Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/219

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 201 their supine indifference in the cause of those deities CIIAP, whom custom and education had taught them to revere. ^^'^' The mutual provocations of a rehgious war, which had already continued ahove two hundred years, exaspe- rated the animosity of the contending parties. Tiie pagans were incensed at the rashness of a recent and obscure sect, which presumed to accuse their country- men of error, and to devote their ancestors to eternal misery. The habits of justifying the pojjular mytho- logy against the invectives of an implacable enemy, produced in their minds some sentiments of faith and reverence for a system which they had been accustomed to consider with the most careless levity. The super- natural powers assumed by the church inspired at the same time terror and emulation. The followers of the established religion intrenched themselves behind a similar fortification of prodigies ; invented new modes of sacrifice, of expiation, and of initiation"; attempted to revive the credit of their expiring oracles y; and listened with eager creduhty to every impostor who flattered their prejudices by a tale of wonders^. Both parties seemed to acknowledge the truth of those mira- cles which were claimed by their adversaries ; and while they were contented with ascribing them to the arts of magic, and to the power of demons, they mutually con- curred in restoring and establishing the reign of super stition^. Philosophy, her most dangerous enemy, was " We might quote, among a great number of instances, the mysterious worship of Mythras, and the Tauroboha ; the latter of which became fa- shionable in the time of the Antonines. See a dissertation of M. de Jioze, in the Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. ii. p. 443. 'J'he ro- mance of Apuleius is as full of devotion as of satire. y The impostor Alexander very strongly recommended the oiacle of Trophonius at JMallos, and those of Apollo at Claros and Miletus. Lucian, torn. ii. p. 236. edit. Reitz. The last of these, whose singular history would furnish a very curious episode, was consulted by Diocletian before lie pub- lished his edicts of persecution. Lactantius de M. P. c. 1 1. z Besides the ancient stories of Pythagoras and Aristeas, the cures per- formed at the shrine of ^-Esculapius, and the fables related of Apollonius of Tyana, were fretiuently opposed to the miracles of Christ ; though I ayree with Dr. Lardner, (see Testimonies, vol. Hi. p. 253. 352.) that when Plii- lostratus composed the life of Apollonius he had no such intention. inf the supernatural, or, as they deem it, the infernal part of paganism, destroy with their own hands the great advantage which we might other- wise derive from the liberal concessions of our adversaries.
 * It is seriously to be lamented, that the christian fathers, by acknovviedg-