Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/136

 116 THE DECLINE AND FALL loosely spread over tlie provinces of Asia Minor to the westward of the Euphrates; six of their principal congregations represented the churches to which St. Paul had addressed his epistles ; and their founder chose his residence in the neighbourhood of Colonia,!^ in the same district of Pontus which had been cele- brated by the altars of Bellona i" and the miracles of Gregory.^'' After a mission of twenty-seven years, Sylvanus, who had retired from the tolerating government of the Arabs, fell a sacrifice to Persecution Roman pcrsccution. The laws of the pious emperors, which emperors Seldom touched the lives of less odious heretics, proscribed with- out mercy or disguise the tenets, the books, and the persons of the Montanists and Manichaeans : the books were delivered to the flames ; and all who should presume to secrete such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted to an ignominious death. 1^ A Greek minister, armed with legal and military powers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd, and to re- claim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, SiiTieon placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his dis- ciples, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon and the proof of their repentance, to massacre their spiritual father. They turned aside from the impious office ; the stones dropped from their filial hands ; and of the whole number only one execu- tioner could be found, a new David, as he is styled by the Catholics, who boldly overthrew the giant of heresy. This 1' Most probably founded by Pompey after the conquest of Pontus. This Colonia, on the Lycus above N'eo-Caesarea, is named by the Turks Couleihisar, or Chonac, a populous town in a strong country (d'Anville, Geographic Ancienne, torn. ii. p. 34 ; Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, torn. iii. lettre xxi. p. 293). [Professor Ramsay is inclined to identify Colonea with Kara Hissar (= Black Castle, Maupo- Kaarpov, Attaliates, p. 125); Asia Minor, p. 267, and cp. p. 57.] ^^The temple of Bellona at Comana, in Pontus, was a powerful and wealthy foundation, and the high priest was respected as the second person in the kingdom. As the sacerdotal oflFice had been occupied by his mother's family, Strabo (1. xii. p. 809 [2, § 3], 835, 836, 837 [3, § 32 S'/^.]) dwells with peculiar complacency on the temple, the worship, and festival, which was twice celebrated every year. But the Bellona of Pontus had the features and character of the goddess, not of war, but of love. 1'^ Gregory, bishop of Neo-Csesarea (a.d 240-265), surnamed Thaumaturgus or the Wonder-worker. An hundred years afterwards, the history or romance of his life was composed by Gregory of Nyssa, his namesake and countryman, the brother of the great St. Basil. i*Hoc caeterum ad sua egregia facinora divini atque orthodoxi Imperatores addiderunt, ut Manichjeos Montanosque capitali puniri sententia juberent, eorum- que libros, quocunque in loco invent! essent, flammis tradi ; quod siquis uspiam eosdem occultasse deprehenderetur, hunc eundem mortis pcenae addici, ejusque bona in fiscum inferri (Petr. Sicul. p. 759). Tiat more could bigotry and per- secution desire?