XXVIII.

CHAP. return to their original chaos. An intrepid foldier, animated by zeal, and armed with a weighty battle-axe, afcended the ladder; and even the Chriftian multitude expected, with fome anxiety, the event of the combat 50. He aimed a vigorous ftroke against the cheek of Serapis; the cheek fell to the ground; the thunder was ftill filent, and both the heavens and the earth continued to preferve their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious foldier repeated his blows: the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominioufly dragged through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcafe was burnt in the Amphitheatre, amidst the fhouts of the populace; and many perfons attributed their converfion to this dif covery of the impotence of their tutelar deity. The popular modes of religion, that propofe. any vifible and material objects of worship, have the advantage of adapting and familiarifing themfelves to the fenfes of mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the various and inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater is expofed. It is fcarcely poffible, that, in every difpofition of mind, he fhould preferve his im

50 Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verendâ
Majeftate loci, fi robora facra ferirent

In fua credebant redituras membra fecures.

(Lucan. iii. 429.) "Is it true (faid Auguftus to a veteran of Italy,
"at whofe house he fupped), that the man, who gave the first blow
"to the golden ftatue at Anaitis, was inftantly deprived of his eyes,
"and of his life?" "I was that man (replied the clear-fighted ve-
teran), and you now fup on one of the legs of the goddess."
(Plin. Hift. Natur. xxxiii. 24.)

plicit

XXVIII.

plicit reverence for the idols, or the relics, which CHAP. the naked eye, and the profane hand, are unable to distinguish from the most common productions of art, or nature; and if, in the hour of danger, their fecret and miraculous virtue does not operate for their own prefervation, he fcorns the vain apologies of his priests, and justly derides the object, and the folly, of his fuperftitious attachment ". After the fall of Serapis, fome hopes were ftill entertained by the Pagans, that the Nile would refufe his annual supply to the impious mafters of Egypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inundation, feemed to announce the difpleasure of the river-god. But this delay was foon compenfated by the rapid fwell of the waters. They fuddenly rofe to fuch an unusual height, as to comfort the difcontented party with the pleafing expectation of a deluge; till the peaceful river again fubfided to the well-known and fertilifing level of fixteen cubits, or about thirty English feet 52.

The temples of the Roman empire were deferted, or destroyed; but the ingenious fuperftition of the Pagans ftill attempted to elude the laws of Theodofius, by which all facrifices had

51 The Hiftory of the Reformation affords frequent examples of the fudden change from fuperftition to contempt.

52 Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 20. I have fupplied the measure. The fame ftandard, of the inundation, and confequently of the cubit, has uniformly fubfifted fince the time of Herodotus. See Freret,. in e Mem. de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344353. Greaves's Mifcellaneous Works, vol. i. p. 233. The Egyp tian cubit is about twenty-two inches of the English measure.

The Pagan religion is A.D. 390.

prohibited,

CHAP. been feverely prohibited.

XXVIII.

prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whofe conduct was lefs exposed to the eye of malicious curiofity, difguifed their religious, under the appearance of convivial, meetings. On the days of folemn feftivals, they affembled in great numbers under the spreading shade of some confecrated trees; fheep and oxen were flaughtered and roafted; and this rural entertainment was fanctified by the use of incenfe, and by the hymns, which were fung in honour of the gods. But it was alleged, that, as no part of the animal was made a burnt-offering, as no altar was provided to receive the blood, and as the previous oblation of falt cakes, and the concluding ceremony of libations, were carefully omitted, these feftal meetings did not involve the guests in the guilt, or penalty, of an illegal facrifice "3. Whatever might be the truth of the facts, or the merit of the diftinction 54, thefe vain pretences were fwept away by the last edict of Theodofius; which inflicted a deadly wound on the fuperftition of the Pagans ". This prohibitory law is expreffed in

55

53

53 Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17.) pleads their cause with gentle and infinuating rhetoric. From the earliest age, fuch feafts had enlivened the country; and those of Bacchus (Georgic ii. 380.) had produced the theatre of Athens. See Godefroy, ad loc. Liban. and Codex Theodof. tom. vi. p. 284.

54 Honorius tolerated these ruftie festivals (A. D. 399.). "Abfque ullo facrificio, atque ullâ fuperftitione damnabili.” But nine years afterwards he found it neceffary to reiterate and enforce the fame provifo (Codex Theodof. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 17. 19.).

55 Cod. Theodof. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclef. Hiftory, vol. iv. p. 134.) cenfures, with becoming afperity, the style and fentiments of this intolerant law.

the

"It CHAP. XXVIII.

the most abfolute and comprehenfive terms.
" is our will and pleasure," fays the emperor,
"that none of our fubjects, whether magiftrates
"or private citizens, however exalted or how-
"ever humble may be their rank and condition,
"shall prefume, in any city, or in any place, to
"worship an inanimate idol, by the facrifice of
a guiltless victim." The act of facrificing, and
the practice of divination by the entrails of the
victim, are declared (without any regard to the
object of the enquiry) a crime of high-treafon
against the state; which can be expiated only by
the death of the guilty. The rites of Pagan
fuperftition, which might feem lefs bloody and
atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the
truth and honour of religion; luminaries, gar-
lands, frankincenfe, and libations of wine, are
specially enumerated and condemned; and the
harmless claims of the domeftic genius, of the
household gods, are included in this rigorous pro-
fcription. The use of any of these profane and
illegal ceremonies, fubjects the offender to the
forfeiture of the house, or estate, where they
have been performed; and if he has artfully
chofen the property of another for the fcene of
his impiety, he is compelled to difcharge, with-
out delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of
gold, or more than one thousand pounds fterling.
A fine, not lefs confiderable, is impofed on the
connivance of the fecret enemies of religion, who
shall neglect the duty of their respective stations,
either to reveal, or to punish, the guilt of idolatry.
Such was the perfecuting fpirit of the laws of
Theodofius,

I 3

}

XXVIII.

CHAP. Theodofius, which were repeatedly enforced by his fons and grandfons, with the loud and unanimous applause of the Chriftian world 5.

oppreffed,

In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian, Christianity had been profcribed, as a revolt from the ancient and hereditary religion of the empire; and the unjust fufpicions which were entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were, in some measure, countenanced by the infeparable union, and rapid conquefts, of the Catholic church. But the fame excuses of fear and ignorance cannot be applied to the Chriftian emperors, who violated the precepts of humanity and of the gospel. The experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as well as folly, of Paganifm; the light of reafon and of faith had already expofed, to the greatest part of mankind, the vanity of idols; and the declining fect, which still adhered to their worship, might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and obfcurity, the religious customs of their anceftors. Had the Pagans been animated by the undaunted zeal, which poffeffed the minds of the primitive believers, the triumph of the church muft have been ftained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might have embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their

56 Such a charge fhould not be lightly made; but it may furely be juftified by the authority of St. Auguftin, who thus addresses the Donatifts. 66 Quis noftrum, quis veftrûm non laudat leges ab Im"peratoribus datas adverfus facrificia Paganorum? Et certe longe ibi pœna feverior conftituta eft; illius quippe impietatis capitale "fupplicium eft." Epift. xciii. No 10. quoted by Le Clerc (Bibliotheque Choifie, tom. viii. p. 277.), who adds fome judicious reRections on the intolerance of the victorious Chriftians.

8

lives