Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/514

 492 THE DECLINE AND FALL were shared with the Cathohcs ; ^47 ^nd all the Oriental sects were included in the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic jurisdiction, of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate; the learning of individuals recommended them to the employ- ments of secretaries and physicians ; they were enriched by the lucrative collection of the revenue ; and their merit was some- times raised to the command of cities and provinces. A caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare that the Christians were most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia. " The Moslems," said he, " will abuse their present fortune ; the Magians regret their fallen greatness ; and the Jews are impa- pe^r tient for their approachin<»' deliverance." -^^ But the slaves of hardships iii r p ii despotism are exposed to the alternatives of favour and disgrace. The captive churches of the East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers ; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the pi'ide or the zeal of the Christians.-^' About two hundred years after Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow -subjects by a turban or girdle of a less honourable colour ; instead of horses or mule.s, they were condemned to ride on asses, in the attitude of women. Their public and private buildings were measured by a diminu- tive standard ; in the streets or the baths, it is their duty to give way or bow down before the meanest of the people ; and their testimony is rejected, if it may tend to the pi-ejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions, the sound of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship ; a decent rever- ence for the national faith is imposed on their sermons and con- versations ; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosch or to seduce a Musulman will not be suffered to escape with impu- nity. In a time, however, of tranquillity and j ustice, the Chris- tians have never been compelled to renounce the Gospel or to embrace the Koran ; but the punishment of death is inflicted 2-«7Eutych. Annal. torn. ii. p. 384, 387, 388. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex, p. 205, 206, 257, 332. A taint of the Monothelite heresy might render the first of these Greek patriarchs less loyal to the emperors and less obno.xious to the Arabs. 248Motadhed. who had reigned from A.D. 892-902. The Magians still held their name and rank among the religions of the empire (Assemanni, Bibliot. Orient, torn. iv. p. 97). 249 Reland explains the general restraints of the Mahometan policy and juris- prudence (Dissertat. torn. iii. p. 16-20). The oppressive edicts of the caliph Mota- wakkel (..d. 847-861), which are still in force, are noticed by Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 448) and d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 640). A persecution of the caliph Omar II. is related, and most probably magnified, by the Greek Theo- phanes (Chron. p. 334 [ad A.M. 6210]).