Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/350

 330 THE DECLINE AND FALL Alule •Tacoateg Borne and ravagea Italy. A.D. 410, August 23 as the principles, of Luther. It was their favourite amusement to insult or destroy the consecrated objects of Catholic super- stition ; they indulged, without pity or remorse, a devout hatred against the clergy of ever>' denomination and degree, who form so considerable a part of the inhabitants of modern Rome : and their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the throne of Anti- christ, to purify, with blood and fire, the abominations of the spiritual Babylon. ^'i The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome on the sixtli day,i-- might be the result of prudence, but it was not surely the effect of fear.^-^ At the head of an army, encumbered with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unresisting countrj'. The fate of Capua, the proud and luxurious metrcpolis of Campania, and which was respected, even in its decay, as the eighth city of the empire,!-^ is buried in oblivion ; whilst the adjacent town of Nola 1-^ has been illustrated, on this occasion, bv the sanctity of Paulinus,^-'^ who was successively a consul, a monk, and a bishop. At the age of forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth and honour, of society and literature, to embrace a life of solitude and penance ; and the loud applause of the clergy encouraged him to despise the reproaches of his worldly friends, who as- cribed this desperate act to some disorder of the mind or body.*'^^ I'^i The furious spirit of Luther, the effect of temper and enthusiasm, has been forcibly attacked (Bossuet, Hist, des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, Hvre i. p. 20-36), and feebly defended (Seckendorf, Comment, de Lutheranismo, especially 1. i. No. 78, p. 120, and 1. iii. No. 122, p. 556). 122 Marcellinus in Chron. Orosius (1. vii. c. 39, p. 575) asserts that he left Rome on the third day ; but this difference is easily reconciled by the successive motions of great bodies of troops. 123 Socrates (1. vii. c. 10) pretends, without any colour of truth or reason, that Alaric fled on the report that the armies of the Elastern empire were in full march to attack him. 124 Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 233, edit. Toll. The luxury of Capua had ormerly surpassed that of Sybaris itself. See Athenaeus, Deipnosophist. 1. xii. p. 528, edit. Casaubon. 125 Forty-eight years before the foundation of Rome (about 800 before the Christian aera). the Tuscans built Capua and Nola, at the distance of twenty-three miles from each other ; but the latter of the two cities never emerged from a state of mediocrity. i'-* Tillemont (M6m. EccMs. tom. xiv. p. 1-146) has compiled, with bis usual diligence, all that relates to the life and NTitings of Paulinus, whose retreat is celebrated by his own pen, and by the praises of St. An^brose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin. Sulpicius Severus, &c. , his Christian friends and contemporaries. 12" See the affectionate letters of Ausonius (epist. xi..-xxv. p. 650-698, edit. Toll.) to his colleague, his friend, and his disciple Paulinus. The religion of Ausonius is