Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/206

 188 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, tates had yielded on the first menace or exliortation • of the magistrate ; whilst the patience of others had been subdued by the length and repetition of tortures. The afiVighted countenances of some betrayed their inward remorse, while others advanced with confidence and alacrity to the altars of the gods ''. But the dis- guise which fear had imposed, subsisted no longer than the present danger. As soon as the severity of the persecution was abated, the doors of the churches were assailed by the returning multitude of penitents, who detested their idolatrous submission, and who so- licited with equal ardour, but with various success, their readmission into the society of christians '. Alternatives IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established of seventy f^j, ^j^g conviction and punishment of the christians, and tolera- * _ _ ' tion. the fate of those sectaries, in an extensive and, arbi- trary government, must still, in a great measure, have depended on their own behaviour, the circumstances of the times, and the temper of their supreme as well as subordinate rulers. Zeal might sometimes provoke, and prudence might sometimes avert or assuage, the superstitious fury of the pagans. A variety of motives might dispose the provincial governors either to enforce or to relax the execution of the laws ; and of these motives, the most forcible was their regard not only for the public edicts, but for the secret intentions of the emperor, a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle or to extinguish the flames of persecution. As often as any occasional severities were exercised in the different parts of the empire, the primitive christians rj,,. lamented and perhaps magnified their own sufFerinffs ; 1 he ten per- r r t> Js"^ 5 secutions. but the celebrated number often persecutions has been '' Plin. Epistol. X. 97 ; Dionysius Alexandrin. ap. Euseb. 1. vi. c. 41. Ad prima statim verba minantis inimici maximus fratrum numerus fidem suani prodidit : nee prostratus est persecutionis impetu, sed voluntario lapsu seipsum proslravit. Cyprian. Opera, p. 89. Among these deserters were many priests, and even bishops. ' It was on this occasion that Cyprian wrote his treatise De Lapsis, and many of his epistles. The controversy concerning the treatment of peni- tent apostates, does not occur among the christians of the preceding cen- tury. Shall we ascribe this to the superiority of their faith and courage, or to our less intimate knowledge of their history?