Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/210

 192 THE DECLINE AND FALL CMAP. importcant business of this period of leisure and tran- quillity ^ Nor was the peace of the church inter- A.D. 198. rupted, till the increasing numbers of proselytes seem at length to have attracted the attention, and to have alienated the mind of Severus. With the design of restraining the progress of Christianity, he published an edict, which, though it was designed to affect only the new converts, could not be carried into strict ex- ecution, without exposing to danger and punishment the most zealous of their teachers and missionaries. In tliis mitigated persecution, we may still discover the indulgent spirit of Rome and of polytheism, which so readily admitted every excuse in favour of those who practised the religious ceremonies of their fathers '. Of the sue- But the laws which Severus had enacted, soon ex- cessors of •■■.■■, ,. „, Severus. pirecl With the authority ot that emperor; and the 2U^24Q c'^ristians, after this accidental tempest, enjoyed a calm of thirty-eight years". Till this period they had usually held their assemblies in private houses and sequestered places. They were now permitted to erect and conse- crate convenient edifices for the purpose of religious worship " ; to purchase lands, even at Rome itself, for the use of the community ; and to conduct the elections of their ecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the same time in so exemplary a manner, as to deserve the respectful attention of the gentiles ^. This long repose of the church was accompanied with dignity. The reigns of those princes who derived their extraction from the Asiatic provinces, proved the most favourable s Euseb. 1. V. c. 23, 24 ; Mosheim, p. 43/3 — 447. ' Judaeos fieri sub gravi poena veluit. Idem etiam de christianis sanxit. Hist. August, p. 70. " Sulpicius Severus, 1. ii. p. 384. This computation (allowing for a single exception) is confirmed by the history of Eusebius, and by the verit- ings of Cyprian. " The antiquity of christian churches is discussed by Tilleraont, Me- moires Ecclesiastiques, torn. iii. part ii. p. 68 — 72. and by Mr. Moyle, vol. i. ]). 378 — 398. The former refers the first construction of them to the peace ->f Alexander Severus; the latter, to the peace of Gallienus. y See the Augustan History, p. 130. The emperor Alexander adopted their metnod of publicly proposing the names of those persons who were candidates for ordination. It is true, that the honour of tliis practice is likewise attributed to the jews.