Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/272

 250 THE DECLINE AND FALL the incessant charge of the Jews and Mahometans, ^^ who de- rived from the Law and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images and all relative worship. The servitude of the Jews might curb their zeal and depreciate their authority ; but the triumphant Musulmans, who reigned at Damascus and threatened Constantinople, cast into the scale of reproach the accumulated weight of truth and victory. The cities of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, had been fortified with the images of Christ, his mother, and his saints ; and each city presumed on the hope or promise of miraculous defence. In a rapid con- quest of ten years, the Arabs subdued those cities and these images ; and, in their opinion, the Lord of Hosts pronounced a decisive judgment between the adoration and contempt of these mute and inanimate idols. For a while Edessa had braved the Persian assaults ; but the chosen city, the spouse of Christ, was involved in the common ruin ; and his divine re- semblance became the slave and trophy of the infidels. After a servitude of three hundred years, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of Constantinople, for a ransom of twelve thousand pounds of silver, the redemption of two hundred Musulmans, and a perpetual truce for the territory of Edessa. i'' In this season of distress and dismay, the eloquence of the monks was exercised in the defence of images ; and they attempted to prove that the sin and schism of the greatest part of the Orientals had forfeited the favour, and annihilated the virtue, of these precious symbols. But they were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple or rational Christians, who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and of the primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation of the church. As the worship of images had never been established by any general or positive law, its progress in the Eastern empire had been retarded, or accelerated, by the differences of men and manners, the local degrees of refinement, and the personal characters of the bishops. The splendid devotion was fondly cherished by i' By Cedrenus, Zonaras, Glycas, and Manasses, the origin of the Iconoclasts is imputed to the caliph Yezid and two Jews, who promised the empire to Leo ; and the reproaches of these hostile sectaries are turned into an absurd conspiracy for restoring the purity of the Christian worship (see Spanheim, Hist. Imag. c. 2). [Yezid II. issued a decree banishing images from Christian churches in a.d. 723-] i*" See Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 267), .A.bulpharagius (Dynast, p. 201), and Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem, p. 264) ; and the criticisms of Pagi (tom. iii. A.D. 944). The prudent Franciscan refuses to determine whether the image of Edessa now reposes at Rome or Genoa ; but its repose is inglorious, and this ancient object of worship is no longer famous or fashionable.