Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/88

 70 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity*. ^^ • They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and devout visits to the holij citij, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats which both nature and religion tauirht them to love as well as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fanaticism of the jews filled up the measure of their calamities ; and the Romans, exasperated by their re- peated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of MYxsl Capitolina, a new city on Mount Sion ", to which he gave the privileges of a colony ; and de- nouncing the severest penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common proscription ; and the force of truth was on this occasion assisted by the influence of temporal advantages. They elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion, the most con- siderable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had per- severed above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices, they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the catholic church ''. The Ebi- When the name and honours of the church of Jeru- onites. gaiem had been restored to Mount Sion, the crimes of ' Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 5 ; Le Clerc, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 605. During this occasional absence, the bishop and church of Pella still retained the title of Jerusalem. In the same manner, the Roman pontiffs resided seventy years at Avignon ; and the patriarchs of Alexandria have long since trans- ferred their episcopal seat to Cairo. " Dion Cassius, 1. Ixix. The exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem is attested by Aristo of Pella, (apud Euseb. 1. iv. c. 6.) and is mentioned by several ecclesiastical writers; though some of them too hastily extend th;s interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. X Eusebius, 1. iv. c. 6 ; Sulpicius Severus, ii. 31. By comparing their unsatisfactory accounts, Mosheim (p. 327, etc.) has drawn out a very dis- tinct representation of the circumstances and motives of this revolution.