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Part III.
In consequence of this opinion, it was the first but arduous duty of a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled by the
practice of idolatry. The religion of the nations was not merely a speculative doctrine professed in the schools or preached in the
temples. The innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of business or pleasure,
of public or of private life; and it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them, without, at the same time, renouncing the
commerce of mankind, and all the offices and amusements of society. 40 The important transactions of peace and war were
prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier, were obliged to preside or to
participate. 41 The public spectacles were an essential part of the cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and the gods were supposed
to accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that the prince and people celebrated in honor of their peculiar festivals. 42
The Christians, who with pious horror avoided the abomination of the circus or the theatre, found himself encompassed with
infernal snares in every convivial entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured out libations to each
other's happiness. 43 When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced into hymeneal pomp over the
threshold of her new habitation, 44 or when the sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile; 45 the
Christian, on these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert the persons who were the dearest to him, rather than contract
the guilt inherent to those impious ceremonies. Every art and every trade that was in the least concerned in the framing or
adorning of idols was polluted by the stain of idolatry; 46 a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal misery the far greater part
of the community, which is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous
remains of antiquity, we shall perceive, that besides the immediate representations of the gods, and the holy instruments of their
worship, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions consecrated by the imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest
ornaments of the houses, the dress, and the furniture of the Pagan. 47 Even the arts of music and painting, of eloquence and
poetry, flowed from the same impure origin. In the style of the fathers, Apollo and the Muses were the organs of the infernal
spirit; Homer and Virgil were the most eminent of his servants; and the beautiful mythology which pervades and animates the
compositions of their genius, is destined to celebrate the glory of the daemons. Even the common language of Greece and Rome
abounded with familiar but impious expressions, which the imprudent Christian might too carelessly utter, or too patiently hear. 48
Footnote 40: Tertullian has written a most severe treatise against idolatry, to caution his brethren against the hourly danger of
incurring that guilt. Recogita sylvam, et quantae latitant spinae. De Corona Militis, c. 10.
Footnote 41: The Roman senate was
always held in a temple or consecrated place. (Aulus Gellius, xiv. 7.) Before they entered on business, every senator dropped
some wine and frankincense on the altar. Sueton. in August. c. 35.
Footnote 42: See Tertullian, De Spectaculis. This severe reformer shows no more indulgence to a tragedy of Euripides, than to a
combat of gladiators. The dress of the actors particularly offends him. By the use of the lofty buskin, they impiously strive to add a
cubit to their stature. c. 23.
Footnote 43: The ancient practice of concluding the entertainment with libations, may be found in
every classic. Socrates and Seneca, in their last moments, made a noble application of this custom. Postquam stagnum, calidae
aquae introiit, respergens proximos servorum, addita voce, libare se liquorem illum Jovi Liberatori. Tacit. Annal. xv. 64.
Footnote 44: See the elegant but idolatrous hymn of Catullus, on the nuptials of Manlius and Julia. O Hymen, Hymenaee Io! Quis
huic Deo compararier ausit?
Footnote 45: The ancient funerals (in those of Misenus and Pallas) are no less accurately described by Virgil, than they are
illustrated by his commentator Servius. The pile itself was an altar, the flames were fed with the blood of victims, and all the
assistants were sprinkled with lustral water.
Footnote 46: Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 11.
Footnote 47: See every part of Montfaucon's Antiquities. Even the reverses of the Greek
and Roman coins were frequently of an idolatrous nature. Here indeed the scruples of the Christian were suspended by a stronger
passion. Note: All this scrupulous nicety is at variance with the decision of St. Paul about meat offered to idols, 1 Cor. x. 21 - 32. -
M.
Footnote 48: Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 20, 21, 22. If a Pagan friend (on the occasion perhaps of sneezing) used the familiar
expression of "Jupiter bless you," the Christian was obliged to protest against the divinity of Jupiter.
The dangerous temptations which on every side lurked in ambush to surprise the unguarded believer, assailed him with redoubled
violence on the days of solemn festivals. So artfully were they framed and disposed throughout the year, that superstition always
wore the appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue. Some of the most sacred festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to
salute the new calends of January with vows of public and private felicity; to indulge the pious remembrance of the dead and
living; to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property; to hail, on the return of spring, the genial powers of fecundity; to perpetuate
the two memorable areas of Rome, the foundation of the city and that of the republic, and to restore, during the humane license of
the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind. Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians for such impious
ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which they displayed on a much less alarming occasion. On days of general festivity, it
was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a
garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant practice might perhaps have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. But it most
unluckily happened that the doors were under the protection of the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to the lover of
Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though frequently worn as a symbol of joy or mourning, had been dedicated in their first
origin to the service of superstition. The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in this instance to comply with the fashion of
their country, and the commands of the magistrate, labored under the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches of his own
conscience, the censures of the church, and the denunciations of divine vengeance. 50
Footnote 49: Consult the most labored
work of Ovid, his imperfect Fasti. He finished no more than the first six months of the year. The compilation of Macrobius is
called the Saturnalia, but it is only a small part of the first book that bears any relation to the title.
Footnote 50: Tertullian has composed a defence, or rather panegyric, of the rash action of a Christian soldier, who, by throwing away his crown of laurel, had exposed himself and his brethren to the most imminent danger. By the mention of the emperors,
(Severus and Caracalla,) it is evident, notwithstanding the wishes of M. de Tillemont, that Tertullian composed his treatise De
Corona long before he was engaged in the errors of the Montanists. See Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iii. p. 384. Note: The
soldier did not tear off his crown to throw it down with contempt; he did not even throw it away; he held it in his hand, while others
were it on their heads.
Such was the anxious diligence which was required to guard the chastity of the gospel from the infectious breath of idolatry. The
superstitious observances of public or private rites were carelessly practiced, from education and habit, by the followers of the
established religion. But as often as they occurred, they afforded the Christians an opportunity of declaring and confirming their
zealous opposition. By these frequent protestations their attachment to the faith was continually fortified; and in proportion to the
increase of zeal, they combated with the more ardor and success in the holy war, which they had undertaken against the empire of
the demons.
The writings of Cicero 51 represent in the most lively colors the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient
philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death,
they inculcate, as an obvious, though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of
life; and that those can no longer suffer, who no longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who had
conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of human nature, though it must be confessed, that in the sublime
inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by their vanity.
When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers, when they exercised the various faculties of
memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important labors, and when they reflected on
the desire of fame, which transported them into future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and of the grave, they were unwilling
to confound themselves with the beasts of the field, or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they entertained the most sincere
admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of duration. With this favorable prepossession they summoned to
their aid the science, or rather the language, of Metaphysics. They soon discovered, that as none of the properties of matter will
apply to the operations of the mind, the human soul must consequently be a substance distinct from the body, pure, simple, and
spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher degree of virtue and happiness after the release from its
corporeal prison. From these specious and noble principles, the philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced a very
unjustifiable conclusion, since they asserted, not only the future immortality, but the past eternity, of the human soul, which they
were too apt to consider as a portion of the infinite and self-existing spirit, which pervades and sustains the universe. 52 A
doctrine thus removed beyond the senses and the experience of mankind, might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic mind;
or, in the silence of solitude, it might sometimes impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue; but the faint impression which had
been received in the schools, was soon obliterated by the commerce and business of active life. We are sufficiently acquainted
with the eminent persons who flourished in the age of Cicero, and of the first Caesars, with their actions, their characters, and
their motives, to be assured that their conduct in this life was never regulated by any serious conviction of the rewards or
punishments of a future state. At the bar and in the senate of Rome the ablest orators were not apprehensive of giving offence to
their hearers, by exposing that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected with contempt by every man of a
liberal education and understanding. 53
Footnote 51: In particular, the first book of the Tusculan Questions, and the treatise De Senectute, and the Somnium Scipionis,
contain, in the most beautiful language, every thing that Grecian philosophy, on Roman good sense, could possibly suggest on this
dark but important object.
Footnote 52: The preexistence of human souls, so far at least as that doctrine is compatible with
religion, was adopted by many of the Greek and Latin fathers. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, l. vi. c. 4.
Footnote 53:
See Cicero pro Cluent. c. 61. Caesar ap. Sallust. de Bell. Catilis n 50. Juvenal. Satir. ii. 149.
Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no further than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at
most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe
the condition, of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body. But we
may perceive several defects inherent to the popular religions of Greece and Rome, which rendered them very unequal to so
arduous a task. 1. The general system of their mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs; and the wisest among the Pagans
had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2. The description of the infernal regions had been abandoned to the fancy of painters
and of poets, who peopled them with so many phantoms and monsters, who dispensed their rewards and punishments with so little
equity, that a solemn truth, the most congenial to the human heart, was opposed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the wildest
fictions. 54 3. The doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered among the devout polytheists of Greece and Rome as a
fundamental article of faith. The providence of the gods, as it related to public communities rather than to private individuals, was
principally displayed on the visible theatre of the present world. The petitions which were offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo,
expressed the anxiety of their worshippers for temporal happiness, and their ignorance or indifference concerning a future life. 55
The important truth of the of the immortality of the soul was inculcated with more diligence, as well as success, in India, in
Assyria, in Egypt, and in Gaul; and since we cannot attribute such a difference to the superior knowledge of the barbarians, we
must ascribe it to the influence of an established priesthood, which employed the motives of virtue as the instrument of ambition.
56
Footnote 54: The xith book of the Odyssey gives a very dreary and incoherent account of the infernal shades. Pindar and Virgil
have embellished the picture; but even those poets, though more correct than their great model, are guilty of very strange
inconsistencies. See Bayle, Responses aux Questions d'un Provincial, part iii. c. 22.
Footnote 55: See xvith epistle of the first book of Horace, the xiiith Satire of Juvenal, and the iid Satire of Persius: these popular
discourses express the sentiment and language of the multitude.
Footnote 56: If we confine ourselves to the Gauls, we may observe, that they intrusted, not only their lives, but even their money, to the security of another world. Vetus ille mos Gallorum occurrit (says Valerius Maximus, l. ii. c. 6, p. 10) quos, memoria
proditum est pecunias montuas, quae his apud inferos redderentur, dare solitos. The same custom is more darkly insinuated by
Mela, l. iii. c. 2. It is almost needless to add, that the profits of trade hold a just proportion to the credit of the merchant, and that
the Druids derived from their holy profession a character of responsibility, which could scarcely be claimed by any other order of
men.
We might naturally expect that a principle so essential to religion, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the
chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been intrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent on us
to adore the mysterious dispensations of Providence, 57 when we discover that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is
omitted in the law of Moses it is darkly insinuated by the prophets; and during the long period which clasped between the Egyptian
and the Babylonian servitudes, the hopes as well as fears of the Jews appear to have been confined within the narrow compass of
the present life. 58 After Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra had restored the
ancient records of their religion, two celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly arose at Jerusalem. 59 The
former, selected from the more opulent and distinguished ranks of society, were strictly attached to the literal sense of the Mosaic
law, and they piously rejected the immortality of the soul, as an opinion that received no countenance from the divine book, which
they revered as the only rule of their faith. To the authority of Scripture the Pharisees added that of tradition, and they accepted,
under the name of traditions, several speculative tenets from the philosophy or religion of the eastern nations. The doctrines of fate
or predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, were in the number of these new articles
of belief; and as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their manners, had drawn into their party the body of the Jewish people, the
immortality of the soul became the prevailing sentiment of the synagogue, under the reign of the Asmonaean princes and pontiffs.
The temper of the Jews was incapable of contenting itself with such a cold and languid assent as might satisfy the mind of a
Polytheist; and as soon as they admitted the idea of a future state, they embraced it with the zeal which has always formed the
characteristic of the nation. Their zeal, however, added nothing to its evidence, or even probability: and it was still necessary that
the doctrine of life and immortality, which had been dictated by nature, approved by reason, and received by superstition, should
obtain the sanction of divine truth from the authority and example of Christ.
Footnote 57: The right reverend author of the Divine Legation of Moses as signs a very curious reason for the omission, and most ingeniously retorts it on the unbelievers.
Footnote 58: See Le Clerc (Prolegomena ad Hist. Ecclesiast. sect. 1, c. 8 His authority seems to carry the greater weight, as
he has written a learned and judicious commentary on the books of the Old Testament.
Footnote 59: Joseph. Antiquitat. l. xiii. c. 10. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8. According to the most natural interpretation of his words, the
Sadducees admitted only the Pentateuch; but it has pleased some modern critics to add the Prophets to their creed, and to suppose
that they contented themselves with rejecting the traditions of the Pharisees. Dr. Jortin has argued that point in his Remarks on
Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 103.
When the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to mankind on condition of adopting
the faith, and of observing the precepts, of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have been accepted by
great numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of every province in the Roman empire. The ancient Christians were animated
by a contempt for their present existence, and by a just confidence of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith of
modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. In the primitive church, the influence of truth was very powerfully strengthened
by an opinion, which, however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not been found agreeable to experience.
It was universally believed, that the end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven, were at hand. * The near approach of this
wonderful event had been predicted by the apostles; the tradition of it was preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who
understood in their literal senses the discourse of Christ himself, were obliged to expect the second and glorious coming of the Son
of Man in the clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which
might still be witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has
instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation; but as long as, for wise purposes, this
error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was productive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of Christians,
who lived in the awful expectation of that moment, when the globe itself, and all the various race of mankind, should tremble at the
appearance of their divine Judge. 60
Footnote *: This was, in fact, an integral part of the Jewish notion of the Messiah, from which the minds of the apostles
themselves were but gradually detached. See Bertholdt, Christologia Judaeorum, concluding chapters - M.
Footnote 60: This expectation was countenanced by the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Erasmus removes the difficulty by the help of allegory and metaphor; and the learned Grotius ventures to insinuate,
that, for wise purposes, the pious deception was permitted to take place.
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To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 1st ed. (London : Printed for W. Strahan ; and T. Cadell, 1776-1788.), pp. 464-471.