Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/204

 18G THE DECLINE AND FALL cilAP. as a warning to their bretiu'en, he dismissed the niulti- tude with indignation and contempt". Notwithstand- ing this real or affected disdain, the intre])id constancy of the faithful was productive of more salutary effects on those minds which nature or grace had disposed for the easy reception of religious truth. On these melan- choly occasions, there were many among the gentiles who pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the spectators ; and the blood of martyrs, according to a well-known observation, became the seed of the church. Gradual re- But although devotion had raised, and eloquence laxation. continued to inflame, this fever of the mind, it insen- sibly gave way to the more natural hopes and fears of the human heart, to the love of life, the apprehension of pain, and the horror of dissolution. The more pru- dent rulers of the church found themselves obliged to restrain the indiscreet ardour of their followers, and to distrust a constancy which too often abandoned them in the hour of trial ^ As the lives of the faithful be- came less mortified and austere, they were every day less ambitious of the honours of martyrdom ; and the soldiers of Christ, instead of distinguishing themselves by voluntary deeds of heroism, frequently deserted their post, and fled in confusion before the enemy whom it was their duty to resist. There were three methods, however, of escaping the flames of persecu- tion, which were not attended with an equal degree of guilt : the first indeed was generally allowed to be in- nocent ; the second was of a doubtful, or at least of a venial nature ; but the third implied a direct and cri- minal apostasy from the christian faith. Three me- L A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise, that thods ot whenever an information was given to a Roman magi- many rdom. strate of any person within his jurisdiction who had ^ Moslieim, de Rebus Christ, ante Constantin. p. 235. f See the epistle of the church of Smyrna, ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. c. 15.