A.D.390.] PAGAN RELIGION PROHIBITED.

291

The temples of the Roman empire were deserted a destroyed; but the ingenious superstition of the Pagan still attempted to elude the laws of Theodosius, by which all sacrifices had been severely prohibited. The inhabitants of the country, whose conduct was less exposed to the eye of malicious curiosity, disguised their religious, under the appearance of convivial, meetings. On the days of solemn festivals, they assembled in great numbers under the spreading shade of some consecrated trees; sheep and oxen were laughtered and roasted; and this rural entertainment was sanctified by the use of incense, and by the hymns which were sung 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 salt cakes, and the concluding ceremony of libations, were carefully omitted, these festal meetings did not involve the guests in the guilt or penalty of an illegal sacrifice.* Whatever might be the truth of the

tions near Semneh, which prove that the Nile "above four thousand years ago rose more than twenty-four feet higher than now." (Letters from Egypt, &c. p. 239, edit. Bohn.) See also observations on this discovery by L. Horner, Esq. and the reply of Dr. Lepsius (ib. p. 530). The fact is important, and seems to indicate the gradual depression of the Mediterranean, the basin into which the floods of the Nile are drained. (See note, vol. i, of this History, p. 273, and Humboldt's Views of Nature, p. 264, edit. Bohn.)-ED.]

* Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15-17) pleads their cause with gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest age, such feasts had enlivened the country; and those of Bacchus (Georgic. 2, 380) had produced the theatre of Athens. See Godefroy. ad. loc. Liban., and Cod. Theodos. tom. vi, p. 284. [Amid all its absurdities, the heathenism of antiquity had one redeeming quality; it was a cheerful religion. The song, the dance, and the banquet, intermingled with its rites; and to conduct these was the only duty that devolved on some of its priests. Sacrifices were preludes to well-spread tables and social repasts, whether on occasions of public rejoicing, or in the hilarious communions of private hospitality. When Horace called upon the Romans to celebrate the victory of Actium (Carm. i, 37), it was by dancing and feasting in the temples; when he invited Mæcenas to commemorate with him his escape from the falling tree (Carm. 3, 8), the altar of green turf wa prepared for the incense and the white goat; and again (Carm. 4, 11), bound with garlands, it stood ready for the lamb, when he called Phillis to share his festivities on his patron's birthday. Sacrifices thus contributed to prolong the attachment of the ancients to their Pagan worship, after the general discovery of its intrinsic insufficiency for the wants of the age. This was more particularly

facts, or the merit of the distinction, these vain pretences were swept away by the last edict of Thodosius; which inflicted a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans.† This prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and comprehensive terms. "It is our will and pleasure (says the emperor), that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however exalted or however humble may be their rank and condition, shall presume, in any city, or in any place, to worship an inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim." The act of sacrificing and the practice of divination by the entrails of the victim, are declared (without any regard to the object of the inquiry) a crime of high treason against the state; which can be expiated only by the death of the guilty. The rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less bloody and atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the truth and honour of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense, and libations of wine, are specially enumerated and condemned; and the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the household gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any of these profane and illegal ceremonies subjects the offender to the forfeiture of the house or estate where they have been performed; and if he

Neither their proverbial

the case with the country population. antipathy to a change of habits, nor the impediments to instruction opposed by their servile condition, will so well account for this, as their desire to retain the "rustic holiday," which nothing but the services of the temple allowed them. In their sequestered homes, they could not share the amusements of the circus, and the other games and exhibitions by which the citizens were so often entertained; and therefore they prized the more every relaxation of toil and animation of pleasure. By these associated practices, as also by the perquisites, which it brought in for interested parties, "the use of sacrifice" helped to keep superstition alive; but it was not "its most vital part." So long as it retained allowances from the state, and consecrated lands, it never wanted priests to give it a decent appearance of vigour, and gather votaries before its idols. It was by the withdrawal of the first and the confiscation of the last, that the fatal blow was given.-ED.] * Honorius tolerated

these rustic festivals. (A.D. 399.) "Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ullâ superstitione damnabili." But nine years afterwards he found it necessary to reiterate and enforce the same proviso. (Codex Theodos. lib. 16, tit. 10, leg. 17, 19.) + Cod. Theodos. lib. 16, tit. 10, leg. 12. Jortin (Remarks on Eccles. History, vol. iv, p. 134) censures, with becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this intolerant law.

A.D. 390.]

AND PERSECUTED.

293

has artfully chosen the property of another for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to discharge, without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of gold, or more than one thousand pounds sterling. A fine not less considerable is imposed on the connivance of the secret enemies of religion, who shall neglect the duty of their respective stations, either to reveal or to punish the guilt of idolatry. Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of Theodosius, which were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with the loud and unanimous applause of the Christian world.*

In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian, Christianity had been proscribed as a revolt from the ancient and hereditary religion of the empire; and the unjust suspicions which were entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were in some measure countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid conquests of the Catholic church. But the same excuses of fear and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian emperors, who violated the precepts of humanity and of the gospel. The experience of ages had betrayed the weakness as well as folly of Paganism: the light of reason and of faith had already exposed, to the greatest part of mankind, the vanity of idols; and the declining sect, which still adhered to their worship, might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the religious customs of their ancestors. Had the Pagans been animated by the undaunted zeal which possessed the minds of the primitive believers, the triumph of the church must have been stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo might have embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their lives and fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate zeal was not congenial to the loose and careless temper of Polytheism. The violent and repeated strokes of the orthodox princes were broken by the soft and yielding substance against which they were directed; and the ready obedience of the Pagans protected them from the pains and penalties of the

* 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 pœna severior constituta est; illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est." Epist. 93, No. 10, quoted by Le Clerc (Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. viii, p. 277), who adds some judicious reflections on the intolerance of the

Theodosian code.* Instead of asserting, that the authority of the gods was superior to that of the emperor, they desisted, with a plaintive murmur, from the use of those sacred rites which their sovereign had condemned. If they were sometimes tempted by a sally of passion, or by the hopes of concealment, to indulge their favourite superstition, their humble repentance disarmed the severity of the Christian magistrate; and they seldom refused to atone for their rashness, by submitting, with some secret reluctance, to the yoke of the gospel. The churches were filled with the increasing multitude of these unworthy proselytes, who had conformed, from temporal motives, to the reigning religion; and whilst they devoutly imitated the postures, and recited the prayers, of the faithful, they satisfied their conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of the gods of antiquity.t If the Pagans wanted patience to suffer, they wanted spirit to resist; and the scattered myriads, who deplored the ruin of the temples, yielded, without a contest, to the fortune of their adversaries. The disorderly opposition of the peasants of Syria, and the populace of Alexandria, to the rage of private fanaticism, was silenced by the name and authority of the emperor. The Pagans of the west, without contributing to the elevation of Eugenius, disgraced, by their partial attachment, the cause and character of the usurper. The clergy vehemently exclaimed, that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by the guilt of apostacy; that, by his permission, the altar of Victory was again restored; and that the idolatrous symbols of Jupiter and Hercules were displayed

victorious Christians.

* Orosius, lib. 7, 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 ista prohiberentur) et non negavit?" [Without the artificial support of the state, and unsustained by the external accessories of wealth and revenue, heathenism had no internal strength to have induced, if it could have provoked, persecution. Thrown upon its own resources, it is not surprising that its decline was so rapid, its extinction so complete. After-traces of it, which some archæologists have turned up, are but insignificant-ED.]

Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without censure, the occasional conformity, and as it were theatrical play, of these hypocrites. Libanius concludes his apology (p. 32) by declaring to the emperor, that unless he expressly warrants the destruction of the temples, ἴσθι τοὺς τῶν ἀγρῶν δεσπότας, καὶ

A.D. 390-420.]

GRADUALLY DECLINES.

295

in the field, against the invincible standard of the cross. But the vain hopes of the Pagans were soon annihilated by the defeat of Eugenius; and they were left exposed to the resentment of the conqueror, who laboured to deserve the favour of heaven, by the extirpation of idolatry.*

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master, who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression. Theodosius might undoubtedly have proposed to his Pagan subjects the alternative of baptism or of death; and the eloquent Libanius has praised the moderation of a prince, who never enacted, by any positive law, that all his subjects should immediately embrace and practise the religion of their sovereign. The profession of Christianity was not made an essential qualification for the enjoyment of the civil rights of society, nor were any peculiar hardships imposed on the sectaries who credulously received the fables of Ovid and obstinately rejected the miracles of the gospel. The palace, the schools, the army, and the senate, were filled with declared and devout Pagans; they obtained, without distinction, the civil and military honours of the empire. Theodosius distinguished his liberal regard for virtue and genius, by the consular dignity which he bestowed on Symmachus; and by the personal friendship which he expressed to Libanius;§ and the two eloquent apologists of Paganism αὑτοῖς καὶ τῷ νόμῳ βοηθήσοντας, the proprietors will defend them selves and the laws. * Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. c. 26 Augustin de Civitat. Dei, lib. 5, c. 26. Theodoret, lib. 5, c. 24.

+ 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.

Denique pro meritis terrestribus æqua rependens

Munera, sacricolis summos impertit honores.

Ipse magistratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal
Contulit.

Prudent. in Symmach. 1, 617, &c.

[The reader may here call to mind Neander's doubts respecting the asserted banishment of Symmachus. He was not only consul in 391, but also at different periods prefect of the city, corrector of Lucania and Bruttium, proconsul of Africa, and held other offices commemorated in an inscription by his son. (Clin. F. R. 1, 523.)-ED.]

§ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that Theodosius should thus distinguish a man, who even in his presence would swear by Jupiter. Vet this presence seems no more than a figure of rhetoric.