Volume I Part 28 (1/2)

760 See the account of these proceedings, and of the very remarkable speech of Postumius, in Livy, x.x.xix. 8-19. Postumius notices the old prohibition of foreign rites, and thus explains it:-”Judicabant enim prudentissimi viri omnis divini humanique juris, nihil aeque dissolvendae religionis esse, quam ubi non patrio sed externo ritu sacrificaretur.” The Senate, though suppressing these rites on account of the outrageous immoralities connected with them, decreed, that if any one thought it a matter of religious duty to perform religious ceremonies to Bacchus, he should be allowed to do so on applying for permission to the Senate, provided there were not more than five a.s.sistants, no common purse, and no presiding priest.

761 Val. Max. i. 3.

762 See Dion Ca.s.sius, xl. 47; xlii. 26; xlvii. 15; liv. 6.

763 Joseph. _Antiq._ xviii. 3.

764 Tacit. _Annal._ ii. 85.

765 Tacitus relates (_Ann._ xi. 15) that under Claudius a senatus consultus ordered the pontiffs to take care that the old Roman (or, more properly, Etruscan) system of divination was observed, since the influx of foreign superst.i.tions had led to its disuse; but it does not appear that this measure was intended to interfere with any other form of wors.h.i.+p.

766 ”Sacrosanctam istam civitatem accedo.”-Apuleius, _Metam._ lib. x. It is said that there were at one time no less than 420 aedes sacrae in Rome. Nieupoort, _De Ritibus Romanorum_ (1716), p. 276.

767 Euseb. _Praep. Evang._ iv. 1. Fontenelle says very truly, ”Il y a lieu de croire que chez les payens la religion n'estoit qu'une pratique, dont la speculation estoit indifferente. Faites comme les autres et croyez ce qu'il vous plaira.”-_Hist. des Oracles_, p. 95.

It was a saying of Tiberius, that it is for the G.o.ds to care for the injuries done to them: ”Deorum injurias diis curae.”-Tacit. _Annal._ i. 73.

768 The most melancholy modern instance I remember is a letter of Hume to a young man who was thinking of taking orders, but who, in the course of his studies, became a complete sceptic. Hume strongly advised him not to allow this consideration to interfere with his career (Burton, _Life of Hume_, vol. ii. pp. 187, 188.) The utilitarian principles of the philosopher were doubtless at the root of his judgment.

_ 769 De Divinat._ ii. 33; _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 3.

770 ”Quae omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam diis grata.... Meminerimus cultum ejus magis ad morem quam ad rem pertinere.”-St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, vi. 10. St. Augustine denounces this view with great power. See, too, Lactantius. _Inst. Div._ ii.

3.

_ 771 Enchirid._ x.x.xi.

772 This is noticed by Philo.

773 The s.h.i.+p in which the atheist Diagoras sailed was once nearly wrecked by a tempest, and the sailors declared that it was a just retribution from the G.o.ds because they had received the philosopher into their vessel. Diagoras, pointing to the other s.h.i.+ps that were tossed by the same storm, asked whether they imagined there was a Diagoras in each. (_Cic. De Nat. Deor._ iii. 37.)

774 The vestal Oppia was put to death because the diviners attributed to her unchast.i.ty certain ”prodigies in the heavens,” that had alarmed the people at the beginning of the war with Veii. (Livy, ii. 42.) The vestal Urbinia was buried alive on account of a plague that had fallen upon the Roman women, which was attributed to her incontinence, and which is said to have ceased suddenly upon her execution. (Dion. Halicar. ix.)

775 Pliny, in his famous letter to Trajan about the Christians, notices that this had been the case in Bithynia.

776 Tert. _Apol._ xl. See, too, Cyprian, _contra Demetrian._, and Arn.o.bius, _Apol._ lib. i.

777 St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, ii. 3.

778 Instances of this kind are given by Tertullian _Ad Scapulam_, and the whole treatise _On the Deaths of the Persecutors_, attributed to Lactantius, is a development of the same theory. St. Cyprian's treatise against Demetria.n.u.s throws much light on the mode of thought of the Christians of his time. In the later historians, anecdotes of adversaries of the Church dying horrible deaths became very numerous. They were said especially to have been eaten by worms. Many examples of this kind are collected by Jortin. (_Remarks on Eccles. Hist._ vol. i. p. 432.)

779 ”It is remarkable, in all the proclamations and doc.u.ments which Eusebius a.s.signs to Constantine, some even written by his own hand, how, almost exclusively, he dwells on this worldly superiority of the G.o.d adored by the Christians over those of the heathens, and the visible temporal advantages which attend on the wors.h.i.+p of Christianity. His own victory, and the disasters of his enemies, are his conclusive evidences of Christianity.”-Milman, _Hist. of Early Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. ii. p. 327. ”It was a standing argument of Athanasius, that the death of Arius was a sufficient refutation of his heresy.”-Ibid. p. 382.

780 Socrates, _Eccl. Hist._, vii. 30.

781 Greg. Tur. ii. 30, 31. Clovis wrote to St. Avitus, ”Your faith is our victory.”

782 Milman's _Latin Christianity_ (ed. 1867), vol. ii. pp. 236-245.

783 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 248.

_ 784 Ep._ xl.

785 ”An diutius perferimus mutari temporum vices, irata cli temperie?