[1: St. Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Theodos. p. 1208)
expressly praises and recommends the zeal of Josiah in the
destruction of idolatry The language of Julius Firmicus Maternus
on the same subject (de Errore Profan. Relig. p. 467, edit.
Gronov.) is piously inhuman. Nec filio jubet (the Mosaic Law)
parci, nec fratri, et per amatam conjugera gladium vindicem
ducit, &c.]
[2: Bayle (tom. ii. p. 406, in his Commentaire
Philosophique) justifies, and limits, these intolerant laws by
the temporal reign of Jehovah over the Jews. The attempt is
laudable.]
[3: See the outlines of the Roman hierarchy in Cicero,
(de Legibus, ii. 7, 8,) Livy, (i. 20,) Dionysius
Halicarnassensis, (l. ii. p. 119 - 129, edit. Hudson,) Beaufort,
(Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 1 - 90,) and Moyle, (vol. i. p.
10 - 55.) The last is the work of an English whig, as well as of
a Roman antiquary.]
[4: These mystic, and perhaps imaginary, symbols have
given birth to various fables and conjectures. It seems
probable, that the Palladium was a small statue (three cubits and
a half high) of Minerva, with a lance and distaff; that it was
usually enclosed in a seria, or barrel; and that a similar barrel
was placed by its side to disconcert curiosity, or sacrilege.
See Mezeriac (Comment. sur les Epitres d'Ovide, tom i. p. 60 -
66) and Lipsius, (tom. iii. p. 610 de Vesta, &c. c 10.)]
[5: Cicero frankly (ad Atticum, l. ii. Epist. 5) or
indirectly (ad Familiar. l. xv. Epist. 4) confesses that the
Augurate is the supreme object of his wishes. Pliny is proud to
tread in the footsteps of Cicero, (l. iv. Epist. 8,) and the
chain of tradition might be continued from history and marbles.]
[6: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 249, 250. I have suppressed the
foolish pun about Pontifex and Maximus.]
[7: This statue was transported from Tarentum to Rome,
placed in the Curia Julia by Caesar, and decorated by Augustus
with the spoils of Egypt.]
[8: Prudentius (l. ii. in initio) has drawn a very
awkward portrait of Victory; but the curious reader will obtain
more satisfaction from Montfaucon's Antiquities, (tom. i. p.
341.)]
[9: See Suetonius (in August. c. 35) and the Exordium of
Pliny's Panegyric.]
[10: These facts are mutually allowed by the two
advocates, Symmachus and Ambrose.]
[11: The Notitia Urbis, more recent than Constantine,
does not find one Christian church worthy to be named among the
edifices of the city. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. p. 825)
deplores the public scandals of Rome, which continually offended
the eyes, the ears, and the nostrils of the faithful.]
[12: Ambrose repeatedly affirms, in contradiction to
common sense (Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 147,) that the
Christians had a majority in the senate.]
[13: The first (A.D. 382) to Gratian, who refused them
audience; the second (A.D. 384) to Valentinian, when the field
was disputed by Symmachus and Ambrose; the third (A.D. 388) to
Theodosius; and the fourth (A.D. 392) to Valentinian. Lardner
(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 372 - 399) fairly represents
the whole transaction.]
[14: Symmachus, who was invested with all the civil and
sacerdotal honors, represented the emperor under the two
characters of Pontifex Maximus, and Princeps Senatus. See the
proud inscription at the head of his works.
Note: Mr. Beugnot has made it doubtful whether Symmachus was
more than Pontifex Major. Destruction du Paganisme, vol. i. p.
459. - M.]
[15: As if any one, says Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 639)
should dig in the mud with an instrument of gold and ivory. Even
saints, and polemic saints, treat this adversary with respect and
civility.]
[16: See the fifty-fourth Epistle of the tenth book of
Symmachus. In the form and disposition of his ten books of
Epistles, he imitated the younger Pliny; whose rich and florid
style he was supposed, by his friends, to equal or excel,
(Macrob. Saturnal. l. v. c. i.) But the luxcriancy of Symmachus
consists of barren leaves, without fruits, and even without
flowers. Few facts, and few sentiments, can be extracted from
his verbose correspondence.]
[17: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. xviii. p. 825 -
833.) The former of these epistles is a short caution; the latter
is a formal reply of the petition or libel of Symmachus. The
same ideas are more copiously expressed in the poetry, if it may
deserve that name, of Prudentius; who composed his two books
against Symmachus (A.D. 404) while that senator was still alive.
It is whimsical enough that Montesquieu (Considerations, &c. c.
xix. tom. iii. p. 487) should overlook the two professed
antagonists of Symmachus, and amuse himself with descanting on
the more remote and indirect confutations of Orosius, St.
Augustin, and Salvian.]
[18: See Prudentius (in Symmach. l. i. 545, &c.) The
Christian agrees with the Pagan Zosimus (l. iv. p. 283) in
placing this visit of Theodosius after the second civil war,
gemini bis victor caede Tyranni, (l. i. 410.) But the time and
circumstances are better suited to his first triumph.]
[A: M. Beugnot (in his Histoire de la Destruction du
Paganisme en Occident, i. p. 483 - 488) questions, altogether,
the truth of this statement. It is very remarkable that Zosimus
and Prudentius concur in asserting the fact of the question being
solemnly deliberated by the senate, though with directly opposite
results. Zosimus declares that the majority of the assembly
adhered to the ancient religion of Rome; Gibbon has adopted the
authority of Prudentius, who, as a Latin writer, though a poet,
deserves more credit than the Greek historian. Both concur in
placing this scene after the second triumph of Theodosius; but it
has been almost demonstrated (and Gibbon - see the preceding note
- seems to have acknowledged this) by Pagi and Tillemont, that
Theodosius did not visit Rome after the defeat of Eugenius. M.
Beugnot urges, with much force, the improbability that the
Christian emperor would submit such a question to the senate,
whose authority was nearly obsolete, except on one occasion,
which was almost hailed as an epoch in the restoration of her
ancient privileges. The silence of Ambrose and of Jerom on an
event so striking, and redounding so much to the honor of
Christianity, is of considerable weight. M. Beugnot would
ascribe the whole scene to the poetic imagination of Prudentius;
but I must observe, that, however Prudentius is sometimes
elevated by the grandeur of his subject to vivid and eloquent
language, this flight of invention would be so much bolder and
more vigorous than usual with this poet, that I cannot but
suppose there must have been some foundation for the story,
though it may have been exaggerated by the poet, or
misrepresented by the historian. - M]
[19: Prudentius, after proving that the sense of the
senate is declared by a legal majority, proceeds to say, (609,
&c.) -
Adspice quam pleno subsellia nostra Senatu
Decernant infame Jovis pulvinar, et omne
Idolum longe purgata ex urbe fugandum,
Qua vocat egregii sententia Principis, illuc
Libera, cum pedibus, tum corde, frequentia transit.
Zosimus ascribes to the conscript feathers a heathenish courage,
which few of them are found to possess.]
[20: Jerom specifies the pontiff Albinus, who was
surrounded with such a believing family of children and
grandchildren, as would have been sufficient to convert even
Jupiter himself; an extraordinary proselyted (tom. i. ad Laetam,
p. 54.)]
[21: Exultare Patres videas, pulcherrima mundi
Lumina; Conciliumque senum gestire Catonum
Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum
Sumere; et exuvias deponere pontificales.
The fancy of Prudentius is warmed and elevated by victory]
[22: Prudentius, after he has described the conversion
of the senate and people, asks, with some truth and confidence,
Et dubitamus adhuc Romam, tibi, Christe, dicatam
In leges transisse tuas?]
[23: Jerom exults in the desolation of the Capitol, and
the other temples of Rome, (tom. i. p. 54, tom. ii. p. 95.)]
[B: M. Beugnot is more correct in his general estimate
of the measures enforced by Theodosius for the abolition of
Paganism. He seized (according to Zosimus) the funds bestowed by
the public for the expense of sacrifices. The public sacrifices
ceased, not because they were positively prohibited, but because
the public treasury would no longer bear the expense. The public
and the private sacrifices in the provinces, which were not under
the same regulations with those of the capital, continued to take
place. In Rome itself, many pagan ceremonies, which were without
sacrifice, remained in full force. The gods, therefore, were
invoked, the temples were frequented, the pontificates inscribed,
according to ancient usage, among the family titles of honor; and
it cannot be asserted that idolatry was completely destroyed by
Theodosius. See Beugnot, p. 491. - M.]
[24: Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 10, Genev. 1634,
published by James Godefroy, and now extremely scarce) accuses
Valentinian and Valens of prohibiting sacrifices. Some partial
order may have been issued by the Eastern emperor; but the idea
of any general law is contradicted by the silence of the Code,
and the evidence of ecclesiastical history.
Note: See in Reiske's edition of Libanius, tom. ii. p. 155.
Sacrific was prohibited by Valens, but not the offering of
incense. - M.]
[25: See his laws in the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit.
x. leg. 7 - 11.]
[26: Homer's sacrifices are not accompanied with any
inquisition of entrails, (see Feithius, Antiquitat. Homer. l. i.
c. 10, 16.) The Tuscans, who produced the first Haruspices,
subdued both the Greeks and the Romans, (Cicero de Divinatione,
ii. 23.)]
[27: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 245, 249. Theodoret. l. v. c.
21. Idatius in Chron. Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud
Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 52. Libanius (pro
Templis, p. 10) labors to prove that the commands of Theodosius
were not direct and positive.
Note: Libanius appears to be the best authority for the
East, where, under Theodosius, the work of devastation was
carried on with very different degrees of violence, according to
the temper of the local authorities and of the clergy; and more
especially the neighborhood of the more fanatican monks. Neander
well observes, that the prohibition of sacrifice would be easily
misinterpreted into an authority for the destruction of the
buildings in which sacrifices were performed. (Geschichte der
Christlichen religion ii. p. 156.) An abuse of this kind led to
this remarkable oration of Libanius. Neander, however, justly
doubts whether this bold vindication or at least exculpation, of
Paganism was ever delivered before, or even placed in the hands
of the Christian emperor. - M.]
[28: Cod. Theodos, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8, 18. There is
room to believe, that this temple of Edessa, which Theodosius
wished to save for civil uses, was soon afterwards a heap of
ruins, (Libanius pro Templis, p. 26, 27, and Godefroy's notes, p.
59.)]
[29: See this curious oration of Libanius pro Templis,
pronounced, or rather composed, about the year 390. I have
consulted, with advantage, Dr. Lardner's version and remarks,
(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 135 - 163.)]
[30: See the Life of Martin by Sulpicius Severus, c. 9 -
14. The saint once mistook (as Don Quixote might have done) a
harmless funeral for an idolatrous procession, and imprudently
committed a miracle.]
[31: Compare Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 15) with Theodoret,
(l. v. c. 21.) Between them, they relate the crusade and death of
Marcellus.]
[32: Libanius, pro Templis, p. 10 - 13. He rails at
these black- garbed men, the Christian monks, who eat more than
elephants. Poor elephants! they are temperate animals.]
[33: Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud Baronium;
Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 58, &c. The temple had been shut
some time, and the access to it was overgrown with brambles.]
[34: Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, l. iv. c. 4, p. 468.
This consecration was performed by Pope Boniface IV. I am
ignorant of the favorable circumstances which had preserved the
Pantheon above two hundred years after the reign of Theodosius.]
[35: Sophronius composed a recent and separate history,
(Jerom, in Script. Eccles. tom. i. p. 303,) which has furnished
materials to Socrates, (l. v. c. 16.) Theodoret, (l. v. c. 22,)
and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22.) Yet the last, who had been at
Alexandria before and after the event, may deserve the credit of
an original witness.]
[36: Gerard Vossius (Opera, tom. v. p. 80, and de
Idoloaltria, l. i. c. 29) strives to support the strange notion
of the Fathers; that the patriarch Joseph was adored in Egypt, as
the bull Apis, and the god Serapis.
Note: Consult du Dieu Serapis et son Origine, par J D.
Guigniaut, (the translator of Creuzer's Symbolique,) Paris, 1828;
and in the fifth volume of Bournouf's translation of Tacitus. -
M.]
[37: Origo dei nondum nostris celebrata. Aegyptiorum
antistites sic memorant, &c., Tacit. Hist. iv. 83. The Greeks,
who had travelled into Egypt, were alike ignorant of this new
deity.]
[38: Macrobius, Saturnal, l. i. c. 7. Such a living
fact decisively proves his foreign extraction.]
[39: At Rome, Isis and Serapis were united in the same
temple. The precedency which the queen assumed, may seem to
betray her unequal alliance with the stranger of Pontus. But the
superiority of the female sex was established in Egypt as a civil
and religious institution, (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. i. p. 31,
edit. Wesseling,) and the same order is observed in Plutarch's
Treatise of Isis and Osiris; whom he identifies with Serapis.]
[40: Ammianus, (xxii. 16.) The Expositio totius Mundi,
(p. 8, in Hudson's Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.,) and Rufinus, (l.
ii. c. 22,) celebrate the Serapeum, as one of the wonders of the
world.]
[41: See Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ix.
p. 397 - 416. The old library of the Ptolemies was totally
consumed in Caesar's Alexandrian war. Marc Antony gave the whole
collection of Pergamus (200,000 volumes) to Cleopatra, as the
foundation of the new library of Alexandria.]
[42: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 21) indiscreetly provokes
his Christian masters by this insulting remark.]
[43: We may choose between the date of Marcellinus (A.D.
389) or that of Prosper, ( A.D. 391.) Tillemont (Hist. des Emp.
tom. v. p. 310, 756) prefers the former, and Pagi the latter.]
[44: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441 - 500. The
ambiguous situation of Theophilus - a saint, as the friend of
Jerom a devil, as the enemy of Chrysostom - produces a sort of
impartiality; yet, upon the whole, the balance is justly inclined
against him.]
[C: No doubt a temple of Osiris. St. Martin, iv 398 - M.]
[45: Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 411) has
alleged beautiful passage from Suidas, or rather from Damascius,
which show the devout and virtuous Olympius, not in the light of
a warrior, but of a prophet.]
[46: Nos vidimus armaria librorum, quibus direptis,
exinanita ea a nostris hominibus, nostris temporibus memorant.
Orosius, l. vi. c. 15, p. 421, edit. Havercamp. Though a bigot,
and a controversial writer. Orosius seems to blush.]
[47: Eunapius, in the Lives of Antoninus and Aedesius,
execrates the sacrilegious rapine of Theophilus. Tillemont (Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 453) quotes an epistle of Isidore of
Pelusium, which reproaches the primate with the idolatrous
worship of gold, the auri sacra fames.]
[D: An English traveller, Mr. Wilkinson, has discovered
the secret of the vocal Memnon. There was a cavity in which a
person was concealed, and struck a stone, which gave a ringing
sound like brass. The Arabs, who stood below when Mr. Wilkinson
performed the miracle, described sound just as the author of the
epigram. - M.]
[48: Rufinus names the priest of Saturn, who, in the
character of the god, familiarly conversed with many pious ladies
of quality, till he betrayed himself, in a moment of transport,
when he could not disguise the tone of his voice. The authentic
and impartial narrative of Aeschines, (see Bayle, Dictionnaire
Critique, Scamandre,) and the adventure of Mudus, (Joseph.
Antiquitat. Judaic. l. xviii. c. 3, p. 877 edit. Havercamp,) may
prove that such amorous frauds have been practised with success.]
[49: See the images of Serapis, in Montfaucon, (tom. ii.
p. 297:) but the description of Macrobius (Saturnal. l. i. c. 20)
is much more picturesque and satisfactory.]
[50: Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda
Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent
In sua credebant redituras membra secures.
(Lucan. iii. 429.) "Is it true," (said Augustus to a veteran of
Italy, at whose house he supped) "that the man who gave the first
blow to the golden statue of Anaitis, was instantly deprived of
his eyes, and of his life?" - "I was that man, (replied the
clear-sighted veteran,) and you now sup on one of the legs of the
goddess." (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 24)]
[51: The history of the reformation affords frequent
examples of the sudden change from superstition to contempt.]
[52: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 20. I have supplied the
measure. The same standard, of the inundation, and consequently
of the cubit, has uniformly subsisted since the time of
Herodotus. See Freret, in the Mem. de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344 - 353. Greaves's Miscellaneous
Works, vol. i. p. 233. The Egyptian cubit is about twenty- two
inches of the English measure.
Note: Compare Wilkinson's Thebes and Egypt, p. 313. - M.]
[53: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17) pleads their
cause with gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest
age, such feasts had enlivened the country: and those of Bacchus
(Georgic. ii. 380) had produced the theatre of Athens. See
Godefroy, ad loc. Liban. and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 284.]
[54: Honorius tolerated these rustic festivals, (A.D.
399.) "Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ulla superstitione
damnabili." But nine years afterwards he found it necessary to
reiterate and enforce the same proviso, (Codex Theodos. l. xvi.
tit. x. leg. 17, 19.)]
[55: Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin
(Remarks on Eccles. History, vol. iv. p. 134) censures, with
becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this intolerant
law.]
[E: Paganism maintained its ground for a considerable
time in the rural districts. Endelechius, a poet who lived at
the beginning of the fifth century, speaks of the cross as
Signum quod perhibent esse crucis Dei,
Magnis qui colitur solus inurbibus.
In the middle of the same century, Maximus, bishop of Turin,
writes against the heathen deities as if their worship was still
in full vigor in the neighborhood of his city. Augustine
complains of the encouragement of the Pagan rites by heathen
landowners; and Zeno of Verona, still later, reproves the apathy
of the Christian proprietors in conniving at this abuse.
(Compare Neander, ii. p. 169.) M. Beugnot shows that this was the
case throughout the north and centre of Italy and in Sicily. But
neither of these authors has adverted to one fact, which must
have tended greatly to retard the progress of Christianity in
these quarters. It was still chiefly a slave population which
cultivated the soil; and however, in the towns, the better class
of Christians might be eager to communicate "the blessed liberty
of the gospel" to this class of mankind; however their condition
could not but be silently ameliorated by the humanizing influence
of Christianity; yet, on the whole, no doubt the servile class
would be the least fitted to receive the gospel; and its general
propagation among them would be embarrassed by many peculiar
difficulties. The rural population was probably not entirely
converted before the general establishment of the monastic
institutions. Compare Quarterly Review of Beugnot. vol lvii. p.
52 - M.]
[56: Such a charge should not be lightly made; but it
may surely be justified by the authority of St. Augustin, who
thus addresses the Donatists: "Quis nostrum, quis vestrum non
laudat leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia
Paganorum? Et certe longe ibi poera severior constituta est;
illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est." Epist. xciii.
No. 10, quoted by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. viii. p.
277,) who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of
the victorious Christians.
Note: Yet Augustine, with laudable inconsistency,
disapproved of the forcible demolition of the temples. "Let us
first extirpate the idolatry of the hearts of the heathen, and
they will either themselves invite us or anticipate us in the
execution of this good work," tom. v. p. 62. Compare Neander,
ii. 169, and, in p. 155, a beautiful passage from Chrysostom
against all violent means of propagating Christianity. - M.]
[57: Orosius, l. vii. c. 28, p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat.
in Psalm cxl apud Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 458)
insults their cowardice. "Quis eorum comprehensus est in
sacrificio (cum his legibus sta prohiberentur) et non negavit?"]
[58: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without
censure the occasional conformity, and as it were theatrical
play, of these hypocrites.]
[59: Libanius concludes his apology (p. 32) by declaring
to the emperor, that unless he expressly warrants the destruction
of the temples, the proprietors will defend themselves and the
laws.]
[60: Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. c. 26. Augustin de
Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 26. Theodoret, l. v. c. 24.]
[61: Libanius suggests the form of a persecuting edict,
which Theodosius might enact, (pro Templis, p. 32;) a rash joke,
and a dangerous experiment. Some princes would have taken his
advice.]
[F: The most remarkable instance of this, at a much
later period, occurs in the person of Merobaudes, a general and a
poet, who flourished in the first half of the fifth century. A
statue in honor of Merobaudes was placed in the Forum of Trajan,
of which the inscription is still extant. Fragments of his poems
have been recovered by the industry and sagacity of Niebuhr. In
one passage, Merobaudes, in the genuine heathen spirit,
attributes the ruin of the empire to the abolition of Paganism,
and almost renews the old accusation of Atheism against
Christianity. He impersonates some deity, probably Discord, who
summons Bellona to take arms for the destruction of Rome; and in
a strain of fierce irony recommends to her other fatal measures,
to extirpate the gods of Rome: -
Roma, ipsique tremant furialia murmura reges.
Jam superos terris atque hospita numina pelle:
Romanos populare Deos, et nullus in aris
Vestoe exoratoe fotus strue palleat ignis.
Ilis instructa dolis palatia celsa subibo;
Majorum mores, et pectora prisca fugabo
Funditus; atque simul, nullo discrimine rerum,
Spernantur fortes, nec sic reverentia justis.
Attica neglecto pereat facundia Phoebo:
Indignis contingat honos, et pondera rerum;
Non virtus sed casus agat; tristique cupido;
Pectoribus saevi demens furor aestuet aevi;
Omniaque hoec sine mente Jovis, sine numine sumimo.
Merobaudes in Niebuhr's edit. of the Byzantines, p. 14. - M.]
[62: Denique pro meritis terrestribus aequa rependens
Munera, sacricolis summos impertit honores.
Dux bonus, et certare sinit cum laude suorum,
Nec pago implicitos per debita culmina mundi Ire
viros prohibet.
Ipse magistratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal
Contulit.
Prudent. in Symmach. i. 617, &c.
Note: I have inserted some lines omitted by Gibbon. - M.]
[63: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that
Theodosius should thus distinguish a man, who even in his
presence would swear by Jupiter. Yet this presence seems to be no
more than a figure of rhetoric.]
[64: Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Ex-advocate
of the Treasury, reviles, with partial and indecent bigotry, the
Christian princes, and even the father of his sovereign. His
work must have been privately circulated, since it escaped the
invectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to Evagrius,
(l. iii. c. 40 - 42,) who lived towards the end of the sixth
century.
Note: Heyne in his Disquisitio in Zosimum Ejusque Fidem.
places Zosimum towards the close of the fifth century. Zosim.
Heynii, p. xvii. - M.]
[65: Yet the Pagans of Africa complained, that the times
would not allow them to answer with freedom the City of God; nor
does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the charge.]
[66: The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserved the
Mahometan religion above a century, under the tyranny of the
Inquisition, possessed the Koran, with the peculiar use of the
Arabic tongue. See the curious and honest story of their
expulsion in Geddes, (Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 1 - 198.)]
[67: Paganos qui supersunt, quanquam jam nullos esse
credamus, &c. Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 22, A.D. 423.
The younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied, that his
judgment had been somewhat premature.
Note: The statement of Gibbon is much too strongly worded.
M. Beugnot has traced the vestiges of Paganism in the West, after
this period, in monuments and inscriptions with curious industry.
Compare likewise note, p. 112, on the more tardy progress of
Christianity in the rural districts. - M.]
[68: See Eunapius, in the Life of the sophist Aedesius;
in that of Eustathius he foretells the ruin of Paganism.]
[69: Caius, (apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 25,) a
Roman presbyter, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, (A.D. 202 -
219,) is an early witness of this superstitious practice.]
[70: Chrysostom. Quod Christus sit Deus. Tom. i. nov.
edit. No. 9. I am indebted for this quotation to Benedict the
XIVth's pastoral letter on the Jubilee of the year 1759. See the
curious and entertaining letters of M. Chais, tom. iii.]
[71: Male facit ergo Romanus episcopus? qui, super
mortuorum hominum, Petri & Pauli, secundum nos, ossa veneranda
... offeri Domino sacrificia, et tumulos eorum, Christi
arbitratur altaria. Jerom. tom. ii. advers. Vigilant. p. 183.]
[72: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) bears witness to these
translations, which are neglected by the ecclesiastical
historians. The passion of St. Andrew at Patrae is described in
an epistle from the clergy of Achaia, which Baronius (Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 60, No. 34) wishes to believe, and Tillemont is
forced to reject. St. Andrew was adopted as the spiritual
founder of Constantinople, (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 317 - 323,
588 - 594.)]
[73: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) pompously describes the
translation of Samuel, which is noticed in all the chronicles of
the times.]
[74: The presbyter Vigilantius, the Protestant of his
age, firmly, though ineffectually, withstood the superstition of
monks, relics, saints, fasts, &c., for which Jerom compares him
to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, &c., and considers him only
as the organ of the Daemon, (tom. ii. p. 120 - 126.) Whoever will
peruse the controversy of St. Jerom and Vigilantius, and St.
Augustin's account of the miracles of St. Stephen, may speedily
gain some idea of the spirit of the Fathers.]
[75: M. de Beausobre (Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p.
648) has applied a worldly sense to the pious observation of the
clergy of Smyrna, who carefully preserved the relics of St.
Polycarp the martyr.]
[76: Martin of Tours (see his Life, c. 8, by Sulpicius
Severus) extorted this confession from the mouth of the dead man.
The error is allowed to be natural; the discovery is supposed to
be miraculous. Which of the two was likely to happen most
frequently?]
[77: Lucian composed in Greek his original narrative,
which has been translated by Avitus, and published by Baronius,
(Annal. Eccles. A.D. 415, No. 7 - 16.) The Benedictine editors of
St. Augustin have given (at the end of the work de Civitate Dei)
two several copies, with many various readings. It is the
character of falsehood to be loose and inconsistent. The most
incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and softened by
Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 9, &c.)]
[78: A phial of St. Stephen's blood was annually
liquefied at Naples, till he was superseded by St. Jamarius,
(Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal p. 529.)]
[79: Augustin composed the two-and-twenty books de
Civitate Dei in the space of thirteen years, A.D. 413 - 426.
(Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608, &c.) His learning is
too often borrowed, and his arguments are too often his own; but
the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design,
vigorously, and not unskilfully, executed.]
[80: See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 22, and
the Appendix, which contains two books of St. Stephen's miracles,
by Evodius, bishop of Uzalis. Freculphus (apud Basnage, Hist.
des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 249) has preserved a Gallic or a Spanish
proverb, "Whoever pretends to have read all the miracles of St.
Stephen, he lies."]
[81: Burnet (de Statu Mortuorum, p. 56 - 84) collects
the opinions of the Fathers, as far as they assert the sleep, or
repose, of human souls till the day of judgment. He afterwards
exposes (p. 91, &c.) the inconveniences which must arise, if they
possessed a more active and sensible existence.]
[82: Vigilantius placed the souls of the prophets and
martyrs, either in the bosom of Abraham, (in loco refrigerii,) or
else under the altar of God. Nec posse suis tumulis et ubi
voluerunt adesse praesentes. But Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) sternly
refutes this blasphemy. Tu Deo leges pones? Tu apostolis
vincula injicies, ut usque ad diem judicii teneantur custodia,
nec sint cum Domino suo; de quibus scriptum est, Sequuntur Agnum
quocunque vadit. Si Agnus ubique, ergo, et hi, qui cum Agno
sunt, ubique esse credendi sunt. Et cum diabolus et daemones
tote vagentur in orbe, &c.]
[83: Fleury Discours sur l'Hist. Ecclesiastique, iii p. 80.]
[84: At Minorca, the relics of St. Stephen converted, in
eight days, 540 Jews; with the help, indeed, of some wholesome
severities, such as burning the synagogue, driving the obstinate
infidels to starve among the rocks, &c. See the original letter
of Severus, bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin. de Civ.
Dei,) and the judicious remarks of Basnage, (tom. viii. p. 245 -
251.)]
[85: Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 434) observes, like a
philosopher, the natural flux and reflux of polytheism and
theism.]
[86: D'Aubigne (see his own Memoires, p. 156 - 160)
frankly offered, with the consent of the Huguenot ministers, to
allow the first 400 years as the rule of faith. The Cardinal du
Perron haggled for forty years more, which were indiscreetly
given. Yet neither party would have found their account in this
foolish bargain.]
[87: The worship practised and inculcated by Tertullian,
Lactantius Arnobius, &c., is so extremely pure and spiritual,
that their declamations against the Pagan sometimes glance
against the Jewish, ceremonies.]
[88: Faustus the Manichaean accuses the Catholics of
idolatry. Vertitis idola in martyres .... quos votis similibus
colitis. M. de Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom.
ii. p. 629 - 700,) a Protestant, but a philosopher, has
represented, with candor and learning, the introduction of
Christian idolatry in the fourth and fifth centuries.]
[89: The resemblance of superstition, which could not be
imitated, might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has
seized this idea, which he distorts, by rendering it too general
and absolute, (Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126, &c.)]
[90: The imitation of Paganism is the subject of Dr.
Middleton's agreeable letter from Rome. Warburton's
animadversions obliged him to connect (vol. iii. p. 120 - 132,)
the history of the two religions, and to prove the antiquity of
the Christian copy.]