CHAP. fame guilt, the general practice of immolation,

XXVIII.

which effentially constituted the religion of the Pagans. As the temples had been erected for the purpose of facrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent prince to remove from his fubjects the dangerous temptation, of offending against the laws which he had enacted. A special commiffion was granted to Cynegius, the Prætorian præfect of the Eaft, and afterwards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two officers of diftinguished rank in the Weft; by which they were directed to fhut the temples, to feize or destroy the instruments of idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and to confifcate the confecrated property for the benefit of the emperor, of the church, or of the army". Here the defolation might have ftopped: and the naked edifices which were no longer employed in the service of idolatry, might have been protected from the destructive rage of fanaticifm. Many of thofe temples were the moft fplendid and beautiful monuments of Grecian architecture: and the emperor himself was interested not to deface the fplendour of his own cities, or to diminish the value of his own poffeffions. Those stately edifices might be fuffered to remain, as so many lasting trophies of the victory of Chrift. In the decline of the arts, they might be ufefully converted into magazines, manufactures,

27 Zofimus, 1. iv. p. 245. 249. Theodoret, 1. v. c. 21. Idatius in Chron. Profper. Aquitan. 1. iii. c. 38. apud Baronium, Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 389. N° 52. Libanius (pro Templis, p. 10.) labours to prove, that the commands of Theodofius were not direct and pofitive.

or

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or places of public affembly: and perhaps, when CHAP.
the walls of the temple had been fufficiently pu-
rified by holy rites, the worship of the true Deity
might be allowed to expiate the ancient guilt of
idolatry. But as long as they fubfifted, the
Pagans fondly cherished the secret hope, that an
auspicious revolution, a second Julian, might again
restore the altars of the gods; and the earnestness
with which they addreffed their unavailing prayers
to the throne 28, increafed the zeal of the Chriftian
reformers to extirpate, without mercy, the root
of fuperftition. The laws of the emperors ex-
hibit fome symptoms of a milder difpofition 22:
but their cold and languid efforts were infufficient
to stem the torrent of enthusiasm and rapine,
which was conducted, or rather impelled, by the
fpiritual rulers of the church. In Gaul, the holy
Martin, bishop of Tours 3, marched at the head
of his faithful monks, to deftroy the, idols, the
temples, and the confecrated trees of his ex-
tenfive diocese; and, in the execution of this
arduous task, the prudent reader will judge
whether Martin was fupported by the aid of
miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons.

30

In

28 Cod. Theodof. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8. 18. There is room to believe, that this temple of Edeffa, which Theodofius wished to fave for civil ufes, was foon afterwards a heap of ruins (Libanius pro Templis, p. 26, 27. and Godefroy's notes, p. 59.).

29 See this curious oration of Libanius pro Templis, pronouced, or rather composed, about the year 390. I have confulted, with advantage, Dr. Lardner's yerfion and remarks (Heathen Teftimonies, vol. iv. p. 135—163.).

30 See the life of Martin, by Sulpicius Severus, c. 9-14. The faint once mistook (as Don Quixote might have done) an harmless funeral for an idolatrous proceffion. and imprudently committed a miracle.

Syria,

I

XXVIII.

CHAP. Syria, the divine and excellent Marcellus ", as he is ftiled by Theodoret, a bifhop animated with apoftolic fervour, refolved to level with the ground the ftately temples within the diocese of Apamea, His attack was refifted, by the skill and folidity, with which the temple of Jupiter had been conftructed. The building was feated on an eminence on each of the four fides, the lofty roof was fupported by fifteen maffy columns, fixteen feet in circumference; and the large stones of which they were composed, were firmly cemented with lead and iron. The force of the strongest and sharpest tools had been tried without effect. It was found necessary to undermine the foundations of the columns, which fell down as foon as the temporary wooden props had been confumed with fire; and the difficulties of the enterprise are defcribed under the allegory of a black dæmon, who retarded, though he could not defeat, the operations of the Christian engineers. Elated with victory, Marcellus took the field in perfon against the powers of darkness; a numerous troop of foldiers and gladiators marched under the epifcopal banner, and he fucceffively attacked the villages and country temples of the diocese of Apamea. Whenever any refiftance or danger was apprehended, the champion of the faith, whofe lameness would not allow him either to fight or fly, placed himself at a convenient distance, beyond the reach of darts. But

31 Compare Sozomen (1. vii. c. 15.) with Theodoret (1. v. c. 21.). Between them, they relate the crufade and death of Marcellus.

XXVIII.

this prudence was the occafion of his death: he CHAP. was surprised and flain by a body of exafperated ruftics; and the fynod of the province pronounced, without hefitation, that the holy Marcellus had facrificed his life in the cause of God. In the fupport of this caufe, the monks, who rushed, with tumultuous fury, from the defert, diftinguished themfelves by their zeal and diligence. They deferved the enmity of the Pagans; and fome of them might deferve the reproaches of avarice and intemperance; of avarice, which they gratified with holy plunder, and of intemperance, which they indulged at the expence of the people, who foolishly admired their tattered garments, loud pfalmody, and artificial palenefs 32 A small number of temples was protected by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the civil and ecclefiaftical governors. The temple of the celeftial Venus at Carthage, whofe facred precincts formed a circumference of two miles, was judiciously converted into a Chriftian church 33; and a fimilar confecration has preferved inviolate the majestic dome of the Pantheon at Rome 34. But in almost every province of the Roman world, an

32 Libanius, pro Templis, p. 10-13. He rails at these blackgarbled men, the Chriftian Monks, who eat more than elephants. Poor elephants! they are temperate animals.

33 Prosper Aquitan. 1. iii. c. 38. apud Baronium; Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 389. N° 58, &c. The temple had been fhut fome time, and the accefs to it was overgrown with brambles.

34 Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, 1. iv. c. 4. p. 468. This confecrarion was performed by pope Boniface IV. I am ignorant of the favourable circumftances which had preferved the Pantheon above two hundred years after the reign of Theodofius.

army

СНАР.
XXVIII.

The temple of Serapis at Alexandria.

army of fanatics, without authority, and without
discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and
the ruin of the fairest ftructures of antiquity ftill
displays the ravages of thofe Barbarians, who alone
had time and inclination to execute fuch labori-
ous deftruction.

In this wide and various profpect of devafta-
tion, the spectator may distinguish the ruins of
the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria 35. Serapis
does not appear to have been one of the native
gods, or monfters, who fprung from the fruitful
foil of fuperftitious Egypt 36. The firft of the
Ptolemies had been commanded, by a dream,
to import the myfterious ftranger from the coaft
of Pontus. where he had been long adored by
the inhabitants of Sinope; but his attributes and
his reign were fo imperfectly understood, that it
became a fubject of difpute, whether he repre-
fented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy
monarch of the fubterraneeus regions ".
Egyptians, who were obftinately devoted to
the religion of their fathers, refused to ad-
mit this foreign deity within the walls of their

The

35 Sophronius compofed a recent and separate history (Jerom, in Script. Ecclef. tom. i. p. 303.), which had furnished materials to Socrates (1. v. c. 16.), Theodoret (1. v. c. 22.), and Rufinus (1. ii. c. 22.). Yet the last, who had been at Alexandria, before, and after, the event, may deferve the credit of an original witness.

36 Gerard Voffius (Opera, tom. v. p. 8o. & de Idololatria, 1. i. c. 29.) strives to fupport the ftrange notion of the Fathers; that the patriarch Jofeph was adored in Egypt, as the bull Apis, and the - god Serapis.

37 Origo dei nondum noftris celebrata, Ægyptiorum antiftites fic memorant, &c. Tacit. Hift. iv. 83. The Greeks, who had travelled into Egypt, were alike ignorant of this new deity.

cities.