is notwithstanding certain that the greatest part of the prodigies of this age labour under suspicions. In proportion to the simplicity and credulity that generally prevailed, was the boldness of crafty men in contriving impositions 8: nor could the more discerning expose their cunning artifices with safety to their own lives and worldly comfort.9 It is commonly the case, that when great danger attends the avowal of the truth, then the prudent keep silence, the multitude believes without inquiry, and the architects of imposition triumph.

CHAPTER II.

THE CALAMITIES OF THE CHURCH.

§ 1. The evils suffered by the Christians in the Roman empire.-§ 2. Attempts of the pagans against them.-§ 3. Their persecutions.-§ 4. In Persia.-§ 5. Individual enemies of Christianity.

§ 1. IT has been already observed, that the Goths, the Heruli, the Franks, the Huns, the Vandals, and other fierce and warlike nations, who were for the most part pagans, had invaded and miserably rent asunder the Roman empire. During these commotions the Christians at first suffered extremely. These nations were, it is true, more anxious after plunder and dominion than for the propagation of the false religions of their ancestors, and therefore did not form any set purpose to exterminate Christianity; yet the worshippers of idols, who still existed every where scattered over the empire, neglected no means to inflame the barbarians with hatred against the Christians, hoping by their means to regain their former liberty. Their expectations were disappointed, for the greatest part of

the barbarians soon became Christians themselves; yet the followers of Christ had every where first to undergo great calamities.

§ 2. The friends of the old religion, in order to excite in the people the more hatred against the Christians, while the public calamities were daily increasing, renewed the obsolete complaint of their ancestors; That all things went on well before Christ | came; that since he had been every where embraced, the neglected and repudiated gods had let in evils of every kind' upon the world. This puny shaft was shivered by Augustine, in his Books on the City of God, a copious work, crowded with various erudition: at his suggestion, also, Orosius wrote his Books of history, to show that the same, nay, even greater, calamities and plagues had afflicted men, before the Christian religion was published to the world. In Gaul, the calamities of the times drove many to such madness that they wholly excluded God from the government of the world, and denied his providence over human affairs. These were vigorously assailed by Salvian, in his Books on the government of God.

§ 3. But the persecutions of the Christians deserve to be more particularly noticed. In Gaul and the neighbouring provinces, the Goths and Vandals, who at first trampled under foot all the rights both of God and man, are reported to have laid violent hands on innumerable Christians. In Britain, when the Roman power was overthrown, the British race was most miserably harassed by its ferocious neighbours, the Picts and Scots. Wherefore, after various calamities, in the year 445, 4+ Vortigern was chosen for its king; and he, finding himself unequal to drive his enemy away, in the year 449, called the Anglo-Saxons from Germany to his aid. But these, having landed troops in Britain, produced far greater evils to the inhabitants than they endured before; for the Saxons became intent upon subduing the old inhabitants, and reducing the whole country under their own power. Hence arose a most sanguinary warfare between the Britons and the Saxons, which continued with various fortune during 130 years, till the Britons were compelled to yield to the Anglo-Saxons, and take refuge in Batavia and Cambria. During these conflicts, the condition

1 [The modern Holland and Wales. Tr.-And in the furthest parts of the west of England, Cornwall, and contiguous districts of Devonshire. A

dialect of the ancient Cimbric, or Welch language, lingered in Cornwall, among a few old people, till the eighteenth century. Ed.]

of the British church was deplorable; for the Anglo-Saxons, who worshipped exclusively the gods of their ancestors, overthrew it almost entirely, and butchered with extreme cruelty a great multitude of Christians.2

§ 4. In Persia the Christians suffered grievously, in consequence of the rash zeal of Abdas, bishop of Suza, who demolished the Pyræum, or temple dedicated to fire. For, being commanded by the king, Isdegerdes, to rebuild it, he refused to comply; for which he was put to death, in the year 414, and the churches of the Christians were levelled to the ground. This conflict, however, seems to have been of short duration. Afterwards, Vuraranes, the son of Isdegerdes, in the year 421, attacked the Christians with greater cruelty, being urged to it partly by the instigation of the Magi, and partly by his hatred of the Romans, with whom he was engaged in war. For as often as the Persians and Romans waged war with each other, the Christians resident in Persia were exposed to the rage of their monarchs, because they were suspected, and perhaps not without reason, to be favourably disposed towards the Romans, and to betray their country to them.3 A vast number of Christians perished under various exquisite tortures during this persecution. But their tranquillity was restored when peace returned between Vararanes and the Romans, in the year 427.5 The Jews, also, who were opulent and in good credit in various parts of the East, harassed and oppressed the Christians every way that they could. No one of them gave more trouble,

2 See Bede and Gildas, among the ancients; and among the moderns, Ja. Ussher, Britannicar. Ecclesiar. Antiquitates, cap. xii. p. 415, &c., and Rapin de Thoyras, History of England, vol. i. b. ii. [The Saxons were not directly persecutors of the Christians, but only involved them in the common calamities of their slaughtered and oppressed countrymen. Tr.]

Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. 1. v. c. 39. [where is a full account of the conduct of Abdas, and of the sufferings of the Christians during the persecution. Tr.] Bayle, Dictionnaire Historique, article Abdas, vol. i. p. 10. Barbeyrac, de la Morale des Pères, p. 320. [An account of the manner in which Christianity obtained free toleration and an extensive spread in Persia at the commencement of this

century, through the influence of Maruthus, a bishop of Mesopotamia, who was twice an ambassador to the court of Persia, is given by Socrates, Hist. Eccles, 1. vii. c. 8. Tr.]

4 Jos. Sim. Asseman, Biblioth. Oriental. Vaticana, tom. i. p. 182, 248. [See also Theodoret as above. The most distinguished sufferers in this persecution were Abdas, the bishop of Suza; Hormisdas, a Persian nobleman, and son of a provincial governor; Benjamin, a deacon; James, who apostatized, but repented; and Sevenes, who possessed a thousand slaves. Tr.]

5 Socrates, Hist. Eccles. 1. vii. c. 20.

Socrates, Hist. Eccles. I. v. c. 23, and 16; and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 265, &c.

or showed more arrogance, than Gamaliel, their patriarch a man of extraordinary influence: whom, therefore, Theodosius Junior restrained by a special edict, in the year 415.7

8

§ 5. So far as can be learned at this day, no one ventured to write books against Christianity and its adherents during the fifth century; unless, perhaps, the Histories of Olympiodorus and of Zosimus are to be considered of this character. Of these writers, the latter is every where mercilessly and unjustly sharp upon the Christians. Yet no one can entertain a doubt, that the philosophers and rhetoricians, who still kept up their schools in Greece, Syria, and Egypt, secretly endeavoured to corrupt the minds of the youth, and imbue them with at least some portion of the proscribed superstition. 1 The history of those times has many traces of this clandestine machination, and so have the books of various Christians.

In the Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 262, &c.

8 Photius, Biblioth. Cod. lxxx. p. 178. [Olympiodorus was a native of Thebes in Egypt, a poet, historian, and an ambassador to the king of the Huns. He flourished about the year 425; and wrote Historiarum Libri xxii. addressed to Theodosius Junior, and containing the Roman history, particularly of the West, from A. D. 407 to 425. The work is lost, except the copious extracts preserved by Photius, ubi supra. Tr.]

1

[Zosimus was a public officer in the reign of Theodosius Junior, and wrote Historiarum Libri vi. in a neat Greek style. The first book gives a concise history of Roman affairs from Augustus to Diocletian; the following books are a full Roman history, down to A. D. 410. The best editions are by Cellarius, Jena, 1728, 8vo, and by Reitemier, Lips. 1784, 8vo. Tr.]

Zacharias Mitylen. de Opificio Dei, p. 165, 200, ed. Barthii.

PART II.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY.

§ 1. State of learning among Christians.—§ 2. In the West.-§ 3. State of philosophy in the West.-§ 4. In the East.-§ 5. The younger Platonists.-§ 6. Aristotelian philosophy revived.

§ 1. ALTHOUGH the illiterate had access to every office both civil and ecclesiastical, yet most persons of any consideration were persuaded that the liberal arts and sciences were of great use to mankind. Hence there were flourishing public schools1 in the larger cities, as Constantinople, Rome, Marseilles, Edessa, Nisibis 2, Carthage, Lyons, and Treves; and masters competent to teach youth were maintained at the expense of the emperors. Some of the bishops and monks, also, of this century, here and there, imparted to young men what learning they possessed.3 Yet the infelicity of the times, the incursions of barbarous nations, and the penury of great geniuses, prevented either the church or the state from reaping such advantages from these efforts as were expected by those who favoured them.

§ 2. In the western provinces, especially in Gaul, there was no want of learned men, who might have served as patterns for

[The history and progress of schools among Christians are the subject of an appropriate work by Geo. Gottl. Reufel, Helmst. 1743, 8vo. Schl.]

28

[The schools at Edessa and Nisibis

are noticed by Valesius on Theodori Lectoris Hist. Eccles. 1. ii. p. 164. b. Schl.]

[On the episcopal and cloister schools in Africa, Spain, Italy, and Gaul,