convicts, and knelt before them, and adored them. Infidel slaves, torn by the whip and furrowed with marks of their crimes, they call martyrs, deacons, and leaders in prayer! Such are the new gods of this earth! Whoever wears a black robe has despotic power. Philosophy, and piety to the gods, are compelled to retire into secret places, to dwell in contented poverty and dignified meanness of appearance.".

The work of destruction went on far and wide. Theophilus soon after marched at the head of his party, and demolished the temple and statue of Canopus, god of humidity. Martin, Bishop of Tours, undertook the task of extirpating idolatry in Gaul. He marched all over the country with a band of monks, destroying altars and temples, and building churches in their place. He asserts positively that during these predatory excursions, Jupiter, or Mercury, or Minerva, often appeared to him, and did their utmost to turn him from his work. Marcellus of Apamea pursued the same course in Syria. A massive temple of Jupiter, standing on a lofty eminence, long resisted their attacks, but it was finally undermined and overthrown. A band of rustics, who were watching the progress of the work, waylaid Marcellus, when he was at a distance from his companions, and burned him alive. He was placed among the martyrs, and the synod of his province refrained from taking any means to punish a death, which they deemed so happy for himself, and so glorious for his family. In almost every province of the Roman world, a large por tion of the temples were destroyed. Where monks were not numerous, some were left to the slow decay of time. Others, whose construction could be easily altered for the purpose, were converted into churches. The Temple of the Celestial Venus at Carthage, whose beautiful groves formed a circumference of two miles; a temple at Damascus; and another at Heliopolis, were enclosed and consecrated to the use of the Christians.

Some of the more prudent bishops tried to check the insatiable zeal of their people for destroying altars and

VOL. III.-8*

images, which were left on estates to protect the fields; an idea cherished by many of the landholders, as well as the labourers. Augustine says: "Many have those abominations upon their estates. Shall we go about to destroy them? No. Let us make it our first business to extirpate the idols in their hearts. Then, they will either invite us to so good a work, or they will anticipate us in it. At present, we must pray for them, not exasperate them."

Petitions came from all quarters, begging that places of worship might be spared. Libanius, the orator, who remained faithful to the old religion, pleaded for the preservation of the temples, in an oration addressed to the emperor. He entreated that they might be saved from destruction, if not for religious purposes, at least as beautiful ornaments to the cities, and sources of revenue, if applied to other purposes. More sadly and earnestly pleaded the eloquent Symmachus, an upright and fearless magistrate, who was fully persuaded that the welfare of his country depended on the worship of the ancient deities. In a petition which he wrote to be offered by the senate, alluding to a severe famine the preceding year, as proof that the gods were offended, he asks: "Were our fathers ever compelled to suffer anything like this, when the ministers of religion had a public maintenance?" He represents Rome herself as expostulating thus: "Most excellent princes, fathers of your country, respect my years, and still permit me to practise the worship of my ancestors in which I have grown old. This religion subdued the world to my dominion. Grant me but the privilege of living according to my ancient usage. I ask only for peace to the gods of Rome; the tutelary deities of your country. Heaven is above all. We cannot all follow the same path. There are many ways to arrive at the great secret. We presume not to contend. We are humble supplicants."

Ambrose, the able Bishop of Milan, resisted the slightest approach to a compromise. In his answer to Symmachus, he says: "The emperor, who should be guilty of such concessions, would soon learn that the bishops would neither

connive at, nor endure his sin. If he entered a church, he would find no priest, or one who would defy his authority. The church would indignantly reject the gifts of him who shared them with Gentile temples. The altar disdains the offerings of him who has made oblations to images. It is written, 'Man cannot serve two masters.'"

Rome remained the last stronghold of the old worship. The city contained three hundred temples, and innumerable altars and statues, which stood long after all was falling in other parts of the empire. The magnificence of the edifices, the pomp of festivals, were there, more than elsewhere, connected with all great and interesting epochs of their history. Romans clung to these reminiscences of past glory, with the tenacious grasp of men in a death-struggle. The emperors had not yet ventured to proclaim such severe edicts there. The laws passed by Theodosius in the East were not in force in Rome. The temples were still open, and a portion of the public revenue was appropriated to worship.

A favourable moment was seized for insurrection, and Eugenius, a votary of the gods, was placed on the throne. The temples were re-opened throughout Italy, the smoke of sacrifices ascended, the altar of Victory was restored to its place, and pictures of the gods again floated on the banners. Ambrose fled from Milan, for the victorious soldiers threatened to stable horses in the churches, and compel the clergy to serve in the army.

The tidings of this rebellion made Theodosius pass still more stringent laws in the East. All divination or magic was punishable with death, whatever might be its object. Whoever offered any sacrifice, or connived at its being of fered, even in a private house, was fined twenty-five pounds of gold; nearly five thousand dollars of our money. Any house in which incense was burned was confiscated to the imperial treasury. Whoever made an altar of turf on his own grounds, or hung a garland on a tree, forfeited his estate thereby. Theodosius marched against Eugenius, who was slain. Rome gave up the struggle in despair.

Many of the noble families went over to the religion of the conqueror. The senate debated the claims of Jupiter and Christ. The Christian poet, Prudentius, says Jupiter was out-voted by a large majority. But Zozimus, the Greek, who belonged to the other party, has recorded, in his History of the Roman Empire, that the senate adhered firmly, though respectfully, to their ancient deities. The household gods were not interfered with; the temples remained standing, and no one was forbidden to worship within them, provided they did it without sacrificing. The civil rights of the conservatives were respected. The schools, the army, and the senate, were filled with believers in the old gods. Platonists freely wrote sarcastic strictures on the proceedings of Christians. There was a personal friendship between Theodosius and Libanius the orator, and he was never required to conceal his opinions. Thus far, the emperor made politic concessions to a party still powerful in that part of his empire; but he refused to allow any funds from the public revenue for support of the ancient worship. The order of Vestal Virgins was abolished, the sacred fire extinguished, and oracles hushed by imperial command. Priests and priestesses, deprived of their maintenance, were scattered. Some priesthoods were still handed down in regular descent, and some rites and festivals continued to be observed, either without sacrifice or with sacrifice by stealth. Many conformed outwardly to the paramount religion, who were not inwardly convinced. External signs of the old worship disappeared from cities. But in country places, the rustic population long continued to assemble in the shadow of groves, and keep their old festivals, with sacrifices of sheep and oxen, under the appearance of a mere social banquet. They even contrived to sing hymns in honour of the gods, in such a manner as to evade the laws. Landholders connived at such practices, influenced by the old belief that the fertility of the fields depended on them. A poet who wrote after the time of Theodosius describes the Cross as the emblem of a god worshipped only in cities. In consequence of this long lingering of the old

faith in rural districts, it came to be called the Pagan religion; from the Latin word Paganus, signifying a villager, or peasant.

But there were also men of education, who retained a strong predilection for the old ideas, which they had spiritualized by an infusion of Platonism. The simple phraseology of Scripture was not acceptable to these men, who had formed a taste for highly rhetorical embellishments; and they judged religion not so much by a standard of faith, as by respectable morality. When imperial edicts manufactured Christians by thousands, there were of course great numbers whose lives did little credit to the religion they professed. When attempts were made to convert Platonists, they often replied: "Why would you persuade me to embrace this new religion? I have been cheated by Christians, but I never defrauded any man. A Christian has broken his oath to me, but I never violated my simple word to any man."

All the Christian sects, that differed from the emperor in opinion, were more severely proscribed than the polytheistic worshippers had been. Constantine had summoned a Council at Nice, to settle the equal dignity of the Son and the Father. Theodosius summoned one hundred and fifty bishops to assemble at Constantinople, to settle the equal dignity of the Son and the Holy Ghost. This was followed by severe edicts against all who did not subscribe to the decision of that council. Their religious meetings were forbidden, in public or private, city or country, and every building or ground used for such purpose was forfeited to the imperial treasury. Very early in his reign, he published the following edict: "It is our pleasure that all the nations governed by our clemency and moderation should stedfastly adhere to the religion which was taught by Saint Peter to the Romans, faithfully preserved by tradition, and now professed by the Pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the discipline of the Apostles, and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe the sole Deity of the Father, the Son,