Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/121

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 103 who were guilty of so scandalous an offence against CHAP, christian purity, were soon excluded from the honours, and even from the alms of the church ^ Since desire was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect, it was consistent with the same principles to consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to the divine perfection. It was with the utmost diffi- culty that ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals''; but the primitive church was filled with a great number of persons of either sex, who had de- voted themselves to the profession of perpetual chas- tity*^. A few of these, among whom we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most prudent to dis- arm the tempter '^. Some were insensible and some were invincible against the assaults of the flesh. Dis- daining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm climate of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest engagement ; they permitted priests and deacons to share their bed, and gloried amidst the flames in their unsullied purity. But insulted nature sometimes vin- dicated her rights, and this new species of martyrdom served only to introduce a new scandal into the church*. Among the christian ascetics, however, (a name which tiiey soon acquired from their painful exercise,) many, as they were less presumptuous, were probably more successful. The loss of sensual pleasure was supplied and compensated by spiritual pride. Even the multi- des Peres, c. iv. 6 — 26. •* See a very curious dissertation on the vestals, in the Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. iv. p. 161 — 227, Notwithstanding- the honours and rewards which were bestowed on those virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient number ; nor could the dread of the most horrible death always restrain their incontinence, •^ Cupiditatem procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam. Minucius Fae- lix, c. 31 ; Justin. Apolog. Major; Athenagoras in Legat. c. 28; Terlul- lian de Cultu Foemin. 1. ii. •• Eusebius, 1, vi. 8, Before tlie fame of Origen had excited envy and persecution, this extraordinary action was rather admired than censured. As it was his general practice to allegorize scripture, it seems unfortunate that, in this instance only, he should have adopted the literal sense. like this rash attempt was long afterwards imputed to the founder of the order of Fonlevrault, Bayle has amused himself and his readers on that very delicate subject.
 * See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to Jerome, in the Morale
 * ^ Cyprian. Epistol. 4, and Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyprianic. iii. Something