Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/133

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 113 the epistles of St. Paul, his faithful follower investi;jated the creed of primitive Christianity ; and, whatever might be the success, a Protestant reader will applaud the spirit of the inquiry. But, if the scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were not perfect. Their founders rejected the two epistles of St. Peter,' the apostle of the circumcision, whose dispute with their favourite for the observance of the law could not easily be forgiven.'^ They agreed with their Gnostic brethren in the universal con- tempt for the Old Testament, the books of Moses and the prophets, which have been consecrated by the decrees of the Catholic church. With equal boldness, and doubtless with more reason, Constantine, the new Sylvanus, disclaimed the visions which, in so many bulky and splendid volumes, had been published by the Oriental sects ; ^ the fabulous productions of the Hebrew patriarchs and the sages of the East : the spurious gospels, epistles, and acts, which in the fii'st age had overwhelmed the orthodox code ; the theology of Manes and the authors of the kindred heresies ; and the thirty generations, or aeons, which had been created by the fruitful fancy of Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemned the raeraorj' and opinions of the Manichaean sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that invidious name on the simple votaries of St. Paul and of Christ. ^'^ Of the ecclesiastical chain, many links had been broken by the The sim- Paulician reformers ; and their liberty was enlarged, as they re- their beuef -,, - -•'. r ^""* worship duced the number ot masters at whose v'oice prorane reason must bow to myster}- and miracle. The early separation of the Gnos- tics had preceded the establishment of the Catholic worship ; and against the gradual innovations of discipline and doctrine they "^ In rejecting the secondcpste of St. Peter, the Paulicians are justified by some of the most respectable of the ancients and modems (see Wetstein ad loc.: Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau Testament, c. 17). They likewise overlooked the Apocalypse (Petr. Sicul. p. 756 fp. 1256, ap. Migne, P. G. 104") ; but, as such neglect is not im- puted P.S a crime, the Greeks of the ixth century must have been careless of the credit and honour of the Revelations. error and passion in one or both of the apostles. By Chrysostom, Jerom, and Erasmus, it is represented as a sham quarrel, a pious fraud, for the benefit of the Gentiles and the correction of the Jews (Middleton's Works, vol. ii. p. 1-20). " Those who are curious of this heterodox library may consult the researches of Beausobre (Hist. Critique du Manich6isme. torn. i. p. 385-437). Even in Africa, St. Austin could describe the Manichaean books, tarn multi, tam g^andes, tam pretiosi codices (contra Faust, xiii. 14) ; but he adds, without pity, Incendite omnes illas membranas : and his advice has been rigorously followed. i''[The Greeks included the Paulicians, like the Marcionites, under the general title of Manichjeans, l:)ecause they supposed them to be dualists, assuming two first principles.] voii. VI. 8
 * This contention, which has not escaped the malice of Porphyry, supposes some