Chapter III: The Conversion of Rome (8)

589 Spartian. _Hadrianus._ Hadrian exiled a Roman lady for five years
for treating her slaves with atrocious cruelty. (_Digest._ lib. i.
tit. 6, § 2.)

590 See these laws fully examined by Wallon, tome iii. pp. 51-92, and
also Laferrière, _Sur l’Influence du Stoïcisme sur le Droit_. The
jurisconsults gave a very wide scope to their definitions of
cruelty. A master who degraded a literary slave, or a slave
musician, to some coarse manual employment, such as a porter, was
decided to have ill-treated him. (Wallon, tome iii. p. 62.)

591 Thus, e.g., Livia called in the Stoic Areus to console her after the
death of Drusus (Senec. _Ad Marc._). Many of the letters of Seneca
and Plutarch are written to console the suffering. Cato, Thrasea,
and many others appear to have fortified their last hours by
conversation with philosophers. The whole of this aspect of Stoicism
has been admirably treated by M. Martha (_Les Moralistes de l’Empire
Romain_).

592 We have a pleasing picture of the affection philosophers and their
disciples sometimes bore to one another in the lines of Persius
(_Sat._ v.) to his master Cornutus.

593 Grant’s _Aristotle_, vol. i. pp. 277-278.

594 Champagny, _Les Antonins_, tome i. p. 405.

595 Arrian, iii. 22. Julian has also painted the character of the true
Cynic, and contrasted it with that of the impostors who assumed the
garb. See Neander’s _Life of Julian_ (London, 1850), p. 94.

596 Seneca the rhetorician (father of the philosopher) collected many of
the sayings of the rhetoricians of his time. At a later period,
Philostratus wrote the lives of eminent rhetoricians, Quintilian
discussed their rules of oratory, and Aulus Gellius painted the
whole society in which they moved. On their injurious influence upon
eloquence, see Petronius, _Satyricon_, i. 2. Much curious
information about the rhetoricians is collected in Martha,
_Moralistes de l’Empire Romain_, and in Nisard, _Etudes sur les
Poëtes Latins de la Dècadence_, art. Juvenal.

597 “Cependant ces orateurs n’étaient jamais plus admirés que lorsqu’ils
avaient le bonheur de trouver un sujet où la louange fut un tour de
force.... Lucien a fait l’éloge de la mouche; Fronton de la
poussière, de la fumée, de la négligence; Dion Chrysostome de la
chevelure, du perroquet, etc. Au cinquième siècle, Synésius, qui fut
un grand évêque, fera le panégyrique de la calvitie, long ouvrage où
toutes les sciences sont mises à contribution pour apprendre aux
hommes ce qu’il y a non-seulement de bonheur mais aussi de mérite à
être chauve.”—Martha, _Moralistes de l’Empire Romain_ (ed. 1865), p.
275.

598 There is a good review of the teaching of Maximus in Champagny, _Les
Antonins_, tome ii. pp. 207-215.

_ 599 Orat._ xv.; _De Servitute_.

600 See the singularly charming essay on Dion Chrysostom, in M. Martha’s
book.

601 Mr. Buckle, in his admirable chapter on the “Proximate Causes of the
French Revolution” (_Hist. of Civilisation_, vol. i.), has painted
this fashionable enthusiasm for knowledge with great power, and
illustrated it with ample learning.

602 The saying of Mme. Dudeffand about Helvétius is well known: “C’est
un homme qui a dit le secret de tout le monde.” How truly Helvétius
represented this fashionable society appears very plainly from the
vivid portrait of it in the _Nouvelle Hèloïse_, part ii. letter
xvii., a masterpiece of its kind.

603 Musonius tried to stop this custom of applauding the lecturer. (Aul.
Gell. _Noct._ v. i.) The habits that were formed in the schools of
the rhetoricians were sometimes carried into the churches, and we
have notices of preachers (especially St. Chrysostom) being
vociferously applauded.

604 Thus Gellius himself consulted Favorinus about a perplexing case
which he had, in his capacity of magistrate, to determine, and
received from his master a long dissertation on the duties of a
judge (xiv. 2).

605 i. 10.

_ 606 Noct. Att._ vi. 13. They called these questions _symposiacæ_, as
being well fitted to stimulate minds already mellowed by wine.

607 xviii. 2.

608 We have a curious example of this in a letter of Marcus Aurelius
preserved by Gallicanus in his _Life of Avidius Cassius_.

609 “Senserunt hoc Stoici qui servis et mulieribus philosophandum esse
dixerunt.”—Lact. _Nat. Div._ iii. 25. Zeno was often reproached for
gathering the poorest and most sordid around him when he lectured.
(Diog. Laërt. _Zeno_.)

610 This decadence was noticed and rebuked by some of the leading
philosophers. See the language of Epictetus in Arrian, ii. 19, iv.
8, and of Herod Atticus in Aul. Gell. i. 2, ix. 2. St. Augustine
speaks of the Cynics as having in his time sunk into universal
contempt. See much evidence on this subject in Friedlænder, _Hist.
des Mœurs Romaines_, tome iv. 378-385.

611 This movement is well treated by Vacherot, _Hist. de l’École
d’Alexandrie_.

_ 612 De Superstitione._

_ 613 Dissertations_, x. § 8 (ed. Davis, London, 1740). In some editions
this is _Diss._ xxix.

_ 614 Dissert._ xxxviii.

_ 615 De Dæmone Socratis._

_ 616 De Dæmone Socratis._ See, on the office of dæmons or genii, Arrian
i. 14, and a curious chapter in Ammianus Marcell. xxi. 14. See, too,
Plotinus, 3rd _Enn._ lib. iv.

_ 617 De Dæmone Socratis._

618 I should except Plotinus, however, who was faithful in this point to
Plato, and was in consequence much praised by the Christian Fathers.

619 “Omnium malorum maximum voluptas, qua tanquam clavo et fibula anima
corpori nectitur; putatque vera quæ et corpus suadet, et ita
spoliatur rerum divinarum aspectu.”—Iamblichus, _De Secta Pythagor._
(Romæ, 1556), p. 38. Plotinus, 1st _Enn._ vi. 6.

_ 620 De Sect. Pyth._ pp. 36, 37.

621 Porphyry, _Life of Plotinus_.

622 Iamblichus, _De Mysteriis._ 1.

623 See, on this doctrine of ecstasy, Vacherot, _Hist. de l’École
d’Alexandrie_, tome i. p. 576, &c.

624 “Sic habeto, omnibus qui patriam conservaverint, adjuverint,
auxerint, certum esse in cœlo ac definitum locum ubi beati ævo
sempiterno fruantur.”—Cic. _Somn. Scip._

625 Φῶς, which, according to Plutarch (who here confuses two distinct
words), is poetically used for man (_De Latenter Vivendo_). A
similar thought occurs in M. Aurelius, who speaks of the good man as
light which only ceases to shine when it ceases to be.

_ 626 Diss._ xxi. § 6.

627 Iamblichus, _De Sect. Pythagoræ_, p. 35.

628 Porphyry, _Life of Plotinus_, cap. vii.; Plotinus, 1st _Enn._ iv. 7.
See on this subject Degerando, _Hist. de la Philos._ iii. p. 383.

629 Thus it was said of Apollonius that in his teaching at Ephesus he
did not speak after the manner of the followers of Socrates, but
endeavoured to detach his disciples from all occupation other than
philosophy.—_Philostr. Apoll. of Tyana_, iv. 2. Cicero notices the
aversion the Pythagoreans of his time displayed to argument: “Quum
ex iis quæreretur quare ita esset, respondere solitos, Ipse dixit;
ipse autem erat Pythagoras.”—_De Nat. Deor._ i. 5.

630 See Vacherot, tome ii. p. 66.

631 See Degerando, _Hist. de la Philosophie_, tome iii. pp. 400, 401.

632 Plotinus, 1st _Enn._ ix.

633 See a strong passage, on the universality of this belief, in
Plotinus, 1st _Enn._ i. 12, and Origen, _Cont. Cels._ vii. A very
old tradition represented the Egyptians as the first people who held
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Cicero (_Tusc. Quæst._)
says that the Syrian Pherecydes, master of Pythagoras, first taught
it. Maximus of Tyre attributes its origin to Pythagoras, and his
slave Zamolxis was said to have introduced it into Greece. Others
say that Thales first taught it. None of these assertions have any
real historical value.

634 We have a remarkable instance of the clearness with which some even
of the most insignificant historians recognised the folly of
confining history to the biographies of the Emperors, in the opening
chapter of Capitolinus, _Life of Macrinus_.—Tacitus is full of
beautiful episodes, describing the manners and religion of the
people.

635 The passages relating to the Jews in Roman literature are collected
in Aubertin’s _Rapports supposés entre Sénèque et St. Paul_.
Champagny, _Rome et Judée_, tome i. pp. 134-137.

636 Cicero, _pro Flacco_, 28; Sueton. _Claudius_, 25.

637 Juvenal, _Sat._ xiv.

_ 638 Hist._ v.

639 Lact. _Inst. Div._ vii. 3.

640 See their history fully investigated in Aubertin. Augustine followed
Jerome in mentioning the letters, but neither of these writers
asserted their genuineness. Lactantius, nearly at the same time
(_Inst. Div._ vi. 24), distinctly spoke of Seneca as a Pagan, as
Tertullian (_Apol._ 50) had done before. The immense number of
forged documents is one of the most disgraceful features of the
Church history of the first few centuries.

641 Fleury has written an elaborate work maintaining the connection
between the apostle and the philosopher. Troplong (_Influence du
Christianisme sur le Droit_) has adopted the same view. Aubertin, in
the work I have already cited, has maintained the opposite view
(which is that of all or nearly all English critics) with masterly
skill and learning. The Abbé Dourif (_Rapports du Stoïcisme et du
Christianisme_) has placed side by side the passages from each
writer which are most alike.

642 Quoted by St. Augustine.—_De Civ. Dei_, vi. 11.

643 xi. 3.

644 The history of the two schools has been elaborately traced by
Ritter, Pressensé, and many other writers. I would especially refer
to the fourth volume of Degerando’s most fascinating _Histoire de la
Philosophie_.

645 “Scurra Atticus,” Min. Felix, _Octav._ This term is said by Cicero
to have been given to Socrates by Zeno. (Cic. _De Nat. Deor._ i.
34.)

646 Tertull. _De Anima_, 39.

647 See especially his _Apol._ ii. 8, 12, 13. He speaks of the
σπερματικὸς λόγος.

648 See, on all this, Clem. Alex. _Strom._ v., and also i. 22.

649 St. Clement repeats this twice (_Strom._ i. 24, v. 14). The writings
of this Father are full of curious, and sometimes ingenious,
attempts to trace different phrases of the great philosophers,
orators, and poets to Moses. A vast amount of learning and ingenuity
has been expended in the same cause by Eusebius. (_Præp. Evan._ xii.
xiii.) The tradition of the derivation of Pagan philosophy from the
Old Testament found in general little favour among the Latin
writers. There is some curious information on this subject in
Waterland’s “Charge to the Clergy of Middlesex, to prove that the
wisdom of the ancients was borrowed from revelation; delivered in
1731.” It is in the 8th volume of Waterland’s works (ed. 1731).

650 St. Clement (_Strom._ i.) mentions that some think him to have been
Ezekiel, an opinion which St. Clement himself does not hold. See, on
the patristic notions about Pythagoras, Legendre, _Traité de
l’Opinion_, tome i. p. 164.

651 This was the opinion of Julius Firmicus Maternus, a Latin writer of
the age of Constantine, “Nam quia Saræ pronepos fuerat ... Serapis
dictus est Græco sermone, hoc est Σαρᾶς ἄπο.”—Julius Firmicus
Maternus, _De Errore Profanarum Religionum_, cap. xiv.

652 Justin Martyr, _Apol._ i. 54; Trypho, 69-70. There is a very curious
collection of Pagan legends that were parallel to Jewish incidents,
in La Mothe le Vayer, let. xciii.

653 Suet. _Vesp._ 7; Tacit. _Hist._ iv. 81. There is a slight difference
between the two historians about the second miracle. Suetonius says
it was the leg, Tacitus that it was the hand, that was diseased. The
god Serapis was said to have revealed to the patients that they
would be cured by the emperor. Tacitus says that Vespasian did not
believe in his own power; that it was only after much persuasion he
was induced to try the experiment; that the blind man was well known
in Alexandria, where the event occurred, and that eyewitnesses who
had no motive to lie still attested the miracle.

654 The following is a good specimen of the language which may still be
uttered, apparently without exciting any protest, from the pulpit in
one of the great centres of English learning: “But we have prayed,
and not been heard, at least in this present visitation. Have we
deserved to be heard? In former visitations it was observed commonly
how the cholera lessened from the day of the public humiliation.
When we dreaded famine from long-continued drought, on the morning
of our prayers the heaven over our head was of brass; the clear
burning sky showed no token of change. Men looked with awe at its
unmitigated clearness. In the evening was the cloud like a man’s
hand; the relief was come.” (And then the author adds, in a note):
“This describes what I myself saw on the Sunday morning in Oxford,
on returning from the early communion at St. Mary’s at eight. There
was no visible change till the evening.”—Pusey’s _Miracles of
Prayer_, preached at Oxford, 1866.

655 E.g.: “A master of philosophy, travelling with others on the way,
when a fearful thunderstorm arose, checked the fear of his fellows,
and discoursed to them of the natural reasons of that uproar in the
clouds, and those sudden flashes wherewith they seemed (out of the
ignorance of causes) to be too much affrighted: in the midst of his
philosophical discourse he was struck dead with the dreadful
eruption which he slighted. What could this be but the finger of
that God who will have his works rather entertained with wonder and
trembling than with curious scanning?”—Bishop Hall, _The Invisible
World_, § vi.

656 Sir C. Lewis _On the Credibility of Roman Hist._ vol. i. p. 50.

657 Cic. _De Divin._ lib. i. c. 1.

658 “The days on which the miracle [of the king’s touch] was to be
wrought were fixed at sittings of the Privy Council, and were
solemnly notified by the clergy to all the parish churches of the
realm. When the appointed time came, several divines in full
canonicals stood round the canopy of state. The surgeon of the royal
household introduced the sick. A passage of Mark xvi. was read. When
the words ‘They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall
recover,’ had been pronounced, there was a pause and one of the sick
was brought to the king. His Majesty stroked the ulcers.... Then
came the Epistle, &c. The Service may still be found in the Prayer
Books of the reign of Anne. Indeed, it was not until some time after
the accession of George I. that the University of Oxford ceased to
reprint the office of healing, together with the Liturgy.
Theologians of eminent learning, ability, and virtue gave the
sanction of their authority to this mummery, and, what is stranger
still, medical men of high note believed, or affected to believe,
it.... Charles II., in the course of his reign, touched near 100,000
persons.... In 1682 he performed the rite 8,500 times. In 1684 the
throng was such that six or seven of the sick were trampled to
death. James, in one of his progresses, touched 800 persons in the
choir of the cathedral of Chester.”—Macaulay’s _History of England_,
c. xiv.

659 One of the surgeons of Charles II. named John Brown, whose official
duty it was to superintend the ceremony, and who assures us that he
has witnessed many thousands touched, has written an extremely
curious account of it, called _Charisma Basilicon_ (London, 1684).
This miraculous power existed exclusively in the English and French
royal families, being derived, in the first, from Edward the
Confessor, in the second, from St. Lewis. A surgeon attested the
reality of the disease before the miracle was performed. The king
hung a riband with a gold coin round the neck of the person touched;
but Brown thinks the gold, though possessing great virtue, was not
essential to the cure. He had known cases where the cured person had
sold, or ceased to wear, the medal, and his disease returned. The
gift was unimpaired by the Reformation, and an obdurate Catholic was
converted on finding that Elizabeth, after the Pope’s
excommunication, could cure his scrofula. Francis I. cured many
persons when prisoner in Spain. Charles I., when a prisoner, cured a
man by his simple benediction, the Puritans not permitting him to
touch him. His blood had the same efficacy; and Charles II., when an
exile in the Netherlands, still retained it. There were, however,
some “Atheists, Sadducees, and ill-conditioned Pharisees” who even
then disbelieved it; and Brown gives the letter of one who went, a
complete sceptic, to satisfy his friends, and came away cured and
converted. It was popularly, but Brown says erroneously, believed
that the touch was peculiarly efficacious on Good Friday. An
official register was kept, for every month in the reign of Charles
II., of the persons touched, but two years and a half appear to be
wanting. The smallest number touched in one year was 2,983 (in
1669); the total, in the whole reign, 92,107. Brown gives numbers of
specific cases with great detail. Shakspeare has noticed the power
(_Macbeth_, Act iv. Scene 3). Dr. Johnson, when a boy, was touched
by Queen Anne; but at that time few persons, except Jacobites,
believed the miracle.

660 Lucretius, lib. vi. The poet says there are certain seeds of fire in
the earth, around the water, which the sun attracts to itself, but
which the cold of the night represses, and forces back upon the
water.

The fountain of Jupiter Ammon, and many others that were deemed
miraculous, are noticed by Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ ii. 106.

“Fly not yet; the fount that played
In times of old through Ammon’s shade,
Though icy cold by day it ran,
Yet still, like souls of mirth, began
To burn when night was near.”—Moore’s _Melodies_.

661 Tacit. _Annal._ i. 28. Long afterwards, the people of Turin were
accustomed to greet every eclipse with loud cries, and St. Maximus
of Turin energetically combated their superstition. (Ceillier,
_Hist. des Auteurs sacrés_, tome xiv. p. 607.)

662 Suet. _Aug._ xci.

663 See the answer of the younger Pliny (_Ep._ i. 18), suggesting that
dreams should often be interpreted by contraries. A great many
instances of dreams that were believed to have been verified are
given in Cic. (_De Divinatione_, lib. i.) and Valerius Maximus (lib.
i. c. vii.). Marcus Aurelius (Capitolinus) was said to have appeared
to many persons after his death in dreams, and predicted the future.

664 The augurs had noted eleven kinds of lightning with different
significations. (Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ ii. 53.) Pliny says all nations
agree in clapping their hands when it lightens (xxviii. 5). Cicero
very shrewdly remarked that the Roman considered lightning a good
omen when it shone upon his left, while the Greeks and barbarians
believed it to be auspicious when it was upon the right. (Cic. _De
Divinat._ ii. 39.) When Constantine prohibited all other forms of
magic, he especially authorised that which was intended to avert
hail and lightning. (_Cod. Theod._ lib. ix. tit. xvi. 1. 3.)

665 Suet. _Aug._ xc.

666 Ibid. _Tiber._ lxix. The virtue of laurel leaves, and of the skin of
a sea-calf, as preservatives against lightning, are noticed by Pliny
(_Hist. Nat._ ii. 56), who also says (xv. 40) that the laurel leaf
is believed to have a natural antipathy to fire, which it shows by
its angry crackling when in contact with that element.

667 Suet. _Calig._ ii.

668 Suet. _Jul. Cæs._ lxxxviii.

669 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ ii. 23.

670 “Prodigia eo anno multa nuntiata sunt, quæ quo magis credebant
simplices ac religiosi homines eo plura nuntiabantur” (xxiv. 10).
Compare with this the remark of Cicero on the oracles: “Quando autem
illa vis evanuit? An postquam homines minus creduli esse cœperunt?”
(_De Div._ ii. 57.)

671 This theory, which is developed at length by the Stoic, in the first
book of the _De Divinatione_ of Cicero, grew out of the pantheistic
notion that the human soul is a part of the Deity, and therefore by
nature a participator in the Divine attribute of prescience. The
soul, however, was crushed by the weight of the body; and there were
two ways of evoking its prescience—the ascetic way, which attenuates
the body, and the magical way, which stimulates the soul. Apollonius
declared that his power of prophecy was not due to magic, but solely
to his abstinence from animal food. (Philost. _Ap. of Tyana_, viii.
5.) Among those who believed the oracles, there were two theories.
The first was that they were inspired by dæmons or spirits of a
degree lower than the gods. The second was, that they were due to
the action of certain vapours which emanated from the caverns
beneath the temples, and which, by throwing the priestess into a
state of delirium, evoked her prophetic powers. The first theory was
that of the Platonists, and it was adopted by the Christians, who,
however, changed the signification of the word dæmon. The second
theory, which appears to be due to Aristotle (Baltus, _Réponse à
l’Histoire des Oracles_, p. 132), is noticed by Cic. _De Div._ i.
19; Plin. _H. N._ ii. 95; and others. It is closely allied to the
modern belief in clairvoyance. Plutarch, in his treatise on the
decline of the oracles, attributes that decline sometimes to the
death of the dæmons (who were believed to be mortal), and sometimes
to the exhaustion of the vapours. The oracles themselves, according
to Porphyry (Fontenelle, _Hist. des Oracles_, pp. 220-222, first
ed.), attributed it to the second cause. Iamblichus (_De Myst._ §
iii. c. xi.) combines both theories, and both are very clearly
stated in the following curious passage: “Quamquam Platoni credam
inter deos atque homines, natura et loco medias quasdam divorum
potestates intersitas, easque divinationes cunctas et magorum
miracula gubernare. Quin et illud mecum reputo, posse animum
humanum, præsertim, puerilem et simplicem, seu carminum avocamento,
sive odorum delenimento, soporari, et ad oblivionem præsentium
externari: et paulis per remota corporis memoria, redigi ac redire
ad naturam suam, quæ est immortalis scilicet et divina; atque ita
veluti quodam sopore, futura rerum præsagire.”—Apuleius, _Apolog._

672 Aul. Gell. _Noct._ ii. 28. Florus, however (_Hist._ i. 19), mentions
a Roman general appeasing the goddess Earth on the occasion of an
earthquake that occurred during a battle.

673 Ælian, _Hist. Var._ iv. 17.

_ 674 Hist. Nat._ ii. 81-86.

675 Ibid. ii. 9.

676 Ibid. ii. 23.

677 I have referred in the last chapter to a striking passage of Am.
Marcellinus on this combination. The reader may find some curious
instances of the superstitions of Roman sceptics in Champagny, _Les
Antonins_, tome iii. p. 46.

678 viii. 19. This is also mentioned by Lucretius.

679 viii. 1.

680 viii. 50. This was one of the reasons why the early Christians
sometimes adopted the stag as a symbol of Christ.

681 xxix. 23.

682 xxxii. 1.

683 vii. 2.

684 xxviii. 7. The blind man restored to sight by Vespasian was cured by
anointing his eyes with spittle. (Suet. _Vesp._ 7; Tacit. _Hist._
iv. 81.)

685 Ibid. The custom of spitting in the hand before striking still
exists among pugilists.

686 ii. 101.

687 Legendre, _Traité de l’Opinion_, tome ii. p. 17. The superstition
is, however, said still to linger in many sea-coast towns.

688 Lucian is believed to have died about two years before Marcus
Aurelius.

689 See his very curious Life by Philostratus. This Life was written at
the request of Julia Domna, the wife of Septimus Severus, whether or
not with the intention of opposing the Gospel narrative is a
question still fiercely discussed. Among the most recent Church
historians, Pressensé maintains the affirmative, and Neander the
negative. Apollonius was born at nearly the same time as Christ, but
outlived Domitian. The traces of his influence are widely spread
through the literature of the empire. Eunapius calls him “Ἀπολλώνιος
ὁ ἐκ Τυάνων, οὐκέτι φιλόσοφος ἀλλ᾽ ἦν τι θεῶν τε καὶ ἀνθρώπου
μέσον.”—_Lives of the Sophists._ Xiphilin relates (lxvii. 18) the
story, told also by Philostratus, how Apollonius, being at Ephesus,
saw the assassination of Domitian at Rome. Alexander Severus placed
(_Lampridius Severus_) the statue of Apollonius with those of
Orpheus, Abraham, and Christ, for worship in his oratory. Aurelian
was reported to have been diverted from his intention of destroying
Tyana by the ghost of the philosopher, who appeared in his tent,
rebuked him, and saved the city (Vopiscus, _Aurelian_); and, lastly,
the Pagan philosopher Hierocles wrote a book opposing Apollonius to
Christ, which was answered by Eusebius. The Fathers of the fourth
century always spoke of him as a great magician. Some curious
passages on the subject are collected by M. Chassang, in the
introduction to his French translation of the work of Philostratus.

690 See his defence against the charge of magic. Apuleius, who was at
once a brilliant rhetorician, the writer of an extremely curious
novel (_The Metamorphoses, or Golden Ass_), and of many other works,
and an indefatigable student of the religious mysteries of his time,
lived through the reigns of Hadrian and his two successors. After
his death his fame was for about a century apparently eclipsed; and
it has been noticed as very remarkable that Tertullian, who lived a
generation after Apuleius, and who, like him, was a Carthaginian,
has never even mentioned him. During the fourth century his
reputation revived, and Lactantius, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine
relate that many miracles were attributed to him, and that he was
placed by the Pagans on a level with Christ, and regarded by some as
even a greater magician. See the sketch of his life by M. Bétolaud
prefixed to the Panckoucke edition of his works.

_ 691 Life of Alexander._ There is an extremely curious picture of the
religious jugglers, who were wandering about the Empire, in the
eighth and ninth books of the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius. See, too,
Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 510-585.

692 Porphyry’s _Life of Plotinus_.

693 Eunapius, _Porph._

694 Ibid. _Iamb._ Iamblichus himself only laughed at the report.

695 Eunapius, _Iamb._

696 See her life in Eunapius, _Œdescus_. Ælian and the rhetorician
Aristides are also full of the wildest prodigies. There is an
interesting dissertation on this subject in Friedlænder (_Trad.
Franc._ tome iv. p. 177-186).

697 “Credat Judæus Apella.”—Hor. _Sat._ v. 100.

698 This appears from all the writings of the Fathers. There were,
however, two forms of Pagan miracles about which there was some
hesitation in the early Church—the beneficent miracle of healing and
the miracle of prophecy. Concerning the first, the common opinion
was that the dæmons only cured diseases they had themselves caused,
or that, at least, if they ever (in order to enthral men more
effectually) cured purely natural diseases, they did it by natural
means, which their superior knowledge and power placed at their
disposal. Concerning prophecy, it was the opinion of some of the
Fathers that intuitive prescience was a Divine prerogative, and that
the prescience of the dæmons was only acquired by observation. Their
immense knowledge enabled them to forecast events to a degree far
transcending human faculties, and they employed this power in the
oracles.

_ 699 De Origine ac Progressu Idolatriæ_ (Amsterdam).

700 This characteristic of early Christian apology is forcibly exhibited
by Pressensé, _Hist. des trois premiers Siècles_, 2me série, tome
ii.

701 The immense number of these forged writings is noticed by all candid
historians, and there is, I believe, only one instance of any
attempt being made to prevent this pious fraud. A priest was
degraded for having forged some voyages of St. Paul and St. Thecla.
(Tert. _De Baptismo_, 17.)

_ 702 Apol._ i.

_ 703 Strom._ vi. c. 5.

704 Origen, _Cont. Cols._ v.

_ 705 Oratio_ (apud Euseb.) xviii.

_ 706 De Civ. Dei_, xviii. 23.

707 Constantine, _Oratio_ xix. “His testimoniis quidam revicti solent eo
confugere ut aiant non esse illa carmina Sibyllina, sed a nostris
conficta atque composita.”—Lactant. _Div. Inst._ iv. 15.

708 Antonius Possevinus, _Apparatus Sacer_ (1606), verb. “Sibylla.”

709 This subject is fully treated by Middleton in his _Free Enquiry_,
whom I have closely followed.

710 Irenæus, _Contr. Hæres._ ii. 32.

711 Epiphan. _Adv. Hæres._ ii. 30.

712 St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, xxii. 8.

713 This history is related by St. Ambrose in a letter to his sister
Marcellina; by St. Paulinus of Nola, in his _Life of Ambrose_; and
by St. Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xxii. 8; _Confess._ ix. 7.

714 Plutarch thought they were known by Plato, but this opinion has been
much questioned. See a very learned discussion on the subject in
Farmer’s _Dissertation on Miracles_, pp. 129-140; and Fontenelle,
_Hist. des Oracles_, pp. 26, 27. Porphyry speaks much of evil
dæmons.

715 Josephus, _Antiq._ viii. 2, § 5.

716 This very curious subject is fully treated by Baltus (_Réponse à
l’Histoire des Oracles_, Strasburg, 1707, published anonymously in
reply to Van Dale and Fontenelle), who believed in the reality of
the Pagan as well as the patristic miracles; by Bingham
(_Antiquities of the Christian Church_, vol. i. pp. 316-324), who
thinks the Pagan and Jewish exorcists were impostors, but not the
Christians; and by Middleton (_Free Enquiry_, pp. 80-93), who
disbelieves in all the exorcists after the apostolic times. It has
also been the subject of a special controversy in England, carried
on by Dodwell, Church, Farmer, and others. Archdeacon Church says:
“If we cannot vindicate them [the Fathers of the first three
centuries] on this article, their credit must be lost for ever; and
we must be obliged to decline all further defence of them. It is
impossible for any words more strongly to express a claim to this
miracle than those used by all the best writers of the second and
third centuries.”—_Vindication of the Miracles of the First Three
Centuries_, p. 199. So, also, Baltus: “De tous les anciens auteurs
ecclésiastiques, n’y en ayant pas un qui n’ait parlé de ce pouvoir
admirable que les Chrétiens avoient de chasser les démons” (p. 296).
Gregory of Tours describes exorcism as sufficiently common in his
time, and mentions having himself seen a monk named Julian cure by
his words a possessed person. (_Hist._ iv. 32.)

_ 717 Vit. Hilar._ Origen notices that cattle were sometimes possessed by
devils. See Middleton’s _Free Enquiry_, pp. 88, 89.

718 The miracle of St. Babylas is the subject of a homily by St.
Chrysostom, and is related at length by Theodoret, Sozomen, and
Socrates. Libanius mentions that, by command of Julian, the bones of
St. Babylas were removed from the temple. The Christians said the
temple was destroyed by lightning; the Pagans declared it was burnt
by the Christians, and Julian ordered measures of reprisal to be
taken. Amm. Marcellinus, however, mentions a report that the fire
was caused accidentally by one of the numerous candles employed in
the ceremony. The people of Antioch defied the emperor by chanting,
as they removed the relics, “Confounded be all they that trust in
graven images.”

719 See the _Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus_, by Gregory of Nyssa. St.
Gregory the Great assures us (_Dial._ iii. 10) that Sabinus, Bishop
of Placentia, wrote a letter to the river Po, which had overflowed
its banks and flooded some church lands. When the letter was thrown
into the stream the waters at once subsided.

720 “Edatur hic aliquis sub tribunalibus vestris, quem dæmone agi
constet. Jussus a quolibet Christiano loqui spiritus ille, tam se
dæmonem confitebitur de vero, quam alibi deum de falso. Æque
producatur aliquis ex iis qui de deo pati existimantur, qui aris
inhalantes numen de nidore concipiunt ... nisi se dæmones confessi
fuerint, Christiano mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani
procacissimi sanguinem fundite. Quid isto opere manifestius? quid
hæc probatione fidelius?”—Tert. _Apol._ xxiii.

_ 721 Apol._ i.; _Trypho_.

_ 722 Cont. Cels._ vii.

_ 723 Inst. Div._ iv. 27.

_ 724 Life of Antony._

_ 725 Octavius._

_ 726 De Superstitione._

727 i. 6.

_ 728 De Mort. Peregrin._

729 Origen, _Adv. Cels._ vi. Compare the curious letter which Vopiscus
(Saturninus) attributes to Hadrian, “Nemo illic [i.e. in Egypt]
archisynagogus Judæorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum
presbyter, non mathematicus, non aruspex, non aliptes.”

730 “Si incantavit, si imprecatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo impostorum
utor) exorcizavit.”—Bingham, _Antiquities of the Christian Church_
(Oxf., 1855), vol. i. p. 318. This law is believed to have been
directed specially against the Christians, because these were very
prominent as exorcists, and because Lactantius (_Inst. Div._ v. 11)
says that Ulpian had collected the laws against them.

731 Philostorgius, _Hist. Eccl._ viii. 10.

732 See Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 314-335.

733 See Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 520-530.

_ 734 Metamorphoses_, book x.

735 See their _Lives_, by Lampridius and Spartianus.

736 The conflict between St. Cyprian and the confessors, concerning the
power of remitting penances claimed by the latter, though it ended
in the defeat of the confessors, shows clearly the influence they
had obtained.

737 “Thura plane non emimus; si Arabiæ queruntur scient Sabæi pluris et
carioris suas merces Christianis sepeliendis profligari quam diis
fumigandis.”—_Apol._ 42. Sometimes the Pagans burnt the bodies of
the martyrs, in order to prevent the Christians venerating their
relics.

738 Many interesting particulars about these commemrative festivals are
collected in Cave’s _Primitive Christianity_, part i. c. vii. The
anniversaries were called “Natalia,” or birth-days.

739 See her acts in Ruinart.

740 St. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ iv. 10. There are other passages of the
same kind in other Fathers.

_ 741 Ad Scapul._ v. Eusebius (_Martyrs of Palestine_, ch. iii.) has
given a detailed account of six young men, who in the very height of
the Galerian persecution, at a time when the most hideous tortures
were applied to the Christians, voluntarily gave themselves up as
believers. Sulp. Severus (_Hist._ ii. 32), speaking of the voluntary
martyrs under Diocletian, says that Christians then “longed for
death as they now long for bishoprics.” “Cogi qui potest, nescit
mori,” was the noble maxim of the Christians.

742 Arrian, iv. 7. It is not certain, however, that this passage alludes
to the Christians. The followers of Judas of Galilee were called
Galilæans, and they were famous for their indifference to death. See
Joseph. _Antiq._ xviii. 1.

743 xi. 3.

744 Peregrinus.

745 Zosimus.

746 “Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?—yea, I hate them with a
perfect hatred.”

747 See Renan’s _Apôtres_, p. 314.

748 M. Pressensé very truly says of the Romans, “Leur religion était
essentiellement un art—l’art de découvrir les desseins des dieux et
d’agir sur eux par des rites variés.”—_Hist. des Trois premiers
Siècles_, tome i. p. 192. Montesquieu has written an interesting
essay on the political nature of the Roman religion.

749 Sueton. _Claud._ xxv.

750 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ vii. 31.

751 Tacit. _De Orat._ xxxv.; Aul. Gell. _Noct._ xv. 11. It would appear,
from this last authority, that the rhetoricians were twice expelled.

752 Dion Cassius, lii. 36. Most historians believe that this speech
represents the opinions, not of the Augustan age, but of the age of
the writer who relates it.

753 On the hostility of Vespasian to philosophers, see Xiphilin, lxvi.
13; on that of Domitian, the _Letters_ of Pliny and the _Agricola_
of Tacitus.

754 See a remarkable passage in Dion Chrysostom, _Or._ lxxx. _De
Libertate_.

755 Cic. _De Legib._ ii. 11; Tertull. _Apol._ v.

756 Livy, iv. 30

757 Val. Maximus, i. 3, § 1.

758 Livy, xxv. 1.

759 Val. Max. i. 3, § 2.

760 See the account of these proceedings, and of the very remarkable
speech of Postumius, in Livy, xxxix. 8-19. Postumius notices the old
prohibition of foreign rites, and thus explains it:—“Judicabant enim
prudentissimi viri omnis divini humanique juris, nihil æque
dissolvendæ religionis esse, quam ubi non patrio sed externo ritu
sacrificaretur.” The Senate, though suppressing these rites on
account of the outrageous immoralities connected with them, decreed,
that if any one thought it a matter of religious duty to perform
religious ceremonies to Bacchus, he should be allowed to do so on
applying for permission to the Senate, provided there were not more
than five assistants, no common purse, and no presiding priest.

761 Val. Max. i. 3.

762 See Dion Cassius, xl. 47; xlii. 26; xlvii. 15; liv. 6.

763 Joseph. _Antiq._ xviii. 3.

764 Tacit. _Annal._ ii. 85.

765 Tacitus relates (_Ann._ xi. 15) that under Claudius a senatus
consultus ordered the pontiffs to take care that the old Roman (or,
more properly, Etruscan) system of divination was observed, since
the influx of foreign superstitions had led to its disuse; but it
does not appear that this measure was intended to interfere with any
other form of worship.

766 “Sacrosanctam istam civitatem accedo.”—Apuleius, _Metam._ lib. x. It
is said that there were at one time no less than 420 ædes sacræ in
Rome. Nieupoort, _De Ritibus Romanorum_ (1716), p. 276.

767 Euseb. _Præp. Evang._ iv. 1. Fontenelle says very truly, “Il y a
lieu de croire que chez les payens la religion n’estoit qu’une
pratique, dont la spéculation estoit indifférente. Faites comme les
autres et croyez ce qu’il vous plaira.”—_Hist. des Oracles_, p. 95.
It was a saying of Tiberius, that it is for the gods to care for the
injuries done to them: “Deorum injurias diis curæ.”—Tacit. _Annal._
i. 73.

768 The most melancholy modern instance I remember is a letter of Hume
to a young man who was thinking of taking orders, but who, in the
course of his studies, became a complete sceptic. Hume strongly
advised him not to allow this consideration to interfere with his
career (Burton, _Life of Hume_, vol. ii. pp. 187, 188.) The
utilitarian principles of the philosopher were doubtless at the root
of his judgment.

_ 769 De Divinat._ ii. 33; _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 3.

770 “Quæ omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam diis
grata.... Meminerimus cultum ejus magis ad morem quam ad rem
pertinere.”—St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, vi. 10. St. Augustine denounces
this view with great power. See, too, Lactantius. _Inst. Div._ ii.
3.

_ 771 Enchirid._ xxxi.

772 This is noticed by Philo.

773 The ship in which the atheist Diagoras sailed was once nearly
wrecked by a tempest, and the sailors declared that it was a just
retribution from the gods because they had received the philosopher
into their vessel. Diagoras, pointing to the other ships that were
tossed by the same storm, asked whether they imagined there was a
Diagoras in each. (_Cic. De Nat. Deor._ iii. 37.)

774 The vestal Oppia was put to death because the diviners attributed to
her unchastity certain “prodigies in the heavens,” that had alarmed
the people at the beginning of the war with Veii. (Livy, ii. 42.)
The vestal Urbinia was buried alive on account of a plague that had
fallen upon the Roman women, which was attributed to her
incontinence, and which is said to have ceased suddenly upon her
execution. (Dion. Halicar. ix.)

775 Pliny, in his famous letter to Trajan about the Christians, notices
that this had been the case in Bithynia.

776 Tert. _Apol._ xl. See, too, Cyprian, _contra Demetrian._, and
Arnobius, _Apol._ lib. i.

777 St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, ii. 3.

778 Instances of this kind are given by Tertullian _Ad Scapulam_, and
the whole treatise _On the Deaths of the Persecutors_, attributed to
Lactantius, is a development of the same theory. St. Cyprian’s
treatise against Demetrianus throws much light on the mode of
thought of the Christians of his time. In the later historians,
anecdotes of adversaries of the Church dying horrible deaths became
very numerous. They were said especially to have been eaten by
worms. Many examples of this kind are collected by Jortin. (_Remarks
on Eccles. Hist._ vol. i. p. 432.)

779 “It is remarkable, in all the proclamations and documents which
Eusebius assigns to Constantine, some even written by his own hand,
how, almost exclusively, he dwells on this worldly superiority of
the God adored by the Christians over those of the heathens, 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.”—Milman, _Hist. of Early
Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. ii. p. 327. “It was a standing
argument of Athanasius, that the death of Arius was a sufficient
refutation of his heresy.”—Ibid. p. 382.

780 Socrates, _Eccl. Hist._, vii. 30.

781 Greg. Tur. ii. 30, 31. Clovis wrote to St. Avitus, “Your faith is
our victory.”

782 Milman’s _Latin Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. ii. pp. 236-245.

783 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 248.

_ 784 Ep._ xl.

785 “An diutius perferimus mutari temporum vices, irata cœli temperie?
Quæ Paganorum exacerbata perfidia nescit naturæ libramenta servare.
Unde enim ver solitam gratiam abjuravit? unde æstas, messe jejuna,
laboriosum agricolam in spe destituit aristarum? unde hyemis
intemperata ferocitas uberitatem terrarum penetrabili frigore
sterilitatis læsione damnavit? nisi quod ad impietatis vindictam
transit lege sua naturæ decretum.”—Novell. lii. Theodos. _De Judæis,
Samaritanis, et Hæreticis_.

786 Milman’s _Latin Christianity_ vol. ii. p. 354.

_ 787 Démonomanie des Sorciers_, p. 152.

788 See a curious instance in Bayle’s _Dictionary_, art. “Vergerius.”

789 Pliny, Ep. x. 43. Trajan noticed that Nicomedia was peculiarly
turbulent. On the edict against the hetæriæ, or associations, see
_Ep._ x. 97.

790 All the apologists are full of these charges. The chief passages
have been collected in that very useful and learned work, Kortholt,
_De Calumniis contra Christianos_. (Cologne, 1683.)

791 Justin Martyr tells us it was the brave deaths of the Christians
that converted him. (_Apol._ ii. 12.)

792 Peregrinus.

_ 793 Ep._ x. 97.

_ 794 Ep._ ii.

795 Juvenal describes the popular estimate of the Jews:—

“Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses;
Non monstrare vias, eadem nisi sacra colenti,
Quæsitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos.”

_Sat._ xix. 102-105.

It is not true that the Mosaic law contains these precepts.

796 See Merivale’s _Hist. of Rome_, vol. viii. p. 176.

797 See Justin Martyr, _Trypho_, xvii.

798 Justin Martyr, _Apol._ i. 26.

799 Eusebius expressly notices that the licentiousness of the sect of
Carpocrates occasioned calumnies against the whole of the Christian
body. (iv. 7.) A number of passages from the Fathers describing the
immorality of these heretics are referred to by Cave, _Primitive
Christianity_, part ii. ch. v.

800 Epiphanius, _Adv. Hær._ lib. i. Hær. 26. The charge of murdering
children, and especially infants, occupies a very prominent place
among the recriminations of religionists. The Pagans, as we have
seen, brought it against the Christians, and the orthodox against
some of the early heretics. The Christians accused Julian of
murdering infants for magical purposes, and the bed of the Orontes
was said to have been choked with their bodies. The accusation was
then commonly directed against the Jews, against the witches, and
against the mid-wives, who were supposed to be in confederation with
the witches.

801 See an example in Eusebius, iii. 32. After the triumph of
Christianity the Arian heretics appear to have been accustomed to
bring accusations of immorality against the Catholics. They procured
the deposition of St. Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, by suborning a
prostitute to accuse him of being the father of her child. The woman
afterwards, on her death-bed, confessed the imposture. (Theodor.
_Hist._ i. 21-22.) They also accused St. Athanasius of murder and
unchastity, both of which charges he most triumphantly repelled.
(Ibid. i. 30.)

802 The great exertions and success of the Christians in making female
converts is indignantly noticed by Celsus (_Origen_) and by the
Pagan interlocutor in Minucius Felix (_Octavius_), and a more minute
examination of ecclesiastical history amply confirms their
statements. I shall have in a future chapter to revert to this
matter. Tertullian graphically describes the anger of a man he knew,
at the conversion of his wife, and declares he would rather have had
her “a prostitute than a Christian.” (_Ad Nationes_, i. 4.) He also
mentions a governor of Cappadocia, named Herminianus, whose motive
for persecuting the Christians was his anger at the conversion of
his wife, and who, in consequence of his having persecuted, was
devoured by worms. (_Ad Scapul._ 3.)

803 “Matronarum Auriscalpius.” The title was given to Pope St. Damasus.
See Jortin’s _Remarks on Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ii. p. 27.
Ammianus Marcellinus notices (xxvii. 3) the great wealth the Roman
bishops of his time had acquired through the gifts of women.
Theodoret (_Hist. Eccl._ ii. 17) gives a curious account of the
energetic proceedings of the Roman ladies upon the exile of Pope
Liberius.

_ 804 Conj. Præcept._ This passage has been thought to refer to the
Christians; if so, it is the single example of its kind in the
writings of Plutarch.

805 Pliny, in his letter on the Christians, notices that their
assemblies were before daybreak. Tertullian and Minucius Felix speak
frequently of the “nocturnes convocationes,” or “nocturnes
congregationes” of the Christians. The following passage, which the
last of these writers puts into the mouth of a Pagan, describes
forcibly the popular feeling about the Christians: “Qui de ultima
fæce collectis imperitioribus et mulieribus credulis sexus sui
facilitate labentibus, plebem profanæ conjurationis instituunt: quæ
nocturnis congregationibus et jejuniis solennibus et inhumanis cibis
non sacro quodam sed piaculo fœderantur, latebrosa et lucifugax
natio, in publico muta, in angulis garrula; templa ut busta
despiciunt, deos despuunt, rident sacra.”—_Octavius._ Tertullian, in
exhorting the Christian women not to intermarry with Pagans, gives
as one reason that they would not permit them to attend this
“nightly convocation.” (_Ad Uxorem_, ii. 4.) This whole chapter is a
graphic but deeply painful picture of the utter impossibility of a
Christian woman having any real community of feeling with a “servant
of the devil.”

_ 806 De Civ. Dei_, xix. 23.

807 The policy of the Romans with reference to magic has been minutely
traced by Maury, _Hist. de la Magie_. Dr. Jeremie conjectures that
the exorcisms of the Christians may have excited the antipathy of
Marcus Aurelius, he, as I have already noticed, being a disbeliever
on this subject. (Jeremie, _Hist. of Church in the Second and Third
Cent._ p. 26.) But this is mere conjecture.

808 See the picture of the sentiments of the Pagans on this matter, in
Plutarch’s noble _Treatise on Superstition_.

809 Thus Justin Martyr: “Since sensation remains in all men who have
been in existence, and everlasting punishment is in store, do not
hesitate to believe, and be convinced that what I say is true....
This Gehenna is a place where all will be punished who live
unrighteously, and who believe not that what God has taught through
Christ will come to pass.”—_Apol._ 1. 18-19. Arnobius has stated
very forcibly the favourite argument of many later theologians: “Cum
ergo hæc sit conditio futurorum ut teneri et comprehendi nullius
possint anticipationis attactu: nonne purior ratio est, ex duobus
incertis et in ambigua expectatione pendentibus, id potius credere
quod aliquas spes ferat, quam omnino quod nullas? In illo enim
periculi nihil est, si quod dicitur imminere cassum fiat et vacuum.
In hoc damnum est maximum.”—_Adv. Gentes_, lib. i

810 The continual enforcement of the duty of belief, and the credulity
of the Christians, were perpetually dwelt on by Celsus and Julian.
According to the first, it was usual for them to say, “Do not
examine, but believe only.” According to the latter, “the sum of
their wisdom was comprised in this single precept, believe.” The
apologists frequently notice this charge of credulity as brought
against the Christians, and some famous sentences of Tertullian go
far to justify it. See Middleton’s _Free Enquiry_, Introd. pp. xcii,
xciii.

811 See the graphic picture of the agony of terror manifested by the
apostates as they tottered to the altar at Alexandria, in the Decian
persecution, in Dionysius apud Eusebius, vi. 41. Miraculous
judgments (often, perhaps, the natural consequence of this extreme
fear) were said to have frequently fallen upon the apostates. St.
Cyprian has preserved a number of these in his treatise _De Lapsis_.
Persons, when excommunicated, were also said to have been sometimes
visibly possessed by devils. See Church, _On Miraculous Powers in
the First Three Centuries_, pp. 52-54.

812 “Si quis aliquid fecerit, quo leves hominum animi superstitione
numinis terrerentur, Divus Marcus hujusmodi homines in insulam
relegari rescripsit,” _Dig._ xlviii. tit. 19, l. 30.

813 A number of instances have been recorded, in which the punishment of
the Christians was due to their having broken idols, overturned
altars, or in other ways insulted the Pagans at their worship. The
reader may find many examples of this collected in Cave’s _Primitive
Christianity_, part i. c. v.; Kortholt, _De Calumniis contra
Christianos_; Barbeyrac, _Morale des Pères_, c. xvii.; Tillemont,
_Mém. ecclésiast._ tome vii. pp. 354-355; Ceillier, _Hist. des
Auteurs sacrés_, tome iii. pp. 531-533. The Council of Illiberis
found it necessary to make a canon refusing the title of “martyr” to
those who were executed for these offences.

814 The first of these anecdotes is told by St. Jerome, the second by
St. Clement of Alexandria, the third by St. Irenæus.

815 The severe discipline of the early Church on this point has been
amply treated in Marshall’s _Penitential Discipline of the Primitive
Church_ (first published in 1714, but reprinted in the library of
Anglo-Catholic theology), and in Bingham’s _Antiquities of the
Christian Church_, vol. vi. (Oxford, 1855). The later saints
continually dwelt upon this duty of separation. Thus, “St. Théodore
de Phermé disoit, que quand une personne dont nous étions amis
estoit tombée dans la fornication, nous devions luy donner la main
et faire notre possible pour le relever; mais que s’il estoit tombé
dans quelque erreur contre la foi, et qu’il ne voulust pas s’en
corriger après les premières remonstrances, il falloit l’abandonner
promptement et rompre toute amitié avec luy, de peur qu’en nous
amusant à le vouloir retirer de ce gouffre, il ne nous y entraînast
nous-mêmes.”—Tillemont, _Mém. Ecclés._ tome xii. p. 367.

816 “Habere jam non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.
Si potuit evadere quisquam qui extra arcam Noe fuit, et qui extra
ecclesiam foris fuerit evadit ... hanc unitatem qui non tenet ...
vitam non tenet et salutem ... esse martyr non potest qui in
ecclesia non est.... Cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in ecclesia
Dei unanimes noluerunt. Ardeant licet flammis et ignibus traditi,
vel objecti bestiis animas suas ponunt, non erit illa fidei corona,
sed pœna perfidiæ, nec religiosæ virtutis exitus gloriosus sed
desperationis interitus. Occidi talis potest, coronari non potest.
Sic se Christianum esse profitetur quo modo et Christum diabolus
sæpe mentitur.”—Cyprian, _De Unit. Eccles._

817 Eusebius, v. 16.

_ 818 Confess._ iii. 11. She was afterwards permitted by a special
revelation to sit at the same table with her son!

_ 819 Ep._ xl.

_ 820 Ep._ xviii.

821 Tertull. _De Corona_.

822 Milman’s _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. ii. pp. 116-125. It is
remarkable that the Serapeum of Alexandria was, in the Sibylline
books, specially menaced with destruction.

823 Eunapius, _Lives of the Sophists_. Eunapius gives an extremely
pathetic account of the downfall of this temple. There is a
Christian account in Theodoret (v. 22). Theophilus, Bishop of
Alexandria, was the leader of the monks. The Pagans, under the
guidance of a philosopher named Olympus, made a desperate effort to
defend their temple. The whole story is very finely told by Dean
Milman. (_Hist. of Christianity_, vol. iii. pp. 68-72.)

_ 824 Apology_, v. The overwhelming difficulties attending this assertion
are well stated by Gibbon, ch. xvi. Traces of this fable may be
found in Justin Martyr. The freedom of the Christian worship at Rome
appears not only from the unanimity with which Christian writers
date their troubles from Nero, but also from the express statement
in _Acts_ xxviii. 31.

825 “Judæos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes, Roma
expulit.”—Sueton. _Claud._ xxv. This banishment of the Jews is
mentioned in _Acts_ xviii. 2, but is not there connected in any way
with Christianity. A passage in Dion Cassius (lx. 6) is supposed to
refer to the same transaction. Lactantius notices that the Pagans
were accustomed to call Christus, _Chrestus_: “Eum immutata litera
Chrestum solent dicere.”—_Div. Inst._ iv. 7.

826 This persecution is fully described by Tacitus (_Annal._ xv. 44),
and briefly noticed by Suetonius (_Nero_, xvi.).