Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/151

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 133 most modest calculation will not surely retluce it lower C H A P. w than a million of" inhabitants, of whom the christians " might constitute at the most a twentieth part'. The western provincials appeared to have derived In Africa the knowledge of Christianity from the same source western which had diffused among them the language, the sen- provinces, timents, and the manners of Rome. In this more im- portant circumstance, Africa, as well as Gaul, was gra- dually fashioned to the imitation of the ca])ital. Yet notwithstanding the many favourable occasions which might invite the Roman missionaries to visit their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed eitlier the sea or the Alps "^ ; nor can we discover in those great coun- tries any assured traces either of faith or of persecu- tion that ascend higher than the reign of the Antonines'. The slow progress of the gospel in the cold climate of Gaul, was extremely different from the eagerness with which it seems to have been received on the burning sands of Africa. The African christians soon formed one of the principal members of the primitive church. The practice introduced into that province, of appoint- ing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequently to the most obscure villages, contributed to multiply the splendour and importance of their reli- gious societies, which during the course of the third century were animated by the zeal of Tertullian, di- rected by the abilities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius. But if, on the contrary, we ' This proportion of the presbyters and of the poor, to the rest of the people, was originally fixed by Burnet, (Travels into Italy, p. 168.) and is approved by Moyle, vol. ii. p. 151. They were both unacquainted with the passage of Chrysostom, which converts their conjecture almost into a fact. '' Serius trans Alpes, religione Dei suscepta. Sulpicius Severus, 1. ii. These were the celebrated martyrs of Lyons. See Eusebius, v, 1 ; Tille- mont. IIem. Ecclesiast. torn. ii. p. 316. According to the Donaiists, whose assertion is confirmed by the tacit acknowledgement of A ugustin, Africa was the last of the provinces which received the gospel. TiUemont, iM6m. Ecclesiast. torn. i. p. 754. ' Turn primum intra Gallias martyria visa. Sulp. Severus, 1. ii. With regard to Africa, see Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3. It is imagined, that the Scyllitan martyrs were the first. .cta Sincera Ruinart. p. 34. One of the adversaries of Apuleius seems to have been a christian. Apolog. p. 496, 497. edit. Delphin.