their
prince, would utterly perish in the conflagration.
Those of the animal, the Psychic, purified by the
divine ray imparted by the Redeemer, would, with
their parent, the Demiurge, occupy the intermediate
realm ; there were the just men made perfect ; while
the great mother, Sophia, would at length be admitted
into the Pleroma or intellectual sphere.

Gnosticism was pure poetry, and Bardesanes was
the poet of G-nosticism.^ For above two centuries, the
hymns of this remarkable man, and those
of his son Harmonius, enchanted the ears of

1 Valentinus, according to Tertallian, wrote psalms (De Came Christ!,
c 20) ; his disciple Marcus explained bis system in verse, and introduced the
JEona as speaking. Compare Hahn, p. 26. Bardesanes wrote one htmdred
•and fifty psalms, the number of those of David.

The reader who is cnrions to follow out a more complete development
of Valentiniani^m may well consult the disquisition of Rossel (a promising
pupil of Neander, who died early) in Bunsen, i. p.l42. It is, of course, far
more full, perhaps occasionally fancifully full, than my outlme, which, how-
ever, I think shows almost the essential perils of the doctrine.

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78 HIS STSTEM-HIS POETRY. Book IL

the Syrian Christians, till they were expelled by
the more orthodox raptures of Ephraem the Syrian.
Among the most remarkable circumstances relating to
Bardesanes, who lived at the court of Abgar, King
of Edessa, was his inquiry into the doctrines of the
ancient Gymnosophists of India, which thus connected,
as it were, the remotest East with the great family of
religious speculatists ; yet the theory of Bardesanes
was more nearly allied to the Persian or the Chal-
dean ; and the language of his poetry was in that
fervent and amatory strain which borrows the warm-
est metaphors of human passion to kindle the soul to
divine love.^

Bardesanes deserved the glory, though he did not
suffer the pains, of martyrdom. Pressed by the plii-
losopher ApoUonius, in the name of his master, the
emperor Verus, to deny Christianity, he replied, " I
fear not death, which I shall not escape by yielding to
the wishes of the emperor." Bardesanes had opposed
with vigorous hostility the system of Marcion ; * he
afterwards appears to have seceded, or, outwardly con-
forming, to have aspired in private to become the head
of another Gnostic sect, which, in contradistinction to
those of Saturninus and Valentinus, may be called
the Mesopotamian or Babylonian. With him, the
primal Deity dwelt alone with his consort, his primary
thought or conception. Their first offsprings, JBons,
or Emanations, were Christ and the Holy Ghost, who,
in his system, was feminine, and nearly allied to the
Sophia, or Wisdom, of other theories; the four ele-
ments, — the dry earth and the water, the fire and

1 Theodoret, H»ret. Fab. 209.

> According to EusebioB (E. H. y. 88), Bardesanes approached much nearer
to orthodoxy, though he still " bore some tokens of the sable streams."

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Cbap.V. motives of THE THEORISTS. 79

the air, — who make up the celestial Ogdoad. The
Son and his partner, the Spirit or Wisdom, with the
assistance of the elements, made the worlds, which
they surrendered to the government of the seven
planetary spirits and the sun and moon, the visible
types of the primal union. Probably these, as in the
other systems, made the second Ogdoad; and these,
with other astral influences, borrowed from the Tsaba-
ism of the region, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and
the thirty-six Decani, as he called the rulers of the
860 days, governed the world of man. And here
Bardesanes became implicated with the eternal dis-
pute about destiny and freewill, on which ho wrote a
separate treatise, and which entered into and colored
all his speculations.^ But the Wisdom which was the
consort of the Son was of an inferior nature to that
which dwelt with the Father. She was the Sophia
Achamoth; and, faithless to her spiritual partner,
she had taken delight in assisting the Demiurge in
the creation of the visible world: but, in all her
wanderings and estrangement, she felt a constant and
impassioned desire for perfect re-union with her first
consort. He assisted her in her course of purifica«
tion ; revealed to her his more perfect light, on which
she gazed with re-animating love; and the second
wedding of these long-estranged powers, in the pres-
ence of the parent Deity, and all the -^ons and angels,
formed the subject of one of his most ardent and
rapturous hymns. With her arose into the Pleroma
those souls which partook of her celestial nature, and
are rescued, by the descent of the Christ, according

^ He seems to h&ye had an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine. — Hahn,
p. 22, on the authority of St Ephrem. Compare Hahn, Bardesanes Gnosticns
Syrorum primiu Hynmologns. Much of this bears dose analogy to Valen-
tiniamsm.

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80 MARCION OP PONTUS. Book IL

to the usual Gnostic theory, from their imprisomnent
in the world of matter.

Yet all these theorists preserved some decent dhow
of respect for the Christian faith, and aimed at an ami-
cable reconciliation between their own wild theories
and the simpler Grospel. It is not improbable that
most of their leaders were actuated by the ambition
of unitmg the higher and more intellectual votaries
of the older Paganism with the Christian community ;
the one by an accommodation with the Egyptian, the
others with the Syrian or Chaldean, as, in later times,
the Alexandrian school with the Grecian or Platonic
Paganism; and expected to conciliate all who would
not scruple to engraft the few tenets of Clu'istianity
which they preserved inviolate upon their former belief.
They aspired to retain all that was dazzling, vast, and
imaginative in the cosmogonical systems of the East,
and rejected all that was humiliating or offensive to
the common sentiment in Christianity. The Jewish
character of the Messiah gave way to a purely immate-
rial notion of a celestial Redeemer ; the painful realities
of his life and death were softened off into fantastic
appearances ; they yet adopted as much of the Chrish
tian language as they could mould to their views, and
even disguised or mitigated their contempt for, or ani-
mosity to, Judaism. But Marcion of Pontus^ disclaimed
all tliese conciliatory and temporizing meas- M«reion of
ures, either with Pagan, Jew, or evangelic ^^*^
Christian.* With Marcion, all was hard, cold, impla-
cable antagonism. At once a severe rationalist and a
strong enthusiast, Marcion pressed the leading doctrine

1 Marcion was son of the Bishop of Sinope.

s On llarcion, see chiefly the five books of TertnUian adr. Marcion; the
Historians of Heresiea, Ireneas, i. 27; EpipbanioSf 4St; Theodoret, i. 24$
Origen contra Gels. ; Clem. Alex., ill. 425; St. Ephrem, Orat 14, p. 468.

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Chap. V. DOCTBINES OF MARCION. 81

of the malignity of matter to its extreme speculative
and practical consequences. His €reator, his provi-
dential Governor, the God of the Jews, — weak, imper-
fect, inthralled in matter, — was the opposite to the
true God. The only virtue of men was the most rigid
and painful abstinence. Marcion's doctrine interdicted
all animal food but fish ; it surpassed the most austere
of the other Christian communities in its proscription
of the amusements and pleasures of life ; it rejected
marriage, from hostility to the Demiurge, whose king-
dom it would not increase by peopling it with new
beings enslaved to matter, to glut death with food.^
The fundamental principle of Marcion's doctrine was
unfolded in his Antitheses, the Contrasts, in which he
arrayed against each other the Supreme God and the
Demiurge the God of the Jews, the old and New
Testament, the Law and the Gospel.^ The one was
perfect, pure, beneficent, passionless ; the other, though
not unjust by nature, infected by matter, — subject to
all the passions of man, — cruel, changeable : the New
Testament, especially, as remodelled by Marcion, was
holy, wise, amiable ; the Old Testament, the Law, bar-
barous, inhuman, contradictory, and detestable. On
the plundering of the Egyptians, on the massacre of
the Canaanites, on every metaphor which ascribed the
actions and sentiments of men to the Deity, Marcion

^ ^ 6rf ^ifi f^ ^ov^fievoi rdv KOOfidv rdv Imb roO AtifuoOpyov yevofie-
vbv avfivXtjpovv^ &nixea9ai yaftov ^Xovtol — Clem. Alex., Strom, iii. 8.
fUfA avTetodyeiv rt,} Koafi^ dvoTvxjioovTais tripovsj faj6i hrtxopriydv iy
Savant rpo^ipf, — Ch. vi.

9 " Opus ez contrarietatmn oppoeitionibiiB, Aniithesei, cognominatmn, et
ad seporationem legis et evangelli coactam ; qua dnos Deos dividens, proinde
direnoSi alteram alteriiu iiutrameiiti vel quod magia est usui dicere, te«to-
menU nt exinde evangelio quoque aecuidmii Antitheses credendo patrocmara-
tnr.** — TertuD. ady. Marc. It. 1.

Marcion is accused by Rhodon, apud Euseb., H. £. ▼. 18, of introducing
two principles, — the Zoroastrian theory.
VOL. II. 6

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82 POGTBINES OF HABGION. Book IL

enlarged with contemptuous superiority, and contrasted
itwiththetoneof theGk)spel. It was to rescue mankind
from the tyranny of this inferior and liostile deity,
that the Supreme manifested himself in Jesus Christ.
This manifestation took place by his sudden appearance
in the synagogue in Capernaum; for Marcion swept
away with remorseless hand all the earlier incidents
in the Gospels. But the Messiah which was revealed in
Christ was directly the opposite to that announced by the
prophets of the Jews, and of their Qod. He made no
conquests ; he was not the Immanuel ; he was not tlie
son of David; he came not to restore the temporal
kingdom of Israel. His doctrines were equally op-
posed : he demanded not an eye for an eye, or a toodi
for a tooth, but, where one smote the right cheek, to
turn the other ; he demanded no sacrifices but that of
the pure heart; he enjoined not the sensual and in-
decent practice of multiplying the species; he pro-
scribed marriage. The (Jod of the Jews, trembling
for his authority, armed himself against the celestisd
invader of his territory : he succeeded, in the seeming
execution of Christ upon the cross, who, by his death,
rescued the souls of the true believers from the bond-
age of the Law; descended to the lower regions,
where he rescued not the pious and holy patriarchs,
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Jacob, Moses, David, or Solomon,
— these were the adherents of the Demiurge or mate-
rial creator, — but his implacable enemies, such as
Cain and Esau. After the ascension of the Redeemer
to heaven, the God of the Jews was to restore his
subjects to their native land ; and his temporal reign
was to conunence over his faithful but inferior sub-
jects.^

1 I adhero to this Bomewhat hanher and less charitable snmmaiy of Mar-

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Chap. Y. THE CARPOORATIAKS. 83

The Gospel of Marcion was that of St. Luke, adapt-
ed, by many omissions and some alterations, to his
theory. Every allusion to, every metaphor from, mar-
riage was carefully erased, and every passage amended
or rejected which could in any way implicate the pure
Deity with the material world .^

These were the chief of the Gnostic sects ; but they
spread out into almost infinitely diversified varietieaof
subdivisions, distinguished by some peculiar ®«»<»"c*«°»-
tenet or usage. The Carpocratians were avowed Eclec-
tics : they worshipped, as benefactors of the human race,
the images of Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle,
and Jesus Christ, as well as that of their own founder.
By this school were received, possibly were invented,
many of the astrologic or theurgic books attributed to

donism. The milder view of Keander, in which he had mitigated or softened
oiF its harder tones, has b^en carried bj Bunsen almost to admiration. I
cannot think that a mere exaggeration of the Anti-Jndaizing Pauline doo-
trines coald have goaded even Tertullian to such a fury of orthodox hatred.
I am well aware that contemporaiy statements, when the writers are full of
the passions of their times, are the worst authorities. But Tertullian wrote
with the Antitheses, probably with Marcion's Gospel, before him. The frag-
ment of Hippolytus throws no light on the question. Of all the positive
paradoxes of my dear friend, I confess that none seems to me so entirely
baseless as his ascription of the Epistle to Diognetus — that model of pure,
simple, reasonable Christianity, which stands alone in that barren and fantas-
tic age — to the youth of Marcion. I cannot conceive the writer of that
Epistle ever having become the author of the Antitheses. But one who has
really made such discoveries as Bunsen has in early Chxistian literature,
may be indulged in some fancies.

1 This Gospel has been put together, according to the various authorities,
especially Tertullian, by M. Hahn. It Is reprinted in the Codex Apociyphus
Kovi Testamenti, by Thilo, of which one volume only has appeared. Among
the remarkable alterations of the Gospels which most strongly characterize
his system, was that of the text so beautiiully descriptive of the providence
of God, — which '^maketh his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and
sendeth rain on^e just and the unjust,^* Matt v. 46. The sun and the
rain, those material elements, were the slaves only of the God of matter:
the Supreme Deity might not defile himself with the administration of their
blessings. — Tertull. adv. Marc, iv. 17. Th« exquisite Parable of the Prodi-
gal Son was thrown out The feast at the end accounts for its proscription.

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84 THE CARPOCRATIANS. Book XL.

Zoroaster and other ancient sages. The Jewish Scrip-
tures were the works of inferior angels ; of the Cliris-
tian, they received only the Gospel of St. Matthew.
The supreme, unknown, uncreated Deity was the
Monad; the visible world was the creation, the do-
main, of inferior beings. But the Garpocratian system
was much simpler, and, in some respects, rejecting
generally the system of JElons, or Emanations, ap-
proached much nearer to Christianity than those of
most of the other Gnostics. The contest of Jesus
Christ, who was the son of Joseph, according to their
system, was a purely moral one. Their scheme revived
the Oriental notion of the pre-existence of the soul.
The soul of Jesus had a clearer and more distinct re-
miniscence of the original knowledge (the Gnosis)
and wisdom of their celestial state ; and, by communi-
cating these notions to mankind, elevated them to the
same superiority over the mundane deities. This per-
fection consisted in faith and charity, perhaps likewise
in the ecstatic contemplation of the Monad. Every
thing except faith and charity, — all good works, all
observances of human laws, which were established
by mundane authority, — were exterior, and more
than indifferent. Hence they were accused of recom-
mending a community of property and of women, —
inferences which would be drawn from their avowed
contempt for all human laws. They were accused,
probably without justice, of following out these specu-
lative opinions into practice. Of all heretics, none
have borne a worse name than the followers of Car-
pocrates and his son and successor, Epiphanes.^

1 I think that we may collect from Clement of Alexandria, that the com-
mnnity of women, in the Garpocratian system, was that of Plato. Clement
bisinnates that it was carried into practice. — Strom, iii. c. 2. According to
Clement, the different sects, or sects of sects, justified their immoralities on

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gbap.y. the ophites. 85

The Ophites ^ are, perhaps, the most perplexing of
all these sects. It is difficult to ascertain whether the
Serpent from which they took or received their name
was a good or an evil spirit, — the Agatho-demon of
the Egyptian mythology, or the Serpent of the Jewish
and other Oriental schemes. With them, a quaternion
seems to have issued from the primal Being, the Abyss,
who dwelt alone with his Ennoia, or Thought. These
were Christ and Sophia Achamoth, the Spirit and
Chaos. The former of each of these powers was per-
fect, the latter imperfect. Sophia Achamoth, departing
from the primal source of purity, formed laldabaoth,
the Prince of Darkness, the Demiurge, an inferior,
but not directly malignant, being, — the Satan, or
Samael, or Michael. The tutelar angel of the Jews
was Ophis, the Serpent, — a reflection of laldabaoth.
With others, the Serpent was the symbol of Christ
himself,^ and hence the profound abhorrence with
which this obscure sect was beheld by the more or-
thodox Christians. In other respects, their opinions
appear to have approximated more nearly to the com-
mon Gnostic form. At the intercession of Sophia,
Christ descended on the man Jesus, to rescue the souls
of men from the ftiry of the Demiurge, who had im-

different pleas. Some, the Prodician Gnostics, considered public prostitution
a mjstic communion; others, that all children of the primary or good Deity
might exercise their regal privilege of acting as they pleamd ; some, the
Antitacts, thought it right to break the seventh commandment, because it
was uttered by the evil Demiurge. But these were obscure sects, and possibly
their adversaries drew these conclusions for them from their doctrines. —
Strom. 1. iiL

1 Mosheim, p. 890, who wrote a particular dissertation on the Ophits, of
which he distinguished two sects, a Jewish and a Christian.

* M. Matter coi^jectured that they had derived the notion of the benefi-
cent serpent, the emblem or symbol of Christ, from the brazen serpent in the
wilderness. Perhaps it was the Egyptian Agath&4emon. M. Matter^s
notion was right to a certain extent as to one sect of the Ophites, the Pera-
t». See Philosophumena, p. 188.

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86 OBmNTAL GNOSTICISM. Book IL

prisoned them in matter : thej ascended through Hie
realm of the seven planetary angels.^

Such, in its leading branches, was the Gnosticism
of the East, which rivalled the more genuine GhriEh

1 On the Ophites alone, the BeAitation of all Heresies promises to calnr]^
our knowledge ; to me that promise has ended, on ezaminationy in utter dis-
appointment; it is darkness darkened, confusion worse confounded. Hip-
polytus devotes a whole book, which we have nearly perfect, to the tenets ^
four sects of Ophites. None of them agrees with what has been gathered
from other sources, as appears from the text, which I leave unaltered. Thes«
sects are the Naasseoes, the Peratse, the Sethians, the Justinians. Through
all these run some common notions, — the blending of intellectual, physical*
moral conceptions; their perpetual impersonation; the evolution of the crea-
tive mind ; the imprisonment of mind in matter, its emancipation from its
bondage; the forcible blendlng-up of the Christian tenets concerning Christ
and the Holy Ghost with these repugnant and discordant schemes. (The
Serpent appears in all the four systems, but with a different character and
office.) All delight in their triple form of thought, the intellectual (the
ifotfitifv)^ the life (the yw;t'^dv), the brute matter (the ;t<N'^di/).

The Naassenes are so called from the Hebrew word Nahasb, a sefpent;
and from Nahash they strangely derived the Greek vooq^ a temple. Templea
being universally raised throughout the world showed the universality of
Serpent-worship. With them the Serpent is the principle of moisturo
(i^ i7P^), as, with Thales the Milesian, the origin and source of all things.
Their great characteristic is the constant labor to identify Christiani^ with
the Secret of all the Pagan Mysteries, Phrygian, Samothracian, Eleusinian.
There is a wild confusion of the orgiastic superstition which prevailed so
widely through the Roman world, the worship oif Cybele, with that of Christ.

The Peratffi were distinguished (they were Orientals) by a predominant
inittsion of astrological notions. With them the Serpent was a sort of Inter-
mediate Being, the Son, the Word, between the Father, the primal Monad,
and Matter. Kadi^at oJv fsiaoc rfj^ tX/fc Ktd toO irarpd^ 6 vlb^, 6 Ao-
yoCf 6 o^f &el KivovfievoQ irpdc imivtfwv rdi; iraripa Kot Ktuovfjhnfv tt^

With the Sethians, the Serpent was the violent wind, which came out of
darkness, the first-born of the waters, and the generating principle of all
things, especially of man (p. 142).

With the Justinians (this sect, of course, has no relation with Justin Mar-
tyr) the Serpent approaches more nearly to his ftmction in the beginning of
the book of Gienesis. But the seduction of Eve is in a coarser and grosser
form (p. 166). The Serpent is also the Tempter of our Lord in the wilder-
ness (p. 167).

I must say, that throughout this book there is too much of Hippolytus, of
the writer of the third century, proud of his knowledge of the Greek religion

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Chap. T. GNOSTICISM KOT POPULAB^ 87

tianity, if not in the number of its convertB, in the
activity with which it was disseminated. It arose
simultaneously or successively in all the great centres
of Christianity, — in Alexandria, in Antioch, in Edessa,
in Ephesus. Many of its teachers — Yalentinus, Mar«
don, and their followers — found their way to Home.
Their progress was especially among the higher and
more opulent; and, in their lofty pretensions, they
claimed a superiority over the humbler Christianity of
the vulgar. But, for this very reason, Gnos- onostidsm
ticism, in itself, was diametrically opposite n<>*popoi«-
to the true Christian spirit : instead of being popular
and universal, it was select and exclusive. It was
another, in one respect a higher, form of Judaism^
inasmuch as it did not rest its exclusiveness on the
title of birth, but on especial knowledge (gnosis),
vouchsafed only to the enlightened and inwardly
designated few. It was the establishment of the
Christians as a kind of religious privileged order, a
theophilosophic aristocracy, whose esoteric doctrines
soared far above the grasp and comprehension of the

and the Greek philosophy. All these Ophites he would assume to be the earliest
Gnostics (they first took the name)| and so almost readiing up to the apoa*
tolic times. But it is utterly incredible that there should have existed at that
time any set of men who were equally familiar with the Old and New Testa-
ments and the Greek poets; who appealed to the Pentateuch and the Gospels,
and to Homer, Pindar, Anacreon; who had anticipated the identification of
Chriptianity with the Secret of the Pagan Mysteries, of which they might
almost seem to be the Hierophants; who had their mystic hymns in which the
new and the old, the Oriental and Grreek and Christian notions, were blended
and confused. Hippolytus appeals to, cites, their writings; but, of the aga
of those writings, I must presume to doubt his critical discernment

Finally, I cannot think these smaller sects of any importance in Ohristiail
history, further than as testifying to that general ftrmentation of thought, that
appetency for truth, that distressing and exciting want of satisfiiction for the
heart and soul and intellect of man, which Christianity found and stimulated
to the utmost; firom which it suffered to a certain extent, but from which it
emerged, if not in all its pdmal purity, with uAsabdued energy and force , by
which it subjugated the world*

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88 GNOSTiaSM FRIEKDLT TO PAGANISM. Book IL

vulgar.^ It was a philosophy rather than a religion ;
at least, the philosophic or speculative part would soon
have predominated over the spiritual. Thej affected
a profound and awful mystery; they admitted their
disciples, in general, by slow and regular gradations.
Onostic Christianity, therefore, might hare been a
formidable antagonist to the prevailing philosophy
of the times, but it would never have extirpated
an ancient and deeply rooted religion; it miglit
have drained the schools of their hearers, but it
never would have changed the temples into solitudes.
It would have affected only the surface of society ; it
did not begin to work upward from its depths, nor did
it penetrate to that strong under-current of popular
feeling and opinion which alone operates a profound
and lasting change in the moral sentiments of man-
kind.

With regard to Paganism, the Gnostics are accused
Conciliatory of a Compromising and conciliatory spirit,
p»«»tam- totally alien to that of primitive Christianity.
They affected the haughty indifference of the philoso-
phers of their own day, or the Brahmins of India, to
the vulgar idolatry ; scrupled not at a contemptuous
conformity with the established worship ; attended the
rites and the festivals of the Heathen; partook of
meats offered in sacrifice; and, secure in their own
intellectual or spiritual purity, conceived that no stain
could cleave to their uninfected spirits from this,
which, to most Christians, appeared a treasonable sur-
render of the vital principles of the faith.

This criminal compliance of the Gnostics, no doubt,
countenanced and darkened those charges of unbridled

1 Tertullian taunts the Yalentamans, — ** nihil mogis conuit quam occul*
tare qmd pnedicant, si tamen pradicant qui occultant" — Tert adv. Va«
lent

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Chap. Y. APOLOGT FOR THE QNOSTICS. 89

licentiousness of manners with which they are almost
indiscriminately assailed by the early Fathers. Those
dark and incredible accusations of midnight meetings,
where all the restraints of shame and of nature were
thrown off, which Pagan hostility brought against the
general body of the Christians, were re-iterated by
the Christians against these sects, whose principles
were those of the sternest and most rigid austerity.
They are accused of openly preaching the indifference
of human action. The material nature of man was
so essentially evil and malignant, that there was no
necessity, as there could be no advantage, in attempt-
ing to correct its inveterate propensities. While,
therefore, that nature might pursue, uncontrolled, its
own innate and inalienable propensities, the serene
and uncontaminated spirit of those, at least, who
were enlightened by the divine ray, might remain
aloof, either unconscious of, or, at least, unparticipant
in, the aberrations of its grovelling consort. Such
general charges it is equally unjust to believe, and
impossible to refute. The dreamy indolence of mys-
ticism is not unlikely to degenerate into voluptuous
excess. The excitement of mental has often a strong
effect on bodily emotion. The party of the Gnostics
may have contained many whose passions were too
strong for their principles, or who may have made
their principles the slaves of their passions ; but Chris-
tian charity and sober historical criticism concur in
rejecting these general accusations. The Gnostics
were, mostly, imaginative rather than practical far
natics : they indulged a mental rather than corporeal
license. The Carpocratians have been exposed to the
most obloquy. But, even in their case, the charitable
doubts of dispassionate historical criticism are justified

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00 THE MONTAiaSM OF PHBTGIA. Book a

bj those of an ancient writer, who declares his dis-
belief of any irreligious, lawless, or forbidden practiced
among these sectaries.^

It was the re-action, as it were, of Gnosticism, that
produced the last important modification of Chris-
tianity, during the second century, — the Montanism
of Phrygia. But we hare, at present, proceeded in
our relation of the contest between Orientalism and
Christianity so far beyond the period to which we con-
ducted the contest with Paganism, that we re-ascend
at once to the commencement of the second century.
Montanism, howerer thus remotely connected with
Onosticism, stands alone and independent as a new
aberration from the primitive Christianity, and will
demand our attention in its influence upon one of the
most distinguished and effective of the early Christian
writers.

1 Kai el fikv irpaaaerai irap* abrcic rd, adea, Kot iK$e<rfia, koI uTretfnffji-
va, ty^ oOk &v nurrevoatfu. — Irenieas, i. 24. The Fhilosophumena acciwes
the Simonians of following the example of their muter, whose Helena was his
mistress. Thej used a coarse phrase to excuse promiscuous concubinage*
But all this must, I think, be accepted with much reservation, as well aa
their orgies.

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Ctur. XL SECOKD CKNTUttii OF CBBiamANtlT. 91

CHAPTER VI.

Cbitftiaiiity dtmng Um Prosperotis Period of the Boman Empira.

With the second century of Christianity commenced
the reign of another race of emperors. Tra- Roman em-
jan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, were men KSS»no2*
of larger minds, more capable of embracing ^d^
the vast empire, and of taking a wide and *'^'
comprebensire survey of the interests, the manners,
and the opinions of the various orders and races of
men which reposed under the shadow of the Boman
sway. They were not, as the first Caesars, monarchs
of Borne, governing the other parts of the world as
dependent provinces ; but sovereigns of the Western
World, which had gradually coalesced into one majes-
tic and harmonious system. Under the military do-
minion of Trajan, the empire appeared to re-assume
the strength and enterprise of the conquering republic :
he had invested the whole frontier with a defence
more solid and durable than the strongest line of for-
tresses, or the most impregnable wall, — the terror of
the Boman arms, and the awe of Boman discipline.
K the more prudent Hadrian withdrew the advanced
boundaries of the empire, it seemed in the conscious-
ness of strength, disdaining the occupation of wild
and savage districts, which rather belonged to the yet-
unreclaimed realm of barbarism, than were fit to be
incorporated in the dominion of civilization. Even in
the East, the Euphrates appeared to be a boundary

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92 MODERATION OF THE EMPERORS. Book IL

traced hj nature for the dominion of Rome. Hadrian
was the first emperor who directed his attention to
the general internal affairs of the whole population
of the empire. The spirit of jurisprudence prevailed
during the reign of the Antonines ; and the main object
of the ruling powers seemed to be the uniting under
one general system of law the various members of the
great political confederacy. Thus, each contributed
to the apparent union and durability of the social edi-
fice. This period has been considered by many able
writers a kind of golden age of human happiness.^
What, then, was the effect of Christianity on the gene-
ral-character of the times; and how far were the
Christian communities excluded from the general fe-
licity ?

It was impossible that the rapid and universal prog-
ress of a new religion should escape the notice of
minds so occupied with the internal as well as the ex-
ternal affairs of the whole empire. But it so happened
(the Christian will admire in this singular concurrence
of circumstances the overruling power of a beneficent
Deity), that the moderation and humanity of the em-
perors stepped in, as it were, to allay at this particular
crisis the dangers of a general and inevitable collision

1 This theory is most My developed by Hegewisch. See the translation
of his Essay, by M. Solvet. Paris, 1884. The silence of history, that too
fiuthful record in general of the fblly and misexy, of the wars and devastating
conquests of mankind, may seem a full testimony to the happiness of the
era ; but this silence is perhaps mainly due to other causes. In fact, there is,
properly speaking, no history of the times ; and, even if there were what is
ordinarily received as history, it might throw but dun light on the condition
of the masses of mankind throughout the vast empire. Peace was undoubtedly
in itself a blessing; but how much oppression, tyranny of the government
over all, of class over class, may be hid under the smooth surfiice of peace I
The vast, comprehensive, and age-enduring fabric of Roman Jurisprudence,
which began to rise at this time, bears nobler witness to the wisdom of the
rulers, and to the distribution of equal justice, that best guard and guarantee
of human happiness, over the whole empire.

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Chip. VI. TKAJAN. 98

with the temporal government. Christianity itself was
just in that state of advancement in which, cha»etoMof

th««mperon
finTonble to

though it had begun to threaten, and even to *>•"??««»

make most alarming encroachments on, the 2Ji,t*o7™*"
established Polytheism, it had not so com- ciatettani^.
pletely divided the whole race of mankind as to force
the heads of the Polytheistic party, the official conser-
vators of the existing order of things, to take violent
and decisive measures for its suppression. The tem-
ples, though perhaps becoming less crowded, were in
few places deserted; the alarm, though perhaps in
many towns it was deeply brooding in the minds of the
priesthood, and of those connected by zeal or by inter-
est with the maintenance of Paganism, was not so
profound or so general as imperiously to require the
interposition of the civil authorities. The milder or
more indifferent character of the emperor had free
scope to mitigate or to arrest the arm of persecution.
The danger was not so pressing but that it might be
averted: that which had arisen thus suddenly and
unexpectedly (so little were the wisest probably aware
of the real nature of the revolution working in the
minds of men) might die away with as much rapidity.
Under an emperor, indeed, who should have united
the vigor of a Trajan and the political forethought of a
Hadrian with the sanguinary relentlessness of a Nero,
Christianity would have had to pass a tremendous
ordeal. Now, however, the collision of the new reli-
gion with the civil power was only occasional, and, aa
it were, fortuitous ; and, in these occasional conflicts
with the ruling powers, we constantly appear to trace
the character of the reigning sovereign.

Of these emperors, Trajan possessed the most pow-
erful and vigorous mind, — a consummate general, a

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94 HADRIAN— ANTONINUS PIUS. Book IL

humane bufc active ruler: Hadrian was the profound-
Tr^nem- ^^* Statesman ; the Antonines, the best men.
Kd'otJ? Th® conduct of Trajan was that of a mili-
"^ tary sovereign, whose natural disposition was

tempered with humanity, — prompt, decisive, never
unnecessarily prodigal of blood, but careless of human
life if it appeared to stand in the way of any important
design, or to hazard that paramount object of the

government, the public peace. Hadrian was
urorfrom mchucd to a more temponzmg policy. The

more the Koman empire was contemplated
as a whole, the more the coexistence of multifarious
religions might appear compatible with the general
peace. Christianity might, in the end, be no more
dangerous than the other foreign religions, which had
flowed, and were still flowing, in from the East. Tlie
temples of Isis had arisen throughout the empire, but
those of Jupiter or Apollo had not lost their votaries :
the Eastern mysteries, the Phrygian, at a later period
the Mithriac, had mingled, very little to their preju-
dice, with the general mass of the prevailing supersti-
tions. The last characteristic of Christianity which
would be distinctly understood, was its invasive and
AntoDinns uucompromisiug spirit. The elder Anto-
SSI^to* i^ii^s nia,y have pursued from mildness of
^^- character the course adopted by Hadrian from

policy. The change which took place during the reign
of Marcus Aurelius may be attributed to the circum-
stances of the time ; though the pride of philosophy,
as well as the established religion, might begin to take
the alarm.

Christianity had probably spread with partial and
very unequal success in difierent quarters: its con-
verts bore in various cities or districts a very different

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Ckaf. VI. BITHYNU— LETTEB OF PLINY. 95

proportion to the rest of the populatioii. Nowhere,
perhaps, had it advanced with greater rapidity than in
the northern provinces of Asia Minor, where the in-
habitants were of very mingled descent, neither purelj
Greek nor essentially Asiatic, with a considerable pro-
portion of Jewish colonists, chiefly of Babylonian or
Syrian, not of Palestinian, origin. It is chrbttani^

in Bithynia

here, in the province of Bithynia, that Poly- JJJ^^
theism first discovered the deadly enemy ^d^^
which was undermining her authority. It ©fiia-
was here that the first cry of distress was uttered,
and complaints of deserted temples and less frequent
sacrifices were brought before the tribunal of the
government. The memorable correspondence between
Pliny and Trajan is the most valuable record of the
early Christian history during this period.^ It repre-
sents to us Paganism already claiming the alliance of
power to maintain its decaying influence ; Christianity
proceeding in its silent course, imperfectiy understood
by a wise and polite Pagan, yet still with nothing to
o£fend his moral judgment, except its contumacious
repugnance to the common usages of society. This
contumacy, nevertheless, according to the recognized
principle of passive obedience to the laws of the em-
pire, was deserving of the severest punishment The
appeal of Pliny to the supreme authority for ^^tterar
advice as to the course to be pursued with ^^^'
these new, and, in most respects, harmless delinquents,
unquestionably implies that no general practice had

1 The chronology of Pagi (Critica in BAronium) appears to me the most
tnistworthy as to the date of Pliny's letter; so too, m opposition to Mr. Fynes
Clinton, who dates Pliny's letter hi 104, concur Mr. Greswell and Mr. Charles
Merivale. He places it in the year 111 or 112. Pagi dates the mar^idom
of Ignatius, or rather the period when he was sent to Rome, in 112, the time
when Trajan was in the East, preparing for his Persian war; but Tnjui^B
Journey to the East was not before 114 or 116.

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96 ANSWER OF TBAJAK. Book n.

jet been laid down to guide the proyincial govemors
Answer of ^ ^^^^ emergencies.^ The answer of Trar
^^'*^' jan is characterized by a spirit of moderar
tion. It betrays humane anxiety to allow all such
offenders as were not forced under the cognizance of
the public tribunals, to elude persecution. Neverthe-
less it distinctly intimates, that by some existing law,
or by the ordinary power of the provincial governor,
the Christians were amenable to the severest penalties,
to torture, and even to capital punishment. Such
punishment had already been inflicted by Plmy: as
governor, he had been forced to interfere by accusa-
tions lodged before his tribunal. An anonymous libel,
or impeachment, had denounced numbers of persons ;
some of whom altogether disclaimed, others declared
that they had renounced, Christianity. With that
unthinking barbarity with which in those times such
punishments were inflicted on persons in inferior
station, two servants, females, — it is possible they
were deaconesses, — were put to the torture, to ascer-
tain the truth of the vulgar accusations against the
Christians. On their evidence, Pliny could detect
nothing further than a ^^ culpable and extravagant
superstition." 2 The only facts which he could dis-
cover were, that they had a custom of meeting together
before daylight, and singing a hymn to Christ as Grod.
They were bound together by no unlawful sacrament,
but only under mutual obligation not to commit theft,
robbery, adultery, or fraud. They met a second time
in the day, and partook together of food, but that of
a perfectly innocent kind. The test of guilt to which

1 Pliny professes his ignorance, because he had never happened to be
pcesent at the trial of such canaes. TMs implies that such tziala were not
unprecedented. '

* "Prava et immodica superrtitio."

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Chap. VI. EXECUTIONS ORDERED BY FLINT. 97

he submitted the more obstmate delinquents, was
adoration before the statues of the gods and of the
emperor, and the malediction of Christ. Those who
refused he ordered to be led out to execution.^ Such
was the summary process of the Boman governor;
and the approbation of the emperor clearly shows that
he had not exceeded the recognized limits of his
authority. Neither Trajan nor the senate had before
this issued any edict on the subject. The rescript to
Pliny invested him with no new powers: it merely
advised him, as he had done, to use his actual powers
with discretion,^ neither to encourage the denunciation
of such criminals, nor to proceed without fair and
unquestionable evidence. The system of anonymous
delation, by which private malice might wreak itself,
by false or by unnecessary charges, upon its enemies,
Trajan reprobates in that generous spirit with which
the wiser and more virtuous emperors constantly re-
pressed that most disgraceful iniquity of the times.^
But it is manifest from the executions ordered by
Plmy and sanctioned by the approbation of the empe-
ror, that Christianity was already an offence amenable
to capital punishment,* and this, either under some
existing statute, under the common law of the Empire
which invested the provincial governor with the arbi-
trary power of life and death, or lastly, what in this
instance cannot have been the case, the wwmmwm impe-
Hum of the emperor.^ While, then, in the individual,

1 ^ Dnd jtiBsi " cannot bear a milder interpretation.

3 ** Actum quern debaiflti in excutiendis cansis eorunii qui Christiani ad te
delati fherant, secatns es." — Tnij. ad Plin.

* ^ Nam est peaaimi exempli, nee noetri snculi eat."

4 Those who were Roman citizens were sent for trial to Rome. " Alii quia
dves Romani erant, adnotavi in urbem remittendoe."

* This rescript or answer of Trajan, approving of the manner in which
Pliny carried his law into execution, and snggesting other regnlationa for

VOL. u. 7

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98 POWER OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS. Book XL

the profession of Christianity might thus, by the sum-
mary sentence of the governor and the tacit appro-
bation of the emperor, be treated as a capital offence,
and the provincial governor might appoint the meas-
ure and the extent of the pimishment, all public
assemblies for the purpose of new and xmauthorized
worship might likewise be suppressed by the magis-
trate : for the police of the empire always looked with
the utmost jealousy on all associations not recognized
by the law ; and resistance to such a mandate would
call down, or the secret holding of such meetings
after their prohibition would incur, any penalty which
the conservator of public order might tliink proper to
inflict upon the delinquent. Such, then, was the gen-
eral position of the Christians with the ruling authori-
ties. They were guilty of a crime against the state,
by introducing a new and unauthorized religion, or by
holding assemblages contrary to the internal rcgula-
tions of the empire. But the extent to which the law
would be enforced against them ; how far Cliristianity
would be distinguished from Judaism and other foreign
religions, which were permitted the free establishment
of their rights ; with how much greater jealousy their
secret assemblies would be watched than tliose of other
mysteries and esoteric religions, — all this would de-
pend upon the milder or more rigid character of the
governor, and the willingness or reluctance of their
fellow-citizens to arraign them before the tribunal of
the magistrates. This, in turn, would depend on the

his conduct, is converted bj Mosheim into a new law, which from that time
became one of the statutes of the empire. " Hiec Triy'ani lex inter publicas
Imperii sanctiones relata" (p. 284). Trajan's words expressly declare that no
certain rule of proceeding can be laid down, and leave almost the whole
question to the discretion of the magistrate. "Neque enim in universum
aliqnid, quod quasi certam formam habet, constitui potest" —Traj. ad Plin.

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CHiiP.VI. JEWS NOT AVERSE TO THEATRES. 99

circumstances of the place and the time ; on the ca-
price of their enemies; on their own discretion; on
their success, and tlie apprehensions and jealousies
of their opponents. In general, so long as they made
no visible impression upon society ; so long as their
absence from the religious rites of the city or district,
or even from the games and theatrical exhibitions
which were essential parts of the existing Polytheism,
caused no sensible diminution in the concourse of the
worshippers, — their unsocial and self-secluding dis-
position would be treated with contempt and pity
rather than with animosity. The internal decay of
the spirit of Polytheism had little eflFect on its outward
splendor. The philosophic pai'ty, who despised the
popular faith, were secure in their rank or in their
decent conformity to the public ceremonial. The
theory of all the systems of philosophy was to avoid
unnecessary collision with the popular religious senti-
ment: their superiority to the vulgar was flattered,
rather tlian offended, by the adherence of the latter to
their native superstitions. In the public exhibitions,
the followers of all other foreign religions met, as on
a common ground. In the theatre or the The Jews
hippodrome, the worshipper of Isis or of totS^i
Mitlira mingled with the mass of those who '™'^™®°*"-
still adhered to Bacchus or to Jupiter. Even the
Jews in many parts, at least at a later period, in
some instances at the present, betrayed no aversion to
the popular games or amusements. Though, in Pales-
tine, the elder Herod had met with a sullen and in-
tractable resistance in the religious body of the people
against his attempt to introduce Gentile and idolatrous
games into the Holy Land, yet it is probable that the
foreign Jews were more accommodating. A Jewish

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100 CHRISTIANS ABSTAIN FROM THEM. Book IL

player, named Aliturus, stood high in the favor of
Nero ; nor does it appear that he had abandoned his
religion. He was still connected with his own race ;
and some of the priesthood did not disdain to owe
their acquittal, on certain charges on which they had
been sent prisoners to Rome, to the actor's interest
with the emperor or with the ruling favorite Popp»a.
After the Jewish war, multitudes of the prisoners
were forced to exhibit themselves as gladiators ; and,
at a later period, the confluence of the Alexandrian
Christians Jcws to the thcatrcs, where they equaUed in
tiwm- numbers the Pagan spectators, endangered

the peace of the city. The Christians alone stood
aloof from exhibitions which, in their higher and
nobler forms, arose out of, and were closely connected
with, the Heathen religion ; were performed on days
sacred to the deities ; introduced the deities upon the
stage ; and, in short, were among the' principal means
of maintaining in the public mind its reverence for
the old mythological fables. The sanguinary diver-
sions of the arena, and the licentious voluptuousness
of some of the other exhibitions, were no less oflFen-
sive to their humanity and to their modesty than
those more strictly religious to their piety. Still, so
long as they were comparatively few in number, and
did not sensibly diminish the concourse to these scenes
of public enjoyment, they would be rather exposed to
individual acts of vexatious interference, of ridicule,
or contempt, than become the victims of a general
hostile feeling: their absence would not be resented
as an insult upon the public, nor as an act of pun-
ishable disrespect against the local or more widely
worshipped deity to whose honor the games were
dedicated. The time at which they would be in the

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Chap. VI. DANGER OF POLITICAL REJOICINGS. 101

greatest danger from what would be thought their
suspicious or disloyal refusal to join in the public
rejoicings, would be precisely that which has been
conjectured with much ingenuity and probability to
have been the occasion of their being thus committed
with the popular sentiment and with the government,
— the celebration of the birthday or the accession of
the emperor.^ With the ceremonial of those Daog«r<m
days, even if, as may have been the case, the Sf?5iS!»i
actual adoration of the statue of the empe- '^*'*°»*
ror was not an ordinary part of the ritual, much
which was strictly idolatrous would be mingled up;
and the ordinary excuse of the Christians to such
charges of disaffection, that they prayed with the
utmost fervor for the welfare of tlie emperor, would
not be admitted, either by the sincere attachment of
the people and of the government to a virtuous, or
their abject and adulatory celebration of a cruel and
tyrannical, emperor.

This crisis in the fate of Christianity — this transi-
tion from safe and despised obscurity to dangerous
and obnoxious importance — would, of course, depend
on the comparative rapidity of its progress in different
quarters. In Biihynia, the province of Pliny, it had
attained that height in little more than seventy years
after the death of Christ. Though a humane and
enlightened government might still endeavor to close
its eyes upon its multiplying numbers and expanding
influence, the keener sight of jealous interest, of ri-
valry in the command of the popular mind, and of

1 The conjectme of Pagi, that the attention of the government was di-
rected to the Christians by their standing aloof from the festivals which cele-
brated the qoindecennalia of Trajan (in the year 111 or 112), is extremely
probable. Pagi quotes two passages of Pliny on the subject of these general
rejoicings.— Critica in Baron, i. 100

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102 POLITICAL STATE OF THE EAST. Book H.

mortified pride, already anticipated the time when this
formidable antagonist might balance, might at length
overweigh, the failing powers of Polytheism. Under
a less candid governor than Pliny, and an emperor
less humane and dispassionate than Trajan, the exter-
minating sword of persecution would have been let
loose, and a relentless and systematic edict for the
suppression of. Christianity would have hunted down
its followers in every quarter of the empire.

Not only the wisdom and humanity of Trajan, but
the military character of his reign, would tend to
divert his attention from that which belonged rather
Probable con- ^ ^^^ internal administration of the empire.
SSSiSSuo^* It is far from impossible, though the conjec-
Sftothe^te t^re is not countenanced by any allusion in
of the East, ^j^^ dispatch of Pliny, that the measures
adopted against the Christians were not entirely uncon-
nected with the political state of the East. The
Roman empire, in the Mesopotamian province, was
held on a precarious tenure; the Parthian kingdom
had acquired new vigor and energy ; and, during great
part of his reign, the state of the East must have
occupied the active mind of Trajan. The Jewish
population of Babylonia and the adjacent provinces
was of no inconsiderable importance in the impending
contest. There is strong groimd for supposing, that
the last insurrection of the Jews, under Hadrian, was
connected with a rising of their brethren in Mesopo-
tamia, no doubt secretly, if not openly, fomented by
the intrigues, and depending on the support, of the
King of Parthia. This was at a considerably later
period ; yet, during the earlier part of the reign of
Trajan, the insurrection had already commenced in
Egypt and in Cyrene, and in the island of Cyprus;

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Chlap.VI. JEWISH REBELLION. 108

and no sooner were the troops of Trajan engaged on
the eastern frontier, towards the close of his reign,
than the Jews rose up in all these provinces, and were
not subdued till after they had perpetrated and en-
dured the most terrific massacres.^ Throughout the
Eastern wars of Trajan, this spirit was most likely-
known to be fermenting in the minds of the whole
Jewish population, not only in the msurgent districts,
but in Palestine and other parts of the empire. The
whole race, which occupied in such vast numbers the
conterminous regions, would be watched, therefore,
with hostile jealousy by the Eoman governors, already
prejudiced against their unruly and ungovernable char-
acter, and awakened to more than ordinary vigilance
by the disturbed aspect of the times. The Christians
stood in a singular and ambiguous position between
the Jewish and Pagan population; many of them
probably descended from, and connected with, the
Jews. Their general peaceful habits and orderly
conduct would deserve the protection of a parental
government: still their intractable and persevering
resistance to the religious institutions of the empire
might throw some suspicion on the sincerity of their
civil obedience. The unusual assertion of religious,
might be too closely allied with that of political, inde-
pendence. At all events, the dubious and menacing
state of the East required more than ordinary watch-
fulness, and a more rigid plan of government in the
adjacent provinces; and thus the change in society,
which was working unnoticed in the more peaceful
and less Christianized West, in the East might be
forced upon the attention of an active and inquiring

1 Euseb. iv. 2. Dio Cass., or, rather, Xiphilin. Orosiua, 1. 7. Pagi
places this Jewish rebellion, A.D. 116.

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104 PERSECUTION UNDER TRAJAN. Book H.

ruler. The apprehensions of the inhabitants them-
selves would be more keenly alive to the formation of
a separate and secluded party witliin their cities, and
religious animosity would eagerly seize the opportunity
of implicating its enemies in a charge of disalBfection
to the existing government. Nor is there wanting
evidence that the acts of persecution ascribed to
Trajan were, in fact, connected witla the military move-
ments of the emperor. The only authentic acts are
tliose of Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem : I caimot ad-
mit those of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch.^ In the pref-
atory observations to the former, it is admitted tliat
this mai'tyrdom was a local act of violence. The
more celebrated trial of Ignatius is stated to have
taken place before the emperor himself at Antioch,
when he was preparing for his Eastern campaign.
The emperor is represented as kindlmg to auger at
the disparagement of those gods on whose protection
he reckoned in the impending war. " What ! is our
religion to be treated as senseless ? Are the gods, on
whose alliance we rely against our enemies, to bo
turned to scorn ? " ^ But the whole interview with
Trajan is too legendary to command authority. Nev-
ertheless, at tliat time there were circumstances wliich
account with singular likelihood for that sudden out-
burst of persecution in Antioch. Trajan knew that
the whole Jewish world was in a state of actual or of
threatened insurrection. It is probable, that the clear-
est understanding, agitated by alarm and hatred, would
lose, if it had yet attained, any distinct discernment

1 See them in Ruinart, Selecta et sincera Martyrnm Acta.

2 Hfidc ohf aoi ^KoOfjiev /card vovv fj^ hx^tv &eoi>g, olc Kctt xP^f^f^
^fifiaxoi/g irpdg Toi>g iro^^/uovc. The Jewish legends are full of acts of
personal cruelty, ascribed to Trajan, mingled up, as usual, with historical
errors and anachronisms. See Hist of Jews, ii. 418.

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Chap. VI. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH. 106

of the diflference between Jews and Christians. Hardly
two years before, the Christians had been denounced
by a provincial governor in the East as dangerous dis-
turbers of the religion, therefore of the peace, of the
empire. At this very time, an earthquake, more than
usually terrible and destructive, shook the cities of the
East. Antioch suflfered its most appalling ravages, —
Antioch, crowded with the legionaries prepared for the
emperor's invasion of the East, with ambassadors and
tributary kings from all parts of the East. The city
shook through all its streets: houses, palaces, thea-
tres, temples, fell crasliing down. Many were killed :
the Consul Pedo died of his hurts. The emperor
himself hardly escaped through a window, and took
refiige in the circus, where he passed some days in
the open air. Whence this terrible blow but from the
wrath of the gods, who must be appeased by unusual
sacrifices ? This was towards the end of January :
early in February, the Christian bishop, Ignatius, was
arrested. We know how, during this century, at
every period of public calamity, whatever that calam-
ity might be, the cry of the panic-stricken Heathens
was, " The Christians to the lions ! " It may be that,
in Trajan^s humanity, in order to prevent a general
massacre by the infuriated populace, or to give greater
solemnity to the sacrifice, the execution was ordered
to take place, not in Antioch, but in Bome.

From the Epistles of Ignatius^ (I confine myself
to the three short Syriac Epistles, for which we are
indebted to Dr. Cureton) it is manifest that this was

1 I owe this Buggestion to the sagacity of Bimsen (Christianity and Man*
kindf p. 89). But the chronology is from Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenic!, who,
though he quotes authorities for the close approximation of the two events,
seems to have no thought of then: historical connection. The description of
the earthquake is from Dion Cassius, Izviii. 24 et teqq*

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106 ESTIMATE OF TRAJAN'S CHAKACTER. Book n.

no general persecution. Throughout his journey, the
" Bishop of Antioch " is in firee communication and
correspondence with the Christian communities, and
the most eminent bishops of Asia Minor, who appear
to be in perfect security : Ignatius alone is in danger.
Of this solitary danger he is proud. There is through-
out a wild eagerness for martyrdom (how different
from the calm serenity of St. Paul!). As he would
thus during his journey court, he may reasonably be
supposed in Antioch to have provoked, martyrdonj;
at least he would not have allayed by prudent conces-
sion the indignation and anger of the Government.
He, even deprecates the interference of his Christian
friends in his behalf. He fears lest their ill-timed,
and, as he thinks, cruelly officious love might by some
influence (influence which implies their own complete
exemption from danger) deprive him of that glorious
crown. He is apprehensive lest their unwelcome ap-
peal to the imperial clemency might meet with success.
Trajan, indeed, is absolved, at least by the almost
general voice of antiquity, from the crime of persecu-
ting the Christians.^ The legend of his redemption

1 The recent boasted discovery of a catacomb, near the seventh mflestone
on the Via Nomentana, where Alexander, Bishop of Rome in the reign of
Trajan, who is promoted into a martyr, was buried; with a chapel (contempo-
rary, as it is boldly asserted) dedicated to his memoiy and worship, — is a pore
religious romance. A catacomb there is, from which the remains of S. Alex-
ander are said to have been removed by Pope Paschal, a Pope of almost
the darkest period in the papal annals, A.D. 817-824. Of this there is not
the shadow of a shade of historical evidence. As to the chapel (I have vis-
ited the spot, and inspected the ruins, and am confident that it was never
subterranean, — no part of the catacomb), it was, no doubt, of about the age
of Jerome; when pilgrimage to, and worship in, such edifices, sacred to the
memory of martyrs, who were multiplied according to the demand, had be-
come a passion. Excepting of Ignatius, probably of Simeon of Jerusalem,
there is no authentic martyrdom in the reign of Trajan. The letters of Igna-
tius — the genuine letters — are conclusive against any persecution of the
Christians in Rome.

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Chap. VI. REIGN OF HADRIAN. 107

from purgatory, at the prayer of Pope Gregory I.
(Dante, Purgatoria, x. 47), and his appearance in
heaven as one of the five Heathens to whom salvation
was vouchsafed (Paradiso, xx. 43), would hardly have
grown up, if there had been any tradition of him as
another Nero, Decius, or Diocletian.

The cosmopolite and indefatigable mind of Hadrian
was more likely to discern with accuracy, Hadrian
and estimate to its real extent, the growing ajd. ui
influence of the new religion. Hadrian was, still
more than his predecessor, the emperor of the West
rather than the monarch of Rome. His active genius
withdrew itself altogether from warlike enterprise and
foreign conquest ; its whole care was centred on the
consolidation of the empire within its narrower and
uncontested boundaries, and on the internal regula-
tion of the vast confederacy of nations which were
gradually becoming more and more assimilated, as
subjects or members of the great European empire.
The remotest provinces for the first time beheld the
presence of the emperor, not at the head of an army
summoned to defend the insulted barriers of the
Roman territory, or pushing forward the advancing
line of conquest; but in more peaceful array, pro-
viding for the future security of the flintier by im-
pregnable fortresses; adorning the more flourishing
cities with public buildings, bridges, and aqueducts ;
inquiring into the customs, manners, and even the
religion, of the more distant parts of the world ; en-
couraging commerce ; promoting the arts ; in short,
improving, by salutary regulations, for this long period
of peace, the prosperity and civilization of the whole
empire. Gaul, Britain, Greece, Syria, Egypt, AMca,
were in turn honored by the presence, enriched by the

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108 ms CHABACTEB. Book D.

liberality, and benefited by tlie wise policy, of the em-
peror.^ His personal character showed the same
incessant activity and politic versatility. On the fron-
Chancier ^^r, at the head of the army, he put on the
of Hadiun. hardihood and simplicity of a soldier ; dis-
dained any distinction, either of fare or of comfort,
from the meanest legionary; and marched on foot,
through the most inclement seasons. In the peaceful
and voluptuous cities of the South, he became the
careless and luxurious Epicurean. Hadrian treated
the established religion with the utmost respect; he
officiated with solemn dignity as supreme pontiff, and
at Rome affected disdain or aversion for foreign reli-
gions.2 But his mind was essentially imbued with the
philosophic spirit : ^ he was tempted by every abstruse
research, and every forbidden inquiry had irresistible
attraction for his curious and busy temper.* At
Athens, he was in turn the simple and rational philoso-
pher, the restorer of the splendid temple of Jupiter
Olympius, and the awe-struck worshipper in the Eleu-

1 M. St Croix observes (in an essay in the M^m. de I'Acad^m. xlix. 409)
that we have medals of twenty-five countries through which Hadrian trav*
elled. (Compare Eckhel, vl. 486.) He looked into the crater of Etna; saw
the sun rise from Mount Casfus; ascended to the cataracts of the Nile; heard
the statue of Memnon. He imported exotics from the East. The jour-
neys of Hadrian are traced, in a note to M. Solvet's translation of Hege-
wisch, dted above. Tertullian calls him '* curiositatum omnium explorator."
— Apol. i. V. Eusebius, H. E. v. 6, 'jravra rd. ireptepya nohmpayfiavGv.

s " Sacra Romana diligentissim^ curavit, peregrina contempsit" — Spar-
tian. in Hadrian.

8 " Les autres sentiments de ce prince sont tr^s difficiles h connaitre. U
n'embrassa aucun secte, et ne fiit ni Acad^icien ni Stoicien, encore moina
Epicurien; il parut oonstamment livr^ k cette incertitude d* opinions, fruit de
la bizarrerie de son caract^re, et d*un savoir superficiel ou mal dig^r^." — St
Croix, ubi nqtrit.

4 In the Ctesars of Julian, Hadrian is described in the pregnant
phrase vohmpaYftovijv rli &ir6f>pijTa, — busied about all the secret reli-

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Chap. VI. HADRIAN'S POLICY. 109

sinian mysteries.^ In the East, he aspired to penetrate
the recondite secrets of magic, and professed himself
an adept in judicial astrology. In the midst of all
this tampering with foreign religions, he at once paid
respect to and outraged the prevailing creed by the
deification of Antinous, in whose honor quinquennial
games were established at Mantinea ; a city built, and
a temple, with an endowment for a priesthood,^ founded
and called by his name, in Egypt: his statues assumed
the symbols of various deities. Acts like these, at
this critical period, must have tended to alienate a
large portion of the thinking class, already wavering
in their cold and doubtful Polytheism, to any purer
or more ennobling system of religion.

Hadrian not merely surveyed the surface of society,
but his sagacity seemed to penetrate deeper into the
relations of the different classes to each other, and
into the more secret workings of the social system.
His regulations for the mitigation of slavery were
recommended, not by humanity alone, but by a wise
and prudent policy.^ It was impossible that the rapid
growth of Christianity could escape the notice of a
mind so inquiring as that of Hadrian, or that he could
be altogether blind to its ultimate bearings Hadrian's
on the social state of the empire. Yet the ^l^
generally humane and pacific character of ^^^^^'^^^i^y-
his government would be a security against violent
measures of persecution ; and the liberal study of the

1 The Apology of Qnadntos was presented on Hadrian^s visit to Athens,
when he was initiated in the MyBteries; that of Aristides, when he became
Epoptes, A.D. 181. Warborton connects the hostility of the celebrators of
the Mysteries towards Christianity with the Apology of Quadratns, and quotes
a passage from Jerome to this effect Compare Bouth's Reliquite Sacie,
i. 70.

* Enseb. iv. 8. Hieronym. in GataL et Rafin.

* Gibbon, vol. i. ch. ii. p. 71.

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110 fflS FAIRNESS TO THE CHRISTIANS. Book U

varieties of human opinion would induce, if not a wise
and rational spirit of toleration, yet a kind of con-
temptuous indifference towards the most inexplicable
aberrations from the prevailing opinions. The apolo-
gists for Christianity, Quadratus and Aristides, ad-
dressed their works to the emperor, who does not
appear to have repelled their respectfiil homage.^ The
rescript which he addressed, in the early part of his
reign, to the proconsul of Asia, afforded the. same pro-
tection to the Christians against the more formidable
danger of popular animosity, which Trajan had granted
against anonymous delation. In some of the Asiatic
cities, their sullen and unsocial absence from the
public assemblies, from the games, and other public
exhibitions, either provoked or gave an opportunity
for the latent animosity to break out against them.
A general acclamation would sometimes demand their
punishment. " The Christians to the lions ! " was the
fierce outcry ; and the names of tlie most prominent
or obnoxious of the community would be denounced
with the same sudden and uncontrollable hostility.
A weak or superstitious magistrate trembled before
the popular voice, or lent himself a willing instrument
to the fury of the populace. The proconsul Serenus
Granianus consulted the emperor as to the course to
be pursued on such occasions. The answer of Iladrian
is addressed to Minucius Pundanus, probably the suc-
cessor of Granianus. It enacts, that, in the prosecu-
tion of the Christians, the formalities of law should be
strictly complied with ; that they should be regularly
arraigned before the legal tribunal, not condemned on
the mere demand of the populace, or in compUanco
with a lawless outcry.* The edict does credit to the

1 See the fragmenU in Routh, Reliquiie SacnSf i. 69-78.

a Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 68, 69. Euseb., H. E. iy. 9. Moaheim, whoae

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Chap. VI. HADRIAN IGNORANT OF CHRISTIANITY. Ill

humanity and wisdom of Hadrian. But, notwithstand-
ing his active and inquisitive mind, and the ability
of his general policy, few persons were per- Hadrian in-
haps less qualified to judge of the real nature undewtand-
of the new religion, or to comprehend the ti«»ity-
tenacious hold which it would obtain upon the mind
of man. His character wanted depth and seriousness
to penetrate or to understand the workings of a high,
profound, and settled religious enthusiasm.^ The
graceful verses which he addressed to his departing
spirit 2 contrast with the solemn earnestness with
which the Christians were teaching mankind to con-
sider the mysteries of another life. But on the whole,
tlie long and peaceful reign of Hadrian allowed free

opinions on the state of the Christians are colored by too lenient a view of
Roman toleration, considers this edict by no means more favorable to the
Christians than that of Trajan. It evidently offered them protection under
a new and peculiar exigency.

1 The well-known letter of Hadrian gives a singular view of the state of
the religious society in Egypt, as it existed, or rather, as it appeared to the
inquisitive emperor. '* I am now, my dear Servianus, become fUlly acquainted
with that Egypt whicli you praise so highly. I have found the people vain,
fickle, and shifting with eveiy breath of popular rumor. Those who worship
Serapis are Christians, and ^ose who call themselves Christian bishops are
wordiippers of Serapis. There is no ruler of a Jewish s>iiagogue, no Samari-
tan, no Christian bishop, who is not an astrologer, an interpreter of prodigies,
and an anointer. The patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt, is com-
pelled by one party to worship Serapis ; by the other, Christ . . . They have
but one God: him Christians, Jews, and Gentiles worship alike." This latter
clause Casaubon understood seriously. It is evidently malicious satire. The
common God is Gain. The key to the former curious statement is probably,
that the tone of the higher, the fashionable society in Alexandria was to affect,
either on some Gnostic or philosophic theory, that all these religions differed
only in form, but were essentially the same ; that all adored one Deity, all one
Logos or Demiurge, under different names; all employed the same arts to
impose upon the vulgar, and all were equally despicable to the real philoso-
pher. Dr. Burton, in his Histoiy of the Church, suggested, with much in-
genuity, that the Samaritans may have been the Gnostic followers of Simon

Magus.

s Attimwi^ Tagnla, bUndnIa,

Hospes oomesque corporis,

Qun nunc ablbis in loea?

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112 ANTONINUS PIUS. Book H.

scope to the progress of Christianity ; the increasing
wealth and prosperity of the empire probably raised
in the social scale that class among which it was chiefly
disseminated ; while the better part of the more opu-
lent would be tempted, at least to make themselyes
acquainted with a religion the moral influence of which
was so manifestly favorable to the happiness of man-
kind, and which offered so noble a solution of the
great problem of human philosophy, — the inunortality
of the soul.
The gentle temper of the first Antoninus would main-
tain that milder system which was adopted
piu««^«)r, by Hadrian from policy or from indifference.
The emperor, whose parental vigilance scru-
tinized the minutest affairs of the most remote prov-
ince, could not be ignorant, though his own residence
was fixed m Rome and its immediate neighborhood,
of the still-expanding progress of Christianity. The
religion itself acquired every year a more public
character. The Apology now assumed the tone of an
arraignment of the folly and unholiness of the estab-
lished Polytheism ; nor was this a low and concealed
murmur within the walls of its own places of assem-
blage, or propagated in the quiet intercourse of the
brethren. It no longer affected disguise, or dissembled
its hopes; it approached the foot of the throne; it
stood in the attitude, indeed, of a suppliant, claiming
the inalienable rights of conscience, but asserting in
simple confidence its moral superiority, and, in the
name of an Apology, publicly preaching its own doc-
trines in the ears of Hie sovereign and of the world.
The philosophers were joining its ranks ; it was rapidly
growing up into a rival power, both of the religions
and philosophies of the world. Yet, during a reign

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Chap.VL edicts of ANTONINUS. 118

in which human life assumed a value and a sanctity
before unknown ; in which the hallowed person of a
senator was not once violated, even by the stern hand
of justice ; ^ under an emperor who professed and
practised the maxim of Scipio, that he had rather save
the life of a single citizen than cause the death of
a thousand enemies ;2 who considered the subjects
of the empire as one family, of which himself was the
parent,® — even religious zeal would be rebuked and
overawed ; and the provincial governments, which too
often reflected the fierce passions and violent barbari-
ties of the throne, would now, in turn, image back the
calm and placid serenity of the imperial tribunal.
Edicts are said to have been issued to some of the
Grecian cities, — Larissa, Thessalonica, and Athens,
— and to the Greeks in general, to refrain from any
unprecedented severities against the Christians. An-
other rescript,^ addressed to the cities of Asia Minor,
speaks language too distinctly Christian even for the
anticipated Christianity of disposition evinced by An-
toninus. It calls upon the Pagans to avert the anger
of Heaven, which was displayed in earthquakes and
other public calamities, by imitating the piety, rather
than denouncing the atheism, of the Christians. The
pleasing vision must, it is to be feared, be abandoned,

1 Jnl. Capit, Anton. Piiu, Aug. Script p. 188. 3 Xbid., p. 140.

* The reign of Antoninus the First is almost a blank in history. The book
of Dion CaasiuB which contained his reign was lost, except a small part, when
Xiphilin wrote. Xiphilin asserts that Antoninus fiivored the Christians.

* The rescript of Antoninus, in Ensebius, to which Xiphilin alludes (Euseb.
hr. 18), in i^yor of the Christians, is now generallj givep up as spurious.
The older writers disputed to which of the Antonini it belonged. Lardner
aignes, ftom the Apologies of Justin Martyr, that the Christians were perse-
cuted " even to death " during this reign. The inference is inconclusive : they
were obnoxious to the law, and might endeavor to gain the law on their side
though it may not have been carried into execution. The general voice of
Christian antiquity is &yorable to the first Antoninus.

VOL. II. 8

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114 ms CHARACTER. Book U.

which would represent the best of the Pagan emperors
bearmg his public testimony in favor of the calum-
niated Christians ; the man who, from whatever cause,
deservedly bore the name of the Pious among the
adherents of his own religion, the most wisely tolerant
to the faith of the Gospel.

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Ckat.TIL mabcus aubeuus. 115

CHAPTER Vn.

Chiutianity and Marcus Aurelins the Philosopher.

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius the Philosopher was of
a more lofty and vigorous character than that of his
gentle predecessor. The second Antoninus might
seem the last eflfort of Paganism, or rather of Gentile
philosophy, to raise a worthy opponent to the trium-
phant career of Christianity. A blameless disciple in
the severest school of philosophic morality, the au-
sterity of Marcus rivalled that of the Christians in its
contempt of the follies and diversions of life ; yet his
native kindliness of disposition was not hardened and
embittered by the severity or the pride of his philo-
sophy.^ With Aurelius, nevertheless, Christianity
found not only a fair and high-minded competitor for
tlie command of the human mind ; not only a rival
in the exaltation of the soul of man to higher vieyrs
and more dignified motives, — but a violent and intol-
erant persecutor. During his reign, the martyrologies
become more authentic and credible; the distinct
voice of Christian history arraigns the Philosopher,
not indeed as the author of a general and systematic
plan for the extirpation of Christianity, but as with-
drawing even the ambiguous protection of the former
emperors, and giving free scope to the excited passions,
the wounded pride, and the jealous interests of its

1 " Yerecnndus sine ignavlA, sine tzistitift gravis." — Jul. Capit, Ang. Hist
p. 160.

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116 ALTERED POSITION OF CHEISTIANITT. Book H.

enemies; neither discountenancing the stem deter-
mination of the haughty governor to break the contu-
macious spirit of resistance to his authority, nor the
outburst of popular fury, which sought to appease
the offended gods by the sacrifice of these despisers of
their deities.

Three important causes concurred in bringing about
Thne eatues this daugcrous crisis in the destiny of Chris-
ftyofM. An"- tiauity at this particular period, — I. The
htogoTem- change in the relative position of Chria-
SSatiMiity. tianity to the religion of the empire ; IE. The
circumstances of the times; HI. The character of
the emperor.

I. Sixty years of almost uninterrupted peace, since
the beginning of the second century, had
liwitionof opened a wide field for the free development
inngardto of Christianity. It had spread into every
quarter of the Roman dominions. The
Western provinces, Gaul and Afi-ica, rivalled the East
in the number, if not in the opulence, of their Chris-
tian congregations. In almost every city had gradually
arisen a separate community, seceding fi'om the ordi-
nary habits and usages of life, at least fi:om the public
religious ceremonial ; governed by its own laws ; act-
ing upon a common principle ; and bound together in
a kind of latent federal union throughout the empire.
A close and intimate correspondence connected tliis
new moral republic. An impulse, an opinion, a feel-
ing, which originated in Egypt or Syria, was propa-
gated with electric rapidity to the remotest fix)ntier of
the West. Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons in Gaul,
whose purer Greek had been in danger of corruption
from his intercourse with the barbarous Celtic tribes,
enters into a controversy with the speculative teachers

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Chap.VIL spread of CHBISTLA.NITY. 117

of Antioch, Edessa, or Alexandria ; whUe Tertullian,
in his rude African Latin, denounces or advocates
opinions which sprang up in Pontus or in Phrygia. A
new kind of literature had arisen, propagated with the
utmost zeal of proselytism, among a numerous class
of readers, who began to close their ears against the
profane fables and the unsatisfactory philosophical
systems of Paganism. While the emperor himself
condescended, in Greek of no despicable purity and
elegance for the age, to explain the lofty tenets of the
Porch, and to commend its noble morality to his sub-
jects, the minds of a large portion of the world were
pre-occupied by writers who, in language often impreg-
nated with foreign and Syrian barbarisms, enforced
still higher morals, resting upon religious tenets
altogether new and incomprehensible excepting to the
initiate. Their sacred books were of still higher au-
thority, — commanded the homage, and required the
diligent and respectful study, of all the disciples of
the new faith. Nor was this empire within the
empire, this universally disseminated sect, — which
had its own religious rites ; its own laws to which it
appealed rather than to the statutes of the empire ; its
own judges (for the Christians, wherever they were
able, submitted their disputes to their bishop and his
associate presbyters) ; its own financial regulations,
whether for the maintenance of public worship, or for
charitable purposes ; its own religious superiors, who
exercised a very diflFerent control from that of the pon-
tiffs or sacerdotal colleges of Paganism; its own usages
and conduct; in some respects, its own language, —
confined to one class, or to one description of Roman
subjects. Christians were to be found in the court, in
the camp, in the commercial market; they discharged

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118 TERTULLIAK'S PLEA FOR TOLERATION. Book H.

all the duties, and did not decline any of the oflSces,
of society. Tliey did not altogether shun the forum,
or abandon all interest in the civil administration ; they
had their mercantile transactions, in common with the
rest of that class. One of their apologists indignantly
repels the charge of their being useless to society : " We
are no Indian Bralmiins, or devotees, living naked in
the woods, self-banished from civilized life. We grate-
fully accept, we repudiate no gift of God the Creator:
we are only temperate in their use. We avoid not
your forum, your markets, your baths, your shops, your
forges, your inns, your fairs. We are one people with
you in all worldly commerce. We serve with you as
sailors, as soldiers; we are husbandmen and mer-
chants like you. We practise the same arts; we
contribute to all public works for your use."^ Among
their most remarkable distinctions, no doubt, was their
admission of slaves to an equality in religious privi-
leges. Yet there was no attempt to disorganize or
correct the existing relations of society. Though
the treatment of slaves in Christian families could not
but be softened and humanized, as well by the evan-
gelic temper as by this acknowledged equality in
the hopes of another life, yet Christianity left the
emancipation of mankind from these deeply rooted
distinctions between the free and servile races to

1 I add Tertallian's Latin: ^* Infinctuosi in negotiis dicimnr. Quo pacto
homines vobiscnm degentes, ejusdem victCU, habidb, instinctfls, ejnsdem ad
vitam necessitatis? Neque enim Bradunanse, ant Indonim gymnosophistie
smnos, sylvicols et exnles vitae. Meminimns gratiam nos debere Deo domino
cieatori, nullum fructum operum ejus repudiamur, pland temperamus, ne ultra
modum aut perperam utamur. Itaque non sine foro, non sine macello, non
sine balneifi, tabemis, officinis, stabulis, nundinis vestris, csoterisque com-
merciis, cohabitamus in hoc seculo: navigamus et nos vobiscum et mili'
tomcM, et rusticamur, et mercamur; proinde miscemus artes, opera nostra
pnblicamus usui yestro." — Apologet c 42.

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Chap. VIL FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 119

times which might be ripe for so great and important
a change.

This secession of one part of society from its accus-
tomed religious intercourse with the rest, if in nothing
but religious intercourse, independent of the numbers
whose feelings and interests were implicated in the
support of the national religion in all its pomp and
authority, would necessarily produce estrangement,
jealousy, animosity.

As Christianity became more powerful, a vague
apprehension began to spread abroad among oonneodon or
the Boman people, that the fall of their old with the aS

oftheBomaa

religion might, to a certain degree, mvolve canpire.
that of their civil dominion ; and this apprehension, it
cannot be denied, was justified, deepened, and con-
firmed by the tone of some of the Christian writings,
no doubt by the language of some Christian teachers.
Idolatry' was not merely an individual but a national
sin, which would be visited by temporal as well as
spiritual retribution. The anxiety of one at least, and
that certainly not the most discreet, of the Christian
apologists, to disclaim all hostility towards the tempo-
ral dignity of the empire, implies that the Christians
were obnoxious to this charge. The Christians are
calumniated, writes Tertullian to Scapula,^ at a some-
what later period (under Severus), as guilty of
treasonable disloyalty to the emperor. As the occa-
sion required, he exculpates them from any leaning
to Niger, Albinus, or Cassius, the competitors of

1 ** Sed et circa majestatem imperii infiunamnr, tamen nunqaam Albi-
niani, nee Nlgriani, vel CaBsiani, inveniri potuerunt Christiani.

*' Christianas nnlliiu est hostis, nediun Imperatoris; quern sciens a Deo
SQO constitoi, necesse est at et ipsam diligat, et revereatar, et honoret, et sal*
vnm velit, com toto Bomano imperio, quoosqae saecalom stabit: tamdia enim
skabit" — TertoUlan ad Scapulam, 1.

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120 ITS CONNECTION WITH CHKISTIANITT. Book JL

Severus; and then proceeds to make this solemn
protestation of loyalty: " The Christian is the enemy
of no man, assuredly not of the emperor. The
sovereign he knows to be ordained by God ; of neces-
sity, therefore, he loves, reveres, and honors him,
and prays for his safety, with that of the whole Roman
empire, that it may endure — and endure it will — as
ToBeofsanM ^^^8 ^ ^^ world itsclf."^ But othcT Chrift-
SritiSS^oon- ^^^ documents, or at least documents eagerly
tSJ^^^ disseminated by the Christians, speak a very
'^*°^°- diflFerent language.* By many modem inter-
preters, the Apocalypse itself is supposed to refer, not
to the fall of a predicted spiritual Bome, but of the
dominant Pagan Rome, the visible Babylon of idolatry
and pride and cruelty. According to this view, it is a
grand dramatic vaticination of the triumph of Chris-
tianity over Heathenism in its secular as well as its
spiritual power. Be this as it may, in later writings,
the threatening and maledictory tone of the Apocalypse
is manifestly borrowed, and directed against the total
abolition of Paganism, in its civil as well as religious
supremacy. Many of these forged prophetic writings
belong to the reign of ihe Antonines, and could not
emanate flpom any quarter but that of the more
injudicious and fanatical Christians. The second
(Apocryphal) book of Esdras is of this character, the
work of a Judaizing Christian;^ it refers distinctly to

1 " QaoQsqtie sscnlam stabit."

3 I have been much indebted, in this passage, to the excellent work of
Techirner, " Der Fall des Heidenthmns;" a work written with so much learn-
ing, candor, and Christian temper, as to excite great regret that it was left
incomplete at its author's death.

8 The general character of the work, the nationality of the perpetual allu-
sions to the histoxy and fortunes of the race of Israel, betray the Jew: the
passages, chap. ii. 42, 48 ; y. 5 ; yii. 26, 29, are avowed Christianity. On this
book read Ewald.

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Chap. Vn. THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. 121

the reign of the twelve CsBsars,^ and obscurely inti-
mates, in many parts, the approaching dissolution of
the existing order of things. The doctrine of the
Millennium, which was as yet far from exploded or
fallen into disregard, mingled with all these prophetic
anticipations of future change in the destinies of man-
kind.2 The visible throne of Christ, according to these
writings, was to be erected on the ruins of all earthly
empires: the nature of his kingdom would, of course,
be unintelligible to the Heathen ; and all that he would
comprehend would be a vague notion that the empire of
the world was to be transferred from Rome, and that
this extinction of the m^esty of the empire was, in some
incomprehensible manner, connected with the triumph
of the new faith. His terror, his indignation, and his
contempt, would lead to fierce and implacable animosity.
Even in TertuUian's Apology, the ambiguous word
"saeculum" might mean no more than a brief and
limited period, which was yet to elapse before the final
consummation.

But the Sibylline verses, which clearly belong to
this period, express, in the most remarkable Thesibyuine
manner, this spirit of exulting menace at '^^
the expected simultaneous fall of Roman idolatry and
of Roman empire. The origin of the whole of the
Sibylline oracles now extant is not distinctly apparent,
either from the style, the manner of composition, qr
the subject of their predictions.* It is manifest that
they were largely interpolated by the Christians, to a

1 C. xii. 14. Compare Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, 1. vii. c. 3.

s There are apparent allnsions to the Millennium in the Sibylline verses,
particolarlj at the close of the eighth book.

* The first book, to p. 176, maj be Jewish; it then becomes Christian, as
well as the second. But in these books there is little prophecy : it is in gen-
eral the Mosaic history, in Greek hexameters. If there are any fragments of
Heathen verses, they are in the third book.

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122 PROBABLE ORIGIN Book U.

late period ; and some of the books can be assigned
to no other time but the present.^ Much, no doubt,
was of an older date. It is scarcely credible that the
Fathers of this time would quote contemporary for-
geries as ancient prophecies. The Jews of Alexandria,
who had acquired some taste for Grecian poetry, and
displayed some talent for the translation of their
sacred books into the Homeric language and metre,^
had, no doubt, set the example of versifying their own
prophecies, and of ascribing them to the Sibyls, whose
names were universally venerated, as revealing to
mankind the secrets of futurity. They may have be-
gun by comparing their own prophets with these ancient
seers, and spoken of the predictions of Isaiah or Ezekiel
as their Sibylline verses, which may have been another
word for prophetic or oracular.

Almost every region of Heathenism boasts its Sibyl.^
Poetic predictions, ascribed to these inspired women,
were either published or religiously preserved in the

1 ** Ad homm imperatonim (Antonini Pii cum Uberis ems M. Anrelio et
Lncio Vero) tempora videntur Sibjllarom vaticmia tantnm extendi; id quod
etiam e lib. y. videre licet" — Note of the editor, Opsopieiis, p. 688.

s Compare Yalckenaer^B learned treatise, De Aristobolo Judso. The frag-
ments of £zekiel Tragaedus, and many passages, which are evident versions
of the Jewish Scriptures, in the works of the Fathers, particularly of Euse-
bius, may be traced to this school. It is by no means impossible that the
Pollio of Virgil may owe many of its beauties to those Alexandrian versi-
fiers of the Hebrew prophets. Virgil, who wrought up mdiscriminately into
his refined gold all the ruder ore which he found in the older poets, may have
seen and admired some of these verses. He may have condescended, as he
thought, to borrow the images of these religious books of the barbarians, as a
modem might the images of the Vedas or of the Koran.

> See, on the different Sibyls and the origin of the different poems, the
dissertation (Excursus i. and vi.) of the new editor of the Sibylline verses,
M. Alexandre, t. ii. (Paris, 1856) ; on the Roman Sibylline books, Excursus iii.
I do not pledge myself to all M. Alexandre's historical criticism; but I wish
to bear my humble testimony to the superiority of this edition over all pre-
vious ones. The editor has availed himself of the valuable suggestions of
Bleek.

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Chap. VIL OF THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. 123

sacred archives of cities. Nowhere were they held in
such awftd reverence as in Rome. The opening of the
SibyUine books was an event of rare occurrence, and
only at seasons of fearful disaster or peril. Nothing
would be more tempting to the sterner or more ardent
Christian than to enlist, as it were, on his side, these
authorized Pagan intepreters of futurity ; to extort, it
might seem, from their own oracles, this confession of
their approaching dissolution. Nothing, on the other
hand, would more strongly excite the mingled feelings
of apprehension and animosity in the minds of the
Pagans, than this profanation, as it would appear,
whether they disbelieved or credited them, of the sacred
treasures of prophecy. It was Paganism made to utter,
in its most hallowed language and by its own inspired
prophets, its own condemnation ; to announce its own
immediate downfall, and the triumph of its yet obscure
enemy over both its religious and temporal dominion.
The fifth and eighth books of the Sibylline oracles
are those which most distinctly betray the sentiments
and language of the Christians of this period.^ In
the spirit of the Jewish prophets, they denoimce the
folly of worshipping gods of wood and stone, of ivory,
of gold, and silver ; of offering incense and sacrifice
to dumb and deaf deities. The gods of Egypt, and
those of Greece, — Hercules, Jove, and Mercury, —
are cut off. The whole sentiment is in the contempt-
uous and aggressive tone of the later, rather than the
more temperate and defensive argument of the earlier,
apologists for Christianity. But the Sibyls are made,
not merely to denounce the fall of Heathenism, but
the ruin of Heathen states and the desolation of
Heathen cities. Many passages relate to Egypt, and

^ Lib. T. p. 567.

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124 CONTENTS OF SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Book H.

seem to point out Alexandria, with Asia Minor, the
cities of which, particularly Laodicea, are frequently
noticed, as the chief staple of these poetico-prophetic
forgeries.^ The following passage might almost seem
to have been written after the destruction of the Sera-
peimi by Theodosius : ^ " Isis, thrice-hapless goddess,
thou shalt remain alone on the shores of the Nile, a
solitary Maenad by the sands of Acheron. No longer
shall thy memory endure upon the earth. And thou,
Serapis, that restest upon thy stones, much must thou
suflFer ; thou shalt be the mightiest ruin in thrice-hap-
less Egypt, and those who worshipped thee for a god
shall know thee to be nothing. And one of the linen-
clothed priests shall say, Come, let us build the beauti-
ful temple of the true God ; let us change the awful
law of our ancestors, who, in their ignorance, made
their pomps and festivals to gods of stone and clay ;
let us turn our hearts, hymning the Everlasting Qod,

1 Bftovtc Kctt SoOic ^Xipercu, koL n&trrrruu
Bav^ *HpaxJieobc re Aioc re xdl 'Epfuuao.-^F. 668.
The first of the«e lines is mutilated.

* ^lal, ^ed, TpcToXauKi, /levdc & hrl x^fMOi NetXov,
MovvT], ficuvuc &raKT0Cf hrl ^afio&oic 'Axepovro^,
Koi^K&n am) fivda ye fisvd Kard ycuav Airaaav,
Kal oi> Xipcan, Xi9oif hruceifieve, iroAXd fioytfaug,
Keioy mufia fuyioTov, kv hlyvwn^ rpcuOucuvg,

TvoaovToi ae rd fiffStv, 6ooi Oedv k^fjoniacaf,
Kdt TiQ kpd Tw lepeuv ^aoaaioc ia^pr
Aevre OfoC Hftevoe KoXoi) oryfiufuv dXif$iCt
Aevre rdv he npoyovciv detvdv v6ftov d^Xa^oftev,
Tov xoptv ^ XtStvotf KcU darpaiuvotai ^edat
Jlofiiritc Kctt TeXtrtic notoufievot oOk hoij<ni»,
XTphfftjfjtev ^jfvxk, Oedv a^tTW ^p/amwrec*
Airrbv rdv yever^pa, rbv aidurv ytyauTti,
Tdv -Kpnyravlv ttovtuv, rbv ^Bia, rbv fiaoi^^
irvxorpo^ yever^pa, Gedv fttyav, altv tavra.

Ub. T. p. 688, edit GaU. Amstdod. 1680.

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Chap. VIL SIBYLLINE PROPHECY AS TO HADRIAN. 125

the Eternal Father, the Lord of all, the True, the
King, the Creator and Preserver of our souls, the
Great, the Eternal God."

A bolder prophet, without doubt writing precisely
at this perilous crisis, dares, in the name of a Sibyl,
to connect together the approaching fall of Rome and
the gods of Rome. "0 haughty Rome! the just
chastisement of Heaven shall come down upon thee
from on high; thou shalt stoop thy neck, and be
levelled with the earth ; and fire shall consume thee,
razed to thy very foundations ; and thy wealth shall
perish; wolves and foxes shall dwell among thy ruins,
and thou shalt be desolate as if thou hadst never been.
Where then will be thy Palladium? Which of thy
gods of gold, or of stone, or of brass, shall save thee ?
Where then the decrees of thy senate? Where the
race of Rhea, of Saturn, or of Jove ; all the lifeless
deities thou hast worshipped, or the shades of the dei-
fied dead? When thrice five gorgeous Caesars [the
twelve Caesars usually so called, with Nerva, Trajan,
Hadrian], who have enslaved the world from east to
west shall be, one will arise silver-helmed, with a name
like the neighboring sea [Hadrian and the Hadriatic
Sea]." ^ The poet describes the busy and lavish char-

1 "H^ei (nil WOT* &ifti9ev lorj, inJMivx^f 'Pw^,
OipoviOf irX^x^, Kol Kafttlfetc aixtva irpurtf,
K^eda^^oi7, kcU irvp oe 6Xnv dairav^aei
KeKXtiiivtfv iSa^aatv iotc, kcU irXovrog dXetToi,
Ka2 aH ^ifieSXa ^/coc, Kot dX^au^ oUffoovau
Kal T6f ia^ navipiffwt dXuc, &{ fi^ yeyowila.
Uov Tdre IlaXXaduJV ; mioc ae i9edf diaa^cu,
JLfWJOv^f 1^ Xidivoc, ^ xo^f^Kf ^ r&re noo aoi
d^yiutra mryK^rw; irov, Trf^f, i^ Kpovoio,
m Aide yeve^, Kot iriamw uv iaepaoBrK
6ai/uvat d^;t<'vr> v^xpCnf ddoXa KOfjovruv;

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126 PROPHECY RELATING TO NERO. Book H.

acter of Hadrian, his curiosity in prying into all reli-
gious mysteries, and his deification of Antinous.^

<^ After him shall reign three, whoBe times shall he
the last?. . . Then firom the uttermost parts of the
earth, whither he fled, shall the matricide [Nero]
return.^ And now, king of Rome! shalt thou

'AAA,' Sre ooi paaiXeic x^^<'<zi^ ^pk frevre yhfcvrtu,
Koofiov dov^AMjavre^ Air* iamXlfK f*expi duafxuv,
'Eoaef &va^ ircXiSxpapoc, hc<^ niAof obvofia vovrov.

Lib. TJiL p. 679.

The rnin of Rome, and the restoration of Europe to the East, are likewiae
alluded to in the followmg pasBages: lib. iii. p. 404-408; v. 679-576; Tiii.
694, 712, 718.

There is another allusion to Hadrian, lib. v. p. 652, much more laudatory:
"Etrroe kcH itcofaptaroi Mlp, kcH marra iH^oeu

1 Koafujv hromevuv fuap^ irodl, dapa iropi^

Kai ftayucuv ddCrcjv fjcuarffpta frmrra fti66^u,

Uatdd. i^edv deucviKjei, dsrcanrt aePaofiora TStatu — P. 688.

(Compare the twelfth book, published by A. Mai, where the reading is IdU^
^rodi, line 167.)

* Tdv fterd, Tpdc Ap^oooi^ iraviararov ifiap ixpvrt^ —

One of these three is to be an old man, to heap up vast treasures, in order
to surrender them to the Eastern destroyer, Nero —

Iv brav Y AiraviXdy
'Ek mpiTuv ydoK d ^ac fo^pOKTCvoc k^dv.
Kdt Tore ^evdtfoets, fr2aTi) n6p<pvpov iryefiovffuv
^ijC htdvaofjievjj, koL idvBLfwv dfta ^epcnaa.

Ka2 ybp Aero^opuv 'hxytuvuv dofa 'Rtouroi,
Hoi) T(yn ooi rb Kparoc; Troto 77 oififiaxpc iaraif
LovhiBuaa realc juarato^poavvyfftv dOeofU)^;
Tiaatfc y<ip yaitfc ^iftfruv rore aiyxoot/s iorai,
A.iTb( iccnrroKparop Mv i^Jddv p^fiaai Kpiv^f
Zuvruv Kol veicOciv ^x^t f^ Koafwv airmnu.

'Ek Tori oot Bpvyftbt, xal OKOpKtOfibg, lud aXuatc,
Utuoic irav f?dp iroXeuv, koL xooftara yairfc.

Lib. viii. 688.

* The strange notion of the flight of Nero beyond the Euphrates, firom

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Chap. VH. SIBYLLINE PROPHECIES. 127

moiim, disrobed of the purple laticlave of tliy rulers,
and clad in sackcloth. The glory of thy eagle-bearing
legions shall perish. Where shall be thy might?
What land, which thou hast enslaved by thy vain
laurels, shall be thine ally ? For there shall be con-
fusion on all mortals over the whole earth, when the
Almighty Ruler comes, and, seated upon his throne,
judges the souls of the quick and of the dead, and of
the whole world. There shall be wailing, and scatter-
ing abroad, and ruin, when the fall of the cities shall
come, and the abyss of earth shall open."

In another passage, the desolation of Italy, the re-
turn of Nero, the general massacre of kings, are por-
trayed in fearful terms. The licentiousness of Rome
is detailed in the blackest colors : ^^ Sit silent in thy sor-
row, guilty and luxurious city ! the vestal virgins
shall no longer watch the sacred fire; thy house is
desolate." ^ Christianity is then represented tmder the

whence he was to return as Antichrist, is almost the burthen of the Sibylline
verses. Compare lib. iv. p. 520-626, v. 578, where there is an allusion to his
theatrical tastes, 61^714. The best commentary is that of St Augustine on
the Thessalonians: ** Et tunc revolabitur ille iniquus. Ego prorsus quid dix-
eiit me iateor ignorare. Suspiciones tamen hominmn, qnas vel audire vel
legere de hftc re potui, non tacebo. Qoidam putant hoc de tn^perto dictum
ftdsse Bomano; et propterea Paulum Apostolum non id apertd scribere voln-
isse, ne calumniam videlicet incuireret quod Bomano imperio mal6 optaverit,
cum speraretur eBtemum : ut hoc quod dixit, * Jam enim mysterium iniquita-
tis operatur,* Neronem voluerit intelligi, cigus jam &cta velut Antidiristi
' videbantur; unde nonnulli ipsum resurrecturum et futurum Antichristum
•Dspicantur. Alii vero nee eum occisnm putant, sed subtractum potius, nt
putaretur ocdsus; et vivum occultari in vigore ipeius setatis, in quA ftiit cum
orederetur extinctns, donee suo tempore reveletur, et restituatur in regnum."
According to the Sibyls, Nero was to make an alliance with the kings of the
Medes and Persians, return at the head of a mighty army, accomplish his
&vorite scheme of digging through the Isthmus of Corinth, and then conquer
Bome. For the manner in which Neander traces the genn of this notion in
the Apocalypse, see Pflanzung, Der Chr. Eirche, ii. 827. Nero is Anti-
christ in the political verses of Commodianns, xli. Compare M. Alexandre,
]i405.

lUb.y.p, 621.

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128 CHANGE m ASPECT OF THE TIMES. Book U.

image of a pure and heayen-descending temple, em-
bracing the whole human race.

Whether or not these prophecies merely embodied,
for the private edification, the sentiments of the
Christians, they are manifest indications of these
sentiments; and they would scarcely be concealed
with so much prudence and discretion as not to
transpire among adversaries, who now began to watch
them with jealous vigilance : if they were boldly pub-
lished, for the purpose of converting the Heathen,
they would be still more obnoxious to the general
indignation and hatred. However the more moderate
and rational, probably the greater number, of the
Christians might deprecate these dangerous and inju-
dicious efiusions of zeal, the consequences would in-
volve all alike in the indiscriminating animosity which
they would provoke ; and, whether or not these pre-
dictions were contained in the Sibylline poems, quoted
by all the early writers, by Justin Martyr, by Clement,
and by Origen, the attempt to array the authority of
the Sibyls against that religion and that empire, of
which they were before considered almost the tutelary
guardians, would goad the rankling aversion into
violent resentment.

The general superiority assumed in any way by
Christianity, directly it came into collision with the
opposite party, would of itself be fatal to the peace
which it had acquired in its earlier obscurity. Of all
pretensions, man is most jealous of the claim to moral
superiority.

n. The darkening aspect of the times wrought up
n. Change in ^^^^ growiug alieuatiou and hatred to open
iSSiSST" and furious hostiliiy. In the reign of M.
thetimeB. AuTclius, WO approach the verge of that

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Chap. VIL TERROR OF THE ROMAIC WORLD. 129

narrow oasis of peace which intervenes between the
final conquests of Rome and the recoil of repressed
and threatening barbarism upon the civilization of the
world. The public mind began to be agitated with
gloomy rumors from the frontier, while calamities,
though local, yet spread over wide districts, shook the
whole Roman people with apprehension. Foreign and
civil wars, inimdations, earthquakes, pestilences, which
I shall presently assign to their proper dates, awoke
the afirighted empire from its slumber of tranquillity
and peace.^

The emperor Marcus reposed not, like his prede-
cessor, in his Lanuvian villa, amid the peaceful pur-
suits of J^iculture, or with the great jurisconsults
of the time, meditating on a general system of legisla-
tion. The days of the second Numa were gone by,
and the Philosopher must leave his speculative school
and his Stoic Mends to place himself at the head of
the legions. New levies invade the repose of peace-
ful families; even the public amusements are en-
croached upon; the gladiators are enrolled to serve
in the army.^ It was at this \mexpected j^^, o, t^o
crisis of calamity and terror, that Supersti- '^"^^ '""***•
tion, which had slept in careless and Epicurean forget-
fulness of its gods, suddenly awoke, and, when it fled
for succor to the dtar of the tutelar deity, found the
temple deserted and the shrine neglected. One por-
tion of society stood aloof in sullen disregard or
avowed contempt of rites so imperiously demanded by
the avenging gods. If, in the time of public distress,
true religion inspires serene resignation to the divine

1 Tfllemont, Hist des Emp. iL 698.

* ^ Fuit enim popolo hie sennOi cum tusiuluiei ad helium gkuSatoref qnod
populnm sublatia voluptatibus velletoogere adpfailosophiam."— Jul. Cap.
p. 304.

▼OL. II. 9

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130 ANIMOSITY AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS. Book H.

will, and receives the awful admonition to more
strenuous and rigid virtue, Superstition shudders at
the manifest anger of the gods, jret looks not within
to correct the offensive guilt, but abroad to discover
some gift or sacrifice which may appease the divine
wrath, and bribe back the alienated favor of Heaven,
Barely does it discover any offering sufficiently costly,
except human life.^ The Christians were the public
and avowed enemies of the gods ; they were the self-
designated victims, whose ungrateful atheism had
provoked, whose blood might avert, their manifest
indignation. The public religious ceremonies, the
sacrifices, the games, the theatres, afforded constant
opportunities of inflaming and giving vent to the par-
oxysms of popular fury, with which it disburdened
itself of its awful apprehensions. The cry of " The
Christians to the lions!" was now no longer the
wanton clamor of individual or party malice ; it was
not murmured by the interested, and eagerly re-echoed
by the blood-thirsty, who rejoiced in the exhibition of
unusual victims ; it was the deep and general voice
of fanatic terror, solemnly demanding the propitiation
of the wrathful gods, by the sacrifice of these impious
apostates from their worship.^ The Christians were
the authors of all the calamities which were brooding
over the world ; and in vain their earnest apologists
appealed to the prosperity of the empire since the

1 Compare on similar eyents, paroxysms of popular religious zeal arising
out of public calamities, Hartung, Religion des Komer, i. 284.

a The miracle of the thundering legion (see po8tea\ after having suffered
deadly woimds from former assailants, was finally transfixed by the critical
spear of Moyle (Works, vol. ii.). Is it improbable that it was invented or
wrought up, fh>m a casual occurrence, into its present form, as a kind of
counterpoise to the re-iterated charge which was advanced against the Chris-
tians, of having caused, by their impiety, all the calamities inflicted by the
barbarians on the empure?

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Chap. VH. CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROB. 131

appearance of Christ, in the reign of Augustus, and
showed that the great enemies of Christianity, the
emperors Nero and Domiti^m, were likewise the
scourges of mankind.^

in. Was, then, the philosopher Aurelius superior
ra. The ohaxw to the vulgar superstition ? In what manner

Acter of fch0 ° ^

MDperor. did his pcrsoual character affect the condi-
tion of the Christians? Did he authorize, by any
new edict, a general and systematic persecution ? or
did he only give free scope to the vengeance of the
awe-struck people, and countenance the timid or
fiinatic concessions of the provincial governors to the
riotous demand of the populace for Christian blood ?
Did he actually repeal or suspend, or only neglect to
enforce, the milder edicts of his predecessors, which
secured to the Christians a fair and public trial before
the legal tribunal?^ The acts ascribed to Marcus
Aurelius, in the meagre and unsatisfactory annals of
his reign, are at issue with the sentiments expressed
in his grave and lofty " Meditations." He assumes,
in his philosophical lucubrations, which he dictated
during his campaigns upon the Danube, the tone of
profound religious sentiment, but proudly disclaims
the influence of superstition upon his mind. Yet in
Rome he either sliared, or condescended to appear to
share, all the terrors of the people. The pestilence,
said to have been introduced from the East by the
soldiers on their return from the Parthian campaign,

1 Melito apad Ronth^ Reliq. Sacr. i. 111. Compare Tertallian, Apologet v.

3 There is an edict of the Emperor Aurelian in the genuine Acts of St.
Symphorian, in which Pagi, Roinart, and Neander (i. 106) would read the
name of M. Aurelius instead of Anrelianus. Their arguments are, in my
opinion, inconclusive ; and the fact that Aurelian is named among the per-
secuting emperors in the treatise ascribed to Lactantius (De Mort Persecutor.),
in which his edicts {scripta) against the Christians are distinctly named,
ootweighs their conjectural objections.

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X82 THE EMPEROR'S PRIVATE SENTIMENTS. Book XL

had not yet ceased its ravages, when the public mind
was thrown into a state of the utmost depression by
the news of the Marcomannic war. M. Aurelius, as
we shall hereafter see, did not, in his proper person,
countenance, to the utmost, the demands of the popu-
lar superstition. For all the vulgar arts of magic,
divination, and vaticination, the emperor declares his
sovereign contempt ; yet on that occasion, besides the
public religious ceremonies, to which I shall presently
allude, he is said himself to have tampered with the
dealers in the secrets of futurity, — to have lent a
willing ear to the prognostications of the Chaldeans
and to the calculations of astrology. K these facts
priTateaenti- bc truc, and all this were not done in mere
emperor, in compUauce with the general sentiment, the

hlB " Meditft- ^ ° '

tions." serene composure of Marcus himself may at
times have darkened into terror; his philosophic
apathy may not always have been exempt from the
influence of shuddering devotion. In issuing an edict
against the Christians, Marcus may have supposed
that he was consulting the public good, by conciliating
the alienated favor of the gods. But the superiority
of the Christians to all the terrors of death appears
at once to have astonished and wounded the Stoic
pride of the emperor. Philosophy, which was con-
stantly dwelling on the solemn question of the immor-
tality of the soul, could not comprehend the eager
resolution with which the Christian departed from
life; and, in the bitterness of jealousy, sought out
unworthy motives for the intrepidity which it could
not emulate. " How great is tliat soul which is ready,
if it must depart from the body, to be extinguished,
to be dispersed, or still to subsist ! And this readi-
ness must proceed from the individual judgment, not

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Chap. VH. EDICT OF MARCUS ANTONINUS. 133

from mere obstinacy, like the Christians, but deliber-
ately, solemnly, and without tragic display."^ The
emperor did not choose to discern, that it was in the one
case the doubt, in the other the assurance, of the eter-
nal destiny of the soul, which constituted the differ-
ence. Marcus, no doubt, could admire, not merely the
dignity with which the philosopher might depart on
his uncertain but necessary disembarkation from the
voyage of life, and the bold and fearless valor with
which his own legionaries or their barbarous antago-
nists could confront death on the field of battle ; but,
at the height of his wisdom, he could not comprehend
the exalted enthusiasm with which the Christian
trusted in the immortality and blessedness of the
departed soul in the presence of God.

There can be little doubt, that Marcus Antoninus
issued an edict by which the Christians were again
exposed to all the denimciations of common informers,
whose zeal was now whetted by some share, if not by
the whole, of the confiscated property of delinquents.
The most distinguished Christians of the East were
sacrificed to the base passions of the meanest of man-
kind, by the emperor, who, with every moral qualifica-
tion to appreciate the new religion, closed his ears,
either in the stern apathy of Stoic philosophy, or the
more engrossing terrors of Heathen bigotry.

It is remarkable how closely the more probable

^ The emperor's Greek Is by no means dear In this remarkable passage.
iri^v napara^tv is usually translated as in the text, "mere obstinacy."
A recent miter renders it " ostentation or parade." I suspect an antithesis
with iiiK^c Kpioe(J(f and that it refers to the manner in which the Christians
arrayed themselves as a body against the authority of the persecutors; and
should render the words omitted in the text, uore kcH a)Jjov nelaai, " and
without that tragic display which is intended to persuade others to follow
our example." The Stoic pride would stand alone in the dignity of an
intrepid death.

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134 ACCESSION OF MARCUS AURELIUS. Book IL

records of Christian martyrology harmonize with the
course of events, during the whole reign of M. Aurelius,
and illustrate and justify my view of the causes and
motives of their persecution.^
It was on the 7th March, A.D. 161, that the elder

Antoninus, in the charitable words of a

Christian apologist, sank in death into the
sweetest sleep,^ and M. Aurelius assumed the reins of
empire. He immediately associated with himself the
other adopted son of Antoninus, who took the name
of L. Verus. One treacherous year of peace gave the
hope of undisturbed repose, under the beneficent sway
which caiTied the maxims of a severe and humane
philosophy into tlie administration of public aflFairs.
Mild to all lighter delinquencies, but always ready to
mitigate the severity of the law, the emperor was only
inexorable to those more heinous offences which en-
danger the happiness of society. While the emperor
himself superintended the course of justice, the senate
resumed its ancient honors. In the second year of

his reign, the horizon began to darken.

During the reign of the first Antoninus,
earthquakes which shook down some of the Asiatic
cities, and fires which ravaged those of the West, had
excited much alarm ; but these calamities assumed a
more dire and destructive character during the reign

1 A modem writer, M. Ripault (Hist. Fhilosophique de Marc Aurele)
ascribes to this time the memorable passage of Tertullian's apology, — "Ex-
istiment omnis publics clad is, omnis popularis incommodi, Christiaiios esse
causam. Si Tiberis ascendit in meema, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, si coe-
lum stetit, n terra mcycit, si fames, si lues, statim Christianos ad leones." An
older, more learned historian writes Uiat " tout ce qui suit les cultes de Tem-
pire s^^l^ve de toutes parts contre les Chretiens. On attribue & ce qu^on
appelle leur impi^t^, le d^chalnement des fl^aux, sous lesquelles g^missent tous
les hommes sans privilege ni exemption, sans distinction de religion." —
Tillemont, Hist, des £mp., Marc Aur^l.

> Quadratus apud Xiphilin. Antouin. 8.

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Chaf. Vn. CALAMITIES OF THE EMPIRE. 135

of Aurelius. Borne itself was first visited with a
terrible inundation.^ The Tiber swept away all the
cattle in the neighborhood, threw down a great num-
ber of buildings ; among the rest, the granaries and
mj^azines of com, which were chiefly situated on the
banks of the river. This appalling event was followed
by a famine, which pressed heavily on the poorer
population of the capital. At the same time, dis-
turbances took place in Britain. The Catti, a Gtorman
tribe, ravaged Belgium ; and the Parthian war, which
commenced under most disastrous circumstances, the
invasion of Syria, and the loss of three legions, de-
manded the presence of his colleague in the empire.
Though the event was announced to be prosperous,
yet intelligence of doubtful and hard-won victories
seemed to intimate that the spell of Soman conquest
was beginning to lose its power .^

After four years, Verus returned, bearing the tro-
phies of victory, but, at the same time, the a.d. iw.
seeds of a calamity which outweighed all thoempii«!*
the barren honors which he had won on the shores of
the Euphrates. His army was infected with a pesti-
lence, which superstition ascribed to the plunder of a
temple in Seleucia or Babylonia. The rapacious
soldiers had opened a mystic cofler, inscribed witli
magical signs, from which issued a pestilential air,
which laid waste the whole world. This fable is a
vivid indication of the state of the public mind.'

1 Capitol. M. AntoDin. p. 168.

' " Sed in diebua Parthici belli, persecutiones Christianorum, quartA jam
post Neronem vice, in Asift et GalliA graves pneoepto ejus extiterant, mul-
tiqne sanctorom martyrio coronati sunt" This loose language of Orosiua
(for the perBecution in Gaul, if not in Asia, was much later than the Parthian
war) appears to connect the calamities of Rome with the persecutions.

s This was called the ** annus calamitosns." There is a strange story in
Capitolinus of an impostor who harangued the popukce from the wild fig-tree

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186 PESTILENCE AND WAB. Book n.

More rational observation traced the fatal malady
from Ethiopia and Egypt to the Eastern army, which
it followed from province to province, mouldering
away its strength as it proceeded, even to the remote
frontiers of Gaul and the northern shores of the
Ehine. Italy felt its most dreadful ravages, and in
Rome itself the dead bodies were transported out of
the city, not on the decent bier, but heaped up in
wagons. Famine aggravated the miseries, and per-
haps increased the virulence, of the plague.^ Still
the hopes of peace began to revive the drooping mind ;
and flattering medals were struck, which promised the
return of golden days. On a sudden, the empire was
appalled with the intelligence of new wars in all
quarters. The Moors laid waste the fertile provinces
of Spain ; a rebellion of shepherds withheld the har-
vests of Egypt from the capital. Their defeat only
added to the dangerous glory of Avidius Cassius, who,
before long, stood forth as a competitor for the empire.
A vast confederacy of nations, from the frontiers of
Gaul to the borders of Ulyricum, comprehending some
of the best known and most formidable of the German
tribes, with others whose dissonant names were new to
the Roman ears, had arisen with a simultaneous move-
ment.^ The armies were wasted with the Parthian
campaigns, and the still more destructive plague.

The Marcomannic has been compared with the
Second Punic War, though, at the time, even in
the paroxysm of terror, the pride of Rome would

in the Campus Martins, and asserted that if, in throwing himself from the
tree, he should be turned into a stork, fire would fall from heaven, and the
tnd of the tporld toas at hand: "ignem de coelo lapsurum finemque mundi
affore diceret." As he fell, he loosed a stork from his bosom. Aurelius, on
his confession of the imposture, released him. — Cap. Anton. 18.
1 Julius Cap., Ant. Phil. 21. a See the list in Capitol, p. 200.

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Chap. VU. CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOMS. 187

probably not have ennobled an irruption of barbarians,
however formidable, by such a comparison. The
presence of both the emperors was imperiously de-
manded. Marcus, indeed, lingered in Rome, probably
to enroll the army (for which purpose he swept together
recruits from all quarters, and even robbed the arena
of its bravest gladiators), certauily to perform the
most solemn and costly religious ceremonies. Every
rite was celebrated which could propitiate the divine
favor, or allay the popular fears. Priests were sum-
moned from all quarters; foreign rites performed;^
lustrations and funereal banquets for seven days puri-
fied the infected city. It was, no doubt, on this
occasion that the unusual number of victims provoked
the sarcastic wit which insinuated, that, if the empe-
ror returned victorious, there would be a dearth of
oxen.2 Precisely at this time, the Christian ohrtatiaii
martyrologies date the commencement of the a.d. lee.
persecution under Aurelius. In Rome itself, Justin,
the apologist of Christianity, either in the same or in
the following year, ratified with his blood the sincerity
of his belief in the doctrines for which he had aban-
doned the Gentile philosophy. His death is attributed
to the jealousy of Crescens, a Cynic, whose audience
had been drawn off by the more attractive tenets of
the Christian Platonist. Justin was summoned before
Rusticus, one of the philosophic teachers of AureHus,

1 *'PeregrinoB ritus ingjUverU,*^ Such seems the uncontested reading in
the Augustan histoiy; yet the singular fact, that at such a period the em-
peror should introduce foreign rites, as well as the unusual expression, may
raise a suspicion that some word with an opposite meaning is the genuine ex-
pression of the author.

^ This early pasquinade was couched in the form of an address from the
white oxen to the emperor: ** If you conquer, we are undone: " 01 36ec ol
^evKcH MapKu tu Kcuaapi [xaipetv] 'Av 6e ov vtx^o^, fffug imoXofxeda, —
Amm. Marc. xxv. 4.

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188 PERSECUTION IN ASIA MINOB. Book U.

the prefect of the city, and commanded to perform
sacrifice. On his refusal, and open avowal of his
Christianity, he was scourged, and put to death. It
is by no means improbable, that, during this crisis of
religious terror, mandates should have been issued to
the provinces to imitate the devotion of the capital,
and everywhere to appease the offended gods by sacri-
fice. Such an edict, though not designating them by
name, would in its effects, and perhaps in intention,
expose the Christians to the malice of their enemies.
Even if the provincial governors were left of their own
accord to imitate the example of the emperor, their
own zeal or loyalty would induce them to fall in with
the popular current. The lofty humanity which
would be superior at once to superstition, to interest,
and to the desire of popularity, and which would
neglect the opportunity of courting the favor of the
emperor and the populace, would be a rare and singu-
lar virtue upon the tribunal of a provincial ruler.

The persecution raged with the greatest violence in
pwMcnuon Asia Miuor. It was here that the new

In Aslft

Minor. edicts wcrc promulgated, so far departing
from the humane regulations of the former emperors,
that the prudent apologists venture to doubt their
emanating from the imperial authority.^ By these
rescripts, the delators were again let loose, and were
stimulated by the gratification of their rapacity out
of the forfeited goods of the Christian victims of per-
secution, as well as of their revenge.

The fame of the aged Polycarp, whose death the
sorrowing church of Smyrna related in an epistle to
the Christian community at Philomelium or Philadel-
phia, which is still extant, and bears every mark of

1 Melito apud Euseb., H. £. iv. 20.

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CHAP.Vn. POLYCARP. 139

authenticity,^ has obscured that of the other victims
of Heathen malice or superstition. Of these
victims, the names of two only have sur-
vived; one who manfully endured, the other who
timidly apostatized, in the hour of trial. Germanicus
appeared ; was forced to descend into the arena ; he
fought gallantly, until the merciful proconsul en-
treated him to consider his time of life. He then
provoked the tardy beast, and in an instant obtained
his immortality. The impression on the wondering
people was that of indignation rather than of pity.
The cry was redoubled, "Away with the godless!
Let Polycarp be apprehended ! " The second, Quintus,
a Phrygian, had boastfully excited the rest to throw
themselves in the way of the persecution. He de-
scended, in his haste, into the arena : the first sight
of the wild beasts so overcame his hollow courage,
that he consented to sacrifice.

Polycarp was the most distinguished Christian of
the East ; he had heard the apostle St. John ; he had
long presided, with the most saintly dignity, over the
see of Smyrna. Polycarp neither ostentatiously ex-
posed himself, nor declined such measures for security
as might be consistent with his character. He con-
sented to retire into a neighboring village, from which,
on the intelligence of the approach of the officers, he
retreated to another. His place of concealment being
betrayed by two slaves, whose confession had been
extorted by torture, he exclaimed, " The will of God
be done ! " ordered food to be prepared for the officers
of justice ; and requested time for prayer, in which
he spent two hours. He was placed upon an ass,
and, on a day of great public concourse, conducted

i In Ck>telerii Patres Apostolic!, ii. 196.

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140 HIS TRIAL. Book H.

towards the town. He was met by Herod the Ire-
narch and his father Nicetas, who took tlie bishop, with
considerate respect, into their own carriage, and vainly
endeavored to persuade him to submit to the two tests
by which the Christians were tried, — the salutation
of the emperor by the title of Lord, and sacrifice.
On his determined refusal, their compassion gave
place to contumely: he was hastily thrust out of
the chariot, and conducted to the crowded stadium.
On the entrance of the old man upon the public
scene, the excited devotion of the Christian spectators
imagined that they heard a voice from heaven, " Poly-
carp, be firm!" The Heathen, in their vindictive
fury, shouted aloud, that Polycarp had been appre-
hended. The merciful proconsul entreated him, in
respect to his old age, to disguise his name. He
proclaimed aloud that he was Polycarp: the trial
proceeded. " Swear," they said, " by the Grenius of
Caesar ; retract, and say, * Away with the godless ! ' "
The old man gazed in sorrow at the frantic and raging
benches of the spectators, rising above each other,
and, with his eyes uplifted to heaven, said, " Away
with the godless!" The proconsul urged him fur-
ther : " Swear, and I release thee ; blaspheme Christ."
— "Eighty and six years have I served Christ, and
He has never done me wrong : how can I blaspheme
my King and my Saviour ? " The proconsul again
commanded him to swear by the Genius of Caesar.
Polycarp replied by avowing himself a Christian, and
by requesting a day to be appointed on which he
might explain before the proconsul the blameless
tenets of Christianity. " Persuade the people to con-
sent," replied the compassionate but overawed ruler.
" We owe respect to authority ; to thee I will explain

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CHAP.Vn. POLYCARP'S PRAYER FOR fflS ENEMIES. 141

the reasons of my conduct; to the popnlace I will
make no explanation." The old man knew too well
the ferocious passions raging in their minds, which it
had been vain to attempt to allay by the rational argu-
ments of Christianity. The proconsul threatened to
expose him to the wild beasts. "'Tis well for me
to be speedily released from this life of misery." He
threatened to burn him alive. "I fear not the fire
that bums for a moment: thou knowest not that
which bums for ever and ever." The Christian's
countenance was full of peace and joy, even when the
herald advanced into the midst of the assemblage, and
thrice proclaimed, " Polycarp has professed himself
a Christian!" The Jews and Heathens (for the
former were in great numbers, and especially infuri-
ated against the Christians) replied with an over-
whelming shout, " This is the teacher of all Asia, the
overthrower of our gods, who has perverted so many
from sacrifice and the adoration of the gods ! " They
demanded of the Asiarch, the president of the games,
instantly to let loose a lion upon Polycarp. The
Asiarch excused himself by alleging that the games
were over. A general cry arose that Polycarp should
be burned alive. The Jews were again as vindictively
active as the Heathens in collecting the fuel of the
baths, and other combustibles, to raise up a hasty yet
capacious funeral pile. He was speedily unrobed ; he
requested not to be nailed to the stake ; he was only
bound to it.

The calm and unostentatious prayer of Polycarp
may be considered as embodying the sentiments of the
Christians of that period. " Lord God Almighty,
the Father of thy well-beloved and ever-blessed Son
Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowl-

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142 HIS MABTTKDOlt Book JL

edge of Thee ; the Grod of angels, powers, and of every
creature and of the whole race of the righteous who
live before Thee ! I thank Thee that Thou hast gra-
ciously thought me worthy of this day and tliis hour,
that I may receive a portion in the number of thy
martyrs, and drink of Christ's cup, for the resurrec-
tion to eternal life, both of body and soiil, in the
incorruptibleness of the Holy Spirit; among whom
may I be admitted tliis day, as a rich and acceptable
sacrifice, as Thou, true and faithful God ! hast pre-
pared and foreshown and accomplished. Wlierefore
I praise Thee for all Thy mercies; I bless Thee; I
glorify Thee, with the eternal and heavenly Jesus
Christ, thy beloved Son, to whom, with Thee and the
Holy Spirit, be glory now and for ever,"

The fire was kindled in vain. It arose curving like
an arch around the serene victim, or, like a sail swell-
ing with the wind, left the body unharmed. To the
sight of the Christians, he resembled a treasure of
gold or silver (an allusion to the gold tried in the
furnace); and delicious odors, as of myrrh or fi-ankin-
cense, breathed from his body. An executioner was
sent in to despatch the victim ; his side was pierced,
and blood enough flowed &om the aged body to ex-
tinguish the flames immediately around him.^

The whole of this narrative has the genuine energy
of truth: the prudent yet resolute conduct of the
aged bishop, the calm and dignified expostulation of
the governor, the wild fury of the populace, the Jews
eagerly seizing the opportunity of renewing their un-
slaked hatred to the Christian name, are described

1 The Greek accoont adds a doye, which soarod from his bodj, as it were
his innocent departing souL For wepttrrepa, however, has been very ingeni-
ioualy substituted eit' apiarepd. See Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical His-
tory, i. 816. Perhaps mfi arepvh, " around the chest" — Ruhiart

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CHAP.Vn. EABTHQUAKE AT SMYKNA. 148

with the simplicity of nature. The supernatural part
of the transaction is no more than may be ascribed to
the high-wrought imagination of the Christian specta-
tors, deepening every casual incident into a wonder,
— the voice from heaven, heard only by Christian ears ;
the flame from the hastily piled wood, arching over the
unharmed body; the grateful odors, not impossibly
from aromatic woods, which were used to warm the
baths of the more luxurious, and which were collected
for the sudden execution ; the eflusion of blood, which
might excite wonder from the decrepit frame of a man
at least a hundred years old.^ Even the vision of
Polycarp himself,^ by which he was forewarned of his
approaching fate, was not unlikely to arise before
his mind at that perilouef crisis. Polycarp closed the
nameless train of Asiatic martyrs.®

Some few years after, the city of Smyrna was visited
with a terrible earthquake ; a generous sympathy was
displayed by the inhabitants of the neighboring cities ;
provisions were poured in from all quarters ; homes
were offered to the houseless, carriages furnished to
convey the infirm and the children from the scene of
ruin. They received the fugitives as if they had been
their parents or children. The rich and the poor vied
in the offices of charity ; and, in the words of the
Grecian sophist, thought that they were receiving
rather than conferring a favor.* A Christian historian

1 According to the great master of nature, Lady Macbeth's diseased
memory is haunted with a similar circumstance at the murder of Duncan.
'* Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him ? '*
— Macbeth., act t. b. 1.

3 The difficulty of accurately reconciling the vision with its fVilfilment haa
greatly perplexed the vrriters who insist on its pretemataral origin. —Jortin,
p. 807.

• Kanirccwje rbv diuyfjbv,

4 Tillemont, Hist des Emp. t ii. p. 687. The philosopher Aristides wrote
an oration on this event.

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144 RELIGIOUS EXCITEMENT OF THE PERIOD. Book EL

may be excused if he discerns in this humane conduct
the manifest progress of Christian benevolence ; and
that benevolence, if not unfairly ascribed to the influ-
ence of Christianity, is heightened by the recollection
that the sufferers were those whose amphitheatre had
so recently been stained with the blood of the aged
martyr. K, instead of beholding the retributive hand
of divine vengeance in the smouldering ruins of the
city, the Christians hastened to alleviate the common
miseries of Christian and of Pagan with equal zeal
and Uberality, it is impossible not to trace at once the
extraordinary revolution in the sentiments of man-
kind, and the purity of the Christianity which was
thus superior to those passions which have so often
been fatal to its perfection.

At this period of enthusiastic excitement, — of
Superstition on the one hand, returning in unreason-
ing terror to its forsaken gods, and working itself up
by every means to a consolatory feeling of the divine
protection ; of Religion, on the other, relying in hum-
ble confidence on the protection of an all-ruling
Providence ; when the religious parties were, it might
seem, aggrandizing their rival deities, and tracing
their conflicting powers throughout the whole course
of human affairs, — to every mind each extraordinary
event would be deeply colored with supernatural influ-
ence ; and, whenever any circumstance really bore a
providential or miraculous appearance, it would be
ascribed by each party to the favoring interposition of
its own god.

Such was the celebrated event which was long cur-
rent in Christian history as the miracle of the thunder-
ing legion.^ Heathen historians, medals still extant,

1 See Moyle*8 Woiks, voL u. Compare Routh, Reliq. Sacne, L 168, with
aathon quoted.

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Chap.VIL miracle OF THE THUNDERING LEGION. 145

and the column which bears the name of Antoninus
at Rome, concur with Christian tradition inHiraeieorthe
commemorating the extraordinary dehver- legion.
ance of the Roman army, during the war with the
Grerman nations, from a situation of the utmost peril
and difficulty. K the Christians at any time served in
the imperial armies ;^ if military service was a ques- '
tion, as seems extremely probable, which divided the
early Christians,^ — some considering it too closely
connected with the idolatrous practices of an oath to the
. fortunes of Ca&sar and with the worship of the stand-
ards, which were to the rest of the army, as it were,
the household gods of battle ; while others were
less rigid in their practice, and forgot their piety in
their allegiance to their sovereign and their patriotism
to their country, — at no time were the Christians
more likely to overcome their scruples than at this
critical period. The armies were recruited by unpre-
cedented means; and many Christians, who would
before have hesitated to enroll themselves, might less
reluctantly submit to the conscription, or even think
themselves justified in engaging in what appeared ne-
cessary and defensive warfare. There might then have
been many Christians in the armies of M. Aurelius ; but
that they formed a whole separate legion is manifestly
the fiction of a later age. In the campaign of the
year of our Lord 174, the army advanced incautiously
into a country entirely without water; and, in this
faint and enfeebled state, was exposed to a formidable
attack of the whole barbarian force. Suddenly, at
their hour of most extreme distress, a copious and re-

1 TertnIliAii, in a passage already quoted, states distincUj, ** mUUamus
Yobiscam."

s Neander has dereloped fhis notion with his usual ability, in this part of
his Histoiy of the Chmch.

VOL. II. 10

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146 CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN VIEW THEREOF. Book II.

freshing rain came down, which supplied their wants ;
and, while their half-recruited strength was still ill able
to oppose the onset of the enemy, a tremendous storm,
witli lightning, and hailstones of an enormous size,
drove full upon the adversary, and rendered his army
an easy conquest to the reviving Romans.^ Of this
awful yet seasonable interposition, the whole army ac-
knowledged the preternatural, the divine origin. By
those of darker superstition, it was attributed to the
incantations of the magician Arnuphis, who controlled
the elements to the service of the emperor. The
medals struck on the occasion, and the votive column
erected by Marcus himself, render homage to the estab-
lished deities, to Mercury and to Jupiter.^ The more
rational Pagans, with a flattery which received the
suffrage of admiring posterity, gave the honor to
the virtues of Marcus, which demanded this signal
favor from approving Heaven.^ The Christian, of
course, looked alone to that one Almighty God whose
providence ruled the whole course of nature, and
saw the secret operation of his own prayers meeting
with tlie favorable acceptance of the Most High.*
" While the Pagans ascribed the honor of this deliver-

1 In the year after this yictory (A.D. 176), the formidable rebellion of
Avidius Cassias disturbed the East, and added to the perils and embarrass-
ments of the empire.

^ Mercuiy, according to Pagi, appears on one of the coins relating to this
event Compare Reading's note in Roath, he. dL

B Lampridius (in Vit.) attributes the victor^' to the Chaldeans. Marcos,
De Seipso (lib. L c 6), allows that he had the magician Arnuphis in his
army.

Ghaldna mago eea eannina ritu
AnaaTere Deoa, sen, qaod reor, omne TOnaatis
Obsequiom Hard moxes potaere merBri.

Claud., ▼!. Coxts. Hon.

4 ** In JoYis nomine Deo nostro testimonium reddidit" — Tertulllan, Ad
Scapulam, p. 20. Euseb., Hist EccL y. 6.

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CHAF.Vn. B£ARTYRS OF VIENNE. 147

ance to their own Jove," writes Tertullian, " they un-
knowingly bore testimony to the Christians' God."

The latter end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius^ was
signalized by another scene of martyrdom, in a part of
the empire far distant from that where persecution
had before raged with the greatest violence, though
not altogether disconnected from it by the original
descent of the sufferers.^

The Christians of Lyons and Vienne appear to have
been a religious colony from Asia Minor or Mvtjn of
Phrygia, and to have maintained a close cor- a.d. 177.
respondence with those distant commvmities. There
is something remarkable in the coimection between
these regions and the East. To this district the two
Herods, Archelaus and Herod Antipas, were succes-
sively banished; and it is singular enough, that
Pontius Pilate, after his recall from Syria, was exiled
to tlie same neighborhood.

There now appears a Christian community, corres-
ponding in Greek with the mother Church.^ It is by no
means improbable, that a kind of Jewish settlement of
the attendants on the banished sovereigns of Judaea
•might have been formed in the neighborhood of Vienne
and Lyons, and maintained a friendly, no doubt a
mercantile connection with their opulent brethren of
Asia Minor, perhaps through the port of Marseilles.
Though Cliristianity does not appear to have pene-

1 If I had determined to force the events of this period into an accordance
irith my ovra. view of the persecutions of M. Aurelius, I might have adopted
the chronology of Dodwell, who assigns the martyrs of Lyons to the year
167 ; but the evidence seems in favor of the later date, 177. See Mosheim.
Lardner, who commands authority, if not by his critical sagacity, by his scru-
pulous honesty, sa>*B, '* Nor do I expect that any learned man, who has a
concern for his reputation as a writer, should attempt a direct confutation of
this opinion." — W^orks, 4to edit i. 860.

s Euseb., Hist. £cc. v. 1.

s Epistola Viennensium et Lugdunensium, in Bonth, i. 266.

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J48 GENERAL ATTACK ON THE CHRISTIANS. Book H.

trated into Gaul till rather a late period,^ it may have
travelled by the same course, and have been propa-
gated in the Jewish settlement by converts from
Phrygia or Asia Minor. Its Jewish origin is perhaps
confirmed by its adherence to the Judaeo-Christian
tenet of abstinence from blood.^

The commencement of this dreadful, though local
persecution was an ebullition of popular fury. It was
about the period when the German war, which had
slumbered during some years of precarious peace,
again threatened to disturb the repose of the empire.
Southern Gaul, though secure beyond the Rhine, was
yet at no great distance from the incursions of the
German tribes ; and it is possible that personal appre-
hensions might mingle with the general fanatic terror,
which exasperated the Heathens against their Christian
fellow-citizens. The Christians were on a sudden ex-
posed to a general attack of the populace. Clamors soon
grew to personal violence : they were struck, dragged
about the streets, plundered, stoned, shut up in their
houses, until the more merciful hostility of the ruling
authorities gave orders for their arrest and imprison-
ment until the arrival of the governor. One man of
birth and rank, Vcttius Epagathus, boldly undertook
their defence against the vague charges of atheism and
impiety : he was charged with being himself a Chris-
tian, and fearlessly admitted the honorable accusation.
The greater part of the Christian community adhered
resolutely to their belief ; the few whose courage failed
in the hour of trial, and who purchased their security

1 " Serius Alpes transgressa " is the ezpressioii of a Christian writer, Sol-
picius Severus.

3 " How can those eat infants to whom it is not lawful to eat die blood of
brntes ? " Compare, however, TertuUian's Apology, ch. 9, and Origen contra
Celsum, ^nii. ; from whence it appears that this abstinence was more general
among the early Christians.

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Chap. VH. HEATHEN CRUELTIES. 149

by shameful submission, nevertheless did not abandon
their more courageous and suffering bretliren, but, at
considerable personal danger, continued to alleviate
their sufferings by kindly offices. Some Heathen slaves
were at length compelled, by the dread of torture, to
confirm the odious charges which were so generally
advanced against the Christians, — banquets on human
flesh, promiscuous and incestuous concubinage, Thyes-
tean feasts, and (Edipodean weddings. The extorted
confessions of these miserable men exasperated even
the more moderate of the Heathens, while the fero-
cious populace had now free scope for their sanguinary
cruelty. The more distinguished victims were Sanc-
tus, a deacon of Vienne ; a new convert named Mar
turns, and Attains, of Phrygian descent, from the city
of Pergamus. They were first tortured by means too
horrible to describe, — if, without such description,
flie barbarity of the persecutors, and the heroic endur-
ance of the Christian martyrs, could be justly repre-
sented. Many perished in the suffocating air of the
noisome dungeons; many had their feet strained to
dislocation in the stocks ; the more detested victims,
after all other means of torture were exhausted, had
hot plates of iron placed upon the most sensitive parts
of their bodies.

Among these victims was the aged Bishop of Lyons,
Pothinus, now in his ninetieth year, who died in prison
after two days from the ill usage which he had received
from the populace. His feeble body had failed, but
his mind remained intrepid : when the frantic rabble
environed him with their insults, and demanded, with
contumelious cries, "Who is the God of the Chris-
tians ? " he calmly replied, " Wert thou worthy, thou
shouldst know.'*

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150 MARTYRDOM OF BLANDINA. Book H.

But the amphitheatre was the great public scene of
popular barbarity and of Christian endurance. The
martyrs were exposed to wild beasts (which, however,
do not seem to have been permitted to despatch their
miserable victims), and made to sit in a heated iron
chair till their flesh reekjed upwards with an ofiensive
stench.

A rescript of the emperor, instead of allaying the
popular frenzy, gave ample license to its uncontrolled
violence. Those who denied the faith were to be re-
leased ; those who persisted in it, condemned to death.

But the most remarkable incident in this fearful and
^sartyrdtm afflicting sccuc, and the most characteristic
of Biandizia. ^f ^^^ social changc which Christianity had
begun to work, was this, — that the chief honors of this
memorable martyrdom were assigned to a female, a
slave. Even the Christians themselves scarcely ap-
pear aware of the deep and universal influence of their
own sublime doctrines. The mistress of Blandina,
herself a martyr, trembled lest the weak body, and
still more the debased condition, of the lowly associate
in her trial, might betray her to criminal concession.
Blandina shared in all the most excruciatuig sufferings
of the most distinguished victims ; she equalled them
in the calm and unpretending superiority to every pain
which malice, irritated and licensed, as it were, to ex-
ceed, if it were possible, its own barbarities on the
person of a slave, could invent. She was selected by
the peculiar vengeance of the persecutors, whose as-
tonishment probably increased their malignity, for new
and unprecedented tortures, which she bore with the
same equable magnanimity.

Blandina was first led forth with Sanctus, Maturus,
and Attains; and, no doubt, the ignominy of their

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CHAP.Vn. FURTHER MARTYRDOMS. 151

public exposure was intended to be heightened by
their association with a slave. The wearied execution-
ers wondered that her life could endure under the
horrid succession of torments which they inflicted.
Blandina's only reply was, " I am a Christian, and no
wickedness is practised among us."

In the amphitheatre, she was suspended to a stake,
while the combatants, Maturus and Sanctus, derived
vigor and activity from the tranquil prayers which she
uttered in her agony ; and the less savage wild beasts
kept aloof from their prey. A third time she was
brought forth, for a public exhibition of suffering, with
a youth of fifteen, named Ponticus. During every
kind of torment, her language and her example ani-
mated the courage and confirmed the endurance of the
boy, who at length expired under the torture. Blan-
dina rejoiced at the approach of death, as if she had
been invited to a wedding banquet, and not thrown to
the wild beasts. She was at length released. After
she had been scourged, placed in the iron chair, en-
closed in a net, and, now in a state of insensibility,
tossed by a bull, some more merciful barbarian trans-
pierced her with a sword. The remains of all these
martyrs, after lying long unburied, were cast into the
Rhone, in order to mock, and render still more im-
probable, their hopes of a resTirrection.

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152 FOURTH PERIOD OF OHBISTIANITT. Book IL

CHAPTER Vm.

Fourth Period. Christianity under the Successors of M. Aurelius.

Such was the state of Christianity at the commencement
Fourth ^^ ^^® fourth period between its first promul-
^^^ gation and its establishment under Constan-
tino. The golden days of the Roman empire had
already begmi to darken, and closed for ever with the
reign of Marcus the Philosopher. The empire of
the world became the prize of bold adventure, or the
Rapid sue- precarious gift of a lawless soldiery. During
empS^i. little more than a century, from the accession

A.D 180

to 284. of Commodus to that of Diocletian, more
than twenty emperors (not to mention the pageants
of a day, and the competitors for the throne who
retained a temporary authority over some single prov-
ince) flitted like shadows along the tragic scene of tlie
imperial palace. A long line of military adventurers,
often strangers to the name, to the race, to the lan-
guage, of Rome, — Africans and Syrians, Arabs and
Goths, — seized the quickly shifting sceptre of the
world. The change of sovereign was almost always
a change of dynasty; or, by some strange fatality,
every attempt to re-establish an hereditary succession
was thwarted by the vices or imbecility of the second
generation. M. Aurelius is succeeded by the brutal
Commodus ; the vigorous and able Severus, by the
fratricide Caracalla. One of the imperial historians
has made the melancholy observation, that, of the

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Chap. VIII. PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 153

great men of Rome, scarcely one left a son the heir
of his virtues : they had either died without ofiFspring,
or had left such heirs, that it had been better for man-
kind if they had died leaving no posterity.^

In the weakness and insecurity of the throne lay
the strength and safety of Christianity, insecurity
During such a period, no systematic policy Jj^^efc-
was pursued in any of the leading internal IJ e£to-
interests of the empire. It was a govern- *^**^*^'
ment of temporary expedients, of individual passions.
The first and commanding object of each succeeding
head of a dynasty was to secure his contested throne,
and to centre upon himself the wavering or divided
allegiance of the provinces. Many of the emperors
were deeply and inextricably involved in foreign wars,
and had no time to devote to the social changes within
the pale of the empire. The tumults or the terrors
of the German or Gothic or Persian inroad efiFected
a perpetual diversion from the slow and silent internal
aggressions of Christianity. The frontiers constantly
and imperiously demanded the presence of the empe-
ror, and left him no leisure to attend to the feeble
remonstrances of the neglected priesthood. The dan-
gers of the civil absorbed those of the religious consti-
tution. Thus Christianity had another century of
regular and progressive advancement to arm itself for
the inevitable collision with the temporal authority,
till, in the reign of Diocletian, it had grown far beyond
the power of the most unlimited and arbitrary des-
potism to arrest its invincible progress ; and Constan-
tine, whatever the motives of his conversion, no doubt

1 " Neminem prope magnonim Tirorum optimum et utilem filium reli-
qoisee satis claret Deniqne aut sine liberifl viri interierunt, aut tales habu-
enmt plerique, nt melitu fuerit de rebus bumanis sine posteritate discedere."
— Spartiani Scyems, Aug. Hist p. 860.

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164 CAUSES OF PERSECUTIONS. Book H.

adopted a wise and judicious policy in securing the
alliance of, rather tlian continuing the strife with, an
adversary which divided the wealth, the intellect, if
not the property and the population, of the empire.
The persecutions which took place during this in-
terval were the hasty consequences of the
penecu- pcrsoual hostility of the emperors, not the
during Ok mature and deliberate policy of a regular
and permanent government. In general,
the vices and the detestable characters of the perse-
cutors would tend to vindicate the innocence of Chris-
tianity, and to enlist the sympathies of mankind in its
favor, rather than to deepen the general animosity.
Christianity, which had received the respectful homage
of Alexander Severus, could not lose in public estima-
tion by being exposed to the gladiatorial fury of Maxi-
min. Some of the emperors were almost as much
strangers to the gods as to the people and to the senate
of Rome. They seemed to take a reckless delight in
violating the ancient majesty of the Roman religion.
Foreign superstitions, almost equally new, and scarcely
less oflFensive to the general sentiment, received the
public, the pre-eminent homage of the emperor. Com-
modus, though the Grecian Hercules was at once his
model, his type, and his deity, was an ardent votary
of the Isiac mysteries ; and at the Syrian worship of
the Sun, in all its foreign and Oriental pomp, Ela-
gabalus commanded the attendance of the trembling
senate.

If Marcus Aurelius was, as it were, the last effort
oommodui. of expiring Polytheism, or rather of ancient
188.' philosophy, to produce a perfect man accord-

ing to the highest ideal conception of human reason,
the brutal Commodus might appear to retrograde to the

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Chap.vih. reign and charaoter of commodus. 165

savage periods of society. Commodus was a gladiator
on the throne ; and if the mind, humanized either by
the milder spirit of the times or by the incipient influ-
ence of Christianity, had begun to turn in distaste
from the horrible spectacles which flooded the arena
with human carnage, the disgust would be immeasu-
rably deepened by the appearance of the emperor as
the chief actor in these sanguinary scenes. Even
Nero's theatrical exhibitions had something of the ele-
gance of a polished age : the actor in one of the noble
tragedies of ancient Greece, or even the accomplished
musician, might derogate from the dignity of an em-
peror, yet might, in some degree, excuse the unseem-
liness of his pursuits by their intellectual character.
But the amusements and public occupations of Com-
modus had long been consigned by the general con-
tempt and abhorrence to the meanest of mankind, to
barbarians and slaves, and were as debasing to the
civilized man as unbecoming in the head of the empire.^
The courage which Commodus displayed in confront-
ing the hundred lions which were let loose in the
arena, and fell by his shafts Cthough in fact the impe-
rial person was carefully guarded against real danger),
and the skill with which he clave with an arrow the
slender neck of the giraffe, might have commanded
the admiration of a flattering court. But when he
appeared as a gladiator, gloried in the acts, and con-
descended to receive the disgraceful pay, of a profession
so infamous as to degrade for ever the man of rank
or character who had been forced upon the stage by
the tyranny of former emperors, the courtiers, who
had been bred in the severe and dignified school of
the Philosopher, must have recoiled with shame, and

^ ^lii Lompridii, Commodiu, in August. Hist

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156 DEIFICATION OF COMMODUS. Book H.

approved, if not envied, the more rigid principles of
the Ohristians, which kept them aloof from such de-
grading spectacles. Commodus was an avowed prose-
lyte of the Egyptian religion ; hut his favorite god was
the Grecian Hercules. He usurped the attributes,
and placed his own head on the statues, of this deity,
which was the impersonation, as it were, of brute force
and corporeal strength. But a deity which might
command adoration in a period of primeval barbarism,
when man lives in a state of perilous warfare with the
beasts of the forest, in a more intellectual age sinks
to his proper level. He might be tlie appropriate god
of a gladiator, but not of a Roman emperor.^

Every thing which tended to desecrate the popular
religion to the feelings of the more enlightened and
intellectual must have strengthened the cause of Chris-
tianity ; the more the weaker parts of Paganism, and
those most alien to the prevailing sentiment of the
times, were obtruded on the public view, the more they
must have contributed to the advancement of that faith
which was rapidly attaining to the full growth of a
rival to the established religion. The subsequent
deification of Commodus, under the reign of Severus,
in wanton resentment against the senate,^ prevented
his odious memory from sinking into oblivion. His
insults upon the more rational part of the existing
religion could no longer be forgotten, as merely ema-

1 In the new fragments of Dion Cassias, recovered by M. Mai, there is an
epigram jMinted against the assumption of the attributes of Hercules by
Commodus. The emperor had placed his own head on the colossal statue
of Hercules, with the inscription, *' Lucius Commodus Hercules."
Aidf TTCKf KaXUviKog 'HpoicX^f,
OIk elfd AeifKUKt oAA' dvayKaCovci fxe.
The point is not very clear, but it seems to be a protest of the god againat
being confounded with the emperor. — Mai, Fragm. Vatic ii. 225.
3 Spartiani Severus, Hist Aug. p. 845.

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CHAP.Vni. REIGN OF SEVERUS. 157

nating from his personal character. Gommodus ad-
vanced into a god, after his death, brought disrepute
upon the whole Polytheism of the empire. Chris-
tianity was perpetually, as it were, at hand, and ready
to profit by every favorable juncture. By a singular
accident, the ruflBan Conmiodus was personally less
inimically disposed to the Christians than his wise and
amiable father. His favorite concubine, Marcia, in
some manner connected with the Christians, mitigated
the barbarity of his temper, and restored to the perse-
cuted Christians a long and unbroken peace, which
had been perpetually interrupted by the hostility of
the populace, and the edicts of the Government in the
former reign. Christianity had no doubt been rigidly
repelled from the precincts of the court during the
life of Marcus, by the predominance of the philosophic
faction. Prom this period, a Christian party occar
sionally appears in Rome. Many families of dis-
tinction and opulence professed Christian tenets, and
the religion is sometimes found in connection with the
imperial family. Still Rome, to the last, seems to
have been the centre of the Pagan interest, though
other causes will hereafter appear for this curious fact
in the conflict of the two religions.

Severus wielded the sceptre of the world with the
vigor of the older empire. But his earlier Reignof
years were occupied in the establishment of JlS^iSi
his power over the hostile factions of his com- *** ^^'
petitors, and by his Eastern wars ; his latter, by the
settlement of the remote province of Britain.^ Severus
was at one time the protector, at another the perse-
cutor, of Christianity. Local circumstances appear
to have influenced his conduct, on both occasions, to

1 Compare Tillemont, HiBt. des Empereiirs, iii. part 1, p. 146.

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158 INFANCY OF CARACALLA. Book U.

the Christian party. A Christian named Proculus, a
dependent, probably, upon his favorite freed slave
Evodus, had been so fortunate as to restore Severus
to health by anointing him with oil, and was received
into the imperial family, in which he retained his
honorable situation till his death. Not improbably
through the same connection, a Christian nurse and
infencyof ^ Christian preceptor formed the- disposition
<^»™^- of the young Caracalla ; and, till the natural
ferocity of his character ripened under the fatal in-
fluence of jealous ambition, fraternal hatred, and
unbounded power, the gentleness of his manners and
the sweetness of his temper enchanted and attached
his family, his friends, the senate, and the people of
Rome. The people beheld with satisfaction the infant
pupil of Christianity turning aside his head, and weep-
ing at the barbarity of the ordinary public spectacles,
in which criminals were exposed to wild beasts.^ The
Christian interest at the court repressed the occasional
outbursts of popular animosity : many Christians of
rank and distinction enjoyed the avowed favor of the
emperor. Their security may partly be attributed to
their calm determination not to mingle themselves up
with the contending factions for the empire.

Pe«M5«ftil con- _ . - ^. « . 1 , f

gnct afthe Durmg the conflict of parties, they had re-
fused to espouse the cause of either Niger or
Albinus. Retired within themselves, they rendered
their prompt and cheerful obedience to the ruling em-
peror. The implacable vengeance which Severus
wreaked on the senate for their real or suspected
inclination to the party of Albinus, his remorseless
execution of so many of the noblest of the aristocracy,
may have placed in a stronger light the happier fortune,

1 Spartian., Anton. Caracalla, p. 404.

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Chap. VHI. PERSECUTION IN THE EAST. 169

and commended the unimpeachable loyalty, of the
Christians. The provincial governors, as usual, re-
flected the example of the court : some adopted merci-
ful expedients to avoid the necessity of carrying the
laws into eflFect against those Christians who were
denounced before their tribunals; while the more
venal humanity of others extorted a considerable profit
from the Christians for their security. The unlawful
religion, in many places, purchased its peace at the
price of a regular tax, which was paid by other illegal,
and mostly infamous, professions. This trafiic with
the authorities was sternly denounced by some of the
more ardent believers, as degrading to the religion,
and as an ignominious barter of the hopes and glories
of martyrdom.^

Such was the flourishing and peaceful state of Chris-
tianity during the early part of the reign of ^^^^^^^^^
Severus. In the East, at a later period, he *** ^® *'"*•
embraced a sterner policy. During the conflict with
Niger, the Samaritans had espoused the los-
ing, the Jews the successful, party. The
edicts of Severus were, on the whole, favorable to the
Jews; but the prohibition to circumcise proselytes
was re-enacted during his residence in Syria, in the
tenth year of his reign. The same prohibition against
the admission of new proselytes was extended to the
Christians. But this edict may have been chriatianity
intended to allay the violence of the hostile JuLd toti»
factions in Syria. Of the persecution under ^"'''
Severus, there are few, if any, traces in the West.*

1 **Sed quid non timiditas persuadebit, quasi et fhgere scriptura per-
mittat, et redimere pnecipiat . . . Nescio dolendnm an erubescendum sit
cum in matricibos beneficiariorum et curioeorum, inter tabemarios et lanios
et fures balnearum et aleones et lenones, Cliristiani quoque vecUgales con-
tinentur." — Tertull., De Fug&, c. 18.

2 *' Nous ne trouvons rien de considerable touchant les martyrs que la per-

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160 THE EMPEROR VISITS EGYPT. Book IL

It is confined to Syria, perhaps to Cappadocia, to
Egypt, and to Africa; and, in the latter provinces,
appears as the act of hostile governors, proceeding
upon the existing laws, rather than the consequence
of any recent edict of the emperor. The Syrian Euse-
bius may have exaggerated local acts of oppression,
of which the sad traces were recorded in his native
country, into a general persecution: he admits that
proubie -Alexandria was the chief scene of Christian

suffering. The date and the scene of the
persecution may lend a clue to its origin. Prom Syria,
the emperor, exactly at this time, proceeded
to Egypt. He surveyed, with wondering
interest, the monuments of Egyptian glory and of
Egyptian superstition,^ the temples of Memphis, the
Pyramids, the Labyrinth, the Memnonium. The
plague alone prevented him from continuing his ex-
cursions into Ethiopia. The dai*k and relentless mind
of Severus appears to have been strongly impressed
with the religion of Serapis. In either character, as
the great Pantheistic deity, which absorbed the attri-
butes and functions of all the more ancient gods of
Egypt, or with his more limited attributes, as the Pluto
of their mythology, the lord of the realm of departed
spirits, Serapis 2 was likely to captivate the imagination
of Severus, and to suit those gloomier moods in which
he delighted in brooding over the secrets of futurity ;
and, having realized the proud prognostics of great-
ness, which his youth had watched with hope, now
began to dwell on the darker omens of decline and

s^cution de Severe a pu fliire k Rome et en Italie.'* — TUlemont St. Ande-
ole, and the other martyn in Gaul (TUlemont, p. 160), are of more than
BuspiciouB authenticity.

1 Spartian., Hist Aug. p. 658.

S Compare De Guigniant, S^rapU et son Origine.

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Chap. VHI. PERSECUTION IN ALEXANDRIA. 161

dissolution.^ The hour of imperial favor was likely
to be seized by the Egyptian priesthood to obtain the
mastery and to wreak their revenge on this new for-
eign religion, which was making such rapid progress
throughout the provinces and the whole of Africa.
Whether or not the emperor actually authorized the
persecution, his coimtenance would strengthen the Pa-
gan interest, and encourage the obsequious prefect ^
in adopting violent measures. Laetus would be vindi-
cating the religion of the emperor in asserting the
superiority of Serapis, and the superiority of Serapis
could be by no means so efiFectually asserted as by the
oppression of his most powerful adversaries. Alexan-
dria was the ripe and pregnant soil of religious feud
and deadly animosity. Three hostile parties divided
the city, — the Jews, the Pagans, and the Christians.
They were perpetually blending and modifying each
other's doctrines, and forming schools in which Juda-
ism allegorized itself into Platonism, and Platonism,
having assimilated itself to the higher Egyptian my-
thology, soared into Christianity; and thus Platonic
Christianity, from a religion, became a mystic philos-
ophy. They all awaited, nevertheless, the signal for
persecution, and for license to draw off in sanguinary
factions, and to settle the controversies of the schools
by bloody tumults in the streets.^ The perpetual syn-

1 Spartian had the advantage of consulting the autobiographj of the
emperor Severas. Had time hat spared ns the original, and taken the whole
Augustan history in exchange !

3 Uis name was Lsetus. — Eusehius, Hist Eccl. tI. 2.

< Leonidas, the father of Origen, perished in this persecntibn. Origen was
kept awaj fh>m joining him in his imprisonment, and, if possible, in his mar-
tjnrdom, only by the prudent stratagem of his mother, who concealed all his
dothes. The boy of seventeen sent a letter to his father, entreating him not
to allow his parental afiection for himself and his six brothers to stand in his
way of obtaining the martyr's crown. — Euseb. vi. 2. The property of Le-
onidas was confiscated to the imperial treasury. — Ibid.

VOL. II. 11

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162 STATE OF THE AFRICAN CHURCH. Book H.

cretism of opinions, instead of leading to peace and
charity, seemed to inflame the deadly animosity;
and the philosophical spirit, which attempted to blend
all the higher doctrines into a lofty Eclectic system,
had no efiect in harmonizing the minds of the different
sects to mutual toleration and amity. It was now the
triumph of Paganism. The controversy with Chris-
tianity was carried on by burning the priests and tor-
turing the virgins, until the catechetical or elementary
schools of learning, by which the Alexandrian Chris-
tians trained up their pupils for the reception of their
more mysterious doctrines, were deserted. The young
Origen alone labored, with indefatigable and successful
activity, to supply the void caused by the general
desertion of the persecuted teachers.^
The African prefect followed the example of Laetus
in Egypt. In no part of the Roman empire
had Christianity taken more deep and perma-
nent root than in the province of Africa, then crowded
with rich and populous cities, and forming, with Egypt,
the granary of the Western world ; but which many
centuries of Christian feud. Vandal invasion, and Mo-
hammedan barbarism, have blasted to a thinly peopled
desert. Up to this period, this secluded region had
gone on advancing in its uninterrupted course of
civilization. Since the battle of Thapsus, the African
province had stood aloof from the tumults and desola-
tion which attended the changes in the imperial
dynasty. As yet, it had raised no competitor for the
empire, though Severus, the ruling monarch, was of
African descent. The single legion, which was con-
sidered adequate to protect the remote tranquillity of
the province from the occasional incursions of the

1 Euseb., Hist Eccl. vi. a.

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Chap. Tin. AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY. 163

Moorish tribes, had been found sufficient for its
purpose. The Paganism of the African cities was
probably weaker than in other parts of the empire.
It had no ancient and sacred associations with national
pride. The new cities had raised new temples to gods
foreign to the region. The religion of Carthage,^ if it
had not entirely perished with the final destruction
of the city, maintained but a feeble hold upon the
Italianized inhabitants. The Carthage of the empire
was a Roman city. If Christianity tended to mitigate
the fierce spirit of the inhabitants of these burning
regions, it acquired itself a depth and impassioned
vehemence which perpetually broke through all re-
straints of moderation, charity, and peace. From
Tertullian to Augustine, the climate seems to be work-
ing into the language, into the essence of Cliristianity.
Here disputes maddened into feuds ; and feuds, which
in other countries were allayed by time, or died away
of themselves, grew into obstinate, implacable, and
irreconcilable factions.

African Christianity had no communion with the
dreamy and speculative genius of the East. ^^,^
It sternly rejected the wild and poetic imper- chrtetiamtj.
sonations, the daring cosmogonies, of the Gnostic
sects: it was severe, simple, practical, in its creed;
it governed by its strong and imperious hold upon the
feelings, by profound and agitating emotion. It eagerly
received the rigid asceticism of the anti-materialist
system, while it disdained the fantastic theories by
which that system accounted for the origin of evil.

1 Compaie Mnnter, Relig. der Carthager. The worship of the Dea coe-
lestU, the Queen of Heaven, should perhaps be excepted. See, forward, the
reign of Elagabalns. Even in the fifth centurj, the Queen of Heaven, ac-
cording to Salvian (De Gubematione Dei, lib. viii.)} shared with Christ the
worship of Carthage.

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164 MONTANISM. Book H.

Tlie imagination had another office than that of
following out its own fantastic creations: it spoke
directly to the fears and to the passions ; it delighted
in realizing the terrors of the final Judgment; in
arraying, in the most appalling language, the gloomy
mysteries of future retribution. This character appears
in the dark splendor of TertuUian's writings ; engages
him in contemptuous and relentless warfare against
the Gnostic opinions, and their latest and most dan-
gerous champion, Marcion ; till, at length, it hardens
into the severe yet simpler enthusiasm of Montanism.
It appears, allied with the stem assertion of ecclesi-
astical order and sacerdotal domination, in the earnest
and zealous Cyprian; it is still manifestly working,
though in a chastened and loftier form, in the deep
and impassioned, but comprehensive mind of Augus-
tine.

TertuUian alone belongs to the present period ; and
TertuUian is, perhaps, the representative and the
perfect type of this Africanism. It is among the most
remarkable illustrations of the secret unity which
connected the whole Christian world, that opinions
first propagated on the shores of the Euxine found
their most vigorous antagonist on the coast of Africa,
while a new and fervid enthusiasm, which arose in
Phrygia, captivated the kindred spirit of Tertullian.
Montanism harmonized with African Chris-

McmtaniflDi*

tianity in the simplicity of its creed, which did
not depart from the predominant form of Christianity ;
and in the extreme rigor of its fasts. While Gnosti-
cism outbid the religion of Jesus and his apostles,
Montanism outbid the Gnostics in its austerities ; ^ it

1 The Western churches were, as yet, generally averse to the excessive
fasting subsequently introduced to so great an extent by the monastic spirit
See the curious vision of Attains, the martyr of Lyons, in which a feUow^

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Chap. VHI. MONTANISM. 165

admitted marriage as a necessary evil, but it denounced
second nuptials as* an inexpiable sin;^ above all,
Montanism concurred with the belief of the South in
resolving religion into inward emotion. There is a
singular correspondence between Phrygian Heathen-
ism and the Phrygian Christianity of Montanus and
his followers. The Orgiasm, the inward rapture, the
working of a divine influence upon the soul till it was
wrought up to a state of holy frenzy, had continually
sent forth the priests of Cybele, and females of a
highly excitable temperament, into tlie Western prov-
inces ; ^ whom the vulgar beheld with awe, as mani-
festly possessed by the divinity ; whom the philosophic
party, equally mistaken, treated with contempt, as
impostors. So, with the followers of Montanus (and
women were his most ardent votaries), with Prisca and
Maximilla, the apostles of his sect, the pure and meek
and peaceful spirit of Christianity became a wild, a
visionary, a frantic enthusiasm : it worked paroxysms
of intense devotion ; it made the soul partake of all
the fever of physical excitement. As in all ages
where the mild and rational faith of Christ has been

prisoner, Alcibiades, who had long lived on bread and water alone, was re-
proved for not making free use of God*8 creatures, and thus giving offence to
the Church. The churches of Lyons and Vienne, having been founded from
Phrygia, were anxious to avoid the least imputation of Montanism. — Euseb.,
Hist. Eccl. V. 8.

1 The prophetesses abandoned their husbandSi according to ApoUonins
apud Euseb. v. 18.

3 The effect of national character and temperament on the opinions and
form of religion did not escape the observation of the Christian writers.
There is a curious passage on the Phiygian national character in Socrates,
H. E. iv. 28 : ** The Phr^-gians are a chaste and temperate people ; they
seldom swear: the Scythians and Thracians are choleric; the Eastern nations
more disposed to Immorality; the Paphlagonians and Phrygians, to neither:
they do not care for the theatre or the games; prostitution is unusual.*'
Their suppressed passions seem to have broken out at all periods in religious
emotions*

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166 APOLOGY OF TERTULLIAN. Book H.

too calm and serene for persons brooding to madness
over their own internal emotions, it proclaimed itself
a religious advancement, a more sublime and spiritual
Christianity. Judaism was the infancy, Christianity
the youth, the revelation of the Spirit the manhood,
of the human soul. It was this Spirit, this Paraclete,
which resided in all its fulness in the bosom of
Montanus ; his adversaries asserted that he gave him-
self out as the Paraclete ; but it is more probable that
his vague and mystic language was misunderstood, or
possibly misrepresented by the malice of his adver-
saries. In Montanism, the sectarian, the exclusive
spirit was at its height: and this claim to higher
perfection, tliis seclusion from the vulgar race of
Christians, whose weakness had been too often shown
in the hour of trial; who had neither attained the
height of his austerity, nor courted martyrdom, nor
refused all ignominious compromises with the perse-
cuting authorities with the unbending rigor which he
demanded, — would still further commend the claims
of Montanism to the homage of Tertullian.

During the persecution under Severus, Tertullian
Apology of stood forth as the apologist of Christianity ;
Tferraiiian. qj^^ ^\^q ^qj^q q{ j^jg Apology is charactcristio
not only of the man, but of his native country, while
it is no less illustrative of the altered position of
Christianity. The address of Tertullian to Scapula,
the Prefect of Africa, is no longer in the tone of
tranquil expostulation against the barbarity of perse-
cuting blameless and unoflfending men, still less that
of humble supplication. Every sentence breathes
scorn, defiance, menace. It heaps contempt upon the
gods of Paganism; it avows the determination of
the Christians to expel the demouB from the respect

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CHAP.Vm.- WARNING TO THE PERSECUTORS. 167

and adoration of mankind. It condescends not to
exculpate the Christians from being the cause of the
calamities which had recently laid waste the province,
— the torrent rains which had swept away the harvests ;
the fires wliich had heaped with ruin the streets of
Carthage ; the sun which had been preternaturally
eclipsed, when at its meridian, durmg an assembly of
the province at Utica. All* these portentous signs are
unequivocally ascribed to the vengeance of the Chris-
tians' God, visiting the guilt of obstinate idolatry.
The persecutors of the Christians are warned by the
awful examples of Roman dignitaries who had been
stricken blind, and eaten with worms, as the chastise-
ment of Heaven for their injustice and cruelty to the
worshippers of Christ; Scapula himself is sternly
admonished to take warning by their fate ; while the
orator, by no means deficient, at the same time, in
dexterous address, reminds him of the humane policy
of others : " Your cruelty will be our glory. Thou-
sands of both sexes, and of every rank, will eagerly
crowd to martyrdom, exhaust your fires, and weary
your swords. Carthage must be decimated; the
principal persons in the city, even perhaps your own
most intimate friends and kindred, must be sacrificed.
Vainly will you war against God. Magfstrates are
but men, and will suflFer the common lot of mortality ;
but Christianity will endure as long as the Roman
empire, and the duration of the empire will be co-eval
with that of the world." ^

History, even Christian history, is confined to more
general views of public affairs, and dwells too exclu-
sively on what may be called the high places of human

1 I woald recommend to my readers the fair and just contrast between
Terttdlian and Origen in Mons. Albert de Broglie's L'Eglise et TEmpirei
pp. 121-126.

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168 PERPETUA AND FELICITAS. Book H.

life; but, whenever a glimpse is afforded of lowlier
and of more common life, it is perhaps best fulfilling
its office of presenting a lively picture of the times, if
it allows itself occasionally some more minute detail,
and illustrates the manner in which the leading events
of particular periods affected individuals not in the
highest station.

Of aU the histories of martyrdom, none is so unex-

aggerated in its tone and language, so entirely

ofPen)etSk unencumbered with miracle; none aboimds

and FeticiUs. .

in such exquisite touches of nature, or, on the
whole, from its minuteness and circumstantiality,
breathes such an air of truth and reality, — as that of
Perpetua and Felicitas, two African females. Their
death is ascribed, in the Acts, to the year of the acces-
sion of Greta,^ the son of Severus. Though there was
no general persecution at that period, yet, as
the Faithful held their lives, at all times,
liable to the outburst of popular resentment, or the
caprice of an arbitrary proconsul, there is much proba-
bility that a time of general rejoicing might be that in
which the Christians, who were always accused of a
disloyal reluctance to mingle in the popular festivities,

1 The external evidence to the authenticity of these Acts is not quite equal
to the internal. They were first published by Lucas Holstenius, from a MS.
in the Convent of Monte Casino; re-edited by Valesius at Paris, and by
Ruinart) in his Acta Sincera Martynim, p. 90, who collated two other MSS.
There appear, however, strong indications that the Acts of these African )lar-
tyrs are translated from the Greek ; at least it is difficult otherwise to account
for the frequent untranslated Greek words and idioms in the text. The fol-
lowing are examples : c. iii., turbarum beneficio, x<H>^v' c. iv., bene venisti,
tegnon, reicvdv' c. viii., in oramate, a vision, dpufiare diadema, or diastema,
an interval, duurr^fM' c x., afe, (i^- xii., agios, agios, agios.

There are indeed some suspicious marks of Montanism which perhaps pre-
vented these Acts from being more generally known.

It is not quite clear where these martyrs suffered. Valesius supposed
Carthago; others, in one of the two towns called Tubnrbium, which wero
situated in Proconsular Africa.

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Chap. VIH. IMPRISONMENT OF PERPETUA. 169

and who kept aloof from the public sacrifices on such
anniversaries, would be most exposed to persecution.
The youthful catechumens, Revocatus and Felicitas,
Saturninus and Secundulus, were apprehended, and
with them Vivia Perpetua, a woman of good family,
liberal education, and honorably married. Perpetua
was about twenty-two years old ; her father and mother
were living; she had two brothers, — one of them,
like herself, a catechumen, — and an infant at her
breast. The history of the persecution is related by
Perpetua herself, and is said to have been written
by her own hand: "When we were in the hands of
the persecutors, my father, in his tender aflfection,
persevered in his endeavors to pervert me from the
faith.^ ' My father, this vessel, be it a pitcher or any
thing else, can we call it by any other name ? ' * Cer-
tainly not,' he replied. * Nor can I call myself by any
other name but that of Christian.' My father looked
as if he could have plucked my eyes out; but he only
harassed me, and departed, persuaded by the argu-
ments of the Devil. Then, after being a few days
without seeing my father, I was enabled to give thanks
to God, and his absence was tempered to my spirit.
After a few days, we were baptized ; and the waters of
baptism seemed to give power of endurance to my
body. Again a few days, and we were cast into
prison. I was terrified ; for I had never before seen
such total darkness. Oh, miserable day! — from the
dreadful heat of the prisoners crowded together, and
the insults of the soldiers. But I was wrung with
solicitude for my infant. Two of otir deacons, how-
ever, by the payment of money, obtained our removal

1 Dejicere, ^ to cast me down/' is the expressive phrase, not uncommon
among the early Christians.

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170 VISION OF PERPETUA. Book H.

for some hours in the day to a more open pai-t of the
prison. Each of the captives then pursued his usual
occupation ; but I sat and suckled my infant, who was
wasting away with hunger. In my anxiety, I addressed
and consoled my mother, and commended my child to
my brother; and I began to pine away at seeing them
pining away on my account. And for many days I
suflFered this anxiety, and accustomed my child to
remain in the prison with me; and I immediately
recovered my strength, and was relieved from my toil
and trouble for my infant, and the prison became to me
like a palace ; and I was happier there than I should
have been anywhere else.

" My brother then said to me, * Perpetua, you are
exalted to such dignity, that you may pray for a vision,
and it shall be shown you whether our doom is martyr-
dom or release.' " This is the language of Montanism;
but the vision is exactly that which might haunt the
slumbers of the Christian in a high state of religious
enthusiasm: it showed merely the familiar images of
the faith, arranging themselves into form. She saw a
lofty ladder of gold, ascending to heaven; around it
were swords, lances, hooks ; and a great dragon lay at
its foot, to seize those who would ascend. Saturus, a
distinguished Christian, went up first, beckoned her to
follow, and controlled the dragon by the name of Jesus
Christ. She ascended, and found herself in a spacious
garden, in which sat a man with white hair, in the
garb of a shepherd, milking his sheep,^ with many
myriads around him. He welcomed her, and gave
her a morsel of cheese; and "I received it with

1 Bishop Miinter, in his Sinnbilder der alten Christen, refers to this
passage, to illustrate one of the oldest bass-reliefs of Christian art — H. i.
p. 62.

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Chap. VIH. HER TRIAL AND CONSTANCY. 171

folded hands, and ate it; and all the saints around
exclaimed, *Amen.' I awoke at the sound, with
the sweet taste in my mouth, and I related it to
my brother; and we knew that our martyrdom
was at hand, and we began to have no hope in this
world."

" After a few days, there was a rumor that we were
to be heard. And my father came from the city,
wasted away with anxiety, to pervert me ; and he said,
*Have compassion, my daughter! on my gray hairs;
have compassion on thy father, if he is worthy of the
name of father. If I have thus brought thee up to
the flower of thine age ; if I have preferred thee to all
thy brothers, — do not expose me to this disgrace.
Look on thy brother; look on thy mother and thy
aunt; look on thy child, who cannot live without
thee. Do not destroy us all.' Thus spake my father,
kissing my hands in his fondness, and throwing him-
self at my feet ; and in his tears he called me not his
daughter, but his mistress (domino). And I was
grieved for the gray hairs of my father, because he
alone, of all our family, did not rejoice in my martyr-
dom; and I consoled him, saying, 'In this trial, what
God wills, will take place. Know that we are not in
our own power, but in tiiat of God.' And he went
away sorrowing.

"Another day, while we were at dinner, we were
suddenly seized, and carried oflF to trial ; and we came
to the town. The report spread rapidly, and an im-
mense multitude was assembled. We were placed at
the bar; the rest were interrogated, and made their
confession. And it came to my turn; and my father
instantly appeared with my child, and he drew me down
the step, and said in a beseeching tone, 'Have corn-

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172 SHE AND OTHERS CONDEMNED TO DIE. Book H.

passion on your infant ; ' and Hilarianus the procurator,
who exercised the power of life and death for the pro-
consul Timinianus, who had died, said, ^ Spare the
gray hairs of your parent; spare your infant; offer
sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor.' And I
answered, 'I will not sacrifice.' *Art thou a Chris-
tian ? ' said Hilarianus. I answered , ' I am a Christian.'
And, while my father stood there to persuade me,
Hilarianus ordered him to be thrust down, and beaten
with rods. And the misfortune of my fatlier grieved
me; and I was as much grieved for his old age as
if I had been scourged myself. He then passed
sentence on us all, and condemned us to the wild
beasts; and we went back in cheerfulness to the
prison. And because I was accustomed to suckle
my infant, and to keep it with me in the prison, I
sent Pomponius the deacon to seek it from my
father. But my father would not send it; but, by the
will of God, the child no longer desired the breast, and
I suffered no uneasiness lest at such a time I should
be afflicted by the sufferings of my child, or by pains
in my breasts."

Her visions now grow more frequented vivid. Tlie
name of lier brother Dinocrates suddenly occurred to
her in her prayers. He had died, at seven years old, of
a loathsome disease, no doubt without Christian bap-
tism. She had a vision in which Dinocrates appeared in
a place of profound darkness, where there was a pool
of water, which he could not reach on account of his
small stature. In a second vision, Dinocrates appeared
again ; the pool rose up and touched him, and he drank
a full goblet of the water. ^^ And when he was satisfied,
he went away to play, as infants are wont, and I awoke ;

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Chap.vui. vision of saturus. 173

and I knew that he was translated from the place of
punishment." ^

Again a few days, and the keeper of the prison pro-
foundly impressed by their conduct, and beginning to
discern "the power of God within them," admitted
many of the brethren to visit them, for mutual consola-
tion. " And, as the day of the games approached, my
father entered, worn out with affliction, and began to
pluck his beard, and to throw himself down with his
face upon the groimd, and to wish that he could hasten
his death, and to speak words which might have moved
any living creature. And I was grieved for the sorrows
of his old age." The night before they were to be
exposed in the arena, she dreamed that she was changed
to a man ; fought and triumphed over a huge and ter^
rible Egyptian gladiator; and she put her foot upon his
head, and she received the crown, and passed out of the
Vivarian Gate, and knew that she had triumphed,
not over man, but over the DevH. Tlie vision of
Saturus, which he related for their consolation, was
more splendid. He ascended into the realms of light,
into a beautiful garden, and to a palace, the walls of
which were light; and there he was welcomed, not
only by the angels, but by all the friends who had
preceded him in the glorious career. It is singular,
that, among the rest, he saw a bishop and a priest,
between whom there had been some dissensions ;
and, while Perpetua was conversing with them, the
angels interfered, and insisted on their perfect recon-
ciliation. Some kind of blame seems to be attached
to the bishop Optatus, because some of his flock
appeared as if they came from the factions of
the circus, with the spirit of mortal strife not yet
allayed.

1 ThU is eyidentlj a kind of puigatoiy.

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174 FELICITAS— MATERNAL LOVE. Book IL

The narrative then proceeds to another instance of
the triumph of faith over the strongest of human
feelings, — the love of a young mother for her off-
spring. Felieitas was in tbe eighth month of her
pregnancy. She feared, and her friends shared in her
apprehension, that, on that account, her martyrdom
might be delayed. They prayed together, and her
travail came on. In her agony at that most painful
period of delivery, she gave way to her sufferings.
" How then," said one of the servants of the prison,
" if you cannot endure these pains, will you endure
exposure to the wild beasts ? " She replied, " I bear
now my own sufferings : then, there will be One within
me who will bear my sufferings for me, because I shall
suffer for his sake." She brought forth a girl, of
whom a Christian sister took the charge.

Perpetua maintained her calmness to the end.
While they were treated with severity by a tribune,
who feared lest they should be delivered from the
prison by enchantment, Perpetua remonstrated with a
kind of mournful pleasantry, and said that, if ill used,
they would do no credit to the birthday of Caesar : the
victims ought to be fattened for the sacrifice. But
tlieir language and demeanor were not always so calm
and gentle ; the words of some became tliose of defi-
ance, — almost of insult; and this is related with as
much admiration as tlie more tranquil sublimity of the
former incidents. To the people who gazed on them,
in their importunate curiosity, at their agapd, they
said, ^' Is not to-morrow's spectacle enough to satiate
your hate? To-day you look on us with friendly
faces: to-morrow you will be our deadly enemies.
Mark well our countenances, that you may know them
again on the day of judgment." And to Hilarianus,

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Chap. VIIL THE MARTYRDOM. 175

on his tribunal, they said, " Thou judgest us, but God
will judge thee.'' At this language, the exasperated
people demanded that they should be scourged. When
taken out to the execution, they declined, and were
permitted to decline, the profane dress in which they
were to be clad, — the men, that of the priests of
Saturn ; the women, that of the priestesses of Ceres.^
They came forward in their simple attire, Perpetua
singing psalms. The men were exposed to leopards
and bears; and the women were hung up naked in
nets, to be gored by a furious cow. But even the
excited populace shrank with horror at the spectacle
of two young and delicate women, one recently re-
covered from childbirth, in this state. They were
recalled by acclamation, and in mercy brought for-
ward again, clad in loose robes.^ Perpetua was
tossed, her garment was rent ; but, more conscious of
her wounded modesty than of pain, she drew the robe
over the part of her person which was exposed. She
then calmly clasped up her hair, because it did not
become a martyr to suflfer with dishevelled locks, the
sign of sorrow. She then raised up the fainting and
mortally wounded Felicitas; and, the cruelty of the
populace being for a time appeased, they were per-
mitted to retire. Perpetua seemed rapt in ecstasy,
and, as if awaking from sleep, inquired when she
was to be exposed to the beast. She could scarcely
be made to believe what had taken place; her last
words tenderly admonished her brother to be steadfast
in the faith. I may close the scene by intimating that
aU were speedily released from their sufferings, and

1 This was an nnusual circumstance, and ascribed to the Devil.

^ I am not sure that I am correct in this part of the version: it appears to
me to be the sense. " Ita revocats discinguntur " is paraphrased by Lucas
Holstenius, '* revocatie et discinctis indutn."

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176 CARACALLA - ELAGABALUS. Book IL

entered into their glory. Perpetua guided with her
own hand the merciful sword of the gladiator which
relieved her from her agony.

This African persecution, which laid the seeds of
future schisms and fatal feuds, lasted till at least the
second year of Caracalla. From its close, except

during the short reign of Maximin, Chris-
Geu. tianity enjoyed uninterrupted peace till the

reign of Decius.^ But during this period
occurred a remarkable event in the religious history
of Rome. The pontifiF of one of the wild forms of
the Nature -worship of the East appeared in the city
of Rome as emperor. The ancient rites of Baalpeor,
hut little changed in the course of ages, intruded
themselves into the sanctuary of the Capitoline Jove,
and offended at once the religious majesty and the
graver decency of Roman manners.^ Elagabalus de-
magabaiufl rivcd his name from the Syrian appellative
aTSs. of the Sun; he had been educated in the
precincts of the temple; and the Emperor of Rome
was lost and absorbed in the priest of an effeminate
superstition. The new religion did not steal in under
the modest demeanor of a stranger, claiming the
common rights of hospitality as the national faith of
a subject people: it entered with a public pomp, as
though to supersede and eclipse the ancestral deities
of Rome. The god Elagabalus was conveyed in
solemn procession through the wondering provinces ;
his symbols were received with all the honor of the
Supreme Deity. The conical black stone, which was
adored at Emesa, was, no doubt, in its origin, one of

1 From 212 to 240, — Caracalla, 211; Macrinas, 217; Elagabalus, 218;
Alexander Severus, 222; Maximin and the Gordiana, 286-244 ; Philip, 244;
Decius, 249.

s Lampridii Heliogabalna. Dion CasaiiUi lib. Ixxix.; Heiodian, v.

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Chap. VIH. REVERENCE FOR THE PALLADIUM. 177

those obscene symbols which appear in almost every
form of the Oriental Nature-worship. The rudeness
of ancient art had allowed it to remain in less offen-
sive shapelessness ; and, not improbably, the original
symbolic meaning had become obsolete. The Sun
had become the visible type of Deity, and the object
of adoration. The mysterious principle of generation,
of which, in the primitive religion of nature, he was
the type and image, gave place to the noblest object
of human idolatry, — the least debasing representar
tive of the Great Supreme. The idol of Emesa
entered Rome in solemn procession ; a magnificent
temple was built upon the Palatine Hill; a number
of altars stood round, on which every day the most
sumptuous offerings — hecatombs of oxen, countless
sheep, the most costly aromatics, the choicest wines —
were offered. Streams of blood and wine were con-
stantly flowing down; while the highest dignitaries
of the empire — commanders of legions, rulers of
provinces, the gravest senators, — appeared as humble
ministers, clad in the loose and flowing robes and
linen sandals of the East, among the lascivious dances
and the wanton music of Oriental drums and cymbals.
These degrading practices were the only way to civil
and military preferment. The whole senate and
equestrian order stood around ; and those who played
ill the part of adoration, or whose secret murmurs
incautiously betrayed their devout indignation (for
this insult to the ancient religion of Rome awakened
some sense of shame in the degenerate and servile
aristocracy), were put to death. The most sacred
and patriotic sentiments cherished, above all the hal-
lowed treasures of the city, the Palladium, the image
of Minerva. Popular veneration worshipped, in dis-

YOL. II. 12

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178 WORSHIP OF THE SUN IN ROME. Book IL

tant awe, the unseen deity; for profane eye might
never behold the virgin image. The inviolability of
the Roman dominion was inseparably connected with
the uncontaminated sanctity of the Palladium. The
Syrian declared his intention of wedding the ancient
tutelary goddess to his foreign deity. The image was
publicly brought forth ; exposed to the sullying gaze
of the multitude; solemnly wedded, and insolently
repudiated by tlie unworthy stranger. A more appro-
wonhip of priate bride was found in the kindred Syrian

the Sun in ^ . , . ^ ^ , « .

Rome. deity, worshipped under the name of Astarte
in the East, in Carthage as the Queen of Heaven, —
Yenus Urania, as translated into the mythological
language of the West. She was brought from Car-
thage. Tlie whole city — the whole of Italy — was
commanded to celebrate the bridal festival ; and the
nuptials of the two foreign deities might appear to
complete the triumph over the insulted divinities of
Bome.

Nothing was sacred to the voluptuous Syrian. He
introduced the manners as well as the religion of the
East ; his rapid succession of wives imitated the po-
lygamy of an Oriental despot ; and his vices not merely
corrupted the morals, but insulted the most sacred
feelings of the people. He tore a vestal virgin from
her sanctuary, to suflFer his polluting embraces; he
violated the sanctuary itself; attempted to make him-
self master of the mystic coflFer in which the sacred
deposit was enshrined: it was said that the pious
fraud of the priesthood deceived him with a counter-
feit, which he dashed to pieces in his anger. It was
openly asserted, that the worship of the Sun, under
his name of Elagabalus, was to supersede all other
worship. If we may believe the biographies in the

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CHAP.Vni. HUMAN SACRinCES. 179

Augustan history, a more ambitious scheme of a uni-
versal religion had dawned upon the mind of
the emperor. The Jewish, the Samaritan, innovJtSng
even the Christian, were to be fused and byEiagab-
recast into one great system, of which the
Sun was to be the central object of adoration.^ At all
events, the deities of Rome were actually degraded
before the public gaze into humble ministers of Ela-
gabalus. Every year of the emperor's brief reign, the
god was conveyed from his Palatine temple to a sub-
urban edifice of still more sumptuous magnificence.
The statue passed in a car drawn by six horses.
The emperor of the world, his eyes stained with paint,
ran and danced before it with antic gestures of adora-
tion. The earth was strewn with gold dust ; flowers
and chaplets were scattered by the people ; while the
images of all the other gods, the splendid ornaments
and vessels of all their temples, were carried, like the
spoils of subject nations, in the annual ovation of the
Phoenician deity. Even human sacrifices, and, if we
may credit the monstrous fact, the most beautiful
sons of the noblest families, were offered on the altar
of this Moloch of the East.^

It is impossible to suppose that the weak and
crumbling edifice of Paganism was not shaken to its
base by this extraordinary revolution. An ancient
religion cannot thus be insulted without losing much
of its majesty : its hold upon the popular veneration
is violently torn asunder. With its more sincere

1 " Id agens ne qois Romas Deus nisi Heliogabalos coleretar. Dioebat
pneterea, JacUeomm et Samaritanorum religiones, et Christianam devotionem,
illuc transferendam, ut omniuin colturarum secretum Heliogabali sacerdo-
tium tenerut." — p. 461.

* " Csedit et hamunas hostias, lectis ad hoc pueris nobilibas et decoris per
omnem Italiam patrimis et matrimiSi credo ut major esset utrique parenti
dolor." — Lamprid. Heliogabalus.

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180 ALEXANDER SEVERUS-MAMM.EA. Book H.

votaries, the general animosity to foreign, particularly
to Eastern, religions, might be inflamed or deepened ;
and Cliristianity might share m some part of the
detestation excited by the excesses of a superstition
so opposite in its nature. But others whose faith had
been shaken, and whose moral feelings revolted, by
a religion whose essential charg^ter was sensuality,
and whose licentious tendency had been so disgust-
ingly illustrated by the unspeakable pollutions of its
imperial patron, would hasten to embrace that purer
faith which was most remote from the religion of
Elagabalus.

Prom the policy of the court, as well as the pure
Alexander ^^^ amiable character of the successor of
Sr^p. Elagabalus, the more oflFensive parts of this
A.D.222. foreign superstition disappeared with their
imperial patron. But the old Roman religion was not
re-instated in its jealous and unmingled dignity.
Alexander Severus had been bred in another school ;
and the influence which swayed him, during the ear-
lier part at least of his reign, was of a difierent
character from that which had formed the mind of
Elagabalus. It was the mother of Elagabalus who,
however she might blush with shame at the impurities
of her efieminate son, had consecrated him to the
service of the deity in Emcsa. The mother of Alex-
ander Severus, the able, perhaps crafty and rapacious,
Mammaea, had at least held intercourse
with the Christians of Syria. She had con-
versed with the celebrated Origen, and listened to his
exhortations, if without conversion, still not without
respect. Alexander, though he had neitlier the reli-
gious education, the pontifical character, nor the
dissolute manners of his predecessor, was a Syrian,

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CHAP.Vm. THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGION. 181

with no hereditary attachment to the Eoman form of
Paganism. He seems to have affected a kind of uni-
versalism: he paid decent respect to the gods of
the Capitol ; he held in honor the Egyptian worship,
and enlarged the temples of Isis and Serapis. In his
own palace, with respectful indifference, he enshrined,
as it were, as his household deities, the representa-
tives of the differenj; religious or theophilosophic
systems which were prevalent in the Roman empire,
— Orpheus, Abraham, Christ, and Apollonius of Tyana.
The first of these represented the wisdom of the
Mysteries, the purified Nature-worship, which had
labored to elevate the popular mythology into a noble
and coherent allegorism. It is singular, that Abra-
ham, rather than Moses, was placed at the head of
Judaism : it is possible that the traditionary sanctity
which attached to the first parent of the Jewish peo-
ple, and of many of the Arab tribes, and which was
afterwards embodied in the Mohammedan Koran, was
floating, in the East, and would comprehend, as it
were, the opinions not only of the Jews, but of a
much wider circle of the Syrian natives.^ In Apollo-
nius was centred the more modern Theurgy, — the
magic which commanded the intermediate spirits
between the higher world and the world of man ; the
more spiritual polytheism which had released the sub-
ordinate deities from their human form, and main-
tained them in constant intercourse with the soul of
man. Christianity, in the person of its Pounder, even
where it did not command authority as a religion, had
nevertheless lost the character, imder which it had so

1 This might seem to confinn the theoiy of Sprenger as to the wide-
spread Abrahamic religion, Monotheism, called Hanyferey, prevalent in Ara-
bia at the time of the coming of Mohammed. — Leben des Mohammed,
B. i. c. i.

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182 RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO SOCIETY. Book U.

long and so unjustly labored, of animosity to man-
kind. Though He was considered but as one of the
sages who shared in the homage paid to their benefi-
cent wisdom, the followers of Jesus had now lived
down all the bitter hostility which had so generally
prevailed against them. The homage of Alexander
Severus may be a fair test of the general sentiment
of the more intelligent Heathen of his time.^ It is
clear that the exclusive spirit of Oreek and Roman
civilization is broken down; it is not now Socrates
or Plato, Epicurus or Zeno, who are considered the
sole guiding intellects of human wisdom. These
Eastern barbarians are considered rivals, if not supe-
rior, to the philosophers of Greece. The world is
betraying its irresistible yearning towards a religion;
and these are the first overtures, as it were, to more
general submission.
In the reign of Alexander Severus, at least, com-
menced the great change in the outward ap-
the reution pearancc of Christianity. Christian bishops

of Chrte- ^ J f

tianityto wcrc admitted, even at the court, in a rec-

Kwletj.

ognized ofiicial character; and Christian
churches began to rise in difierent parts of the empire,
and to possess endowments in land.^ To the aston-
ishment of the Heathen, the religion .of Christ had
as yet appeared without temple or altar ; the religious
assemblies had been held in privacy : it was yet a

1 Jablonski wrote a very ingenious essay to show that Alexander Sevenu
was converted to Gnotdc Christianity. — Opuscula, vol. iv. Compare Heyne,
Opuscola, vi. p. 169, et seqq.

3 Tillemont, as Gibbon observes, assigns the date of the earliest Christian
churches to the reign of Alexander Severus ; Mr. Moyle, to that of Gallie-
nus. The difference is very slight; and, after all, the change from a private
building, set apart for a particular use, and a public one of no architectural
pretensions, may have been almost imperceptible. The passage of Lampri-
dius appears conclusive in favor of TUlemont.

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CHAP.Vm FIRST CHRISTUN CHURCHES. 183

domestic worship. Even the Jew had his public syna-
gogue or his more secluded proseucha ; but where the
Christians met was indicated by no separate and dis-
tinguished dwelling : the cemetery of their dead, the
sequestered grove, the private chamber, contained
tlieir peaceful assemblies. Their privacy was at once
their security and their danger. On the one hand,
there was no well-known edifice in which the furious
and excited rabble could surprise the general n»t
body of the Christians, and wreak its ven- chur«h«.
geance by indiscriminate massacre ; on the other, the
jealousy of the Government against all private associ*
ations would be constantly kept on the alert; and
a religion without a temple was so inexplicable a
problem to Pagan feeling, that it would strengthen
and confirm all the vague imputations of atheism, or
of criminal license in these mysterious meetings
which seemed to shun the light of day. Their reli-
gious usages must now have become much better
known, as Alexander borrowed their mode of publish-
ing the names of those who were proposed for ordinsr
tion, and established a similar proceeding with regard
to all candidates for civil ofiice ; and a piece of ground
in Rome, which was litigated by a company of victual-
lers, was awarded by the emperor himself to the
Christians, upon the principle that it was better that
it should be devoted to the worship of God in any
form, than applied to a profane and unworthy use.^

These buildings were no doubt, as yet, of modest
height and mipretending form; but the religion was
thus publicly recognized as one of the various forms
of worship which the Government did not prohibit
from opening the gates of its temples to mankind.

1 JEiu Lampridii Alexander Sererna.

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184 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITT. Book n.

The progress of Christianity during all this period,
though silent, was uninterrupted. The miseries which
were gradually involving the whole Roman empire,
from the conflicts and the tyranny of a rapid succes-
sion of masters, from taxation becoming more grind-
ing and burdensome, and from the still-multiplying
inroads and expanding devastations of the barbarians,
assisted its progress. Many took refuge in a religion
which promised beatitude in a future state of being,
from the inevitable evils of this life.

But in no respect is the progress of Christianity
more evident and remarkable than in its influence on
Heathenism itself. Though philosophy, which had
Influence of ^^^8 ^®®^ *^® autagouist and most dangerous
on H^tS^ enemy of the popular religion, now made ap-
^^' parently common cause with it against the

common enemy, Christianity, yet there had been an
unperceived and amicable approximation between the
two religions. Heathenism, as interpreted by philoso-
phy, ahnost foimd favor with some of the more moder-
ate Christian apologists ; while, as we have seen, in the
altered tone of the controversy, the Christians have
rarely occasion to defend themselves against those
horrible charges of licentiousness, incest, and canni-
balism, which, till recently, their advocates had been
constrained to notice. The Christians endeavored to
enlist the earlier philosophers in their cause; they
were scarcely content with asserting that the nobler
Grecian philosophy might be designed to prepare the
human mind for the reception of Christianity ; they
were almost inclined to endow these sages with a kind
of proplietic foreknowledge of its more mysterious
doctrines. "I have explained," says the Christian
in Minucius Felix, "the opinions of almost all the

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Chap.VIII. change IN HEATHENISM. 185

philosophers, whose most illustrious glory it is that
they have worshipped one God, though under various
names ; so that one might suppose, either that the
Christians of the present day are philosophers, or that
the philosophers of old were already Christians." ^

But these advances on the part of Christianity were
more than met by Paganism. The Heathen religion,
which prevailed at least among the more enlightened
Pagans during this period, and which, differently modi-
fied, more fully developed, and, as we shall hereafter
find, exalted still more from a philosophy into a reli-
gion, Julian endeavored to re-instate as the ^.^^.^^ ^
established faith, was almost as different Heatheniam.
from that of the older Greeks and Romans, or even
that which prevailed at the commencement of the
empire, as it was from Christianity. It worshipped
in the same temples ; it performed, to a certain extent,
the same rites ; it actually abrogated the local worship
of no one of the multitudinous deities of Paganism.
But over all this, which was the real religion, both in
theory and practice, in the older times, had risen a
kind of speculative Theism, to which the popular wor-
ship acknowledged its humble subordination. On the
great elementary principle of Christianity, the Unity
of the Supreme God, this approximation had long
been silently made. Celsus, in his celebrated contro-
versy with Origen, asserts that this philosophical notion
of the Deity is perfectly reconcilable with Paganism.
" We also can place a Supreme Being above the world
and above all human things, and approve and sym-

1 According to Justin Martyr (Apolog. 6), Socrates was instructed through
the Word, the Word which afterwards took the form of man, and was called
Jesus Christ. (Compare Clem. Alex., Isagoge ad Hypotup., apud Bunsen,
Analecta, i. 169.) I am here again considerably indebted to Tschirner, FaU
des Heidenthums, pp. 884-401.

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186 PAGAiaSM BECOMES SERIOUS. Book H.

pathize in whateyer may be taught of a spiritual
rather than material adoration of the gods ; for with
the belief in the gods worshipped in every land and by
every people harmonizes the belief in a Primal Being,
a Supreme God, who has given to every land its guar-
dian, to every people its presiding deity. The unity
of the Supreme Being, and the consequent unity of
the design of the universe, remains, even if it be ad-
mitted that each people has its gods, whom it must
worship in a peculiar manner, according to their pecu-
liar character ; and the worship of all these diflFerent
deities is reflected back to the Supreme God, who has
appointed them, as it were, his delegates and repre-
sentatives. Those who argue that men ought not to
serve many masters impute human weakness to God.
God is not jealous of the adoration paid to subordi-
nate deities : He is superior in his nature to degrada-
tion and insult. Reason itself might justify the belief
in the inferior deities, which are the objects of the
established worship. For, since the Supreme Grod
can only produce that which is immortal and im-
perishable, the existence of mortal beings cannot be
explained, unless we distinguish from Him those
inferior deities, and assert them to be the creatures
of mortal beings and of perishable things." ^

Prom this time. Paganism has changed not merely
Paganiam somc of its fundamental tenets, but its gen-
■erioua. cral character : it has become serious, solemn,
devout. In Lucian, unbelief seemed to have reached
its height, and as rapidly declined. The witty satirist
of Polytheism had, no doubt, many admirers : he had
no imitators. A re-action has taken place ; none of the
distinguished statesmen of the third century boldly and

1 Origen contra Celsmn, lib. vii.

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CHAP.Vin. APOLLONIUS OF TYANA — PORPHYRroS. 187

ostentatiously, as in the times of the later republic,
display their contempt for religion. Epicureanism
has lost, if not its partisans, its open advocates. The
most eminent writers treat religion with decency, if
not with devout respect : no one is ambitious of pass-
ing for a despiser of the gods. And with faith and
piety broke forth all the aberrations of religious belief
and devout feeling, wonder-working mysticism, and
dreamy enthusiasm, in their various forms.^

This was the commencement of that new Platonism
which, from this time, exercised a supreme authority,
to the extinction of the older forms of Grecian philos-
ophy, and grew up into a dangerous antagonist of
Christianity. It aspired to be a religion as well as a
philosophy, and gradually incorporated more and more
of such religious elements from the creeds of the Ori-
ental philosophers as would harmonize with its system.
It was extravagant, but it was earnest ; wild, but seri-
ous. It created a kind of literature of its Apoiionius
own. The Life of Apoiionius of Tyana was '^^''^^^
a grave romance, in which it embodied much of its
Theurgy, its power of connecting the invisible with
the visible world; its wonder-working, through the
intermediate demons at its command, which bears
possibly, but not clearly, an intentional, certainly a
close, resemblance to the Gospels. It seized and
moulded to its purpose the poetry and philosophy of
older Greece. Such of the mythic legends as it could
allegorize, it retained with every demonstration of rev-
erence ; the rest it either allowed quietly to fall into
oblivion, or repudiated as lawless fictions of the poets.
The manner in which poetry was trans-

Porphrxliis.

muted into moral and religious allegory is

1 Tachimer, p. 401.

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188 PHILOSOPHIC PAGANISM NOT POPULAR. Book H,

shown in the treatise of Porphyrins on the Cave of the
Nymphs in the Odyssey. The skill, as well as the
dreamy mysticism, with which this school of writers
combined the dim traditions of the older philosophy
and the esoteric doctrines of the Mysteries, to give the
ufe of Py- sanction of antiquity to their own vague but
***■*""■• attractive and fanciful theories, appears in
the Life of Pythagoras, and in the work on the Mys-
teries by a somewhat later writer, lamblichus.

After all, however, this philosophic Paganism could
phfloeophic exercise no very extensive influence. Its

Paganism ''

not popular, votarics wcrc probably far inferior in number
to those of any one of the foreign religions introduced
into the Greek and Roman part of the empire; and its
strength perhaps consisted in the facility with which
it coalesced with any one of those religions, or blended
them up together in one somewhat discordant syncre-
tism. The same man was philosopher, hierophant at
Samothrace or Eleusis, and initiate in the rites of
Cybele, of Serapis, or of Mithra. Of itself this scheme
was far too abstract and metaphysical to extend beyond
the schools of Alexandria or of Athens. Though it
prevailed afterwards in influencing the Heathen fanat-
icism of Julian, it eventually retarded but little the
extinction of Heathenism. It was merely a sort of
refuge for the intellectual few, — a self-complacent ex-
cuse, wliich enabled them to assert, as they supposed,
their own mental superiority, while they were endeav-
oring to maintain or to revive the vulgar superstition,
which they themselves could not but in secret contemn.
The more refined it became, the less was it suited for
common use, and the less it harmonized with the
ordinary Paganism. Thus that which, in one respect,
elevated it into a dangerous rival of Christianity, at

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Chap. VHI. MAXIMIN -GORDIAK - PHILIP. 189

the same time deprived it of its power. It had bor-
rowed much from Christianity, or, at least, had been
tacitly modified by its influence ; but it was the
speculative rather than the practical part, that which
constituted its sublimity rather than its popularity, in
which it approximated to the Gospel. "We shall en-
counter this new Paganism again before long, in its
more perfect and developed form.

The peace which Christianity enjoyed imder the
virtuous Severus was disturbed by the vio- Maximin.
lent accession of a Thracian savage.^ It was ^•^" ^'
enough to have shared in the favor of Alexander to
incur the brutal resentment of Maximin. The Chris-
tian bishops, like all the other polite and virtuous
courtiers of his peaceful predecessor, were exposed to
the suspicions and the hatred of the rude and warlike
Maximin. Christianity, however, suffered, though in
a severer degree, the common lot of mankind.

The short reign of Gordian was uneventful in Chrisr-
tian history. The emperors, it has been oordiaa.
justly observed, who were born in the Asiatic ^-^^as-zw.
provinces were, in general, the least imfriendly to
Christianity. Their religion, whatever it might be,
was less uncongenial to some of the forms of tlie new
faith ; it was a kind of eclecticism of different Ea^ern
religions, which, in general, was least inclined to in-
tolerance : at any rate, it was uninfluenced by national
pride, which was now become the main support of
Roman Paganism. Philip, the Arabian,^ is pj^mp
claimed by some of the earliest Christian ^•^•244.
writers as a convert to the Gospel. But the extraor-
dinary splendor with which he celebrated the great
religious rites of Rome refutes at once this statement.

1 Euseb., HiBt £cc vi. 28. a Eoseb. vi. 84.

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190 SECULAB GAMES —DECIUS. Book H.

Yet it might be fortunate, that a sovereign of liis mild
Secular sontimouts towBxds tlie new faith filled the
A.D. 247. throne at a period when the secular games,
which commemorated the thousandth year of Rome,
were celebrated with unexampled magnificence. Tlie
majesty, the eternity, of the empire were intimately
connected with the due performance of these solemni-
ties. To their intermission, after the reign of Diocle-
tian, the Pagan historian ascribes the decline of Roman
greatness.^ The second millennium of Rome com-
menced with no flattering signs ; the times were
gloomy and menacing; and the general and rigid
absence of the Christians from these sacred national
ceremonies, under a sterner or more bigoted emperor,
would scarcely have escaped the severest animadver-
sions of the Government. Even under the present
circumstances, the danger of popular tumult would be
with difficulty avoided or restrained. Did patriotism
and national pride incline the Roman Christians to
make some sacrifice of their severer principles, — to
compromise for a time their rigid aversion to idolatry,
which was thus connected with the peace and pros-
perity of the state ?

The persecution imder Decius, both in extent and
Dedas. violcncc, is the most uncontested of those
A.D. 249-251. ^j^ich the ccclesiastical historians took pains
to raise to tlie mystic number of the ten plagues of
Egypt. It was almost the first measure of a reign
which commenced in successful rebellion, and ended,
after two years, in fatal defeat. The Goths delivered
the Christians from their most formidable oppressor ;
yet the Goths may have been the innocent authors of
their calamities. The passions and the policy of the

1 ZosimuSi ii. 7.

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Chap. Vni. FABIANUS, BISHOP OF RO^EE. 191

emperor were coiicurrent motives for his hostility.
The Christians were now a recognized body in the
state: however carefully they might avoid mingling
in the political factions of the empire, they were neces-
sarily of the party of the emperor whose favor they
had enjoyed. His enemies became their enemies.
Maximin persecuted those who had appeared at the
court of Alexander Severus ; Decius hated the adhe-
rents, as he supposed the partisans, of the murdered
Philip.^ The Gothic war shook to the centre the
edifice of Roman greatness. Roman Paganism dis-
covered in the relaxed morals of the people one of
the causes of the decline of the empire ; it demanded
the revival of the censorship. This indiscriminating
feeling would mistake, in the blindness of caoMsofthe
aversion and jealousy, the great silent cor- cution.
rective of the popular morality for one of the prmcipal
causes of depravation. The partial protection of a
foreign religion by a foreign emperor (now that Chris-
tianity had begun to erect temple against temple, altar
against altar, and the Christian bishop met the pontiff
on equal terms around the imperial throne) would be
considered among the most flagrant departures from
the sound wisdom of ancient Rome. Tlie descendant
of the Decii, however his obscure Pannonian birth
might cast a doubt on his hereditary dignity, was
called upon to resltore the religion as well as the man-
ners of Rome to their ancient austere purity ; to vin-
dicate their insulted supremacy from the rivalship
of an Asiatic and modern superstition. The persecu-
tion of Decius endeavored to purify Rome itself from
the presence of these degenerate enemies to FabianuB^
her prosperity. The bishop Fabianus was Rome.

1 Eiiseb. ri. 89.

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192 CHRISTIAN ENTHUSIASM LESS STRONG. Book H.

one of the first victims of his resentment ; ^ and the
Christiaais did not venture to raise a successor to
the obnoxious office during the brief reign of Decius.

The example of the capital was followed in many
of the great cities of the empire. In the turbulent
and sanguinary Alexandria, the zeal of the populace
outran that of the emperor, and had already com-
menced a violent local persecution.^ Antioch lamented
the loss of her bishop, Babylas, whose relics were
afterwards worshipped in what was still the voluptuous
grove of Daphne.^ Origen was exposed to cruel tor-
ments, but escaped with his life. But Christian
enthusiam, by being disseminated over a
■am of ' wider sphere, had naturally lost some of its
tiiinity lew first vigor. With many, it was now a heredi-
tary faith, not embraced by the ardent con-
viction of the individual, but instilled into the mind,
with more or less depth, by Christian education. The
Christian writers now begin to deplore the failure of
genuhie Christian principles, and to trace the divine
wrath in the affliction of the churches. Instead of
presenting, as it were, a narrow but firm and unbroken
front to the enemy, a much more numerous but less
united and less uniformly resolute force now marched
under the banner of Christianity. Instead of the
serene fortitude with which they formerly appeared
before the tribunal of the magistrate, many now stood
pale, trembling, and reluctant ; neither ready to sub-
mit to the idolatrous ceremony of sacrifice, nor pre-

1 The Cav. de Rossi has found the name of Fabianus (I have read it my-
self), the first authentic martyr Pope in the real cemetery of Callistus, which
his sagacity discovered, and his labors have explored. More on the Cata-
combs hereafter.

« Euseb. vi. 40, 41.

s Read the Sermons of Chiysostom on S. Bal^Ias.

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Chap. VHI. COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. 198

pared to resist even unto death. The fiery zeal of the
African churches appears to have been most subject to
these paroxysms of weakness ; ^ it was there that the
fallen (the Lapsi) formed a distinct and too numerous
class, whose re-admission, into the privileges of the
Faithful became a subject of fierce controversy ; ^ and
the Libellatici, who had purchased a billet of immunity
from the rapacious Government, formed another party,
and were held in no less disrepute by those who, in
the older spirit of the faith, had been ready or eager
to obtain the crown of martyrdom.

Carthage was disgraced by the criminal weakness
even of some among her clergy. A council was held
to decide this difficult point ; and the decisions of the
council were tempered by moderation and humanity.
None were irrevocably and for ever excluded from the
pale of salvation ; but they were absolved, according
to the degree of criminality which might attach to
their apostasy. Those who had sacrificed — the most
awful and scarcely expiable offence ! — required long
years of penitence and humility ; those who had only
weakly compromised their faith, by obtaining or pur-
chasing billets of exemption from persecution, were
admitted to shorter and easier terms of reconcilia-
tion.^

^ DionysiuB apad Eosebiam, v'u 14.

« The severer opinion was called the heresy of Novatian; charity and or-
thodoxy, on this occasion, concurred. — Euseb. vi. sub fin., vii. 4, 6. An-
other controversy arose on the rebaptizing heretics, in which Cyprian toolc
the lead of the severer party. — Euseb. vii. 8.

* The horror with which those who had sacrificed were beheld by the more
rigorous of their brethren may be conceived from the energetic language
of Cyprian : *' Nonne quando ad Capitolium sponte ventum est, quando ultro
ad obsequium diri facinoris accessum est, labavit gressus, caligavit aspectua,
tremuerunt viscera, brachia conciderunt? Nonne sensus obstupuit, lingua
hcsit, sermo defeclt? . . . Nonne ara iUa, quo moriturus accessit, rogns iUi
fnit? Nonne diaboli altare quod foetore tsetro fumare et redolere conspex-

TOL. II. 18

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194 VALERIAN. Book IL

Valerian, who ascended the throne three years after
the death of Deciiis, had been chosen by Decius to
revive, in his person, the ancient and honorable office
of Censor ; and the general admiration of his virtues

Valerian, ^ad ratified the appointment of the emperor.

A.D. 264. j|. ^^ ^^ discredit to Christianity, that the
commencement of the censor's reign, who may be
supposed to have examined with more than ordinary
care its influence on the public morals, was favorable
to their cause. Their security was restored, and, for
a short time, persecution ceased. The change which
took place in the sentiments and conduct of Valerian
is attributed to the influence of a man deeply versed
in magical arts.^ The censor was enslaved by a super-
stition which the older Romans would have beheld
with little less abhorrence than Christianity itself. It
must be admitted, that Christian superstition was
too much inclined to encroach upon the province of
Oriental magic; and the more the older Polytheism
decayed, the more closely it allied itself with this
powerful agent in commanding the fears of man.
With all classes, from the emperor who employed

erat, velut funus et bustam vitie suie hoirere, ac Aigere debebat. . . . Ipse ad
aram bostia, Wctima Ipse venisti. ImmolAsti illic salutem tuam, spem tuam,
fidem tuam funestis illls ignibuB concrem&sti." — Cyprian, De Lapsis. Some
died of remoree; with some the gailty food acted as poison. But the follow*
ing was the most extraordinaiy occurrence, of which Cyprian declares him-
self to have been an eye-witness. An infant had been abandoned by its
parents in their flight The nurse carried it to the magistrate. Being too
young to eat meat, bread, steeped in wine offered in sacrifice, was forced into its
mouth. Immediately that it returned to the Christians, the child, which could
not speak, communicated the sense of its guilt by cries and convulsive agita-
tions. It refused the sacrament (then administered to infants), closed its lips,
and averted its face. The deacon forced it into its mouth. The consecrated
wine would not remain in the contaminated body, but was cast up again. —
In what a high-wrought state of enthusiasm must men have been who would
relate and believe such statements as miraculous?
1 Euseb. vil. 10.

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CHAP.Vra. CYPRIAN, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE. 195

their mystic arts to inquire into the secrets of futurity,
to the peasant who shuddered at their power, the
adepts in those dark and forbidden sciences were
probably more influential opponents of Christianity
than the ancient and established priesthood.

Macrianus is reported to have obtained such com-
plete mastery over the mind of Valerian as to induce
him to engage in the most guilty mysteries of magic
to trace the fate of the empire in the entrails of
human victims. The edict against the Chris-
tians, suggested by the animosity of Macri-
anus, allowed the community to remain in undisturbed
impunity ; but it subjected to the penalty of death all
the bishops who refused to conform, and confiscated
all the endowments of their churches into the public
treasury.

The dignity of one of its victims conferred a melan-
choly celebrity on the persecution of Valerian, g^**"'-
The most distinguished prelate at this time CMrthage.
in Western Christendom was Cyprian, Bishop of Car-
thage. If not of honorable birth or descent, — for
this appears doubtful, — his abilities had raised him
to eminence and wealth. He taught rhetoric at Car-
thage, and, either by this honorable occupation or by
some other means, had acquired an ample fortune.
Cyprian was advanced in life when he embraced the
doctrines of Christianity ; but he entered on his new
career, if with the mature reason of age, with the
ardor and freshness of youth. His wealth was de-
voted to pious and charitable uses; his rhetorical
studies, if they gave clearness and order to his lan-
guage, by no means chilled its fervor or constrained
its vehemence. He had the African temperament of
character, and, if it may be so said, of style; the

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196 EPISCOPATE OF CYPRIAN. Book U.

warmth, the power of communicating its impassioned
sentiments to the reader; perhaps not all the preg-
nant conciseness, nor all the energy, of Tertullian,
but, at the same time, little of his rudeness and
obscurity. Cyprian passed rapidly through the steps
of Christian initiation, almost as rapidly through the
first gradations of the clerical order. On the vacancy
of the bishopric of Carthage, his reluctant diflSdence
was overpowered by the acclamations of the whole
city, who environed his house, and compelled him by
their friendly violence to assume the distinguished,
and, it might be, dangerous oflSce. He yielded, to
preserve the peace of Carthage.^

Cyprian entertained the loftiest notions of the epis-
copal autliority. The severe and inviolable unity of
the outward and visible Church appeared to him an
integral part of Christianity ; and the rigid discipline
enforced by the episcopal order, the only means of
maintaining that unity. The pale which enclosed the
Church from the rest of mankind was drawn with the
most relentless precision. The Church was the ark,
and all without it were left to perish in the unsparing
deluge.^ The growth of heretical discord or disobe-
dience was inexpiable, even by the blood of the trans-
gressor. He might bear the flames with equanimity, —
he might submit to be torn to pieces by wild beasts :
there could be no martyr without the Church. Tor-
tures and death bestowed not the crown of immor-
tality : they were but the just retribution of treason
to the faith.^

1 Epist xiv.

^ " Si potuit evadere quisquam, qui extra arcam Noe fiiit, et qui extra
ecdesiam foris fnerit, evadit." — Cyprian, De Unitate Eccleaus.
• " Esse martyr non potest, qui in ecclesia non eat
'* Ardeant licet flaramis et ignibus traditi, vel object! bestiis animas soas

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Chap. VIIL OUTCRY AGAINST CYPRIAN. 197

The fearfiil times which arose during his episcopate
tried these stern and lofty principles, as the questions
which arose out of the Decian persecutions did his
judgment and moderation. Cyprian, who embraced
without hesitation the severer opinion with regard to
the rebaptizing heretics, notwithstanding his awful
horror of the guilt of apostasy, acquiesced in, if he
did not dictate, the more temperate decisions of the
Carthaginian synod concerning those whose weakness
had betrayed them either into the public denial, or a
timid dissimulation, of the faith.

The first rumor of persecution designated the Bishop
of Carthage for its victim. " Cyprian to the lions ! "
was the loud and unanimous outcry of infuriated
Paganism. Cyprian withdrew from the storm, not, as
his subsequent courageous behavior showed, from
timidity; but neither approving that useless and
sometimes ostentatious prodigality of life, which be-
trayed more pride than humble acquiescence in the
divine will; possibly from the truly charitable re-
luctance to tempt his enemies to an irretrievable crime.
He withdrew to some quiet and secure retreat, from
which he wrote animating and consolatory letters to
those who had not been so prudent or so fortunate as
to escape the persecution. His letters describe the
relentless barbarity with which the Christians were
treated; they are an authentic and contemporary
statement of the sufferings which the Christians
endured in defence of their faith. If highly colored

ponant, non erit iUa fidei corona, sed poena perfidiiBf nee religioste virtutis ex-
itus gloriosas, sed desperationis interitus." — De Unit Eccles.

"£t tamen neque hoc baptisma (sanguinis) heretico prodest, quamvis
Christum confessus, et extra ecclesiam fuerit occisus." — Epist. Ixxiii.

" Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charit}', it profiteth
me nothing." — 1 Cor. xiii. 8. Is there no difference between the spirit of
St Paul and of Cyprian ? •

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198 PLAGUE IN CABTHAGE. Book n.

by the generous and tender sympathies or by the
ardent eloquence of Cyprian, they have nothing of
legendary extravagance. The utmost art was exercised
to render bodily suffering more acute and intense:
it was a continued strife between the obstinacy and
inventive cruelty of the tormentor, and the patience
of the victim.^ During the reign of Decius, which
appears to have been one continued persecution,
Cyprian stood aloof in his undisturbed retreat. He
returned to Carthage probably at the commencement
of Valerian's reign, and had a splendid opportunity of
Christian revenge upon the city which had thirsted for
Plague in ^^^ blood. A plaguc ravaged the whole
carumge. Roman world, and its most destructive vio-
lence thinned the streets of Carthage. It went spread-
ing on from house to house, especially those of the
lower orders, with awful regularity. The streets were
strewn with the bodies of the dead and the dying who
vainly appealed to the laws of nature and humanity
for that assistance of which those who passed them by
might soon stand in need. General distrust spread
through society. Men avoided or exposed their nearest
relatives; as if, by excluding the dying, they could
exclude dfeath.^ No one, says the deacon Pontius,
writing of the population of Cartilage in general, did
as he would be done by. Cyprian addressed the Chris-

1 " Tolerostis usque ad consnmmationem gloria) durissimam questionem,
uec cessistis suppliciis, sed vobis potius supplicia cesAeraat

" Steterunt tuti torquentibus fortiores, et pulsantes et laniautes ung^Ias
pulsata ac laniata membra vicerunt. luexpugnabilem fidem superare non
potult sffiviens diu plaga repedta quamvis rupt& compage visoerum; tor-
quentur in servis Dei jam non membra, sed vulnera." — Cyprian, Epist
viii. ad Martyres. Compare Epist. Izii.

2 Fontiudf in Vit& Cvpriani. " Horrere omnes, fugere, vitare contagium;
ezponere suos impie; quasi cum illo peste morituroi etiam mortem ipaam
aliquifl posset excludere."

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Chap. VHI. CYPRIAN'S RETREAT. 199

tians in the most earnest and effective language.
He exhorted them to show the sincerity
of their belief in the doctrines of their c^Sot
Master, not by confining their acts of kindli- thU^chSi'!"*
ness to their own brotherhood, but by extend-
ing them indiscriminately to their enemies. The city
was divided into districts ; offices were assigned to all
the Christians; the rich lavished their wealth, the
poor their personal exertions ; and men, perhaps just
emerged from the mine or the prison, with the scars
or mutilations of their recent tortures upon their
bodies, were seen exposing their lives, if possible, to a
more honorable martyrdom: as before the voluntary
victims of Christian faith, so now of Christian charity.
Yet the Heathen party, instead of being subdued,
persisted in attributing this terrible scourge to the
impiety of the Christians, which provoked the angry
gods ; nor can we wonder if the zeal of Cyprian re-
torted the argument, and traced rather the retributive
justice of the Almighty to the wanton persecutions
inflicted on the unoffending Christians.

Cyprian did not again withdraw on the commence-
ment of the Valerian persecution. He was cyprian's
summoned before the proconsul, who com- "*"*^
municated his instructions from the emperor, to compel
all those who professed foreign religions to offer sacri-
fice. Cyprian refused, with tranquil determination.
Ho was banished from Cartilage. He remained in
his pleasant retreat rather than place of exile, in the
small town of Ceribis, near the sea-shoi'e, in a spot
shaded with verdant groves, and with a clear and
healthful stream of water. It was provided with
every comfort, and even luxury, in which the aus-
tere nature of Cyprian would permit itself to in-

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200 HIS RETURN. Book H.

dulge.^ But, when his hour came, the tranquil and
collected dignity of Cyprian in no respect fell below
his lofty principles.

On the accession of a new proconsul, Galerius
iteturnto Maximus, Cyprian was either recalled or
Carthage. permitted to return from his exile. He
resided in his own gardens, from whence he received
a summons to appear before the proconsul. He would
not listen to the earnest solicitations of his friends,
who entreated him again to consult his safety by with-
drawing to some place of concealment. His trial was
postponed for a day ; he was treated, while in custody,
with respect and even delicacy. But the intelligence
of the apprehension of Cyprian drew together the
whole city, — the Heathen, eager to behold the spec-
tacle of his martyrdom ; the Christians, to watch in
their affectionate zeal at the doors of his prison. In
the morning, he had to walk some distance, and was
violently heated by the exertion. A Christian soldier
offered to procure him dry linen, apparently from mere
courtesy, but, in reality, to obtain such precious relics,
steeped in the " bloody sweat" of the martyr. Cyprian
intimated that it was useless to seek remedy for incon-
.veniences which perhaps would that day pass away
for ever. After a short delay, the proconsul appeared.
The examination was brief: "Art thou Thascius
Cyprian, the bishop of so many impious men ? The
most sacred emperor commands thee to sacrifice."
Cyprian answered, " I will not sacrifice." " Consider
well," rejoined the proconsul. " Execute your orders,"

^ " If," says Pontiiis, who visited his master in his retirement, ** instead of
this sunny and agreeable spot, it had been a waste and rocky solitade, the
angels which fed Elijah and Daniel would have ministered to the holy
C3T>rian."

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Chap. VIIT. DEATH OF THE PEKSECUTORS. 201

answered Cyprian : " the case admits of no considera-
tion."

Galerius consulted with his council, and then re-
luctantly^ delivered his sentence. " Tliascius Cyprian,
thou hast lived long in thy impiety, and assembled
around thee many men involved in the same wicked
conspiracy. Thou hast shown thyself an enemy alike
to the gods and the laws of the empire; the pious
and sacred emperors have in vain endeavored to recall
thee to the worship of thy ancestors. Since, then, thou
hast been the chief author and leader of these most
guilty practices, thou shalt be an example to those
whom thou hast deluded to thy unlawful assemblies.
Thou must expiate thy crime with thy blood." Cyprian
said, " God be thanked! " 2 The Bishop of Carthage
was carried into a neighboring field, and beheaded.
He maintained his serene composure to the last. It
was remarkable, that, but a few days afterwards, the
proconsul died. Though he had been in bad health,
this circumstance was not likely to be lost upon tlie
Christians.

Everywhere, indeed, the public mind was no doubt
strongly impressed with the remarkable fact, which
the Christians would lose no opportunity of ^,^,^^,,1^
enforcing on the awe-struck attention, that <**^jj^^j
their enemies appeared to be the enemies of c»^««J<^y-
Heaven. An early and a fearfiil fate appeared to be
the inevitable lot of the persecutors of Christianity.

1 In the Acta, vix <Bgrk is the expression : it may, however, mean that he
spoke with difficulty, on account of his bod health.

^ I have translated this sentence, as the Acts of Cyprian are remarkable
for their simplicity, and total absence of later legendary ornament; and par-
ticularly for the circumstantial air of truth with which they do justice to the
regularity of the whole proceeding. Compare the Life of Cyprian by
the Deacon Pontius; the Acts, in Ruinart, p. 216; Cavers Lives of the
Apostles, &c., art " Cyprian."

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202 GALLIEKUS ALONE. Book H.

Their profound and earnest conviction that the hand
of Divine Providence was perpetually and visibly inter-
posing in the affairs of men would not be so deeply
imbued with the spirit of their Divine Master as to
suppress the language of triumph, or even of vengeance,
when the enemies of their God and of themselves either
suffered defeat and death, or, worse than an honorable
death, a cruel and insulting captivity. The death of
Decius, according to the Pagan account, had been
worthy of the old republic. He was environed by the
Goths ; his son was killed by an arrow ; he cried aloud
that the loss of a single soldier was nothing to tlie glory
of the empire ; he renewed the battle, and fell valiantly.
The Christian writers strip away all the more ennobling
incidents. According to their account, having been
decoyed by the enemy, or misled by a treacherous
friend, into a marsh where he could neither fight nor
fly, he perished tamely, and his unburied body was left
to the beasts and carrion fowls.^ The captivity of Va-
lerian, the mystery which hung over his death, allowed
ample scope to the imagination of those whose national
hatred of the barbarians would attribute the most un-
manly ferocity to the Persian conqueror, and of those
who would consider their God exalted by the most cruel
and debasing sufferings inflicted on the oppressor of the
Church. Valerian, it was said, was forced to bend his
back that'the proud conqueror might mount his horse,
as from a footstool ; his skin was flayed off (according to
one more modern account, while he was alive), stuffed,
and exposed to the mockery of the Persian rabble.

The luxurious and versatile Gallienus restored peace
oaiiienns to thc Church. Thc edict of Valerian waia
AD. '280. rescinded ; the bishops resumed their public

1 Orat. Constant apud Easeb. c. xziv. Lactant, De Mort Penec

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CHAP.Vra. PAUL OF SAMOSATA. 203

functions; the buildings were restored; and their
property, which had been confiscated by the state, re-
stored to the rightful owners.^

The last transient collision of Christianity with the
Government before its final conflict under Dio- Anwii«n.
cletian, took place, or was at least threatened, '^•^•^^-^^•
during the administration of the great Aurelian. The
reign of Aurelian, occupied by warlike campaigns in
every part of the world, left little time for attention to
the internal police or the religious interests of the em-
pire. The mother of Aurelian was priestess of the
Sun at Sirmium ; and the emperor built a temple to
that deity, his tutelary god, at Rome. But the dan-
gerous wars of Aurelian required the concurrent aid
of all the deities who took an interest in the fate of
Rome. The sacred ceremony of consulting the Sibyl-
line books, in whose secret and mysterious leaves were
written the destinies of Rome, took place at his com-
mand. The severe emperor reproaches the senate for
their want of faith in these mystic volumes, or of zeal
in the public service, as though they had been infected
by the principles of Christianity .^

But there were no hostile measures taken against
Christianity in the early part of his reign ; and he was
summoned to take upon himself the extraordinary
office of arbiter in a Christian controversy. A new
empire seemed rising in the East, under the warlike
Queen of Palmyra. Zenobia extended her protection,
with politic indifference, to Jew, to Pagan, and to
Christian. It might also appear that a kindred
spiritual ambition animated her favorite Paul ^^^^
of Samosata, the Bishop of Antioch; and s*""®"**-

1 Euseb. vii. 13; x. 28.

> Read the Lil% of Aurelian by Vopiscus, one of the best, at least most
9arefUl, in that unequal collection.

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204 POMP OF PAUL. Book U.

that he aspired to found a new religion, adapted to
the kingdom of Palmyra, by blending together the
elements of Paganism, of Judaism, and of Christianity.
Ambitious, dissolute, and rapacious, according to the
representation of his adversaries, Paul of Samosata
had been advanced to the important see of Antioch ;
but the zealous vigilance of the neighboring bishops
soon discovered, that Paul held opinions, as to the
mere human nature of the Saviour, more nearly allied
to Judaism than to the Christian creed. The pride,
the wealth, the state, of Paul, no less offended the
feelings, and put to shame the more modest demeanor
and the humbler pretensions of former prelates. He
had obtained, either from the Roman authorities or
from Zenobia, a civil magistracy, and prided himself
more on his title of ducenary than of Christian bishop.
He passed through the streets environed by guards,
and preceded and followed by multitudes of attendants
and supplicants, whose petitions he received and read
with the stately bearing of a public officer rather than
the affability of a prelate. His conduct in the ecclesi-
astical assemblies was equally overbearing : he sat on
a tlirone, and, while he indulged himself in every
kind of theatric gesture, resented the silence of those
who did not receive him with applause, or pay homage
to his dignity. His magnificence disturbed the modest
solemnity of the ordinary worship. Instead of the
simpler music of the church, the hymns, in which
the voices of the worshippers mingled in fervent, if
less harmonious, unison, Paul organized a regular
choir, in which the soft tones of female voices, in
their more melting and artificial cadences, sometimes
called to mind the voluptuous rites of Paganism, and
could not be heard without shuddering by those

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Chap.VIIL degradation of PAUL. 205

accustomed to the more unadorned ritual.^ The
Hosannas, somethues introduced as a kind of saluta-
tion to the bishop, became, it was said, the chief part
of the service, which was rather to the glory of Paul
than of the Lord. This introduction of a new and
effeminate ceremonial would of itself, with its rigid
adversaries, have formed a ground for the charge of
dissolute morals, against which may be fairly urged
the avowed patronage of the severe Zenobia.^ But
the pomp of Paul's expenditure did not interfere
with the accumulation of considerable wealth, which
he extorted from the timid zeal of his partisans, and,
it was said, by the venal administration of the judicial
authority of his episcopate, perhaps of his civil magis-
tracy. But Paul by no means stood alone : he had a
powerful party among the ecclesiastical body, the
chorepiscopi of the country districts, and the pres-
byters of the city. He set at defiance the synod of
bishops, who pronounced a solemn sentence of excom-
munication;* and, secure under the protection of the
Queen of Palmyra, if her ambition should succeed in
wresting Syria, with its noble capital, from the power
of Rome, and in maintaining her strong and influential
position between the conflicting powers of Persia and
the empire, Paul might hope to share in her triumph,
and establish his degenerate but splendid form of Chris-
tianity in the very seat of its primitive apostolic
foundation. Paul had staked his success upon that
of his warlike patroness ; and, on the fall of Zenobia,
the bishops appealed to Aurelian to expel the rebel

1 'Qv Koi oMvoac av rtf ^pi^etev. Such is the expreasion in the decree
of excommunication issued hy the bishops. Euseb. vii. 80.
s Compare Routh, Keliq. Sacr. il. 606.
* See the sentence in Eusebius, yii. 80, and in Routh, Reliquiie Sacne,

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206 CHARACTER OF AURELIAN. Book IL

against their authority, and the partisan of the Pabny-
renes, who had taken arms against tlie majesty of the
empire, from his episcopal dignity at Antioch. Aure-
lian did not altogether refuse to interfere in this
unprecedented cause, but, with laudable impartiality,
declined any actual cognizance of the affair, and
transferred the sentence from the personal enemies of
Paul, the Bishops of Syria, to those of Rome and
Italy. By their sentence, Paul was degraded from his
episcopate.

The sentiments of Aurelian changed towards Chris-
tianity near the close of his reign. The severity of
his character, reckless of human blood, would not, if
committed in the strife, have hesitated at any meas-
ures to subdue the rebellious spirit of his subjects.
Sanguinary edicts were issued, though his death pre-
vented their general promulgation ; and in the fate of
Aurelian the Christians discovered another instance
of the divine vengeance, which appeared to mark
their enemies with the sign of inevitable and appalling
destruction.

Till the reign of Diocletian, the churches reposed in
undisturbed but enervating security.

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Chap. IX. PEACE OF THE CHRISTIANS. 207

CHAPTER IX.

The Persecution onder Diocletian.

The final contest between Paganism and Glirlstianitj
drew near. Almost three hundred years had elapsed
since the divine Author of the new religion had entered
upon his mortal life in a small village in ^ d 284.
Palestine ; ^ and now, having gained so
powerful an ascendency over the civilized world, the
Gospel was to undergo its last and most trying ordeal,
before it should assume the reins of empire, and
become the established religion of the Roman world.
It was to sustain the deliberate and systematic attack
of the temporal authority, arming, in almost every
part of the empire, in defence of the ancient p^^of the
Polytheism. At this crisis, it is important chriBtians.
to survey the state of Christianity, as well as the char-
acter of the sovereign and of the government, which
made this ultimate and most vigorous attempt to
suppress the triumphant progress of the new faith.

Tlie last fifty years, with a short interval of menaced,
probably of actual, persecution, during the reign of
Aurelian, had passed in peace and security. The
Christians had become, not merely a public, but an
imposing and influential, body; their separate exist-
ence had been recognized by the law of Oallienus;
their churches had arisen in most of the cities of the

^ Diocletian began his reign A.D. 284. The commencement of the per-
secution is dated A.D. 808.

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208 BELAXATION OF CHRISTIAN MORALS. Book IL

empire, — as yet, probably, with no great pretensions
to arcliitectural grandeur, though no doubt ornamented
by the liberality of the worshippers, and furnished
with vestments, and with chalices, lamps, and chande-
liers of silver. The number of these buildings was
constantly on the increase, or the crowding multitudes
of proselytes demanded the extension of the narrow
and humble walls. The Christians no longer declined,
or refused to aspire to, the honors of the state. They
filled offices of distinction, and even of supreme au-
thority, in the provinces and in the army ; they were
exempted, either by tacit connivance or direct in-
PTogi«fl6of dulgence, from the accustomed sacrifices,
chriatiwuty. ^^^^^g ^^q moTG immediate attendants on

the emperor, two or three openly professed the Chris-
tian faith. Prisca the wife, and Valeria, tlie daughter
of Diocletian and wife of Galerius, were suspected, if
not avowed, partakers of the Christian mysteries.^
If it be impossible to form the most remote approxi-
mation to their relative numbers with that of the
Pagan population, it is equally erroneous to estimate
their strength and influence by numerical calculation.
All political changes are wrought by a compact, or-
ganized, and disciplined minority. The mass of man-
kind are shown by experience, and appear fated by
the constitution of our nature, to follow any vigorous
impulse from a determined and incessantly aggressive
few.
The long period of prosperity had produced in
the Christian community its usual consa^

Relaxation of i . «

chmtiaa Quenccs, — somo relaxation of morals: but

morals. —

ofchnstian Cliristiau charity had probably suffered more
than Christian purity. The more flourisliing

1 Euseb., Ecc. Hist viii. 1.

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Chap. EX. CHARACTER OF DIOCLETIAN. 209

and extensive the community, the more the pride,
perhaps the temporal advantages, of superiority, pre-
dominated over the Christian motives which led men
to aspire to the supreme functions in the Church.
Sacerdotal domination began to exercise its awful
powers, and the bishop to assume the language and
the authority of the vicegerent of God. Feuds dis-
tracted the bosom of the peaceful communities, and
disputes sometimes proceeded to open violence. Such
is the melancholy confession of the Christians them-
selves, who, according to the spirit of the times, con-
sidered the dangers and the afflictions to which they
were exposed in the light of divine judgments ; and
deplored, perhaps with something of the exaggeration
of religious humiliation, the visible decay of holiness
and peace.^ But it is the strongest proof of the firm
hold of a party, whether religious or political, upon
the public mind, when it may oflFend with impunity
against its own primary principles. That which at
one time is a sign of incurable weakness or approach-
ing dissolution, at another seems but the excess of
healthful energy and the evidence of imbroken vigor.

The acts of Diocletian are the only trustworthy
history of his character. The son of a slave, or, at all.
events, born of obscure and doubtful parent-
age, who could force his way to sovereign
power, conceive and accomplish the design of recon-
structing the whole empire, must have been a man, at
least, of strong politick courage ; of profound, if not
always wise and statesmanlike, views. In the person
of Diocletian, the Emperor of Rome became an Orien-
tal monarch. The old republican forms were disdain-
fully cast aside ; consuls and tribunes gave way to new.

1 EBueb., Ecc. Hist yiU. 1.
VOL. II. 14

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- 210 CHANGE IN STATE OF THE EMPIRE. Book H.

officers, with adulatory and un-Roman appellations.
Diocletian himself assumed the new title of Dominus
or Lord, which gave offence even to the servile and
flexible religion of his Pagan subjects, who reluctantly,
at first, paid the homage of adoration to the master of
the world.

Nor was the ambition of Diocletian of a narrow or
Diocietun. pcrsonal character. With the pomp, he did
Slteff toe*"* ^0* fl'fifect the solitude, of an Eastern despot.
empiitt. rpjj^ uccessity of the state appeared to demand
the active and perpetual presence of more than one
person invested with sovereign i^uthority, who might
organize the decaying forces of the different divisions
of the empire against the menacing hosts of barbarians
on every frontier. Two Augusti and two Csesars
shared the dignity and the cares of the public admini&-
tration,^ — a measure, if expedient for the security,
fatal to the prosperity, of the exhausted provinces,
which found themselves burdened with the mainte-
nance of four imperial establishments. A new system
of taxation was imperatively demanded and relentlessly
introduced; 2 while the emperor seemed to mock the
bitter and ill-suppressed murmurs of the provinces, by
his lavish expenditure in magnificent and ornamental
buildings. That was attributed to the avarice of
Diocletian which arose out of the change in the form
of government, and in some degree out of his sump-
tuous taste in that particular department, the embel-
lishment, not of Rome only, but of the chief cities of
the empire, — Milan, Carthage, and Nicomedia. At

1 In the Leben ConstantiDS des Grossen, by Manso, there is a good discus-
bIod on the authority and relative position of the Augusti and the Ciesan.

* The extension of the rights of citizenship to the whole empire by Cara-
calla made it impossible to maintain the exemptions and immunities which
tliat prinlege had thud lavishly conferred.

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Chap. EX. NEGLECT OF ROME. 211

one time, the all-pervading Government aspired, after
a season of scarcity, to regulate the prices of all com-
modities, and of all interchange, whether of labor
or of bargain and sale, between man and man. This
singular and gigantic effort of well-meaning but mis-
taken despotism has come to light in the present
day.^

Among the innovations introduced by Diocletian,
none, perhaps, was more closely connected Neglect of
with the interests of Christianity than the *'**™'
virtual degradation of Rome from the capital of the
empire, by the constant residence of the emperor in
other cities. Though the old metropolis was not
altogether neglected in the lavish expenditure of the
public wealth upon new edifices, either for the con-
venience of the people or the splendor of public
solemnities, yet a larger share fell to the lot of other
towns, particularly of Nicomedia.^ la this city, the
emperor more frequently displayed the new state of
his imperial court, while Rome was rarely honored by
his presence. Nor was his retreat, when wearied with
political strife, on the Campanian coast, in the Bay of
Baiae, which the older Romans had girt with their
splendid seats of retirement and luxury: it was on the
Dlyrian and barbarous side of the Adriatic that the pal-
ace of Diocletian arose, and his agricultural establish-
ment spread its narrow belt of fertility. The removal
of the seat of government more clearly discovered the
magnitude of the danger to the existing institutions
from the progress of Christianity. The East was, no
doubt, more fully peopled with Christians than any

1 Edict of Diocletian, published and illustrated by Col. Leake. It is
alluded to in the treatise, De Mortibus Persecut C. vii.

^ "Ita semper dementabat, Nicodemiaxn studens urbi Rom» coaequare.'*
— De Mort Peraecut. C vii.

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212 THE CHURCH UNDER DIOCLETIAN. Book H.

part of the Western world, unless perhaps the province
of Africa; at all events, their relative rank, wealth,
and importance, much more nearly balanced that of
the adherents of the old Polytheism.^ In Rome, the
ancient majesty of the national religion must still have
kept down in comparative obscurity the aspiring
rivalry of Christianity. The praetor still made way for
the pontifical order, and submitted his fasces to the
vestal virgin, while the Christian bishop pursued his
humble and unmarked way. The modest church or
churches of the Christians lay hid, no doubt, in some
sequestered street or in the obscure Transteverine
region, and did not venture to contrast themselves
with the stately temples on which the ruling people of
the world and the sovereigns of mankind had for ages
lavished their treasures. However the church of the
metropolis of the world might maintain a high rank in
Christian estimation, might boast its antiquity, its
apostolic origin, or at least of being the scene of apos-
tolic martyrdom, and might number many distinguished
proselytes in all ranks, even in the imperial court;
still Paganism, in this stronghold of its most gorgeous
pomp, its hereditary sanctity, its intimate connection
with all the institutions, and its incorporation with the

1 Tertullian, Apolog. c. 87. Mr. Coneybeare (Bampton Lectures, p. 846)
has drawn a curious inference from a passage in this chapter of Tertullian,
that the majority of those who had a right of citizenship in those cities had
embraced the Christian faith, while the mobs were its most furious opponents.
It appears unquestionable, that the strength of Christianity lay in the middle,
perhaps the mercantile, classes. The last two books of the Paidagogos of
Clement of Alexandria, the most copious authority for Christian maimers at
that time, inveigh against the vices of an opulent and luxurious community,
— splendid dresses, jewels, gold and silver vessels, rich banquets, gilded lit-
ters and chariots, and private baths. The ladies kept Indian birds, Median
peacocks, monkeys, and Maltese dogs, instead of maintaining widows and
orphans; the men had multitudes of slaves. The sixth chapter of the third
book — ** That the Christian alone is rich " — would have been unmeaning if
addressed to a poor community.

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Chap. IX. RELIGION OF DIOCLETIAN. 213

whole ceremonial of public affairs, — in Rome must
have maintained at least its outward supremacy.^ But,
in comparison with the less imposing dignity of the
municipal government or the local priesthood, the
Bishop of Antioch or Nicomedia was a far greater
person than the predecessor of the popes among
the consulars and the senate, the hereditary aris-
tocracy of the old Roman families or the ministers
of the ruling emperor. In Nicomedia, the Chris-
tian church, an edifice at least of considerable strength
and solidity, stood on an eminence commanding
the town, and conspicuous above the palace of the
sovereign.

Diocletian might seem born to accomplish that revo-
lution which took place so soon after, under the reign
of Constantine. The new constitution of the empire
might appear to require a reconstruction of the reli-
gious system. The emperor, who had not scrupled to
accommodate the form of the government, without
respect to the ancient majesty of Rome, to the present
position of affairs ; to degrade the capital itself into the
rank of a provincial city ; and to prepare the way, at
least, for the removal of the seat of government to the
East, — would have been withheld by no scru- Reugion or
pies of veneration for ancient rites or ancestral ^~^«"*°'
ceremonies, if the establishment of a new religion had

1 In a letter of Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, written during or soon after the
reign of Decius, the ministerial establishment of the charch in Rome is thus
stated: One bishop; forty-six presbyters; seven deacons; seven subdea-
oons; forty-two acolyths or attendants; fifty-two exorcists, readers, and door-
keepers; fifteen hundred widows and poor. — Euseb. vi. 43.

Optatus (lib. ii.) states that there were more than forty churches in Rome
at the time of tho persecution of Diocletian. It has been usual to calculate
one church for each presb^'ter; which would suppose a falling-off, at least no
inciease, during the interval. But some of the presbyters reckoned by Cor-
nelius may have been superannuated or in prison, and their place supplied by
others.

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214 NEW PAGANISM. Book H.

appeared to harmouize with his general policy. But
his mind was not yet ripe for such a change, nor per-
haps his knowledge of Cliinstianity and its profound
and unseen influence sufficiently extensive. In his
assumption of the title Jovius, while his colleague took
that of HcrcuHus, Diocletian gave a public pledge of
his attachment to the old Polytheism. Among the
cares of his administration, he by no means neglected
New Pttgan. *^^® purification of the ancient religions.^ In
^^' Paganism itself, that silent but manifest

change, of which we have already noticed the comr
mencement, had been creeping on. The new philoso-
phic Polytheism which Julian attempted to establish
on the ruins of Christianity was still endeavoring
to supersede the older poetic faith of the Heathen
nations. It had not even yet come to sufficient
maturity to offer itself as a formidable antagonist to
the religion of Christ. This new Paganism, as has
been observed, arose out of the alliance of the phi-
losophy and the religion of the old world. These
once implacable adversaries had reconciled their differ-
ences, and coalesced against the common enemy.
Christianity itself had no slight influence upon the
formation of the new system; and now an Eastern
element, more and more strongly dominant, mingled
with the whole, and lent it, as it were, a visible object
of worship. From Christianity, the new Paganism had
adopted the Unity of the Deity, and scrupled not to
degrade all the gods of the older world into subordinate
Worship of demons or ministers. Tlie Cliristians had
**"^"°- incautiously held the same language: both
concurred in the name of demons; but the Pagans
used the phrase in the Platonic sense, as good but sub-

1 " Yeteirimn religiones castissim^ curatae." — Aurel. Vict, De Cffisar.

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Chap. IX. WORSfflP OF THE SUN. 215

ordinate spirits, while the same term spoke to the
Christian ear as expressive of malignant and diabolic
agency. But the Jupiter Optimus Maximus was not
the great Supreme of the new system. The universal
deity of the East, the Sun, to the philosophic was the
emblem or representative; to the vjalgar, the Deity.
Diocletian himself, though he paid so much deference
to the older faith as to assume the title of Jovius,
as belonging to the Lord of the world, yet, on his
accession, when he would exculpate himself from
all concern in the murder of his predecessor Numerian,
appealed in the face of the army to the all-seeing
deity of the Sun. It is the oracle of Apollo of
Miletus, consulted by the hesitating emperor, which
is to decide the fate of Christianity. The metaphor-
ical language of Christianity had unconsciously lent
strength to this new adversary ; and, in adoring the
visible orb, some, no doubt, supposed that they were
not departing far from the worship of the " Sun of
Righteousness."^

But, though it might enter into the imagination of
an imperious and powerful sovereign to fuse together
all these conflicting faiths, the new Paganism was
beginning to advance itself as the open and most
dangerous adversary of the religion of Christ. Hiero-
cles, the great hierophant of the Platonic Paganism,
is distinctly named as the author of the persecution
under Diocletian.^

Thus, then, an irresistible combination of circum-
stances tended to precipitate the fatal crisis. The

1 Hermogenes, one of the older heresiarchs, applied the text, "He has
placed his tabernacle in the sun," to Christ; and asserted that Christ had
pat off his body in the sun. — Panttenus ap. Routh, Reliquiie Sacne, i. 889.

* Another philosophic writer published a work against the Christians.
See Fleuiy, p. 462, from Tertullian.

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216 CAUTIOUS POLICY OF DIOCLETIAN. Book n.

whole political scheme of Diocletian was incomplete,
unless some distinct and decided course was taken
with these self-governed corporations, who rendered,
according to the notions of the time, such imperfect
allegiance to the sovereign power. But the cautious
disposition of Diocletian ; his deeper insight, perhaps,
into the real nature of the struggle which would take
place ; his advancing age ; and, possibly, the latent
and depressing influence of the malady which may then
have been hanging over him, and which, a short time
after, brought him to the brink of the grave,^ — these
concurrent motives would induce him to shrink from
violent measures ; to recommend a more temporizing
policy ; and to consent, with diflBcult reluctance, to the
final committal of the imperial authority in a contest in
which the complete submission of the opposite party
could only be expected by those who wore altogether
ignorant of its strength.. The imperial power had much
to lose in an unsuccessful contest : it was likely to gain,
if successful, only a temporary and external conquest.
On the one hand, it was urged by the danger of per-
mitting a vast and self-governed body to co-exist with
the general institutions of the empire : on the other, if
not a civil war, a contest which would array one part of
almost every city of the empire against the other in
domestic hostility, might appear even of more perilous
consequence to the public welfare.

The party of the old religion, now strengthened by
the accession of the philosophic faction, risked nothing,

1 The charge of derangement, which rests on the authority of Constantine,
as related by Easebius, is sufficiently confuted by the dignity of his abdica-
tion, the placid content with which he appeared to ei^oy his peaceful retreat,
the respect paid to him by his turbulent and ambitious colleagues, and the
involuntary influence which he still appeared to exercise over the affiun of
the empire.

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Chap. IX. SENTIMENTS OF THE PHILOSOPHIC PARTY. 217

and might expect much, from the vigorous, systematic,
and universal intervention of the civil au-
thority. It was clear that nothing less would thSphiS-
restore its superiority to the decaying cause
of Polytheism. Nearly three centuries of tame and
passive connivance, or of open toleration, had only in-
creased the growing power of Christianity, while it
had not in the least allayed that spirit of moral con-
quest which avowed that its ultimate end was the
total extinction of idolatry.

But in the army the parties were placed in more
inevitable opposition ; and in the army commenced
the first overt acts of hostility, which were the prog-
nostics of the general persecution.^ Nowhere did the
old Roman religion retain so much hold upon the mind
as among the sacred eagles. Without sacrifice to the
givers of victory, the superstitious soldiery would ad-
vance, divested of their usual confidence, against the
enemy ; and defeat was ascribed to some impious omis-
sion in the ceremonial of propitiating the gods. The
Christians now formed no unimportant part in the
army : though permitted by the ruling authorities to
abstain from idolatrous conformity, their contempt of
the auspices which promised, and of the rites which
insured, the divine favor, would be looked upon with
equal awe and animosity. The unsuccessful general
and the routed army would equally seize every excuse
to cover the misconduct of the one, or the cowardice
of the other. In the pride of victory, the present
deities of Rome would share the honor with Roman
valor ; the assistance of the Christians would be for-
gotten in defeat ; the resentment of the gods, to whom

1 *E« tCjv h arpareUu/Q ddeXpciv Korapxofiivov tov diuyfiov, — Eiueb.
Tiii. 1. Compare ch. iv.

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218 DELIBERATIONS AS TO CHRISTIANITY. Book IL

that defeat would be attributed, would be ascribed by
the Pagaus to the impiety of their godless comrades.
An incident of this kind took place, during one of his
campaigns, in the presence of Diocletian. The army
was assembled around the altar ; the sacrificing priest
in vain sought for the accustomed signs in the entrails
of the victim; the sacrifice was again and again re-
peated, but always with the same result. The baffled
soothsayer, trembling with awe or with indignation,
denounced the presence of profane strangers. The
Christians had been seen to make, perhaps boasted that
they had made, the sign of the cross, and put to flight
the impotent demons of idolatrous worship. They were
apprehended, and commanded to sacrifice ; and a gen-
eral edict was issued, that all who refused to pay honor
to the martial deities of Rome should be expelled from
the army. It is far from improbable that frequent
incidents of this nature may have occurred ; if, in the
unsuccessful campaign of Galerius in the East, nothing
was more likely to embitter the mind of that violent
emperor against the whole commmiity. Nor would
this animosity be allayed by the success with which
Galerius retrieved his former failure. While the im-
piety of the Christians would be charged with all the
odium of defeat, they would never be permitted to
participate in the glories of victory.

During the winter of the year of Christ 302-3, the
great question of the policy to be adopted to-
coocerning*" wards the Christians was debated, first in a
^' private conference between Diocletian and
Galerius. Diocletian, though urged by his more vehe-
ment partner in the empire, was averse from sanguin-
ary proceedings, from bloodshed and confusion; he
was inclined to more temperate measures, which would

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Chap. IX. COUNCIL. 219

degrade the Christians from every post of rauk or
authority, and expel them from tlie palace and the
army. The palace itself was divided by conflictmg
factions. Some of the chief oflScers of Diocletian's
household openly professed Christianity ; his wife and
his daughter were at least favorably disposed to the
same cause ; while the mother of Galerius, a fanatical
worshipper, probably of Cybele, was seized with a
spirit of proselytism, and celebrated almost every day
a splendid sacrifice, followed by a banquet, at which
she required the presence of the whole court. The
pertinacious resistance of the Christians provoked her
implacable resentment, and her influence over her son
was incessantly employed to inflame his mind to more
active animosity.

Diocletian at length consented to summon a council,
formed of some persons versed in the adminis-

* Council.

tration of the law, and some military men.
Of these, one party were already notoriously hostile
to Christianity ; ^ the rest were courtiers, who bent to
every intimation of the imperial favor. Diocletian
still prolonged his resistance,^ till, either to give greater
solemnity to the decree, or to identify their measures
more completely with the cause of Polytheism, it was
determined to consult the oracle of Apollo at Miletus.
The answer of tlie oracle might be anticipated ; and
Diocletian submitted to the irresistible united authority
of his friends, of Galerius, and of the god, and con-
tented himself with moderating the severity of the edict.

^ Hierodes, the philosopher, was probablj a member of this coimciL —
Mosheim, p. 922.

* According to the unffiendly representation of the author of the treatise,
De Mort. Pers., whose view of Diocletian's character is confirmed by Eutro-
pius, it was the crafty practice of Diocletian to assume all the merit of popu-
lar measures as emanating from himself alone, while, in those which were
unpopular, he pretended to act altogether by the advice of others.

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220 EDICT OF PERSECUTION. Book U.

Galerius proposed that all who refused to sacrifice
should be burned alive: Diocletian stipulated that
there should be no loss of life.

A fortunate day was chosen for the execution of the
Edict of pei^ imperial decree. The Feast of Terminalia was
Kecution. inseparably connected with the stability of the
Roman power, — that power which was so manifestly
endangered by the progress of Christianity. At the
Its pubuca. dfl'Wn of day, the prefect of the city appeared
^^^' at the door of the church in Nicomedia,

attended by the officers of the city and of the court.
The doors were instantly thrown down; the Pagans
beheld with astonishment the vacant space, and sought
in vain for the statue of the deity. The sacred books
were instantly burned, and the rest of the furniture of
the building plundered by the tumultuous soldiery.
The emperors commanded from the palace a full view
Its execution ot the tumult and spoliation, for the church
in Nicomedia. g^Q^^j ^j^ ^ height at uo great distance ; and
Galerius wished to enjoy the spectacle of a conflagrar
tion of the building. The more prudent Diocletian,
fearing that the fiure might spread to the splendid
edifices which adjoined it, suggested a more tardy
and less imposing plan of demolition. The pioneers
of the praetorian guard advanced with their tools,
and in a few hours the whole building was razed to
the ground.

The Christians made no resistance, but awaited in
silent consternation the promulgation of the fatal edict.
On the next morning it appeared. It was filmed in
terms of the sternest and most rigorous proscription,
short of the punishment of death. It comprehended all
ranks and orders under its sweeping and inevitable
provisions. Throughout the empire, the churches

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Chap. IX. EDICT TORN DOWN. 221

of the Christians were to be levelled with tlie ground :
the public existence of the religion was thus to be
annihilated. The sacred books were to be delivered,
under pain of death, by their legitimate guardians,
the bishops and presbyters, to the imperial officers,
and publicly burnt. The philosophic party thus
hoped to extirpate those pernicious writings with
which they in vain contested the supremacy of the
public mind.

The property of the churches, whether endowments
in land or furniture, was confiscated; all public assem-
blies, for the purposes of worship, prohibited; the
Christians of rank and distinction were degraded from
all their offices, and declared incapable of filling
any situation of trust or authority; those of the
plebeian order were deprived of the right of Roman
citizenship, which secured the sanctity of their persons
from corporal chastisement or torture; slaves were
declared incapable of claiming or obtaining liberty ; the
whole race were placed without the pale of the law,
disqualified from appealing to its protection in case
of wrong, as of personal injury, of robbery, or adul-
tery; while they were liable to civil actions, bound to
bear all the burdens of the state, and amenable to all
its penalties. In many places, an altar was placed
before the tribunal of justice, on which the plaintiflf
was obliged to sacrifice, before his cause could obtain
a hearing.^

No sooner had this edict been affixed in the cus-
tomary place, than it was torn down by the jdict tom
hand of a rash and indignant Christian, who ^^'
added insult to his offence by a contemptuous inscrip-
tion : " Such are the victories of the emperors over

1 Eoaeb. viii. 2. De Mort Penecnt apad Lactantiuza.

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222 FIRE IN THE PALACE. Book IL

the Goths and Sarmatians." ^ This outrage on the
imperial majesty was expiated by the death of the
delinquent, who avowed his glorious crime. Although
less discreet Christians might secretly dignify the
suflFerings of the victim with the honors of martyr-
dom, they could only venture to approve the patience
with which he bore the agony of being roasted alive
by a slow fire.^

The prudence or the moderation of Diocletian had
rejected the more violent and sanguinary counsels of
the Caesar, who had proposed that all who refused to
sacrifice should be burned alive. But his personal
terrors triumphed over the lingering influence of com-
Firo in the passiou or justicc. On a sudden, a fire burst
Nic^edia. out iu the palacc of Nicomedia, which spread
almost to the chamber of the emperor. The real
origin of this fatal conflagration is unknown ; and
notwithstanding the various causes to which it was
ascribed by the fears, the malice, and the superstition
of the different classes, we may probably refer the
whole to accident. It may have arisen from the hasty
or injudicious construction of a palace built but re-
cently. One account ascribes it to lightning. If this
opinion obtained general belief among the Christian
party, it would, no doubt, be considered by many a
visible sign of the divine vengeance, on account of
the promulgation of the imperial edict. The Chris-
tians were accused by the indignant voice of the
Heathen ; they retorted, by throwing the guilt upon
the emperor Galerius, who had practised (so the
ecclesiastical historian suggests) the part of a secret
incendiary, in order to criminate the Christians, and
alai*m Diocletian into his more violent measures.^

1 Mosheim, De Reb. Christ > Eoseb. riu. 6. * Euseb. viii. 6.

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Chap. IX. CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONFLAGRATION. 223

The obvious impolicy of such a measure, as the
chance of actually destroying both their imperial ene-
mies in the fire must have been very remote, and as it
could only darken the subtle mind of Diocletian with
the blackest suspicions and madden Oalerius to more
unmeasured hostility, must acquit the Christians of
any such design, even if their high principles, their
sacred doctrines of peaceful submission under the
direst persecution, did not place them above all suspi-
cion. The only Christian who would have incurred
the guilt, or provoked upon his innocent brethren the
danger, inseparable from such an act, would have
been some desperate fanatic, like the man who tore
down the edict. And such a man would have avowed
and gloried in the act ; he woidd have courted the ill-
deserved honors of martyrdom. The silence of Con-
stantine may clear Galerius of the darker charge of
contriving, by these base and indirect means, the
destruction of a party against which he proceeded
with undisguised hostility. Galerius, however, as if
aware of the full effect with which such an event would
work on the mind of Diocletian, immediately left
Nicomedia, declaring that he could not consider his
person safe within that city.

The consequences of this fatal conflagration were
disastrous, to the utmost extent which their worst
enemies could desire, to the whole Christian commu-
nity. The officers of the household, the inmates of
the palace, were exposed to the most cruel tortures,
by the order, it is said in the presence, of Diocletian.
Even the females of the imperial family were not
exempt, if from tlie persecution, from that suspicion
which demanded the clearest evidence of their Pagan-
ism. Prisca and Valeria were constrained to pollute

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224 PERSECUTION BECOMES GENERAL. Book H.

themselves with sacrifice; the powerful eunuchs,
Dorotheus and Gorgonius and Andreas, suffered
death; Anthimus, the Bishop of Nicomedia, was
beheaded. Many were executed, many burnt alive,
many laid bound, with stones round their necks, in
boats, rowed into the midst of the lake, and thrown
into the water.

Prom Nicomedia, the centre of the persecution, the

imperial edicts were promulgated, though
tionbl^i^ with less than the usual rapidity, through

the East. Letters were despatched requiring
the co-operation of the Western emperors, Maximian,

the associate of Diocletian, and the Caesar

Constantius, in the restoration of the dignity
of the ancient religion, and the suppression of the
hostile faith. Constantius made a show of concur-
rence in the measures of his colleagues; he com-
manded the demolition of the churches, but abstained
from all violence against the persons of the Chris-
tians.^ Gaul alone, his favored province, was not
defiled by Christian blood. The fiercer temper of
Maximian only awaited the signal, and readily ac-
ceded, to carry into effect the barbarous edicts of liis
colleagues.

In almost every part of the world, Christianity
found itself at once assailed by the full force of the
civil power, constantly goaded on by the united influ-
ence of the Pagan priesthood and the philosophic
party. Nor was Diocletian, now committed in the
desperate strife, content with the less tyrannical and

^ Ensebius, whose panegyric on Constantine throws back some of its
adulation upon his father, makes Onstantios a Christian, with the Christian
service regularly performed in his palace. — Vit. Constant c. 88. The exag-
geration of this statement is exposed by t^agi, ad ann. 308, n. yiii. Mo»*
helm, De Rebus ante Const Mag. p. 929-986.

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Chap. IX. PERSECUTION BECOMES GENERAL. 225

sanguinary edict of Nicomedia. Vague rumors of
insurrection, some tumultuary risings in regions which
were densely peopled with Christians, and even the
enforced assumption of the purple by two adventurers,
one in Armenia, another in Antioch, seemed to coun-
tenance the charges of political ambition, and the
design of armed and vigorous resistance.

It is the worst evil of religious contests, that the
civil power cannot retract without the humiliating
confession of weakness, and must go on increasing in
the severity of its measures. It soon finds that there
is no success short of the extermination of the adver-
sary ; and it has but the alternative of acknowledged
failure or this internecine warfare. The demolition of
the churches might remove objects oflFensive to the
wounded pride of the dominant Polytheism ; the de-
struction of the sacred books might gratify the jealous
hostility of the philosophic party ; but not a single com-
munity was dissolved. The precarious submission of
the weaker Christians only confirmed the more resolute
opposition of the stronger and more heroic adherents
of Christianity.

Edict followed edict, rising in regular gradations of
angry barbarity. The whole clergy were declared
enemies of the state; they were seized wherever a
hostile prefect chose to put forth his boundless au-
thority; and bishops, presbyters, and deacons were
crowded into the prisons intended for the basest male-
factors. A new rescript prohibited the liberation of
any of these prisoners, unless they should consent to
offer sacrifice.

During the promulgation of these rescripts, Diocle-
tian celebrated his triumph in Rome; he held a
conference with the C»sar of Africa, who entered into

TOL. II. 16

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226 ABDICATION OF DIOCLETIAN. Book n.

his rigorous measures. On his return to Nicomedia,

he was seized with that long and depressing

malady, which, whether or not it afifected

him with temporary derangement, secluded him within

the impenetrable precincts of the palace, whose sacred

secrets were forbidden to be betrayed to the popular

ear. This rigid concealment gave currency to every

kind of gloomy rumor. The whole Roman world

awaited with mingled anxiety, hope, and apprehension,

Andabdi- *ihe news of his dissolution. Diocletian, to

SSdSttan. tibe universal astonishment, appeared again

A.D. 804. jj^ ^YiQ robes of empire ; to the still greater

general astonishment, he appeared only to lay them

aside, to abdicate the throne, and to retire to the

peaceful occupation of his palace and agricultural villa

on the Illyrian shore of the Adriatic. His colleague

Maximian, with ill-dissembled reluctance, followed

the example of his associate, patron, and co-adjutor

in the empire.

The great scheme of Diocletian, the joint administror
tion of the empire by the associate Augusti, with their
subordinate Caesars, if it had averted for a time the
dismemberment of the empire, and had infused some
vigor into the provincial governments, had introduced
other evils of appalling magnitude ; but its fatal conse-
quences were more manifest directly the master hand
was withdrawn which had organized the new machine
of government. Pierce jealousy succeeded at once
among the rival emperors to decent concord; aU
subordination was lost ; and a succession of civil wars
oeoerai betwceu thc Contending sovereigns distracted
"^^'y the whole world. The earth groaned under
the separate tyranny of its many masters ; and, accord-
ing to the strong expression of a rhetorical writer,

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Chap. DC MAXENTIUS. 227

the grinding taxation had so exhausted the proprietors
and the cultivators of the soil, the merchants, and the
artisans, that none remained to tax hut beggars.^ The
sufferings of the Christians, however, still inflicted
with unremitting barbarity, were lost in the common
sufferings of mankind. The rights of Roman citizen-
ship, which had been violated in their persons, were
now universally neglected ; and, to extort money, the
chief persons of the towns, the unhappy decurions,
who were responsible for the payment of the contri-
butions, were put to the torture. Even the punish-
ment, the roasting by a slow fire, — invented to force
the conscience of the devout Christians, — was bor-
rowed, in order to wring the reluctant impost from
the unhappy provincial.

The abdication of Diocletian left the most implacable
enemy of Christianity, Galerius, master of oaieriua
the East; and in the East the persecution or the But.
of the Christians, as well as the general oppression of
the subjects, of the empire, continued in un- m^^j^jj^
mitigated severity. The nephew of Galerius ^^"*^
the Caesar, Maximin Daias, was the legitimate heir to
his relentless violence of temper, and to his stem
hostility to the Christian name. In the West, the
assumption of the purple by Maxentius, the son of
the abdicated Maximian (Herculius), had no unfavor-
able effect on the situation of the Christians. They
suffered only with the rest of their fellow-

Maxenttof.

subjects from the vices of Maxentius. K
their matrons and virgins were not secure from his
lust, it was the common lot of all who, although of
the highest rank and dignity, might attract his insa-
tiable passions. If a Christian matron, the wife of a

1 De Mort Peiaecut c xziii.

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228 CONSTANTINE. Book n.

senator, submitted to a voluntary death ^ rather than to

the loss of her honor, it was her beauty, not her

Christianity, which marked her out as the

Oonstentiiie.

victim of the tyrant. It was not imtil Con-
stantino began to develop his ambitious views of re-
imiting the dismembered monarchy, that Maxentius
threw himself, as it were, upon the ancient gods of
Rome, and identified his own cause with that of Poly-
theism.

At this juncture, all eyes were turned towards the
elder son of Constantius. If not already recognized
by the prophetic glance of devout hope as the first
Christian sovereign of Rome, he seemed placed by
providential wisdom as the protector, as the head, of
the Cliristian interest. The enemies of Christianity
were his; and if he was not, as yet, bound by the
hereditary attachment of a son to the religion of his
mother Helena, his father Constantius had bequeathed
him the wise example of humanity and toleration.
Placed as a hostage in the hands of Galerius, Constan-
tino had only escaped from the honorable captivity of
the Eastern court, where he had been exposed to con-
stant peril of his life, by the promptitude and rapidity
of his movements. He had fled, and during the first
stages maimed the post-horses which might have been
employed in his pursuit. During the persecution of
Diocletian, Constantius alone, of all the emperors, by
a dexterous appearance of submission, had screened
the Christians of Gaul from the common lot of their
brethren. Nor was it probable, that Constantino
would render, on this point, more willing allegiance
to the sanguinary mandates of Galerius. At present,
however, Constantino stood rather aloof from the

^ Enseb. yiU. 14.

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Chap. IX. CHRISTIAN ENDURANCE. 229

affairs of Italy and the East ; and, till the resumption
of the purple by the elder Maximian, his active mind
was chiefly employed in the consolidation of his own
power in Gaul, and the repulse of the German bar-
barians who threatened the frontier of the Rhine.

Notwithstanding that the persecution had now lasted
for six or seven years, in no part of the world did
Christianity betray any signs of vital decay. It was far
too deeply rooted in the minds of men, far too .j.^^
extensively promulgated, far too vigorously
organized, not to endure this violent but unavailing
shock. If its public worship was suspended, the be-
lievers met in secret, or cherished in the unassailable
privacy of the heart the inalienable rights of con-
science. If it suffered numerical loss, the body was
not weakened by the severance of its more feeble and
worthless members. The inert resistance of the gen-
eral mass wearied out the vexatious and suireringB

of thtt

harassing measures of the Government. christiaM.
Their numbers secured them against general exter-
mination ; but, of course, the persecution fell most
heavily upon the most eminent of the body, — upon
men who were deeply pledged by the sense of shame
and honor, even if, in any case, the nobler motives of
conscientious faith and courageous confidence in the
truth of the religion were wanting, to bear with un-
yielding heroism the utmost barbarities of the perse-
cutor. Those who submitted performed the hated
ceremony with visible reluctance, with trembling hand,
averted countenance, and deep remorse of heart ;
those who resisted to death were animated by the
presence of multitudes, who, if they dared not applaud,
could scarcely conceal their admiration. Women
crowded to kiss the hems of their garments, and

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230 6ALEEIUS. Book IL

their scattered ashes. or unburied bones were stolen
away by tlie devout zeal of their adherents, and already
began to be treasured as incentives to faith and piety.
It cannot be supposed, that the great functionaries of
the state, the civil or military governors, could be so
universally seared to humanity, or so incapable of ad-
miring these frequent examples of patient heroism, as
not either to mitigate in some degree the sufferings
which they were bound to inflict, or even to feel some
secret sympathy with the blameless victims whom they
condemned. That sympathy might ripen, at a more
fortunate period, into sentiments still more favorable
to the Gliristian cause.

The most signal and unexpected triumph of Chris-
tianity was over the author of the persecution. Wliile
victory and success appeared to follow that party in
the state which, if they had not as yet openly es-
poused the cause of Christianity, had unquestionably
its most ardent prayers in their favor, the enemies of the
Christians were smitten with the direst calamities, and
the Almighty appeared visibly to exact the most awful
vengeance for their sufferings. Galerius himself was
forced, as it were, to implore mercy — not indeed in
the attitude of penitence, but of profound humiliation
— at the foot of the Christian altar. In the eighteenth
year of his reign, the great persecutor lay expiring of
a most loathsome malady. A deep and fetid ulcer
preyed on the lower regions of his body, and ate them
away into a mass of living corruption. It is certainly
singular that the disease, vulgarly called being " eaten
of worms," should have been the destiny of Herod the
Great, of Galerius, and of Philip II. of Spain. Phy-
sicians were sought from all quarters ; every oracle
was consulted in vain; that of Apollo suggested a

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Chap. IX. EDICT OF GALERIUS. . 231

cure which aggravated the virulence of the disease.
Not merely the chamber, the whole palace, of Galerius
is described as infected by the insupportable stench
which issued from his wound ; while the agonies which
he suffered might have satiated the worst vengeance
of the most unchristian enemy.

Prom the dying bed of Galerius issued an edict,
which, while it condescended to apologize for Edict of G«r
the past seventies agamst the Christians, an, April so.
under the specious plea of regard for the public wel-
fare and the unity of the state, — while it expressed
compassion for his deluded subjects, whom the Gov-
ernment was ufi willing to leave in the forlorn condition
of being absolutely without a religion, — admitted to
the fullest extent the total failure of the severe meas-
ures for the suppression of Christianity.^ It per-
mitted the free and public exercise of the Christian
religion. Its close was still more remarkable : it con-
tained an earnest request to the Christians to intercede
for the suffering emperor in their supplications to their
God. Whether tliis edict was dictated by wisdom, by
remorse, or by superstitious terror ; whether it was the
act of a statesman, convinced by experience of the im-
policy, or even the injustice, of his sanguinary acts ;
whether, in the agonies of his excruciating disease, his
conscience was harassed by tlie thought of his tortured
victims ; or, having vainly solicited the assistance of
his own deities, he would desperately endeavor to pro-
pitiate the favor, or, at least, allay the wrath, of the
Christians' God, — the whole Roman world was wit-
ness of the public and humiliating acknowledgment of
defeat extorted from the dying emperor, A few days
after the promulgation of the edict, Galerius expired.

1 Euseb., H. E. viii. 17.

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232 MAXIMIN n. Book H.

The edict was issued from Sardica, in the name of
A.D.811 Galerius, of Licinius, and of Constantine.
^^' It accorded with the sentiments of the two

latter: Maximin H. alone, the Caesar of the East,
whose peculiar jurisdiction extended over Syria and
Egypt, rendered but an imperfect and reluctant obe-
dience to the decree of toleration. His jealousy was,
no doubt, excited by the omission of his name in the
preamble to the edict ; and he seized tliis excuse to
discountenance its promulgation in his provinces. Yet
Conduct of for a time he suppressed his profound and in-

Maximin In ff XT

theEaflt. veterate hostility to the Christian name. He
permitted unwritten orders to be issued to the mu-
nicipal governors of the towns, and to the magistrates
of the villages, to put an end to all violent proceedings.
The zeal of Sabinus, the prsetorian prefect of the
East, supposing the milder sentiments of Galerius to
be shared by Maximin, seems to have outrun the in-
tentions of the CaBsar. A circular rescript appeared
in the name of Sabinus, echoing the tone, though it
did not go quite to the length, of the imperial edict.
It proclaimed that " it had been the anxious wish of
the divinity of the most mighty emperors, to reduce the
whole empire to pay a harmonious and united worship
to tlie immortal gods. But their clemency had at
length taken compassion on the obstinate perversity of
the Christians, and determined on desisting from their
inefifectual attempts to force them to abandon their he-
reditary faith." The magistrates were instructed to
communicate the contents of this letter to each other.
The governors of the provinces, supposing at once that
the letter of the prefect contained the real sentiments
of the emperor, with merciful haste despatched orders
to all persons in subordinate civil or military com-

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Chap. IX. DELIVERANCE OF THE CHRISTIANS. 233

mand, the magistrates both of the towns and the vil-
lages, who acted upon them with unhesitating obe-
dience.^

The cessation of the persecution showed at once its
extent. The prison doors were thrown open; the
mines rendered up their condemned laborers. Every-
where long trains of Christians were seen hastening
to the ruins of their churches, and visiting the places
sanctified by their former devotion. The public roads,
the streets, and market-places of the towns were
crowded with long processions, singing psalms of
thanksgiving for their deliverance. Those who had
maintained their faith under these severe trials passed
triumphant in conscious, even if lowly pride, amid the
flattering congratulations of their brethren ; those who
had failed in the hour of affliction hastened to re-unite
themselves with their God, and to obtain re-admission
into the flourishing and ro-united fold. The Heathens
themselves were astonished, it is said, at this signal
mark of the power of the Christians' God, who had
thus unexpectedly wrought so sudden a revolution in
favor of his worshippers.^

But the cause of the Christians might appear not
yet sufficiently avenged. The East, the great scene of
persecution, was not restored to prosperity or peace.
It had neither completed nor expiated the eight years
of relentless persecution. The six months of

apparent reconciliation were occupied by the ^JJ^JS^^^
Cassar Maximin in preparing measures of
more subtile and profound hostility. The situation of
Maximin himself was critical and precarious. On the
death of Galerius, he had seized on the gov-

A.D. 811.

ernment of the whole of Asia ; and the forces

1 Eoseb. ix. 1. > Enseb., H. E. ix. 1.

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234 HOSTILITY OF MAXIMIN. Book U.

of the two emperors, Licinius and Maximin, watched
each other on either side of the Bosphorus, with jeal-
ous and ill-dissembled hostility. Throughout the West,
the emperors were favorable, or at least not inimical,
to Clu-istianity. The political difficulties, even the
vices, of Maximin enforced the policy of securing
the support of a large and influential body : he placed
himself at the head of the Pagan interest in the East.
A deliberate scheme was laid for the advancement of
one party in the popular favor for the depression of the
other. Measures were systematically taken to enfee-
ble the influence of Christianity, not by the authority
of Government, but by poisoning the public mind, and
infusing into it a settled and conscientious animosity.
False Acts of Pilate were forged, intended to cast dis-
credit on the Divine Founder of Christianity; they
were disseminated with the utmost activity. The
streets of Antioch and other Eastern cities were pla-
carded with the most calumnious statements of the
origin of the Christian faith. The instructors of
youth were directed to introduce them as lessons into
the schools, to make their pupils commit them to
memory; and boys were heard repeating, or grown
persons chanting, the most scandalous blasphemies
against the object of Christian adoration.^ In Damas-
cus, the old arts of compelling or persuading women to
confess that they had been present at the rites of the
Cliristians, which had ended in lawless and promiscu-
ous license, were renewed. The confession of some
miserable prostitutes was submitted to the emperor,
published by his command, and disseminated through-

^ In the speech attributed to S. Lucianus, previous to his martyrdom at
Nicomedia, there is an allusion to these Acts of Pilate, \i'hich shows that they
had made considerable impression on the public mind. — Routh, Reliquia
Sacne, iii. 286.

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Chap. IX. PAGANISM RE-OBGANIZED. 235

out the Eastern cities, although the Christian rites had
been long celebrated in those cities with the utmost
publicity.^

The second measure of Maximin was the re-organi-
zation of the Pagan religion in all its original R«M»rgani-
pomp, and more than its ancient power. A Paga^.
coxnplete hierarchy was established on the model of
the Christian episcopacy. Provincial pontiffs, men
of the highest rank, were nominated ; they were inau-
gurated with a solemn and splendid ceremonial, and
were distinguished by a tunic of white. The emperor
himself assumed the appointment to the pontifical
offices in the different towns, which had in general
rested with the local authorities. Persons of rank
and opulence were prevailed on to accept these sacred
functions, and were thus committed, by personal in-
terest and corporate attachment, in the decisive
struggle. Sacrifices were performed with the utmost
splendor and regularity, and the pontiffs were invested
with power to compel the attendance of all the citizens.
The Christians were liable to every punishment or tor-
ture, short of death. The Pagan interest having thus
become predominant in the greater cities, addresses
were artfully suggested, and voted by the acclaiming
multitude, imploring the interference of the emperor
to expel these enemies of the established religion fi*om
their walls. The rescripts of the emperor were en-
graved on brass, and suspended in the public parts of
the city. The example was set by Antioch, once the
headquarters, and still, no doubt, a stronghold of
Christianity. Theotecnus, the logistes or chamberlain
of tlie city, took the lead. A splendid image was
erected to Jupiter Philius, and dedicated with all the

1 Euseb. yiii. 14.

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236 RENEWED PERSECUTIONS. Book IL

imposing pomp of mystery, perhaps of Eastern magic.^
As though they would enlist that strong spirit of
mutual attachment which bound the Christians to-
gether, the ancient Jupiter was invested in the most
engaging and divine attribute of the (Jod of Chris-
tianity: he was the God of Love. Nicomedia, the
capital of the East, on the entrance of the emperor,
presented an address to the same effect as those which
had been already offered by Antioch, Tyre, and other
cities ; and the emperor aflFected to yield to this sim-
ultaneous expression of the general sentiment.

The first overt act of hostility was a prohibition to
PenweutioDfl t^® Clirfstians to meet in their cemeteries,
toMof^SSSl where probably their enthusiasm was wrought
"*°* to the utmost height by the sacred thoughts

associated with the graves of their martyrs. But the
policy of Maximin, in general, confined itself to vexa-
tious and harassing oppression, and to other punish-
ments, which inflicted the pain and wretchedness
without the dignity of dying for the faith: the per-
secuted had the sufferings, but not the glory, of
martyrdom. Such, most likely, were the general orders
of Maximin, though, in some places, the zeal of his
ofiicers may have transgressed the prescribed limits,
it must not be said, of humanity. The bishop and
two inhabitants of Emesa, and Peter, the Patriarch of
Alexandria, obtained the honors of death. Lucianus,
the Bishop of Antioch, was sent to undergo a public
examination at Nicomedia: he died in prison. The
greater number of victims suffered the less merciful
pimishment of mutilation or blinding. Tlie remon-
strances of Constantino were unavailing ; the emperor
persisted in his cruel course, and is said to have con-

1 Euseb. iz. 2, 8.

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Chap. IX. THE PAGANS APPEAL. 237

descended to an ingenious artifice to afflict the sensi-
tive consciences of some persons of the higher orders
who escaped less painful penalties. His banquets
were served with victims previously slain in sacrifice,
and his Christian guests were thus unconsciously
betrayed into a crime which the authority of St. Paul
had not yet convinced the more scrupulous believers
to be a matter of perfect indiflFerence.^

The emperor, in his public rescript in answer to the
address from the city of Tyre, had, as it were, placed
the issue of the contest on an appeal to

Hie Pagaai

Heaven. The gods of Paganism were as- >pp «}Jto^th «
serted to be the benefactors of the human •jateofthe

But.

race; through their influence, the soil had
yielded its annual increase; the genial air had not
been parched by fatal droughts ; the sea had neither
been agitated with tempests nor swept by hurricanes ;
the earth, instead of being rocked by volcanic con-
vulsions, had been the peaceful and fertile mother of
its abundant fruits. Their own neighborhood spoke
the manifest favor of these benignant deities, in its
rich fields waving with harvests, its flowery and lux-
uriant meadows, and in the mild and genial tempera-
ture of the air. A city so blest by its tutelary gods,
in prudence as well as in justice, would expel those
traitorous citizens whose impiety endangered these
blessings, and would wisely purify its walls from the
infection of their heaven-despising presence.

But peace and prosperity by no means ensued upon
the depression of the Christians. Notwith- B«T«»e.
standing the embellishment of the Heathen '^•^•^^•
temples, the restoration of the Polytheistic ceremonial
in more than ordinary pomp, and the nomination of

1 Euseb. ix. 7.

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238 WAR WITH ARMENIA. Book H.

the noblest citizens to the pontifical oflSces, every kind
of calamity — tyranny, war, pestilence, and famine —
depopulated the Asiatic provinces. Not the least
scourge of the Pagan East was the Pagan emperor
himself. Christian writers may have exaggerated,
they can scarcely have invented, the vices of Maximin.
His lusts violated alike the honor of noble and plebeian
Tyranny of families. Thc cunuchs, the purveyors for
his passions, traversed the provinces, marked
out those who were distinguished by fatal beauty, and
conducted these extraordinary perquisitions with the
most insolent indignity : where milder measures would
not prevail, force was used. Nor was tyranny content
with the gratification of its own license : noble virgins,
after having been dishonored by the emperor, were
granted in marriage to his slaves ; even those of the
highest rank were consigned to the embraces of a
barbarian husband. Valeria, the widow of Galerius
and the daughter of Diocletian, was first insulted by
proposals of marriage from Maximin, whose wife was
still living, and then forced to wander through the
Eastern provinces in the humblest disguise, till, at
length, she perished at Thessalonica by the still more
unjustifiable sentence of Licinius.

The war of Maximin with Armenia was wantonly
War with undertaken in a spirit of persecution. This
'^™*°*** earliest Christian kingdom was attached, in
all the zeal of recent proselytism, to the new religion.
That part which acknowledged the Roman sway was
commanded to abandon Christianity, and the legions
of Rome were employed in forcing the reluctant
kingdom to obedience.^

But these were foreign calamities. Throughout the

1 Euseb. ix. 8.

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Chap. K. FAMINE — PESTILENCE. 239

dominions of Maximin, the summer rains did not
fall ; a sudden famine desolated the whole jamina.
East ; corn rose to an unprecedented price.^
Some large villages were entirely depopulated ; many
opulent families were reduced to beggary, and persons
in a decent station sold their children as slaves. The
rapacity of the emperor aggravated the general misery.
The granaries of individuals were seized, and their
stores closed up by the imperial seal. The flocks and
herds were driven away, to be oflFered in unavailing
sacrifices to the gods. The court of the emperor, in
the mean time, insulted the general suffering by its
excessive luxury; his foreign and barbarian troops
lived in a kind of free quarters, in wasteful plenty,
and plundered on all sides with perfect im- p^^y,,^
puiiity. The scanty and unwholesome food
produced its usual effect, a pestilential malady. Car-
buncles broke out all over the bodies of those who
were seized with the disorder, but particularly attacked
the eyes, so that multitudes became helplessly and
incurably blind. The houses of the wealthy, which
were secure against the famine, seemed particularly
marked out by the pestilence. The hearts of all classes
were hardened by the extent of the calamity. The
most opulent, in despair of diminishing the vast mass
of misery, or of relieving the swarms of beggars who
filled every town and city, gave up the fruitless
endeavor. The Christians alone took a nobler and
evangelic revenge upon their suflFering enemies. They
were active in allaying those miseries of which
they were the common victims. The ecclesiastical
historian claims no exemption for the Christians from

^ The Btatement in the text of Eusebius, as it stands, is utterly incredible,
— a measure of wheat at 2,500 attics (drachms), from j£70 to j£80.

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240 MAXIMIN CEASES TO PERSECUTE. Book n.

the general calamity, but honorably boasts that they
alone displayed the offices of humanity and brother-
hood. They were everywhere, tending the living, and
burying the dead. They distributed bread; they
visited the infected houses; they scared away the
dogs which preyed, in open day, on the bodies in
the streets, and rendered to those bodies the decent
honors of burial. The myriads who perished, and
were perishing, in a state of absolute desertion, could
not but acknowledge that Christianity was stronger
than love of kindred. The fears and the gratitude of
mankind were equally awakened in their favor, — the
fears which could not but conclude these calamities to
be the vengeance of Heaven for the persecutions of its
favored people ; the gratitude to those who thus repaid
good for evil in the midst of a hostile and exasperated
society.^

Before we turn our attention to the West, and follow
the victorious career of Constantino to the reconsolida-
tion of the empire in his person, and the triumph of
Christianity through his favor, it may be more con-
sistent with the distinct view of these proceedings to
violate in some degree the order of time, and follow
to its close the history of the Christian persecutions
in the East.

Maximin took the alarm, and endeavored, too late,
Hazimin to Tctracc his stcps. He issued an edict, in
jSS^uiSl which he avowed the plain principles of
*^** toleration, and ascribed his departure from

that salutary policy to the importunate zeal of his
capital and of other cities, which he could not treat
with disrespect, but which had demanded the expul-
sion of the Christians from their respective territories.

1 EnBeb. iz. 9.

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Chap. IX. DEATH OF MAXIMIN. 241

He commanded the suspension of all violent measures,
and recommended only mild and persuasive means to
win back these apostates to the religion of their fore-
fathers. The Christians, who had once been deluded
by a show of mercy, feared to reconstruct their fallen
edifices, or to renew their public assemblies, and
awaited, in trembling expectation, the issue of the
approaching contest with Licinius.^

The victory of Constantine over Maxentius had left
him master of Rome. Constantine and Licinius reigned
over all the European provinces ; and the public edict
for the toleration of Christianity, issued in the name
of these two emperors, announced the policy of the
Western Empire.

After the defeat of Maximin by Licinius, his obscure
death gave ample scope for the credulous if not in-
ventive malice of his enemies to ascribe to his last
moments every excess of weakness and cruelty, as
well as of suflFering. He is said to have revenged his
baffled hopes of victory on the Pagan priest-
hood, who had incited him to the war, by a Death of'

promiscuous massacre of all within his power.
His last imperial act was the promulgation of another
edict,2 still more explicitly favorable to the Christians,
in which he not merely proclaimed an unrestricted
liberty of conscience, but restored the confiscated
property of their churches. His bodily suflFerings
completed the dark catalogue of persecuting emperors
who had perished under the most excruciating tor-
ments ; his body was slowly consumed by an internal
fire.*

1 Eiuieb. viii. 14.

S Edict of toleration iMned from Nicomedia, A.D. 818, 18th June.
* Eiueb. iz. 9.
VOL. II. 16

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242 CHUKCH OF TYRE REBUILT. Book IL

With Haximin expired the last hope of Paganism
The new ^ maintain itself by the authority of the
^SS^ Government. Though Licinius was only
*****°**°' accidentally connected with the Christiaa
party, and afterwards allied himself for a short time
to the Pagan interest, at this junction his enemies
were those of Christianity; and his cruel triumph
annihilated at once the adherents of Maximin, and
those of the old religion. The new hierarchy feU at
once: the chief magistrates of almost all the cities
were executed ; for, even where they were not invested
in the pontifical offices, it was under their authority
that Paganism had renewed its more imposing form,
and sank with them into the conunon ruin. The arts
by which Theotecnus of Antioch, the chief adviser of
Maximin, had imposed upon the populace of that city
by mysterious wonders, were detected and exposed to
public contempt, and the author put to death. Tyre,
which had recommended itself to Maximin by the most
violent hostility to the Christian name, was constrained
to witness the reconstruction of the fallen
the chui% church in far more than its original grandeur.
**' Eusebius, afterwards the Bishop of Caesarea
and the historian of the Church, pronounced an inau-
gural discourse on its reconstruction. His description
of tlie building is curious in itself, as the model of an
Eastern church, and illustrates the power and opu-
lence of the Christian party in a city which had taken
the lead on the side of Paganism. Nor would the
Christian orator venture greatly to exaggerate the
splendor of a building which stood in the midst of,
and provoked, as it were, a comparison with, temples
of high antiquity and unquestioned magnificence.

The Christian church was built on the old site ; for.

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Chap. IX. SPLENDOR OF THE NEW EDIFICE. 248

though a more convenient and imposing space might
have been found, the piety of the Christians clung
with reverence to a spot consecrated by the most holy
associations; and their pride, perhaps, was gratified
in restoring to more than its former grandeur the
edifice which had been destroyed by Pagan malice.
The whole site was environed with a wall ; a lofty
propylaeon, which faced the rising sun, commanded
the attention of the passing Pagan, who could not but
contrast the present splendor with the recent solitude
of the place; and aflForded an imposing glimpse of
the magnificence within. The intermediate space
between the propylason and the church was laid out
in a cloister with four colonnades, enclosed with a
palisade of wood. The centre square was open to the
sun and air ; and two fountains sparkled in the midst,
and reminded the worshipper, with their emblematic
purity, of the necessity of sanctification. The unini-
tiate proceeded no farther than the cloister, but might
behold at this modest distance the mysteries of the
sanctuary. Several other vestibules, or propylaea, in-
tervened between the cloister and the main building.
The three gates of the church fronted the East, of
which the central was the loftiest and most costly,
"like a queen between her attendants." It was
adorned with plates of brass and richly sculptured
reliefs. Two colonnades, or aisles, ran along the main
building, above which were windows, which lighted
the edifice ; other buildings for the use of the ministers
adjoined. • Unfortunately, the pompous eloquence of
Eusebius would not condescend to the vulgar details
of measurements, and dwells only in vague terms of
wonder at the spaciousness, the heaven-soaring lofti-
ness, the splendor of the interior. The roof was of

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244 SPLENDOR OF THE NEW EDIFICE. Book IL

beams from the cedars of Lebanon, the floor inlaid
with marble. In the centre rose the altar, which had
already obtained the name of the place of sacrifice;
it was guarded from the approach of the profane by a
trellis of the most slender and graceful workmanship.
Lofky seats were prepared for the higher orders, and
benches for those of lower rank were arranged with
regularity throughout the building. Tyre, no doubt,
did not stand alone in this splendid restoration of
her Christian worship; and Christianity, even before
her final triumph under Constantine, before the resti-
tution of her endowments and the munificent imperial
gifts, possessed sufficient wealth at least to commence
these costly undertakings.

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BOOK m.

CHAPTER I.

Constantine.

The reign of Constantine the Great forms one of the
epochs in the history of the world. It is the ^^^^^ ^^^^
era of the dissolution of the Roman empire ; »*^**~-
the commencement, or rather consolidation, of a kind
of Eastern despotism, with a new capital, a new
patriciate, a new constitution, a new financial system,
a new, though as yet imperfect, jurisprudence, and,
finally, a new religion. Already, in the time change in the
of Diocletian, Italy had sunk into a proyince ; •"p*"-
Rome, into one of the great cities of the empire. The
declension of her importance had been gradual, but
inevitable ; her supremacy had been shaken by that
slow succession of changes which had imperceptibly
raised the relative weight and dignity of other parts
of the empire, and of the empire itself, as a whole,
until she ceased to be the central point of the adminis-
tration of public afl&irs. Rome was no longer
the heart of the social system, from which ^*
emanated all the life and power which animated and
regulated the vast and unwieldy body, and to which
flowed in the wealth and the homage of the obedi-
ent world. The admission of the whole empire to
the rights of Roman citizenship by Caracalla had
dissolved the commanding spell which centuries of

[245]

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246 UNITY OF EMPIRE PRESERVED. Book IH.

glory and conquest had attached to the majesty of the
Roman name. To be a Roman was no longer a
privilege ; it gave no distinctive rights ; its exemptions
were either taken away, or vulgarized by being made
common to all except the servile order. The secret
once betrayed that the imperial dignity might be
conferred elsewhere than in the imperial city, lowered
still more the pre-eminence of Rome. From that
time, the seat of government was at the head of the
army. If the emperor, proclaimed in Syria, in Illyria,
or in Britain, condescended, without much delay, to
visit the ancient capital, the trembling senate had but
to ratify the decree of the army, and the Roman peo-
ple to welcome, with submissive acclamations, their
new master.

Diocletian had consummated the degradation of
Rome, by transferring the residence of the court to
Nicomedia. He had commenced the work of recon-
structing the empire upon a new basis. Some of his
measures were vigorous, comprehensive, and tending
to the strength and consolidation of the social edifice ;
but he had introduced a principle of disunion, more
than powerful enough to counteract all the energy
which he had infused into the executive government.
His fatal policy of appointing co-ordinate sovereigns,
two Augusti, with powers avowedly, equal, and two
Csesars, with authority nominally subordinate, but
which in able hands would not long have brooked
inferiority, had nearly dismembered the solid unity of
the empire. As yet, the influence of the
empin/suu^ Romau uamc was commanding and awful;
'*"*"^ ■ the provinces were accustomed to consider
themselves as parts of one political confederacy ; the
armies marched still under the same banners, were

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Chap. L UNITY OF EMPIRE PRESERVED. 247

united by discipline, and as yet by the nnforgotten
inheritance of victory from their all-subduing ancestors.
In all parts of the world, every vestige of civil
independence had long been effaced; centuries of
servitude had destroyed every dangerous memorial
of ancient dynasties or republican constitutions.
Hence, therefore, the more moderate ambition of
erecting an independent kingdom never occurred to
any of the rival emperors ; or, if the separation had
been attempted, if a man of ability had endeavored to
partition off one great province, dependent upon its
own resources, defended by its own legions, or by a
well-organized force of auxiliary barbarians, the age
was not yet ripe for such a daring innovation. The
whole empire would have resented the secession of
any member from the ancient confederacy, and turned
its concentrated force against the recreant apostate
from the majestic unity of imperial Rome. Yet, if
this system had long prevailed, the disorganizing must
have finally triumphed over the associating principle :
separate interests would have arisen; a gradual
departure from the uniform order of administration
must have taken place; a national character might
have developed itself in different quarters; and the
vast and harmonious edifice would have split asunder
into distinct and insulated, and at length hostile,
kingdoms.

Nothing less than a sovereign whose comprehensive
mind could discern the exigencies of this critical period,
nothing less than a conqueror who rested on the strength
of successive victories over his competitors for the
supremacy, could have re-united, and in time, under
one vigorous administration, the dissolving elements
of the empire.

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248 NEW NOBILITY. Book HL

Such a conqueror was Constantino ; but, re-united,
the empire imperiously demanded a complete civil
re-organization. It was not the foundation of the jiew
capital wliich wrought the change in the state of the
empire : it was the state of the empire which required
a new capital. The ancient system of government,
emanating entirely from Rome, and preserving with
sacred reverence the old republican forms, had lost its
awe ; the world acknowledged the master wherever it
felt the power. The possession of Rome added no
great weight to the candidate for empire, while its
pretensions embarrassed the ruling sovereign.^ The
powerless senate, which still expected to ratify the
imperial decrees; the patrician order, which had
ceased to occupy the posts of honor and danger and
distinction ; the turbulent populace, and the praetorian
soldiery, who still presumed to assert their superiority
over the legions who were bravely contesting the
German or the Persian frontier; the forms, the in-
trigues, the interests, the factions, of such a city, —
would not be permitted by an emperor accustomed to
rule with absolute dominion in Treves, in Milan, or in
Nicomedia, to clog the free movements of his
administration. The dissolution of the prae-
torian bands by Constantino, on his victory over
Maxentius, though necessary to the peace, was fatal
to the power, of Rome. It cut oflF one of her great
though dearly purchased distinctions. Around the
Asiatic or the Ulyrian or the Gaulish court had
gradually arisen a new nobility, if not hitherto dis-

1 Galerius (if we &re to trust the hostile author of the De Mort Persecut.)
hod never seen Kome before his invasion of Italy, and was unacquainted
with its immense magnitude. Galerius, according to the same doubtful au-
thority, threatened, after his flight from Italy, to change the name of the em-
pire fix)m Roman to Dadan. — c. xxvii.

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Chap. L DECADENCE OF BOMAN KELIGION. 249

tinguished by title, yet, by service or by favor, possess-
ing the marked and acknowledged confidence of the
emperor, and filling all offices of power and of dignity,
— a nobility independent of patrician descent, or the
tenure of property in Italy. Ability in the field or in
the council, or even court intrigue, would triumph
over the claims of hereditary descent; and all that
remained was to decorate with title, and organize into
a new aristocracy, those who already possessed the
influence and the authority of rank. With emperors
of provincial or barbarous descent naturally arose a
race of military or civil servants, strangers to Roman
blood and to the Roman name. The wUl of the
sovereign became the fountain of honor. New regula-
tions of finance, and a jurisprudence, though adhering
closely to the forms and the practice of the old institu-
tions, new in its spirit and in the scope of many of
its provisions, embraced the whole empire in its
comprehensive sphere. It was no longer Rome which
legislated for the world, but the legislation which
comprehended Rome among the cities subject to its
authority. The laws were neither issued nor ratified,
they were only submitted to, by Rome.

The Roman religion sank with the Roman suprem-
acy. The new empire welcomed the new state of the
religion as its ally and associate in the gov- Bome.°
ernment of the human mind. The empire lent its
countenance, its sanction, at length its power, to
Christianity. Christianity infused throughout the em-
pire a secret principle of association, which, long after
it had dissolved into separate and conflicting masses,
held together, nevertheless, the loose and crumbling
confederacy, and, at length, itself assuming the lost
or abdicated sovereignty, compressed the whole into

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250 CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE. Book HI.

one system under a spiritual dominion. The papal,
after some interval of confusion and disorganization,
succeeded the imperial autocracy over the European
world.

Of all historical problems, none has been discussed
MotiTeafor '^^^ ^ Stronger bias of opinion, of passion,
rton'rf'SS- ^^^ 0^ prejudice, according to the age, the
•tentine. natiou, thc creed, of the writer, than the con-
version of Constantino, and the establishment of
Christianity as the religion of the empire. Hypocrisy,
policy, superstition, divine inspiration, have been in
turn assigned as the sole or the predominant influence
which, operating on the mind of the emperor, decided
at once the religious destiny of the empire. But there
is nothing improbable in supposing, that Constantino
was actuated by concurrent, or even conflicting, mo-
tives ; all of which united in enforcing the triumph
of Christianity. There is nothing contradictory in Ihe
combination of the motives themselves, particularly
if we consider them as operating with greater strength,
or with successive paroxysms, as it were, of influence,
during the difierent periods in the life of Constantino,
on the soldier, the statesman, and the man. The
soldier, at a perilous crisis, might appeal, without just
notions of his nature, to the tutelary power of a deity
to whom a considerable part of his subjects, and per-
haps of his army, looked up with faith or with awe.
The statesman may have seen the absolute necessity
of basing his new constitution on religion ; he may
have chosen Christianity as obviously possessing the
strongest, and a still strengthening, hold upon the
minds of his people. He might appreciate, with pro-
found political sagacity, the moral influence of Chris-
tianity, as well as its tendency to enforce peaceful, if

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Chap. I. REYIVAL OF ZOROASTKIAllISM. 251

not passive, obedience to civil government. At a later
period, particularly if the circumstances of his life
threw him more into connection with the Christian
priesthood, he might gradually adopt as a religion that
which had commanded his admiration as a political
influence. He might embrace, with ardent attach-
ment, yet, after all,- by no means with distinct appre-
hension, or implicit obedience to all its ordinances,
that faith which alone seemed to survive amid the
wreck of all other religious systems.

A rapid but comprehensive survey of the state of
Christianity at this momentous period will explain the
position in which it stood in relation to the civil gov-
ernment, to the general population of the empire, and
to the ancient religion ; and throw a clear and steady
light upon the manner in which it obtained its political
as well as its spiritual dominion over the Roman
world.

The third century of Christianity had been prolific
in reliirious revolutions. In the East, the lUTiraior
silent progress of the Gospel had been sud- um.
denly arrested; Christianity had been thrown back
with irresistible violence on the Roman territory. An
ancient religion, connected with the great political
changes in the sovereignty of the Persian kingdom,
revived in all the vigor and enthusiasm of a new creed:
it was received as the associate and main support of
the state. A hierarchy, numerous, powerful, and
opulent, with all the union and stability of a hereditary
caste, strengthened by large landed possessions, was
re-invested with an authority almost co-ordinate with
that of the sovereign. The restoration of Zoroastri-
anism, as the established and influential religion of
Persia, is perhaps the only instance of the vigorous

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262 RELIGIOUS REVOLUTIONS. Book HI.

revival of a Pagan religion.^ Of the native religion
of the Parthians, little, if any thing, is known. They
were a Scythian race, who overran and formed a ruling
aristocracy over the remains of the older Persian and
the more modern Grecian civilization. The Scythian
or Tartar or Turcoman tribes, who have perpetually,
from China westward, invaded and subdued flie more
polished nations, have never attempted to force their
rude and shapeless deities, their more vulgar Shaman-
ism, or even the Buddhism which in its simpler form
has prevailed among them to a great extent, on the
nations over which they have ruled. The ancient
Magian priesthood remained, if with diminished power,
in great numbers, and not without extensive posses-
sions in the eastern provinces of the Parthian empire.
The temples raised by the Greek successors of Alex-
ander, whether to Grecian deities, or blended with the
Tsabaism or the Nature-worship of Babylonia or Syria,
continued to possess their undiminished honors, with
their ample endowments and their sacerdotal colleges.
Some vestiges of the deification of the kings of the line
of Arsaces seem to be discerned, but with doubtful cer-
tainty.

The earliest legendary history of Christianity assigns
Parthia as the scene of apostolic labors: it was the
province of St. Tliomas. But in the intermediate
region, the great Babylonian province, tliere is the
strongest evidence that Christianity had made an

1 The materials for this view of the restoration of the Persian religion are
chiefly derived from the following sources: Hjde, Do Religione Persanun;
Anqnetil du Perron; Zendavesta, 8 vols.; the German translation of Du Per-
ron, by Kleuker, with very valuable volumes of appendbc (Anhang); De
Guigniaut's Translation of Creozer's Symbolik; Malcolm's History of Per-
sia; Heeren, Ideen.

Some of these sources were not open to Gibbon when he composed hii
brilliant chapter on this subject.

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Chap. L RESTORATION OF ZOROASTRIANISM. 253

early, a rapid, and a successful progress. It was the
residence, at least for a certain period, of the aposile
St. Peter.^ With what success it conducted its contest
with Judaism, it is impossible to conjecture ; for Juda-
ism, which, after the second rebellion in the reign of
Hadrian, maintained but a permissive and precarious
existence in Palestine, flourished in the Babylonian
province with something of a national and independent
character. The Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Cap-
tivity, far surpassed in the splendor of his court the
Patriarch of Tiberias ; and the activity of their schools
of learning in Nahardea, in Sura, and in Pumbeditha,
is attested by the vast compilation of the Babylonian
Talmud.^ Nor does the Christianity of this region
appear to have sufiered from the persecuting spirit
of the Magian hierarchy during the earlier conflicts
for the Mesopotamian provinces between the arms of
Rome and Persia. Though one bishop ruled the
united communities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, the
numbers of Christians in the rest of the province were
probably far from inconsiderable.

It was in the ancient dominions of Darius and of
Xerxes that the old religion of Zoroaster re-

, ^y. Restoration

assumed its power and authority. No sooner of Pendan
had Ardeschir Babhegan (the Artaxerxes of ^^1^^^
the Greeks) destroyed the last remains of the or thewu-
foreign Parthian dynasty, and re-organized SjJJt^.^
the dominion of the native Persian kings,
from the borders of Charismia to the Tigris (the Per-
sian writers assert to the Euphrates),® than he hastened
to environ his throne with the Magian hierarchy, and to
re-establish the sacerdotal order in all its former dig-

^ Compare note to vol. i. p. 72. ^ gee Hist, of the Jews, ii. 485, &c
s MaIcolm*B Histoxy of Persia, 1. 72.

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254 CHARACTERISTICS OF ZOBOASTRIAIOSM. Boos m.

nity. But an ancient religion, which has sunk into
obscurity, will not regain its full influence over the
popular mind, unless re-invested with divine authority:
intercourse with heaven must be renewed; the sanc-
tion and ratification of the deity must be public and
acknowledged. Wonder and miracle are as necessary
to the revival of an old, as to the establishment of a
new religion. In the records of the Zoroastrian faith,
which are preserved in the ancient language of the
Zend, may be traced many singular provisions which
bear the mark of great antiquity, and show the transit
tion from a pastoral to an agricultiu'al life.^ The
cultivation of the soil ; the propagation of fruit-trees,
nowhere so luxuriant and various as in the districts
which probably gave birth to the great religious legis-
lator of the East, Balk, and the country of the modern
Afghans; and the destruction of noxious animals, —
are among the primary obligations enforced on the
followers of Zoroaster. A grateful people might look
back with the deepest veneration on the author of a
religious code so wisely beneficent ; the tenth of the
produce would be no disproportionate ofiering to the
priesthood of a religion which had thus turned civili-
zation into a duty, and given a divine sanction to the
first principles of human wealth and happiness. But
a new impulse was necessary to a people which had
long passed this state of transition, and were only
re-assuming the possessions of their ancestors, and
reconstructing their famous monarchy. Zoroastrian-
ism, like all other religions, had split into numerous
sects; and an authoritative exposition of the Living
Word of Zoroaster could alone restore its power and

^ Compare Heeren, Ideen, and Rhode, Die Heilige Sage dea ZoidyoUu.
But see thionghout the work of Dr. Hang, cited in Chap. I.

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Chap. I. VISION OP ERDIVIRAPH. 255

its harmony to the re-established Magianism of the
realm of Ardeschir. Erdiviraph was the yja^nof
Magian, designated, by his blameless inno- ^ku^J^pJ*-
cence from his mother*s womb, to renew the intercourse
with the Divinity, and to unfold, on the authority of
inspiration, the secrets of heaven and hell. Forty
(according to one account, eighty thousand) of the
Magian priesthood, the Archimage, who resided in
Bactria, the Desters and the Mobeds, had assembled
to witness and sanction the important ceremony.
They were successively reduced to 40,000, to 4,000,
to 400, to 40, to 7 : the acknowledged merit of Erdivi-
raph gave him the pre-eminence among the seven.^
Having passed through the strictest ablutions, and
drunk a powerful opiate, he was covered with a white
linen, and laid to sleep. Watched by seven of the
noble*, including the king, he slept for seven days and
nights; and, on his re-awakening, the whole nation
listened with believing wonder to his exposition of the
faith of Oromazd, which was carefully written down
by an attendant scribe, for the benefit of posterity.*

A hierarchy which suddenly regains its power after
centuries of obscurity, perhaps of oppression,
will not be scrupulous as to the means of ©f the Magian

, , hierarohy.

giving strength and permanence to its do-
minion. With Ardeschir, the restoration of the Per-
sian people to their rank among the nations of the
earth, by the re-infusion of a national spirit, was
the noble object of ambition ; the re-establishment of

1 All these numbers, it shoold be observed, are multiples of 40, the indefi-
nite number throughout the East (See Bredow's Dissertation, annexed to
the new edition of Sjncellus; Byzant, Hist. Bonn.) The recusants of Zo-
roastrianism {vid. infrh) are in like manner reduced to seven, the sacred
number with the Zoroastrian, as with the religion of the Old Testament

* Hyde (from Persian authorities), De Belig. Pers. p. 278, et uqq.

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256 MAGIAN HIERAKCHICAL INTOLERANCE. Book UL

a national religion, as the strongest and most enduring
bond of union, was an essential part of his great
scheme : but a national religion, thus associated with
the civil polity, is necessarily exclusive, and impatient
of the rivalry of other creeds. Intolerance lies in the
very nature of a religion which, dividing the whole
world into tiie realm of two conflicting principles,
raises one part of mankind into a privileged order, as
followers of the Good principle, and condemns the
other half as the irreclaimable slaves of the Evil One.
The national worship is identified with that of
Oromazd; and the kingdom of Oromazd must be
purified from the intrusion of the followers of Ahriman.
The foreign relations, so to speak, of the Persian
monarchy, according to their old poetical history, are
strongly colored by their deep-rooted religious opin-
ions. Their implacable enemies, the pastoral Tartar
or Turcoman tribes, inhabit the realm of darkness, and
at times invade and desolate the kingdom of light, till
some mighty monarch, Kaiomers, or some redoubtable
hero, Bustan, re-asserts his msgesty, and revenges the
losses, of the kingdom of Oromazd. Iran and Turan
are the representatives of the two conflicting worlds
of light and darkness. In the same spirit, to expel, to
persecute, the followers of other religions, was to expel,
to trample on, the followers of Ahriman. This edict of
Ardeschir closed all the temples but those of the fire-
worshippers: only eighty thousand followers of Ahri-
man, including the worshippers of foreign religions and
the less orthodox believers in Zoroastrianism, remained
to infect the purified region of Oromazd.^ Of the loss

1 Gibbon, in his chapter on the restoration of the Persian monarchy and
religion, has said that in this conflict " the sword of Aristotle (such was th»
name given by the Orientals to the Polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks)
was easily broken." I suspect this expression to be an anachronism; it b

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Chap. I. CONNECTION OF THRONE AND HIERARCHY. 257

sustained by Christianity during this conflict, in the
proper dominions of Persia, and the number Destruction

'^ ^ of ChxlBtiaxi-

of churches which shared the fate of the Par- ity in Penis.
thian and Grecian temples, there is no record. The
persecutions by the followers of Zoroaster are to be
traced, at a later period, only in Armenia and in the
Babylonian province; but Persia, jfrom this time until
the fiercer persecutions of their own brethren forced the
Nestorian Christians to overleap every obstacle, pre-
sented a stern and insuperable barrier to the progress
of Christianity.^ It cut oflF all connection with the
Christian communities (if communities there were) in
the remoter East.^

Ardeschir bequeathed to his royal descendants the
solemn charge of maintaining the indissoluble connectioti
union of the Magian religion with the state: ^^^^
"Never forget that, as a king, you are at once *»*«~«*»y-
the protector of religion and of your country. Consider
the altar and the throne as inseparable: they must
always sustain each other. A sovereign without
religion is a tyrant ; and a people who have none, may
be deemed the most monstrous of societies. Religion
may exist without a state, but a state cannot exist
without religion: it is by holy laws tliat a political
association can alone be bound. You should be to

clearly post-Mohammedan and from a Mohammedan author. Gibbon has
likewise quoted authorities for the persecution of Artaxeixes which relate to
those of his descendants.

1 Sozomen, indeed, asserts that Christianity was first introduced into the
Persian dominions at a later period, from their intercourse with Osroene and
Armenia. But it is yezy improbable that the active zeal of the Christians iu
the first ages of the religion should not have taken advantage of the mild and
tolerant government of the Parthian kings. " Parthians and Elamites/* ».e.
Jews inhabiting those countries, are mentioned as among the converts on the
day of Pentecost. — Sozomen, ii. 8.

^ The date of the earliest Christian communities in India is judiciously
discussed in Bohlen, Das alte Indien, i. 869 to the end.
YOIt. zi. 17

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258 ARMENIA THE FIRST CHRISTIAN KINGDOM. Book IH.

your people an example of piety and virtue, but with-
out pride or ostentation."^ The kings of the race of
Sassan accepted and fulfilled the sacred trust; the
Magian hierarchy encii'cled and supported the kingly
power of Persia. They formed the great council of
the state. Foreign religions, if tolerated, were watched
with jealous severity. Magianism was established at
the point of the sword in those parts of Armenia which
were subjugated by the Persian kings. When Mesopo-
tamia was included within the pale of the Persiaa
dominions, tlie Jews were at times exposed to the
severest oppressions ; the burial of the dead was pecu-
liarly oflFensive to the usages of the fire-worshippers.
Mani was alike rejected and persecuted by the Christian
and the Magian priesthood ; and the barbarous execu-
tion of the Christian bishops, who ruled over the
Babylonian sees, demanded at a later period the inter-
ference of Constantine.2

But, while Persia thus fiercely repelled Christianity
Armenia the from its frontier, upon that frontier arose a
kingdom. Chnstiau state.^ Armenia was the first coun-
try which embraced Christianity as the religion of the
king, the nobles, and the people. During the early
ages of the empire, Armenia had been an object of
open contention or of political intrigue between the
conflicting powers of Parthia and Rome. The adoption
of Cliristianity as the religion of the state, while it
united the interests of the kingdom, by a closer bond,
with the Christian empire of Rome (for it anticipated

1 Malcolm's Hist of Pereia, i. 74, from Ferdusi.

9 Sozomen, ii. 9, 10. Compare, on these penecntiona of the Christiaiu,
Kleuker, Anhang zum Zendavesta, p. 292 et teq., with Aasemannii Act.
Martyr. Or. et Occid. Romte, 1748.

B St Martin, M^moires sor rAnn^nie, L 406, 406, &c Notes to Le Bean,
Hist, des Empereors, i. 76.

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Chap. I. ARMENIAN HISTORT. 259

the honor of being the first Christian state by only a
few years), added, to its perilous situation on the
borders of the two empires, a new cause for the impla-
cable hostility of Persia. Every successful invasion,
and every subtle negotiation to establish the Persian
predominance in Armenia, was marked by the most
relentless and sanguinary persecutioi;is, which were
endured with the combined dignity of Christian and
patriotic heroism by the afflicted people. The Vartobed,
or Patriarch, was always the first victim of Persian
conquest, the first leader to raise the fallen standard
of independence.

The Armenian histories, written, almost without
exception, by the priesthood, in order to do honor
to their native country by its early reception of
Christianity, have included the Syrian kingdom of
Edessa within its borders, and assigned a place to
the celebrated Abgar in the line of their kings.
The personal correspondence of Abgar with the Divine
Author of Christianity is, of course, incorporated in
this early legend. But though, no doubt, Christianity
had made considerable progress, at the commence-
ment of the third century, the government of Armenia
was still sternly and irreconcilably Pagan. Khos-
rov I. imitated the cruel and impious Pha-
raoh. He compelled the Cliristians, for a
scanty stipend, to labor on the public works. Many
obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom.^

Gregory the Illuminator was the Apostle of Armenia.
The birth of Gregory was darkly connected oregoiythe
with the murder of the reigning king, the iii°°>i°**o^-
almost total extirpation of the royal race, and the
subjugation of his country to a foreign yoke. He was

1 Father Chamicb, HiBtoiy of Armenia, i. 158, translated by Avdall.

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260 MUBDEB OF KHOSROY. Book m.

the son of Anah, the assassin of his sovereign. The
murder of Khosrov, the Valiant and powerful King
of Armenia, is attributed to the jealous ambition of
Ardeschir, the first King of Persia.^ Anah, of a noble
Armenian race, was bribed, by the promise of yast
wealth and the second place in tlie empire, to conspire
against the life of Khosrov. Pretending to take refuge
in the Armenian domiiiions from the persecution of
King Ardeschir, he was hospitably received in the city
of Yalarshapat. He struck the king to the heart, and
Murtepof fled' The Armenian soldiery, in their fury,
KhorooT. pursued the assassin, who was drowned, dur-
ing his flight, in the river Araxes. The vengeance
of the soldiers wreaked itself upon his innocent
family:^ the infant Gregory alone was saved by a
Christian nurse, who took refuge in C»sarea, There
the future apostle was baptized, and (thus runs the
legend) by divine revelation received the name of
Gregory. Ardeschir reaped all the advantage of
the treachery of Anali, and Armenia sank into a
Persian province. The conqueror consummated the
crime of his base instrument; the whole family of
Khosrov was put to death, except Tiridates, who
fled to the Roman dominions, and one sister, Kliosrov-
edught, who was afterwards instnmiental in the intro-
duction of Christianity into the kingdom. Tiridates
served with distinction in the Roman armies of
Diocletian, and seized the favorable opportunity of recon-
quering his hereditary throne. The ro-establishment
of Armenia as a friendly power was an important event
in the Eastern policy of Rome; the simultaneous

1 Moses Choren. 64, 71 ; Ghamicli, Hist Arm^n. i. 164, and other authori*
ties. St. Martin, Mc^moires sur TArm^nie, i. 303, &c.

^ According to St Martin, two children of Anah were saved.

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Chap. L PERSECUTION OP GREGORY. 261

conversion of the empire and its Eaatern ally to the
new religion strengthened the bonds of union by a
common religious interest.

Gregory re-entered his native country in the train
of the victorious Tiridates. But Tiridates ntMatet,
was a bigoted adherent to the ancient reli- * ■

gion of his country. This religion appears to have
been a mingled form of corrupt Zoroastrianism and
Grecian, or rather Oriental, Nature-worship, with some
rites of Scythian origin. Their chief deity was Ara-
mazd, the Ormuzd of the Magian system ; but their
temples were crowded with statues, and their altars
reeked with animal sacrifices, — usages revolting to
the purer Magianism of Persia.^ The Babylonian
impersonation of the female principle of generation,
Anaitis or Anahid, was one of their most celebrated
divinities; and at the funeral of their great King
Artaces many persons had immolated themselves, after
the Scythian or Getic custom, upon his body.

It was in the temple of Anaitis, in the province of
Ekelias, that Tiridates oflFered the sacrifice of thanks-
giving for his restoration to his hereditary throne.
He commanded Gregory to assist in the idolatrous
worship. The Christian resolutely refused, petBecutioii
and endured, according to the Armenian ofo«««y.
history, twelve different kinds of torture. It was dis-
closed to the exasperated monarch, that the apostate
from the national religion was son to the assassin of
his fether. Gregory was plunged into a deep dun-
geon, where he languished for fourteen years, sup
ported by the faithful charity of a Christian female.
At the close of the fourteen years, a pestilence, attrib-
uted by the Christian party to the divine vengeance,

1 Chamich, L 146

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262 PERSECUTION BY CHRISTIANS. Book DDL

wasted the kingdom of Armenia. The virgin sister
of Tiridates, Khosrovedught (the daughter of Khos-
rov), had embraced the faith of the Gospel. By
divuie revelation (thus speaks the piety of the priestly
historians), she advised the inmiediate release of Greg-
ory. What Heaven had commanded, Heaven had
approved by wonders. The king himself, afflicted by
the malady, was healed by the Christian missionary.
conTenrfon The pcstilencc ceased. The king, the nobles,
of the king. ^]jQ people, almost simultaneously submitted
to baptism. Armenia became at once a Christian
kingdom. Gregory took the highest rank, as arch-
bishop of the kingdom. Priests were invited from
Greece and Syria ; four hundred bishops were conse-
crated ; churches and religious houses arose in every
quarter ; the Christian festivals and days of religious
observance were established by law.

But the severe truth of history must make the mel-
ancholy acknowledgment that the Gospel did not finally
triumph without a fierce and sanguinary strife. The
province of Dara, the sacred region of the Armenians,
crowded with their national temples, made a stem and
Petsecution determined resistance. The priests fought
chrisuans. for thcir altars with desperate courage, and
it was only with the sword that churches could be
planted in that irreclaimable district.^ In the war
waged by Maximin against Tiridates, in which the
ultimate aim of the Roman emperor, according to

1 In the very curious extract from the contemporary Armenian historian
Zenob, there is an account of this civil war. The following inscription com-
memorated the decisive battle : —

Th« first battle in which men brarely fought.

The leader of the annles whs Argan, the ohief of the Priesthood,
Who Ues hero in his grare, and with him 1038 men.
And this battle we fought for the Godhead of Kisine and for Ghrist

See Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. i. 268, 878, et ae^.

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Chap. I. ICANIGHEISM. 263

Eusebius, was the suppression of Cliristianity, he may
have been invited and encouraged by the rebellious
Paganism of the subjects of Tiridates.

Towards the close of the third century, while the
religion of the East was undergoing these
signal revolutions, and the antagonistic creeds
of Magianism and Christianity were growing up into
powerful and hostile systems, and assuming an impor-
tant influence on the political affairs of Asia ; while
the East and the West thus began that strife of cen-
turies which subsequently continued in a more fierce
and implacable form in the conflict between Christian-
ity and Mohammedanism, — a bold and ambi-
tious adventurer in the career of religious
change ^ attempted to unite the conflicting elements ; to
reconcile the hostile genius of the East and of the West ;
to fuse together, in one comprehensive scheme, Chris-
tianity, Zoroastrianism, and apparently the Buddh-
ism of India. It is singular to trace the doctrines
of the most opposite systems and of remote regions
assembled together and harmonized in the vast eclec-
ticism of Mani.2 Prom his native Persia he ^ ^

Various

derived his Dualism, his antagonistic worlds JJI^J^"*
of light and darkness ; and from Magianism,

1 Besides the original authorities, I have consulted, for Mam and his doo-
tzines, Beausobre, Hist, du Manich^isme; D'Herbelot, art. **Maui;" Lard-
ner, Credibility of Gospel History; Mosheim, De Reb. Christ, ante Const.
Magnum; Matter, Hist du Gnostidme, ii. 851. I had only seen Baur's
able Manichaische Religious system after this chapter was written. I had
anticipated, though not followed out so closely, the Relationship to Buddhism,
much of which, however, is evidently the common groundwork of all Ori-
entalism.

3 Augustine, in various passages, but most ftilly in what is given as an
extract from the book of the Foundation, De Nat. Boni, p. 616. Compare
Beausobre, vol. ii. 886, who seems to consider it an abstract from some forged
or spurious work. Probably much of Manias system was allegorical ; but how
mudi, his disciples probably did not, and his adversaries would not, know.

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264 SOURCES OF MAXI'S DOCTRINES. Book BEL

likewise, his contempt of outward temple and splen-
did ceremonial. Prom Gnosticism, or rather from
universal Orientalism, he drew the inseparable admix-
ture of physical and moral notions, the eternal hostil-
ity between Mind and Matter, the rejection of Judaism,
and the identification of the God of the Old Testament
with the Evil Spirit, the distinction between Jesus and
the Clirist, with the Docetism, or the unreal death
of the incorporeal Christ. Prom Cabalism, through
Gnosticism, came the primal man, the Adam Gsedmon
of that system, and (if it be a genuine part of this
system) the assumption of beautiful human forms,
those of graceful boys and attractive virgins, by the
powers of light, and their miion with the male and
female spirits of darkness. Prom India he took the
Emanation theory (all light was a part of the Deity,
and in one sense the soul of the world), the metemp-
sychosis, the triple division of human souls (the one
the pure, which re-ascended at once, and was re-united
to the primal light ; the second the semi-pure, which,
having passed through a purgatorial process, returned
to earth, to pass through a second ordeal of life ; the
third, of obstinate and irreclaimable evil) : from India,
perhaps, came his Homophorus, as the Greeks called
it, his Atlas, who supported the earth upon his shoul-
ders, and his Splenditenens, the circumambient air.
From Chaldea he borrowed the power of astral influ-
ences ; and he approximated to the solar worship of
expiring Paganism: Christ, the Mediator, like the

See also the most curioas passage aboat the Manichean metempsychosia, in
the statement of Tyrbo, in the Disputatio Archelai et Manetis, apud Bouth,
Beliquiffi Sacne, vol. iv.

The most singular fiEU^ is that these obstinate idolaters were of Indian de-
scent, and were distinguished bj long hair.

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Chaf.i. thetr relation to christunity. 265

Mithra of his countryman, had his dwelling in the
siin.^

From his native country Mani derived the simple
diet of fruits and herbs ; from the Buddhism of India,
his respect for animal life, which was to be slain
neither for food nor for sacrifice ;2 from all the anti-
materialist sects or religions, the abhorrence of every
sensual indulgence, even the bath als well as the ban-
quet ; the proscription, or, at least, the disparagement
of marriage. And the whole of these foreign and
extraneous tenets, his creative imagination blended
with his own form of Christianity ; for so completely
are they mingled, that it is difficult to decide whether
Christianity or Magianism formed the groundwork of
Mani's system. Prom Christianity he derived not,
perhaps, a strictly Nicene, but more than an Arian,
Trinity. His own system was the completion of the
imperfect revelation of the Gospel. He was a man
invested with a divine mission, — the Paraclete (for
Mani appears to have distinguished between the Para-
clete and the Holy Spirit), who was to consummate the
great work auspiciously commenced, yet imfulfilled,
by the mission of Jesus.^ Mani had twelve apostles.

1 D'Herbelot, voc. »* Mani."

3 Ibid. Augustine says that thej wept when they plucked vegetables for
food; for in them also there was a certain portion of life, which, according to
Mani, was a part of the Deity. *' Dlcitis enim dolorcm sentire fructum, cum do
arbore carpitur, sentire dum conciditur, cum teritur, cum coquitur, cum man-
ditur. Cujus, porro dementi» est, pios se videri velle, quod ab animalium
interfectione se temperent, cum omnes suas escas easdem anlmas habere di-
cunt, quibuB ut putant, viventibus, tanta vulnera et manibus et dentibua
ingerant" — Augustin. contra Faust, lib. vi. p. 205, 206. This is pure
Buddhism.

* Lardner, following Beausobre, considers the account of Mani's predeces-
sors, Scythianus and Terebinthus, or Buddha, idle fictions. The virgin birth
assigned to Buddha, which appears to harmonize with the great Indian My-
thos of the origin of Buddhism, might warrant a conjecture that this is an
Oriental tradition of the Indian origin of some of Maui's doctrines, dictated

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266 HANI'S PAINTINGS. Book IH.

His Ertang, or Gospel, was intended to supersede the
four Christian Evangelists, whose works, though val-
uable, he averred had been interpolated with many
Jewish fables. The Acts, Mani altogether rejected,
as announcing the descent of the Paraclete on the
apostles.^ On the writings of St. Paul he pro-
nounced a mCre favorable sentence. But his Ertang,
it is said, was not merely the work of a prophet, but
of a painter ; for, among his various accomplishments,
His paint- Mani excelled in that art. It was richly
*°*"- illustrated by pictures, which commanded
the wonder of the age ; while his followers, in devout
admiration, studied the tenets of their master in the
splendid images, as well as in the subhme language,
of the Marvellous Book. If this be true ; since the
speculative character of Maui's chief tenets, their
theogonical, if it may be so said, extramundane char-
acter, lay beyond the proper province of the painter
(the imitation of existing beings, and that idealism
which, though elevating its objects to an unreal dig-
nity or beauty, is nevertheless faithful to the truth of
nature), — this imagery, with which his book was
illuminated, was probably a rich system of Oriental
symbolism, which may have been transmuted by the
blind zeal of his followers or the misapprehension of
his adversaries, into some of his more fanciful tenets.
The religion of Persia was fertile in these emblematic
figures, if not their native source; and in the gor-
geous illuminated manuscripts of the East, often full
of allegorical devices, we may discover, perhaps, the
antitypes of the Ertang of Mani.^

by Greek ignorance. I now find this conjecture followed out and illustrated
with copious learning by Baur.

1 Lardner (v. 11, 188) suggests other reasons for the rejection of the
Acts.

3 It appears, I think, from Augustine, that all the splendid images of the

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Chap. I. LIFE OF MANX. 267

Mani (I blond together and harmonize as far as
possible the conflicting accounts of the Greeks and
Asiatics) was of Persian birth,^ of the sacred race of
the Magi. He wore the dress of a Persian
of distinction, the lofly Babylonian sandals,
the mantle of azure blue, the parti-colored trousers ;
and he bore the ebony staff in his hand.^ He was
a proficient in the learning of his age and country, a
mathematician, and had made a globe ; he was deeply
skilled, as appears from his system, in the theogonical
mysteries of the East, and so well versed in the
Christian Scriptures that he was said to have been,
and indeed he may at one time have been, a Christian
priest, in the province of Ahoriaz that bordered on
Babylonia.^ He began to propagate his doctrines
during the reign of Shah-poor ; but the son of Ardes-
chir would endure no invasion upon the established
Magianism.* Mani fled from the wrath of his sover-
eign into Turkesthan; from thence he is said to
have visited India, and even China.*^ In Turkesthan
he withdrew himself from the society of men, like

sceptred king crowned with flowers, the Splenditenens and the Homophoros,
were allegoricallv interpreted. " Si non sunt lenigmata rationis, phantasmata
aunt cogitationis, aut vecordia fiiroris. Si vero aenigmata esse dicuntor.** —
Contra Faust xv. p. 277. The extract fVom the " amatoiy song " (Contra
Faust, xv. 6), with the twelve ages (the great cycle of twelve thousand years)
singing and casting flowers upon the everlasting sceptred king, the twelve
gods (the signs of the zodiac), and the hosts of angeb, is evidently the poetry,
not the theology, of the system.

1 His birth is assigned by the Chronicle of Edessa to the year 289. — Beau-
sobre, i.

^ Beausobre, who is inclined to admit the genuineness of this description,
in the Acts of Archelaus, has taken pains to show that there was nothing
differing from the ordinary Persian dress. — Vol. 1. p. 97, &c.

* In the Acts of Archelaus, he is called a barbarous Persian, who under-
stood no Greek, but disputed in Syriac. — c. 86.

* Malcolm, i. 79.

^ Abulpharag, Dynast p. 82. See Lardner, p. 167.

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268 ANTAGONISTIC DUALISM. Book IIL

Mohammed in the cave of Hira,^ into a grotto,
through which flowed a fomitain of water, and in
which provision for a year had been secretly stored.
His followers believed that he had ascended into
heaven, to commune with the Deity. At the end of
the year, he re-appeared, and displayed his Ertang,
embellished with its paintings, as the divine revela-
tion.2

In the theory of Mani, the one Supreme, who
hovered in inaccessible and uninfluential distance over
the whole of the Gnostic systems, the Brahm of the
Indians, and the more vague and abstract Zeruane
Akerene of Zoroastrianism, holds no place. The
groundwork of his system is an original and irrecon-
cilable Dualism.^ The two antagonistic worlds of
light and darkness, of spirit and matter, existed from
eternity, separate, unmingled, unapproaching, ignorant
of each other's existence.* The kingdom of light was

1 Lardoer considers this stoiy of the cave a later invention borrowed from
Mohammed. The relation of this circumstance by Mohammedan authors
leads me to the opposite conclusion. They would rather have avoided than
invented points of similitude between their prophet and " the impious Sad-
ducee,*' as be is called in the Koran. But see Baur's very ingenious and
probable theory, which resolves it into a myth, and connects it with the
Mithraic and still earlier astronomical or religious legends.

^ Beausobre (i. 191, 192) would find the Cascar at which, according to the
extant but much-contested report, the memorable conference between Arche-
laus and Mani was held, at Cashgar in Turkesthan. But, independent of the
improbability of a Christian bishop settled in Turkesthan, the whole history
is full of difficulties, and nothing is less likely than that the report of such a
conference should reach the Greek or Syrian Christians through the hostile
territory of Persia.

s Epiphanius gives these words as the commencement of Manias work (in
twenty-two books) on the Mysteries: 'Hv Gcdf ko2 ihj, ^ Kot okotoc,
6yaddv kqI KOKdv, rxxf iraatv uKpag havria, ug Kara fi^dht kiruanvovv
^drtpov T^arep^. — Epiphan., Hierat Ixvi 14.

^ ** Hie quidem in exordio ftienmt dus substantiie a sese divers®. £t lu-
minis quidem imperium tenebat Deus Pater, in suft sanct& stirpe perpetuus,
in virtute magnificus, natnr& ips& verus, tstemitate propria semper exsultana,

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Chap. I. THE ARCHETYPAL ADAM. 269

held by God the Father, who "rejoiced in his own
proper eternity, and comprehended in himself wisdom
and vitality : *' his most glorious kingdom was founded
in a light and blessed region, which could not be
moved nor shaken. On one side of his most illustri-
ous and holy territory was the land of darkness, of
vast depth and extent, inhabited by fiery bodies, and
pestiferous races of beings.^ Civil dissensions agi-
tated the worid of darkness ; the defeated faction fled
to the heights or to the extreme verge of their world.^
They beheld with amazement and with envy the beau-
tifiil and peaceful regions of light.^ They determined
to invade the delightful realm ; and the primal man,
the archetypal Adam, was formed to defend the bor-
ders against this irruption of the hostile powers. He
was armed with his five elements, opposed to those
which formed the realm of darkness. The primal
man was in danger of discomfiture in the long and
fearful strife, had not Oromazd, the great power of
the world of light, sent the living spirit to his assist-

oontinenfl apad se sapientiam et sensos vitales. . . . Ita aatem fundata sunt
ejiudem splendidisBima regna saper luddam et beatam tenam, at a niillo
onqiiam aut moveii aut concuti poesint." — Apud August, contra £p. Ma-
nich. c 13, n. 16.

1 The realm of darkness was divided into five distinct circles, which may
remind us of Dante's hell: 1. Of infinite darkness, perpetually emanating,
and of inconceivable stench. 2. Beyond these, that of muddy and turbid
waters, with their inhabitants; and, 8. within, that of fierce and boisterous
winds, with their prince and theur parents. 4. A fiery but corruptible region
(the region of destroying fire), with its leaden and nations. 5. In like man-
ner, further within, a place full of smoke aud thick gloom, in which dwelt
the dreadful sovereign of the whole, with innumerable princes around him,
of whom he was the soul and the source. — £p. Fundament, ap. Augustin.
cont. Manich. c. 14, n. 19.

^ The world of darkness, according to one statement, cleft the world of
light like a wedge (Augustin. contr. Faust, iv. 2; according to another (Titus
Bostrensis, i. 7), it occupied the southern quarter of the universe. This, as
Baur observes, is Zoroastrianism. — Bundehesch, part iii. p. 62.

* Theodoret, Heret Fab. i. 26.

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270 EVE AN INFERIOR CREATION. Book JJL

ance.^ The powers of darkness retreated ; but they
bore away some particles of the divine light, and the
extrication of these particles (portions of the Deity,
according to the subtile materialism of the system)
is the object of the long and almost interminable strife
of the two principles. Thus, part of the Divinity was
interfused through the whole of matter ; light was,
throughout all visible existence, commingled with
darkness.^ Mankind was the creation or the ofispring
of the great principle of darkness, after this stolen
and ethereal light had become incorporated with his
dark and material being. Man was formed in the
image of the primal Adam ; his nature was threefold,
or perhaps dualistic; the body, the concupiscent or
sensual soul (which may have been the influence of
the body on the soul), and the pure, celestial, and
intellectual spirit. Eve was of inferior, of darker,
and more material origin ; for the creating Archon, or
spirit of evil, had expended all the light, or soul, upon
man. Her beauty was the fatal tree of Paradise, for
which Adam was content to fall. It was by this union
that the sensual or concupiscent soul triumphed over
tlie pure and divine spirit ; ^ and it was by marriage,
by sexual union, that the darkening race was propa-

1 Kpiphan.f Heeret Izvi. 76. Titos BoBtrensis, Angnstin. de Hsret c. 46.

3 The celestial powers, during the long process of commixtnie, aasmned
alternately the most beautiful forms of the masculine and feminine sex, and
mingled with the powers of darkness, who likewise became boys and virgins;
and from their conjunction proceeded the stiU-commingling world. This is
probably an allegory, perhaps a painting. There is another fanciful poetic
image of considerable beauty, and, possibly, of the same allegoric character.
The pure elementary spirits soared upwards in " their ships of light,'* in
which they originally sailed through the stainless element; those which were
of a hotter nature were dragged down to earth; those of a colder and more
humid temperament were exhaled upwards to the elemental waters. The
ships of light are, in another view, the celestial bodies.

* De Mor. Manichaeor. c. 19. Acta Aichelai, c 10.

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Chap. L OFFICE OF THE SPIBIT. 271

gated. The intermediate, the visible world, which
became the habitation of man, was the creation of the
principle of good, by his spirit. This primal principle
subsisted in trinal unity (whether from eternity might
periiaps have been as fiercely agitated in the Mani-
chean as in the Christian schools) ; the Christ, the
first efflux of the God of Light, would have been de-
fined by the Manichean as in the Nicene Creed, as
Light of Light ; he was self-subsistent, endowed with
all tlie perfect attributes of the Deity, and his dwelling
was in the sun.^ He was the Mithra of the Persian
system ; and the Manichean doctrine was Zoroastrian-
ism under Christian appellations.^ There is an evi-
dent difierence between the Jesus and the Christos
throughout the system ; the Jesus Patibilis seems to
be the imprisoned and suffering light.

The spirit, which made up tlie triple being of the
primal principle of good, was an all-pervading ether,
the source of life and being ; which, continually stimu-
lating the disseminated particles of light, was the
animating principle of the worlds. He was the creator
of the intermediate world, the scene of strife, in which
the powers of light and darkness contested the domin-
ion over man ; the one assisting the triumph of the

1 According to the creed of Faustus, his virtue dwelt in the sun, his wiadom
in the moon. — Apud August lib. xxx. p. 883.

3 The Monicheam were Trinitarians^ or at least used Trinitarian language.
— Augustin. contra Faust, c. xx. " Nos Patris quidem Dei omnipotentis, et
Christ! filii ejus, et Spiritus Sancti unum idemque sub triplici appellatione
colimus numen ; sed Patrem quidem ipsum lucem incolere summam ac prin-
cipalem, quam Paulus alias inaccessibilem vocat; Filium vero in hac secunda
ac visibili luce consistere, qui quoniam sit et ipse geminus, ut eum Apostolus
novit, Christum dicens esse Dei virtutem et Dei sapientiam, virtutem quidem
ejus in sole habitare credimus, sapientiam vero in luna: necnon et Spiritus
Sancti, qui est majestas tertia, aeris hunc omnem ambitum sedem fatemur ac
divenorium, cujus ex yiribus ac spiritali profusione terram qnoque concipi-
entem, gignere patibilem Jesum, qui est vita et.8alus hominum, qui suspensna
ex ligno.''

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272 THE CHRIST— THE CELESTIAL BODIES. Book HI.

particle of light which formed the intellectual spirit,
the other embruting and darkening the imprisoned
light with the corruption and sensual pollutions of
matter. But the powers of darkness obtained the
mastery, and man was rapidly degenerating into the
baser destiny ; the Homophorus, the Atlas on whose
shoulders the earth rests, began to tremble and totter
under his increasing burden.^ Then the Christ d^
scended from his dwelling in the sim ; assumed a form
apparently human; the Jews, incited by the Prince
of Darkness, crucified his phantom form ; but He left
behind his Gospel, which dimly and imperfectly taught
what was now revealed in all its full eflftilgence by
Maui the Persian.

The celestial bodies, which had been formed by the
living spirit of the purer element, were the witnesses
and co-operators in the great strife.' To the sun, the
dwelling of the Christ, were drawn up the purified
souls, in which the principle of light had prevailed,
and passed onward for ablution in the pure water,

1 Homophorus and his ally, the Splenditenens, who assists him in main-
taining the earth in its equilibrium, is one of the most incongruous and least
necessary parts of the Manichean system.

Is the origin of these images the notion of supporters of the earth which
are so common in the East ? Are any of these fables older than the introduce
tion of Manicheism? Is it the old Indian fable under another form? or is it
the Greek Atlas ? I am inclined to look to India for the origin.

Beausobre's objection, that such a fiction is inconsistent with Manl's mathe-
matical knowledge, and his formation of a globe, is of no inconsiderable
weight, if it is not mere poetiy.

2 Lardner has well expressed the Manichean notion of the formation of the
celestial bodies, which were made, the sun of the good fire, the moon of
the good water. " In a word, not to be too minute, the Creator formed the
sun and moon out of those parts of the light which had preserved their origi-
nal purity. The visible or inferior heavens (for now we do not speak of the
supreme heaven) and the rest of the planets were formed of those parts of
light which were but little corrupted with matter. The rest he left in our
world, which are no other than those parts of light which had sufilezed most
by the contagion of matter.'* — Lardner's Works, 4to ed., ii. 198.

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Chap. I. PUKGATORIAL METEMPSYCHOSIS. 278

which forms the moon ; and then, after fifteen days,
returned to the source of light in the sun. The spirits
of evil, on the creation of the visible world, lest they
should fly away, and bear off into irrecoverable dark-
ness the light which was still floating about, had been
seized by the living spirit, and bound to the stars.
Hence the malignant influences of the constellations ;
hence all the terrific and destructive fury of the ele-
ments. While the soft and refreshing and fertilizing
showers are the distillation of the celestial spirit, the
thunders are the roarings, the lightning the flashing
wrath, the hurricane the furious breath, the torrent
and destructive rains the sweat, of the Demon of dark-
ness. This wrath is peculiarly excited by the extri-
cation of the passive Jesus, who was said to have
been begotten upon the all-conceiving Earth, from his
power, by the pure Spirit. The passive Jesus is an
emblem, in one sense, it would seem, or type of man-
kind; more properly, in another, of the imprisoned
deity or light. For gradually the souls of men were
drawn upwards to the purifying sun; they passed
through the twelve signs of the zodiac to the moon,
whose waxing and waning was the reception and trans-
mission of light to the sun, and from the sun to the
Fountain of Light. Those which were less pure passed
again through difierent bodies, gradually became defe-
cated, during this long metempsychosis; and there
only remained a few obstinately and inveterately em-
brued in darkness, whom the final consummation of
the visible world would leave in the irreclaimable
society of the evil powers. At that consummation,
the Homophorus would shake off his load ; the world
would be dissolved in fire ; ^ the powers of darkness

1 Acta Disput. c. ii. Epiphim. c. 68.
VOL. U. is

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21i WORSHIP OF THE MANICHEANS. Book HL

cast back for all eternity to their primeval state ; the
condemned souls would be kneaded up for ever in
impenetrable matter ; while the purified souls, in mar-
tial hosts, would surround the frontier of the region
of light, and for ever prohibit any new irruption from
the antagonistic world of darkness.

The worship of the Manicheans was simple: they
built no altar, they raised no temple, they had no
images, they had no imposing ceremonial. Pure and
simple prayer was their only form of adoration ; ^ they
did not celebrate the birth of Christ, for of his birth
they denied the reality ; tlieir Paschal feast, as they
equally disbelieved the reality of Christ's passion,
though kept holy, had little of the Christian form.
Prayers addressed to the sun, or at least with their
faces directed to that tabernacle in which Christ dwelt ;
hymns to the great principle of light ; exhortations to
subdue the dark and sensual clement within ; and the
study of the marvellous Book of Mani, — constituted
their devotion. They observed the Lord's Day : they
administered baptism, probably witli oil ; for they seem
(though this point is obscure) to have rejected water-
baptism : they celebrated the Eucharist ; but, as they
abstained altogether from wine, they probably used
pure water, or water mingled with raisins.^ Their
manners were austere and ascetic ; they tolerated, but

1 FaustuB expresses this sentiment very finely: " Item Pagani aris, dela-
bris, simulacris, atque incenso Deum colendom putant Ego ab his in hoc
quoque multum diversus incedo, qui ipsom me, si modo sim dignns, ration»-
bile Dei templum puto. Vivum vivte mi^estatis simulacrum Christum filium
ejus accipio; aram, mentem puris artibus et disciplinis imbutam. Honorea
qnoque divinos ac sacrificia in solis orationibus, et ipsis puris et simplicibus
pono." — Faust apud August, xx. 8.

They bitterly taunted the Catholics with their Paganbm, their sacrifices,
their agaps, their idols, their martyrs, their Gentile holidays and rites. — n>.

3 August, contra Faust Disput i. 2, 8.

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Chap. L WORSHIP OF THE MANICHEANS. 275

hardly tolerated, marriage, and that only among the
inferior orders:^ the theatre, the banquet, even the
bath, were severely proscribed. Their diet was of fruits
and herbs ; they shrank with abhorrence from animal
food ; and, with Buddhist nicety, would tremble at the
guilt of having extinguished the principle of life, the
spark, as it were, of celestial light, in the meanest
creature. This involved them in the strangest absurd-
ities and contradictions, which are pressed against them
by their antagonists with unrelenting logic.^ They

^ St Augastine accuses them of breaking the Fifth Commandment. " Tu
antem doctrin& demoniac^ didicisti inimicos deputare parentes tuos, quod te
per concubitum in came ligaverint, et hoc modo utiqne deo tuo immundaa
compedes imposnerint.^' — Adv. Faust lib. xv. p. 278. *^ Opinantur et prse-
dicant diabolum fecisse atque junxisse masculam et feminam.*' — Idem, lib.
zix. p. 831. ^ Displicet ^ crescite et multiplicamini/ ne Dei vestri multipll-
centur ergastula," &c. — Adv. Secundum, c. 21.

'AirixeoOcu yofiuv Kcd iu^podujicjv not TeKvormdaCt 2va f^ hrm^ov ^
dOvofug kvouoioy ry i)\g Korii lifv too yevovg diaSoxfiv. — Alexand.
Lycop. c. 4.

They asserted, indeed, that their doctrines went no farther in this respect
than those of the Catholic Christians. — Faustus, 80, c. 4. Their opposition
to marriage is assigned as among the causes of the enmity of the Persian
king. " Rex vero Persarum, cum vidisset tam Catholicos et Episcopos, quam
Manichieos Manetis sectarios, a nuptiis abstinere, in Manichseos quidem
sententiam mortis tulit Ad Christianos vero idem edictum manavit.
Quitoi igitur Christiani ad regem confugissent, jussit ille discrimen quale
inter ntrosqne esset, sibi exponi." — Apud Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, vii.
220.

There were, however, veiy different rules of diet and of manners for the
elect and the auditors, much resembling those of the monks and other Chris-
tians among the Catholics. See quotations in Lardner, ii. 166.

3 St Augustine*s treatise De Mor. Manicheeor. is full of these extraor-
dinary charges. In the Confessions (iii. 10), he says that the fig wept when
it was plucked, and the parent tree poured forth tears'of milk; " that particles
of the true and Supreme God were imprisoned in an apple, and could not be
set free but by the touch of one of the elect. If eaten, therefore, by one not a
Manichean, it was a deadly sin; and hence they are charged with making it
a sin to give any thing which had life to a poor man not a Manichean. . . .
They showed mora compassion to the fruits of the earth than to human be-
ings." They abhorred husbandry, it is said, as continually wounding life,
even in clearmg a field of thorns ; " so much more were they friends of gourds
than of men."

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276 DEATH OF MANI. Book HI.

admitted penitence for sin, and laid the fault of their do-
linquencies on the overpowering influence of matter.^

Mani suffered the fate of all who attempt to recon-
cile conflicting parties, without power to enforce har-
mony between them. He was disclaimed and rejected
with every mark of indignation and abhorrence by
both. On his return from exile,^ indeed, he was re-
ceived with respect and favor by the reigning sover-
eign, Hormouz, the son of Shahpoor, who bestowed
upon him a castle named Arabion. In this point alone
the Greek and Oriental accounts coincide. It was
from his own castle that Mani attempted to propagate
his doctrines among the Cliristians in the province of
Babylonia. The fame of Marcellus, a noble Christian
soldier, for his charitable acts in the redemption of
hundreds of captives, designated him as a convert who
might be of invaluable service to the cause of Mani-
cheism. According to the Christian account, Mani
experienced a signal discomfiture in his conference
with Archelaus, Bishop of Cascar.^ But his dispute
Death of ^^^^ ^^^® Magian hierarchy had a more fear-
*'*°*- ful termination. It was an artifice of the

^ An acknoirledgment of the blameleflsness of their manners is extorted
from St Augustine; at least, he admits, that, as far as his knowledge as a
hearer, he can charge them with no immoralitj. — Contr. Fortunat. m iniL
In other parts of his writings, especially in the tract De Morib. Manichceor.,
he is more unfavorable. But see the remarkable passage, Contra Faust, y. i.,
in which the Manichean contrasts his tporks with the faith of the orthodox
Christian.

3 According to Malcolm, he did not return till the reign of Baharam.

s Some of the objections of Beausobre to this conference appear insupera-
ble. Allow a city named Cascar ; can we credit the choice of Greek, even
Heathen, rhetoricians and grammarians as assessors in such a city and in such
a contest? Archelaus, it must indeed be confessed, plays the sophist; and, if
Mani had been no more powerful as a reasoner or as a speaker, he would
hardly have distracted the East and West with his doctrines. It is not im-
probably an imaginary dialogue in the form, though certainly not in the style,
of Plato. See the best edition of it in Routh's Beliquin Sacne.

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Chap. I. PROPAGATION OF MANICHEISM. 277

new king Baharam to tempt the dangerous teacher
from his castle. He was seized, flayed alive, and his
skin, stuffed with straw, placed over the gate of the
city of Shahpoor.

But, wild as may appear the doctrines of Mani, they
expired not with their author. The anniversary of
his death was hallowed by his mourning disciples.^
The sect was organized upon the Christian model : he
left his twelve apostles, his seventy-two bishops,^ his
priesthood. His distinction between the elect,^ or the
perfect, and the hearers, or catechumens, oflered an
exact image of the orthodox Christian communities ;
and the latter were permitted to marry, to eat animal
food, and to cultivate the earth.* In the
East and in the West, the doctrines spread ofhiareu-
with the utmost rapidity ; and the deep im-
pression which they made upon the mind of man may
be estimated by Mauicheism having become, almost
throTighout Asia and Europe, a by-word of religious
animosity. In the Mohammedan world, the tenets of
the Sadducean, the impious Mani, are branded as the
worst and most awful impiety. In the West, the pro-
gress of the believers in tiiis most dangerous of heresi-
archs was so successful, that the followers of Mani

1 Augofltin. contr. Epist. ManichflBi, c 9. The day of Mani's death was
kept holy by his followers, because he really died ; the crucifixion neglected,
because Christ had but 9eemingly expired on the cross.

* Augustin. de Hieres, c. 46.

* The strangest notion was, that yegetables used for food were purified,
that is, the divine principle of life and light separated from the material and
impure, by passing through the bodies of the elect "Pnebent alimenta
electis suis, nt divina ilia substantia in eorum ventre purgata, impetret eis
veniam, quorum traditur oblatione purganda." — Augustin. de Hieres, c. 46.
It was a merit in the hearers to make these offerings. Compare Confess.
iv. 1.

4 *^ Auditores, qui appellantur apud eos, et camibus vescuntur, et agros
colunt, et si Toluerint, uxores habent, quorum nihil &ciunt qui vocantur
Electi." — Augustin., Epist. ccxxxvii.

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278 PROPAGATION OF MANICHEISM. Book m.

were condemned to the flames or to the mines, and
the property of those who introduced the " execrable
usages and foolish laws of the Persians" into the
peaceful empire of Rome, confiscated to the imperial
treasury. One of the edicts of Diocletian was aimed
at their suppression.^ St. Augustine himself* with
difficulty escaped the trammels of their creed, to
become their most able antagonist ; and, in every cen-
tury of Christianity, Manicheism, when its real nature
was as much unknown as the Gopernican system, was
a proverb of reproach against all sectaries who de-
parted from the unity of the Church.

The extent of its success may be calculated by the
implacable hostility of all other religions to the doc-
trines of Mani : the causes of that success are more
difficult to conjecture. Manicheism would rally under
its banner the scattered followers of the Gnostic sects :
but Gnosticism was never, it would seem, popular;
while Manicheism seems to have had the power of
exciting a fanatic attachment to its tenets in the lower

} See the edict in Routh, iv. p. 285. Some doubt has been thrown on its
authenticity^. It is questioned by S. Basnage and hy Lardner, though admit-
ted by Beausobre. I cannot think the ignorance which it betrays of the
" true principles of the Manichees," the argument adduced by Lardneri of
the least weight. Diocletian's predecessors were as little acquainted with the
** true principles of Christianity," yet condemned them in their public pro-
ceedings.

3 There is something veiy beautiful in the language of St Augustine, and
at the same time nothing can show more clearly the strong hold which Mani-
cheism had obtained on the Christian world. " nii in vos snyiant, qui ne-
sciunt cum quo labore verum inveniatur, et quam difficile caveantur enores.
nii in vos snviant qui nesciunt quam rarum et arduum sit camalia phantas-
mata pie mentis serenitate superare. . . . Dli in vos sseviant^ qui nesciunt
quibus suspiriis et geraitibus fiat, ut ex quantulacunque parte possit inteUigi
Dens. Prostremo illi in vos sieviaot, qui nunquam tali enx>re decepti sint,
quali vos deceptos vident." — Contr. Epist. Manicheei, c. 2. But the spirit of
controversy was too strong for the charity and justice of Augustine. The
tract which appears to me to give the fairest view of the real controversy m
the Disputatio contra Fortunatum.

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Chap. I. TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. 279

orders. The severe asceticism of their manners may
have produced some effect: but in this respect they
could not greatly have outdone monastic Christianity ;
and the distinct and definite impersonations of their
creed, always acceptable to a rude and imaginative
class, were encountered by formidable rivals in the
demonology and the more complicated form of worship
which was rapidly growing up among the Catholics.^

In the Eastern division of the Roman empire, Chris-
tianity had obtained a signal victory. It had Triumph of
subdued by patient endurance the violent Christianity,
hostility of Galerius ; it had equally defied the insidi-
ous policy of Maximin ; it had twice engaged in a con-
test with the civil government, and twice come forth in
triumph. The edict of toleration had been extorted
from the dying Galerius; and the Pagan hierarchy,
and more splendid Pagan ceremonial, with which
Maximin attempted to raise up a rival power, fell to
the ground on his defeat by Licinius, which closely
followed tliat of Maxentius by Constantino. The
Christian communities had publicly re-assembled ; the
churches were rising in statelier form in all the cities ;
tlie bishops had re-assumed their authority over their
scattered but undiminished flocks. Though, in the
one case, indignant animosity and the desire of vindi-
cating the severity of their measures against a sect
dangerous for its numbers as well as its principles, in

1 The Manicheans were legally condemned under Yalentmian and Valens.
The houses in which they held their meetings were confiscated to the state
(Cod. Theodos. xvi. 8). By Theodosius they were declared infamous, and
incapable of inheriting by law (xvi. 17). The condemnation of the Mani-
cheans in Rome, by Pope Leo I., the Great (the Manicheans in Sicily — Greg.
M. Epist. It. 6); their revival in the Middle Ages, and their extensive dis->
semination, at least as to their leading principles; the undying obstinacy of
their -tenets, — is one of the most curious chapters in Christian history. See
Latin Christianit}', i. 171; iv. 91, &c.

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280 PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY Book UL

the other the glowing zeal of the martyr, may be
suspected of some exaggeration ; yet when a public
imperial edict, and the declarations of the Christians
themselves, assert the numerical predominance of the
Nnmbenof Christian party, it is impossible to doubt that
ti^B. their numbers, as well as their activity, were

imposing and formidable. In a rescript of Maximin,
the emperor states tliat it had been forced on the
observation of his august fathers, Diocletian and Max-
imian, that almost all mankind had abandoned the
worship of their ancestors, and united themselves to
the Christian sect;^ and Lucianus, a presbyter of
Antioch, who suffered martyrdom under Maximin,
asserts in his last speech that the greater part of the
world had rendered its allegiance to Christianity, —
entire cities, and even the rude inhabitants of country
districts.^ These statements refer more particularly
to the East; and, in the East, various reasons would

1 2;t^^ oTravTO^ &v$puinvc, KordXeifBeujrfg t$c tuv ^eCw "^ptfauiac,
Tu idvu Turv XpioTtauuv avfifUfuxdrac, — Apud Eoseb., Hist £c ix. 9.

> "Pan poene mundi jam major huicveritati adstipulatur; urbes integng;
ant si in his aliquid suspectum videatar, contcstatnr de his etiam a^jfrestis
manus, ignara figmenti." This speech, it is trae, is only contained in the
Latin translation of Ensebius by Rufinus. But there is a calm character in
its tone, which avouches its authenticity. The high authority of Porson and
Dr. Routh requires the addition of the following note: "Pnestitisse aliis
multitudine his quoque temporibus Christianos, scriptum extat apud Porphy-
rium, qui eos alicubi nominavit rove irXuovac, ut me olim fecit certiorem
eruditissimus Porsonus." — Routh, Reliquiae Sacne, iii. 298. Gibbon has
attempted to form a calculation of the relative numbers of the Christians (see
ch. XV. vol. ii. p. 868, with my note): he is perhaps inclined to underrate the
proportion which they bore to the Heathens. Yet, notwithstanding the quo-
tations above and the high authority of Porson and of Routh, I should ven-
ture to doubt their being the majority, except possibly in a few Eastern cities.
In fact, in a population so fluctuating as that of the empire at this time, any
accurate calculation would have been nearly impossible. M. Beugnot agrees
very much with Gibbon; and, I should conceive, with regard to the West, is
clearly right, though I shall allege presently some reasons for the more rapid
progress of Christianity in the West of Europe.

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Chap. I. IN THE EAST. 281

lead to the supposition that the Christians bore a larger
proportion to the rest of the population than
in the other parts of . the empire, except stutoSthe
perhaps in Africa. The East was the native regwd to the
country of the new religion ; the substratum Sft^hSI- **°
of Judaism, on which it rested, was broader ;
and Judaism had extended its own conquests much
farther by proselytism, and had thus prepared the way
for Christianity. In Egypt and in the Asiatic prov-
inces, all the early modifications of Christian opinions,
the Gnostic sects of all descriptions, had arisen ; show-
ing, as it were, by their fertility the exuberance of
religious life and the congeniality of the soil to their
prolific vegetation. The constitution of society was,
in some respects, more favorable than in Italy to the
development of the new religion. But it may be ques-
tioned whether the Western provinces did not at last
ofier the most open field for its free and undisputed
course. In the East, the civilization was Greek, or,
in the remoter regions, Asiatic. The Romans assumed
the sovereignty, and the highest offices of the govern-
ment were long held by men of Italian birth. Some
of the richer patricians possessed extensive estates in
the difierent provinces; but, below this, the native
population retained its own habits and usages. Un-
less in the mercantile towns, which were crowded
with foreign settlers from all quarters, who brought
their manners, their customs, and their deities, the
whole society was Greek, Syrian, or Egyptian. Above
all, there was a native religion ; and however this loose
confederacy of religious republics, of independent col-
leges or fraternities of the local or the national priest-
hoods, might only be held together by the bond of
common hostility to the new faith, yet everywhere this

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282 PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIAOTTT. Book IIL

religion was ancient, established, conformed to the
habits of the people, endeared by local vanity, strength-
ened by its connection with municipal privileges, rec-
ognized by the homage and sanctioned by the worship
of the civil authorities. The Roman prefect, or pro-
consul, considered every form of Paganism as suffi-
ciently identified with that of Rome to demand his
respect and support: everywhere he found deities
with the same names or attributes as those of the
imperial city; and everywhere, therefore, there was
an alliance, seemingly close and intimate, between the
local religion and the civil government.

In the Western provinces, Gktul, Spain, and Britain,
but more particularly in Graul, the constitu-
tion of society was very diflferent. It was
Roman formed by the influx of colonists from differ-
ent quarters, and the gradual adoption of Roman
manners by the natives. It had grown up on the
wane of Paganism. There was no old or established
or national religion. The ancient Druidism had been
proscribed as a dark and inhuman superstition, or had
gradually worn away before the progress of Roman
civilization. Out of Italy, the gods of Italy were, to a
certain degree, strangers ; the Romans, as a nation,
built no temples in their conquered provinces: the mu-
nificence of an individual, sometimes, perhaps, of the
reigning C»sar, after having laid down the military
road, built the aqueduct, or encircled the vast arena of
the amphitheatre, might raise a fane to his own tutelary
divinity.^ Of the foreign settlers, each brought his
worship ; each set up his gods : vestiges of every kind

1 Eumenius, in his panegyric on ConstantinCf mentions two temples of
Apollo: of one, "the most beautiful in the world/' the site is unknown; it ia
supposed to have been at Lyons or Yienne: the other was at Autun.—
Eoxnen. Paneg. xxi., with the note of Cellarius.

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Chap. I. IN THE WEST. 288

of religion, Greek, Asiatic, Miihraic, have been dis-
covered in Gaul, but none was dominant or exclusive.
This state of society would require or welcome, or
at all events offer less resistance to the propagation
of a new faith. After it had once passed the Alps,^
Christianity made rapid progress ; and the father
of Constantine may have been guided no less by
policy than humanity, in his reluctant and merciful
execution of the persecuting edicts of Diocletian and
Galerius.

Such was the position of Christianity when Con-
stantine commenced his struggle for universal empire.
In the East, though rejected by the ancient rival of
Borne, the kingdom of Persia, it was acknowledged as
the religion of the state by a neighboring nation. In
the Roman provinces, it was emerging victorious from
a period of the darkest trial ; and, though still threatr
ened by the hostility of Maximin, that hostility was
constrained to wear an artful disguise, and, when it
ventured to assume a more open form, was obliged to
listen, at least with feigned respect, to the remon-
strances of the victorious Constantine. In the North,
at least in that part from which Constantine derived
his main strength, it was respected and openly favored
by the (Jovernment. Another striking circumstance
might influence the least superstitious mind, and is
stated by the ecclesiastical historian not to have been
without effect on Constantine himself. Of all the em-
perors who had been invested with the purple, either
as Augusti or Caesars, during the persecution of the
Christians, his father alone, the protector of Christi-
anity, had gone down to an honored and peaceful

1 "Senna trans alpes religione Dei suaoeptll?*' — Sulpic. Sever., H. £.
Ub. ii.

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284 PERSECUTORS OF CHRISTIANITT. Book HI.

grave.^ Diocletian, indeed, still lived, but in what, no
doubt, appeared to most of his former subjects an in-
xndofthe glorious retirement. However the philoso-
JJ'SSJj;*" phy of the abdicated emperor might teach
**^^- hun to show the vegetables of his garden as
worthy of as much interest to a mind of real dignity
as the distinctions of worldly honor ; however he may
have been solicited by a falling and desperate faction
to resume the purple, — his abdication was no doubt,
in general, attributed to causes less dignified than the
contempt of earthly grandeur. Conscious derange-
ment of mind (a malady inseparably connected, ac-
cording to the religious notions of Jew, Pagan, probably
of Christian during that age, with the divine dis-
pleasure), or remorse of conscience, was reported to
embitter the calm decline of Diocletian's life. Instead
of an object of envy, no doubt, in the general sen-
timent of mankind, he was thought to merit only
aversion or contempt.^ Maximian (Herculius), the
colleague of Diocletian, after resuming the purple,
engaging in base intrigues, or open warfare, against
his son Maxentius, and afterwards against his pro-
tector Constantine, had anticipated the sentence of the
executioner. Severus had been made prisoner, and
forced to open his own veins. Galerius, the chief

1 Eiueb., Vit Const i. 21 ; Socrat, Eccles. Hist i. 11. The language of the
ecclesiastical historian Socrates is remarkable. Constantine, he says, was medi-
tating the liberation of the empire from its tyrants: koj 6c fpf kv TTjXucavr^
^povTidif hrevoei riva ^edv eniicovpov irpdc ri^ fMXVv KoXeoeUy kgtxI vcvv
6i kXoft^avev, uc o06tv Cwavro ol irefii LwKhinav^, nepi toOc iX^^vw
i^eoi>c duuceifiei'oif IjvpiOKev re ug 6 alrov irar^p, Kovaraan-iog, dnoarpa^lc
rdf 'EAA^vwv i^pijafuiag, eMcufiovearepov rdv ^ibv diijyccyev. It was in
this mood of mind that he saw the vision of the cross. — Socr., Eccl. Hist i. 2.

s It is curious how undying are such prejudices. I remember that M.
Cr^tineau Joly somewhere asserts that Clement XIV. (Ganganelh) was the
only Pope who ever died in a state of derangement (Boniface TIH.?). I
doubt both liis historical facts; but the assertion is remarkable.

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Chap. I. BELIGION OF MAXENTIUS. 285

author of the persecution, had experienced the most
miserable fate ; he had wasted away with a. slow and
agonizing and loathsome disease. Maximin alone re-
mained, hereafter to perish in miserable obscurity.
Nor should it be forgotten that the great persecutor of
the Christians had been the jealous tyrant of Con-
stantine's youth. Constantino had preserved his lib-
erty, perhaps his life, only by the boldness and rapidity
of his flight from the court of Galerius.^

Under all these circumstances, Constantino was ad-
vancing against Rome. The battle of Verona ^^^
had decided the fate of the empire ; the vast SSST**^
forces of Maxentius had melted away before ^^'^^^
the sovereign of Gaul: but Rome, the capital, was
still held with the obstinacy of despair by the voluptu-
ous tyrant Maxentius. Constantino appeared on the
banks of the Tiber, though invested with the Roman
purple, yet a foreign conqueror. Many of
his troops were Barbarians, Kelts, (Jermans,
Britons; yet, in all probability, there were many of
the Gaulish Christians in his army. Maxentius threw
himself upon the gods, as well as upon the people, of
Rome: he attempted with desperate earnestness to
rally the energy of Roman valor under the awfulness
of the Roman religion.

During the early part of his reign, Maxentius, in-
tent upon his pleasures, had treated the reli- R^ugjon or
gious divisions of Rome with careless indif- Maxentiui.
ference, or had endeavored to conciliate the Christian

1 In his letter to Sapor, King of Persia, Constantine himself acknowledges
the influence of these motives on his mind: bv noXXol rCnf ^6e QaaiXEvaav-
Tuv, fioviudeai irTjovatc inrax9hrreCt hrexeipv<fov 6pvff(j<ujB<u,, <WA' kKeivov^
diravraf rocovrov TifMpdv rtkog KoravaKonnv, wf rcav rd /urr* kKtivov^
Mpcmuv yevog, tuc iKeivuv avfi^opdc ion' a^Xm irapadeiyfiaro^, hrapO'
rove rocf rd 6fiota ^?jovai nffeo^.— Apad Theodoret, £cc Hist i. c. 26.

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286 RELIGION OF MAXENTIUS. Book m.

party by conniving at their security. His deification
of Galerius had been, as it were, an advance to the
side of Paganism. The rebellion of Africa, which he
revenged by the devastation of Carthage, was likely to
bring him into hostile contact with the numerous
Christians of that province. In Rome itself an event
had occurred, which, however darkly described, was
connected with the antagonistic religious parties ia
the capital. A fire had broken out in the temple of the
Fortune of Rome. The tutelary deity of the Roman
greatness — an awful omen in this dark period of de-
cline and dissolution ! — was in danger. A soldier —
it is difficult to ascribe such temerity to any but a
Christian fanatic — uttered some words of insult
against the revered, and it might be alienated, god-
dess. The indignant populace rushed upon the traitor
to the majesty of Rome, and summoned the pretorian
cohorts to wreak their vengeance on all who could be
supposed to share in the sentiments of the apostate
soldier. Maxentius is accused by one Christian and
one Pagan historian of having instigated the tumult ;
by one Pagan he is said to have used his utmost exer-
tions to allay its fury. Both statements may be true :
though at first he may have given free scope to the
massacre, at a later period he may have taken alarm,
and attempted to restore the peace of the city.^ Of
the direct hostility of Maxentius to Christianity, the

1 The sOence of Eosebius as to the Christianity of the soldier may be
thought an insuperable objection to this view. But, in the first place, the
Eastern bishop was but imperfectly informed on the affairs of Rome, and
might hesitate, if aware of the fact, to implicate the Christian name with that
which was so long one of the most serious and effective charges against the
fiftith, — its treacherous hostility to the greatness of Rome. The words of the
Pagan Zosimus are veiy strong: BAoj^/ax jnifiara Korh, tov ^dov arparu^
ruv Ttc (h^Iq, Kot TOV ir^Bovc dui ri^ npdc rd Mov eboipciav iireXfidv*
Toc dvatpedelc, — Zo8.y Hist iL 18.

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Chap.L mS PAGANISH 287

evidence is dubious and obscure. A Roman matron
preferred the glory or the crime of suicide, rather than
submit to his lustful embraces. But it was the
beauty, no doubt, not the religion, of Sophronia, which
excited the passions of Maxentius, whose licentious-
ness comprehended almost all the noble families of
Rome ill its insulting range.^ The papal history, not
improbably resting on more ancient authority, repre-
sents Maxentius as degrading the pope Marcellus to the
humble function of a groom. The predecessor of the
Gregories and Innocents swept the imperial stable.^

The darkening and more earnest Paganism of
Maxentius is more clearly disclosed by the HiaPigan-
circumstances of his later history. He had *^-
ever listened with trembling deference to the ex-
pounders of signs and omens. He had suspended his
expedition against Carthage, because the signs were
not propitious.^ Before the battle of Verona, he
commanded the Sibylline books to be consulted.
" The enemy of the Romans will perish," answered the
prudent and ambiguous oracle ; but who could be the
enemy of Rome but the foreign Constantino, descend-
ing from his imperial residence at Treves, with troops
levied in the barbarous provinces, and of whom the
gods of Rome, though not yet declaredly hostile to
their cause, might entertain a jealous suspicion ?

On the advance of Constantino, Maxentius redoubled
his religious activity. He paid his adoration at the
altars of all the gods ; he consulted all the diviners of
future events.* He had shut himself in his palace;

1 Enseb., Vit. Const i. 88, 84.

s* Anastasius, Vit MarcelL ; Platina, Vit Pontificnm in Marcello.
8 ZoBimofl, iL 14.

« Eusebius (Vit. Const. L 21) speaks of his KOKortxyov^ koI yo^ucdc
uayYoveiac.

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288 RELIGION OF CONSTANTINE. Book m.

the adverse signs made him take refuge in a private
house.^ Darker rumors were propagated in the East :
he is reported to have attempted to read the secrets
of futurity in the entrails of pregnant women;* to
have sought an alliance with the infernal deities^ and
endeavored by magical formularies to avert the
impending danger. However the more enlightened
Pagans might disclaim the weak, licentious, and
sanguinary Maxentius as the representative either of
the Roman majesty or the Roman religion, in the
popular mind probably an intimate connection united
the cause of the Italian sovereign with the fortunes
and the gods of Rome. It is possible that Gonstantine
might attempt to array against this imposing barrier
of ancient superstition the power of the new and
triumphant faith : he might appeal, as it were, to the
God of the Christians against the gods of the capital.
His small though victorious army might derive
courage in their attack on the fate-hallowed city,
from whose neighborhood Galerius had so recently re-
turned in discomfiture, from a vague notion that they
were under the ppotection of a tutelar deity, of whose
nature they were but imperfectly informed, and whose
worshippers constituted no insignificant part of their
barbarian army.

Up to this period, all that we know of Gonstantine's
B«iigion of religion would imply that he was outwardly,
Gonstantine. qj^^ gy^,^ zcalously, Pagan. In a public orar
tion, his panegyrist extols the magnificence of his offer-
ings to the gods. His victorious presence was not
merely expected to restore more than their former
splendor to the Gaulish cities, ruined by barbaric
incursions; but sumptuous temples were to arise at

i Zoaimiis, ii. 14. » Euseb.! Vit Conat i. 86.

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Chap. I. VISION OF CONSTANTINE. 289

his bidding, to propitiate the deities, particularly
Apollo, his tutelary god.^ The.^ medals struck for
these victories are covered with the symbols of Pagan-
ism. EusebiuB himself admits that Constantino was
at this time in doubt which religion he should embrace,
and, after his vision, required to be instructed in the
doctrines of Christianity.*

The scene in which the memorable vision of Con-
stantine is laid varies widely in the different accoimts.
Several places in Gaul lay claim to the honor of this
momentous event in Christian history. If we assume
the most probable period for such an occurrence, what-
ever explanation we adopt of the vision itself, it would
be at this awful crisis in the destiny of Constantino and
of the world, before the walls of Eome ; an instant
when, if we could persuade ourselves that the Almighty
Euler, in such a mannery interposed to proclaim the
fall of Paganism and the establishment of Christianity,
it would have been a public and a solenm occasion,
worthy of the divine interference. Nowhere, on the
other hand, was the high-wrought imagination of
Constantino so likely to be seized with religious awe,
and to transform some extraordinary appearance in the
heavens into the sign of the prevailing Deity of
Christ ; nowhere, lastly, would policy more imperiously
require some strong religious impulse to coimterbal-
ance the hostile terrors of Paganism, embattled against
him.

^ " Merito igitnr aiigiistissiiiiA Ola delubra tantis donariis honorftsti, ut jam
Tetera non queraiit. Jam omnia yocare ad se templa videntnr, pnecipueque
ApoUo noster, cojiu ferventibiis aqnis peijnria pnniimtar, quae te maxime
oportet odiaae. Nee magis Jovi Jimonique recubautibas terra submisit,
qnam circa tiia, Constantine, vestigia urbes et templa consurgunt." — £a-
menii Panegyr. cxzL

9 '£viH>ee ^a Airdov dioi i^edv kinypa\lfcuy$(U PoijSdv.-yEvaeh,^ Vit
Constant, c 27-82.

TOL. iz. 19

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290 VISION OF CONSTANTINE. Book m.

Eusebius,^ the Bishop of CaBsarea, asserts that Con-
stantine himself made, and confirmed by an oath, the
extraordinary statement, which was received with im-
plicit veneration during many ages of Christianity, but
y^^^ ^f which the severer judgment of modem histor-
OoDBtantioe. j^gj inquiry has called in question, has inves-
tigated with the most searching accuracy, and almost
universally destroyed its authority with rational men ;
yet, it must be admitted, found no satisfactory expla-
nation of its origin.* While Constantino was meditat-

1 Vit. Const i. 28. The recent editor of EosebiuB has well called the lifb
of Constantine a ChriBtian Cyropndia.

3 The silence, not only of all contemporary histoiy (the Ie^,nd of Arte>
mlus, abandoned even by Tillemont, does not deserve the name), but of
£usebius himself, in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a most dangerous
advantage to those who altogether reject the story. But on whom is the
invention of the story to be fathered? On Eusebins? who, although his
conscience might not be delicately scrupulous on the subject of pious fraud,
is charged with no more than the suppression of truth, not with the direct
invention of fiilsehood. Or on Constantine himself? Could it be yrith him
a deliberate fiction to command the higher veneration of the Christian party?
Or was his imagination at the time, or was his memory in his later days, de^
ceived by some inexplicable illusion ?

The first excursus of Heinichen, in his edition of Eusebius, contains the
fullest, and, on the whole, the most temperate and judicious discussion of
this subject, so inexhaustibly interesting, yet so inexplicable, to the histori-
cal inquirer. There are three leading theories, variously modified by their
difierent partisans: 1. A real miracle. 2. A natural phenomenon, presented
to the imagination of the emperor. 8. A deliberate invention on the part of
the emperor, or of Eusebius. The first has few partisans in the present day.
*'Ut enim miraculo Constantinum a superstitione gentili avocatnm esse,
nemo facile hac state adhuc credet" — Heinichen, p. 622. Independent of
all other objections, the moral difficult^' in the text is to me conclusive. The
third has its partisans, but appears to me to be absolutely incredible. But the
general consent of the more learned and dispassionate writers seems in favor
of the second, which was first, I believe, suggested by F. Albert Fabridus.
In this concur Schroeck, the German Church historian, Neander, Manso,
Heinichen, and, in short, all modem writers who have any claim to historical
criticism.

The great difficulty which encumbers the theory which resolves it into a
solar halo or some natural phenomenon is the legend kv Tovrtii vuc^ which
no optical illusion can well explain, if it be taken literally. The only
rational theory is to suppose that this was the inference drawn by the mind

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Cbaf.l vision of constantine. 291

ing in grave earnestness the claims of the rival re-
ligions, — on one hand the awful fate of those who
had persecuted Christianity, on the other the necessity
of some divine assistance to counteract the magical
incantations of his enemy, — he addressed his prayers
to the One Great Supreme. On a sudden, a short
time after noon, appeared a bright cross in the heavens,
just above the sun, with this inscription, " By tliis,
conquer." Awe seized himself and the whole army,
who were witnesses of the wonderful phenomenon.
But of the signification of the vision Constantine was
altogether ignorant. Sleep fell upon his harassed
mind ; and, during his sleep, Christ himself appeared,
and enjoined him to make a banner in the shape of
that celestial sign, under which his arms would be for
ever crowned with victory.

Constantine immediately commanded the famous
Labarum to be made, — the Labarum which for a long
time was borne at the head of the imperial armies,
and venerated as a sacred relic at Constantinople.
The shaft of this celebrated standard was cased with
gold; above the transverse beam, which formed the

of Constantine, and embodied in these words; which, from being inscribed
on the Labarum, or on the arms or any other public monument, as commemo-
latiye of the eyent, gradually grew into an integral part of the original
Tirion.

The later and more poetic writers adorn the shields and the helmets of the
whole army with the sign of the cross.

Tntis Chiistlooln duels adreatantiB ad nrbem

Malrias, exceptum Tiberina In stagna tyrannum

Pnecipitans, quanam Tictrlda riderit anna

IbOatate rogi, quod rignum deztwa rindex

Pnetolwlt, quail ndlaiint >teauiiate plla.

Ghiistos porpuraum, gemmantt teztus In anxo,

Blgnabal labarum, diffpeonmn insignia Ckrisius

Bcripteiat : ardebat suhudIs cmz addita eristla.

Prudent, in Symmaehum, t. 482.
Eoseb., Vit. Const L 28; H. £. ix. 9. Zosimus, ii. 16. Manso, Lebeo
Constantins, p. 41, seqq.

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292 MILITAKT CHRISTIANITY. ' Book m.

cross, was wrought in a golden crown the monogram,
or rather the device of two letters, which signified the
name of Christ. And so, for the first time, the meek
and peaceful Jesus became a (xod of battle ; and tho
cross, the holy sign of Christian redemption, a banner
of bloody strife.

This irreconcilable incongruity between the symbol
of universal peace and the horrors of war, in my judg-
ment, is conclusive against the miraculous or super-
natural character of the transaction.^ Yet the ad-
mission of Christianity, not merely as a controlling
power, and the most effective auxiliary of civil govern-
ment (an oflSce not unbecoming its divine origin), but
as the animating principle of barbarous warfare, argues
at once the commanding influence which it had
obtained over the human mind, as well as its degener-
acy from its pure and spiritual origin. The unim-
peached and unquestioned authority of this miracle
during so many centuries shows how completely, in
the association which took place between Barbarism
and Christianity, the former maintained its predomi-
nance. This was the first advance to the military
Christianity of the Middle Ages, — a modification of
the pure religion of the Gospel, if directly opposed to
its genuine principles, still apparently indispensable

1 I was agreeably surprised to find that Mosheim ooncnned in these sen-
timents, for which I will readily encounter the charge of Quakerism.

" Hnccine oratio servatori generis human!, qui peccata hominum morte
suft ezpiavit; hsccine oratio illo digna est, qui pacis auctor mortalibus est, et
suos hostibus ignoscere vult . . . Caveamus ne veterum Christianorum nanar
tionibus de setatis suie miraculis acrius defendendis in ipsam majestatem Dei,
et sanctissimam religionem, qus non hostes, sed non ipsos debeUare docet,
injurii simus."— De Beb. ante Const. 985. When the empress Helena,
among the otlier treasures of the tomb of Christ, found the nails which fast-
ened him to the cross, Constantine turned them into a helmet and bits for
his war-horse. — Socrates, i. 17. True or &bulous, the story is characteristic
of the Christian sentiment then prevalent.

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CteAP.I. CONDUCT OF CONSTANTINE. 293

to the social progress of men; through which the
Roman empire and the barbarous nations, which were
blended together in the vast European and Chris-
tian system, must necessarily have passed, before they
could arrive at a higher civilization and a purer Chris-
tianity.

The fate of Rome and of Paganism was decided in
the battle of the Milvian Bridge ; the eventual result
was the establishment of the Christian empire. But
to Constantine himself, if at this time Christianity had
obtained any hold upon his mind, it was now the
Christianity of the warrior, as subsequently it was
that of the statesman. It was the military commander
who availed himself of the assistance of any tutelar
divinity who might insure success to his daring enter-
prise.

Christianity, in its higher sense, appeared neither
in the acts nor in the decrees of the victori-
ous Constantine after the defeat of Maxentius. conctentiiie
Though his general conduct was tempered toiyovw
with a wise clemency, yet the execution of
his enemies and the barbarous death of the infant son
of Maxentius still showed the same relentless disposi-
tion which had exposed the barbarian chieftains, whom
he had taken in his successful campaign beyond the
Rhine, in the arena at Treves.^ The emperor still
maintained the same proud superiority over the con-
flicting religions of the empire, which afterwards ap-
peared at the foundation of the new metropolis. Even
in the Labarum, if the initiated eyes of the Christian
soldiery could discern the sacred symbol of Christ in-

1 One of these barbarous acts was selected by the panegyrical orator as a
topic of the highest praise. ** Puberes, qni in manus venemnt et quorum nee
pc^dia erat apta milltin nee ferocia severitati, ad pcenas spectaculo dati, sn-
▼ientes bestiaa multitadine 8u& fadgamnt." ~ Eumenli Panegr. c. zii.

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294 EDICT FBOM HILAK. Book m.

distinctly glittering above the cross, there appeared,
either embossed on the beam below, or embroidered
on the square purple banner which depended from it,
the bust of the emperor and those of his family, to
whom the Heathen part of his army might pay their
homage of veneration. Constantine, though he does
not appear to have ascended to the Capitol, to pay his
homage and to offer sacrifice ^ to Jupiter the best and
greatest, and the other tutelary deities of Rome (in
general the first act of a victorious emperor), yet did
not decline to attend the sacred games.^ Among the
acts of the conqueror in Rome was the restoration of
the Pagan temples ; among his imperial titles he did
not decline that of the Pontifex Maximus.* The prov-
ince of Africa, in return for the bloody head of their
oppressor Maxentius, was permitted to found a college
of priests in honor of the Flavian family.
The first public edict of Constantine in favor of
Christianity is lost : that issued at Milan, in
coDsumtiiia the joint names of Constantine and Licinius,

ftom Milan.

is the great charter of the liberties of Chris-
tianity.^ But it is an edict of full and unlimited tol-
eration, and no more. It recognizes Christianity as
one of the legal forms by which the Divinity may be
worshipped.* It performs an act of justice in restor-

1 £tueb.| Yit Const, i. 61. Le Beau, Histoire da Bas Empire, L iL

c XTi.

3 ** Nee qurdquam aliud homines, dieboa manerum sacrommqiie Indonmi,
quam te ipsum spectare potuerunU*' — Incert Paneg. c. xix.

' Zosimas, iv. 36.

^ The edict, or rather the copj, sent by Licinins to the Prefect of Bithynia
in Lactantius, De Mort. Pers. xlviii.

* Decree of Milan, A.D. 818. **Hiec ordinanda esse credidimns, nt dai«-
muB et Christianis et omnibas liberam potestatem seqaendi religionem quam
quisque voluiseet, quod quidem cUviniUu in sede coelesti nobis atque omniboa
qui sub potestate nostr& sunt constituti, placata ac propitia possit existere."
[This divinitaSf I conceive, was that equivocal term for the Supreme Deity,

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Chap. I. EARLIER LAWS OF CONSTANTINE. 296

ing all the public buildings and the property which
had been confiscated by die persecuting edicts of
former emperors. Where the churches or their sites
remained in the possession of the imperial treasury,
they were restored without any compensation ; where
they had been alienated, the grants were resumed;
where they had been purchased, the possessors were
offered an indemnity for their enforced and immediate
surrender, from the state. The prefects were to see
the restitution carried into execution without delay and
without chicanery. But the same absolute freedom of
worship was secured to all other religions ; and this
proud and equitable indifference is to secure the favor
of the Divinity to the reigning emperors. The whole
tone of this edict is that of imperial clemency, which
condescends to take under its protection an oppressed
and injured class of subjects, rather than that of an
awe-struck proselyte, esteeming Christianity the one
true religion, and already determined to enthrone it as
the dominant and established faith of the empire.

The earlier laws of Constantine, though in their
effects favorable to Christianity, claimed some Earlier lawt

- of CoDstaD-

deference, as it were, to the ancient religion tine.

admitted by the Pagan as well as the Christian. What Zosimns called
Td ^eiJbv] "etiam aliis religionis soAvel observantiee potestatem similiter
apeitam, et liberam, pro qniete temporis nostri esse concessam, at in colendo
quod quisque delegerit, habeat liberam facoltatem, quia (nolumus detrahi)
honori neque cuiquam religion! aliqoid a nobis.**

I will transcribe, howerer, the observations of Kestner on this point:
^*Multi merito observ&nmt, animum illud ostendere (sc decretum Mediolense)
ab antiqua religione minime alienum. Observandmn vero, parum hoc decre-
tum valere, at veram Constantini mentem inde intelligamos. Non solus
qnippe illius auctor fiiit, sed Licinlos quoque — Huic autem — etsi iis (Chris-
tianis) non sinceros erat amicus, parcere debuit Constantinus ; neque cseteiis
displicere voluit subditis, qui antiquam religionem profiterentur. Quamvis
igitur etiam religionis indole plenius jam fuisset imbutus, ob rerum tamen,
qjud id temporis erant, oonditionem, manifestare mentem non potuissef* —
Kestner, Disp. de commut. quam, Constant. M. auct. societas snbiit Chris-
tiana. Compare Heinichen, Ezcors. in Vit Const, p. 618.

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296 SANCTITY OF THE SUNDAY. Book IIL

in the ambiguity of their language, and the cautious
terms in which they interfered with the liberty of Pa-
ganism. The rescript commanding the celebration of
the Christian Sabbath bears no allusion to its peculiar
sanctity as a Christian institution. It is the day of
the Sun, which is to be observed by the general venera-
tion. The courts were to be closed, and the noise and
tumult of public business and legal litigation were no
longer to violate the repose of the sacred day. But
the believer in the new Paganism, of which the solar
worship was the characteristic, might acquiesce with-
out scruple in the sanctity of the first day of the week.
The genius of Christianity appears more manifestly in
sanotity of ^^^ siuglc civil act, which was exempted from
the Sunday, ^j^^ general restriction on public business.
The courts were to be open for the manumission
of slaves on the hallowed day.^ In the first aggres-
sion on the freedom of Paganism, though the earliest
law speaks in a severe and vindictive tone, a second
tempers the stern language of the former statute, and
actually authorizes the superstition against which it is
directed, as far as it might be supposed beneficial to
mankind. The itinerant soothsayers and diviners,
who exercised their arts in private houses, formed no
recognized part of the old religion. Their rites were
Against supposed to bc connected with all kinds of
divinauon. crucl and licentious practices, — with magic
and unlawful sacrifices. They performed their cere-
monies at midnight among tombs, where tliey evoked
the dead ; or in dark chambers, where they made liba-
tions of the blood of the living. They were darkly
rumored not to abstain, on occasions, from human
blood, to offer children on the altar, and to read the

1 Cod. Theodos. ii., viii. 1. Yit Constant iv. 18. Zosimus, i. 8.

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Chap. I. AGAINST DIVINATION. 297

secrets of futurity in the palpitating entrails of human
victims. These unholy practices were proscribed by
the old Roman law and the old Roman religion. This
kind of magic was a capital offence by the laws of the
Twelve Tables. Secret divinations had been inter-
dicted by former emperors, — by Tiberius and by Dio-
cletian.^ The suppression of these rites by Constantino
might appear no more than a strong regulation of po-
lice for the preservation of the public morals.^ The
soothsayer, who should presume to enter a private
house to practise his unlawful art, was to be burned
alive; those who received him were condemned to
the forfeiture of their property and to exile. But
in the public temple, according to the established rites,
the priests and seers might still unfold the secrets of
futurity; the people were recommended to apply to
them rather than to the unauthorized diviners, and
this permission was more explicitly guaranteed by a
subsequent rescript.* Those arts which professed to
avert the thunder from the house, the hurricane and
the desolating shower from the fruitful field, were ex-
pressly sanctioned as beneficial to the husbandman.
Even in case of the royal palace being struck by light-
ning, the ancient ceremony of propitiating the Deity
was to be practised, and the haruspices were to declare
the meaning of the awful portent.*

Yet some acts of Constantine, even at this early
period, might encourage the expanding hopes of the

1 *'Haraspice8 secreto ac sine testibiu consnli vetoit** — Suetonios, Tib.
c 68. " An mathemadca danmabilis est et interdicta omnino." Compare
Bengnot, i. 79.

^ It was addressed to Maximus, prefect of the dtj. — Cod. Theod. xi. 8, 2.

s " Adite aras publicas atque delabra, et consaetudinis vestrsB celebrate
eolemnia: nee enim prohibemus prseteiits osarpationis officia Iiber& lape
tractari." — Cod. Theodos. xi. 16.

^ Cod. Theodos. ix. 16, xvi. 10.

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298 OHUBCHES IN BOME. Book IIL

Christians, that they were destined before long to
ooiutantiiie's roceive more than impartial justice fix)m the
JJJJt"3«J^ emperor. His acts of liberality were beyond
^'^^' those of a sovereign disposed to redress the
wrongs of an oppressed class of his subjects : he not
merely enforced by his edict the restoration of their
churches and estates, he enabled them, by his own
mimificence, — his gift of a large sum of money to
the Christians of Africa, — to rebuild their mined edi-
fices, and restore their sacred rites with decent solem-
GhnrdMin ^^^7'^ Many of the churches in Kome claim
**"°* the first Christian emperor for their founder.

The most distinguished of these, and, at the same
time, those which are best supported in their preten-
sions to antiquity, stood on the sites now occupied by
the Lateran and by St. Peter's. If it could be as-
certained at what period in the life of Constantino
tiiese churches were built, some light might be thrown
on the history of his personal religion. For, the
Lateran being an imperial palace, the grant of a basil-
ica Within its walls for the Christian worship (for such
we may conjecture to have been the first church) was
a kind of direct recognition, if not of his own regular
personal attendance, at least of his admission of Chris-
tianity within his domestic circle.^ The palace was
afterwards granted to the Christians, the first patri-
mony of the popes. The Vatican suburb seems to
have been the favorite place for the settlement of foreign
religions. It was thickly peopled with Jews firom an
early period ;^ and remarkable vestiges of the worship

1 See the original grant of three thousand foUes to CiBcilian, Bishop of
Carthage, in Kusebius, Ecd. Hist x. 6.

< The Lateran was the residence of the princess Fausta: it is called the
Domns Faiistie in the account of the first synod held to decide on the Donatist
schism. — Optat i. 28. Fausta may have been a Christian.

* Basnage, ^'ii. 210, Hist of Jews.

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Chap. I. SYNODS OF CHRISTIAN BISHOPS. 299

of Cybele, which appear to have flourished side hy
side, as it were, with that of Christianity, remained to
the fourth or the fifth century.^ The site of St.
Peter's Church was believed to occupy the spot hal-
lowed by his martyrdom ; and the Christians must have
felt no unworthy pride in employing the materials of
Nero's Circus, the scene of the sanguinary pleasures
of the first persecutor, on a church dedicated to the
memory of his now honored, if not absolutely wor-
shipped, victim.

With the protection, the emperor assumed the con-
trol over the afiairs of the Christian communities:
to the cares of the public administration was added
a recognized supremacy over the Christian Church.
The^ extent to which Christianity now prevailed is
shown by the importance at once assumed by the
Christian bishops, who brought not only their losses
and their suiSerings during the persecution of Diocle-
tian, but, unhappily, likewise their quarrels, before the
imperial tribuncd. From his palace at Treves, Con-
stantine had not only to assemble military councils to
debate on the necessary measures for the protection
of the German firontier and the maintenance of the
imperial armies, and councils of finance to remodel
and enforce the taxation of the different provinces,
but likewise synods of Christian bishops to decide on
the contests which had grown up in the remote and
unruly province of Africa. The emperor himself is
said frequentiy to have appeared without his imperial
state, and, with neither guards nor officers around
him, to have mingled in the debate, and expressed his
satisfaction at their unanimity, whenever that rare
virtue adorned their counsels.*

!• BanBen nnd Platner, RomB' Beschreibimg, L p. 28.

3 £iueb., Vit Const I. zliv. : xaLgmnn 6€usvi>c iavrilv ry KOtvf iravruv

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800 POPULAR PASSIONS. Book m.

For Constentine, though he could give protection,
could not give peace, to Christianity. It is the nature
of man, that whatever powerfully moves, agitates to
excess the public mind. With new views of those
subjects which make a deep and lasting impression,
new passions awaken. The profound stagnation of
the human mind during the government of the earlier
Ca&sars had been stirred in its inmost depths by the
silent underworking of the new faith. Momentous
questions, which up to that time had been entirely left
to a small intellectual aristocracy, had been calmly
debated in the villa of the Roman senator or the
grove sacred to philosophy, or discussed by sophists
whose frigid dialectics wearied without exciting the
mind, had been gradually brought down to the com-
mon apprehension. The nature of the Deity; the
state of the soul after death ; the equality of mankind
in the sight of the Deity, — even questions which are
beyond the verge of hximan intellect; the origin of
evil ; the connection of the physical and moral world,
— had become general topics: they were, for the first
time, the primary truths of a popular religion, and
naturally could not withdraw themselves from the
alliance with popular passions. These passions, as
Christianity increased in power and influence, came
into more active operation ; as they seized on persons
of different temperament, instead of being themselves
subdued to Christian gentleness, they inflamed Chris-
tianity, as it appeared to the world, into a new and
more indomitable principle of strife and animosity.
Mankind, even within the sphere of Christianity, retro-
graded to the sterner Jewish character; and in its

bfjuovoi^. — Eusebiua says, too, that he conducted himself as the bishop of the
bishops.

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Cbas*. I. DISSENSIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 301

spirit, as well as in its language, the Old Testament
began to dominate over the Gospel of Christ.

The first civil wars which divided Christianity were
those of Donatism and the Trinitarian controversy.
The Gnostic sects, in their diflFercnt varieties, and the
Manichean, were rather rival religions than Dfaaensioni

^ of Christlaa-

Christian factions. Though the adherents of i*y-
these sects professed to be disciples of Christianity yet
they had their own separate constitutions, their own
priesthood, their own ceremonial. Donatism
was a fierce and implacable schism in an
established community. It was embraced with all the
wild ardor, and maintained with the blind obstinacy,
of the African temperament. It originated in a dis-
puted appointment to the episcopal dignity at Car-
thage. The Bishop of Carthage, if in name inferior
(for every thing connected with the ancient capital
still maintained its superior dignity in. the general
estimation), stood higher, probably, in proportion to
the extent of his influence and the relative numbers
of his adherents, as compared with the Pagan popula-
tion, than any Christian dignitary in the West. The
Afi:ican churches had suffered more than usual oppres-
sion during the persecution of Diocletian, not improb-
ably during the invasion of Maxentius. External
force, which in other quarters compressed the body
into closer and more compact unity, in Africa lefb
behind it a fatal principle of disorganization. These
rival claims to the see of Carthage brought the oppo-
nent parties into inevitable collision.

The pontifical offices of Paganism, ministering in
a ceremonial to which the people were either indif-
ferent or bound only by habitual attachment, calmly
descended in their hereditary course, were nominated

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302 CHRISTIAN HIEBABCH7. Book IIL

by the municipal magistracy, or attached to the higher

civil oflSces, They awoke no ambition, they

hierarchy causcd no coutention ; they did not mterest

different from

PagnpriMt- society enough to disturb it. But the
growth of the sacerdotal power was a necea-
sary consequence of the development of Christianity.
The hierarchy asserted (they were believed to possess)
the power of sealing the eternal destiny of man.
From a post of danger, which modest piety was com-
pelled to assume by the unsought and unsolicited
suf&ages of the whole community, a bishopric had
become an office of dignity, influence, and, at times,
of wealth. The prelate ruled not now so much by his
admitted superiority in Christian virtue, as by the
inalienable authority of his office. He opened or
closed the door of the church, which was tantamount
to an admission or an exclusion from everlasting bliss ;
he uttered the sentence of excommunication, which
cast back the trembling delinquent among the lost
and perishing Heathen. He had his throne in the
most distinguished part of the Christian temple ; and
though yet acting in the presence and in the name of
his college of presbyters, yet he was the acknowledged
head of a large conununity, over whose eternal destiny
he held a vague, but not therefore less imposing and
awful, dominion. Among the African Christians,
perhaps by the commanding character of Cyprian, in
his writings at least, the episcopal power is elevated to
its utmost height. No wonder that, with the elements
of strife fermenting in the society, and hostile parties
already arrayed against each other, the contest for this
commanding post should often be commenced with blind
violence, and carried on with irreconcilable hostility.^

^ The principal Bource of infonnation concerning the Donatist contzoTeny

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Chap. I. THE TRADITOBS. 803

In every community, no doubt, had grown up a
severer party, who were anxious to contract the pale
of salvation to the narrowest compass; and a more
liberal class, who were more lenient to the infirmities
of their brethren, and would extend to the utmost
limits the beneficial efiects of the Redemption. The
fiery ordeal of the persecution tried the Christians
of Africa by the most searching test, and drew more
strongly the line of demarcation. Among the sum-
mary proceedings of the persecution, which were car-
ried into effect with unrelenting severity by Anulinus,
the Prefect of Africa (the same who, by a singular
vicissitude in political affairs, became the instrument
of Constantine's munificent grants to the churches of
his province),^ none was more painful to the feelings
of the Christians than the demand of the imcondi-
tional surrender of the furniture of their sacred
edifices, their chalices, their ornaments, above all, the
sacred writings.* The bishop and his priests were
made responsible for the full and unreserved delivery
of these sacred possessions. Some from timidity,
others considering that by such concessions it might
be prudent to avert more dangerous trials, and that
such treasures, sacred as they were, might be replaced
in a more flourishing state of the Church, complied
with the demands of the magistrate; but, by their
severer brethren, who, with more uncompromising

IB the works of OpUtos, with the valuable collection of documents subjoined
to them ; and, for their later history, varioos passages m the works of St. Ao-
gUBtine.

1 See the grant of Constantine referred to above.

> There is a very curious and graphic account of the rigorous perquisition
far the sacred books in the Gesta apud Zenophilom in Routh, vol. iv. p. 108.
The codices appear to have been under the care of the readers, who were of
various ranks, mostly, however, in trade. There were a great number
of codices, each probably oontaming one book of the Scnptores.

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804 THE SEE OF CABTHA6E. Book m.

courage, had reftised the least departure from the
TheTndi- ^^^^ ^^ Unqualified resistance, these men
***"• were branded with the ignominious name of
Traditors.^ This became the strong, the impassable,
line of demarcation between the contending factions.
To the latest period of the conflict, the Donatists
described the Catholic party by that odious appellar
tion.

The primacy of the African Church was the object
of ambition to these two parties ; an unfortunate
vacancy at this time kindled the smouldering embers
conteBtfor of strifc. Mcusurius had filled the see of
Carthage. Carthage with prudence and moderation dup-
ing these days of emergency. He was accused by the
sterner zeal of Donatus, a Numidian bishop, of coun-
tenancing at least the criminal concessions of the
Traditors. It was said that he had deluded the Got-
ernment by a subtle stratagem; he had substituted
certain heretical writings for the genuine Scriptures ;
had connived at their seizure, and calmly seen them
delivered to the flames. The Donatists either disbe-
lieved, or despised as a paltry artifice, this attempt to
elude the glorious danger of resistance. But, during
the life of Mensurius, his character and station had
overawed the hostile party. Mensurius was summoned
to Rome, to answer on a charge of the concealment of
the deacon Felix, accused of a political oflFence, — the
publication of a libel against the emperor. On his
departure, Mensurius intrusted to the deacons of the
community the valuable vessels of gold and silver
belonging to the church, of which he left an accurate
inventory in the hands of a pious and aged woman.

1 The Donatists invariablj called the Catholic party the Traditors. See
Senno Donatista and the Acts of Donatist Martyr.

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Chap. I. APPEAL TO THE CIVIL POWER. 805

Mensurius died on his ceturn to Carthage. Gsscilian,
a deacon of the church, was raised by the unanimous
6uffi:ages of the clergy and people to the see of Car-
thage. He was consecrated by Felix, Bishop of
Apthunga. His first step was to demand the vessels
of the church. By the advice of Botrus and Celeusius,
two of the deacons, competitors, it is said, with Csecilian
for the see, they were refused to a bishop irregularly
elected, and consecrated by a notorious Traditor. A
Spanish female, of noble birth and of opulence, accused
of personal hostility to Caecilian, animated the Car-
thaginian faction: but the whole province assumed
the right of interference with the appointment to the
primacy ; and Donatus, Bishop of Casae Nigrae, placed
himself at the head of the opponent party.

The commanding mind of Donatus swayed the
countless hierarchy which crowded the different prov-
inces of Africa. The Numidian bishops took the lead ;
Secundus, the primate of Numidia, at the summons of
Donatus, appeared in Carthage at the head of seventy
of his bishops. This self-installed Council of App«a to

^ th« civil

Carthage proceeded to cite Caecilian, who re- power.
fused to recognize its authority. The council declared
his election void. The consecration by a bishop guilty
of tradition was the principal groTind on which his elec-
tion was annulled. But darker charges were openly
advanced or secretly murmured against Ceecilian, —
charges which, if not entirely ungrounded, show that
the question of tradition had, during the persecution,
divided the Christians into fierce and hostile factions.
He was said to have embittered the last hours of those
whose more dauntless resistance put to shame the
timorous compliance of Mensurius and his party. He
had taken his station, with a body of armed men, and
VOL. II. 20

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306 COUNCIL OF ROME. Book m.

precluded the pious zeal of their adherents from obtain-
ing access to the prison of those who had been seized
by the Government;^ he had prevented, not merely
the consolatory and inspiriting visits of kinsmen and
friends, but even the introduction of food and other
comforts, in their state of starving destitution. The
Cartliaginian faction proceeded to elect Majorinus to
the vacant see. Both parties appealed to the civil
power ; and Anulinus, the Prefect of Africa, who dur-
ing the reign of Diocletian had 86en the Christians
dragged before his tribunal, and whose authority they
then disclaimed with uncompromising unanimity, now
saw them crowding in hostile factions to demand his
interference in their domestic discords.

The cause was referred to the imperial decision of
Constantino. At a later period, the Donatists, bemg
worsted in the strife, bitterly reproached their adver-
saries with this appeal to the civil tribunal, "What
have Christians to do with kings, or bishops with
palaces ? " * Their adversaries justly recriminated,
that they had been as ready as themselves to request
the intervention of the Government. Constantino
delegated the judgment in their cause to the bishops
of Gaul:* but the first council was composed of a
councuof great majority of Italian bishops ; and Rome,
^™®- for the first time, witnessed a public trial of

1 Optatus, i. 22. » Optatns, i. 22.

* Augustine, writing when the episcopal authority stood on a level nearer
to or even higher than the throne, asserts that Constantine did not dare to
assume a cognizance over the election of a bishop. " Constantinus non aosna
est de causH, episcopi judicare." — Epist cv. n. 8. Natural equity, as well aa
other reasons, would induce Constantine to delegate the affair to a Christian
commission. The account of Optatus ascribes to Constantine speeches which
it is difficult to reconcile with his public conduct as regards Christianity at thia
period of his life. The Council of Rome was held A.D. 813, 2d October.

The decrees of the Council of Rome and of Aries, with other documents on
the subject, may be found in the fourth volume of Routh.

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Chap. L COUNCIL OF ROME. 807

a Christian cause before an assembly of bishops, pro-
sided over hj her prelate. The council was formed of
the three Gallic bishops of Cologne, of Autun, and
of Aries. The Italian bishops (we may conjecture
that these were considered the more important sees,
or were filled by the most influential prelates) were
those of Milan, Cesena, Quintiano, Rimini, Florence,
Pisa, Paenza, Capua, Benevento, Terracina, Praeneste,
Tres Tabernae, Ostia, Ursinum (tJrbinum), Forum
Claudii.

Csecilian and Donatus appeared each at the head
of ten bishops of his party. Both denounced their
adversaries as guilty of the crime of tradition. The
partisans of Donatus rested their appeal on the inva-
lidity of an ordination by a bishop, Felix of Apthunga,
who had been guilty of that delinquency. The party
of CsBcilian accused almost the whole of the Numidian
bishops, and Donatus himself, as involved in the same
guilt. It was a wise and temperate policy in the
Catholic party to attempt to cancel all embittering
recollections of the days of trial and infirmity; to
abolish all distinctions, which on one part led to pride,
on the other to degradation; to reconcile, in those
halcyon days of prosperity, the whole Christian world
in one harmonious confederacy. This policy was that
of the Government. At this early period of his Chris-
tianity, if he might yet be called a Christian, Constan-
tino was little likely to enter into the narrow and
exclusive principles of the Donatists. As emperor,
Christianity was reconmiended to his favor by the
harmonizing and tranquillizing influence which it exer-
cised over a large body of the people. If it broke up
into hostile feuds, it lost its value as an ally or an
instrument of civil government. But it was exactly

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808 COUNCIL AT ARLES. Book m.

this leyelling of all religious distinctions, this liberal
and comprehensive spirit, that would annihilate the
less important differences, which struck at the vital
principle of Donatism. They had confronted all the
malice of the persecutor, they had disdained to com-
promise any principle, to concede the minutest point ;
and were they to abandon a superiority so hardly
earned, and to acquiesce in the re-admission of all those
who had forfeited their Christian privileges to the same
rank? Were they not to exercise the high function of
re-admission into the fold with proper severity ? The
decision of the coimcil was favorable to the cause
of Caecilian. Donatus appealed to the emperor, who
retained the heads of both parties in Italy, to allow
time for the province to regain its quiet. In defiance
of the emperor, both the leaders fled back to Africa, to
set themselves at the head of their respective factions.
A.D. 814. '^^^ patient Constantine summoned a new, a
1st Aug. more remote council at Aries. Caecilian and
the African bishops were cited to appear in that distant
province ; public vehicles were furnished for their con-
veyance at the emperor's charge; each bishop was
attended by two of his inferior clergy, with three do-
mestics. The Bishop of Aries presided in this council,
which confirmed the judgment of that in Rome.

A second Donatus now appeared upon the scene, of
more vigorous and more persevering character, greater
ability, and with all the energy and self-confidence
which enabled him to hold together the faction. The
party now assumed the name of Donatists. On the
death of Majorinus, Donatus succeeded to the dignity
of Anti-Bishop of Carthage : the whole African prov-
ince continued to espouse the quarrel; the authority
of the Government, which had been invoked by both

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Chap. I. DONATISTS PERSECUTED. 809

parties, was scornfully rejected by that against which
the award was made. Three times was the decision
repeated in favor of the Catholic party, at
Rome, at Aries, and at Milan; each time was
more strongly established the self-evident truth, which
has been so late recognized by the Christian world, —
the incompetency of any council to reconcile religious
differences. The sufirages of the many cannot bind
the consciences, or enlighten the minds, or even over-
come the obstinacy, of the few. Neither party can
yield without abandoning the very principles by which
they have been constituted a party.

A commission issued to JBlius, prefect of the
district, to examine the charge against Felix, Bishop
of Apthunga, gave a favorable verdict.^ An imperial
commission of two delegates to Carthago ratified the
decision of the former councils. At every turn, the
Donatists protested against the equity of the decrees ;
they loudly complained of the unjust and partial
influence exercised by Osius, Bishop of Cordova, over
the mind of the emperor. At length the tardy indig-
nation of the Government had recourse to violent
measures. The Donatist bishops were driven DonattotB
into exile, their churches destroyed or sold, p****^**^
and the property seized for the imperial revenue.
The Donatists defied the armed interference, as they
had disclaimed the authority, of the Government.
This first development of the principles of Christian
sectarianism was as stem, as inflexible, and as perse-
vering, as in later times. The Donatists drew their
narrow pale around their persecuted sect, and asserted
themselves to be the only elect people of Christ ; the
only people whose clergy could claim an unbroken

1 See the Acta Pnrgatioiiis Felicia, in Ronth, iv. 71.

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310 THE CIRCUMCELLIONS. Book m.

apostolical succession, vitiated in all other communities
of Christians by the inexpiable crime of tradition.
Wherever they obtained possession of a church, they
burned the altar, or, where wood was scarce, scraped
off the infection of heretical communion ; they melted
the cups, and sold, it was said, the sanctified metal for
profane, perhaps for Pagan, uses ; they rebaptized aU
who joined their sect ; they made the virgins renew
their vows ; they would not even permit the bodies of
the Catholics to repose in peace, lest they should pol-
lute the common cemeteries. The implacable faction
' darkened into a sanguinary feud. For the first time,
human blood was shed in conflicts between followers
of the Prince of Peace. Each party recriminated on
the other ; but neither denies the barbarous scenes of
massacre and license which devastated the African
cities. The Donatists boasted of their martyrs, and
the cruelties of the Catholic party rest on their own
admission: they deny not, they proudly vindicate
their barbarities, — "Is the vengeance of (Jod to be
defrauded of its victims ? " ^ and they appeal to the
Old Testament to justify, by tlie examples of Moses,
of Phineas, and of Elijah, the Christian duty of slaying
by thousands the renegades or the unbelievers.
In vain Constantino at length published an edict of
peace: the afflicted province was rent asunder
till the close of his reign, and during that of
his son, by this religious warfare. For, on the other
Theciroum- ^^^^^ ^^^ barbarous fanaticism of the Cir-
Miuons. cumcellions involved the Donatist party in

1 This damning passage is found in the work of the Catholic Optatns:
" Quasi omnino in vindictam Dei nnllus mereatur occidi.'* Compare the
whole chapter, iii. 6. An able writer (Mr. Bright, History of the Church) has
objected to his statement. I adhere to it. There is a very strong description
of the persecutions which they endured from the Catholics in the letter put in

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Chap. I. THE CIRCUMCELLIONS. 811

the guilt of insurrection, and connected them with
revolting atrocities, which they were accused' of
countenancing, of exciting, if not actually sanctioning
by their presence. That which in the opulent cities,
or the well-ordered communities, led to fierce and
irreconcilable contention, grew up among the wild
borderers on civilization into fanatical frenzy. Where
Christianity has outstripped civilization, and has not
had time to effect its beneficent and humanizing
change, whether in the bosom of an old society or
within the limits of savage life, it becomes, in times
of violent excitement, instead of a pacific principle to
assuage, a new element of ungovernable strife. The
long peace which had been enjoyed by the province
of Africa, and tlie flourishing corn-trade which it
conducted as the granary of Rome and of the Italian
provinces, had no doubt extended the pursuits of agri-
culture into the Numidian, Gsetulian, and Mauritanian
villages. The wild tribes had gradually become
industrious peasants; and among them Christianity
had found an open field for its exertions, and the
increasing agricultural settlements had become Chris-
tian bishoprics. But the savage was yet only half-
tamed ; and no sooner had the flames of the Donatist
conflict spread into these peacefiil districts, than the
genuine Christian was lost in the fiery marauding
child of the desert. Maddened by oppression, wounded
in his religious feelings by the expulsion and persecu-
tion of the bishops, from his old nature he resumed
the fierce spirit of independence, the contempt for the
laws of property, and the burning desire of revenge.
Of his new religion he retained only the perverted

by the Donatist bishop Habet Deum in the conference held during the reign
of Honorios. — Apud Dnpio. No. 268, injine.

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812 THE CmCUMCELLIONS. Book m.

language, or rather that of the Old Testament, with
an implacable hatred of all hostile sects; a stem
ascetic continence, which perpetually broke out into
paroxysms of unbridled licentiousness ; and a fanatic
passion for martyrdom, which assumed the acts of a
kind of methodical insanity.

The Gircumcellions commenced their ravages dur-
ing the reign of Gonstantine, and continued in arms
.during that of his successor Gonstans. No sooner
had the provincial authorities received instructions to
reduce the province by force to religious unity, than
the Gircumcellions, who had at first confined their
ravages to disorderly and hasty incursions, broke out
into open revolt.^ They defeated one body of the
imperial troops, and killed Ursacius, the Roman
general. They abandoned, by a simultaneous impulse,
their agricultural pursuits; they proclaimed them-
selves the instruments of divine justice, and the
protectors of the oppressed; they first asserted the
wild theory of the civil equality of mankind, which
has so often, in later periods of the world, become the
animating principle of Ghristian fanaticism; they
proclaimed the abolition of slavery ; they thrust the
proud and opulent master from his chariot, and made
him walk by the side of his slave, who, in his turn,
was placed in the stately vehicle ; they cancelled all
debts, and released the debtors ; their most sanguinary
acts were perpetrated in the name of religion, and
Ghristian language was profaned by its association
with their atrocities. Their leaders were the Gaptains
of the Saints ; ^ the battle-hymn, " Praise to God ! "

1 The Gircumcellions were unacquainted with the Latin language, and are
said to have spoken only the Punic of the countiy.

^ Augustine asserts that they were led by their deigy. — y. xL p. 676.

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Chap. I. PASSION FOR MARTYRDOM. 313

Their weapons were not swords, — for Christ had
forbidden the use of the sword to Peter, — but huge
and massy clubs, with which they beat their miserable
victims to death.^ They were bound by vows of the
severest continence ; but the African temperament, in
its state of feverish excitement, was too strong for
the bonds of fanatical restraint: the companies of the
Saints not merely abused the privileges of war by the
most licentious outrages on the females, but were at-
tended by troops of drunken prostitutes whom they
called their sacred virgins. But the most extraordi-
nary development of their fanaticism was p,^^nibr
their rage for martyrdom. When they could n>«ty«><w»-
not obtain it from the sword of the enemy, they
•inflicted it upon themselves. The ambitious martyr
declared himself a candidate for the crown of glory :
he then gave himself up to every kind of revelry,
pampering, as it were, and fattening the victim for
sacrifice. When he had wrought himself to the pitch
of frenzy, he rushed out ; and, with a sword in one
hand and money in the other, he threatened death
and oflered reward to the first comer who would satisfy
his eager longings for the glorious crown. Itey
leaped from precipices ; they went into the Pagan tem-
ples to provoke the vengeance of the worshippers.

Such are the excesses to which Christianity is
constantly liable, as the religion of a savage and
uncivilized people ; but, on the other hand, it must be
laid down as a political axiom equally universal, that
this fanaticism rarely bursts out into disorders dan-

1 The Donatists anticipated our Puritans in thoee strange religious names
which they aasmned. Habet Deam appears among the Donatist bishops in
a conference held with the Catholics at Carthage, A.D. 411. See the report
of the conference in the Donatistan Monumenta collected bj Dupin, at the
end of his edition of Optatus.

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814 THE DONATISTS. Book III.

gerous to societj, unless goaded aud maddened bjr
persecution.^

Donatism was the fatal schism of one province of
Christendom: the few communities formed on theso
rigid principles in Spain and in Bome died away in
neglect ; but, however diminished its influence, it dis-
tracted the African province for three centuries, and
was only finally extirpated with Christianity itself,
by the all-absorbing progress of Mohammedanism. At
one time, Constantine resorted to milder measures, and
issued an edict of toleration. But, in the reign of
Constans, tlie persecution was renewed with more
unrelenting severity. Two imperial oflScers, Paul and
Macurius, were sent to reduce the province to religious
unity. The Circumcellions encountered them with
obstinate valor, but were totally defeated in the
sanguinary battle of Bagnia. In the later reigns,
when the laws against heresy became more frequent
and severe, the Donatists were named with marked
reprobation in the condemnatory edicts. Yet, in the
time of Honorius, they boasted, in a conference with
the Catholics, that they equally divided at least the
province of Numidia, and that the Catholics only
obtained a majority of bishops by the unfair means of
subdividing the sees. This conference was held in
the vain, though then it might not appear ungrounded,
hope of re-uniting the great body of the Donatists with
the Catholic conmiunion. The Donatists, says Gibbon,
with his usual sarcasm and more than his usual truth,
had received a practical lesson on the consequences
of their own principles. A small sect, the Maximin-
ians, had been formed within their body, who asserted

1 Compare the persecation at the end of Dnpin's edition of Optatos. Tille-
mont, yi. 147.

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Chap. I. THE D0NATIST3. 815

themselves to be the only genuine Church of God,
denied the efficacy of the sacraments, disclaimed the
apostolic power of the clergy, and rigidly appropriated
to their own narrow sect the merits of Christ and the
hopes of salvation. But neither this fatal warning,
nor the eloquence of St. Augustine, wrought much
eflFect on the Puritans of Africa : they still obstinately
denied the legality of Caecilian's ordination; still
treated their adversaries as the dastardly traditors of
the Sacred Writings ; still dwelt apart in the unques-
tioning conviction that they were the sole subjects of
the kingdom of Heaven ; that to them alone belonged
the privilege of immortality through Christ, while the
rest of the world, the unworthy followers of Christ,
not less than the blind and unconverted Heathen,
were perishing in their outcast and desperate state of
condenmation.^

1 Donatists aie mentioned at the end of the sixth century (see Gregoiy the
Great, Epist L 72-76, ii. 88), and are still powerful enough to eject the Catho-
lics from their churchcfl. ^ Greg. Epist. ilL 82-85, v. 68.

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816 THE EAST STILL PAGAN. Book HI.

The But
BtiU Pagan.

CHAPTER n.

Constantlne becomes sole Emperor.

By the victory over Maxentius, Cohstantine had
become master of half the Roman world.
Ghristiamty, if it had not contributed to the
success, shared the advantage, of the triumph. By
the edict of Milan, the Christians had resumed all
their former rights as citizens, their churches were
re-opened, their public services reconunenced, and
their silent work of aggression on the hostile Paganism
began again under the most promising auspices. The
equal favor with which they were beheld by the sover-
eign appeared both to their enemies and to themselves
an open declaration on their side. The public acts,
the laws and the medals of Constantine,^ show how the
lofty eclectic indiflFerentism of the emperor, which ex-
tended impartial protection over all the conflicting
faiths, or attempted to mingle together their least
inharmonious elements, gradually but slowly gave
place to the progressive influence of Christianity.
Christian bishops appeared as regular attendants upon
the court ; the internal dissensions of Christianity be-

1 Eckhel supposes that the Heathen symbols disappeared fix>m the coins
of Constantlne after his victory over Licinios. — Doctr. Num. in Constant.

I may add here another observation of this great authority on such sub-
jects: "Excute unlversam Constantini monetam, nunquam in eft aut Christi
imaginem aut Constantini effigiem cruce insignem reperies. ... In nonnullis
jam monogramma Christi jP f inseritur labaro aut vexiUo, jam in areft
nummi solitari^ excubat, jam aliis, ut patebit, comparet modis."

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CKAP.n. TH£ CLERICAL OBDER. 817

came affairs of state. The Pagan party saw, with
increasing apprehension for their own authority and
the fate of Rome, the period of the secular games,
on the due celebration of which depended the duration
of the Roman sovereignty, pass away unhonored.^
It was an extraordinary change in the consti*
tution of the Western world, when the laws
of the empire issued from the court of Treves, and
Italy and Africa awaited the changes in their civil and
religious constitution, from the seat of government
on the barbarous German frontier. The munificent
grant of Constantine for the restoration of the African
churches had appeared to commit him in fevor of the
Christian party, and had perhaps indirectly contributed
to inflame the dissensions in that province.

A new law recognized the clerical order as a distinct
and privileged class. It exempted them from cierioaiordar
the onerous municipal offices, which had be- th^iaw. ^
gun to press heavily upon the more opulent inhabit-
ants of the towns. It is the surest sign of misgovern-
ment, when the higher classes shrink from the posts
of honor and of trust. During the more flourishing
days of the empire, the decurionate, the chief municipal
dignity, had been the great object of provincial ambi-
tion. The decurions formed the senates of the
towns ; they supplied the magistrates from their body,
and had the right of electing them.^

Under the new financial system introduced by Dio-
cletian, the decurions were made responsible for the
full amount of tctxation imposed by the cataster, or
assessment on the town and district. As the payment

1 ZoeimoB, 1. ii. c. 1.

s Savigny, Bomische Becht, i. 18. Compare the whole book of the Theo-
doeian Code, De DecurionibuB. Penons concealed their property to escape
lenring the public offices. — Cod. Theod. iii. 1-8.

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318 THE CLERICAL OBDEB. Book IEL

became more burdensome or difficult, the tenants, or
even the proprietors, either became insolvent or fled
their country. But the inexorable revenue still ex-
acted from the decurions the whole sum assessed on
their town or district. The office itself grew into dis-
repute, and the law was obliged to force that upon the
reluctant citizen of wealth or character which had
before been an object of eager emulation and competi-
tion.^ The Christians obtained the exemption of tfieir
ecclesiastical order from these civil offices. The ex-
emption was grounded on the just plea of its incom-
patibiUty with their religious duties.^ The emperor
declared, in a letter to Csdcilian, Bishop of Carthage,
that the Christian priesthood ought not to be with-
drawn from the worship of God, which is the principal
source of the prosperity of the empire. The effect
of this immunity shows the oppressed and disorganized
state of society.^ Numbers of persons, in order to
secure this exemption, rushed at once into the clerical
order of the Christians ; and this manifest abuse de-
manded an immediate modification of the law. None
were to be admitted into the sacred order except on
A.D 820. ^^® vacancy of a religious charge, and then
froS^thlT'^ those only whose poverty exempted them
Decurionato. j^^j^ j^q muuicipal fuuctious.* Thosc whose
property imposed upon them the duty of the decu-

1 See two dissertadonB of Savignj on the taxation of the empire, in the
Transactions of the Berlin Academy, and translated in the Cambridge Clas-
sical Researches.

3 The officers of the royal household, and their descendants, had the same
exemption, which was likewise extended to the Jewish archisynagogi, or
elders. —Le Bean, 165. Cod. Theodos. xvi. 8, 2.

The priests and the Flamines, with the Decurions, were exempt from cer-
tain inferior offices. — Cod. Theodos. xii. y. 2.

* See the various laws on this subject, Codex Theodos. xvi. 2, 8, 6-11.

* Cod. Theodos. xvi. 2, 17, 19.

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CHAP.n. WARS WITH LICINIUS. 819

rionate were ordered to abandon their religious
profession. Such was the despotic power of the sov-
ereign, to which the Christian Church still submitted,
either on the principle of passive obedience, or in
gratitude for the protection of the civil authority.
The legislator interfered without scruple in the domes-
tic administration of the Christian community, and
the Christians received the imperial edicts in silent
submission. The appointment of a Christian, the
celebrated Lactantius, to superintend the education
of Crispin, the eldest son of the emperor, was at once
a most decisive and most influential step towards the
public declaration of Christianity as the religion of
the imperial family. Another important law, the
groundwork of the vast property obtained by the
Church, gave it the fullest power to receive the be-
quests of the pious. Their right of holding property
had been admitted apparently by Alexander Severus,
annulled by Diocletian, and was now conceded in the
most explicit terms by Constantino.^

But half the world remained still disunited from
the dominion of Constantino and of Christianity. The
first war with Licinius had been closed by ^^^j^
the battles of Cibal» and Mardia, and a new "«*°i«*-
partition of the empire. It was succeeded by a hollow
and treacherous peace of nine years.^ The favor
shown by Constantino to his Christian subjects seems
to have thrown Licinius upon the opposite interest.

1 '*Habeat nnoBquisque licentiam, sanctissimo Catholicte venerabiliqiie
concilio, decedens bonorum, quod placet, relinquere. Non sint cassa jadicia.
Nihil est, quod magia hominibus debetur, quam ut Bupremee voluntatis, post*
quam aliud jam velie non possint, liber sit status, et licens, quod iterum non
redit, imperium.** — C. Th. xvi. 2, 4, De Episcopis. This law is assigned to
the year 821.

s 814 to 828.

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820 LICINIUS BECO^IES Book m.

The edict of Milan had been issued iu the joint names
of the two emperors. In his conflict with Maximin,
Licinius had avenged the oppressions of Christianity
on their most relentless adversary. But when the
crisis approached which was to decide the fate of
the whole empire, as Constantino had adopted every
means of securing their cordial support, so Liciniifs
repelled the allegiance of his Christian subjects by
disfavor, by mistrust, by expulsion from offices of
honor, by open persecution, till, in the language of the
ecclesiastical historian, the world was divided into two
regions, those of day and of night.^ The vices as well
liehiiiub*. ^ ^^® policy of Licinius might disincline
SSdluy" ^^^ ^ endure the importunate presence of
Pagan. ^^ Christian bishops in his court; but he
might disguise his hostile disposition to the churclimen
under his declared disUke of eunuchs and of courtiers,*
— the vermin, as he called them, of the palace. The
stern avarice of Licinius would be contrasted to his
disadvantage with the profiise liberality of Constan-
tino ; his looser debaucheries, with the severer morals
of the Western emperor. Licinius proceeded to purge
his household troops of those whose inclination to his
rival he might, not without reason, mistrust: none
were permitted to retain their rank who refused to
sacrifice. He prohibited the synods of the clergy,
which he naturally apprehended might degenerate into
conspiracies in favor of his rival. He confined the
bishops to the care of their own dioceses.* He aflFected,
in his care for the public morals, to prohibit the pro-

1 Euseb., Vita Constant i. 49.

* ** Spadonum et Aulicomm omnium vehemens domitor, tineas soriceaque
palatii eos appellans." — Aur. Vict. £pit
S Vit Constant, i. 41.

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CHAP.n. MORE DECIDEDLY PAGAN. 821

miscuous worship of men and women in the churches ;^
and insulted the sanctity of the Christian worship, by
commanding that it should be celebrated in the open
air. The edict prohibiting all access to the prisons,
though a strong and unwilling testimony to the chari-
table exertions of the Christians, and by their writers
represented as an act of wanton and unexampled in-
humanity, was caused probably by a jealous policy,
rather than by wanton cruelty of temper. It is quite
clear, that the prayers of the Christians, perhaps more
worldly weapons, were armed in favor of Constantine.
The Eastern churches would be jealous of their happier
Western brethren, and naturally would be eager to
bask in the equal sunshine of imperial favor. At
length, either fearing the eflFect of their prayers with
the Deity whom they addressed,^ or their influence in
alienating the miiids of their votaries from his own
cause to that of him who, in the East, was considered
the champion of the Christian cause, Licinius com-
manded the Christian churches in Pontus to be closed ;
he destroyed some of them, perhaps for defiance of his
edicts. Some acts of persecution took place: the
Christians fled again into the country, and began to
conceal themselves in the woods and caves. Many
instances of violence, some of martyrdom, occurred,^

1 Yit Constant. Women were to be inBtructed by the deaconesses alone.
— Vit Const i. 68.

• 2vvre^i<7$(U yiip oix ifyeiro imkp atrrov riic ebx^y (nwcttJdn 0avA^
TWTo 'XjoyiJ^nevo^j u^ imkp rov ^eo^iXov^ Paai^oc iravra irparretv ^ftag
Kcu rdv i^e^ iXeovaOai neweioro. — Enseb. x. 8.

* Sozomen (H. E. i. 7) asserts that many of the clergy, as well as bishops,
were martyred. Dodwell, however, observes (De Pandtate Martyrum, 91),
'^Caveant fabidatores ne quoe alios sub Licinio martyres faciant pneter-
qoam episcopos." Compare Ruinart There is great difficulty about Basl-
leus, Bishop of Amasa. He is generally reckoned by the Greek writers as a
martyr (see Pagi ad an. 816, n. x.); but he is expressly stated by Phlloetor-

VOL. II. 21

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822 ^ PAGANISM OF LICINIUS. Book IU.

particularly in Pontus. There was a wide-spread ap-
prehension that a nev and general persecution was
about to break out, when the emperor of the West
moved, in the language of the Christian historian,
to rescue the whole of mankind from the tyranny of
one.^

Whether or not, in fact, Licinius avowed the inmii-
nent war to be a strife for mastery between the two
religions, the decisive struggle between the ancient
gods of Rome and the new divinity of the Christians ; *
whether he actually led the chief officers and his most
eminent political partisans into a beautiful consecrated
grove, crowded with the images of the gods ; and ap-
pealed, by the light of blazing torches, and amid the
smoke of sacrifice, to the gods of their ancestors
against his atheistic adversaries, the followers of a for-
eign and unknown deity, whose ignominious sign was
displayed in the van of their armies, — nevertheless,
the propagation of such stories shows how completely,
according to their own sentiments, the interests of
Christianity were identified with the cause of Constan-
tine.^ On both sides were again marshalled all the
supernatural terrors which religious hope or supersti-
tious awe could summon. Diviners, soothsayers, and
Egyptian magicians, animated the troops of Licinius.*
The Christians in the army of Constantino attributed
all his success to the prayers of the pious bishops who
accompanied his army, and especially to the holy

gins (lib. i.)) confirmed by Athanasios (Orat. 1, contra Arianos), to have been
present at the Council of Nicna some years afterwards.

1 Vit Const, ii. 6.

2 'TiraxOeic rtolv i}irioxvovfjivoug Amv Kpar^etv, elc i'^Xffvtafiov trp6nif,
— Sozomen, i. 7.

Sacrifices and divinations were resorted to, and promised to Licinius iini-
▼ersa] empire.

s Vit Constant ii. 4. « Euseb., Vit Constant i. 49.

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Chaf. n. BATTLE OF HADBIANOFLE. 323

Labarum, whose bearer passed unhurt among showers
of fatal javelins.^

The battle of Hadrianople, and the- naval victory of
Crispus, decided the fate of the world, and Battle of

*" HadriaQopIe.

the establishment of Christianity as the reli- aj). 828.
gion of the empire. The death of Licinius re-united
the whole Roman world under the sceptre of Constan-
tine.

Eusebius ascribes to Constantino, during this battle,
an act of Christian mercy, at least as unusual as the
appearance of the banner of the cross at the head of
the Roman army. He issued orders to spare the lives
of his enemies, and offered rewards for all captives
brought in alive. Even if this be not strictly true, its
exaggeration or invention, or even its relation as a
praiseworthy act, shows the new spirit which was work-
ing in the mind of man.^

Among the first acts of the sole emperor of the
world were the repeal of all the edicts of Licinius
against the Cliristians; the release of all prisoners
from the dungeon or the mine, or the servile and
humiliating occupations to which some had been
contemptuously condemned in the manufactories con-
ducted by women ; the recall of all the exiles ; the
restoration of all who had been deprived of their rank
in the army, or in the civil service ; the restitution of
all property of which they had been despoiled, — that
of the martyrs to the legal heirs, where there were no
heirs, to the Church. The property of the churches
was not only restored, but the power to receive dona-
tions in land, already granted to the Western churches,

1 Eosebioa declares that he heard this from the lips of Constantine him-
•elf. One man, who in his panic gave up the cross to another, was imme-
diately transfixed in his flight. No one actnallj around the cross was
wounded.

ft Yit Const ii. 13.

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824 CONDUCT OF CONSTANTINE. Book m.

was extended to the Eastern. The emperor himself
set the example of giving back all that had been cod.-
fiscated to the state.

Gonstantine issued two edicts, recoimting all these
exemptions, restitutions, and privileges ; one addressed
to the churches, the other to the cities of the East :
the latter alone is extant. Its tone might certainly
indicate that Constantine considered the contest with
Licinius as, in some degree, a war of religion. His
own triumph and the fate of his enemies are adduced
as unanswerable evidences to the superioriiy of that
God whose followers had been so cruelly persecuted.
The restoration of the Christians to all their property
and immunities was an act, not merely of justice and
humanity, but of gratitude to the Deity.

But Constantine now appeared more openly to the
whole world as the head of the Christian conamunity.
He sat, not in the Roman senate deliberating on the
aflFairs of the empire, but presiding in a council of
Christian bishops, sununoned from all parts
of the world, to decide, as of infinite impor-
tance to the Roman empire, a contested point of the
Christian faith. The council was held at Nicaea, one
of the most ancient of the Eastern cities. The trans-
actions of the council, the questions which were
agitated before it, and the decrees which it issued, will
be postponed for the present, in order that this impor-
tant controversy, which so long divided Christianity,
may best be related in a continuous narrative: we
pass to the following year.

Up to this period, Christianity had seen much to
oonduotof admire, and little that it would venture to
2*hS^**" disapprove, in the public acts or in the
domestic character of Constantine. His of-

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CHAP.n. TO HIS ENEMIES. 325

fences against the humanity of the Gospel would find
palliation, or rather vindication and approval, in a
warrior and a sovereign. The age was not yet so
fully leavened with Christianity as to condemn the
barbarity of that Roman pride which exposed without
scruple the brave captive chieftains of the German
tribes in the amphitheatre. Again, after the triumph
of Constantino over Maxentius, this bloody spectacle
had been renewed at Treves, on a new victory of Con-
stantino over the Barbarians. The extirpation of the
family of a competitor for the empire would pass as
the usual, perhaps the necessary, policy of the times.
The public hatred would applaud the death of the
voluptuous Maxentius, and that of his family would
be the inevitable consequences of his guilt. Licinius
had provoked his own fate by resistance to the will of
God and his persecution of the religion of Christ.
Nor was the fall of Licinius followed by any general
proscription : his son lived for a few years to be the
undistinguished victim of a sentence which involved
others in whom the public mind took far deeper inter-
est. Licinius himself was permitted to live a short
time at Thessalonica.^ It is said by some that his life
was guaranteed by a solemn oath, and that he was
permitted to partake of the hospitality of the con-
queror.^ Yet his death, though the brother-in-law of
Constantine, was but an expected event.* The tragedy

1 Le Bean (Hist da Bas Empire, i. 220) recites with great fairness the
varying accounts of the death of Licinius, and the motives which are said to
have prompted it But he proceeds to infer that Licinius muxi have been
guilty of some new crime, to induce Constantine to violate his solenm oath.

3 '* Contra rellgionem sacramenti Thessalonicn privatus occisus est" —
Eutrop. lib. x.

* Eusebius says that he was put to death by the laws of war, and openly
approves of his execution and that of the other enemies of God. 'Sdfu^
mDIfiov duvifiva/g rg irpeirway irapediSov Tifiupi^ , , , koI diru^XuvTO,

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826 CRISPUS, SON OF CONSTAirriNE. Book HI.

which took place in Uie family of Constantine betrayed
to the surprised and anxious world, that, if his out-
ward demeanor showed respect or veneration for
Christianity, its milder doctrines had made little im-
pression on the unsoftened Paganism of his heart.

Crispus, the son of Constantine by Minervina, his
A. D. 826. first "^^^j w^ ^ youth of high and brilliant
Sr'tSMtS? promise. In his early years liis educatioa
**°'' had been intrusted to the celebrated Lactan-

tius, and there is reason to suppose that he was im-
bued by his eloquent preceptor with the Christian doo-
trines ; but the gentler sentiments instilled by the new
faith had by no means unnerved the vigor or tamed
the martial activity of youth. Had he been content
with the calmer and more retiring virtues of the Chris-
tian, without displaying the dangerous qualifications
of a warrior and a statesman, he might have escaped
the fatal jealousy of his father, and the arts which
were no doubt employed for his ruin. In his cam-
paign against the Barbarians, Crispus had shown
himself a worthy son of Constantine ; and his naval
victory over the fleet of Licinius had completed the
conquest of the empire. The conqueror of Maxentius
and of Licinius, the undisputed master of the Roman
world, might have been expected to stand superior to
that common failing of weak monarchs, — a jealous
dread of the heir to their throne. The unworthy fears
of Constantine were betrayed by an edict inconsistent
with the early promise of his reign. He had endeav-
ored, soon after his accession, to repress the odious
crime of delation : a rescript now appeared, inviting,

rijv npoarfKOvoav imixovr^^ SUc/fv^ 61 r^ ^eofMxiois avfi^h)t. How sin-
golarly does this contrast with the passage above ! — See p. 823 ( Vit. Const,
ii. 18), — bigotiy and mercy advancing hand in hand; the sterner creed
overpowering the Grospel.

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Chap. H. CRISPUS -LICINIUS. 827

by large reward and liberal promise of favor, those
informations which he had befbre nobly disdained;
and this edict seemed to betray the apprehensions of
the Government, that some widely ramified and darkly
organized conspiracy was afoot. But, if such con-
spiracy existed, the Government refused, by the secrecy
of its own proceedings, to enlighten the public mind.

Rome itself, and the whole Roman world, heard
with horror and amazement, that in the midst of the
solemn festival, which was celebrating with j^^^^
the utmost splendor the twentieth year of the ^!^^'
emperor's reign, his eldest son had been sud- ^'^' *^
denly seized, and, either without trial or after a hur-
ried examination, had been transported to the shore
of Istria, and had perished by an obscure death.^ Nor
did Crispus fall alone ; tlie young Licinius, the nephew
of Constantino, who had been spared after his father's
death and vainly honored with the titie of Caesar,
shared his fate. The sword of justice or of cruelty,
once let loose, raged against those who were suspected
as partisans of the dangerous Crispus, or as implicated
in the wide-spread conspiracy, till the bold satire of
an eminent officer of state did not scruple, in some
lines privately circulated, to compare the splendid but
bloody times with those of Nero.*

But tiiis was only the 'first act of .the domestic trage-

1 Vict Epit in CoDstantino. Eutrop. lib. x. Zosimus, ii. c 29. Sido-
nius, V. Epist 8. Of the ecclesiiutical historians, Philostorgius (lib. ii. 4)
attributed the death of Crispus to the arts of his stepmother. He adds a
strange story, that Constantine was poisoned by his brothers in revenge for
the death of Crispus. Sozomen, while he refutes ib» notion of the connec-
tion of the death of Crispus with the conversion of Constantine, admits the
fiict, I. i. c. 5.

> The Consul Albinus,—

Satnrai auroa iflecla quis requlret?
Sunt haeo genunea sed Neroniana.

SitLApotLw.B,

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328 REilORSE OF CONSTANTINE. Book DEL

dy : the death of the emperor's wife Fausta, the part-
P^j^ ^ ner of twenty years of wedlock, the mother of
^"■*** his three surviving sons, increased the gen-
eral horror. She was suflFocated in a bath, which had
been heated to an insupportable degree of tempera-
ture. Many rumors were propagated throughout the
empire concerning this dark transaction, of which
the real secret was no doubt concealed, if not in the
bosom, within the palace, of Constantine. The awful .
crimes which had thrilled the scene of ancient tragedy
were said to have polluted the imperial chamber.
The guilty stepmother had either, like Phaedra, re-
venged the insensibility of the youthful Crispus by an
accusation of incestuous violence, or the crime, actu-
ally perpetrated, had involved them both in the com-
mon guilt and ruin. In accordance with the former
story, the miserable Constantine had discovered too
late the machinations which had stained his hand
with the blood of a guiltless son : in the agony of his
remorse he had fasted forty days; ho had abstained
from the use of the bath ; he had proclaimed his own
guilty precipitancy, and the innocence of his son, by
raising a golden statue of the murdered Crispus, with
the simple but emphatic inscription, " To my unfor-
tunate son." Tiie Christian mother of Constantine,
Helena, had been the principal agent in the detection
of the wicked Fausta : it was added, that, besides her
unnatural passion for her step-son, she was found to
have demeaned herself to the embraces of a slave.

It is dangerous to attempt to reconcile with proba-
bility these extraordinary events, which so often sur-
pass, in the strange reality of their circumstances, the
wildest fictions. But, according to the ordinary course
of things, Crispus would appear the victim of political

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CHAP.n. PAGAN ACCOUNT OF XmS EVENT. 329

rather than of domestic jealousy. The innocent Li-
cinins might be an object of suspicion, as implicated
in a conspiracy against the power, but not against the
honor, of Constantine. The removal of Crispus opened
the succession of the throne to the sons of Pausta.
The. passion of maternal ambition is much more con-
sistent with human nature than the incestuous love
of a stepmother, advanced in life and with many chil-
dren, towards heB husband's son. The guilt of com-
passing the death of Crispus, whether by the atrocious
accusations of a Phaedra or by the more vulgar arts
of common court intrigue, might come to light at a
later period ; and the indignation of the emperor at
having been deluded into the execution of a gallant
and blameless son, the desire of palliating to the
world and to his own conscience his own criminal and
precipitate weakness by the most unrelenting revenge
on the subtlety with which he had been circumvented,
might madden him to a second act of relentless bar-
barity.

But, at all events, the unanimous consent of the
Pagan and most of the Christian authorities. Pagan ao-
as well as the expressive silence of Eusebius, thiaeTent.
indicates the xmfavorable impression made on the pub-
lic mind by these household barbarities. But the most
remarkable circumstance is the advantage which was
taken of this event by the Pagan party to throw a
dark shade over the conversion of Constantine to the
Christian religion. Zosimus has preserved this re-
port ; but there is good reason for supposing that it
was a rumor, eagerly propagated at the time by tlie
more desponding votaries of Paganism.^ In the deep

1 Gibbon has thrown doubts on the actual death of Fansta.— Vol. iii.
p. 110.

> See Hejme^s note on this passage of Zosimus.

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330 RE&IOBSE OF CONSTANTINE. Book m.

agony of remorse, Constantine eagerly inquired of the
ministers of the ancient religions whether their lus-
trations could purify the soul from the blood of a son.
The unaccommodating priesthood acknowledged the
inefficacy of their rites in a case of such inexpiable
atrocity,^ and Constantine remained to struggle with
the unappeased and unatoned horrors of conscience.
An Egyptian, on his journey from Spain, passed
through Rome, and, being admitted tp the intimacy of
some of the females about the court, explained to the
emperor that the religion of Christ possessed the
power of cleansing the soul from all sin. From that
time, Constantine placed himself entirely in the hands
of the Christians, and abandoned altogether the sacred
rites of his ancestors.

If Constantine at this time had been long an avowed
and sincere Christian, this story falls to the ground ;
but if, according to my view, tliere was still something
of ambiguity in the favor shown by Constantine to
Christianity, if it still had something rather of the
sagacious statesman than of the serious proselyte,
there may be some slight groundwork of truth in this
fiction. Constantine may have relieved a large por-

1 According to Sozomen, whose narrative, as Heyne observes (note on
Zosimus, p. 662), proves that this stoiy was not the invention of ZoeimusY
but rather the version of the event current in the Pagan world, it was not a
Pagan priest, but a Platonic philosopher, named Sopater, who thus denied
the efficacy of any rite or ceremony to wash the soul clean fh>m filial blood.
It is true that neither the legal ceremonial of Paganism nor the principles
of the later Platonism could afford any hope or pardon to the murderer.
Julian, speaking of Constantine (in Caesar), insinuates the facility with
which Christianity admitted the fitai^ovoc, as well as other atrocious delin-
quents, to the divine foi^veness.

The bitterness with which the Pagan party judged of the measures of
Constantine is shown in the turn which Zosimus gives to his edict discour-
aging divination : " Having availed himself of the advantages of divination,
which had predicted his own splendid successes, he was jealous lest the pxo*
phetic art should be equally prodigal of its glorious promises to others."

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CHAP.n. BEMORSE OF CONSTANTINK 831

Hon of his subjects from grievous oppression, and re-
stored their plundered property ; he may have made
munificent donations for the maintenance of their
ceremonial ; he may have permitted the famous Laba-
rum to exalt the courage of his Christian soldiery;
he may have admitted their representatives to his
court, endeavored to aUay their fierce feuds in Africa,
and sanctioned by his presence the meeting of the
Council of Nicsda to decide on the new controversy
which began to distract the Christian world ; he may
have proclaimed himself, in short, the worshipper of
the Christians' God, whose favorites seemed likewise
to be those of fortune, and whose enemies were de-
voted to ignominy and disaster (such is his constant
language) : ^ but of tlie real character and the pro-
foimder truths of the religion he may still have been
entirely, or perhaps in some degree disdainfully, igno*
rant. The lofty indiflFerentism of the emperor pre-
dominated over the obedience of the convert towards
the new faith.

But it was now the 9nan, abased by remorse, by the
terrors of conscience, it may be by superstitious hor-
rors, who sought refuge against the divine Nemesis,
the avenging Furies, which haunted his troubled spirit.
It would be the duty as well as the interest of an in-
fluential Christian to seize on the mind of the royal
proselyte, and, while it was thus prostrate in its weak-
ness, to enforce more strongly the personal sense of
religion upon the afficted soul. And if the emperor was
understood to have derived the slightest consolation

1 It is lemarkable in all the proclamations and docmnents which Euse-
bins assigns to Constantine, some even written hy his own hand, how almost
exclusively he dweUs on this worldly superiority of the God adored by the
Christians over those of the Heathen, and the visible temporal advantages
which attend on the worship of Christianity. His own victory and the
disasters of his enemies are his conclusive evidences of Christianity.

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832 BEMORSE OF CONSTANTINE. Book UL

under this heavy burden of conscious guilt from the
doctrines of Christianity ; if his remorse and despair
were allayed or assuaged, nothing was more likely than
that Paganism, which constantly charged Christianity
with receiving the lowest and most depraved of man-
kind among its proselytes, should aflFect to assume the
tone of superior moral dignity, to compare its more
uncompromising moral austerity with the easier terms
on which Christianity appeared to receive the repentant
sinner. In the bitterness of wounded pride and in-
terest at the loss of an imperial worshipper, it would
revenge itself by ascribing his change exclusively to
the worst hour of his life, and to the least exalted mo-
tive. It is a greater diflSculty, that, subsequent to this
period, the mind of Constantino appears to have re-
lapsed in some degree to its imperfectly unpaganized
Christianity. His conduct became ambiguous as before,
floating between a decided bias in favor of Christianity,
and an apparent design to harmonize with it some of
the less oflFensive parts of Heathenism. Yet it is by
no means beyond the common inconsistency of human
nature, that, with the garb and attitude, Constantine
should throw oflF the submission, of a penitent. Bis
mind, released from its burden, might resume its an-
cient vigor, and assert its haughty superiority over the
religious as well as over the civil allegiance of his
subjects. A new object of ambition was dawning on
his mind ; a new and absorbing impulse was given to
all his thoughts, — the foundation of the second Rome,
the new imperial city on the Bosphorus.

Nor was this sole and engrossing object altogether
unconnected with the sentiments which arose out of
this dark transaction. Rome had become hateful to
Constantine; for, whether on this point identifying

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Chap. II. INSOLENCE OF THE POPULACE. 883

herself with the Pagan feelmg, and tauntmg the crime
of the Christian with partial acrimony, or presnrmis-
ing the design of Constantino to reduce her to the
second city of the empire, Rome assumed the unwonted
liberty of insulting the emperor. The pasquinade
which compared his days to those of Nero was affixed
to the gates of the palace ; and so galling was the in-
solence of the populace, that the emperor is reported to
have consulted his brothers on the expediency of call-
ing out his guards for a general massacre. Milder
counsels prevailed; and Constantino took the more
tardy, but more deep-felt, 'revenge of transferring the
seat of empire from the banks of the Tiber to the
shores of the Bosphorus.

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834 FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE Book m.

CHAPTER m.

FonndAtioii of Constantinople.

The foundation of Constantinople marks one of the
Foundation great pcriods of change in the annals of
nopie the world. Both its immediate ^ and its re-

moter connection with the history of Christianity are
among those results which contributed to its influence
on the destinies of mankind. The removal of the seat
of empire from Rome might, indeed, at first appear to
strengthen the decaying cause of Paganism. The
senate became the sanctuary — the aristocracy of
Rome, in general, the unshaken adherents — of the
ancient religion. But its more remote and eventual
consequences were favorable to the consolidation and
energy of the Christian power in the West. The
absence of a secular competitor allowed the papal
authority to grow up and to develop its secret
strength. By the side of the imperial power, per-
petually contrasted with the pomp and majesty of
the throne, constantly repressed in his slow but steady
advancement to supremacy or obliged to contest every
point with a domestic antagonist, the pope would
hardly have gained more political importance than
the Patriarch of Constantinople. The extinction of
the Western empire, which indeed had long held its

1 Constantine seized the property of some of the temples, for the expense
of building Constantinople, but did not change the established worship; so
says Libanias.

Tiyf Kara vofwvg <fe ^epairdac kidvriosv oiidk h, — Vol. ii. p. 162.

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CHAP.m. FAVORABLE TO CHRISTIANITT. 886

court in Milan or Ravenna rather than in the ancient
capital, its revival only beyond the Alps, left all the
awe which attached to the old Roman name, or which
followed the possession of the imperial city, to gather
round the tiara of the pontiflF. In any other city, the
pope would in vain have asserted his descent from
St. Peter : the long habit of connecting together the
name of Rome with supreme dominion, silently co-
operated in establishing the spiritual despotism of the
Papal See.

Even in its more immediate influence, the rise of
Constantinople was favorable to the progress &Torabie to
of Christianity. It removed the seat of gov- <^**^'**^^-
ernment from the presence of those awful temples to
which ages of glory had attached an inalienable
sanctity, 'and with which the piety of all the greater
days of the republic had associated the supreme
dominion and the majesty of Rome. It broke the last
link which combined the pontifical and the imperial
character. The emperor of Constantinople, even if
he had remained a Pagan, would have lost that power
which was obtained over men's minds by his appear-
ing in the chief place in all the religious pomps and
processions, some of which were as old as Rome itself.
The senate, and even the people, might be transferred
to the new city : the deities of Rome clung to their
native home, and would ' have refused to abandon
their ancient seats of honor and worship.

Constantinople arose, if not a Christian, certainly
not a Pagan city. The new capital of the constantf-
world had no ancient deities, whose worship ?hri2tum
was inseparably connected with her more "^^•
majestic buildings and solemn customs. The temples
of old Byzantium had fallen with the rest of the

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886 BUILDING OF THE CITY. Book HI.

public edifices, when Severus, in hia vengeance, razed
the rebellious city to the ground. Byzantium had
resumed sufficient strength and importance to resist a
siege by Gonstantine himself in the earlier part of liis
reign ; and some temples had re-appeared during the
reconstruction of the city.^ The fanes of the Sun, of
the Moon, and of Aphrodite, were permitted to stand
in the Acropolis, though deprived of their revenues.^
That of Castor and Pollux formed part of the Hippo-
drome, and the statues of those deities who presided
over the games stood undisturbed till the reign of
Theodosius the Younger.*-

Once determined to found a rival Rome on the
Bonding of shores of the Bosphorus, the ambition of Con-
tt»«**y- Stan tine was absorbed by this great object.
No expense was spared to raise a city worthy of the
seat of empire ; no art or influence, to collect inhabi-
tants worthy of such a city. Policy forbade any
measure which would alienate the minds of any class
or order who might add to the splendor or swell the
population of Byzantium, and policy was the ruling
principle of Constantine in the conduct of the whole
transaction. It was the emperor whose pride was now
pledged to the accomplishqoient of his scheme with
that magnificence which became the second founder
of the empire, rather than the exclusive patron of one
religious division of his subjects. Constantinople was
not only to bear the name, it was to wear an exact
resemblance, of the elder Rome. The habitations of

1 There is a long list of these temples in V. Hammer^s Onstandnopel
nnd die Bosporos, i. p. 189, &c Many of them are named in Gyllius; but
it does not seem clear at what period they ceased to exist. The Paschal
Chronicle, referred to by V. Hammer, says nothing of their conversion into
churches by Constantine.

> MalaUi, Constantinus, z. * Zosimus, ii. 81.

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Chap.UI. building OF THE CITY. 837

men, and the public buildings for business, for con-
Tenience, for amusement, or for splendor, demanded
the first care of the founder. The imperial palace
arose, in its dimensions and magnificence equal to
that in the older city. The skill of the architect was
lavished on the patrician mansions, which were so
faithfully to represent to the nobles, who obeyed the
imperial invitation, the dwellings of their ancestors in
the ancient Capitol, that their wondering eyes could
Bcarcely believe their removal : their Penates might
seem to have followed them.^ The senate-house, the
Augusteum, was prepared for their counsels. For the
mass of the people, markets and foimtains and aque-
ducts, theatres and hippodromes, porticos, basilicas,
and forums, rose with the rapidity of enchantment.
One class of buildings alone was wanting. K some
temples were allowed to stand, it is clear that no new
sacred edifices were erected to excite and gratify the
religious feelings of the Pagan party ; and the build-
ing of the few churches which are ascribed to the
pious munificence of Constantino, seems slowly to
have followed the extraordinary celerity with which
the city was crowded with civil edifices.^ A century

1 Sozomen, ii. 8. In the next reign, however, Themistins admits the
reluctance of the eenaton to remove: nporov ftkv im' dvayicrfc tnfjtaro ^
yepovaia, Koi n fifjo^ TtfMjpiag kdoKu fiff^oTiavv dta^petv. — Orat Protrep.
p. 67.

s Of the churches built by Constantine, one was dedicated to S. Sophia
(the supreme Wisdom); the other to Eirene, Peace: a philosophic Pagan
might have admitted the propriety of dedicating temples to each of these
abstract names. The consecrating to individual saints was of a later period.
— Soz. ii. 8. The ancient Temple of Peace, which afterwards formed part
of the Santa Sophia, was appropriately transformed into a Christian church.
The Church of the Twelve Apostles appears, from Eusebius ( Vit. Const iv.
58), to have been built in the last year of Constantine's reign and of his life,
as a burial place for himself and his family. Sozomen, indeed, says that
Constantino embellished the city no^Xoiq ndl fityiarotc eiKTijplotc oLkxh/q,
VOL. II. 22

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838 CEREMONLA.L OF THE FOUNDATION. Book IIL

after, — a century during which Christianity had been
recognized as the religion of the empire, — the me-
tropolis contained only fourteen churches, one for
each of its wards or divisions. Yet Constantino by
no means neglected those measures which might con-
nect the new city with the religious feelings of man-
kind. Heaven inspired, commanded, sanctified, the
foundation of the second Rome. The ancient ritual
of Roman Paganism contained a solemn ceremony,
which dedicated a new city to the protection of the
Deity.

An imperial edict announced to the world, that
Ceremonial Constautinc, by the command of God, had
dation. founded the eternal city.^ When the empe-
ror walked, with a spear in his hand, in the front of
the stately procession which was to trace the bounda-
ries of Constantinople, the attendants followed in
wonder his still-advancing footsteps, which seemed as
if they never would reach the appointed limit. One
of them, at length, humbly inquired how much farther
he proposed to advance. " When he that goes before
me," replied the emperor, "shall stop." But, how-
ever the Deity might have intimated his injunctions to
commence the work, or whatever the nature of the
invisible guide which, as he declared, thus directed
his steps, this vague appeal to the Deity would impress
with the same respect all his subjects, and by its im-
partial ambiguity offend none. In earlier times the
Pagans would have bowed down in homage before
this manifestation of the nameless tutelar deity of
the new city ; at the present period, they had become
familiarized, as it were, with the concentration of

1 On the old ceremony of founding a city, see Hartnng, Religion der
Romer, i. 114.

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Chap. in. SPLENDOR OF THE CITY. 339

Olympus into one Supreme Being.^ Tlie Christians
would, of course, assert the exclusive right of the one
true God to this appellation, and attribute to his in-
spiration and guidance every important act of the
Christian emperor.^

But, if splendid temples were not erected to the^
decaying deities of Paganism, their images were set
up, mingled indeed with other noble works of art, in
all the public places of Constantinople. If the in-
habitants were not encouraged, at least they were not
forbidden, to pay divine honors to the immortal sculp-
tures of Phidias and Praxiteles, which were brought
from all quarters to adorn the squares and baths of
Byzantium. The whole Roman world contributed to
the splendor of Constantinople. The tutelar deities
of all the cities of Greece (their influence, of course,
much enfeebled by their removal from their local
sanctuaries) were assembled, — the Minerva of Lyn-
dus, the Cybele of Mount Dindymus (which was said
to have been placed there by the Argonauts), the
Muses of Helicon, the Amphitrite of Rhodes, the Pan
consecrated by united Greece after the defeat of the
Persians, the Delphic Tripod. The Dioscuri over-
looked the Hippodrome. At each end of the principal
forum were two shrines, one of which held the statue
of Cybele, but deprived of her lions and her hands,
from the attitude of command distorted into that of a
suppliant for the welfare of the city ; in the other was

1 The expression of the Pagan Zosimus shows how completely this lan-
guage had been adopted by the Heathen : irac ytip TCP^vo^ ty ^eUf) (ipaxi>€,
aei re ^in-c, kcU iaofxeWf). He is speaking of an omcle, in which tlie Pagan
party discovered a prediction of the future glory of Byzantium. One letter
less would make it the sentence of a Christian appealing to prophecy.

* At a later period, the Virgin Maty obtained the honor of having
inspu^d the foundation of Constantinople, of which she became the tutelary
guardian, I had almost written. Deity.

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340 DEDICATION OF THE CITY. Book HL

the Fortune of Byzantium.^ To some part of the
Christian community this might appear to be leading,
as it were, the gods of Paganism in triumph: the
Pagans were shocked on their part by their violent
removal from their native fanes, and their wanton
mutilation. Yet the Christianity of that age, in full
possession of the mind of Constantino, would sternly
have interdicted the decoration of a Christian city
with these idols; the workmanship of Phidias or of
Lysippus would have found no favor, when lavished
on images of the Demons of Paganism.

The ceremonial of the dedication of the city^ was
attended by still more dubious circumstances. After
a most splendid exhibition of chariot games in the
Hippodrome, the emperor moved in a magnificent car
through the most public part of the city, encircled by
all his guards in the attire of a religious ceremonial
and bearing torches in their hands. The emperor
himself held a golden statue of the Fortune of the city
in his hands. An imperial edict enacted the annual
celebration of this rite. On the birthday of the city,
the gilded statue of himself, thus bearing the same
golden image of Fortune, was annually to be led
through the Hippodrome to the foot of the imperial
throne, and to receive the adoration of the reigning
emperor. The lingering attachment of Constantino to

1 Euseb., Vit Const iii. 54. Sozomen, il. 6. Oodinus, De Grig. C. P.
80^2. Le Beau, i. 80.

Eusebius would persuade his readers that these statues were set up in the
public places to excite the general contempt Zosimus admits with bitter-
ness that they were mutilated from want of respect to the ancient religion. — *
ii. 81. Compare Socr., Ec. Hist. 1-16.

Read, too (some lines are worth reading), the description by Christodonu
of the statues in the public gymnasium of Zeuxippus. Deiphobus is fine.
There are also, in strange assemblage, Venus (Cypris), Julius Cttsar, Plato,
Hercules, and Homer. — Antholog. Palat 1. 87.

3 Paschal Chronicle, p. 689, edit Bonn.

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Chap. m. STATUE OF CONSTANTINE. 841

the favorite superstition of his earlier days may bo
traced on still better authority. The Grecian worship
of Apollo had been exalted into the Oriental venera-
tion of the Sun, as the visible representative of the
Deity ; and of all the statues which were introduced
from different quarters, none were received with
greater honor than those of Apollo. In one part of
the city stood the Pythian, in the other the Sminthian
deity .^ The Delphic Tripod, which, according to Zosi-
mus, contained an image of the god, stood upon the
column of the three* twisted serpents, supposed to rep-
resent the mythic Python. But on a still loftier, the
famous pillar of porphyry, stood an image in statu* of
wliich (if we are to credit modern authority ; ^"«*"*^«'
and the more modern our authority, the less likely is
it to have invented so singular a statement) Constan-
tine dared to mingle together the attributes of the
Sun, of Christ, and of himself.^ According to one tra-
dition, this pillar was based, as it were, on another
superstition. The venerable Palladium itself, surrep-
titiously conveyed from Rome, was buried beneath it, •
and thus transferred the eternal destiny of the old to
the new capital. The piUar, formed of marble and of
porphyry, rose to the height of a hundred and twenty
feet. The colossal image on the top was that of Apollo,
either from Phrygia or from Athens. But the head of
Constantine had been substituted for that of the god.
The sceptre proclaimed the dominion of the world ;
and it held in its hand the globe, emblematic of uni-
versal empire. Around the head, instead of rays, were
fixed the nails of the true cross. Is this Paganism

1 Euseb., Vit Conat. iii. 64.

3 The author of the Antiq. Constantinop. apud Bandari. See Von Ham-
mer, Constantinopel und die Bosporus, L 162. Philostorgius says that the
Christians worshipped this image. — iL 17.

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342 PBOGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. Book IIL

approximating to Christianity, or Christianity degen-
erating into Paganism ? Thus Constantine, as founder
of the new capital, might appear to some still to main-
tain the impartial dignity of emperor of the world,
presiding with serene indifference over the various nsr
tions, orders, and religious divisions which peopled his
dominions ; admitting to the privileges and advantages
of citizens in the new Rome all who were tempted to
make their dwelling around her seat of empire.

Yet, even during the reign of Constantine, no doubt,
Pngng^^f the triumphant progress of Christianity tend-
chibtianity. ^^ ^^ cffacc OF to obscure these lingering
vestiges of the ancient religion. If here and there
remained a shrine or temple belonging to Polytheism,
built in proportion to the narrow circuit and moderate
population of old Byzantium, the Christian churches,
though far from numerous, were gradually rising, in
their dimensions more suited to the magnificence and
populousness of the new city, and in form proclaiming
the dominant faith of Constantinople. The Christians
were most likely to crowd into a new city ; probably
their main strength still lay in the mbrcantile part of
the community : interest and religion would combine
in urging them to settle in this promising emporium
of trade, where their religion, if it did not reign alone
and exclusive, yet maintained an evident superiority
over its decaying rival. Those of the old aristocracy
who were inclined to Christianity would be much more
loosely attached to their Roman residences, and would
be most inclined to obey the invitation of the emperor,
while the large class of the indifferent would follow at
the same time the religious and political bias of the
sovereign. Where the attachment to the old religion
was so slight and feeble, it was a trifling sacrifice to

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CHAP.m. THE AMPHITHEATRE. 843

ambition or interest to embrace the new ; particularly
where there was no splendid ceremonial, no connec-
tion of the priestly oflBce with the higher dignity of the
state ; nothing, in short, which could enlist either old
reverential feelings or the imagination in the cause of
Polytheism. The sacred treasures, transferred from
the Pagan temples to the Christian city, sank more
and more into national monuments, or curious remains
of antiquity ; their religious significance was gradually
forgotten; they became, in the natural process of
things, a mere collection of works of art.

In other respects, Constantinople was not a Roman
city. An amphitheatre, built on the restora- The amphi-
tion of the city after the siege of Severus, was
permitted to remain ; but it was restricted to exhibi-
tions of wild beasts : the first Christian city was never
disgraced by the bloody spectacle of gladiators.^
There were theatres indeed; but it may be doubted
whether the noble religious drama of Greece ever ob-
tained popularity in Constantinople. The chariot race
was the amusement which absorbed all others ; and to
this, at first, as it was not necessarily connected with
the Pagan worship, Christianity might be more indul-
gent. How this taste grew into a passion, and this
passion into a frenzy, the later annals of Constantino-
ple bear melancholy witness. Beset with powerfiil
enemies without, oppressed by a tyrannous government
within, the people of Constantinople thought of noth-
ing but the color of their faction in the Hippodrome ;

1 An edict of Constantme (Cod. Theod. xv. 12), if it did not altogether
abolish these sanguinary shows, restricted them to particular occasions.
" Cruenta spectacula in otio civili, et domestic^ quiete non placent.'* Crimi-
nals were to be sent to the mines. But it would seem tliat captives taken in
war might still be exposed in the amphitheatre. In fact, these bloody exhi-
bitions resisted some time longer the progress of Christian humanity.

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844 ANCIENT TEMPLES. Book IIL

and these more engrosaing and maddening contentions
even silenced the animosity of religious dispute.

During the foundation of Constantinople, the empe-
ror might appear to the Christians to have relapsed
from the head of the Christian division of his subjects,
into the common sovereign of the Roman world. In
this respect, his conduct did not ratify the promise of
liis earlier acts in the East. He had not only restored
Christianity, depressed first by the cruelties of Maxi-
min, and afterwards by the violence of Licinius, but in
many cases he had lent his countenance or his more
active assistance, to the rebuilding their churches on a
more imposing plan. Yet, to all outward appearance,
the world was still Pagan : every city seemed still to
repose under the tutelary gods of the ancient religion :

Ancient evcrywhcrc the temples rose above the build-

*«°p^- ings of men. If here and there a Christian
church, in its magnitude, or in the splendor of its
architecture, might compete with the solid and elegant
fanes of antiquity, the Christians had neither ventured
to expel them from their place of honor, nor to appro-
priate to their own use those which were falling into
neglect or decay. As yet, there had been no invasion
but on the opinions and moral influence of Poly-
theism.

The temples, indeed, of Pagan worship, though sub-
sequently, in some instances, converted to Christian
uses, were not altogether suited to the ceremonial of
Christianity.^ The Christians might look on their
stateliest buildings with jealousy, — hardly with envy.
Whether raised on the huge substructures, and in the

1 Compare an excellent memoir by M. Quatremere de Quincy on the
' means of lighting the ancient temples (M^ni. de Tlnstitat, iii. 171), and
Hope on Architecture.

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Chap. in. ANCIENT TEMPLES. 845

immense masses of the older Asiatic style, as at Baal-
bec, or the original Temple at Jerusalem; whether
built on tlie principles of Grecian art, when the secret
of vaulting over a vast building seems to have been
unknown ; or after the general introduction of the arch
by the Romans had allowed the roof to spread out to
ampler extent, — still the actual enclosed temple was
rarely of great dimensions.^ The largest among the
Greeks were hypaethral, open to the sky.^ If we judge
from the temples crowded together about the Forum,
those in Rome contributed to the splendor of the city
rather by their number than by their size. The rites
of Polytheism, in fact, collected together their vast
assemblages rather as spectators than as worshippers.^
The altar itself, in general, stood in the open air, in
the court before the temple, where the smoke might
find free vent, and rise in its grateful odor to the heav-
enly dwelling of the gods. The body of the worship-
pers, therefore, stood in the courts or the surrounding
porticos. They might approach individually, and
make their separate libation or offering, and then re-
tire to a convenient distance, where they might watch
the movements of the ministering priest, receive his
announcement of the favorable or sinister signs discov-
ered in the victim, or listen to the hymn, which was
the only usual form of adoration or prayer. However

1 M. Qnatrem^re de Quincj gives the size of some of the ancient temples:
Juno at Agrigentom, 116 (Paris) feet; Concord, 120; Piestam, 110; Theseus,
100; Jupiter at Ol^-mpia, or Minerva at Athens, 220-280; Jupiter at Agri-
gentum, 822; Sellnus, 820; Ephesus, 850; Apollo Dindymus at Miletus, 860.
— p. 196.

^ The real hjrpiethral temples were to particular divinities, — Jupiter Ful-
gurator, Ccalum, Sol, Luna.

8 £leusi8, the scene of the mjsteries, of aU the ancient temples had the
largest nave : it was " turbie theatralis capadssimum." — Vitruv. vii. 'Ox^M*
^earpov 6e^ae9ai dwofuvov, — Strabo.

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346 BASILICAS. Book m.

Christianity might admit gradations in its several
classes of worshippers, and assign its separate station
according to the sex, or tlie degree of advancement in
the religions initiation ; however the penitents might
be forbidden, nntil reconciled with the Church, or the
catechumens before they were initiated into the com-
munity, to penetrate beyond the outer portico, or the
first inner division in the church, — yet the great mass
of a Christian congregation must be received within
the walls of the building ; and the service consisting
not merely in ceremonies performed by the priesthood,
but in prayers, to which all present were expected to
respond, and in oral instruction, the actual edifice
therefore required more ample dimensions.

In many towns there was another public building,
the Basilica, or Hall of Justice,^ singularly
adapted for the Christian worship. This
was a large chamber, of an oblong form, with a plain
flat exterior wall. The pillars, which in the temples
were without, stood within the basilica ; and tlie porch,
or that which in the temple was an outward portico,
was contained within the basilica. This hall was thus
divided by two rows of columns into a central avenue,
with two side aisles. The outward wall was easily
pierced for windows, without damaging the symmetry
or order of the architecture. In the one the male, in
the other the female, appellants to justice waited their
turn.2 The three longitudinal avenues were crossed

1 *' Le Basilique fbt I'ddifice des anciens, qui convint k la calibration de
ses myst^res. La vaste capacite de son intdrieor, lea dixisioos de son plan,
les grandes oavertures, qui introduisaient de toutes parts la lumi^re dans
son enceinte, le tribunal qui devint la place des c^l^brans, et du chocur, tout
se trouva en rapport avec les pratiques du nouveau culte." — Q. de Quincy,
p. 178. See Hope on Architecture, p. 87.

^ According to Bingham (Iviii. c. 8), the women occupied gaUeries in

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Chap. HI. BASILICAS. 847

by one in a transverse direction, elevated a few steps,
and occupied by the advocates, notaries, and others
employed in the public business. At the farther end,
opposite to the central avenue, the building swelled
out into a semicircular recess, .with a ceiling rounded
off: it was called absis in the Greek, and in Latin
tribunal. Here sat the magistrate with his assessors,
and hence courts of justice were called tribunals.

The arrangement of this building coincided with
remarkable propriety with the distribution of a Chris-
tian congregation.^ Tlie sexes retained their separate
places in the aisles; the central avenue became the
nave, so called from the fanciful analogy of the church
to the ship of St. Peter. The transept, the Br^fm, or
chores, was occupied by the inferior clergy and the sing-
ers.2 The bishop took the throne of the magistrate,
and the superior clergy ranged on each side on the
seats of the assessors.

Before the throne of the bishop, either within or on
the verge of the recess, stood the altar. This was
divided from the nave by the cancelli, or rails ; from
whence hung curtains, which, during the celebration
of the communion, separated the participants from
the rest of the congregation.

As these buildings were numerous, and attached to
every imperial residence, they might be bestowed at
once on the Christians, without either interfering with
the course of justice, or bringing the religious feelings
of the hostile parties into collision.® Two, the Sesso-

each aisle above the men. This sort of separation may have been borrowed
from the synagogue: probably the practice was not uniform.

1 Some few churches were of an octagonal form; some in that of a cross.
See Bingham, 1. viii. c. 8.

s Apost. Const 1. il. c. 67.

< There were eighteen at Some : many of these basilicsB had become ex*

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848 BELATIYE POSITION OF Book IIL

riau and the Lateran, were granted to the Roman
Christians by Constantino. And the basilica appears
to have been the usual form of building in the West,
though — besides the porch, connected with, or rather
included within, the building, which became the Nar-
thex, and was occupied by the catechumens and the
penitents, and in which stood the piscina, or font of
baptism — there was in general an outer open court,
surrounded with colonnades. This, as we have seen
in the description of the church at Tyre, was gene-
ral in the East, where the churches retained probably
more of the templar form; while in Constantinople,
where they were buildings raised from the ground,
Constantine appears to have followed the form of the
basilica.

By the consecration of these basilicas to the pur-
poses of Christian worship, and the gradual erection
Relative of large churches in many of the Eastern
?SsSai5ty cities, Christianity began to assume an out-
toa. "**"' ward form and dignity commensurate with
its secret moral influence. In imposing magnitude,
if not in the grace and magnificence of its architec-
ture, it rivalled the temples of antiquity. But as yet
it had neither the power, nor probably the inclination,
to array itself in the spoils of Paganism. Its aggres-
sion was still rather that of fair competition than of
hostile destruction. It was content to behold the
silent courts of the Pagan fanes untrodden but by a
few casual worshippers ; altars without victims ; thin
wreaths of smoke rising where the air used to be

changes, or places for general business. Among the Roman basilics P. Vio-
tor reckons the Basilics Argentariorom. — Ciampini, tom. i. p. 8.

Some basilicae were of a ver>- large.size. One is described by the younger
Pliny, in which one hundred and eighty judges were seated, with a vast mul-
titude of advocates and auditors. — Plin., Epist vi. 88.

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Chap. m. CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM. 849

clouded with the reek of hecatombs ; the priesthood
murmuring in bitter envy at the throngs which passed
by the porticos of their temples towards the Christian
church. The direct interference with the freedom of
Pagan worship seems to have been confined to the
suppression of those Eastern rites which were offen-
sive to public morals. Some of the Syrian temples
retained the obscene ceremonial of the older Nature-
worship. Religious prostitution, and other monstrous
enormities, appeared under the form of divine adora-
tion. Tlie same rites which had endangered the
fidelity of the ancient Israelites shocked the severe
purity of the Christians. A temple in Syria Temples
of the female principle of generation, which ~pp"*^-
the later Greeks identified with their Aphrodite, was
defiled by these unspeakable pollutions : it was levelled
to the ground by the emperor's command ; the recesses
of the sacred grove laid open to the day, and the rites
interdicted.^ A temple of jEsculapius at -^gae, in
Cilicia, fell under the same proscription. The mirac-
ulous cures pretended to be wrought in this temple,
where the suppliants passed the night, appear to have
excited the jealousy of the Christians ; and this was,
perhaps, the first over* act of hostility against the
established Paganism.^ In many other places, the
frauds of the priesthood were detected by the zealous
incredulity of the Christians ; and Polytheism, feebly
defended by its own party, at least left to its fate by
the Government, assailed on all quarters by an active
and persevering enemy, endured affront, exposure,
neglect, if not with the dignified patience of martyr-
dom, with the sullen equanimity of indifference.
Palestine itself, and its capital, Jerusalem, waa an

1 EoMb., Vit ConBt. iil. 66. * Ibid. iii. 66.

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850 CHRISTIANITY AT JERUSALEM. Book HI.

open province, of which Christianity took entire and
almost undisputed possession. Paganism, in the adja-
cent regions, had built some of its most splendid
temples ; the later Roman architecture at Gcrasa, at
Petra, and at Baalbec, appears built on the massive
and enormous foundations of the older native struc-
tures. But in Palestine Proper it had made no strong
settlement. Temples had been raised by Hadrian, in
his new city, on the site of Jerusalem. One dedicated
to Aphrodite occupied the spot which Christian tradi-
tion or later invention asserted to be the sepulchre of
Christianity Christ.^ The prohibition issued by Hadrian
fttJeroMiem. agaiust thc admissiou of the Jews into the
Holy City, doubtless was no longer enforced ; but,
though not forcibly depressed by public authority,
Judaism itself waned, in its own native territory,
before the ascendency of Christianity.

It was in Palestine that the change which had been
slowly workmg into Christianity itself, began to assume
a more definite and apparent form. The religion re-
issued as it were from its cradle, in a character, if
foreign to its original simplicity, singularly adapted to
achieve and maintain its triumph over the human
mind. It no longer confined itself to its purer moral
influence ; it was no more a simple spiritual faith,
despising all those accessories which captivate the
senses, and feed the imagination with new excitement.
It no longer disdained the local sanctuary, nor stood
independent of those associations with place, which
beseemed an universal and spiritual religion. It
began to have its hero-worship, its mythology ; it began
to crowd the mind with images of a secondary degree

1 This temple was improbably said to have been built on this spot by
Hadrian to insult the Christians; but Hadrian's hostility was against the re-
bellious Jews, not against the Christians.

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CHAP.m. THE HOLT SEPULCHBE. 851

of sanctity, but which enthralled and kept in captivity
those who were not ripe for the pure moral conception
of the Deity, and the impersonation of the Godhead
in Jesus Christ. It was, as might not unreasonably
be anticipated, a female, the empress Helena, the
mother of Constantine, who gave, as it were, this new
coloring to Christian devotion. In Palestine, indeed,
where her pious activity was chiefly employed, it was
the memory of the Redeemer himself which hallowed
the scenes of his life and death to the imagination
of the believer. Splendid churches arose over the
place of his birth at Bethlehem; that of his burial,
near the supposed Calvary ; that of his ascension, on
the Mount of Olives. So far the most spiritual piety
could not hesitate to proceed; to such natural and
irresistible claims upon ita veneration no Christian
heart could refuse to yield. The cemeteries of their
brethren had, from the commencement of Christianity,
exercised a strong influence over the imagination.
They had frequently, in times of trial, been the only
places of religious assemblage. When hallowed to
the feelings by the remains of friends, of bishops, of
martyrs, it was impossible to approach them without
the profoundest reverence ; and the transition from
reverence to veneration — to adoration — was too easy
and imperceptible to awaken the jealousy of that
exclusive devotion due to God and the Redeemer.
The sanctity of the place where the Redeemer was
supposed to have been laid in the sepulchre, was still
more naturally and intimately associated with the
purest sentiments of devotion.

But the next step, the discovery of the true cross,
was more important. It materialized, at once, the
spiritual worship of Christianity. It was reported

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862 CHURCHES BUn.T IN PALESTINE. Book IH.

throughout wondering Christendom, that tradition, or
a vision, having revealed the place of the Holy Sepul-
chre, the fane of Venus had been thrown down by the
imperial command, excavations had b^en made, the
Holy Sepulchre had come to light, and with the Sepul-
chre three crosses, with the inscription originally writ-
ten by Pilate in three languages over that of Jesus.
As it was doubtful to which of the crosses the tablet
with the inscription belonged, a miracle decided to the
perplexed believers the claims of the genuine cross.*
The precious treasure was divided: part, enshrmed
in a silver case, remained at Jerusalem, from whence
pilgrims constantly bore fragments of the still vege-
tating wood to the West, till enough was accumulated
in the different churches to build a ship of war. Part
was sent to Constantinople: the nails of the passion
of Christ were turned into a bit for the war-horse of
the emperor, or, according to another account, repre-
sented the rays of the sun around the head of his
statue.

A magnificent church, called at. first the Church
churchei of the Rcsurrectiou CAnastasis), afterwards

built in , - , XT 1 <-. 1 1

Palestine, that of the Holy Sepulchre, rose on the
sacred spot hallowed by this discovery, in which from
that time a large part of the Christian world has ad-
dressed its unquestioning orisons. It stood in a large
open court, with porticos on each side, with the usual
porch, nave, and choir. The nave was inlaid with

1 The excited state of the ChriBtian mind, and the tendency to this mate-
lialization of Christianitj*, may be estimated by tiie nndoubting credality
with which they entertained the improbable notion that the crosses were
buried with oiur Saviour, not only that on which He suffered, but those of the
two thieves also. From the simple account of the burial in the Gospels, how
singular a change to that of the discovezy of the cross in the ecclesiastical hla-
toriaos I — Socrates, 1 17. Sozomen, ii. 1. Theodoret, L 18.

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Chap. IH. CHURCHES BUH-T IN PALESTINE. 368

precious marbles; and the roof, overlaid with gold,
showered down a flood of light over the whole build-
ing ; the roofs of the aisles were likewise overlaid with
gold. At the farther end arose a dome supported by
twelve pillars, in commemoration of the Twelve Apos-
tles ; the capitals of these were silver vases. Within
the church was another court, at the extremity of
which stood the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, lavishly
adorned with gold and precious stones, as it were to
perpetuate the angelic glory which streamed forth on
the day of the resurrection.^

Another sacred place was purified by the command
of Constantino, and dedicated to Christian worship*
Near Hebron* there was the celebrated oak or tere-
binth tree of Mamre, which tradition pointed out as
the spot where the angels appeared to Abraham. It is
singular that the Heathen are said to have celebrated
religious rites at this place, and to have worshipped
the celestial visitants of Abraham. It was likewise,
as usual in the East, a celebrated emporium of com-
merce. The worship may have been like that at the
Caaba of Mecca before the appearance of Mohammed ;
for the fame of Abraham seems to have been preserved
among the Syrian and Arabian tribes, as well as
the Jews. It is remarkable, that, at a later period, the
Jews and Christians are said to have met in amicable
devotion, and offered their common incense and sus-
pended their lights in the church erected over this
spot by the Christian emperor.*

1 Eusebins, Yit Constant, iii. 29, ei aq. Thia seems to be the sense of the
author.

* On Hebron, read Dr. Stanley's most interesting account of his Tisit to
the tomb of Abraham with H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.

* Antoninos in Itinerario. See Heinichen, Note on Euseb. Vit. Const
Iii. (8.

VOL. II. 28

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854 TRINITAMAN CONTROVEBST. Book VI.

CHAPTER IV.

Trinitarian Controyer^.

But it was as arbiter of religious differences, as pr^
Trinitarian Sluing ill their solemn councils, that Constan-
oonttoTeny. ^[j^^ appeared to the Christians the avowed
and ostensible head of their community. Immediately
after his victory over Licinius, Constantino had foimd
the East, no less than the West, agitated by the dis-
sensions of his Christian subjects. He had hoped to
allay the flames of the Donatist schism, by the consen-
tient and impartial authority of the Western churches.
A more extensive, if as yet less fiercely agitated, con-
test disturbed the Eastern provinces. Outward peace
seemed to be restored only to give place to intestine
dissension. I must re-ascend the course of Christian
history for several years, in order to trace in one con-
tinuous narrative the rise and progress of the Truiita-
rian controversy. This dissension had broken out
soon after Constantino's subjugation of the East:
already, before the building of Constantinople, it had
obtained full possession of the public mind, and the
great Council of Nic»a, the first real senate of Chris-
tendom, had passed its solemn decree. The Donatist
schism was but a local dissension : it raged, indeed,
with fatal and implacable fury; but it was almost
entirely confined to the limits of a single province.
The Trinitarian controversy was the first dissension
which rent asunder the whole body of the Christians,

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CHAP.rV. TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY. 355

arrayed in almost every part of the world two hostile
parties in implacable opposition, and, at a later period,
exercised a powerful political influence on the affairs
of the world. How singular an illustration of the
change ah'eady wrought in the mind of man by the in-
troduction of Christianity ! Questions which, if they
had arisen in the earlier period of the world, would
have been limited to a priestly caste, — if in Greece,
would have been confined to the less frequented schools
of Athens or Alexandria, and might have produced
some intellectual excitement among the few who were
conversant with the higher philosophy, — now agitated
the populace of great cities, occupied the councils of
princes, and, at a later period, determined the fate
of kingdoms and the sovereignty of great part of
Europe.^ It appears still more extraordinary, since
this controversy related to a purely speculative tenet.
The disputants of either party might possibly have
asserted the superior tendency of each system to en-
force the severity of Christian morals, or to excite the
ardor of Christian piety ; but they appear to have dwelt
little, if at all, on the practical effects of the conflicting
opinions. In morals, in manners, in habits, in usages,
in church government, in religious ceremonial, there
was no distinction between the parties which divided
Christendom. The Onostic sects inculcated a severer
asceticism, and differed, in many of their usages, from
the general body of the Christians. The Donatist
factions commenced at least with a question of church
discipline, and almost grew into a strife for political
ascendency. The Arians and Athanasians first divided
the world on a pure question of faith. Prom this

1 For instance, when the savage orthodoxy of the Franks made the more
refined Arianism of the Visigoths a pretext for hostile invasion.

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866 OWGIN OF THE CONTROVEBST. Book m.

period we may date the introduction of rigorous artidea
of belief, which required tlie submissive assent of the
mind to every word and letter of an established creed,
and which raised the slightest heresy of opinion into
a more fatal offence against God, and a more odious
crime in the estimation of man, than the worst moral
delinquency or the most flagrant deviation from the
spirit of Christianity.

The Trinitarian controversy was the natural though
Oliginoftha ^^7 growth of the Gnostic opinions: it
oontiarer^. (jQ^jd scarcely bc avoided when the exquisite
distinctness and subtlety of the Greek language were
applied to religious opinions of an Oriental origin.
Even the Greek of the New Testament retained some-
thing of the significant and reverential vagueness of
Eastern expression. This vagueness, even philosopM-
cally speaking, may better convey to the mind those
mysterious conceptions of the Deity which are beyond
the province of reason than the anatomical precision of
philosophic Greek. The first Christians were content
to worship, with undefined fervor, the Deity as revealed
in the Gospel. They assented to, and repeated with
devout adoration, the woi'ds of the Sacred Writings, or
those which had been made use of &om the apostolic
age ; but they did not decompose them, or, with nice
and scrupulous accuracy, appropriate peculiar terms
to each manifestation of the Godhead. It was the
great characteristic of the Oriental theologies, as de-
scribed in a former chapter, to preserve the primal
and parental Deity at the greatest possible distance
from the material creation. This originated in the
elementary tenet of the irreclaimable evil of matter.
In the present day, the more rational believer labors
under the constant dread, if not of materializing, of

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Chap. IV. THE DEITY. 857

humanizing too much, the Great Supreme. A certain
degree of indistinctness appears inseparable from that
vastness of conception wliich arises out of the more
extended knowledge of the works of the Creator. A
more expanding and comprehensive philosophy in-
creases the distance between the Omnific First Cause
and the race of man. All that defines seems to limit
and circumscribe the Deity. Yet in thus rev- constant
erentially repelling the Deity into an unap- tweenthein-

u ui u J • \' u- ^. t«U«!tu3laad

proacnable sphere, and mvestmg nim, as it dewuonai
were, in a nature absolutely unimaginable th«iwty.
by the mind ; in thus secluding him from the degra-
dation of being vulgarized, if the expression may be
ventured, by profane familiarity, or circumscribed by
the narrowness of the human intellect, — God is grad-
ually subtilized and sublimated into a being beyond
the reach of devotional feelings, almost superior to
adoration. There is in mankind, and in the individual
man, on the one hand, an intellectual tendency to
refine the Deity into a mental conception ; and, on the
other, an instinctive counter-tendency to impersonate
him into a material, and, when the mind is ruder and
less intellectual, a mere human being. Among the
causes which have contributed to the successful pro-
mulgation of Christianity, and the maintenance of its
influence over the mind of man, was the singular
beauty and felicity with which its theory of the con-
junction of the divine and human nature, each preserv-
ing itB separate attributes, on the one hand, enabled
the mind to preserve inviolate the pure conception of
the Deity ; on the other, to approximate it, as it were,
to human interests and sympathies. But this is done
rather by a process of instinctive feeling than by strict
logical reasoning. Even here, there is a perpetual

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858 INTELLECTUAL AND DEVOTIONAL Book m.

strife between the intellect, which guards with jealousy
the divine conception of the Redeemer's nature ; and
the sentiment, or even the passion, which so draws
down the general notion to its own capacities, so ap-
proximates and assimilates it to its own ordinary sym-
pathies, as to absorb the Godhead in the human nature.
The Gnostic systems had universally admitted the
seclusion of the primal Deity from all intercourse with
matter: that intercourse had taken place, through
a derivative and intermediate being, more or less re-
motely proceeding from the sole fountain of Godhead.
This, however, was not the part of Gnosticism which
was cliiefly obnoxious to the general sentiments of the
Christian body. Their theories about the malignant
nature of the Creator ; the identification of the God of
the Jews with this hostile being ; the Docetism which
asserted the unreality of the Redeemer, — these points,
with their whole system of the origin of the worlds
and of mankind, excited the most vigorous and active
resistance. But when the wilder theories of Gnosti-
cism began to die away, or to rank themselves under
the hostile standard of Manicheism; when their curious
cosmogonical notions were dismissed, and the greater
part of the Christian world began to agree in the plain
doctrines of the eternal supremacy of God ; the birth,
the death, the resurrection, of Christ as the Son of
God; the efiusion of the Holy Spirit, — questions bor
gan to arise as to the peculiar nature and relation
between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In all the
systems, a binary, in most a triple, modification of the
Deity was admitted. The Logos, the Divine Word or
Reason, might differ, in the various schemes, in his
relation to the parental Divinity and to the universe ;
but there was this distinctive and ineffaceable char-

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Chap. IV. CONCEPTION OF THE DEITY. 859

acter, that He was the Mediator, the connecting link
between the unseen and unapproachable world and
that of man. This Platonism, if it may be so called,
was universal. It differed, indeed, widely in most
systems from the original philosophy of the Athenian
sage : it had acquired a more Oriental and imaginative
cast. Plato's poetry of words had been expanded into
the poetry of conceptions. It may be doubted whether
Plato himself impersonated the Logos, the Word or
Keason of the Deity : with him it was rather an attri-
bute of the Godhead. In one sense, it was the chief
of these archetypal ideas, according to which the Crea-
tor framed the universe ; in another, the principle of
life, motion, and harmony which pervaded all things.
This Platonism had gradually absorbed all the more
intellectual class: it hovered over, as it were, and
gathered under its wings all the religions of the world.
It had already modified Judaism ; it had allied itself
with the Syrian and Mithriac worship of the Sun, the
visible Mediator, the emblem of the Word; it was
part of the general Nature-worship ; it was attempting
to renew Paganism, and was the recognized and lead-
ing tenet in the higher Mysteries. Disputes on the
nature of Christ were indeed co-eval with the promul-
gation of Christianity. Some of the Jewish converts
had never attained to the sublimer notion of his
mediatorial character ; but this disparaging notion,
adverse to the ardent zeal of the rest of the Christian
world, had isolated this sect. The imperfect Chris-
tianity of the Ebionites had long ago expired in an
obscure corner of Palestine. In all the other divisions
of Christianity, the Christ had more or less approxi-
mated to the office and character of this Being wliich
connected mankind with the Eternal Father.

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860 SABELUANISM. Book m.

Alexandria, the fatal and prolific soil of speculative
controvawy controvcFsy, wherc speculative controversy
j;^gJ2^ was most likely to madden into furious and
^^' lasting hostility, gave birtli to this new ele-

ment of disunion in the Christian worid. The Trini-
tarian question, indeed, had already been agitated
within a less extensive sphere. Noetus, an
Asiatic, either of Smyrna or Ephesus, had
dwelt with such exclusive zeal on the unity of the
Godhead, as to absorb, as it were, the whole Trinity
into one undivided and undistinguished Being. The
one supreme and impassible Father united to himself
the man Jesus, whom He had created, by so intimate
a conjunction, that the divine unity was not destroyed.
His adversaries drew the conclusion, that, according
to this blaspheming theory, the Father must have
suflFered on the cross ; and the ignominious name of
Patripassians adhered to the few followers of this
unprosperous sect.^

Sabellianism had excited more attention. Sabellius
^^^ was an African of the Cyrenaic province.
According to his system, it was the same
Deity, under diflFerent forms, who existed in the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. A more
modest and unoffending Sabellianism might perhaps
be imagined in accordance with modern philosophy.
The manifestations of the same Deity, or rather of
his attributes, through which alone the Godhead
becomes comprehensible to the human mind, may
have been thus successively made in condescension to
our weakness of intellect. It would be the same

^ I have not thought it necessaiy to enter into the yarious shades of Mo-
narchianism, especially in the Church at Rome, on which the Philosophumena
has shed new light.

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Chap. IV. SABELLIANISM. 861

Deity, assuming, as it were, an objective form, so as
to come within the scope of the human mind ; a real
difference, as regards the conception of man, perfect
unity in its subjective existence. This, however,
though some of. its terms may appear the same with
the Sabellianism of antiquity, would be the Trinita-
rianism of a plulosophy unknown at this period. The
language of the Sabellians implied, to the jealous ears
of their opponents, that the distinction between the
persons of the Trinity was altogether unreal. While
the Sabellian party charged their adversaries with a
Heathen Tritheistic worship, they retorted by accusing
Sabellianism of annihilating the separate existence of
the Son and the Holy Ghost. But Sabellianism had
not divided Christianity into two irreconcilable parties.
Even now, but for the commanding characters of the
champions who espoused each party, the Trinitarian
controversy might have been limited to a few provinces,
and become extinct in some years. But it arose, not
merely under the banners of men endowed with those
abilities which command the multitude ; it not merely
called into action the energies of successive disputants,
the masters of the intellectual attainments of the age,
— it appeared at a critical period, when the rewards
of success were more splendid, the penalty upon
failure proportionately more severe. The contest was
now not merely for a superiority over a few scattered
and obscure communities : it was agitated on a vaster
theatre, — that of the Roman world; the proselytes
whom it disputed were sovereigns; it contested the
supremacy of the human mind, which was now bending
to the yoke of Christianity. It is but judging on the
common principles of human nature to conclude, that
the grandeur of the prize supported the ambition and

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862 TBDOTABIAiaSM. Book IIL

inflamed the passions of the contending parties ; that
human motives of political power and aggrandizement
mingled with the more spiritual influences of the love
of truth, and zeal for the purity of religion.

The doctrine of the Trinity — that is, the divine
Trinituiaa- ii^-^ure of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
^^' Ghost — was acknowledged by all. To each

of these distinct and separate beings, both parties
ascribed the attributes of the Godhead, with tlie
exception of self-existence, which was restricted by
the Arians to the Father. Both admitted the anti-
mundane Being of the Son and the Holy Spirit. But,
according to the Arian, there was a time, before the
commencement of the ages, when the Parent Deity
dwelt alone in undeveloped, undivided unity. At this
time, immeasurably, incalculably, inconceivably remote,
the majestic solitude ceased,^ the divine unity was
broken by an act of the sovereign Will ; and the only-
begotten Son, the image of the Father, the Vicegerent
of all the divine power, the intermediate Agent in all
the long subsequent work of creation, began to be?

Such was the question which led to all tlie evils of
human strife, — hatred, persecution, bloodshed. But,
however profoundly humiliating this fact in the history
of mankind, and in the history of Christianity an
epoch of complete revolution from its genuine spirit,
it may fairly be inquired, whether this was not an
object more generous, more unselfish, and at least as
wise, as many of those motives of personal and national
advantage and aggrandizement, or many of those
magic words, which, embraced by two parties with
blind and unintelligent fury, have led to the most

1 Compare Cyril. Alex., Epist. i. 7; Labbe, p. 26.

3 Compare the letter of Anus, in Theodoret, lib. i. c t.

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Chap. IV. TRINITARIANISM. 863

disastrous and sanguinary events in the annals of man.
It might, indeed, have been supposed that a pro-
found metaphysical question of this kind would have
been far removed from the passions of the multitude ;
but with the multitude, and that multitude often
comprehends nearly the whole of society, it is the
passion which seeks the object, — not the object which,
of its own exciting influence, inflames the passion. In
fact, religion was become the one dominant passion of
the whole Christian world ; and every thing allied to
it, or rather, in this case, which seemed to concern its
very essence, could no longer be agitated with
tranquillity, or debated with indiSerence. The Pagan
party, miscalculating the inherent strength of the
Christian system, saw, no doubt, in these disputes, the
seeds of the destruction of Christianity. The contest
was brought on the stage at Alexandria ; ^ but there
was no Aristophanes, or rather the serious and un-
poetic time could not have produced an Aristophanes,
who might at once show that he understood, while he
broadly ridiculed, the follies of his adversaries. Tlie
days even of a Lucian were past.^ Discord, which at
times is fatal to a nation or to a sect, seems at others,
by the animating excitement of rivalry, the stirring
collision of hostile energy, to favor the development of
moral strength. The Christian republic, like Rome
when rent asunder by domestic factions, calmly pro-
ceeded in her conquest of the world.

The plain and intelligible principle which imited
the opponents of Arius was, no doubt, a vague, and,
however perhaps overstrained, neither ungenerous nor
unnatural jealousy, lest the dignity of the Redeemer,

1 Eufieb., Vit Constant ii. 61 ; Socrates, i. 6.

3 The Philopatris, of whatever age it may be, is clearly not Lucian^s; and,
at most, only slightly touches these questions.

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864 ALEXANDER— ABIUS. Book m.

the object of their grateful adoration, might in some
way be lowered by the new hypothesis. The divinity
of the Saviour seemed inseparably connected with his
co-equality with the Father : it was endangered by the
slightest concession on this point. It was their argu-
ment, that, if the Son was not co-eval in existence with
the Father, he must have been created, and created out
of that which was not pre-existent. But a created
being must be liable to mutability; and it was as-
serted in the public address of the Patriarch of Alex-
andria, that this fatal consequence had been extorted
from an unguarded Arian, if not from Arius himself,
— that it was possible that the Son might have fallen,
like the great rebellious angel.^

The patriarch of this important see, the metropolis
Aieziuder, of Egypt, was uamcd Alexander. It was
AkxandriA. said that Anus, a presbyter of acute powers
of reasoning, popular address, and blameless character,
had declined that episcopal dignity .^ The
person of Arius ^ was tall and graceful ; his
countenance calm, pale, and subdued; his manners
engaging; his conversation fluent and persuasive.
He was well acquainted with human sciences ; as a
disputant, subtle, ingenious, and fertile in resources.
His enemies add to this character, which themselves
have preserved, that this humble and mortified exterior
concealed unmeasured ambition; that his simplicity,

A Epiphan., Haer. 69, torn. i. p. 728-727.

s See Philostorgius (the Arian writer). Theodoret, on the other hand,
saTs that he brought fbrward his opinions from envy at the promotion of
Alexander — i. 2. See the Epistle of Alexander, in Socrat Hist. Keel. 1. 6.

* Arius is said, in his early life, to have been implicated in the sect of the
Meletians, which seems to have been rather a party than a sect They were
the followers of Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, who had been deposed for
having sacrificed during the persecution. Yet this sect or party lasted for
more than a century.

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CHAP.rV. ALEXANDER— ARIUS. 865

frankness, and honesty only veiled his craft and love
of intrigue ; that he appeared to stand aloof from all
party, merely that he might guide his cabal with more
perfect command, and agitate and govern the hearts
of men. Alexander was accustomed, whether for the
instruction of the people, or the display of his own
powers, to debate in public these solemn questions on
the nature of the Deity, and the relation of the Son
and the Holy Spirit to the Father. According to the
judgment of Arius, Alexander fell inadvertently into
the heresy of Sabellianism, and was guilty of con-
foimding in the simple unity of the Gk)dhead the exist-
ence of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.^

The intemperate indignation of Alexander at the
objections of Arius betrayed more of the baflBed dis-
putant, or the wounded pride of the dignitary, than
the serenity of the philosopher, or the meekness of
the Christian. He armed himself ere long in all the
terrors of his office, and promulgated his anathema in
terms full of exaggeration and violence. " The im-
pious Arius, the forerunner of Antichrist, had dared to
utter his blasphemies against the Divine Redeemer."
Arius, expelled from Alexandria, not indeed before
his opinions had spread through the whole of Egypt
and Libya,^ retired to the more congenial atmosphere
of Syria.^ There, his vague theory caught the less

^ Socrates, i. 6, 6.

3 The account of Sozomen says, that Alexander at first vacillated, bat
that he afterwards commanded Arius to adopt his opinions: rihf *\petov
dfiotu^ (^povelv kxeXtvae, Sozomen acknowledges the high character of manj
of the Arian bishops: ffXeforowf ayaOov picv irpooxfifiaTi aefwoi^j kcU 'kiJ^cl-
voTTfTi Xoyov decvodf , av^^xtfi^avofiivovg role ^^l rbv 'Apetov,

* It was daring his retreat that he wrote his famous Thalia; the gay and
convivial title of which is singularly out of keeping with the grave and
serious questions then in agitation. His adversaries represent this as a poem
full of pro&ne wit, and even of indecency. It was written in the same mea»-

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866 ABIUS IN STRIA. Book IIL

severely reasoning and more imaginative minds of the
Syrian bishops:^ the lingering Orientalism prepared
them for this kindred hypothesis. The most learned,
the most pious, the most influential, united them-
selves to his party. The chief of these were the two
prelates named Eusebius, — one the ecclesiastical his-
torian; the other, bishop of the important city of
Nicomedia. Throughout the East, the controversy
was propagated with earnest rapidity. It was not re-
pressed by the attempts of Licinius to interrupt the
free intercourse between the Christian commimities,
and his prohibition of the ecclesiastical synods. The
ill-smothered flame burst into tenfold fury on the re-
union of the East to the empire of Constantine. The
interference of the emperor was loudly demanded to
allay the strife which distracted the Christendom of

ure, and to the same air, with the Sotadic verses, which were proverbial for
their grossness even among the Greeks. It is difficult to reconcile this ac-
count of the Thalia with the subtle and politic character which his enemies
attribute to Arius, still less to the protection of such men as Eusebius of Nico-
media, and the other S>Tian prelates. Arius, likewise, composed hjmns, in
accordance with his opinions, to t>e chanted by sailors, those who worked at
the mill, or travellers. Songs of this kind abounded in the Greek poetiy:
each art and trade had its song;* and Arius may have intended no more
than to turn this popular practice in favor of Christianity, by substituting
sacred for profane songs, which, of course, would be imbued with his own
opinions. Might not the Thalia have been written in the same vein, and
something in the same spirit, with which a celebrated modem humorist
and preacher adapted hymns to some of the most popular airs, and declared
that the devil ought not to have all the best tunes? The general style of
Arius is said to have been soft, effeminate, and popular. The specimen
from the Thalia (in Athanas. Or. i. Cont Ar. c 5) is very loose and feeble
Greek. Yet it is admitted that Arius was an expert dialectician; and no
weak orator would have maintained such a contest so long.

^ The bishops of Ptolemais, in the Pentapolis, and Theonas of Marma-
rica, joined his party. The females were inclined to his side. Seven hun-
dred virgins of Alexandria, and of the Mareotic nome, owned him for their
spiritual teacher. Compare the letter of Alexander in Theodoret, ch. iv.

* Egen, De Sooliorum PoMi, p. xiU.

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Chap. IV. LETTER OF CONSTANTINE. 367

the East. The behavior of Constantine was regulated
by the most perfect equanimity, or, more probably,
guided by some counsellor of mild and more humane
Christianity: his letter of peace was, in its better of
spirit, a model of temper and conciliation.^ coMtanUne.
With profound sorrow he had heard that his designs
for the unity of the empire, achieved by his victory
over Licinius, as well as for the unity of the faith, had
been disturbed by this unexpected contest. His im-
partial rebuke condemned Alexander for unnecessarily
agitating such frivolous and imimportant questions,
and Arius for not suppressing, in prudent and re-
spectful silence, his objections to the doctrine of the
patriarch. It recommended the judicious reserve of
the philosophers, who had never debated such subjects
before an ignorant and uneducated audience, and who
diflFered without acrimony on such profound questions.
He entreated them, by the unanimous suppression of
all feelings of unhallowed animosity, to restore his
cheerful days and undisturbed nights. Of the same
faiili, the same form of worship, they ought to meet
in amicable synod, to adore their common God in
peaceful harmony, and not fall into discord as to
accuracy of expression on these most minute of ques-
tions ; to enjoy and allow freedom in the sanctuary of
their own minds, but to remain united in the common
bonds of Christian love.^

It is probable, that the hand of Hosius, Bishop of
Cordova in Spain, is to be traced in that royal and
Christian letter. The influence of Hosius was uni-

1 See the letter in Eiueb., Vit. Constant ii. 64-72.

■ 'A (T VTtip Tuv ihixicrruv tovtuv ^TTfae<jv h d^Aotf 6KfH(3oXoyeia$e,
kAv ij^ ffpdf /«dv yv6ftriv ovfi^priaBef fiheiv elou Xoytafiov npoarfKei, ry T^f
Stavoiat &i:of>(nfT(it rrjpovfievoi. — Euseb., Vit Constant, ii. 71.

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868 COUNCIL OF NICfflA. Book m.

formly exercised in this manner. Wherever the
edicts of the government were mild, conciliating, and
humane, we find the Bishop of Cordova. It is by no
means an improbable conjecture of Tillemont, that he
was the Spaniard who afterwards, in the hour of
mental agony and remorse, administered to the empe-
ror the balm of Christian penitence.

Hosius was sent to Egypt, as the imperial commis-
sioner, to assuage the animosity of the distracted
Church. But religious strife, in Egypt more particu-
larly, its natural and prolific soil, refused to listen to
the admonitions of Christian wisdom or imperial
authority. Eusebius compares the fierce conflict of
parties — bishops with bishops, people with people — to
the collision of the Symplegades.^ Prom the mouths
of the Nile to the Cataracts, the divided population
tumultuously disputed the nature of the divine tmity.^

A general coimcil of the heads of the various
councuof Christian conmiunities throughout the Bo-
^^' man empire was sunmioned by the imperial

mandate, to establish, on the consentient authority of
assembled Christendom, the true doctrine on these
contested points, and to allay for ever tliis propensity
contioreny to hostilc disputatiou. The same paramount
bicEM^r tribunal was to settle definitely another sub-
ordinate question relating to the time of keeping the
Easter festival. Many of the Eastern communities
shocked their more scrupulous brethren by following
the calculations, and observing the same sacred days
with the impious and abhorred Jews ; for the further
we advance in the Christian history, the estrangement

1 Vit Const, iii. 4.
iyiyvcvro. — Theodoret, L 6.

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Chap. IV. COUNCIL OF NICMX. 869

of the Christians from the Jews darkens more and
more into absolute antipathy.

In the month of May or June (the 20th ^), in the year
325, met the great council of Nic»a. Not
half a century before, the Christian bishops
even in that city had been only marked as the objects
of the most cruel insult and persecution. They had
been chosen, on account of their eminence in their
own communities, as the peculiar victims of the stern
policy of the Government. They had been driven into
exile, set to work in the mines, exposed to every kind
of humiliation and suffering, from which some had in
mercy been released by death. They now assembled,
under the imperial sanction, a religious senate firom
all parts at least of the Eastern world : for Italy was
represented only by two presbyters of Rome ; Hosius
appeared for Spain, Gaul, and Britain. The spectacle
was altogether new to the world. No wide-ruling
sovereign would ever have thought of summoning a
conclave of the sacerdotal orders of the different re-
ligions : a synod of pliilosophers to debate some grave
metaphysical or even political question was equally
inconsistent with the ordinary usages and sentiments
of Grecian or Roman society.

The pubUc establishment of post-horses was com-
manded to afford every facility, and that gratuitously,
for the journey of the assembling bishops.^ Vehicles
or mules were to be provided, as though the assembly
were an affair of state, at the public charge. At a
later period, when councils became more frequent, the
Heathen historian complains, that the public service was

^ One of these dates rests on the aathority of Socrates, ziii. 26 ; tho other,
on the Paschal Chronicle, p. 282. Compare Pagi, p. 404.
« Euseb., Vit. Const iii. 6; Theodoret, L 7.
VOL. II. 24

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o<0 FIRST MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL. Book m.

impeded, and the post-horses harassed and exhausted,
by the incessant journeying to and fro of the Christian
delegates to their councils.^ They were sumptuously
maintained during the sitting at the public charge.^

Above three hundred bishops were present, pres-
Numbcr of by tcrs, deacons, acoly ths without number,* a
preneut. considerable body of laity; but it was the
presence of the emperor himself which gave its chief
weight and dignity to the assembly. Nothing could
so much confirm the Christians in the opinion of their
altered position, or declare to the world at large the
growing power of Christianity, as this avowed interest
taken in their domestic concerns ; or so tend to raise
the importance attached even to the more remote and
speculative doctrines of the new faith, as this un-
precedented condescension, so it would seem to the
Fimtmeet- Hcatheu, ou the part of the emperor. The
eouncii. council mct, probably, in a spacious basilica.*
Eusebius describes the scene as himself deeply im-
pressed with its solemnity. The assembly sat in
profound silence ; while the great officers of state and
other dignified persons (there was no armed guard)
entered the hall, and awaited in proud and trembling
expectation the appearance of the emperor of the
world in a Christian council. Constantine at length

^ Amm. Marcelliniu, xvi. 16. Bead in Stanley's Eastern Church the
gathering and the names and characters of the assembled bishops, p. 109,
et seqq.

s Euseb. ill. 9.

* There was one bishop from Persia, one from Scythia. Eusebius states
the number at two hundred and fifty : that in the text is on the authority of
Theodoret, and of the numbers said to have signed the creed.

4 There is a long note in Ueinichen^s Eusebius to prove that they did not
meet in the palace, but in a church ; as though the authority of their pro-
ceedings depended upon their place of assembly. It was probably a basilica,
or hall of justice; tlie kind of building usually made over by the Government
for the purposes of Christian worship; and, in general, the model of the ear-
liest Christian edifices.

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Chap. IV. BEHAVIOR OF CONSTANTINE. 371

entered ; he was splendidly attired ; the eyes of the
bishops were dazzled by the gold and precious stones
upon his raiment. The majesty of his person and the
modest dignity of his demeanor heightened the effect :
the whole assembly rose to do him honor ; he advanced
to a low golden seat prepared for him, and did not
take his seat (it is difficult not to suspect Eusebius of
highly coloring the deference of the emperor) till a
sign of permission had been given by the bishops.^
One of the leading prelates (probably Eusebius the
liistorian) commenced the proceedings with a short
address, and a hymn to Almighty God. Constantino
then delivered an exhortation to unity in the Latin
language, which was interpreted to the Greek bishops.
His admonition seems at first to have produced no
great effect. Mutual accusation, defence, and recrimi-
nation prolonged the debate.* Constantino Behavior of
seems to have been present during the greater ^**'"**°**™-
part of the sittings, listening with patience, softening
asperities, countenancing those whose language tended
to peace and union, and conversing familiarly, in the
best Greek he could command, with the different
prelates. The courtly flattery of the council might
attribute to Constantine himself what was secretly
suggested by the Bishop of Cordova. For, powerful
and comprehensive as his mind may have been, it is
incredible that a man so educated, and engaged dur-
ing the early period of his life with military and civil
affairs, could have entered, particularly being imper-

1 O^ nporepov ^ rodf hnvuKoncvg hrtvevaai. See also Socrates, i. 8. In
Theodoret (i. 7), this has grown into his humbly asking permission to sit
down.

3 Constantine bnmed the libels which the bishops had presented against
each other. Many of these (the ecclesiastical historian intimates) arose out
of private animosities. — Socrates, i. 6.

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872 NICENE CREED. Book m.

fectly acquainted with the Greek language, into these
discussions on religious metaphysics.

The council sat for rather more than two months.^
Towards the close, Constantine, on the occasion of the
commencement of the twentieth year of his reign,^
condescended to invite the bishops to a simiptuous
banquet. All attended ; and, as they passed through
the imperial guard, treated with every mark of respect,
they could not but call to mind the total revolution in
their circumstances. Eusebius betrays his transport
by the acknowledgment that they could scarcely be-
lieve that it was a reality, not a vision : to the grosser
conception of those who had not purified their minds
from the millennial notions, the banquet seemed the
actual commencement of the kingdom of Christ.

The Nicene Creed was the result of tlie solenm de-
liberation of the assembly. It was conceived

Nioene Creed.

with some degree of Oriental indefiniteness,
harmonized with Grecian subtlety of expression. The
vague and somewhat imaginative fulness of its origi-
nal Eastern terms was not too severely limited by the
fine precision of its definitions. One fatal word broke
the harmony of assent with wliich it was received by
the whole council. Christ was declared Homoousios,
of the same substance with the Father;^ and the unde-
niable, if perhaps inevitable, ambiguity of this single

1 According to some, two months and eleven days; to others, two montha
and six days.

3 This seems to reconcile the difficulty started by Heinichen. The 20th
year of Constantine's reign began the 8th Cal. Aug. A.D. 825. Eusebius
uses the inaccurate word kn}.TjpovTO. — Vit Const iii. 14.

8 Atbanasius himself allowed that the bishops who deposed Paul of Samo-
sata were justified in rejecting the word dfioovaiov, because they understood
it in a material or corporeal sense. But the priTilege allowed to those who
had died iu orthodox reputation was denied to the Arians and Semi-Arians.
-De Synodis, Athanas. Oper. i. p. 769. It is impossible to read some

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Chap. IV. FIVE RECUSANTS. 373

term involved Christianity in centuries of hostility.
To one party it implied absolute identity, and was
therefore only iU-disguised Sabellianism ; to the other
it was essential to the co-equal and co-eval dignity of
the three persons in the Godhead. To some of the
Syrian bishops it implied or countenanced the material
notion of the Deity .^ It was, it is said by one ecclesi-
astical historian, a battle in the night, in which neither
party could see the meaning of the other .^

Three hundred and eighteen bishops confirmed this
creed by their signatures: five alone still n^ewcu-
contested the single expression, the Ho- ■"**•
moousion, — Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theognis of
Nieaea, Theonas of Marmaiica, Maris of Chalcedon,
and Eusebius of Csesarea. Eusebius of Nicomedia
and Theognis were banished. Eusebius of Ca&sarea,

pages of this treatise without the unpleasant conviction, that Athanasiiis waa
determined to make out the Arians to be in the wrong.

1 M^e yap dirvaodai r^v a^Xov Ka2 voipav Koi aaufionv ^ctv, aufia-
TiKov n irodof ^OT€ur9ai, This is the language of Eusebius.

^aal 6i 6fiuc 'f^f^ tovtov, cjg apa MTuuv 6 Qedc r^ ytwriHrv Kxiaat
^atv, inii;^ kCtpa foi dwofiivTiv ctiii^ fteraaxelv r^c tov narpdc
uKpitTov, Kci r^f nap* uirrov drffuovpyias, imtBi koI Kri^ei npCiTiJC fiovo^
fwvov iva, Koi KoXtl tovtov v/dv koI Xoyov, Iva tovtov fdaov yevofd'
voVf cXrniQ T^autbv xal rd nuvra 61 airrov yeviaOcu dwjfB^. ravra oO
fiovov clpffKootv, &^}^ Kot yp(nlHU Tero^^Koaiv Evoif3id^ re, Koi 'Apeiog
Kol 6 -Qvaa/s "karipvo^. — Athan., Orat. ii. c. 24. Compare Mohler (a learned
and strongly orthodox Roman Catholic writer), Athanasius der Grosse, b. i.
p. 105. Mohler but dimly sees the Gnostic or Oriental origin of this notion,
which lies at the bottom of Arianism.

> This remarkable sentence does credit to the judgment and impartiality
of Socrates : ^VKTOfiaxiac 6e ovdev aneixe T«i ytyvofiiva, oini yap oAA^^ouf
k^vavTo voovvTCi, d^' uv dtA/^Aovf ^"hur^jielv imtTjoft^avav ol ftkv yap
TOV bfioavaiov r^v Ae^tv iKKTdvovreq t^ ^ajiMiov Koi iiovrapov do^av
eioTiyEladai airffv roOg irpoadexofdvovg tvofuljay' koI 6td toOto fiXaat^fiovc
ixoAoW; Ltg dvaipovvrec r^ virap^tv tov vlov tov Oeov' oi dk nahv r^
dfjoouaiift irpooKeiftevoi irohtdetav eladyeiv Toi>c hipovq vofu^ovreCf uf *EX-
^ajviofjbv doayovTO/Q k^erpamnno. — c 28. Add to these, above all, the deci-
sive words of Arius himself, quoted in Latin Christianity. — i. 181.

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374 BANISHMENT OF AEIUS. Book HL

after much hesitation, consented to subscribe, but sent
the creed into his diocese with a comment, explanatory
of the sense in which he understood tlie contested
word. His chief care was to guard against giving the
slightest countenance to the material conception of
the Deity. Two only withstood with uncompromising
resistance . the decree of the council. The solenm
anathema of this Christian senate was pro- Banbiiment
nounced against Arius and his adherents; '»^^"*-
they were banished by the civil power j and they were
especially interdicted from disturbing the peace of
Alexandria by their presence.^

Peace might seem to be restored, — the important
question set at rest by the united authority of the
emperor, and a representative body which might faHy
presume to deliver the sentiments of the whole Chris-
tian world. But the Arians were condemned, not
convinced; discomfited, not subdued.^ Rather more
than two years elapsed, eventful in the private life of
Constantine, but tranquil in the history of the Chris-
tian Church. The imperial assessor in the Christian
council had appeared in the West under a diflFerent
character, as the murderer of his son and of liis wife.
He returned to the Bast, determined no more to visit
the imperial city of the West ; where, instead of the
humble deference with which all parties courted his
approbation, he had been unable to close his ears

1 In one passage in the De S3modis, Athanasius accused not only the
Arian but the Semi-Arian party, Eusebius as well as Arius, of something like
Socinianism.

'Of ioTtv vtdf 6fiou)C irarpi, aX^ diit r^ avfu^tjviav ddyfJiOTuv Kot r^c
StSaaKaXiac. — ?• 766, Atfaan. Oper. 1.

2 The writings of Arius and his followers were condemned to be burned.
If we are to believe Sozomen (which I confess that I am disinclined to do),
the concealment of such heretical works was made a capital offence. — £. H.
lib. i. c. 21.

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Chap. IV. BANISHMENT OF ARIUS. 875

against the audacious and bitter pasquinade which ar-
raigned his cruelty to his own family. Bis retUrn to
the East, instead of overawing the contending factipns
into that unity which he declared to be the dearest
wish of his heart, by his own sudden change of con-
duct, was the signal for the revival of the fiercest
contentious. The Christian community was change in the
now to pay a heavy penalty for the pride and coneSStine.
triumph with which they had hailed the interference
of the emperor in their religious questions. The im-
perial decisions had been admitted by the dominant
party when on their own side, to add weight to the
decree of the council. At least, they had applauded
the sentence of banishment pronounced by the civil
power against their antagonists: that authority now
assumed a dififerent tone, and was almost warranted,
by their own admission, in expecting the same prompt
obedience. The power which had exiled, might restore,
the heretic to his place and station. Court influence,
however obtained through court intrigue or from the
caprice of the ruling sovereign, by this fatal, perhaps
inevitable step, became the arbiter of the most vital
questions of Christian faith and discipline ; and thus
the first precedent of a temporal punishment

AD iWM M8

for an ecclesiastical offence was a dark prog-
nostic, and an example, of the difliculties which would
arise during the whole history of Christianity, when
the communities, so distinctly two when they were sep-
erate and adverse, became one by the identification of
the Church and the state. The restoration of a ban-
ished man to the privileges of a citizen by the civil
power seemed to command his restoration to religious
privileges by the ecclesiastical authority.^

1 Socr.L26, 26; Soz. iL 27.

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876 EUSEBIUS OF NICOMEDIA. Book m.

The Arian pariy gradually grew into favor. A
presbyter of Arian sentiments had obtained complete
coijounand over the mind of Constantia, the sister of
Constantine. On her dying bed, she entreated the
emperor to reconsider the justice of the sentence
against that innocent, as she declared, and misrepre-
sented man. Arius could not believe the sudden re-
verse of fortune ; and not till he received a pressing
letter from Constantine himself did he venture to leave
his place of exile. A person of still greater importance
was at the same time re-instated in the imperial favor.
Among tlie adherents of the Arian form, Eu»eWujof
perhaps the most important was Eusebius, Nicomedia.
Bishop of Nicomedia. A dangerous suspicion that ho
had been too closely connected with the interests of
Licinius, during the recent struggle for empire, had
alienated the mind of Constantine, and deprived Euse-
bius of that respectful attention which he might have
commanded by his station, ability, and expe-
rience. With Theognis, Bishop of Nicaea, his '
faithful adherent in opinion and in fortune, he had
been sent into exile : it is remarkable that the prelates
of these two sees, the most important in tliat part of
Asia, should have concurred in these views. The
exiled prelates, in their petition for re-instatement in
their dioceses, declared, and (notwithstanding the
charge of falsehood which their opponents to the pres-
ent day do not scruple to make, would they have ven-
tured in a public document addressed to Constantine
to misstate a fact so notorious?) they solemnly pro-
tested, that they had not refused their signatures to the
Nicene Creed, but only to the anathema pronounced
against Arius and his followers. " Their obstinancy
arose, not from want of faith, but from excess of

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Chap. IV. EUSEBIUS OF NICOMEDIA. 377

charity." They returned in triumph to their dioceses,
and ejected the bishops who had been appointed in
their place. No resistance appears to have been
made.

But the Arians were not content with their peace-
able re-establishment in their former station. How-
ever tliey might attempt to harmonize their doctrines
with the belief of their adversaries, by their vin-
dictive aggression on the opposite party they belied
their pretensions to moderation and the love of
peace. Eusebius, whom Constantine had before pub-
licly denoimced in no measured terms, grew rapidly
into favor. The complete dominion, which from this
time he appears to have exercised over the mind of
Constantine, confirms the natural suspicion that the
opinions of the emperor were by no means formed by
his own independent judgment, but entirely governed
by the Christian teacher who might obtain his favor.
Eusebius seems to have succeeded to the influence ex-
ercised with so much wisdom and temper by Hosius
of Cordova. He became Bishop of Constantinople,
and was the companion of Constantine in his visits to
Jerusalem ; ^ and the high estimation in which the em-
peror held also Eusebius of Ca&sarea, according to the
statements made, and the documents ostentatiously
preserved by that writer in his ecclesiastical history,
could not but contribute to the growing ascendency of
Arianism. They were in possession of some of the
most important dioceses in Asia ; they were ambitious
of establishing their supremacy in Antioch.

The suspicious brevity with which Eusebius glides
over the early part of this transaction, which his per-
sonal vanity could not allow him to omit, confirms the

1 Theodoret, i. 2.

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878 CONDUCT OF THE ARIAN PRELATES. Book IU.

statement of their adversaries, as to the unjustifiable
A.D. 828. means employed by the Arians to attain this
thrArtan object. Eusebius of Nicomedia, and The-
Anuoch. ognis, passod through Antioch on their way
to Jerusalem. On their return, ihey sunamoned Eusta-
thius, the Bishop of Antioch, whose character had
hitherto been blameless, to answer before a hastily
assembled council of bishops, on two distinct charges
of immorality and heresy. The unseemly practice of
brmging forward women of disreputable character to
charge men of high station in the Church with incon-
tinency, formerly employed by the Heathens to calum-
niate the Christians, was now adopted by the reckless
hostility of Christian faction. The accusation of a
prostitute against Eustathius, of having been the father
of her child, is said afterwards to have been completely
disproved. The heresy with wliich Eustathius was
charged was that of Sabellianism, the usual imputation
of the Arians against the Trinitarians of the opposite
creed. Two Arian bishops having occupied the see
of Antioch but for a very short time, an attempt was
made to remove Eusebius of Csesarea to that diocese,
no doubt to overawe by the high reputation of his
talents, or to conciliate tlie Eustathian party. Euse-
bius, with the flattering approbation of the emperor,
declined the dangerous post. Eustathius was deposed,
and banished, by the imperial edict, to Thrace; but
the attachment, at least of a large part, of the Chris-
tian population of Antioch refused to acknowledge the
autliority of the tribunal, or the justice of the sentence.
The city was divided into two fierce and hostile fac-
tions: they were on the verge of civil war; and
Antioch, where the Christians had first formed them-
selves into a separate community, but for the vigorous

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Chap. FV. ATHANASIUS. 379

interference of the civil power and the timely appear-
ance of an imperial commissioner, might have witnessed
the first blood shed, at least in the East, in a Christian
quarrel.

It is impossible to calculate how far the authority
and influence of the Syrian bishops, with the avowed
countenance of the emperor (for Constantius, the son
of Gonstautine, was an adherent of the Arian opin-
ions), might have subdued the zeal of the orthodox
party. It is possible, that, but for the rise of one in-
flexible and indomitable antagonist, the question might
either have sunk to rest, or the Christian world acqui-
esced, at least the East, in a vague and mitigated Ari-
anism.

Athanasius had been raised by the discernment of
Alexander to a station of confidence and ^^^ _.

Atiuuutiliu.

dignity. He had filled the oflice of secretary
to the Alexandrian prelate. In the Council of Nicsea
he had borne a distinguished part, and his zeal and
talents dcsignatud him at once as the head of the
Trinitarian party. On the death of Alexander, the uni-
versal voice of the predominant anti-Arians demanded
the elevation of Athanasius. In vain he attempted
to conceal himself, and to escape the dangerous honor.
At thirty years of age, Athanasius was placed
on the episcopal throne of the see, which
ranked with Antioch, and afterwards with Constanti-
nople, as the most important spiritual charge in the
East.^

The imperial mandate was issued to receive Arius
and his followers within the pale of the Christian com-
munion.^ But Constantine found, to his astonishment,

1 The ArianB asserted this election to have been carried by the irregular
Tiolence of a few bishops, contrary to the declared suffi-ages of the majority.
8 Athanas., Apol. contra Ar. Soz. ii. 22.

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380 CHARGES AGAINST ATHANASIUS. Book ffl.

that an imperial edict, which would have been obeyed
in trembling submission from one end of the Roman
empire to the other, even if it had enacted a complete
political revolution, or endangered the property and
privileges of thousands, was received with deliberate
and steady disregard by a single Christian bishop,
During two reigns, Athanasius contested the authority
of the emperor. He endured persecution, calumny,
exile ; his life was frequently endangered in defence
of one single tenet ; and that, it may be permitted to
say, the most purely intellectual, and apparently the
GhargM most rcmotc from the ordinary passions of
Athuuiaiiu. man : he confronted martyrdom, not for the
broad and palpable distinction between Christianity
and Heathenism, but for fine and subtle expressions
of the Christian creed.^ He began and continued the
contest, not for the toleration, but for the supremacy,
of his own opinions.

Neither party, in truth, could now yield without the
humiliating acknowledgment that all their contest had
been on imimportant and unessential points. The
passions and the interests, as well as the conscience,
were committed in the strife. Tlie severe and uncom-
promising temper of Athanasius, no doubt, gave some
advantage to his jealous and watchful antagonists.
Criminal charges began to multiply against a prelate
who was thus fallen in the imperial favor.^ They

1 I am not persuaded, either hy the powerful eloquence of Athanasius
himself, or by his able modem apologist, Mohler, that the opinions, at least,
of the Syrian Semi-Arians were so utterly irreconcilable with the orthodoxj-
of Athanasius, or likely to produce such fatal consequences to the general
system of Christianity as are extorted from them by the keen theological
precision of Athanasius.

> Theodoret mentions one of these customary chaiges of licentiousness, in
which a woman of bad character accused Athanasius of violating her chas-
tity. Athanasius was silent; while one of his firiends, with assumed indig-

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Chap. IV. CHARGES AGAINST ATHANASIUS. 881

were assiduously instilled into the ears of Constantino ;
yet the extreme frivolousness of some of these accusa-
tions, and the triumphant refutation of the more
material charges, before a tribunal of his enemies, es-
tablish, undeniably, the unblemished virtue of Athana-
sius.^ He was charged with taxing the city to provide
linen vestments for the clergy, and with treasonable
correspondence witli an enemy of the emperor. Upon
this accusation, he was summoned to Nicomedia, and
acquitted by the emperor himself. He was charged as
having authorized the profanation of the holy vessels,
and the sacred books, in a church in the Mareotis, a
part of his diocese. A certain Ischyras had assumed
the office of presbyter, without ordination. Macarius,
who was sent by Athanasius to prohibit his officiating
in his usurped dignity, was accused by Ischyras of over-
throwing the altar, breaking the cup, and burning the
Scriptures. It is not impossible that the indiscreet
zeal of an inferior may have thought it right to destroy
sacred vessels thus profaned by unhallowed hands.
But from Athanasius himself the charge recoiled with-
out the least injury. But a darker charge remained
behind, — comprehending two crimes, probably in
those days looked upon with equal abhorrence, — magic

nation^ demanded, " Do you accuse me of this crime? " — " Yes," replied the
woman, supposing him to be Athanasius, of whose person she was ignorant,
"yw were the violator of my chastity." — 1. i. c. 80.

^ It is remarkable how little stress is laid on the persecutions which Atha^
nasius is accused of having carried on through the civil authority. " Accu-
satus pneterea est de injuriis, violenti&, csede, atque ip6& episcoporum inter-
necione. Quique etiam diebus sacratissimis paschas ^rannico more ssevicns.
Ducibus atque Comitibus junctus : quique propter ipsam aliquos in custodia
recludebant, aliquos vero verberibus flagellisque vexabant, caeteros diversis
tormentis ad communionem ejus sacrilegam adigebant." These charges nei-
ther seem to have been pressed nor refuted, as half so important as the act of
sacrilege. See the protest of the Arian bishops at Sardica, in Hilarii Oper.
Hist Fragm. iii. c. 6. See also the accusations of violence on his return to
Alexandria. Ibid. 8.

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882 SYNOD OF TYRE. Book IIL

and murder. The enemies of Athanasius produced a
human hand said to be that of Arsenius, a bishop
attached to the Meletian heresy, who had disappeared
from Egypt in a suspicious manner. The hand of the
murdered bishop had been kept by Athanasius for un-
hallowed purposes of witchcraft. In vain the emissar
ries of Athanasius sought for Arsenius in Egypt,
though he was known to be concealed in that country ;
but the superior and one of the monks of a monastery
were seized, and compelled to confess that he was still
living, and had lain hid in their sanctuary. Yet the
charge was not abandoned : it impended for more than
two years over the head of Athanasius.

A council, chiefly formed of the enemies of Athana-
sius, was summoned at Tyre. It was intimated to the
Alexandrian prelate, that, if he refused to appear
before the tribunal, ho would be brought by force.
Synod of Athanasius stood before the tribunal. He
ajd! 885. was arraigned on this charge : the hand waa
produced. To the astonishment of the court, Athanar
sius calmly demanded whether those present were ac-
quainted with the person of Arsenius. He had been
well known to many. A man was suddenly brought
into the court with his whole person folded in his man-
tle. Athanasius uncovered the head of the witness.
He was at once recognized as the murdered Arsenius.
Still the severed hand lay before them, and the adver-
saries of Athanasius expected to convict him of having
mutilated the victim of his jealousy. Athanasius lifted
up the mantle on one side, and showed the right hand :
he lifted up the other, and showed the left. In a calm
tone of sarcasm he observed, that the Creator had be-
stowed two hands on man : it was for his enemies to
explain how Arsenius had possessed a third.^ A for-

1 Theodoret, i. 80.

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Chap. IV. ATHANASIUS IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

tunate accident had brought Arsenius to Tyre : he had
been discovered by the friends of Athanasius. Though
he denied his name, he was known by the Bishop of
Tyre ; and this dramatic scene had been arranged as
the most effective means of exposing the malice of the
prelate's enemies. His discomfited accusers fled in
the confusion.

The implacable enemies of Athanasius were con-
strained to fall back upon the other exploded charge, —
the profanation of the sacred vessels by Macarius. A
conunission of inquiry had been issued, who conducted
themselves, according to the statement of the friends
of Athanasius, with the utmost violence and partiality.
On their report, the bishop of the important city of
Alexandria was deposed from his dignity. But Atha-
nasius bowed not beneath the storm. He appears to
have been a master in what may be called, without
disrespect, theatrical effect. As the emperor Athanaeiua

io Constan-

rode through the city of Constantinople, he tinopie.
was arrested by the sudden appearance of a train of
ecclesiastics, in the midst of which was Athanasius.
The offended emperor, with a look of silent contempt,
urged his horse onward. " God," said the prelate,
with a loud voice, " shall judge between thee and me,
since thou thus espouscst the cause of my calumniators.
I demand only that my enemies be summoned, and
my cause heard in the imperial presence." The em-
peror admitted the justice of his petition : the accusers
of Athanasius were commanded to appear in Constan-
tinople. Six of them, including the two Eusebii,
obeyed the mandate.

But a new charge, on a subject skilfully chosen to
awaken the jealousy of the emperor, counteracted the
influence which might have been obtained by the elo-

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384 DEATH OF SOPATER. Book HL

queuce or the guiltlessness of Athauasius. It is re-
New aeeu- markablo that au accusation of a very similar
"*^°"' nature should have caused the capital punish-
ment of the most distinguished among the Heathen
philosophic party, and the exile of the most eminent
Christian prelate. Constantinople entirely depended
for the supply of corn upon foreign importation. One-
half of Africa, including Egypt, was assigned to the
maintenance of the new capital, while the Western di-
Doathof vision alone remained for Bome. At some
phSoaopher. perfod duriug thc later years of Constantine,
the adverse winds detained the Alexandrian fleet, and
&mine began to afflict the inhabitants of the city.
The populace was in tumult ; the government looked
anxiously for means to allay the dangerous ferment.
The Christian party had seen with jealousy and alarm
the influence which a Heathen philosopher, named
Sopater, had obtained over the mind of Constan-
tine.^ Sopater was a native of Apamea, the scholar of
lamblichus. The emperor took great delight in his so-
ciety, and was thus in danger of being perverted, if not
to Heathenism, to that high Platonic indifferentism
which would leave the two religions on terms of per-
fect equality. Sopater was seen seated on public occa-
sions by the emperor's side ; and boasted, it was said,
that the dissolution of Heathenism would be arrested
by his authority. During the famine, the emperor
entered the theatre : instead of the usual acclamatiouSy

1 Zosimus, ii. 40; Sozom. 1-6; Eunap. in iEdes. p. 21-25 ; edit- Boisso-
nade. Suidas, voc. Xuirarpog, If we are to believe Eunapiua, the Christiaxu
might reasonably take alann at the intimacy of Constantine with Sopftter:
6 fjtev 0aaiXei>c ^o^icei re in^ avT^ koL driftoai^ awedpov elx^Vf etc rdy de^idp
KoOi^dJv Tonbv. o koX okovocu kcll Idelv amaTOv ol de irapaiwaaTsvoiTE^ {(he
Chrittians, a remarkable admission of their influence !) /^yvvfjievot ry ^$6v^
irpdc PcujiXetav apri ^ikooo^v juerct^v9di>ov0a}/. — p. 21.

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Chap. IV. AKTOS IN CONSTANTINOPLE. 885

he was received with a dull and melancholy silence.
The enemies of Sopater seized the opportunity of ac-
cusing the philosopher of magic: his unlawful arts
had bound the winds in the adverse quarter. If the
emperor did not, the populace would readily, believe
him to be the cause of all their calamities. He was
sacrificed to the popularity of the emperor : the order
for his decapitation was hastily issued, and promptly
executed.

In the same spirit which caused the death of the
Heathen philosopher, Athanasius was accused of
threatening to force the emperor to his own measures,
by stopping the supplies of corn from the port of Alex-
andria. Constantine listened with jealous credulity to
the charge. The danger of leaving the power of starv-
ing the capital in the hands of one who might become
hostile to the Government, touched the pride a. d. sse,
of the emperor in the tenderest point. Atlia- uaniriuneiit

of Athanasiai

nasius was banished to the remote city of toXnTw.
Treves.

But neither the exile of Athanasius, nor the un-
•qualified — his enemies, of course, asserted insincere
or hypocritical — acceptance of the Nicene Creed by
Arius himself, allayed the differences. The presence
of Arius in Alexandria had been the cause of new dis-
sensions. He was recalled to Constantinople, ^^^ j^^ ^^
where a council had been held, in which the •*"**»>opi«-
Arian party maintained and abused their predomi-
nance. But Alexander, the Bishop of Constantinople,
still firmly resisted the reception of Arius into the
orthodox communion. Affairs were hastening to a
crisis. The Arians, with the authority of the emperor
on their side, threatened to force their way into the
church, and to compel the admission of their champion*

TOL. II. 26

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886 DEATH OF ASinS. Book m.

The Catholics, the weaker party, had recourse to
prayer : the Arians abeady raised the voice of triumph.
While Alexander was prostrate at the altar, Arius was
borne through the wondering city in a kind of ovation,
surrounded by his friends, and welcomed with loud
acclamations by his own party. As he passed the por-
phyry column, he was forced to retire into a house to
relieve his natural wants. His return was anxiously
Death of expected, but in vain: he was found dead,
^^ as his antagonists declared ; his bowels had
burst out, and relieved the Church from tlie presence
of the obstinate heretic. We cannot wonder, that, at
such a period of excitement, the Catholics, in that
well-timed incident, recognized a direct providential
interference in their favor. It was ascribed to the
prevailing prayers of Alexander and his clergy. Un-
der the specious pretext of a thanksgiving for the
deliverance of the Church from the imminent peril of
external violence, the bishop prepared a solemn ser-
vice. Athanasius, in a public epistle, alludes to the
fate of Judas, which had befallen the traitor to the co-
equal dignity of the Son. His hollow charity ill di&-
guises his secret triumph.^

Whatever eflFect the death of Arius might produce
upon the mind of Constantino, it caused no mitigation
in his unfavorable opinion of Athanasius. He con-
temptuously rejected the petitions which were sent
from Alexandria to solicit his ro-instatement ; he re-
fused to recall that " proud, turbulent, obstinate, and
intractable " prelate. It was not till he was on his

1 It was a standing argoment of Athanasius, that the death of Arioa waa
A sufficient refutation of his heresy.

E/c yop reXeiav Karayvootv r^ alpiaeuQ tuv ^Apeutvuv, aOrapKiK ff mpl
Tov ^avarov ^Apitov yevofihni fropd rm) KOpUw «rpi<7(C«— Ded. Epist ad Mona-
chos, 8. Op. v. i. 844.

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Chap. IV. BAPTISM OF COKSTANTINE. 387

death-bed that his consent was hardly extorted for this
act of mercy, or rather of justice.

The baptism of Constantino on his death-bed is one
of those questions which has involved eccle- Baptbm of
fliastical historians in inextricable embarrass- ^"**»""°«-
ment. The fact is indisputable : it rests on the united
authority of the Greek and Latin writers. Though he
had so openly espoused the cause of Christianity ;
though he had involved himself so deeply in the inter-
ests of the Christian community, attended on their
worship, presided,^ or at least sanctioned their coun-
cils with his presence, and had been constantly sur-
rounded by the Christian clergy, — the emperor had
still deferred till the very close of his life his formal
reception into the Christian Church, the ablution of
his sins, the admission to the privileges and hopes
of the Christian, by that indispensable rite of baptism.^
There seems but one plain solution of this difficulty.
The emperor constantly maintained a kind of superi-
ority over the Christian part of his subjects. It wag
still rather the lofty and impartial condescension of a
protector, than the spiritual equality of the proselyte.

1 If we aie to believe Etuebins, he was a preacher of Christianity, — a
preacher on some of its most profbnnd and mysterious doctrines. I cannot
help suspecting that the bishop has transferred some of his own sermons to
the emperor. — V. C. iv. 29. Compare Stanley, p. 238.

3 Mosheim^s observations on the Christianity of Constantine are charac-
terized by his nsoal good sense and judgment — De Rebus Christ anti
Const Hagnum, p. 965. I extract only a few sentences: " Erat primis post
lictum Maxentium annis in animo ejus cum omnia religionis, turn Ghristianss
imprimis, parum sana et propius k Grsecorum et Komanorum opinione remota
notio. Nesdus enim salntb et beneficiorum k Christo humano generi parto-
rum, Christum Deum esse putabat, qui cultorum snorum fidem et diligentiam
felicitate hujus vit«B, rebusque secundis comparare, hostes vero et con-
temptores mox pcenie, malisqne omnis generis afficere potuit . . . Ita sensim
de vera religionis Christianie indole . . . edoctus stultitiam et deformitatem
antiquamm superstitionom darius perspiciebat, et Christo uni sincere nomen
dabat." — pp.977, 978.

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888 BAPTISM OF CONSTAKTINE. Book IIL

He still asserted, and in many cases exercised, the
privilege of that high indiflFerentism which ruled his
conduct by his own will or judgment, rather than by
the precepts of a severe and definite religion. He was
reluctant — though generally convinced of the truth,
and disposed to recognize the superiority, of the Chris-
tian religion — to commit himself by the irrevocable act
of initiation. He may have been still more unwilling to
sever himself entirely from the Heathen majority of
his subjects, lest by such a step, in some sudden yet
always possible crisis, he might shake their allegiance.
In short, he would not surrender any part of his dig-
nity as emperor of the world, especially as he might
suppose that, even if necessary to his salvation as a
Christian, he could command at any time the advan-
tages of baptism. On the other hand, the
Christians, then far more pliant than when
their undisputed authority ruled the minds of mon-
archs with absolute sway, hardly emerged from perse-
cution, struggling for a still-contested supremacy,
divided among themselves, and each section courting
the favor of the emperor, were glad to obtain an impe-
rial convert on his own terms. In constant hope that
the emperor himself would take this decisive step, they
were too prudent or too cautious to urge it with impe-
rious or unnecessary vehemence. He was not so en-
tirely their own, but that he might still be estranged
by indiscretion 6r intemperance ; he would gradually
become more enlightened ; and they were content to
wait in humble patience, till Providence, who had
raised up tliis powerful protector, should render him
folly and exclusively and openly their own.

If it be difficult to determine the extent to which
Constantino proceeded in the establishment of Chris-

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Chap. IV. LAWS AGAINST PAGAKISM. S89

tdanity, it is even more perplexing to estimate how
far he exerted the imperial authority in the ^^^^^ ^
abolition of Paganism. Conflicting evidence J^^jJ^*
encounters us at every point. Eusebius, in p"*««^-
three distinct passages in his '' Life of Constantine/'
asserts that he prohibited sacrifice;^ that he issued
two laws to prohibit, both in the city and in the
country, the pollutions of the old idolatry, the setting-
up of statues, divinations, and other unlawM practices,
— and to command the total abolition of sacrifice;*
that throughout the Roman empire tlie "doors of
idolatry " were closed to the people and to the army,
and every kind of sacrifice was prohibited.^ Theodoret
asserts^ that Gonstantine prohibited sacrifice, and,
though he did not destroy, shut up all the temples.
In a passage of his Panegyric,^ Eusebius asserts that
the emperor sent two officers into every part of the
empire, who forced the priests to surrender up the
statues of their gods, which, having been despoiled of
their ornaments, were melted or destroyed. These
strong assertions of Eusebius are, to a certain extent,
confirmed by expressions in the laws of Constantino's
successors, especially one of Constans, which appeals
to an edict of his father Constantino, which prohibited
sacrifice.^

1 Qifeiv dneipJiTo, — li. 44.

^ Avo Kara rd airb hrifiirovro voftoi' 6 fiiv elpyov rd fwaapH r^c xardL
iroAftf Kol xCipais rb vaXcubv owreXovfiivijc dduh)^aTpiac, ^ ^re kyepaeic
^oavijv mndaBat rokfigv^ fi^ fiovreiatc koI raii SX^aic irepiepyiaic hrixet^
peiv, iaiT€ (opf &vuv koBoXov laiStva, — ii. 46.

* Ko^oXmi, de rote imb rij Tufidtuv &pX9 ^foic re xai OTparujnKolc,
irvXcu dnekXeiovTO eldo^joXarplaCf Striae re rponoc irniyopevero irof, —
iv. 28. diauj^ero fikv ^veiv e/dc^^^cMC.—ibid. 25. djjfjtotc may mean the
magistracy^ the public ceremonial.

* Theodoret, vi. 21. Compare Sosomen, iii. 17; OronnB, vii. 28.
« De Landib. Constant, i. 8.

ft ** Cesset snperstitio, Bacriflcioram aboleator insania. Nam qoiconque

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890 EXTENT TO WHICH Book m.

On the other hand, Eusebius himself inserts, and
ascribes to a date posterior to some of these laws,
documents, which he professes to have seen in Con-
stantino's own hand, proclaiming the most impartial
toleration to the Pagans, and deprecating compulsion
in religious matters. ^^ Let all enjoy the same peace ;
let no one disturb another in his religious worship;
let each act as he thinks fit ; let those who withhold
their obedience from Thee (it is an address to the
Deity), have their temples of falsehood if they think
right." ^ He exhorts to mutual charity, and declares,
"It is a very different thing willingly to submit to
trials for the sake of immortal life, and to force others
by penalties to embrace one faith." ^ These generous
sentiments, if Constantino were issuing edicts to dose
the temples, and prohibiting the sacred rites of his
Pagan subjects, had been the grossest hypocrisy.
The laws against the soothsayers spoke, as was before
shown, the same tolerant language with regard to the
public ceremony of the religion.* Can the victory
over Licinius so entirely have changed the policy of
Constantino, as to have induced him to prohibit alto-
gether rites which but a few years before he had
sanctioned by his authority ?

contra legem divi Principis, parentis nostri, et hanc nostne mansaetndinis jos-
sionem ausus fuerit sacrificia celebrare, competens in eum yindicta, et pnesena
eententia exBeiatur." — Cod. Theodos. xyL 10. 2. See likewise the note of
Godefiroy.

1 'Ofwiav nic ntarevownv oi ir^av6fuvot x<upovTef Xif£0avhucav etp^
V7K Tt Kot ijovxiac diroXavatv. . . . M^de^f rdv tnpov mfitTiii'' vcx^u
Ucurmg brrep if ilmx^ fiovAtrai tovto koH vparriru. . . . 0< d' iavni*^
d^Xmnn-es', kxovruv povXofuvoi rd ttc ^jfevdokoyiac refdvji, — Yit Conat.
ii. 26.

s 'AAAo ydp iari, rdv irnkp 6Bauaaiac idXov kKewfiuc iicavcuoeicSai,
i^Xo Tb fUTtL TifMpiac krravayKo^tv. — c. 60.

8 » Qui vero id vobis existimatis conducere, adite aras publicas atqne de-
lubra et consuetudinis vestne celebrate solenmia; nee enim prohibemus pne-
teriUe usurpatioois officia libera luce tractan.** — Cod. Theodoe. xyi. 10.

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Chap.IY. paganism WAS SUPPBESSED. 891

The Pagan writers, who are not scrupulous in tlieir
charges against the memory of Constantine, and dwell
with bitter resentment on all his overt acts of hostility
to the ancient religion, do not accuse him of these
direct encroachments on Paganism. Neither Julian
nor Zosimus lay this to his charge. Libanius distinctly
asserts that the temples were left open and undis-
turbed during his reign, and that Paganism remained
unchanged.^

All historical records strongly confirm the opinion
that Paganism was openly professed ; its temples re-
stored ; 2 its rites celebrated ; neither was its priest-
hood degraded from their immunities, nor the estates
belonging to the temples generally alienated ; in short,
that it was the public religion of a great part of the
empire, and still confronted Christianity, if not on
equal terms, still with pertinacious resistance, down
to the reign of Theodosius, and even that of his sons.
Gonstantine himself, though he neither offered sacri*
fices, nor consulted the Sibylline books, nor would go
up to the temple of the Gapitoline Jupiter with the
senate and the people, performed, nevertheless, some
of the functions, at least did not disdain the appellation,
of Supreme PontiflF.^

Perhaps we may safely adopt the following conclu-

^ T^ KOT^ vbftov Si ^epOTTuac bcivffffev oMi h, — Pro TempUs, vol. IL
p. 162.

Libanius adds that Constantiiu, on a certain change of ciicam8tance8,^rs<
prohibited sacrifice. Compare also Orat. 26; Jnlian Orat yii. p. 424.

^ See, in Grater, p. 100, n. 6, the inscription on the restoration of the
Temple of Concord, daring the consolship of Paulinas (A.C. 831, 882), by
the aathority of the prefect of the dty, and S. P. Q. B. Altars were erected
to other Pagan gods. Compare Beugnot, i. 106.

M. Beugnot, in his Destruction du Paganisme en Occident, has collected
with great industry the prooft of this fact, from inscriptions, medals, and
other of the more minute contemporary memorials.

' There is a medal extant of Gonstantine aa Supreme Pontiff.

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892 ABOLITION OF SACBIHCES. Book HI.

sions. There were two kinds of sacrifices abolished
by Constantine, — I. The private sacrifices, connected
with unlawful acts of theiirgy and of magic ; those
midnight offerings to the powers of darkness, which,
in themselves, were illegal, and led to scenes of un-
hallowed license.^ II. Those wliich might be con-
sidered the state sacrifices offered by the emperor
himself, or by his representatives in his name, either
in the cities or in the army. Though Constantino
advanced many Christians to offices of trust, and no
doubt many who were ambitious of such offices con-
formed to the religion of the emperor, probably most
of the high dignities of the state were held by Pagans.
An edict might be required to induce them to depart
from the customary usage of sacrifice, which with the
Christian officers would quietly fall into desuetude.*
But still, the sacrifices made by the priesthood, at the
expense of the sacerdotal establishments, and out of
their own estates, — though in some instances these
estates were seized by Constantine, and the sacerdotal
colleges reduced to poverty, — and the public sacri-
fices, offered by the piety of distinguished individuals,
would be made as usual. In the capital there can be
little doubt that sacrifices were offered, in the name

1 See the laws relating to diviziation, above, p. 296.

M. la Bastie and M. Beugnot would consider the terms rd fwaapd. t^
giSuXo^rpiag, in the rescript of Constantine, and the *' insana superstitio "
of the law of Constans, to refer exclusively to these nocturnal and forbidden
sacrifices. M. Beugnot has observed, that Constantine always uses respect-
fid and courteous language concerning Paganism. '* Vetus observantia, ve-
tns consuetndo; templorum solemnia; consuetudinis gentilitiae solemnitas.'*
The laws of the later emperors employ veiy different terms. " Error ; demen-
tia; error veterum ; profanos ritus; sacrilegns ritus ; nefarius ritus; supersti-
tio Pagana, damnabilis, damnata, deterrima, impia; iunestao superstitionia
errores; stolidus Paganorum error.*' — Cod. Theodos. t. v. p. 256. Beugnot,
torn. i. p. 80.

s The prohibition to the d^fiot and orpartuTuiol (see quotation above firom
Eusebius) refers, I conceive, to these.

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Chap. IV. LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 893

of the senate and people of Borne, till a much later
period.

Christianity may now be said to have ascended the

imperial throne: with the single exception of Leg»i«
Julian, from this period the monarchs of the chitaaanity.
Boman empire professed the religion of the Gospel.
This important crisis in the history of Christianity
almost forcibly arrests the attention to contemplate
the change wrought in Christianity by its advance
ment into a dominant power in the state; and the
change in the condition of mankind up to this period,
attributable to the direct authority or indirect weetaat

this on the

influence of the new religion. By ceasing to wiigion.
exist as a separate community, and by advancing its
pretensions to influence the general government of
mankind, Christianity, to a certain extent, forfeited
its independence. It could not but submit to these
laws, framed, as it might seem, with its own concur-
rent voice. It was no longer a republic, governed
exclusively, as far at least as its religious concerns, by
its own internal polity. The interference of the civil
power in some of its most private afiairs, the promul-
gation of its canons, and even in some cases the elec-
tion of its bishops, by the state, was the price which it
must inevitably pay for its association with the ruling
power. The natural satisfaction, the more than par-
donable triumph, in seeing the emperor of tlie world
a suppliant with themselves at the foot of the cross,
would blind the Christian world, in general, to these
consequences of their more exalted position. The
more ardent and unworldly would fondly suppose, that
a Christian emperor would always be actuated by
Christian motives; and that the imperial authority,
instead of making aggressions on Christian inde-

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894 LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTL/LNITT. Book m.

pendence, would rather bow in humble submission to
its acknowledged dominion. His main object would
be to develop the energies of the new religion in
the amplest freedom, and allow them Aill scope in the
subjugation of the world.

The emperor as little anticipated, that he was
onthedTU introducing, as an antagonistic power, an
^^"' inextinguishable principle of liberty into the
administration of human afiFairs. This liberty was
based on deeper foundations than the hereditary
freedom of the ancient republics. It appealed to a
tribunal higher than any which could exist upon
earth. This antagonistic principle of independence,
however at times apparently crushed, and submitting
to voluntary slavery, or even lending itself to be the
instrument of arbitrary despotism, was inherent in
the new religion, and would not cease till it had
asserted, and for a considerable period exercised, an
authority superior to that of the civil government.
Already in Athanasius might be seen the one subject
of Gonstantine who dared to resist his will. From
Athanasius, who owned himself a subject, but with
inflexible adherence to his own opinions, to Ambrose,
who rebuked the great Theodosius, and from Ambrose
up to the pope who set his foot on the neck of the
prostrate emperor, the progress was slow, but natural
and certain. In this profound prostration of the
human mind and the total extinction of the old senti-
ments of Roman liberty, in the adumbration of the
world by what assumed the pomp and the language
of an Asiatic despotism, it is impossible to calculate
the latent as well as open effect of this moral re-
sistance. In Constantinople, indeed, and in the East,
the clergy never obtained sufficient power to be for-

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Chap. IV. LEGAL ESTABLISHBIENT OF CHRISTIANITT. 895

midable to the civil authority ; their feuds too often
brought them in a sort of moral servitude to the foot
of the throne : still the Christian, and the Christian
alone, throughout this long period of human degrada-
tion breathed an atmosphere of moral freedom which
raised him above the general level of servile debase-
ment.

During the reign of Constantine, Christianity had
made a rapid advance, no doubt in the num- how to the
ber of its proselytes, as well as in its external theanpin.
position. It was not yet the established religion of
the empire. It did not as yet stand forward as the
new religion adapted to the new order of things, as
a part of the great simultaneous change, which gave
to the Roman world a new capital, a new system of
government, and, in some important instances, a new
jurisprudence. Yet having sprung up at once, under
the royal favor, to a perfect equality with the prevail-
ing Heathenism, the mere manifestation of that favor,
where the antagonistic religion hung so loose upon
the minds of men, gave it much of the power and
authority of a dominant faith. The religion of the
emperor would soon become that of the court; and,
by somewhat slower degrees, that of the empire. At
present, however, as we have seen, little open aggres-
sion took place upon Paganism. The few temples
which were closed were insulated cases, and con-
demned as offensive to public morality. In general,
the edifices stood in all their former majesty; for as
yet the ordinary process of dissolution, from neglect
or decay, could have produced little effect. The dif-
ference was, that the Christian churches began to
assume a more stately and imposing form. In the
new capital, they surpassed in grandeur, and probably

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896 lAWS RELATma to SUimATS. Book in.

in decoration, the Pagan temples which belonged to old
Bjzantium. The immunities granted to the Christian
dergy only placed them on the same level with the
Pagan priesthood. The pontifical offices were still
held by the distinguished men of the state : the empe-
ror himself was long the chief pontiff; but the religious
office had become a kind of appendage to the temporal
dignity. The Christian prelates were constantly ad-
mitted, in virtue of their office, to the imperial pres-
ence.

On the state of society at large, on its different
Kflwt of forms and gradations, little impression had as
cteteSii"' y®* ^^^ made by Christianity. The Chris-
oa society, tiaus wcrc still a separate people ; Christian
literature was exclusively religious, and addressed,
excepting in its apologies or its published exhortations
against Paganism, to the initiate alone. Its language
would be unintelligible to those uninstructed in Chris-
tian theology. Yet the general legislation of Gon-
Btantine, independent of those edicts which concerned
the Christian commui^ity, bears some evidence of the
lAwfniatiiig silent underworking of Christian opinion.
toBoodays. rj^^^Q rcscript, indeed, for the religious ob-
servance of the Sunday, which enjoined the suspension
of all public business and private labor, except that
of agriculture, was enacted, according to the apparent
terms of the decree, for the whole Roman empire.
Yet, unless we had direct proof that the decree set
forth the Christian reason for the sanctity of the day,
it may be doubted whether the act would not be re-
ceived by the greater part of the empire, as merely
adding one more festival to the Fasti of the empire,
as proceeding entirely from the will of the emperor,
or even grounded on his authority as Supreme Pontiff,

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Chap. IV. LAWS TENDING TO HUMANnT. 897

by which he had the plenary power of appointing holy-
days.^ In fact, as we have before observed, the day
of the Sun would be willingly hallowed by almost all
the Pagan world, especially that part which had ad-
mitted any tendency towards the Oriental theology.

Where the legislation of Constantino was of a hu-
maner cast, it would be imjust not to admit i^^ tending
the influence of Christian opinions, spread- *<>*^"™*^*y-
ing even beyond the immediate circle of the Christian
community, as at least a concurrent cause of the im-
provement. In one remarkable instance, there is
direct authority that a certain measure was adopted
by the advice of an influential Christian. During the
period of anarchy and confusion which preceded the
universal empire of Constantino, the misery had been
so great; particularly in Africa and Italy, that the sale
of infants for slaves, their exposure, and even infan-
ticide, had become fearfully common. Constantino
issued an edict, in which he declared that the emperor
should be considered the father of all such children.
It was a cruelty, irreconcilable with the spirit of the
times, to permit any subjects of the empire to perish
of starvation, or to be reduced to any unworthy action
by actual hunger. Funds were assigned for the food
and clothing of such children as the parents should
declare themselves unable to support, partly on the
imperial revenues, partly on the revenues of the neigh-
boring cities. As this measure did not prevent the
sale of children, parents were declared incapable of
reclaiming children thus sold, unless they paid a
reasonable price for their enfranchisement.^ Children

1 Cod. Theod. I. 2, tit. 8; L 8, tit 8; L 6, tit. 8. Cod. Just iii. 12. Eo-
seb., Vit Const 18, 19, 20. Sozom. i 8.

s Codex. Theodos. v. vii. 1. On the exposure of children at this time,
compare Lactantius, D. I. ii 20.

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898 LAWS CONCERNING SLAVERY. Book IIL

which had been exposed could not be reclaimed firom
those who had received them into their families,
whether by adoption or as slaves. Whatever may
have been the wisdom, the humanity of these ordi-
nances is unquestionable. They are said to have
been issued by the advice of Lactantius, to whom had
been intrusted the education of Crispus, the son of
Constantine.

Child-stealing, for the purpose of selling the children
caneerning for slavcs, was visitcd with a penalty which
"^^^^ both in its nature and barbarity retained the
stamp of the old Boman manners. The criminal was
condemned to the amphitheatre, either to be devoured
by wild beasts or exhibited as a gladiator. Chris-
tianity had not as yet allayed the- passion for these
savage amusements of the Boman people; yet, in
conjunction with the somewhat milder manners of the
East, it excluded gladiatorial exhibitions from the new
capital. The Grecian amusements of the theatre and
of the chariot-race satisfied the populace of Constanti-
nople. Whatever might be the improved condition
of the slaves within the Christian community, the
tone of legislation preserves the same broad and dis-
tinct line of demarcation between the two classes of
society. The master, indeed, was deprived of the
arbitrary power of life and death. The death of a
slave under torture, or any excessive severity of pun-
ishment, was punishable as homicide ; but, if he died
under a moderate chastisement, the master was not
responsible. In the distribution of the royal domains,
care was to be taken not to divide the families of the
praedial slaves. It is a cruelty, says the law, to
separate parents and children, brothers and sisters,

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Chap. IV. AGAINST RAPE AND ABDUCTION. 399

husbands and wives.^ Bat marriages of free women
with slaves were punishable with death : the children
of such unions were indeed free, but could not inherit
their mothers' property. The person of dignity and
station, who had children by a marriage contracted
with a woman of base condition, could not make a
testament in their favor; even purchases made in
their names or for their benefit might be claimed by
the legitimate heirs. The base condition compre-
hended not only slaves, but freed women, actresses,
tavern-keepers, and their daughters, as well as those
of courtesans or gladiators. Slaves who were con-
cerned in the seduction of their masters' children
were to be burned alive without distinction of sex.
The barbarity of this punishment rather proves the
savage manners of the time than the inferior condition
of the slave ; for the receivers of the royal domains
who were convicted of depredation of fraud were con-
demned to the same penalty.^

It can scarcely be doubted, that the stricter moral
tone of Gonstan tine's legislation more or iawi

less remotely emanated from Christianity. SS^i^ooo.
The laws against rape and seduction were framed with
so much rigor, as probably to make their general exe-
cution difficult, if not impracticable.^ The ravisher

1 Cod. Theod. I. y. t 26. On the whole qneetion of the effect of Chris-
tianity on slaveiy, read the third yolume of the excellent work of Wallon,
Sor TEedavage dans TAntiquite.

^ Manumission, which was performed nnder the sanction of a religions
ceremonial in the Heathen temples, might now be performed in the church:
the clergy might manumit their slaves, in the presence of the church. — Cod.
Theod. iv. 7, 1.

This law must have connected Christianity in the general sentiment with
the emancipation of slaves. Compare Sozomen, i. 9, who says that Constan-
tine issued three laws on the subject The manumission took place publicly
at Easter. — Greg. Nyss.

• Cod. Theod. L iv. 1 24.

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400 LAWS AGAINST RAPE AND ABDUCTION. Book IIL

had before escaped with impunity : if the injured parly
did not prosecute him for his crime, she had the right
of demanding reparation by marriage. By the law of
Constantine, the consent of the female made her an
accomplice in the crime: she was amenable to the
same penalty. What that penalty was is not quite
clear; but it seems that the ravisher was exposed to
the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. Even where the
female had sujQfered forcible abduction, she had to
acquit herself of all suspicion of consent, either
from levity of manner, or want of proper vigilance.
Those pests of society, the panders, who abused the
confidence of parents, and made a traffic of the virtue
of their daughters, were in the same spirit condemned
to a punishment so horrible, as, no doubt, more fre-
quently to insure their impunity : melted lead was to
be poured down their throats. Parents who did not
prosecute such offences were banished, and their
property confiscated. It is not, however, so much the
severity of the punishments, indicating a stronger
abhorrence of the crime, as the social and moral evils
of which it took cognizance, which shows the remoter
workings of a sterner moral principle. A religion
which requires of its followers a strict, as regards the
Christianity of this period, it may be said an ascetic
rigor, desires to enforce on the mass of mankind by
the power of the law that which it cannot effect by
the more legitimate and permanent means of moral
influence. In a small community where the law is
the echo of the public sentiment, or where it rests on
an acknowledged divine authority, it may advance
further into the province of morality, and extend its
lAwagaiDit provisions into every relation of society,
adultery. ijij^^ Mosaic law, wMch, simultaneously with

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Chap. IV. CONCERNING DIVORCE. 401

the Christian spirit, began to enter into the legislation
of the Christian emperors, in its fearful penalties
imposed upon the illicit conunerce of the sexes,
concurred with the rigorous jealousy of the Asiatic
tribes of that region concerning the honor of their
women. But when the laws of Constantino suddenly
classed the crime of adultery with those of poison and
assassination, and declared it a capital offence, it may
be doubted whether any improvement ensued, or was
likely to ensue, in the public morals. Unless Chris-
tianity liad already greatly corrected the general licen-
tiousness of the Roman world, not merely within but
without its pale, it may safely be affirmed that the
general and impartial execution of such a statute was
impossible.^ The severity of the law against oonoemiiig
the breach of coigugal fidelity was accompa- ^^^^o^*-
nied with strong restrictions upon the facility of
divorce. Three crimes alone, in the husband, justi-
fied the wife in demanding a legal separation, —
homicide, poisoning, or the violation of sepulchres.
This latter crime was, apparently, very fi-equent, and
looked upon with great abhoiTence.^ In these cases,
the wife recovered her dowry; if she separated for
auy other cause, she forfeited all to a single needle,
and was liable to perpetual banishment.^. The hus-
band, in order to obtain a divorce, must convict his

1 It may be admitted, as some evidence of the inefficiency of this law, that
in the next reign the penalties were actually aggravated. The criminals
were condemned either to be burned alive, or sewed ap in a sack and cast
into the sea.

s Codex. Theodos. iii. 16, 1.

s The law of Constantine and Gonstans, which made intermarriage with
a niece a capital crime, is supposed by Godefroy to have been a local act,
directed against the laxity of Syrian morab in this respect — Cod. Theod.
iii. 12, 1. The law issued at Rome, prohibiting intermarriage with the sister
of a deceased wife, annulled the maiiiage, and bastardized the children. —
iiLl2,a.

VOL. u. 26

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402 LAWS FAVORABLE TO CELIBACY. Book m.

wife of poisoning, adultery, or keeping notoriously
infamous company. In all other cases, he restored
the whole of the dowry. If he married again, the
former wife, thus illegally cast off, might claim his
whole property, and even the dowry of the second
wife. These impediments to the dissolution of the
marriage tie, the facility of which experience and
reason concur in denouncing as destructive of social
virtue and of domestic happiness, with penalties affect-
ing the property rather than the person, were more
likely to have a favorable and extensive operation than
the sanguinary proscription of adultery. Marriage
being a civil contract in the Roman world, the state
had full right to regulate the stability and tlie terms
of the compact. In other respects, in which the juris-
prudence assumed a higher tone, Christianity, I should
conceive, was far more influential through its religious
persuasiveness, than by the rigor which it thus im-
Against pressed upon the laws of the empire. That
'*"''^*~*''' nameless crime, the universal disgrace of
Greek and Roman society, was far more effectively
repressed by the abhorrence infused into the public
sentiment by the pure religion of the Gospel, than by
the penalty of death, enacted by statute against the
offence. Another law of unquestionable humanity,
Making of 8-^^ probably of more extensive operation,
•unuchB. prohibited the making of eunuchs. The
slave who had suflered this mutilation might at once
claim his freedom.^

Perhaps the greatest evidence of the secret aggres-
Lawg fifcTor- siou of Christianity, or rather, in my opinion,
oeubwy. of the forcigu Asiatic principle which was

1 All these laws will be found in the Theodosian Code, under the
of Constantine, at the commencement of each book.

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Chap. IV. LAWS FAVORABLE TO CELIBACT. 403

now completely interwoven with Christianity, was the
gradual relaxation of the laws unfavorable to celibacy.
The Roman jurisprudence had always proceeded on
the principle of encouraging the multiplication of
citizens, particularly in the higher orders, which, from
various causes, especially the general licentiousness
under the later republic and the early empire, were
in danger of becoming extinct. . The parent of many
children was a public benefactor, the unmarried man
a useless burden, if not a traitor, to the well-being of
the state. The small establishment of the vestal
virgins was evidently the remains of an older religion,
inconsistent with the general sentiment and manners
of Some.

On this point the encroachment of Christianity was
slow and diflBcult. The only public indication of its
influence was the relaxation of the Papia Poppaean
law. This statute enforced certain disabilities on
those who were unmarried, or without children by
their marriage, at the age of twenty-five. The former
could only inherit from their nearest relations; the
latter obtained only the tenth of any inheritance which
might devolve on tlieir wives, the moiety of property
devised to them by will. The forfeiture went to the
public treasury, and was a considerable source of
profit. Constantine attempted to harmonize the two
conflicting principles. He removed the disqualifica-
tions on celibacy, but he left the statute in force
against married persons who were without children.
In more manifest deference to Christianity, he ex-
tended the privilege hitherto confined to the vestal
virgins of making their will, and that before the usual
age appointed by the law, to all who had made a reli-
gious vow of celibacy.

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404 CONVERSION OF ETHIOPIA. Book IIL

Eren after his death, both religions vied, as it were.
Burial of for Constantine. He received with impartial
conBt»ntim, jj^^^j. ^j^^ honors of both. The first Chris-
tian emperor. was deified by the Pagans, in a later
period he was worshipped as a saint by part of the
Gliristian Church. On the same medal appears his
title of " God," with the monogram, the sacred sym-
bol of Christianity; in another he is seated in the
chariot of the Sun, in a car drawn by four horses,
with a hand stretched forth from the clouds to raise
him to heaven.^ But to show respect at once to the
emperor and to the Chrisfian apostle, contrary to
the rigid usage, which forbade any burial to take place
within the city, Constantine was interred in the porch
of the church dedicated to the apostles. Constantius
did great honor (in Chrysostom's opinion) to his
imperial father, by burying him in tlie Fisherman's
Porch.2

During the reign of Constantine, Christianity con-
conTenton tinucd to advaucc beyond the borders of the
of Ethiopia, ^nian empire, and, in some degree, to in-
demnify herself for the losses which she sustained in
the kingdom of Persia. Tlie Ethiopians appear to
have attained some degree of civilization ; a consider-
able part of the Arabian commerce was kept up with
the other side of the Red Sea, through the port of
Adulis ; and Greek letters appear, from inscriptions
recently discovered,* to have made considerable prog-

1 Inter Divos meruit referri; Eutrop. x. 8; EckheL doct numm. yiii 9S,
98; Bolland, 21st Maij. Compare Le Beau, Hist du Bas Empire, L p. 888.
Beugnot, 1. 109.

There exists a calendar in which the iesttvals of the new God are indi-
cated. — Acad, des Inscrip. xv. 106.

3 Chiysost, Horn. 60, in 2 Got.

8 That published by Mr. Salt, from the ruins of Axum, had already ap-
peared in the work of Cosmaa Indiooplenstes, edited by Montfaucon; Nm*

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Chaf.IV. conversion OF ETHIOPIA. 406

ress among this barbarous people. The Romans
called this country, with that of the Homerites on
the other side of the Arabian Gulf, by the vague name
of the nearer India. Travellers were by no means
uncommon in these times, whether for purposes of
trade, or, following the traditional history of the
ancient sages, from the more disinterested desire of
knowledge. Metrodorus, a philosopher, had extended
his travels throughout this region,^ and, on his return,
the account of his adventures induced another person
of the same class, Meropius of Tyre, to visit the same
regions. Meropius was- accompanied by two youths,
— Edesius and Frumentius. Meropius, with most of
his followers, fell in a massacre, arising out of some
sudden interruption of the peace between the Ethiopi-
ans and the Romans. Edesius and Frumentius were

bohr published anotheri discovered by Gau, in Nubia, relating to Silco, king
of that countiy.

1 The same Metrodorus afterwards made a journey into ftirther India: his
object was to visit the Brahmins, to examine their religious tenets and prac-
tices. Metrodorus instructed the Indians in the construction of water-mills
and baths. In their gratitude, they opened to him the inmost sanctuar}' of
their temples. 'But the virtue of the philosopher Metrodorus was not proof
against the gorgeous treasures which dazzled his eyes : he stole a great quan-
tity of pearls, and other jewels; others, he said that he had received as a
present to Constantine from the King of India. He appeared in Constanti-
nople. The emperor received, with the highest satisfaction, those magnificent
gills which Metrodorus presented in his own name. But Metrodorus com-
plained that his offerings would have been far more sumptuous if he had not
been attacked on his way through Persia, contrary to the spirit of the exist-
ing peace between the empires, and plundered of great part of his treasures.
Constantine, it is said, wrote an indignant remonstrance to ihQ King of Per-
sia. This stor^' is curious, as it shows the connection kept up by traders
and travellers with the further East, which accounts fbr the allusions to In-
dian tenets and usages in the Christian^ as well as the Pagan, writers of the
time. It rests on the late authority of Cedrenus (t 1. p. 295), but is confirmed
by a passage of Ammianus MarcelGnus, who, however, places it in the reign
of Constantins. " Sed Constantium ardores Parthicos succendisse, cum Me-
trodori mendaciis avidlus acquiescit." — Ixxv. c 4. Compare St. Maitin'a
additions to Le Beau, i. 848.

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406 CONTERSION OF ETHIOPIA. Book IU.

spared on account of their youth. They were taken
into the service of the king, and gradually rose, till
one became the royal cup-bearer; the other, the ad-
ministrator of the royal finances. The king died soon
after they had been elevated to these high distinctions,
and bequeathed their liberty to the strangers. The
queen entreated them to continue their valuable ser-
vices till her son should attain to full age. The
Romans complied with her request, and the supreme
government of the kingdom of Ethiopia was adminis-
tered by these two Romans ; but the chief post was
occupied by Frumentius. Of the causes which dis-
posed the mind of Frumentius towards Christianity
we know nothing: he is represented as seized with
an eager desire of becoming acquainted with its
tenets, and anxiously inquiring whether any Chris-
tians existed in the country, or could be found among
the Roman travellers who visited it.^ It is more
probable, since there were so many Jews, both on the
Arabian and the African side of the gulf, that some
earlier knowledge of Christianity had spread into
these regions. But it was embraced with ardor by
Frumentius ; he built a church, and converted many
of the people. When the young king came of age,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of the prince and
his mother, Frumentius and his companion returned
to their native country. Frumentius passed through
Alexandria ; and, having communicated to Athanasius
the happy beginnings of the Gospel in that wild
region, the influence of that commanding prelate
induced him to accept the mission of the Apostle of

1 Sozomen, in his ignorance, has recourse to visions, or direct divine
inspiration. Qekuc 2a«f Trporpairelc ^t^amoif, ^ kcU airrofiaTus tov Oeod

KIVOVVTOg.

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Chap. IV. OF THE IBERIANS. 407

India. He was consecrated Bishop of Axum by the
Alexandrian prelate, and that see was always consid-
ered to owe allegiance to the patriarchate of Alexan-
dria. The preaching of Frumentius was said to have
been eminently successful, not merely among the
Ethiopians, but also among the neighboring tribes of
Nubians and Blemmyes. His name is still reverenced
as the first of the Ethiopian pontiffs. But probably
in no country did Christianity so soon degenerate into
a mere form of doctrine; the wild inhabitants of
these regions sank downward rather than ascended in
the scale of civilization ; and the fruits of Christianity,
humanity, and knowledge were stifled amid the con-
flicts of savage tribes, by ferocious manners, and less
frequent intercourse with more cultivated nations.^

The conversion of the Iberians ^ was the work of a
holy virgin. Nino was among the Armenian of the
maidens who fled from the persecutions of ^**'**°'-
the Persians, and foimd refuge among the warlike
nation of Iberia, the modern Georgia. Her seclusion,
her fasting, and constant prayers excited the wonder
of these fierce warriors. Two cures which she is said
to have wrought, one on the wife of the king, still
further directed the attention of the people to the
marvellous stranger. The grateful queen became a
convert to Christianity. Mihran, the king, still wa-
vered between the awe of his ancient deities, the fear
of his subjects, and his inclination to the new and
wonder-working faith. One day, when he was hiint-
ing in a thick and intricate wood, he was enveloped in
a sudden and impenetrable mist. Alone, separated

1 Compare Stanley, Eastern Ghnrch, 12, 14, and in other passages,
s Socrates,!. 20; Sozomen, ii. c. 7; Rufin. x. 10; Theodoret, i. 24; Moses
Choren, Lib. ii. c. 88 ; Klaproth, Travels iu Georgia.

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408 CONYEBSION OF THE IBERIANS. Book JU.

from his companions, his awe-struck mind thought of
the Christians' Grod: he determined to embrace the
Christian faith. On a sudden, the mist cleared off,
the light shone gloriously down, and in this natural
image the king beheld the confirmation of the light
of truth spread abroad within his soul. After much
opposition, the temple of the great god Aramazd (the
Ormuzd of the Persian system) was levelled with
the earth. A cross was erected upon its ruins by the
triumphant Nino, which was long worshipped as the
palladium of the kingdom.^ Wonders attended on
the construction of the first Christian church. An
obstinate pillar refused to rise, and defied the utmost
mechanical skill of the people to force it from its
oblique and pendant position. The holy virgin passed
the night in prayer. On the morning, the pillar rose
majestically of its own accord, and stood upright upon
its pedestal. The wondering people burst into acclar-
mations of praise to the Christians' God, and gener-
ally embraced the faith. The King of Iberia entered
into an alliance with Constantine, who sent him
valuable presents, and a Christian bishop, Eustar-
thius: it is said, the deposed patriarch of Antioch
undertook this mission by the command of the empe-
ror; and Iberia was thus secured to the Christian
faith.

1 In 1801, this cross, or that which perpetual tradition accounted as the
identical cross, was removed to Petersburg bj Prince Bagration. It was ra-
stored, to the great joj of the nation, by order of the emperor Alexander.

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Ctur.V. THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE. 409

OHAPTEB V.

Chrutianity under the Sons of Constantine.

If Christianity was making such rapid progress in the
conquest of the world, the world was making Acoeesiaaor
fearful reprisals on Christianity. By enlist- coMtantine.
ing new passions and interests in its cause, religion
surrendered itself to an inseparable fellowship with
those passions and interests. The more it mingles
with the tide of human aflFairs, the more turbid be-
comes the stream of Christian history. In the intoxi-
cation of power, the Christian, like ordinary men,
forgot his original character ; and the religion of Jesus,
instead of difiusing peace and happiness through soci-
ety, might, to the superficial observer of human aflFairs,
seem introduced only as a new element of discord and
misery into the society of man.

The Christian emperor dies ; he is succeeded by his
sons, educated in the fttith of the (Jospel. The first
act of the new reign is the murder of one of the
brothers, and of the nephews of the deceased sover-
eign, who were guilty of being named in the will of
Constantine as joint heirs to the empire. This act,
indeed, was that of a ferocious soldiery, though the
memory of Constantius is not free from the suspicion,
at least of connivance in these bloody deeds. Chris-
tianity appears only in a favorable light as interposing
between the assassins and their victim. Marcus,
Bishop of Arethusa, saved Julian from his enemies :

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410 THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE. Book HI.

the future apostate was concealed under the altar of
the church. Yet, on the accession of the sons of Con-
stantine, to the causes of fraternal animosity usual ou
the division of a kingdom between several brothers
Reiigioofl was added that of religious hostility. The
of thTI^ two emperors (for they were speedily reduced
SOD*. to two) placed themselves at the head of the
two contending parties in Christianity. Tlie weak and
voluptuous Constans adhered with inflexible firmness
to the cause of Athanasius; the no less weak and
tyrannical Gonstantius, to that of Arianism. The East
was arrayed against the West. At Rome, at Alexan-
dria, at Sardica, and, afterwards, at Aries and Milan,
Athanasius was triumphantly acquitted: at Antioch,
at Philippopolis, and finally at Rimini, he was con-
demned with almost equal Tinanimity. Even within
the Church itself, the distribution of the superior
dignities became an object of fatal ambition and strife.
The streets of Alexandria and of Constantinople were
deluged with blood by the partisans of rival bishops.
In the latter, an officer of high distinction, sent by the
emperor to quell the tumult, was slain, and his body
treated with the utmost indignity by the infuriated
populace.

To dissemble or to disguise these melancholy facts
is alike inconsistent with Christian truth and wisdom.
In some degree, they are accounted for by the pro-
verbial reproach against history, that it is the record
of human folly and crime; and history, when the
world became impregnated with Christianity, did not
at once assume a higher office. In fact, it extends its
view only over the surface of society, below which, in
general, lie human virtue and happiness. This would
be especially the case with regard to Christianity,

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Chap. V. SLOW PROGRESS OF MORAL INFLUENCE. 411

whether it withdrew from the sight of man, according
to the monastic interpretation of its precepts, into
solitary communion with the Deity ; or, in its more
genuine spirit, was content with exercising its human-
izing influence in the more remote and obscure quar-
ters of the general social system.

Even the annals of the Church take little notice
of those cities where the Christian episcopate passed
calmly down through a succession of pious and benefi-
cent prelates, who lived and died in the undisturbed
attachment and veneration of their Christian disciples,
and respected by the hostile Pagans; men whose
noiseless course of beneficence was constantly dimin-
ishing the mass of human misery, and improving the
social, the moral, as well as the religious, condition of
mankind. But an election contested with violence, or a
feud which divided a city into hostile parties, arrested
the general attention, and was perpetuated in the rec-
ords, at first of the Church, afterwards of the empire.

But, in fact, the theological opinions of Christianity
naturally made more rapid progress than its mowi mon
moral influence. The former had only to nu^^
overpower the resistance of a religion wliich '^***"****°-
had already lost its hold upon the mind, or a philoso-
phy too speculative for ordinary understandings and
too unsatisfactory for the more curious and inquiring ;
they had only to enter, as it were, into a vacant place
in the mind of man. But the moral influence had to
contest, not only with the natural dispositions of man,
but with the barbarism and depraved manners of ages.
While, then, the religion of the world underwent a
total change ; while the Church rose on the ruins of
the temple, and the pontifical establishment of Pagan-
ism became gradually extinct, or suffered violent

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412 MORAL MORE SLOW Book HI.

BuppreBsion, — the moral revolution was far more
slow and far less complete. With a large portion of
mankind, it must be admitted that the religion itself
was Paganism under another form and with different
appellations ; with another part, it was the religion
passively received without any change in the moral
sentiments or habits ; with a third, and, perhaps, the
more considerable part, there was a transfer of the
passions and the intellectual activity to a new cause.^
They were completely identified with Christianity, and
to a certain degree actuated by its principles, but
they did not apprehend the beautiful harmony which
subsists between its doctrines and its moral perfection.
Its dogmatic purity was the sole engrossing subject ;
the unity of doctrine superseded and obscured all
other considerations, even of that sublimer unity of
principles and effects, of the loftiest views of the
divine nature with the purest conceptions of human
virtue. Faith not only overpowered, but discarded
from her fellowship. Love and Peace. Everywhere
there was exaggeration of one of the constituent ele-
ments of Christianity, — that exaggeration which is
the inevitable consequence of a strong impulse upon
the human mind. Wherever men feel strongly, they
act violently. The more speculative Christians, there-
fore, who were more inclined, in the deep and some-
what selfish solicitude for their own salvation, to
isolate themselves from the infected mass of mankind,
pressed into the extreme of asceticism: the more
practical, who were earnest in the desire of dissemi-

1 " If," said the dying Bishop of Constantinople, " you would have for my
successor a man who would edify you by the example of his life, and improve
you by the purity of bis precepts, choose Paul; if a man versed in the affain
of the world, and able to maintain the interests of the religion, your sufiragea
must be given to Macedonius." — Socr. £. C. ii. 6.

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Chap. V. THAN REUGIOUS REVOLUTION. 418

natiug the blessings of religion throughout society,
scrupled little to press into their service whatever
might advance their cause. With both extremes, tho
dogmatical part of the religion predominated. The
monkish believer imposed the same severity upon
the aberrations of the mind as upon the appetites
of the body ; and, in general, those who are severe to
themselves, are both disposed, and think themselves
entitled, to enforce the same severity on others. The
other, as his sphere became more extensive, was satis-
fied with an adhesion to the Christian creed, instead
of that total change of life demanded of the eai*ly
Christian, and watched over with such jealous vigilance
by the mutual superintendence of a small society.
The creed, thus become the sole test, was enforced
with all the passion of intense zeal, and guarded with
the most subtle and scrupulous jealousy. In propor-
tion to the admitted importance of the creed, men
became more sternly and exclusively wedded to their
opinions. Thus an antagonistic principle of exclu-
siveness co-existed with the most comprehensive am-
bition. While they swept in converts indiscriminately
from the palace and the public street, while the empe-
ror and the lowest of the populace were alike admitted
on little more than the open profession of allegiance,
they were satisfied if the allegiance in this respect
was blind and complete. Hence a far larger admix-
ture of human passions and of the common vulgar
incentives of action was infused into the expanding
Christian body. Men became Christians, orthodox
Christians, with little sacrifice of that which Chris-
tianity aimed chiefly to extirpate. Yet, after all, this
imperfect view ' of Christianity had probably some
effect in concentrating the Christian coumiunity, and

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414 RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION. Book IH.

holding it together by a new and more indissoluble
bond. The world divided into two parties. Though
tlie shades of Arianism — perhaps, if strictly de-
composed, of Trinitarianism — were countless as the
varying powers of conception or expression in man,
yet they were soon consolidated into two compact
masses. The Semi-Arians, who approximated so
closely to tlie Nicene creed, were forced back into the
main body. Their fine distinctions were not seized
by their adversaries, or by the general understanding
of the Christians. The bold and decisive definitive-
ness of the Athanasian doctrine admitted less discre-
tion: and no doubt, though political vicissitudes had
some influence on the final establishment of their
doctrines, the more illiterate and less imaginative
West was predisposed to the Athanasian opinions by
its natural repugnance to tlie more vague and dubious
theory. All, however, were enrolled under one or
the other standard ; and the party which triumphed,
eventually would rule the whole Christian world.

Even the feuds of Christianity at this period, though
with the few more dispassionate and reasoning of the
Pagans they might retard its progress, in some re-
spects contributed to its advancement: they assisted
in breaking up that torpid stagnation which brooded
over the general mind. It gave a new object of ex-
citement to the popular feeling. The ferocious and
ignorant populace of the large cities, which found a
new aliment in Christian faction for their mutinous
and sanguinary outbursts of turbulence, had almost
been better left to sleep on in the passive and unde-
structive quiet of Pagan indiflFerence. They were
dangerous allies ; more than dangerous, — fatal to the
purity of the Gospel.

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Chap. V. ATHANASIUS. 415

Athanasius stands out as the prominent character
of the period in the history, not merely of
"' Christianity, but of the world. That history
is one long controversy ; the life of Athanasius, one
unwearied and incessant strife.^ It is neither the
serene course of a being elevated by his religion above
the cares and tumults of ordinary life, nor the restless
activity of one perpetually employed in a conflict with
the ignorance, vice, and misery of an unconverted
people. Yet even now (so completely has this polemic
spirit become incorporated with Christianity) the
memory of Athanasius is regarded by many wise and
good men with reverence, which, in Catholic countries,
is actual adoration ; in Protestant, approaches towards
it.^ It is impossible, indeed, not to admire the force
of intellect which he centred on this minute point of
theology, his intrepidity, his constancy ; but had he
not the power to aUay the feud which his inexorable
spirit tonded to keep alive ? Was the term " consub-
stantialism " absolutely essential to Christianity ? If a
somewhat wider creed had been accepted, would not
the truth at least as soon and as generally have pre-
vailed? Could not the commanding or persuasive
voice of Christianity have awed or charmed the
troubled waters to peace ?

But Athanasius, in exile, would consent to no peace
which did not prostrate his antagonists before his
feet. He had obtained complete command over the

1 Life of Athanasius prefixed to his Works. Tillemont, Vie d'Athanase.

^ Compare Mohler, Athanasius der Grosse und seine zeit (Maintz, 1827), and
Newman's Arians. The former is the work of a very powerful Roman Catho-
lic writer, laboring to show that all the vital principles of Christianity were
involved in this controversy; and stating one nde of the question with con-
summate ability. It is the panegyric of a dutiful son on him whom he calls
the father of church theology. — p. 804.

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416 COUNCIL AT ANTIOCH. Boos ffl.

minds of the Western emperors. The demand for his
restoration to his see was not an appeal to the justice
or to the fraternal affection of Constantius : it was a
question of peace or war. Oonstantius submitted ; he
received the prelate, on his return, with courtesy, or
rather with favor and distinction. Athanasius now
_ entered Alexandria at the head of a tri-

A.D. 888.

^At£^iu ^™P^^ procession ; the bishops of his party
*j»^i^ndri». resumed their sees; all Egypt returned to
its obedience ; but the more inflexible Syria
still waged the war with unallayed activity. A council
was held at Tyre, in which new charges were framed
against the Alexandrian prelate: the usurpation of
his see in defiance of his condemnation by a council
(the imperial power seems to have been treated with
no great respect, — for a prelate, it was asserted, de-
posed by a council, could only be restored by the
same authority) ; violence and bloodshed during his
re-occupation of the see; and malversation of sums
of money intended for the poor, but appropriated to
his own use. A rival coimcil at Alexandria at once
acquitted Athanasius on all these points ; asserted his
right to the see ; appealed to and avouched the uni-
versal rejoicings at his restoration, and his rigid
administration of the funds intrusted to his care.^

A more august assembly of Christian prelates met
A.D. 841. in the presence of the emperor at Antioch.
Anuoch. Ninety bishops celebrated the consecration of
a splendid edifice, called the Church of Gk)ld. The
council then entered on the affairs of the Church. A
creed was framed satisfactory to all, except that it
seemed carefully to exclude the term "consubstan-

1 Compare throughout the eoclesiastical historians, Theodoret, Socrates,
and Sozomen.

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Chap. V. COUNCIL AT ANTIOCH- 417

tial/' or Homoonsian. The council ratified the de-
crees of that of Tyre, with regard to Athanasius. It
is asserted, on his part, that the majority had with-
drawn to their dioceses before the introduction of
this question, and that a factious minority of forty
prelates assumed and abused the authority of the
council. They proceeded to nominate a new Bishop
of Alexandria. Pistus, who had before been appointed
to the see, was passed over in silence, probably as too
inactive or unambitious for their purpose. Gregory, a
native of the wilder region of Cappadocia, but edu-
cated under Athanasius himself in tlie more polished
schools of Alexandria, was invested with this important
dignity. Alexandria, peacefully reposing, it is sadd^
under the parental episcopate of Athanasius, was sud*
denly startled by the appearance of an edict, signed
by the imperial prefect, announcing the degradation of
Athanasius, and the appointment of Gregory. Scenes
of savage conflict ensued; the churches were taken
as it wera by storm; the priests of the Athanasian
party were treated with the utmost indignity ; virgins
scourged; every atrocity perpetrated by unbridled
multitudes, embittered by every shade of religious fac-
tion. The Alexandrian populace were always ripe for
tumult and bloodshed. The Pagans and the Jews
mingled in the fray, and seized the opportunity, no
doubt, of showing their impartial animosity to both
parties ; though the Arians (and as the original causes
of the tumult, not without justice) were loaded with
the unpopularity of this odioua alliance. They ar-
rayed themselves on the side of the soldiery appointed
to execute the decree of the prefect ; and the Ariaa
iHshOp is charged, not with much probability^ with
abandoning the churches to their pillage.

VOL. II. 27

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418 USUBPATION OF GRE60BT. Book m.

Athanasius fled ; a secpiid time an exile, he took
reAige in the West. He appeared again at Some, in
Athanaiiiis ^^ dominions and under the protection of
jUflttoBooM. im orthodox emperor; for Constans, who,
after the death of Gonstantine, the first protector of
Athanasius, had obtained the larger part of the empire
belonging to his murdered brother, was no less de-
cided in his support of the Nicene opinions. The two
great Western prelates, Hosius of Cordova, eminent
from his age and character, and Julius, Bishop of
Home, from the dignity of his see, openly espoused his
cause. Wherever Athanasius resided, — at Alexan-
dria, in Gaul, in Rome, — in general the devoted
clergy, and even the people, adhered with unshaken
fidelity to his tenets. Such was the commanding dig-
nity of his character, such his power of profoundly
stamping his opinions on the public mind.

The Arian party, independent of their speculative
opinions, cannot be absolved from the uncliristian
heresy of cruelty and revenge. However darkly col-
ored, we cimnot reject the general testimony to their
acts of violence, wherever they attempted to regain
urarpation ^^^^^ authorfty. Gregory is said to have at-
of Gregory, tcmptcd to compcl bishops, priests, monks,
and holy virgins, to Christian communion with a pre-
late thus forced upon them, by every kind of insult
and outrage; by scourging and beating with clubs:
those were fortunate who escaped with exile.^ But, if
Alexandria was disturbed by the hostile excesses of
the Arians, in Constantinople itself the conflicting
reh'gious parties gave rise to the first of those popular
tumults which so frequently, in later times, distracted

^ Aihanas. Oper. p. 112, 149, 860, 862, and tiie eocleaiAstical historitaB,
mloc

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Chap. V. . QUAKBEL AT COKSTANTINOPLE. 419

and disgraced the city. Eusebius, formerly Bishop of
Nicomedia, the main support of the Arian

, , . , . /. ii . A.D. 888.

party had nsen* to the episcopacy of the im-
perial city. His enemies reproached the worldly am-
bition which deserted an humbler for a more eminent
see; but they were not less inclined to contest this
important post with the utmost activity. At his death,
the Athanasian party reyived the claims of Paul, whom
they asserted to have been canonically elected and un-
justly deposed from the see ; the Arians sup- Bioody
ported Macedonius. The dispute spread from gj|^-
the church into the streets, from the clergy ad. m.
to the populace ; blood was shed ; the whole city was
in arms on one part or the other.

The emperor was at Antioch ; he commanded Her-
mogenes, who was appointed to the command of the
cavalry in Thrace, to pass through Constantinople, and
expel the intruder Paul. Hermogenes, at the head of
his soldiery, advanced to force Paul from the church.
The populace rose; the soldiers were repelled; the
general took refuge in a house, which was instantly
set on fire; the mangled body of Hermogenes was
dragged through the streets, and at length cast into
the sea. Gonstantius heard this extraordinary intelli-
gence at Antioch. The contempt of the imperial
mandate, the murder of an imperial officer in the con-
tested nomination of a bishop, were as yet so new in
the annals of the world, as to fill him with equal as-
tonishment and indignation. He mounted his horse,
though it was winter and the mountain-passes were
dangerous and difficult with snow ; he hastened with
the utmost speed to Constantinople. But the deep
humiliation of the senate and the heads of the people,
who prostrated themselves at his feet, averted his re-

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420 TBmiTABZAN OONTROTERST. Book IIL

sentment : the people were punished by a dinunutioii
of the usual largess of com. Paul was expelled ; bat,
as though some blame adhered to both the cooflicting
parties, the election of Macedonius was not confirmed,
although he was allowed to exercise the episcopal func-
tions. Paul retired, first to Thessalonica, subsequently
to the court of Constans.

The remoter consequences of the Athanasiaa coor
Kifectaof fhe troYcrsy began to develop themselves at this
'^^j early period. The Christianity of the East
in the we»t. ^^^ ^^ Wcst gradually assumed a divei^nt
and independent character. Though, during a short
time, the Arianism of the Ostrogothic conquerors gave
a temporary predominance in Italy to that creed, the
West in general submitted^ in umnquiring acquie»-
cence, to the Trinitarianism of Athanasius. In tiie
East, on the other hand, though the doctrines of
Athanasius eventually obtained the superiority, the
controversy gave birth to a long and imexhausted
line of subordinate disputes. The East retained
its mingled character of Oriental speculativeness and
Greek subtlety. It could not abstain from inve»-
tigating and analyzing the divine nature, and the
relations of Christ and the Holy Qhost to the Supreme
Being. Macedonianism, Nestorianism, Eutychianiam,
with the fatal disputes relating to the procession of
the Holy Ghost during almost the last hours of the
Byzantine empire, may be considered the lineal de-
scendants of this prolific controversy. The opposition
between the East and West of itself tended to increase
the authority of that prelate, who assumed his ac-
knowledged station as the head and representative of
the Western churches. The commanding and popular
part taken by the Bishop of Romej in favor of Atha-

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chaf. t. general cocnsrciL at sabdica. 421

nasius and his doctrines, enabled him to stand forth in
undisputed superiority, as at once the chief of the
Western episcopate and the champion of orthodoxy.
The age of Hosius, and his residence in a re- ^^,^.^1^
mote province, withdrew the only competitor •**'»»^
for this superiority. Athanasius took up his residence
at Rome, and, under the protection of the Roman prel*
ate, defied his adversaries to a new contest. Julius
summoned the accusers of Athanasius to juhos,
plead the cause before a council in Rome.^ '^ ^^

The Eastern prelates altogether disclaimed his juris-
diction, and rejected his pretensions to rejudge the
cause of a bishop already condenmed by the council
of Tyre. The answer of Julius is directed rather to
the justification of Athanasius than to the assertion
of his own autiiority. The synod of Rome solemnly
acquitted Athanasius, Paul, and all their ad- gy^odat
herents. The Western emperor joined in ***°*^
the sentiments of his clergy. A second council at
Milan, in the presence of Constans, con- ^^ 343.
firmed the decree of Rome. Constans pro- '^*>«"^
posed to his brother to convoke a general council of
both empires. A neutral or border ground was chosen
for this decisive conflict. At Sardica met coawdior
one hundred prelates from the West, from the a.d. M&4.
East only seventy-five.' Notwithstanding his age and

1 Julius 18 fiir from aasertiog any individaal authority, or pontifical
Bupfemacy. ''Why do you alone write?" — ** Because I represent the
cpmkm of the Uahops of Italy."— Epist Julian., Athanas. Op. 1. IM.

The ecclesiastical historians, hoirever, in the next centiuy, assert that
Borne claimed a right of abjudication. Tvupi^ovctv oiv Ty knuJK6in,»
Tufofc I0VAX9 'ff^ i^**^ iavro6f • 6 di an npopofita r^ h Tw/w? iicKhtaUv
^ov0^.— Socr., £. H. iL 16, Oia 6i tuv frtarruv Ktidefuviac iarr^ vpomj-
MoOtTK ^ Ti^ ^toof Tov dpovcv. — S02., £. H. iii. 8.

s By some acoonnta there were one hmidred Western hishops, seventy-
three Eastern.

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422 OOUKCIL AT PHIUPPOPOUS. Book m.

infirmities, Hosius travelled from the extremity of the
empire : he at once took the lead in the assembly ; and
it is remarkable, that the Bishop of Borne, so zealous
in the cause of Athanasius, alleged an excuse for his
absence, which may warrant the suspicion that he was
unwilling to be obscured in this important scene by
the superior authority of Hosius. Five of the Western
prelates, among whom were Ursacius of Singidunum
and Yalens of Mursa, embraced the Arian cause : the
Arians complained of the defection of two bishops
from their body, who betrayed their secret counsels to
tlieir adversaries.^ In all these councils, it appears
not to have occurred, that, reUgion being a matter of
faith, the suffrages of the majority could not possibly
impose a creed upon a conscientious minority. The
question had been too often agitated to expect that it
could be placed in a new light.

On matters of fact, the sufirages of the more nume-
rous party might have weight, in the personal condem-
nation, for instance, or the acquittal of Athanasius;
but, as these suffrages could not convince the undeiv
standing of those who voted on the other side, the
theological decisions must of necessity be rejected,
unless the minority would submit likewise to the hu-
miliating confession of insincerity, ignorance, or pre-
cipitancy in judgment.^ The Arian minority did not
await this issue ; having vainly attempted to impede
the progress of the council, by refusing to sanction the
presence of persons excommunicated, they seceded to
RiTBiooandi PhilippopoUs iu Thracc. In these two cities
popoui. sat the rival councils, each asserting itself

1 Concilia Labbe, vol. iii. Athanas. contr. Arian, &c.

s The Oriental bishops protested against the assomption of sapnaiMey bj
the Western. *'Novam legem introducere patavenmt, at Orientales Epia-
oopi ab OocidentalibuB jadicarentnr."— Apud Hilar. Fngm. iiL

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Chap. V. RECONCILIATION WITH ATHANA8IUS. 423

the genuine representative of Christendom, issuing
decrees, and anathematizing their adversaries. The
Arians are accused of maintaining their influence, even
in the East, by acts of great cruelly. In Adrianople,
in Alexandria, they enforced submission to their tenets
by the scourge, and by heavy penalties.^

The Western council at Milan accepted and ratified
the decrees of the council of Sardica, absolving Atha-
nasius of all criminality, and receiving his doctrines as
the genuine and exclusive truths of the Cos- luooneuia-

- _ _ _ _ , _ tlon of Con-

pel. On a sudden, aflFairs took a new turn : ■tontiu» with

Constantius threw himself, as it were, at the ^^^ sia.
feet of Athanasius, and in three successive letters en-
treated him to resume his episcopal throne. The em-
peror and the prelate (who had delayed at first to
obey, either from fear or from pride, the flattering
invitation) met at Antioch with mutual expressions of
respect and cordiality.^ Constantius ordered all the
accusations against Athanasius to be erased from the
registers of the city. He commended the prelate to
the people of Alexandria in terms of courtly flattery,
which harshly contrast with his former, as well as with
his subsequent, conduct to Athanasius. The Arian
bishop, Oregory, was dead ; and Athanasius, amid the
universal joy, re-entered the city. The bishops crowd-
ed from all parts to salute and congratulate the prelate
who had thus triumphed over the malice of even impe-
rial enemies. Incense curled up in aU the streets ;
the city was brilliantly illuminated. It was an ovation

^ The came of Maroellus of Ancyn, whom the Eosebian partj accuaed
of Sabellianism, iraa throughout connected 'with that of Athanaaina.

3 The emperor proposed to Athanaaiua to leare one church to the Ariana
at Alexandria; Athanaaiua dexterouelj eluded the request, by very fiiirly de-
manding that one church in Antioch, irhere the Aiiana predominated, ahould
be set apart for tfaoee of hia communion.

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424 PERSIAN WAS. Book m,

by the admirers of Athanasius ; it is said to have been
a Ohristiaii ovation ; alms were lavished on the poor ;
every house resounded with prayer and thanksgiving
as if it were a church; the triumph of Athanasius
was completed by the recantation of Ursacius and Ya-
lens, two of his most powerful antagonists.^

This sudden change in the policy of Constantius is
AJ) 840. scarcely explicable upon the alleged motives.

It is ascribed to the detection of an infamous
conspiracy against one of the Western bishops, de«
puted on a mission to Constantius. The aged prelate
was charged with incontinence, but the accusation re«
coiled on its inventors. A man of infamous character,
Onager the wild ass, the chief conductor of the plot,
on being detected, avowed himself the agent of Stephen,
the Arian Bishop of Antioch, Stephen was ignomini-<
ously deposed from his see. Yet this single fact
would scarcely have at once estranged the mind of
Constantius from the interests of the Arian party;
his subsequent conduct when, as emperor of the whole
world, he could again dare to display his deep-rooted
hostility to Athanasius, induces the suspicion of politi-
cal reasons. Constantius was about to be embarrassed

with the Persian war ; at this dangerous cri«
^^' sis, the admonitions of his brother, not un-
mingled with warlike menace, might enforce the
expediency at least of a temporary reconciliation with
Athanasius. After that reconciliation and the tri-
umph of Atlianasius, the political troubles of three
years suspended the religious strife. The war of Per-
sia brought some fame to the arms of Constantius;
j^g^Okot ^^^ ^ ^^^ more honorable character, not of

the antagonist, but the avenger of bis

1 Greg. Nazian. Enc Athanas. Atbanaa., Hist Aiiaa.

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Crap. V. BATTLE OF HUBSA. 425

murdered brother, the Burviying son of Gonstantine
again united the East and West under his sole domin-
ion. Magnentius, who had usurped the Western em«
pire and mounted the throne over the bloody corpse
of the murdered Gonstans, fell before the avenging
arm of Gonstantius.

The battle of Mursa, if we are to credit a writer
somewhat more recent, was no less fatal to the inter-
ests of Athanasius than to the arms of Mag- war with
nentius.^ Ursacius and Valens, after their aSSIssi."*'
recantation, had relapsed to Arianism. Yalens was
the Bishop of Mursa, and in the immediate neighbor-
hood of that town was fought the decisive battle.
Gonstantius retired with Valens into the principal
church, to assist with his prayers, rather than with his
directions or personal prowess, the success of his
army. The J^ony of his mind may be con- Battle of
ceived, during the long suspense of a conflict **"~*
on which the sovereignty of the world depended, and
in which the conquerors lost more men than the van-
quished.^ Yalens stood or knelt by his side: on a
sudden, when the emperor was wrought to the highest
state of agitation, Yalens proclaimed the tidings of his
complete victory; intelligence conmiunicated to the
prelate by an angel from heaven. Whether Yalens
had anticipated the event by a bold fiction, or arranged
some plan for obtaining rapid information, he appeared
from that time to the emperor as a man especially
favored by Heaven, a prophet, and one of good omen.
With Yalens, Arianism re-assumed its authority over
the vacillating mind of Gonstantius.

But either the fears of the emperor or the caution

1 Solpiciiu S«yenu, ii. c 64.

s Magnentius is said by Zonoras to hare sacrificed a girl to propitiato the
gods on this momentous occasion. — lib. ziiL t ii. p. Id, 17.

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426 MACEDONIUS BEINSTATED. Book m.

of the Arian party delayed yet for three or four years
to execute their revenge on AthanasiuB. They began
A.D.861 '''^th a less illustrious victim. Philip, the
^^' prefect of the East, received instructions to
expel Paul, and to replace Macedonius on the episcopal
throne of Constantinople. Philip remembered the fate
of Hermogenes ; he secured himself in the thermae of
Zeuxippus, and summoned the prelate to his presence.
He then communicated his instructions, and frightened
or persuaded the aged Paul to consent to be secretly
Paul deposed transported in a boat over the Bosphorus.
bishopric of In the morning, Philip appeared in his car,
pie^ MaM- Yriih Macedonius by his side in the pontifi-
n-iiwtated. cal attire ; he drove directly to the church,
but the soldiers were obliged to hew their way through
the dense and resisting crowd to the altar. Macedo-
nius passed over the murdered bodies (three thousand
are said to have fallen) to the throne of the Christian
prelate. Paul was carried in chains first to Emesa,
afterwards to a wild town in the deserts about Mount
Taurus. He had disappeared from the sight of his
followers, and it is certain that he died in those re-
mote regions. The Arians gave out that he died a
natural death. It was the general belief of the Athar
nasians that his death was hastened, and even that he
had been strangled by the hands of the prefect
Philip.i

But, before the decisive blow was struck against
Athanasius, Constantius endeavored to subdue the
West to the Arian opinions. The emperor, released
from the dangers of war, occupied his triumphant lei-
sure in Christian controversy. He seemed determined
to establish his sole dominion over the religion as well

1 Athanaa. Oper. i. 822, 848. Socrat, K H. ii 26.

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Chap. V. NEW CHARGES AGAINST ATHANASIUS. 427

as the civfl obedience of his subjects. The Western
bishops firmly opposed the conqueror of Mag- oonncusor
nentius. At the councils, first of Aries and ^uJi."^
afterwards of Milan, they refUsed to sub- ^-^ ^^^
scribe the condemnation of Athanasius, or to commu-
nicate with the Arians. Liberius, the new pmeonuoa
Bishop of Rome, refused the timid and disin- Biaho^^'
genuous compromise to which his representar ^™*'
tive at Aries, Vincent, Deacon of Rome, had agreed, —
assent to the condemnation of Athanasius, if, at the
same time, a decisive anathema should be issued
against the tenets of Arius. At Milan, the bishops
boldly asserted the independence of the church upon
the empire. The Athanasian party forgot, or chose
not to remember, that they had unanimously applauded
the interference of Constantine, when, after the Nicene
council, he drove the Arian bishops into exile. Thus
it has always been : the sect or party which has the
civil power in its favor is embarrassed with no doubts
as to the legality of its interference ; when hostile, it
resists, as an unwarrantable aggression on its own
freedom, that which it has not scrupled to employ
against its adversaries.

The new charges against Athanasius were of very
different degrees of magnitude and probabil- NewohugM
ity. He was accused of exciting the hos- AtbalLciiis.
tility of Gonstans against his brother. The fact that
Constans had threatened to re-instate the exiled prel-
ate by force of arms might give weight to this charge ;
but the subsequent reconciliation, the gracious recep-
tion of Athanasius by the emperor, the public edicts
in his favor, had, in all justice, cancelled the guilt, if
there were really guilt, in this undue influence over
the mind of Gonstans. He was accused of treasona-

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428 C017I3CIL OF mLAS. Book m.

ble correspondence with the nsurper Magnentiufl.
Atbaaasius repelled this charge with natural indigna-
tion. He must have been a monster of ingratitude,
worthy a thousand deaths, if he had leagued with the
murderer of his benefactor, Gonstans. He defied his
enemies to the production of any letters ; he demanded
the severest investigation, the strictest examination,
of his own secretaries or those of Magnentius. The
descent is rapid from these serious charges to that of
having officiated in a new and splendid church, the
Cesarean, without the permission of the emperor ; and
the exercising a paramount and almost mcmarchical
authority over the churches along the whole course of
the Nile, even beyond his legitimate jurisdiction. The
first was strangely construed into an intentional disre-
spect to the emperor : the latter might fairly be attrib-
uted to the zeal of Athanasius for the extension of
Christianity. Some of these points might appear be-
yond the jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical tribunal ; and
in the council of Milan there seems to have been an
inclination to separate the cause of Athanasius from
that of his doctrine. As at Aries, some proposed to
abandon the person of Athanasius to the will of the
emperor, if a general condemnation should be passed
against the tenets of Arius.

Three hundred ecclesiastics formed the council of
Council of Milan. Pew of these were from the East
*"^- The Bishop of Some did not appear in per-
son to lead the orthodox party. His chief representa-
tive was Lucifer of Cs^liari, a man of ability, but of
violent temper and unguarded language. The Arian
faction was headed by Ursacius and Yalens, the old
adversaries of Athanasius, and by the emperor hinci-
self. Oonstantius, that the proceedings might take

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CsAP. v. COUNCIL OV MILAN. 429

place moro immediately under his own Baperintend<*
ence, adjourned the assembly from the church to the
palace. This unseemly intrusion of a layman in
the deliberations of the clergy^ unfortunately, was not
without precedent. Those who had proudly hailed
the entrance of Constantino into the synod of Nicsa
could not, consistently, deprecate the presence of hia
son at Milan.

The controversy became a personal question between
the emperor and his refractory subject. The
emperor descended mto the arena, and mm-
gled in all the fury of the conflict. Gonstantius was
not content with assuming the supreme place as em-
peror, or interfering in the especial province of the
bishops, — the theological question: he laid claim to
direct inspiration. He was commissioned by a vision
from Heaven to restore peace to the afflicted Church.
The scheme of doctrine wliich he proposed was asserted
by the Western bishops to be strongly tainted with
Arianism. The prudence of the Athanasian party
was not equal to their firmness and courage. The
obsequious and almost adoring court of tlie emperor
must have stood aghast at the audacity of the ecclesi-
astical synod. Their language was that of vehement
invective, rather than dignified dissent or calm remon«
strance. Gonstantius, concealed behind a curtain,
listened to the debate ; he heard his own name coupled
with that of heretic, of Antichrist. His indignation
now knew no boimds. He proclaimed himself the
champion of the Arian doctrines, and the accuser
of Athanasius. Yet flatteries, persuasions, bribes^
menaces, penalties, exiles, were necessary to extort
the assent of the resolute assembly. Then they
became conscious of the impropriety of a lay em-

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480 FALL OF LIBERIUS. Book HI.

peror's intrusion into the debates of an ecclesiastical
synod. They demanded a free council, in which the
emperor should neither preside in person nor by his
commissary. They lifted up their hands, and en-
treated the angry Oonstantius not to mingle up the
affairs of the state and the Church.^ Three prelates,
Lucifer of Cagliari, Eusebius of Vercell», Dionysius
of Milan, were sent into banishment, to places remote
from each other, and the most inhospitable regions of
the empire. Liberius, the Roman pontiff, rejected
with disdain the presents of the emperor ; he resisted
with equal firmness his persuasions and his acts of
violence.

Though his palace in Rome was carefully closed and
j^^ garrisoned by some of his faithful flock,
liiwriiia. Liberius was seized at length, and carried
to Milan. He withstood, somewhat contemptuously,
the personal entreaties and arguments of the emperor.^
He rejected with disdain the imperial offers of money
for his journey, and told the emperor to keep it to pay
his army. The same offer was made by Eusebius the
eunuch : ^^ Does a sacrilegious robber like thee think
to give alms to me, as to a mendicant ? " The Bishop
of Rome was exiled to Berbea, a city of Thrace. An
Arian prelate, Felix, was forced upon the unwilling city.

But two years of exile broke the spirit of Liberius.
He began to listen to the advice of the Arian Bishop
of Berbea ; the solitude, the cold climate, and the dis-
comforts of this uncongenial region, had more effect
than the presents or the menaces of the emperor.
Pope Liberius signed the Arian formulary of Sirmium ;

ftd Mon. c. 84, 86. Compare c. 62.
a Thcodoret, iv. 16.

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Chap.V. CONSTANTIUS AT BOME. 431

ho assented to the condemnation of Athanasins. The
fall of the aged Hosius increased the triumph i^i at
of the Arians. Some of the Catholic writers ^^"^
reproach with undue bitterness the weakness of an old
man, whose nearer approach to the grave, they assert,
ought to have conlGirmed him in his inalienable fidelity
to Christ. But even Christianity has no power over
that mental imbecility which accompanies the decay of
physical strength; and this act of feebleness ought
not, for an instant, to be set against the unblemished
virtue of a whole life.

Constantius, on his visit to Rome, was astonished
by an address, presented by some of the oSSSSSSm
principal females of the city in their most »*^™«-
splendid attire, to entreat the restoration of Liberius.
The emperor offered to re-admit Liberius to a co-
ordinate authority with the Arian bishop, Felix. The
females rejected with indignant disdain this dishonor-
able compromise ; and, when Constantius commanded
a similar proposition to be publicly read in the circus
at the time of games, he was answered by a general
shout, " One God, one Christ, one bishop."

Had, then, the Christians, if this story be true,
already overcome their aversion to the public games ?
or are we to suppose that the whole populace of Rome
took an interest in the appointment of the Christian
pontiff?

AthanasiuB awaited in tranquil dignity the bursting
storm. He had eluded the imperial summons onien to
to appear at Milan, upon the plea tlmt it was aSSumIiu.
ambiguous and obscure. Constantius, either from
some lingering remorse, from reluctance to have his
new condemnatory ordinances confronted with his
favorable and almost adulatory testimonies to the

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482 TUMULT IK CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA. Book HL

innocence of Aihanasius, or &om fear lest a religions
insurrection in Alexandria and Egypt should embar-
rass the GoYernment^ and cut off the supplies of com
from the Eastern capital, refused to issue any written
order for the deposal and expulsion of Athanasius.
He chose, apparently, to retain the power, if conve-
nient, of disowning his emissaries. Two secretaries
were despatched with a verbal message, commanding
the prelate's abdication. Athanasius treated the impe-
rial ofEicers with the utmost courtesy, but respectfully
demanded their written instructions. A kind of sus-
pension of hostilities seems to have been agreed upon,
tiU further instructions could be obtained firom the
emperor. But, in the mean time, Syrianus, the duke
of the province, was drawing the troops from all parts
of Libya and Egypt to invest and occupy the city. A
force of five thousand men was thought necessary
to depose a peaceable Christian bishop. The great
events in the life of Athanasius, as we have already
seen on two occasions, seem, either designedly or of
themselves, to take a highly dramatic form. It waa
midnight; and the archbishop, surrounded by the
more devout of his flock, was performing the solemn
ceremony, previous to the sacramental service oi the
next day, in the church of St. Theonas. Suddenly
the soimd of trumpets, the trampling of steeds, the
Tmnaitin clash of arms, the bursting the bolts of

the church of 7 o

▲lezBodria. thc dooTs, interrupted the silent devotions
of the assembly. The archbishop on his throne, in
the depth of the choir, on which fell the dim light
of the lamps, beheld the gleaming arms of the sol-
diery, as they burst into the nave of the church. Th^
archbishop, as the ominous sounds grew louder, com-
manded the chanting of the 135th (186th> Psalm.

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Cbap.Y. GEORGE OF CAPPADOCIA« 433

The choristers' Yoices swelled into the solemn strain,
— " Oh ! give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gra-
cious:" the people took up the burden, — "for his
mercy endureth for ever." The clear, full voices of
the congregation rose over the wild tumult, now with-
out, and now within, the church.

A discharge of arrows commenced the conflict ; and
Athanasius calmlj exhorted his people to continue
their only defensive measures, their prayers to their
Almighty Protector. Syrianus at the same time or-
dered the soldiers to advance. The cries of the
wounded, the groans of those who were trampled down
in attempting to force their way out through the sol-
diery, the shouts of the assailants, mingled in wild
and melancholy uproar. But, before the soldiers had
reached the end of the sanctuary, the pious disobedi-
ence of liis clergy and of a body of monks hurried the
archbishop by some secret passage out of the tumult.
His escape appeared little less than miraculous to his
faithful followers. The riches of the altar, the sacred
ornaments of the church, and even the consecrated
virgins, were abandoned to the license of an exasper-
ated soldiery. The Catholics in vain drew up an ad-
dress to the emperor, appealing to his justice against
this sacrilegious outrage ; they suspended the arms of
the soldiery, which had been left on the floor of the
church, as a reproachful memorial of the violence.
Goustantius confirmed the acts of his officers.^

The Arians were prepared to replace the deposed
prelate ; their choice fell on another Cappa- ^^^^^ ^
docian more savage and unprincipled than <^pp~><»*^
the former one. Constantius commended Qeoi^e of

1 Athanas., Apol. de Fug&, vol. L p. 884; ad Monachos, 878, 878, 898, 895;
ad Const 807, 810. Tillemont, Vie d'Athaoase.
VOL. II. 28

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434 GEORGE OF GAPPADOGIA. Book IIL

Cappadocia to the people of Alexandria, as a prelate
above praise, the wisest of teachers, the fittest guide to
the kingdom of heaven. His adversaries paint him in
the blackest colors : the son of a fuller, he had been
in turns a parasite, a receiver of taxes, a bankrupt.
Ignorant of letters, savage in manners, he was taken
up, while leading a vagabond life, by the Arian prelate
of Antioch, and made a priest before he was a Cliris-
tain. He employed the collections gathered for the
poor in bribing the eunuchs of the palace. But he
possessed, no doubt, great worldly ability; he was
without fear and without remorse. He entered Alex-
andria environed by the troops of Syrianus. His
presence let loose the rabid violence of party ; the
Arians exacted ample vengeance for their long period
of depression ; houses were plundered ; monasteries
burned; tombs broken open, to search for concealed
Athanasians, or for the prelate himself, who still eluded
their pursuit ; bishops were insulted ; virgins scourged ;
the soldiery encouraged to break up every meeting of
the Catholics by violence, and even by hihuman tor-
tures. The duke Sebastian, at the head of three
thousand troops, charged a meeting of the Athanasian
Christians. No barbarity was too revolting ; they are
said to have employed instruments of torture to com-
pel them to Christian unity with the Arians ; females
were scourged with the prickly branches of the palm-
tree. The Pagans readily transferred their allegiance,
so far as allegiance was demanded ; while the savage
and ignorant among them rejoiced in the occasion for
plunder and cruelty. Others hailed these feuds, and
almost anticipated the triumphant restoration of their
own religion. Men, they thought, must grow weary
and disgusted with a religion productive of so much

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Chap. V. GEORGE OF CAPPADOCIA. 436

crime, bloodshed, and misery. Echoing back the lan-
guage of the Athanasians, they shouted out, " Long
life to the emperor Constantius, and the Arians who
have abjured Christianity." And Christianity they
seem to have abjured, though not in the sense intended
by their adversaries. They had abjured all Christian
humanity, holiness, and peace.

The avarice of George was equal to his cruelty.
Exactions were necessary to maintain his interest with
the eunuchs, to whom he owed his promotion. The
prelate of Alexandria forced himself into the secular
aflfairs of the city. He endeavored to secure a monop-
oly of the nitron produced in the lake Mareotis, of
the salt-works, and of the papyrus. He became a
manufacturer of those painted coffins which were still
in use among the Egyptians. Once he was expelled
by a sudden insurrection of the people, who sur-
rounded the church, in which he was officiating, and
threatened to tear him in pieces. He took refuge in
the court, which was then at Sirmium, and a few
months beheld him re-instated by the command of his
faithful patron, the emperor.^ A re-instated tyrant
is, in general, the most cruel oppressor ; and, unless
party violence has blackened the character of George
of Cappadocia beyond even its ordinary injustice, the
addition of revenge, and the haughty sense of impu-
nity derived from the imperial protection, to the e\il
passions already developed in his soul, rendered him a
still more intolerable scourge to the devoted city.

Everywhere the Athanasian bishops were expelled
from their sees; they were driven into banishment.
The desert was constantly sounding with the hymns of
these pious and venerable exiles, as they passed along,

1 He was at Sinniam, May, 869; restored in October.

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436 ESCAPE OF ATHANASIUS. Book IIL

loaded with chains, to the remote and savage place of
their destination ; many of them bearing the scars
and wounds and mutilations which had been inflicted
upon them by their barbarous persecutors, to enforce
their compliance with the Arian doctrines.

Athanasius, after many strange adventures, — hav-
ing been concealed in a dry cistern, and in the cham^
iswapeand bcr of a bcautiful woman, who attended him
Athaoaaiiu. with thc most oJ£cious devotion (his awful
character was not even tinged with the breath of sus-
picion), — found refuge at length among the monks of
the desert. Egypt is bordered on aU sides
by wastes of sand, or by barren rocks, bro-
ken into caves and intricate passes; and all these
solitudes were now peopled by the fanatic followers of
the hermit Antony. They were all devoted to the
opinions and attached to the person of Athanasius.
The austerities of the prelate extorted their admiration :
as he had been the great example of a dignified, active,
and zealous bishop, so was he now of an ascetic and
mortified solitary. The most inured to self-inflicted
tortures of mind and body found themselves equalled,
if not outdone, in their fasts and austerities by the
lofty Patriarch of Alexandria. Among these devoted
adherents, his security was complete ; their passionate
reverence admitted not the fear of treachery. The
more active and inquisitive the search of his enemies,
he had only to plunge deeper into the inaccessible and
inscrutable desert. From this solitude Athanasius
himself is supposed sometimes to have issued forth,
and, passing the seas, to have traversed even parts of
the West, animating liis followers, and confirming the
faith of his whole widely disseminated party. His own

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Chap. V. HILARY OF POICTIER^. 437

language implies his personal though secret presence
at the councils of Seleucia and Rimini.^

Prom the desert, unquestionably, came forth many
of those writings which must have astonished the
Heathen worid by their unprecedented boldness. For
the first time since the foundation of tlie empire, the
Government was more or less publicly assailed in
addresses, which arraigned its measures as unjust and
as transgressing its legitimate authority, and which
did not spare tlie person of the reigning emperor. In
the West, as well as in the East, Oonstantius was
assailed with equal freedom of invective. Hilary of
The book of Hilary of Poictiers against Con- p«>*«**««-
stantius is said not to have been made public till after
the death of the emperor ; but it was most likely ,
circulated among the Catholics of the West ; and the
author exposed himself to the actiiity of hostile
informers, and the indiscretion of fanatical friends.
The emperor, in that book, is declared to be Antichrist,
a tyrant, not only in secular, but likewise in religious
affairs : the sole object of liis reign was to make a free
gift to the Devil of the whole world, for which Christ
had suffered.2 Lucifer of Cagliari, whose violent

^ Athanas. Oper. vol. L p. 869. Compare Tillemont, Vie d'Athanase.

3 " Nihil prorsus aliad egit, quam ut orbem terramm, pro quo Chnstus pas-
8118 est, diabolo condonaret*' — Adv. Constant, c. 15. Hilary'n highest indig-
nation 18 excited by the gentle and insidious manner with which he confesses
that Constantios endeavored to compass his unholy end. He would not honor
them with the dignity of martyrs; but he used the prevailing persuasion of
bribes, flatteries, and honors: "Non dorsa csedit, sed ventrem palpat; non
trudit carcere ad libertatem, sed intra palatium honorat ad servitutem;
non latera vexat, sed cor occupat . . . non contendit ne vincatur, sed adulatnr
ut dominetur.** There are several other remarkable passages in this tract
Oonstantius wished to confine the creed to the language of Scripture. This
was rejected, as infringing on the authority of the bishops, and the forms of
apostolic preaching. " Nolo, inquit, verba qute non scripta sunt dici. Hoc
tandem rogo, quis episcopis jubeat et quls apostoliue pnedicationis vetet for-
mam?" — c. 16. Among the sentences ascribed to the Arians, which bo

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438 LUaFER OF CAGLIARI. Book m.

temper afterwards distracted the Western Church
Lucifer of ^*^ * schism, is now therefore repudiated
c««iuri. jjy j^]^Q common consent of all parties. But
Athanasius speaks in ardent admiration of the intem-
perate writings of this passionate man, and once de-
scribes him as inflamed by the spirit of God. Lucifer,
in his banishment, sent five books full of the most
virulent invective to the emperor. Constantius — it
was the brighter side of his religious character — re-
ceived these addresses with almost contemptuous
equanimity. He sent a message to Lucifer, to demand
if he was the author of these works. Lucifer replied,
not merely by an intrepid acknowledgment of his
former writings, but by a sixth, in still more unre-
strained and exaggerated language. Constantius was
* satisfied with banishing him to the Thebaid. Athana-
sius himself, who in his public vindication addressed
to Constantius, maintained the highest respect for the
imperial dignity, in his Epistle to the Solitaries gives
free vent and expression to his vehement and contempt-

mach shocked the Western bishops^ there is one which is evidently the argu-
ment of a strong anti-materialist asserting the sole existence of the Father,
and that the terms of son and generation, &c., are not to be received in a
literal sense. " Erat Deus quod est. Pater non erat, qaia neque ei filias;
nam si filius, necesse est ut et foemina sit,** &c. One phrase has a singa-
larly Oriental, T would say Indian, cast " How much soever the Son ex-
pands himself towards the knowledge of the Father, so much the Father
saper-cxpands himself, lest he should be known by the Son." *' Quantum
enim Filius se extendit cognoscere Patrem, tantum Pater superextendit se,
ne cognitus Filio sit" — c. 18. The parties, at least in the West, were
speaking two totally distinct languages. It would be unjust to Hilaiy not to
acknowledge the beautiful and Christian sentiments scattered through his
two fonner addresses to Constantius, which are firm but respectful ; and if
rigidly, yet sincerely, dogmatic His plea for toleration, if not very con-
sistently maintained, is expressed with great force and simplicity. " Deos
cognitionem sni docuit potius quam exegit . . . Deus universitatis est Domi-
nus; non requirit coactam confessionem. Nostra potius non 8u& caus&
venerandus est . . . simplicitate quterendus est, confessione dlscendus est,
charitate amandus est, timore venerandus est, voluntatis probitate retlnendoa
est"— lib. i. c. 6.

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Chap.V. church and STATE. 439

U0U8 sentiments. His recluse friends are cautioned,
indeed, not to disclose the dangerous document, in
which the tyrants of the Old Testament, Pharaoh, Ahab,
Belshazzar, are contrasted, to his disadvantage, with
the base, the cruel, the hypocritical Constantius. It is
curious to observe this new element of freedom, however
at present working in a concealed, irregular, and, per-
haps, still guarded manner, mingling itself with, and
partially up-heaving, the general prostration of the
human mind. The Christian, or, in some respects, it
might be more justly said, the hierarchical principle,
was entering into the constitution of human society,
as an antagonistic power to that of the civil sovereign.
The Christian community was no longer a separate
republic, governed within by its own laws, yet submit-
ting, in all but its religious observances, to the
general ordinances. By the establishment of Chris-
tianity under Constantine, and the gradual re-union
of two sections of mankind into one civil society, those
two powers, that of the Church and the state, became
co-ordinate authorities, which, if any difference should
arise between the heads of the respective supremacies,
— if the emperor and the dominant party in Christen-
dom should take opposite sides, led to inevitable
collision. This crisis had already arrived. An Arian
emperor was virtually excluded from a community in
which the Athanasian doctrines prevailed. The son
of Constantine belonged to an excommunicated class,
to whom the dominant party refused the name of
Christians. Thus these two despotisms, both founded
on opinion (for obedience to the imperial authority
was rooted in the universal sentiment), instead of
gently counteracting and mitigating each other, came
at once into direct and angry conflict. The emperor

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440 MUTUAL ACCUSATIONS OF CRUELTY. Book IIL

might with justice begin to suspect, that, instead of
securing a peaceful and submissive ally, he had raised
up a rival or a master ; for the son of Constantine was
thus, in his turn, disdainfully ejected from the society
which his father had incorporated with the empire.
It may be doubted how far the violences and bar-
barities ascribed by the Catholics to their Arian foes
may be attributed to the indignation of the civil power
at this new and determined resistance. Though Con-
stantius might himself feel or affect a compassionate
disdain at these unusual attacks on his person and
dignity, the general feeling of the Heathen population,
and of many among the local governors, might resist
this contumacious contempt of the supreme authority.
It is difficult otherwise to account for the general
tumults excited by these disputes in Alexandria, in
Constantinople, and in Rome, where at least a very
considerable part of the population had no concern in
the religious quarrel. The old animosity against
Christianity would array itself under the banners of
one of the conflicting parties, or take up the cause
of the insulted sovereignty of the emperor. The
Athanasians constantly assert, that the Arians courted,
or at least did not decline, the invidious alliance of
the Pagans.

But in truth, in the horrible cruelties perpetrated
Mutual during these unhappy divisions, it was the
of cruelty, samc savagc ferocity of manners, which, half
a century before, had raged against the Christian
Church, which now apparently raged in its cause .^

1 See the depositions of the bishops assembled at Sardica, of the violence
which they had themselves endured at the hands of the Arians. ^ Alii aa-
tem gladiorum signa, plagas et cicatrices estendebant. Alii se fame ab ipsis
excruciatos querebantur. £t heec non ignobiles testificabantur viri, sed de
ecclesiis onmibus elect! propter quas hue conveneront, res gestas edocebant.

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Chap. V. MUTUAL ACCUSATIONS OF CRUELTY. 441

The abstruse tenets of the Christian theology became
the ill-understood, perhaps unintelligible, watchwords
of violent and disorderly men. The rabble of Alex-
andria and other cities availed themselves of the
commotion to give loose to their suppressed passion
for the excitement of plunder and bloodshed. How
far the doctrines of Christianity had worked down
into the populace of the great cities cannot be ascer-
tained, or even conjectured ; its spirit had not in the
least mitigated their ferocity and inhumanity. If
Christianity is accused as the immediate exciting
cause of these disastrous scenes, the predisposing
principle was in that uncivilized nature of man, which
not merely was unallayed by the gentle and human-
izing tenets of the Gospel, but, as it has perpetually
done, pressed the Gospel itself, as it were, into its
own unhallowed service.

The severe exclusiveness of dogmatic theology at-
tained its height in this controversy. Hitherto, the
Catholic and heretical doctrines had receded from each
other at the first outset, and drawn off to opposite and

milites armatoo, populos cam fiutibas, jadicom minas, falsarum literarum
suppositiones. . . . Ad hoec virginum nudationes, incendia ecclesiarom, car-
ceres adversos ministros Dei." — Hilar., Fragm. Op. Hist ii. c. 4.

The Arians retort the same accusations of violence, cruelty, and persecu-
tion, against Athanasius. They say, '"Per vim, per csdem, per bellom,
Alexandrinorum ecclesias deprsdatus ; " and this, " per pugnas et ccedes gen-
UUum,*' — Decretum Synodi Orientalium Episcoporum apud Sardicam, apud
8. Hilarium.

"Immensa autem confluxerat ad Sardicam multitudo sceleratorum om-
nium et perditorum, adventantium de Constantinopoli, de Alexandria, qui rei
homicidiorum, rei sanguinis, rei canlis, rei latrociniorum, rei pnsdarum, rei
spoliorum, nefandorumque omnium sacrilegiorum et criminum rei; qui alta-
ria confregerunt, ecclesias incenderunt, domosque privatorum compilaverunt;
profanatores m3'steriorum, proditoresque sacramentonim Christi ; que impiam
sceleratamque haereticorum doctrinam contra ecclesias fidem asserentes, sapi-
entisfiimos presbyteros Dei, diaconos, sacerdotes, atrociter demactaverunt" —
Ibid. 19. And this protest, full of these tremendous charges, was signed by
the eighty seceding Eastern bishops.

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442 ATHANASinS AS A WBITEB. Book IO.

irreconcilable extremes. The heretics had wandered
away into the boundless regions of speculation ; they
had differed on some of the most important elementary
principles of belief; they had rarely admitted any
common basis for argument. Here the contending
parties set out from nearly the same principles, ad-
mitted the same authority, and seemed, whatever their
secret bias or inclination, to differ only on the import
of one word. Their opinions appeared to be constantly
approximating, yet found it impossible to unite. The
Athanasians taunted the Arians with the infinite varia-
tions in their belief: Athanasius recounts no less than
eleven creeds. But the Arians might have pleaded
their anxiety to reconcile themselves to the Church,
their earnest solicitude to make every advance towards
a re-union, provided they might be excused the adop-
tion of the one obnoxious word, the Homoousion, or
Gonsubstantialism. But the inflexible orthodoxy of
Athanasius will admit no compromise; nothing less
than complete unity, not merely of ejcpression, but of
mental conception, will satisfy the rigor of the ecclesi-
astical dictator, who will permit no single letter, and,
as far as he can detect it, no shadow of thought, to
depart from his peremptory creed. He denounces his
adversaries, for the least deviation, as enemies of
Christ; he presses them with consequences drawn
from their opinions ; and, instead of spreading wide
the gates of Christianity, he seems to unbar them with
jealous reluctance, and to admit no one without the
most cool and inquisitorial scrutiny into the most
secret arcana of his belief.

In the writings of Athanasius is embodied the per-
Aihuuuiiaa fectiou of polcmic diVinity. His style, in-
aaaifritor. d^ed, has uo splcudor, no softness, nothing

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Chap. V. ATHANASIUS AS A WRITER. 448

to kindle the imagination or melt the heart. Acute,
even to subtlety, he is too earnest to degenerate into
scholastic trifling. It is stern logic, addressed to the
reason of those who admitted the authority of Chris-
tianity. There is no dispassionate examination, no
candid philosophic inquiry, no calm statement of his
adversaries' case, no liberal acknowledgment of the
infinite diflBculties of the subject, scarcely any con-
sciousness of the total msufiiciency of human language
to trace the question to its depths ; all is peremptory,
dictatorial, imperious ; the severe conviction of the
truth of his own opinions, and the inference that none
but culpable motives, either of pride or strife or igno-
rance, can blind his adversaries to their cogent and
irrefragable certainty. Athauasius walks on the nar-
row and perilous edge of othodoxy with a firmness
and confidence which it is impossible not to admire.
It cannot be doubted that he was deeply, intimately,
persuaded that the vital power and energy, the truth,
the consolatory force, of Christianity, entirely depended
on the unquestionable elevation of the Saviour to the
most absolute equality with the Parent Godhead.
The ingenuity with which he follows out his own views
of the consequences of their errors is wonderfully
acute ; but the thought constantly occurs, whether a
milder and more conciliating tone would not have
healed the wounds of aflBlicted Christianity ; whether
his lofty spirit is not conscious that his native element
is that of strife rather than of peace.^

Though nothing can contrast more strongly with
the expansive and liberal spirit of primitive Christian-
ity than the repellent tone of this exclusive theology,

1 At a later period, Athanasios seems to have been less rigidly exclnsire
against the Semi-Aiians. Compare Mohler, ii. p. 280.

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444 THE ATHANASIAN CONTKOVEBST. Book IH,

yet this remarkable phasis of Christianity seems to
have been necessary, and doubtless not without advan-
tage to the permanence of the religion. With the
civilization of mankind, Christianity was about to pass
through the ordeal of those dark ages which followed
the irruption of the barbarians. During this period,
Christianity was to subsist as the conservative princi-
ple of social order and the sacred charities of life, tlie
sole, if not always faithful, guardian of ancient knowl-
edge, of letters, and of arts. But, in order to preserve
its own existence, it assumed, of necessity, another
form. It must have a splendid and imposing ritual
to command the barbarous minds of its new proselytes,
and one which might be performed by an illiterate
priesthood ; for the mass of the priesthood could not
but be involved in the general darkness of the times.
It must likewise have brief and definite formularies
of doctrine. As the original languages, and even the
Latin, fell into disuse, and before the modern lan-
guages of Europe were suflBciently formed to admit
of translations, the sacred writings receded from gen-
eral use; they became the depositaries of Christian
NeceMity doctriuc, totally inaccessible to the laity,
during the and almost as much so to the lower clergy,
conturiet. Creeds therefore became of essential impor-
tance to compress the leading points of Christian doc-
trine into a small compass. And, as the barbarous
and ignorant mind cannot endure the vague and the
indefinite, so it was essential that the main points of
doctrine should be fixed and cast into plain and em-
phatic propositions. The theological language was
firmly established before the violent breaking-up of
society ; and no more was required of the barbarian
convert than to accept with uninquiring submission

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Chap. V. GROWTH OF PAPAL POWER. 445

the established formulary of the faith, and gaze in
awe-struck veneration at the solemn ceremonial.

The Athanasian controversy powerfully contributed
to establish the supremacy of the Roman ^^^^^^^
pontiflf. It became almost a contest between ^^"J^
Eastern and Western Christendom; at least ^*^Sj ^r «»
the West was neither divided like the East, p^p^p"**'-
nor submitted with the same comparatively willing
obedience to the domination of Arianism under the
imperial authority. It was necessary that some one
great prelate should take the lead in tliis internecine
strife. The only Western bishop whom his character
would designate as this leader was Hosius, the Bishop
of Cordova. But age had now disqualified this good
man, whose moderation, abilities, and probably impor-
tant services to Christianity in the conversion of
Constantino, had recommended him to the common
acceptance of the Christian world, as president of the
council of Nicaea. Where this acknowledged superi-
ority of character and talent was wanting, the dignity
of the see would command the general respect ; and
what see could compete, at least in the West, with
Rome ? Antioch, Alexandria, or Constantinople could
alone rival, in pretensions to Christian supremacy, the
old metropolis of the empire: and those sees were
either fiercely contested, or occupied by Arian prelates.
Athanasius himself, by his residence, at two separate
periods, at Rome, submitted, as it were, his cause to
the Roman pontiff. Rome became the centre of the
ecclesiastical affairs of the West : and, since the Trin-
itarian opinions eventually triumphed through the
whole of Christendom, the firmness and resolution
with which the Roman pontiffs, notwithstanding the
temporary fall of Liberius, adhered to the orthodox

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446 SUPERIORITY OF ARIANISM. Book IIL

faith; their uncompromising attachment to Athana-
sius, who, by degrees, was sanctified and canonized
in the memory of Christendom, — might be one
groundwork for that belief in their infallibility, which,
however it would have been repudiated by Cyprian,
and never completely prevailed in the East, became
throughout the West the inalienable spiritual heirloom
of the Roman pontiffs. Christian history will here-
after show how powerfully this monarchical principle,
if not established, yet greatly strengthened, by these
consequences of the Athanasian controversy, tended
to consolidate and so to maintain, in still expanding
influence, the Christianity of Europe.^

This conflict continued with unabated vigor till the
PuperioTity ^l<^se of the reign of Constantius. Arianism
ofArUnifm. gradually assumed the ascendant, through
the violence and the arts of the emperor ; all the more
distinguished of the orthodox bishops were in exUe,
or, at least, in disgrace. Tliough the personal influ-
ence of Athanasius was still felt throughout Christen-
dom, his obscure place of concealment was probably
unknown to the greater part of his own adherents.
Tlie aged Hosius had died in his apostasy. Hilary of
Poictiers, the Bishop of Milan, and the violent Lucifer

1 The orthodox Synod of Sardica admits the superior dignity of the suc-
cessors of St Peter. '^ Hoc enim optimum et valde cong^entissimum esse
videbitur, si ad caput, id est, ad Petri Apostoli sedem, de singulis quibns-
que provinciis Domini referant sacerdotes." — Epist. Syn. Sard, apud Hila-
rium, Fragm. Oper. Hist. ii. c. 9. It was disclaimed with equal distinctness
by the seceding Arians. " Novam legem introducere putaverunt, ut Orien-
tales Episcopi ab Occidental ibus judicarentur." — Fragm. iii. c 12. In a
subsequent clause, they condemn Julius, Bishop of Rome, by name. It is
difficult to calculate the effect which would commonly be produced on men*8
minds by their involving in one common cause the two tenets, which, in ftct,
bore no relation to each other, — the orthodox belief in the Trinity, and tha
supremacy of the Bishop of Rome.*' — Sozomen, iv. 11, 18 ; Theodoret, iL 17;
Philostorgius, iv. 8.

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Chap.v. heresy of aetius. 447

of Cagliari, wore in exile; and, though Constantius
had consented to the return of Liberius to his see,
he had returned with the disgrace of having consented
to sign the new formulary framed at Sirmium, where
the term " consubstantial," if not rejected, was, at
least, suppressed. Yet the popularity of Liberius was
undiminished, and the* whole city indignantly rejected
the insidious proposition of Constantius, that Liberius
and his rival Felix should rule the see with conjoint
authority. The parties had already come to blows,
and even to bloodshed, when Felix, who, it was admit-
ted, had never swerved from the creed of Nicaea, and
whose solo offence was entering into communion with
the Arians, either from moderation, or conscious of the
inferiority of his party, withdrew to a neighboring
city, where he soon closed his days, and relieved the
Christians of Rome from the apprehension of a rival
pontiflF. The unbending resistance of the Athanasians
was no doubt confirmed, not merely by the variations
in the Arian creed, but by the new opinions which
they considered its legitimate offspring, and which ap-
peared to justify their worst apprehensions of its inevi-
table consequences.

Aetius formed a new sect, which not merely denied
the consubstantiality, but the similitude of H«t«yof
the Son to the Father. He was not only not ^^**^-
of the same, but of a totally different, nature. Aetius,
according to the account of his adversaries, was a bold
and unprincipled adventurer;^ and the career of a

1 Socrates, ii. 86. Sozomen, iii. 15, iv. 12. Pbilostorg. iii. 15, 17. Sui-
das, roc. Aeriof. Epiphan. Haeres. 76. Gregor. Nyss. contra Eunom.

The most curious part in the histoiy of Aetius is his attachment to the
Aristotelian philosophy. With him appears to have begun the long strife
between Aristotelianism and Platonism in the Church. Aetius, to prove his
unimaginative doctrines, employed the severe and prosaic categories of Aria-

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448 HERESY OF MACEDONIUS. Book HI.

person of this class is exemplified in his life. The
son of a soldier, at one time condemned to death and
to the confiscation of his property, Aetius became a
humble artisan, first as a worker in copper, afterwards
in gold. His dishonest practices obliged him to give
up trade, but not before he had acquired some prop-
erty. He attached himself to Paulinus, Bishop of
Antioch ; was expelled from the city by his successor;
studied grammar at Anazarba; was encouraged by
the Arian bishop of that see, named Athanasius ; re-
turned to Antioch; was ordained deacon; and again
expelled the city. Discomfited in a public disputation
with a Gnostic, he retired to Alexandria, where, being
exercised in the art of rhetoric, he revenged himself
on a Manichean, who died of shame. He then became
a public itinerant teacher, practising, at the same time,
his lucrative art of a goldsmith. The Arians rejected
Aetius with no less earnest indignation than the ortho-
dox, but they could not escape being implicated, as it
were, in his unpopularity ; and the odious Anomoans,
those who denied the simiUtude of the Son to the
Father, brought new discredit even on the more tem-
perate partisans of the Arian creed. Another heresi-
arch, of a higher rank, still further brought disrepute
Of Biacedo- ^^ ^^^ Ariau party. Macedonius, the Bishop
°*'"* of Constantinople, to the Arian tenet of the
inequality of the Son to the Father, added the total
denial of the divinity of the Holy Ghost.

Council still followed council. Though we may not
concur with the Arian bishops in ascribing to their
adversaries the whole blame of this perpetual tumult
and confusion in the Christian world, caused by these

totle, repudiating the prevailing Platonic mode of argument nsed by Oriffeo,
and Clement of Alexandria. — Socrates, 11. c. 86.

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Chap.V. council of RIMINI. 449

incessant assemblages of the clergy, there must have
been much melancholy truth in their statement. " The
East and the West are in a perpetual state of rest-
lessness and disturbance. Deserting our spiritual
charges, abandoning the people of God, neglecting the
preaching of the Gospel, we are hurried about from
place to place, sometimes to great distances, some of
Tis infirm with age, with feeble constitutions or ill
health, and are sometimes obliged to leave our sick
brethren on the road. The whole administration of
the empire, of the emperor himself, the tribunes, and
the commanders, at this fearful crisis of the state, are
solely occupied with the lives and the condition of the
bishops. The people are by no means unconcerned.
Tlie whole brotherhood watches in anxious suspense
the event of these troubles; the establishment of
post-horses, is worn out by our journeyings ; and all
on account of a few wretches, who, if they had the
least remaining sense of religion, would say with the
prophet Jonah, ' Take us up and cast us into the sea ;
so shall the sea be calm unto you ; for we know that
it is on our account that this great tempest is upon
you.'"i

The synod at Sirmium had no effect in reconciling
the differences, or affirming the superiority of either
party. A double council was appointed, of the Eastern
prelates at Seleucia, of the Western at Rimini. The
Arianism of Constantius himself had by this time
degenerated still farther from the creed of Nicaea.
Eudoxus, who had espoused the Anomean doctrines
of Aetius, ruled his untractable but passive coandi of
miiid. The council of Rimini consisted of **°^*
at least four himdred bishops, of whom not above

1 Hilar., Oper. Hist. Fragm. zi. c. 25.
VOL. II. 29

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450 TBIUMPH OF ARIANISM. Book UL

eighty were Arians. Their resolutions were firm and
peremptory. They repudiated the Arian doctrines;
they expressed their rigid adherence to the formulary
of Nic«a. Ten bishops, however, of each party, were
deputed to commimicate their decrees to Constantius.
The ten Arians were received with the utmost respect ;
their rivals, with every kind of slight and neglect.
Insensibly the Athanasians were admitted to more
intimate intercourse ; the flatteries, perhaps the bribes,
of the emperor prevailed ; they returned, hioiving signed
a formulary directly opposed to their instructions.
Their reception at first was unpromising; but by
degrees the council, from which its- firmest and most
resolute members had gradually departed, and in
which many poor and aged bishops still retained their
seats, wearied, perplexed^ worn out by the expense
and discomfort of a long residence in a foreign city,
consented to sign a creed in which the contested word,
the Homoousion, was carefully suppressed.^ Arianism
was thus deliberately adopted by a council, of which
the authority was undisputed. The world, says
Jerome, groaned to find itself Arian. But, on tlieir
return to their dioceses, the indignant prelates every-
where protested against the fraud and violence which
had been practised against them. New persecutions
followed : Gaudentius, Bishop of Rimini, lost his life.
The triumph of Arianism was far easier among the
hundred and sixty bishops assembled at Seleucia.
But it was more fatal to their cause : the Arians and
Semi-Arians and Anomeans mingled in tumultuous

1 It is curious enough, that the Latin language did not ftmush terms to
express this fine distinction. Some Western prelates, many of whom proba-
bly did not understand a word of Greek, proposed, "jam usisd et homooosii
nomina recedant quse in divinis Scripturis de Deo, et Dei Filio, non inveni-
untur scripta." — Apud Hilarium, Oper. Hist Fragm. ix.

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cmaf.v. triumph of amanism. 451

strife, and hurled mutual anathemas against each
other.

The new council met at Constantinople. By some
strange political or religious vicissitude, the party of
the Anomeans triumphed, while Aetius, its author,
was sent into banishment.^ Macedonius was deposed ;
Eudoxus of Antioch was translated to the imperial
see ; and the solemn dedication of the Church of St.
Sophia was celebrated by a prelate who denied the
similitude of nature between the Father and the Son.
The whole Christian world was in confusion; these
&tal feuds penetrated almost as {Seit as the Gospel
.itself had reached. The emperor, whose alternately
partial vehemence and subtlety had inflamed rather
than allayed the tumult, found his authority set at
nought; a deep, stern, and ineradicable resistance
opposed the imperial decrees. A large portion of
the empire proclaimed aloud that there were limits
to the imperial despotism; that there was a higher
allegiance, which superseded that due to the civil
authority ; that in affairs of religion they would not
submit to the appointment of superiors who did not
profess their views of Christian orthodoxy.* The
emperor himself, by mingling with almost fanatical
passion and zeal in these controversies, at once lowered
himself to the level of his subjects, and justified the

1 Aetius and Eonomius seem to have been the heroes of the historian
Philostorgiutt, fragments of whose history have been preserved by the pious
hostility of Fhotius. This diminishes our regret for the loss of the original
work, which would be less curious than a genuine Arian history. Philostor-
gius seems to object to the anti-materialist view of the Deity maintained by
the Semi-Arian Eusebius, and, according to him, by Anus himself. He
reproaches Eusebius with asserting the Deity to be incomprehensible and
inconceivable: uyvuoroq koL &KaTu}jprroc. — lib. i. 2, 8.

3 Hilary quotes the sentence of St Paul, '* Ubi fides est, ibi et libertas
est;" in allusion to the emperor's assuming the cognizance over religious
questions. — Oper. Hist Fngm. L c. 6.

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452 TRIUMPH OF ARIANISM. Book IIL

importance which they attached to these questions.
If Constantius had firmly, calmly, and consistently
enforced mutual toleration, — if he had set the ex-
ample of Christian moderation and temper ; if he had
set his face solely against the stern refusal of Athar
nasius and his party to admit the Arians into
communion, — he might perhaps have retained some
influence over the contending parties. But he was
not content without enforcing the dominance of the
Arian party ; he dignified Athanasius with the hatred
of a personal enemy, almost of a rival ; and his sub-
jects, by his own apparent admission that these were
questions of spiritual life and death, were compelled
to postpone his decrees to those of Grod; to obey
their bishops, who held the keys of heaven and hell,
rather than Caesar, who could only afflict them with
civil disabilities, or penalties in this life.

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Chap, VL JULIAN. 458

CHAPTER VI.

Julian.

Amidst all this intestine strife within the pale of
Christianity, and this conflict between the civil and
religious authorities concerning their respective limits,
Paganism made a desperate effort to regain its lost
supremacy. Julian has perhaps been somewhat un-
fairly branded with the ill-sounding name of Apostate.
His Christianity was but the compulsory obedience of
youth to the distasteful lessons of education, enforced
by the hateful authority of a tyrannical relative. As
early as the maturity of his reason, — at least, as soon
as he dared to reveal his secret sentiments, — he
avowed his preference for the ancient Paganism.

The most astonishing part of Julian's history is the
development and partial fulfilment of all his vast
designs during a reign of less than two years. His
own age wondered at the rapidity with which the
young emperor accomplished his military, civil, and
religious schemes.^ During his separate and subor-
dinate command as Caesar, his time was fully occupied
with his splendid campaigns upon the Rhine.^ Julian
was the vindicator of the old majesty of the empire ;

1 " Dicet ab'quis : quomodo torn multa tarn brevi tempore. £t rectd. Sed
Imperator noster addit ad tempus quod otio suo detrahit. . . . Itaque gran-
dievum jam imperium videbitur his, qui non ratione dieram et meosiumf sed
opcrum multitudine et effectarum rerum modo Juliaai tempora metientur.'*
— Mamertini Grat. Actio, c. xiv.

2 Six yean, from 866 to 361.

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454 SHORT REIGN OF JULIAN. Book HI.

he threw back with a bold and successful effort the
inroad of barbarism, which already threatened to over-
whelm the Roman civilization of Gaul. During the
Short reign two Unfinished years of his sole government,
AD. 86i^%3. Julian had re-united the whole Roman empire
under his single sceptre ; he had reformed the army,
the court, the tribunals of justice; he had promul-
gated many useful laws, which maintained their place
in the jurisprudence of the empire; he had estab-
lished peace on all the frontiers; he had organized
a large and well-disciplined force to chastise the Per-
sians for their aggressions on the eastern border, and,
by a formidable diversion within their own territories,
to secure the Euphratic provinces against the most
dangerous rival of the Roman power. During all
these engrossing cares of empire, he devoted himself
with the zeal and activity of a mere philosopher and
man of letters to those more tranquil pursuits. The
conqueror of the Pranks and the antagonist of Sapor
delivered lectures in the schools, and published works,
which, whatever may be thought of their depth and
truth, display no mean powers of composition : as a
writer, Julian will compete with most of his age.
Besides all this, his vast and restless spirit contem-
plated, and had already commenced, nothing less than
a total change in the religion of the empire; not
merely the restoration of Paganism to the legal su-
premacy which it possessed before the reign of Con-
stantine, and the degradation of Christianity into a
private sect; but the actual extirpation of the new
religion from the minds of men by the reviving ener-
gies of a philosophic, and at the same time profoundly
religious. Paganism.
The genius of ancient Rome and of ancient Greece

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Chap.TI. raS CHARACTER. 455

might appear to revive in amicable union in the soul
of Julian. He displayed the unmeasured military
ambition, which turned the defensive war character of
into a war of aggression on all the imper- ''""^
Hied frontiers ; the broad and vigorous legislation, the
unity of administration, the severer tone of manners,
which belonged to the better days of Rome ; so, too,
the fine cultivation, the perspicuous philosophy, the
lofty conceptions of moral greatness and purity, which
distinguished the old Athenian. If in the former (the
Roman military enterprise) he met eventually with
the fate of Crassus or of Varus, rather than the
glorious successes of Germanicus or Trajan, the times
were more in fault than the general : if in the latter
(the Grecian elevation and elegance of mind) Julian
more resembled at times the affectation of the Sophist
and the coarseness of the Cynic than the lofty views
and exquisite harmony of Plato or the practical wis-
dom of Socrates, the effete and exhausted state of
Grecian letters and philosophy must likewise be taken
into the account.

In the uncompleted two years of his sole empire,^
Julian had advanced so far in the restoration of the
internal vigor and unity of administration, that it is
doubtful how much further, but for the fatal Persian
campaign, he might have fulfilled the visions of his
noble ambition. He might have averted, at least for
a time, the terrible calamities which burst upon the
Roman world during the reign of Valentinian and
Valens. But, diflScult and desperate as the enterprise
might appear, the re-organizatiou of a decaying empire
was less impracticable than the restoration of an all

1 One year, eight months, and twenty-three days. — La Bleterre, Vie de
Julien, p. 494.

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456 RELIGION OF JULIAN. Book EL

but extinguished religion. A religion may awaken
from indiflFerence, and resume its dominion over the
minds of men ; but not if supplanted by a new form
of faith, which has identified itself with the opinions
and sentiments of the general mind. It can never
dethrone a successful invader, who has been recog-
nized as a lawful sovereign. And Christianity (could
the clear and sagacious mind of Julian be blind to
this essential difference ?) had occupied the whole soul
of man with a fulness and confidence which belonged,
and could belong, to no former religion. It had inti-
mately blended together the highest truths of philoso-
phy with the purest morality ; the loftiest speculation
with the most practical spirit. The vague theory of
another life, timidly and dimly announced by the later
Paganism, could ill compete with the deep and intense
conviction, now rooted in the hearts of a large part of
mankind by Christianity ; the source in some of har-
rowing fears, in others of the noblest hopes.

Julian united in his own mind, and attempted to
ReUgionof work iuto his new religion, the two incon-
jnuan. gpuous charactcrs of a zealot for the older
superstitions and for the more modem philosophy
of Greece. He had fused together, in that which
appeared to him an harmonious .system. Homer and
Plato. He thought that the whole ritual of sacrifice
would combine with that allegoric interpretation of the
ancient mythology, which undeified the greater part of
the Heathen Pantheon. All that Paganism had bor-
rowed from Christianity, it had rendered comparatively
cold and powerless. The one Supreme Deity was a
name and an abstract • conception, a metaphysical
being. The visible representative of the Deity, the
Sun, which was in general an essential part of the

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Chap. VI. RELIGION OF JULIAN. 457

new system, was, after all, foreign and Oriental ; it
belonged to the genuine mythology neither of Greece
nor Rome. The Theurgy, or awful and sublime com-
munion of the mind with the spiritual world, was
either too fine and fanciful for the vulgar belief, or
associated, in the dim confusion of the popular con-
ception, with that magic, against which the laws of
Rome had protested with such stern solemnity ; and
which, therefore, however eagerly pursued and reve-
renced with involuntary awe, was always associated
with impressions of its unlawfulness and guilt. Chris-
tianity, on the other hand, had completely incorporated
with itself all that it had admitted firom Paganism, or
which, if we may so speak, constituted the Pagan part
of Christianity. The Heathen Theurgy, even in its
purest form, its dreamy intercourse with the interme-
diate race of demons, was poor and ineflFective, com-
pared with the diabolic and angelic agency, which
became more and more mingled up with Christianity.
Where these subordinate demons were considered by
the more philosophic Pagan to have been the older
deities of the popular faith, it was rather a degrada-
tion of the ancient worship : where this was not the
case, this fine perception of the spiritual world was
the secret of the initiate few, rather than the all-
pervading superstition of the many. The Cliristian
demonology, on the other hand, which began to be
heightened and multiplied by the fantastic imagination
of the monks, brooding in their solitudes, seemed at
least to grow naturally out of the religious system.
The gradually darkening into superstition was alto-
gether imperceptible, and harmonized entirely with
the general feelings of the time. Christianity was a
living plant, which imparted its vitality to the foreign

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458 UNFAVORABLE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY. Book HI.

suckers grafted upon it : the dead and sapless trunk
of Paganism withered even the living boughs which
were blended with it, by its own inevitable decay.

On the other hand, Christianity at no period could
TJnikTonbie appear in a less amiable and attractive light
chrtetuuiitj. to a mind pre-indisposed to its reception. It
was in a state of universal fierce and implacable dis-
cord : the chief cities of the empire had run with blood
shed in religious quarrels. The sole object of tlie
conflicting parties seemed to be to confine to them-
selves the temporal and spiritual blessings of the
faith; to exclude as many as they might from that
eternal life, and to anathematize to that eternal death,
which were revealed by the Gospel, and placed, accord-
ing to the general belief, under the special authority
of the clergy. Society seemed to be split up into
irreconcilable parties: to the animosities of Pagan
and Christian were now added those of Christian and
Christian. Christianity had passed through its earlier
period of noble moral enthusiasm ; of the energy with
which it addressed its first proclamation of its doc-
trines to man ; of the dignity with which it stood aloof
from the intrigues and vices of the world ; and of its
admirable constancy under persecution. It had not
fully attained its second state, as a religion generally
established in the minds of men by a donjinant hio-
rarchy of unquestioned authority. Its great truths
had no longer the striking charm of novelty ; nor were
they yet universally and profoundly implanted in the
general mind by hereditary transmission or early
education, and ratified by the unquestioning sanction
of ages.

The youthful education of Julian had been, it might
almost appear, studiously and skilfully conducted, so

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Chap. TI. EDUCATION OF JULIAN. 459

as to show the brighter side of Paganism, the darker
of Christianity. His infant years had been clouded
by the murder of his father. How &r his mind might
retain any impression of that awful event, or remem-
brance of the place of his refuge, the Christian church,
or of the saviour of his life, the virtuous Bishop of
Arethusa, it is of course impossible to conjecture.
But Julian's first instructor was a man who, bom a
Scythian and educated in Greece,^ united the severe
morality of his ruder ancestors with the elegance of
Grecian accomplishments. He enforced upon his
young pupil the strictest modesty, contempt for the
licentious or frivolous pleasures of youth, for the
theatre and the bath. At the same time, while he
delighted his mind with the poetry of Homer, his
graver studies were the Greek and Latin languages, the
elements of the philosophy of Greece, and music, that
original and attractive element of Grecian education.^
At the age of about fourteen or fifteen, Julian was
shut up, with his brother Gallus, in Macellae, a fortress
in Asia Minor, and committed in this sort of honorable
prison to the rigid superintendence of ecclesiastics.
By his Christian instructors, the young and Bducation of
ardent Julian was bound down to a course •'""*"•
of the strictest observances, the midnight vigil, the
fast, the long and weary prayer, and visits to the
tombs of martyrs, rather than a wise and rational
initiation in the genuine principles of the Gospel, or
a judicious familiarity with the originality, the beauty,
and the depth of the Christian morals and Christian
religion. He was taught the virtue of implicit sub-
mission to his ecclesiastical superiors ; the munificence

1 His name was Mardonius. — Julian, ad Athen. et Misopogon. Socrat.,
£. H. iii. 1. Amm. Marc. xxii. 12.

2 See the high character of this man in tiie Misopogon, p. 851.

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460 EDUCATION OF JULIAN. Book IlL

of conferring gifts upon the churches : with his brother
Gallus he was permitted, or rather incited, to build a
chapel over the tomb of St Mammas.^ For six years,
he bitterly asserts, he was deprived of every kind of
useful instruction.* Julian and his brother, it is even
said, were ordained readers, and officiated in public in
that character. But the passages of the sacred
writings, with which he might thus have become
acquainted, were imposed as lessons ; and in the mind
of Julian, Christianity, thus taught and enforced, was
inseparably connected with the irksome and distasteful
feelings of confinement and degradation. No youths
of his own rank, or of ingenuous birth, were permitted
to visit his prison ; he was reduced, as he indignantly
declares, to the debasing society of slaves.

At the age of twenty, Julian was permitted to
reside in Constantinople, afterwards at Nicomedia.
The jealousy of Constantius in Constantinople was
excited by the popular demeanor, sober manners,
and the reputation for abilities, which directed all eyes
towards his youthful nephew. He dismissed Julian to
the more dangerous and fatal residence in Nicomedia,
in the neighborhood of the most celebrated and most
attractive of the Pagan party. The most faithful
adherents of Paganism were that class with which the
tastes and inclinations of Julian brought him into
close intimacy, — the sophists, the men of letters, the

1 Julian is said even thus early to have betrayed his secret inclinations: in
his declamations be took delight in defending the cause of Paganism against
Christianity. A prophetic miracle foreboded his future course. IVhile this
church rose expeditiously under the labor of Gallus, the obstinate stones
would not obey that of Julian : an invisible hand disturbed the foundations,
and threw down all his work. Gregoiy Nazianzum declares that he bad
heard this from eye-witnesses ; Sozomen, from those who had heard it from
eye-witnesses. — Gregor. Or. iii. p. 69, 61. Sozomen, v. 2.

^ Uaarroc fia$7ffMTo( aTTOvdaiov.

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Chap. VI. INTERCOURSE WITH THE PHILOSOPHERS. 461

rhetoricians, the poets, the philosophers. He was
forbidden, indeed, perhaps by the jealousy of his
appointed instructor Ecebolus, who at this time con-
formed to the religion of the court, to hear the dan-
gerous lectures of Libanius, equally celebrated for his
eloquence and his ardent attachment to the old religion.
But Julian obtained his writings, which he inteiwune

® ' with the

devoured with all the delight of a stolen phuoaophm.
enjoyment.^ Julian formed an intimate acquaintance
with the heads of the philosophic school, with -^desius,
his pupils Eusebius and Chrysanthius, and at last
with the famous Maximus. These men are accused
of practising the most subtle and insidious arts upon
the character of their ardent and youthful votary.
His grave and meditative mind imbibed with eager
delight the solemn mysticism of their tenets, which
were impressed more deeply by significant and awful
ceremonies. A magician at Nicomedia first excited
his curiosity, and tempted him to enter on these
exciting courses. At Pergamus he visited the aged
^desius ; and the manner in which these philosophers
passed Julian onward from one to another, as if
through successive stages of initiation in their mysteri-
ous doctrines, bears the appearance of a deliberate
scheme to work him up to their purposes. The aged
^desius addressed him as the favored child of wisdom;
declined the important charge of his instruction, but
commended him to his pupils, Eusebius and Chrysan-
thius, who could unlock the inexhaustible source of
light and wisdom. " If you should attain the supreme
felicity of being initiated in their mysteries, you will
blush to have been born a man, you will no longer
endure the name." The pupils of -^desius fed the

I Liban. Orat. Par. t i. p. 626.

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462 HAXIMU& Book HI.

greedy mind of the proselyte with all their stores of
wisdom, and then skilfully unfolded the greater fame
of Maximus. Eusebius professed to despise the yulgar
arts of wonder-working, at least in comparison with
the purification of the soul; but he described the
power of Maximus in terms to which Julian could not
listen without awe and wonder. Maximus had led
them into the temple of Hecate ; he had burned a few
grains of incense, he had murmured a hymn, and the
statue of the goddess was seen to smile. They were
awe-struck, but Maximus. had declared that this was
nothing. The lamps throughout the temple shall
immediately burst into light: as he spoke, they had
kindled and blazed up. " But of these mystical won-
der-workers we think lightly,'' proceeded the skilful
speaker : " do thou, like us, think only of the internal
purification of the reason." " Keep to your book,''
broke out the impatient youth: "this is the man I
seek." ^ Julian hastened to Ephesus. The person and
demeanor of Maximus were well suited to keep up the
illusion. He was a venerable man, with a long white
beard, with keen eyes, great activity, soft and persuar
sive voice, rapid and fluent eloquence. By Maximus,
who summoned Ghrysanthius to him, Julian was
brought into direct communion with the invisible world.
The faithftil and oflBicious Genii from this time watched
over Julian in peace and war; they conversed witli
him in his slumbers, they warned him of dangers, they
conducted his military operations. Thus far we pro-
ceed on the authority of Pagan writers : the scene of
his solemn initiation rests on the more doubtful
testimony of Christian historians,* which, as they were*

1 EunapiuB, in Vit Mdeaai et Maximi.

s Greg. Naz. Orat iii. 71. Theodoret, iii. 8.

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C»LP.YL CONDUCT OF CONSTANTIUS. 46S

little likely to be admitted into the secrets of these
dark aiid hidden rites, is to be receiyed with grave
suspicion ; more especially as they do not scruple to
embellish these rites with Christian miracle. Julian
was led first into a temple, then into a subterranean
crypt, in almost total darkness. The evocations were
made ; wild and terrible sounds were heard ; spectres
of fire gibbered around. Julian, in his sudden terror,
made the sign of the cross. All disappeared, all was
silent. Twice this took place, and JiQian could not
but express to Maximus his astonishment at the power
of this sign. "The gods," returned the dexterous
philosopher, " will have no communion with so profane
a worshipper." Rrom this time, it is said, on better
authority,^ Jidian burst, like a lion in his wrath, the
slender ties which bound him to Christianity. But he
was still constrained to dissemble his secret apostasy.
His enemies declared that he redoubled his outward
zeal for Christianity, and even shaved his head in
conformity with the monastic practice. His brother
Gallus had some suspicion of his secret views, and
sent the Arian bishop Aetius to confirm him in the
faith.

How far Julian, in this time of danger, stooped to
diseuise his real sentiments, it were rash to conduct of

° ' Coofitantiua

decide. But it would by no means commend to juuan.
Christianity to the respect and attachment of Julian,
that it was the religion of his imperial relative. Popu-
lar rumor did not acquit Constantius of the murder of
Julian's father ; and Julian himself afterwards publicly
avowed his belief in this crime.^ He had probably
owed his own escape to his infant age and to the activ*

^ Libanius.

' Ad Senatum Populomqiie Atfaenienacn. Julian. Oper. p. 270. '

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464 CONDUCT OF CONSTANTIUS. Book IIL

itj of his friends. Up to this time, his life had been
tiie precarious and permissive boon of a jealous tyrant,
who had inflicted on him every kind of degrading
restraint. His place of education had been a prison,
and his subsequent liberty was watched with suspi-
cious vigilance. The personal religion of Constantius,
his embarking with alternate violence and subtlety in
theological disputations, his vacillation between timid
submission to priestly authority and angry persecution,
were not likely to make a favorable impression on a
wavering mind. The Pagans themselves, if we may
take the best historian of tlie time as the represent-
ative of their opinions,^ considered that Constantius
dishonored the Christian religion by mingling up its
perspicuous simplicity with anile superstition. If there
was little genuine Christianity in the theological dis-
cussions of Constantius, there had been less of its
beautiful practical spirit in his conduct to Julian. It
had allayed no jealousy, mitigated no hatred ; it had
not restrained his temper from overbearing tyranny,
nor kept his hands clean from blood. And now, the
death of his brother Oallus, to whom he seems to have
cherished warm attachment, was a new evidence of the
capricious and unhumanized tyranny of Constantius,
a fearful omen of the uncertainty of his own life under
such a despotism. He had beheld the advancement
and the fate of his brother ; and his future destiny
presented the alternative either of ignominious obscur-
ity or fatal distinction. His life was spared only
through the casual interference of the humane and en-
lightened empress; and her influence gained but a
slow and difficult triumph over the malignant eunuchs
who ruled the mind of Constantius. But he had been

1 Ainmianus MarcelUnuB.

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Chap.YL JULIAN AT ATHENS. 465

exposed to the ignominy of arrest and imprisonment,
and a fearful suspense of seven weary months.^ His
motions, his words, were watched; his very heart
scrutinized; he was obliged to suppress the natural
emotions of grief for the death of his brother; to
impose silence on his fluent eloquence, and act the
hypocrite to nature as well as to religion.

His retreat was Athens, of all cities in the empire
that, probably, in which Paganism still main- j^^;^^^
tained the highest ascendency, and appeared ^"»«»'
in the most seductive form. The political religion of
Bome had its stronghold in the capital ; that of Greece,
in the centre of intellectual culture and of the fine
arts. Athens might still be considered the university
of the empire ; from all quarters, particularly of the
East, young men of talent and promise crowded to
complete their studies in those arts of grammar, rheto-
ric, philosophy, which, however, by no means disdained
by the Christians, might still be considered as more
strictly attached to the Pagan interest.

Among the Christian students who at this time paid
the homage of their residence to this great centre of
intellectual culture, were Basil, and Gregory of Nazi-
anzum. The latter, in the orations with which in later
times he condemned the memory of Julian, has drawn
with a coarse and unfriendly hand the picture of his
person and manners. His manners did injustice to
the natural beauties of his person, and betrayed his
restless, inquisitive, and somewhat incoherent charac-
ter. The Christian (we must remember, indeed, that
these predictions were published subsequent to their
fulfilment, and that, by their own account, Julian had

1 *Ruk A iufSftu f»6yi(, kind fttfvvv Sku» kMoac rpdc iC9ff citfe. — Ad.
S. P. Ath. p. 272.

VOL. II. 80

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466 JULIAN AT ELEUSIS. Book m.

already betrayed, in Asia Minor, his secret propensi-
ties) already discerned in the unquiet and unsubmis-
sive spirit the future apostate. But the general
impression which Julian made was far more favora-
ble. His quickness, his accomplishments, the variety
and extent of his information, his gentleness, his elo-
quence, and even his modesty, gained universal
admiration, and strengthened the interest excited by
his forlorn and perilous position.

Of all existing Pagan rites, those which still main-
juiiaa tained the greatest respect, and would

impress a mind like Julian's with the pro-
foundest veneration, were the Eleusinian mysteries.
They united the sanctity of almost immemorial age
with some similitude to the Platonic Paganism of the
day, at least sufficient for the ardent votaries of the lat-
ter to claim their alliance. The Hierophant of Eleusis
was admitted to be the most potent theurgist in the
world.^ . Julian honored him, or was honored by his
intimacy ; and the initiation in the Mystery of those
emphatically called the Goddesses, with all its appall-
ing dramatic machinery, and its high speculative and
imaginative doctrines, the. impenetrable, the ineffable
tenets of the sanctuary, consummated the work of
Julian's conversion.

The elevation of Julian to the rank of CsBsar was at
jserattoii length cxtortcd from the necessities, rather
titoSSfrf *b^ fi-eely bestowed by the love, of the
^**'- emperor. Nor did the jealous hostility of
Constantius cease with this apparent reconciliation.
Gonstantius, with cold suspicion, thwarted all his

^ Compare (in Ennap. Vit ^des. p. 62, edit. BoisBonade) the prophecy of
the dissolution of Paganism ascribed to this pontiff; a prediction which may
do credit to the sagacity, or evince the apprehensions of the seer, bat will by
no means daun the honor of dirine foreknowledge.

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Chap. VI. DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS. 467

measures, crippled his resources, and appropriated to
himself, with unblushing injustice, the fame of his vic-
tories.^ Julian's assumption of the purple, whether*
forced upon him by the ungovernable attachment of
his soldiery, or prepared by his own subtle ambition,
was justified, and perhaps compelled, by the base in-
gratitude of Constantius ; and by his manifest, if not
avowed, resolution of preparing the ruin of Julian, by
removing his best troops to the East.^

The timely death of Constantius alone prevented
the deadly warfare in which the last of the Death ©r
race of Constantino were about to contest ^°»**°*''^
the empire. The dying bequest of that empire to
Julian, said to have been made by the penitent Con-
stantius, could not efiace the recollection of those
long years of degradation, of jealousy, of avowed or
secret hostility ; still less could it allay the dislike or
contempt of Julian for his weak and insolent prede-
cessor, who, governed by eimuchs, wasted the pre-
cious time which ought to have been devoted to the
cares of the empire, in idle theological discussions, or
quarrels with contending ecclesiastics. The part in the
character of the deceased emperor least likely to find
favor in the sight of his successor Julian was his reli-
gion. The unchristian Christianity of Constantius
must bear some part of the guilt of Julian's apostasy.

Up to the time of his revolt against Constantius,
Julian had respected the dominant Christianity. The

1 Ammianuflf 1. xt. 8, ei teqq, Socrates, iii. 1. Sozomen, y. n. La Ble-
teriOf Vie de Julien, 89 et teqq. The campaigns of Julian, in La Bleteiie,
lil>. iL — Gibbon, iy. pp. 1, 4.

The well-known passage in Ammianns shows the real sentiments of the
conrt towards Julian. " In odium yenit cum yictorils suis capella non homo;
ut hlrsutum Julianum caq)ente9 appellantesque loquacem talpam, et puipura-
tam simiam, et litterionem Gnecum.** — Amm. Marc ±yii. 11.

s Amm. Maze xx. &c. Zosimus, ilL Liban. Or. x. JuL ad S. P. Q. A.

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468 GONDUGT OF JULIAN. Book m.

religious acts of his early youth, performed in obedi-
Conduct of ®^^ to? or imder the influence of, his instruct-
^^*""* ors; or his submissive conformity, when
his watchful enemies were eager for his life, — ought
hardly to convict him of deliberate hypocrisy. In
Gaul, still under the strictest suspicion, and engaged
in almost incessant warfare, he would have few oppor-
tunities to betray his secret sentiments. But Jupiter
was consulted in his private chamber, and sanctioned
his assumption of the imperial purple.^ And no
sooner had he marched into Illyria, an independent
emperor at the head of his own army, than he threw
aside all concealment^ and proclaimed himself a wor-
diipper of the ancient gods of Paganism. The au-
spices were taken ; and the act of divination was not
the less held in honor, because the fortunate sooth-
sayer annoimced the death of Gonstantius. The army
followed the example of their victorious general. At
his command, the neglected temples resumed their
ceremonies ; he adorned them widi offerings ; he set
the example of costly sacrifices.^ The Athenians in
particular obeyed with alacrity the commands of the
new emperor; the honors of the priesthood became
again a worthy object of contest; two distinguished
females claimed the honor of representing the genuine
EumolpidsQ, and of officiating in the Parthenon. Ju-
lian, already anxious to infuse as much of the real
Christian spirit as he could into reviving Paganism,
exhorted the contending parties to peace and unity, as
the most acceptable saorifioe to the gods.

1 Amm. zxi. 1.

s The Western army was more easily practised upon than the Eastern
soldiers at a subsequent period. QpqoKevofUv roiic Ocot)f icvai^cofddv Kot
t6 vXffOoc TOO ffvyKatiXdoinvc UM arparoTridw ^eoaeS^ ioriv, — Epist.
xzxyiiL

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Chat. VI. B£IIGI0K OF JULIAI7. 469

The death of Oonstantius left the whole Boman
world open to the civil and religious schemes which
lay, floating and unshaped, before the ims^nation of
Julian. The civil reforms were executed with neces-
sary severity, but, in some instances, with more than
necessary cruelty. The elevation of Paganism into a
rational and effective faith; and the depression and
even the eventual extinction of Christianity, were the
manifest objects of Julian's religious policy. Julian's
religion was the eclectic Paganism of the new Platonic
philosophy. The chief speculative tenet was Oriental
rather than Greek or Boman. The one inmiaterial,
inconceivable Father dwelt alone ; though his majesty
was held in reverence, the direct and material object
of worship was the great Sun,^ the living and anima-
ted, and propitious and beneficent image of the
immaterial Father.^ Below this primal Deity and his
glorious image, there was room for the whole Pantheon
of subordinate deities, of whom, in like manner, the
stars were the material representatives; but who
possessed invisible powers, and manifested themselves
in various ways, — in dreams and visions, through
prodigies and oracles, the flights of birds, and the
signs in the sacrificial victims.^ This vague and com-
prehensive Paganism might include under its domin-
ion all classes and nations which adhered to the

1 Tdv ftiyov "^^.xoy, rd (uw a/a^ Koi kft^x^t i^ einfoOv kcH &ya^
Ooepybv, rov vc^tov narpog.

* Compare Julian, apud CyriL, lib. it. p. 66.

< Julian asserts the yarioiu offices of the sabordinate deities, apad CjrrO.,
lib. vii. p. 286.

One of the most femarkable Ulnstrations of this wide-spread worship of
the Son is to be found in the address of Julius Firmicus Matemus to the em-
perors Constantins and Constans. He introduces the Sun as remonstrating
against the dishonorable honors thus heaped upon him, and protests against
being responsible for th« acts, or involyed in the fate, of Liber,.Att7B, or

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470 BESTORATTON OF PAGANISM. Book IIL

Heathen worship ; the Oriental, the Greek, the Boman,
even, perhaps, the Northern barbarian, would not
refuse to admit the simplicity of the primal article of
the creed, spreading out as it did below into the
boundless latitude of Polytheism. The immortality
of the soul appears to follow as an inference from
some of Julian's Platonic doctrines ; ^ but it is re-
markable how rarely it is put forward as an important
point of difference in his reli^ous writings ; while, in
his private correspondence, he falls back to the dubi-
ous and hesitating language of the ancient Heathens,
— " I am not one of those who disbelieve the immor-
tality of the soul : but the gods alone can know ; man
can only conjecture that secret."^ But his best con-
solation on the loss of friends was the saying of the
Grecian philosopher to Darius, that, if he would find
three persons who had not suffered the like calamities,
he would restore the king's beautiful wife to life.*
Julian's dying language, however, though still vague
and allied to the old Pantheistic system, sounds more
like serene confidence in some future state of being.

The first care of Julian was to restore the outward
Restoration form of Paganism to its former splendor,
ofPagMiym. jy^^ ^ infuse the vigor of reviving youth
into the antiquated system. The temples were every-
where to resume their ancient magnificence; the
municipalities were charged with the expense of these

Osiris. ^* Nolo ut enori yestro Domen meum fomenta suppeditet. . . . Qnlo-
quid Bum Bimpliciter Deo pueo, nee allud vole de me ixiteliigatis, nid quod
TidetiB."— c8.

1 Lib. u. 68.

s O^ yctp d^ KtU ifidc hfuv tuv ireiretoftivav rdp ^n^df IJTOi irpoearSX'
hfodai Tuv aufiuTuv ^ owamiX^voOcu. ... 'Of roi^ ftkv avOpumic itpfto-
(ec nepi wurOruv eUdCeiy, kKioTaawu 6^ ainit rode ^eodf ia^ini» — EpisL
bdii. p. 452.

* Epistie to AmeiiuB on the loss of his vife. — Ep. xzztu. p. 412.

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Chap. VI. RESTORA.TION OF PAGANISM. 471

costly renovations. Where they had been destroyed
by the zeal of the Christians, large fines were levied
on the churches, and became, as will hereafter appear,
a pretext for grinding exaction, and sometimes cruel
persecution. It assessed on the whole community
the penalty merited, perhaps, only by the rashness of
a few zealots; it revived outrages almost forgotten,
and injuries perpetrated, perhaps with the sanction,
unquestionably with the connivance, of the former
government. In many instances, it may have re-
venged on the innocent and peaceful the crimes of
the avaricious and irreligious, who either plundered
under the mask of Christian zeal, or seized the oppor-
tunity when the zeal of others might secure their
impunity. That which takes place in all religious
revolutions had occurred to a considerable extent:
the powerful had seized the opportunity of plunder-
ing the weaker party for their own advantage. The
eunuchs and favorites of the court had fattened on
the spoil of the temples.^ K these men had been
forced to regorge tlieir ill-gotten gains, justice might
have approved the measure; but their crimes were
unfairly visited on the whole Christian body. The
extent to which the ruin and spoliation of the temples
had been carried in the East, may be estimated from
the tragic lamentations of Libanius. The soul of
Julian, according to the orator, burned for empire, in
order to restore the ancient order of things.

In some respects, the success of Julian answered
the high-wrought expectations of his partisans. Eds
panegyrist indulges in this lofty language: '^Thou,

^ " Pasti templonun spoliis *' ia the strong expression of Ammianos.
LilMmins says, that some persons had built themselves houses from the mate-
rials of the temples. Xpfffjara ^ heXow oi rdg tQv UpCv Xi$oic a^af
aOroic oUutc fydponfrec^Orat, Parent p. 604.

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472 BESTOBATIOK OF PAQANI8M. Book IQ.

then, I say, mightiest emperor ! hast restored to the
republic the expelled and banished virtues ; thou hast
rekindled the study of letters; thou hast not only
delivered from her trial Philosophy, suspected hereto-
fore and deprived of her honors, and even arraigned
as a criminal, but hast clothed her in purple, crowned
her with jewels, and seated her on the imperial throne.
We may now look on the heavens, and contemplate
the stars with fearless gaze, who, a short time ago,
like the beasts of the field, fixed our downward and
grovelling vision on the earth." ^ " First of all," says
Libanius, '' he re-established the exiled religion, build*
ing, restoring, embellishing the temples. Everywhere
were altars and fires, and the blood and fat of sacrifice,
and smoke and sacred rites, and diviners fearlessly
performing their functions. And on the tops of moun-
tains were pipings and processions, and the sacrificial
ox, which was at once an offering to the gods and a ban-
quet to men." ? The private temple in the palace of
Julian, in which he worshipped daily, was sacred to the
8un; but he founded altars to all the gods. He
looked' with especial favor on those cities which had
retained their temples ; with abhorrence on those which
had suffered them to be destroyed, or to fall to ruin.*

Julian so entirely misapprehended Gliristianity, as
to attribute its success and influence to its external
oi^anization, rather than to its internal authority over
the soul of man. He thought that the religion grew
out of the sacerdotal power, not that the sacerdotal
power was but the vigorous development of the religion.

^ Mam. Grat. Act c. sdii. This dause refers, no doubt, to astrology
and dirination.

s See y. 1. p. 629, one among many panages; likewise, the Oratio pro
Templis, and the Monodia.

< Grat. Parent, p. 664.

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Ghaf.YI. JULIAX'S new PRIESTHOOD. 478

He fondly supposed that the imperial edict, and the
authority of the gOTemment, could supply the place
of profound religious sentiment; and transform the
whole Pagan priesthood, whether attached to the dis-
solute worship of the East, the elegant ceremonial of
Greece, or the grayer ritual of Rome, into a serious,
highly moral, and blameless hierarchy. The emperor
was to be at once the supreme head and the model of
this new sacerdotal order. The sagacious mind of Ju-
lian might have perceived the dangerous power, grow-
ing up in the Christian episcopate, which had already
encroached upon the imperial authority, and began to
divide the allegiance of the world. His political ap-
prehensions may have concurred with his religious
animosities, in not merely endeavoring to check the
increase of this power, but in desiring to concentrate
again in the imperial person both branches of authority.
The supreme pontificate of Paganism had, indeed,
passed quietly down with the rest of the imperial titles
and functions ; but the interference of the Christian
emperors in ecclesiastical affairs had been met with
resistance, obeyed only with sullen reluctance, or but
in deference to the strong arm of power. The doubt-
ful issue of the conflict between the emperor and his
religious antagonist might awaken reasonable alarm
for the majesty of the empire. If, on the other hand,
Julian should succeed in re-organizing the Pagan
priesthood in efficiency, respect, and that moral supe-
riority which now belonged to the Christian ecclesias-
tical system, the supreme pontificate, instead of being
a mere appellation or an appendage to the imperial
title, would be an office of unlimited influence and
authority.^ The emperor would be the undisputed

1 See the cnriooB fragment of the sixty-second epistle (p. 460), in which

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474 JXTLIAN'S NEW PRIESTHOOD. Book IIL

and unrivalled head of the religion of the empire;
T lu-.- . tho whole sacerdotal order would be at his

juiiaii'i iMW

priMthood. command: Paganism, instead of being, as
heretofore, a confederacy of different religions, an ag-
gregate of local systems of worship, each under its
own tutelar deity, would become a well-regulated mon-
archy, with its proyincial, ciyic, and village priesthoods,
acknowledging the supremacy, and obeying the im-
pulse, of the high imperial functionary. Julian
admitted the distinction between the priesthood and
tlie laity.^ In every province a supreme pontiff was
to be appointed, charged with a superintendence over
the conduct of the inferior priesthood, and armed with
authority to suspend or to depose those who should
be guilty of any indecent irregularity. The whole
priesthood were to be sober, chaste, temperate in all
things. They were to abstain, not merely from loose
society ; but, in a spirit diametrically opposite to the
old religion, were rarely to be seen at public festivals,
never Where women mingled in them.* In private
houses, they were only to be present at the moderate
banquets of the virtuous ; they were never to be seen
drinking in taverns, or exercising any base or sordid
trade. The priesthood were to stand aloof from soci-
ety, and only mingle with it to infuse their own grave
decency and unimpeachable moral tone. The theatre,
that second temple, as it might be called, of the older
religion, was sternly proscribed; so entirely was it
considered sunk from its high religious character, so

Julian asserts bis supremacy, not merely as Pontifex Maximus, but as hold-
ing a bigb rank among the worshippers of Cybele. ^Eyti rotvw ^TreoS^ir^
elfu Kord, fttu rd irarpta fuyac ^Apxupivc, iXaxov 6k vw not toO ^ido'
Hatou icpo^reoav.

1 'Eni2 aol noO fiinariv kfinupuK (^Aijf) ruv duuduv, 8c die (Ma ri
fttu Upevc, ri 6i iiSui^. — Fragm. Epist IxU.

* See Epist zlix.

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Chap. VL HIS CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 476

incapable of being restored to its old moral influence.
They were to avoid all books, poetry, or tales, which
might inflame their passions; to abstain altogether
from those philosophical writings which subverted the
foundations of religious belief, those of the Pyrrhonists
and Epicureans, which Julian asserts had happily fal-
len into complete neglect, and had almost become
obsolete. They were to be diligent and liberal in alms-
giving, and to exercise hospitality on the most generous
scale. The Jews had no beggars; the Christians
maintained, indiscriminately, all applicants to their
charity ; it was a disgrace to the Pagans to be inat-
tentive to such duties ; and the authority of Homer
is alleged to show the prodigal hospitality of the older
Greeks. They were to establish houses of ma

/. . . , charitable

reception for strangers m every city, and in»titutfoM
thus to rival or surpass the generosity of the Chris-
tians. Supplies of com from the public granaries
were assigned for these purposes, and placed at the
disposal of the priests, partly for the maintenance of
their attendants, partly for these pious uses. They
were to pay great regard to the burial of the dead, a
subject on which Grecian feeling had always been
peculiarly sensitive, particularly of strangers. The
benevolent institutions of Christianity were imitated
to be imitated and associated to Paganism. tiaS^.
A tax was to be levied in every province for the main-
tenance of the poor, and distributed by the priesthood.
Hospitals for the sick and for indigent strangers of
every creed were to be formed in convenient places.
The Christians, not without justice, called the em-
peror "the ape of Christianity." Of all homage to
the Gt)spel, this was the most impressive and sincere ;
and we are astonished at the blindness of Julian in

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476 RELIGIOUS mSTRUOnON. Book HI.

not perceiving that these changes, which thus enforced
his admiration, were the genuine and permanent results
of the religion ; but the disputes and strifes and perse-
cutions, the accidental and temporary effects of human
passions awakened by this new and violent impulse
on the human mind.

Something like an universal ritual formed part of the
design of Julian. Three times a day prayer
was to be publicly offered in the temples.
The powerful aid of music, so essential a part of the
older and better Grecian instruction, and of which the
influence is so elevating to the soul,^ was called in to
impress the minds of the worshippers. Each temple
was to have its organized band of choristers. A
regular system of alternate chanting was introduced.
It would be curious, if it were possible, to ascertain
whether the Grecian temples received back their own
music and their alternately responding chorus from
the Christian churches.

Julian would invest the Pagan priesthood in that
BMpectibr respect, or rather that commanding majesty,
tmptofc ^^jj ^hich the profound reverence of the
Christian world arrayed their hierarchy. Solemn
silence was to reign in the temples. All persons in
authority were to leave their guards at the door when
they entered the hallowed precincts. The emperor
himself forbade the usual acclamations on his entrance
into the presence of the gods. Directly he touched the
sacred threshold, he became a private man.

It is said that he meditated a complete course of
Beiigioiu religious instruction. Schoolmasters, cate-
fatftroction. chists, prcachcrs, were to teach, — are we to
suppose the Platonic philosophy? — as part of the

1 On Mojuc, see Epiat lyi.

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Chap. VL ANIMAL 6ACBIFICES. 47T

religion. A penitential form was to be drawn up for
the re-admission of transgressors into the fold. In-
stead of throwing open the temples to the &ee and
promiscuous reception of apostatizing Christians, the
value of the privilege was to be enhanced by the difiS-
culty of attaining it.^ They were to be slowly admitted
to the distinction of rational believers in the gods.
The dii averruncatores (atoning deities) were to be
propitiated; the believers were to pass through dif-
ferent degrees of initiation. Prayers, expiations, lus-
trations, severe trials, could alone purify their bodies
and their minds, and make them worthy participants
in the Pagan mysteries.

But Julian was not content with this moral regenera-
tion of Paganism; he attempted to bring
back the public mind to all the sanguinary
ritual of sacrifice, to which the general sentiment had
been gradually growing unfamiliar and repugnant*
The time was passed when men could consider the
favor of the gods propitiated according to the number
of slaughtered beasts. The philosophers must have
smiled in secret at the superstition of the philosophic
emperor. Julian himself washed off his Christian
baptism by the new Oriental rite of aspersion by blood,
the Taurobolia or Kriobolia of the Mithriac mysteries ; ^
he was regenerated anew to Paganism.^ This, indeed,
was a secret ceremony ; but Julian was perpetually
seen, himself wielding the sacrificial knife, and ex-
ploring with his own hands the reeking entrails of the
victims, to learn the secrets of futurity. The enor-
mous expenditure lavished on the sacrifices, the heca-

1 See EpUt lii. * Qrtgqr. Nm. iiL p. 70.

* The person initiated descended into a pit or trench; and through a kind
of siere, or stone pierced with holes, the blood of the bull or the ram was
ponred over his whole person.

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478 ANIMAL SAGBIFICES. Book m.

tombs of cattle, the choice birds from all quarters,
drained the revenue.^ The Western soldiers, especiallj
the intemperate Gauls, indulged in the feasts on the
victims to such excess, and mingled them with such
copious libations of wine, as to be carried to their tents
amid the groans and mockeries of the more sober .^
The gifts to diviners, soothsayers, and impostors of all
classes, oflFended equally the more wise and rational.
In the public aa well as private conduct of Julian,
there was a Heathen Pharisaism, an attention to mi-
nute and trifling observances, which could not but ex-
cite contempt even in the more enlightened of his own
party. Every morning and evening he oflfered sacri-
fice to the sun ; he rose at night to offer the same
homage to the moon and stars. Every day brought
the rite of some other god. Julian was constantly
seen prostrate before the image of the deity, busying
himself about the ceremony, performing the menial
offices of cleansing the wood, and kindling the fire
with his own breath, till the victim was ready for the
imperial hands. The sacrifices were so frequent, that,
had he returned victorious over the Parthians, it was
said there would have been a dearth of cattle.^

1 Julian acknowledges the relactance to sacrifice in many parts. " Show
me," he says to the philosopher Aristomenes, " a genuine Greek in Cappa-
docia*" Tewf ydp Tot)f fitv ob Povh>fdvovc, bXtyov^ <ft nvof ideXovrac
fihf oOk eidoTO/^ 6i •dveiv, bpd, — Epist iv. p. 876.

^ I do not believe the story of human sacrifices in Alexandria and Ath-
ens, Socrat. £. H. iii. 18.

8 "Innumeros sine parsimonift mactans; ut crederetar, si revertisset de
Parthis,** boyea jam deftcturos.— Amm. Marc xxy. i.

END OF VOL. n.

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