OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 205 In the cruel reigns of Decius and Diocletian, Christianity had oppreswd 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 ex- posed, 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 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. 65 If the Pagans wanted patience to suffer, they ^Orosius, 1. vii. c. 28, p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat. in Psal. 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 ? "
- Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions, without censure, the occasional
conformity, and as it were theatrical play, of these hypocrites.
