OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 247 The merit and effect of a copy depends on its resemblance The imag« of with the original ; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles : the statue of Christ at Paneas in Palestine " was more probably that of some temporal saviour ; the Gnostics and their profane monuments were reprobated ; and the fancy of the Christian artists could only be guided by the clandestine imitation of some heathen model. In this distress, a bold and dexterous invention assured at once the likeness of the image and the innocence of the worship. A new superstructure of fable was raised on the popular basis of a Syrian legend, on the correspondence of Christ and Abgarus, so famous in the days rAbgar v. of Eusebius, so reluctantly deserted by our modern advocates. '°' ^"^^ The bishop of Caesarea ^ records the epistle,^ but he most strangely forgets the picture of Christ, ^'^ — the perfect impression but of a manly spirit ; and on this head the Protestants are so notoriously in the right that they can venture to be impartial. See the perplexity of poor Friar Pagi, Critica, tom. i. p. 42. [Schwarzlose, der Bilderstreit, chap, i (1890).] After removing some rubbish of miracle and inconsistency, it may be allowed that, as late as the year 300, Paneas in Palestine was decorated with a bronze statue, representing a grave personage wrapt in a cloak, with a grateful or sup- pliant female kneeling before him, and that an inscription — -u 2wnipi, tco evepyerri — was perhaps inscribed on the pedestal. By the Christians, this group was foolishly explained of their founder, and the poor woman whom he had cured of the bloody flux (Euseb. vii. 18, Philostorg. vii. 3, &c. ). M. de Beausobre more reasonably conjectures the philosopher Apollonius, or the emperor Vespasian. In the latter supposition, the female is a city, a province, or perhaps the queen Berenice (Bibliotheque Germanique, tom. xiii. p. 1-92).
- Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. i. c. 13 [cp. ii. i]. The learned Assemannus has
brought up the collateral aid of three Syrians, St. Ephrem, Josua Stylites, and James bishop of Sarug ; but I do not find any notice of the Syriac original [cp. next note] or the archives of Edessa (Bibliot. Orient, tom. i. p. 318, 420, 554). Their vague belief is probably derived from the Greeks. '■' The evidence for these epistles is stated and rejected by the candid Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297-309). Among the herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from this convenient but untenable post, I am ashamed, with the Grabes, Caves, Tillemonts, &c. to discover Mr. Addison, an English gentleman (his Works, vol. i. p. 528, Baskerville's edition) ; but his superficial tract on the Christian religion owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested applause of our clergy. [The conversion of Edessa seems to have been achieved later than 200 A.D. by Bardesanes, under a later Abgar (202-217) I ^nd the legend probably arose soon after. About A.D. 400, the document quoted by Eusebius was edited in an improved form and increased by the addition of the miraculous picture. This is the so-called Doctrina Addael or Acta Thaddaei, which has come down in Syriac ((j. Piiillips, The doctrine of Addai, 1876), Greek (Tischendorf, Act. Ap. Apoc, 261 sqq.) and Armenian. See R. A. Lipsins, die edessenische Abgarsage, 1880 ; L. Tixeront, Les orig. de I'eglise d'Edesse et la l^gende d'Abgar, 1888.] i"From the silence of James of Sarug (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, p. 289, 318) and the testimony of Evagrius (Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. c. 27), I conclude that this fable was invented between the years 521 and 594, most probably after the siege of Edessa in 540 (Asseman. tom. i. p. 416; Procopius, de Bell. Persic. 1. ii. [c. 12]). It is the sword and buckler of Gregory II. (in Epist. i. ad Leon. Isaur. Concil. tom. viii. p. 656, 657), of John Damascenus (Opera, tom. i. p. 281, edit. Lequien), and
