Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/155

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 137 the primitive christians. The most favourable calcu- CHAP, lation, however, that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of the subjects of the empire had enlisted tliemselves under the banner of the cross before the important conversion ol" Constan- tine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed to multiply their numbers ; and the same causes which contributed to their future increase, served to render their actual strength more apparent and more formidable. Such is the constitution of civil society, that whilst Whether a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honours, ch^i^t'jans and by knowledge, the body of the people is con- ^^^^e mean demned to obscurity, ignorance, antl poverty. 1 lie rant, christian religion, which addressed itself to the whole human race, must consequently collect a far greater number of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural cir- cumstance has been improved into a very odious im- putation, which seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists, than it is urged by the adversaries of the faith ; that the new sect of christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beg- gars and slaves ; the last of whom might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble fa- milies to which they belonged. Tiiese obscure teach- ers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the danger- ous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into those minds, whom their age, their sex, or their education has the best disposed to receive the impres- sion of superstitious terrors^. This unfavourable picture, though not devoid of a Some ex- ceptions ' Minucius Foelix, c. 8, with Wowerus's notes ; Celsus ap. t)rigen. 1. iii. p. 138. 142; Julian ap. Cyril. 1. vi. p. 206. edit. Spanheim.