Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/241

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 223 been apprehended by the officers of justice, was less CHAP, intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. ^^ ^' 1. The confessors who were condemned to work in the mines, were permitted, by the humanity or the negli- gence of their keepers, to build chapels, and freely to profess their religion in the midst of those dreary habi- tations '. 2. The bishops were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal of the christians, who vo- luntarily threw themselves into the hands of the ma- gistrates. Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts, who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious death. Others were allured by the hope, that a short confinement would expiate the sins of a whole life ; and others again were actuated by the less honourable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhaps a considerable profit, from the alms which the charity of the faithful be- stowed on the prisoners". After the church had tri- umphed over all her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective suffering. A convenient dis- tance of time or place gave an ample scope to the pro- gi'ess of fiction; and the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs, whose wounds had been in- stantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honour of the church, were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history. The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment. Number of of pain and torture, are so easily exaggerated or soft- '"^■''y'^^- ' Euseb. de ]Iartyr. Palestin. c. 13. " Augustin. Collat. Caitliagin. Dei, iii. c. 13. ap. Tillemont, Merooires Ecclesiastiques, torn. v. part i. p. 46. The controversy with the Donatists has reflected some, though perliaps a partial, light on the history of the African church.