Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/174

 156 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, the paths of heresy, were still actuated hy the senti- ^^^- merits of men, and still governed by the precepts of Christianity Accusations of a similar kind were re- torted upon the church by the schismatics who had de- parted from its communion^; and it was confessed on all sides, that the most scandalous licentiousness of manners prevailed among great numbers of those who affected the name of christians. A pagan magistrate, who possessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost imperceptible line which divides the ortho- dox faith from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that their mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common guilt. It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the reputation of the first christians, that the magistrates sometimes proceeded with more temper and moderation than is usually con- sistent with religious zeal, and that they reported, as the impartial result of their judicial enquiry, that the sectaries who had deserted the established worship, appeared to them sincere in their professions, and blameless in their manners; however they might in- cur, by their absurd and excessive superstition, the censure of the laws ^ Idea of the History, which undertakes to record the transac- conduct of ^j^j^g ^f ^Yie past, for the instruction of future ages, the enipe- * rors towards would ill deserve that honourable office, if she con- the chns- jgg^^gjjjjgjj to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution. It must however be ac- knowledged, that the conduct of the emperors who " See Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 35; Irenaeus adv. Haeres. i.24 ; Clemens Alexandrin. Stromal. 1. iii. p. 438 ; Euseb. iv. 8. It would be tedious and disgusting to relate all that the succeeding writers have imagined, ail that Epiphanius has received, and all that Tillemont has copied. M. de Beau- sobre (Hist, du Manicheisme, 1. ix. c. 8, 9.) has exposed, with great spirit, the disingenuous arts of Augustin and Pope Leo the first. y When Tertullian became a JMontanist, he aspersed the morals of the church which he had so resolutely defended. " Sed majoris est agape, quia per banc adolescentes tui cum sororibus dnrmiunt, appendices scilicet gulas lascivia et luxuria." De Jejuniis, c. 17. The thirty-fifth canon of the council ol llliberis provides against the scandals which too often polluted the vigils of the church, and disgraced the christian name in the eyes of unbelievers. 2 Tertullian (Apolog. c. 2.) expatiates on the fair and honourable testi- mony of Pliny, with much reason and some declamation. tians.