Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/266

 244 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAPTER XLIX Introduction, Worship, and Persecution of Images — Revolt of Italy and Rome — -Temporal Dominion of the Popes — Conquest of Italy by the Franks — Establishment of Images — Character and Coronation of Charlemagne — Restoration and Decay of the Ro- man Empire in the West — Independence of Italy — Constitution of the Germanic Body Introduction of Images Into the Christian church In the connexion of the church and state I have considered the former as subservient only and relative to the latter : a salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever been held sacred. The oriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the dark abyss of predestination and grace, and the strange transformations of the Eucharist from the sign to the substance of Christ's body,^ I have purposely abandoned to the curiosity of speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence and pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical history, by which the decline and fall of the Roman empire were materially affected, the propagation of Christianity, the constitution of the Catho- lic church, the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that arose from the mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity and incar- nation. At the head of this class, we may justly rank the wor- ship of images, so fiercely disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries ; since a question of popular superstition produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal power of the popes, and the restoration of the Roman empire in the West. The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquer- able repugnance to the use and abuse of images, and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the Jews and their enmity to the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely pro- scribed all representations of the Deity ; and that precept was firmly established in the principles and practice of the chosen people. The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed against 1 The learned Selden has given the history of tiansubstantiation in a compre- hensive and pithy sentence : "This opinion is only rhetoric turned into logic" (his^Works, vol. iii. p. 2073, in his Table-talk).