Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/197

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 171) or his reputation. His extreme caution did not, liow- CFIAI' ever, escape tlie censure of the more rigid christians ' who lamented, or the reproaches of his personal ene- mies who insulted, a conduct which they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the most sacred duty . The propriety of reserving himself for the future exigencies of the church, the example of several holy bishops', and the divine admonitions which, as he declares himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstasies, were the reasons alleged in his justifica- tion . But his best apology may be found in the cheerful resolution with which, about eight years af- terwards, he sufl'ered death in the cause of religion. The authentic history of his martyrdom has been re- corded with unusual candour and impartiality. A short abstract therefore of its most important circumstances will convey the clearest information of the spirit, and of the forms, of the Roman persecutions '. When Valerian was consul for the third, and GalHe- A,D.257 nus for the fourth time, Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned Cyprian to appear in his private council chamber. He there acquainted him with the imperial mandate which he had just received'", that those who had abandoned the Roman religion, should immediately return to the practice of the ceremonies of their ances- tors. Cyprian replied without hesitation, that he was a christian and a bishop, devoted to the worship of the true and only Deity, to whom he offered up his daily '' See the polite but severe epistle of the clergy of Rome to the bishop of Carthage. Cyprian, Epist. 8, 9. Pontius labours with the greatest care and diligence to justify his master against the general censure. ' In particular those of Dionysius of Alexandria, and Gregory Thaumat- urgus of Neo-Cssarea. See Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. vi. c. 40. and Rlemoires de Tillemont, torn. iv. part ii. p. 685. •^ See Cyprian, Epist. 16. and his life Ijy Pontius. ' We have an original life of Cyprian by the deacon Pontius, the com- panion of his exile, and the spectator of his death ; and we likewise pos- sess the ancient proconsular acts of his martyrdom. These two relations are consistent with each otiier, atid with probability ; and, what is some- what remarkable, they are both unsullied by any miraculous circumstances. '" It should seem that these were circular orders, sent at the same time to all the governors. Dionysius (ap. Euseb. 1. vii. c. 1 1.) relates the history of his own banishment from Alexandria, almost in the same manner. But as he escaped ami survived the persecution, we must account him either more or less fortunate than Cyprian. N 2 Ilisbanisii ment.