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FIDISTORIA. 
 
 ^Siisr^ 
 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JAMES P. BARRY, 
 
 IRREMOVABLE RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S. 
 L.BXINQTON, KT. 
 
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 JTaMBS M. BTRI«fl 
 
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Copyright 
 May, 1901, 
 
 BY 
 
 James P. Barry. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 LOAN STACK 
 
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 Bt^% 
 
 PREFACE. Y4^0 f 
 
 This volume, as its coined name implies, treats di^ 
 some points of Faith and some of History. Not any 
 point is exhaustively treated. Each chapter is but a 
 glance at its subject. 
 
 Though the raising from the dead of Timotheus in 
 the palace of his father Pudens (pew-dens) be not con- 
 firmed, yet it does r;ot attribute anything more to St. 
 Peter, than is ascribed to him in the ninth chapter of 
 the "Acts of the Apostles." 
 
 *'And in Joppe there was a certain disciple named 
 Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. 
 This woman was full of good works and alms deeds 
 which she did. 
 
 "And it came to pass in those days, that she was 
 sick and died. Whom when they had washed, they 
 laid her in an upper chamber. 
 
 "And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppe, the 
 disciples hearing that Peter was there, sent unto him 
 two men asking; Be not loth to come unto us. 
 
 "And Peter rising up went with them. And when 
 he was come, they brought him into the upper 
 chamber: and all the widows stood around him weep- 
 ing, and showing him the coats and garments which 
 Dorcas made them. 
 
 "And they all being put forth, Peter kneeling down 
 prayed, and turning to the body he said: Tabiiha arise. 
 And she opened her eyes: and seeing Peter, she sat up. 
 
 "And giving her his hand, he lifted her up. And 
 when he had called the saints and the widows, he 
 presented her alive. 
 
 "And it was made known throughout all Joppe; and 
 many believed in the Lord." Ads, IX. 36-42. 
 
 As to the rest, the book must speak for itself. 
 
 St. Paul's, 
 
 June 29th, 
 
 1901. 
 
 913 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 There IS A God 1 
 
 The BivESSED Trinity 5 
 
 Angei^ 8 
 
 Evil. Spirits 12 
 
 Oracles 16 
 
 Spiritualism 20 
 
 Apparitions 21 
 
 The World 25 
 
 Man 30 
 
 Spontaneous Generation 30 
 
 Evolution 32 
 
 Antiquity of Man 34 
 
 The Races of Men 40 
 
 Adam 46 
 
 Baptism 47 
 
 The Immaculate Conception 48 
 
 The Incarnation 49 
 
 The Blessed Sacrament 61 
 
 The Resurrection 52 
 
 Pen Pictures 54 
 
 The Church 66 
 
 The Apostles • 66 
 
 St. Andrew 67 
 
 St. James the Greater 6S 
 
 St. John the Evangelist 69 
 
 Ss. Philip and Bartholomew 63 
 
 Ss. Thomas and Matthew 63 
 
 St. Jambs the Less 66 
 
 St. Mark 67 
 
 St. Luke 69 
 
 Symbols ok the Evanoklists 70 
 
 ST. Peter 70 
 
 Ss. Pbtbr and Mark bntrr Rom k 72 
 
■vi CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 St. Peter in the Pai^ace of Pudens {pew-dens) 90 
 
 PUDENS I.EADS St. PETER TO THE CHAMBER OF 
 
 Death 88 
 
 Pudens showing Rome to St. Peter 92 
 
 St. Peter's Apoi^ogy for Himself 110 
 
 Nero Sets Fire TO Rome 116 
 
 The Centurion's Story 122 
 
 Martyrdom and Buriai, of SS. Peter and Paul ... 130 
 The Catacombs 136 
 
 The First Three Centuries. 
 
 The Martyrs 138 
 
 Popes of the Catacombs 144 
 
 Imperial Rome 180 
 
 The Soldier Martyrs - 206 
 
 The Fourth Century. 
 
 The CiRCENSi AN Games 215 
 
 Punishment OF THE Emperors 223 
 
 CONSTANTINE THE GrEAT. 
 
 Battle of Saxa Rubra 227 
 
 The Triumph 238 
 
 CoNSTANTiNE Digs the Foundation of St. Peter's 246 
 
 The Council of Sardica 259 
 
 The Close of the Fourth Century , 261 
 
 The Fifth Century. 
 
 The Monk Telemachus 265 
 
 The Nemesis 271 
 
 The Nun and the Sacred Vessels 282 
 
 The Ghost of Gamaliel 284 
 
 TheNemesis 292 
 
 Ancient Ireland 296 
 
 St. Patrick 321 
 
 Christian Ireland 328 
 
 The Sixth Century. 
 
 ToTiLA destroys Rome 333 
 
 The Pestilence and Pope Gregory 349 
 
 St. Augustine Converts England 355 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 Page. 
 The Seventh Century. 
 
 The Angi,o-Saxons 367 
 
 The Pope and the Emperor 370 
 
 The Eighth Century. 
 
 Some Popes and some Kings of France 375 
 
 The Pope's Temporal Power 377 
 
 Pope Leo 3rd. and Charlemagne.. 382 
 
 Canonization of St Switbert 383 
 
 gocellinus restored to life 387 
 
 Coronation of Charlemange 391 
 
 The Pope AND THE Turk 392 
 
 The Church and Education 39ft 
 
 Protestant Tributes 396 
 
FIDISTORIA. 
 
 THERE IS A GOD. 
 
 The Catholic Church, the Holy Scriptures, the 
 great body of mankind, and this universe of ours, 
 proclaim in solemn and unmistakable tones, the exist- 
 ence of one Supreme Ruler, who has created and who 
 governs all. 
 
 The Catholic Church proclaims it in her Creeds; 
 the Holy Scriptures teach it every where; the Indian 
 in his mountain fastness or torrid valley, kneels in 
 prayer to the Great Spirit; the backwoodsman of Aus- 
 tralia hears the inward voice telling him of a Creator; 
 the Egyptian touching with his brow the sands of 
 the desert reverentially adores the same Great Master. 
 
 We see God every where in nature. His Divine 
 Majesty has written in letters of supernal light upon 
 every part of this vast fabric of creation the three 
 words, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and 
 in these three we have the teaching in part of Divine 
 Revelation to man. 
 
 Omnipotence reveals a Being of infinite power; 
 omniscience, a Being of infinite wisdom; omnipres- 
 ence, a Being infinite in his existence, everywhere. 
 and from eternity to eternity, uncircumscribed by 
 place, untrammelled by time, having no past, no future, 
 but ever living in the ever present. 
 
 God has revealed Himself by creatures inanimate 
 and animate; the ponderous globes of night; the deeps 
 
2 THERE IS A GOD. 
 
 of ocean; the wonders of light; the chemistry of all 
 things that are; by angels as recorded in Holy Writ; by 
 men, prophets and apostles; by the lives of His devoted 
 servants, the saints; and most especially has He 
 revealed Himself by Himself Incarnate, and by His 
 own mouth-piece, the Holy Church. Hence the defi- 
 nition of the Vatican Council: '*If any one shall say 
 that the one true God, our Creator and I^ord, cannot 
 be certainly known by the natural light of human rea- 
 son through created things, let him be anathema." 
 
 Unbelievers in Divine Revelation object by saying 
 '*There is no God, matter is eternal," yet, strange to 
 say, they make the bare statement without any attempt 
 at proof. A schoolboy could meet the objection by 
 replying * 'There is a God, as matter could not be eter- 
 nal," and so far the argument might close. But the 
 schoolboy could continue and add, "The existence 
 alone of matter is only a part, we have also to consider 
 the wondrous wisdom and harmony and design dis- 
 played everywhere in the arrangement of this matter." 
 
 It must be admitted by all that dull, inert matter 
 could not possess a particle of intelligence, and there- 
 fore could not have had anything to do with the per- 
 fect arrangements around us. 
 
 Let us begin with this globe of earth on which we 
 live. Science tells us, and proves the statement that 
 the earth is just of the proper size for the home of man. 
 If larger, the attraction of gravitation would prevent 
 us walking with ease; we should on this account expe- 
 rience awkwardness in raising the feet; if smaller, we 
 should find equal difficulty in planting them. Now, 
 did the earth have intelligence enough to make itself 
 of the size just suitable to the wants of man ? Will the 
 
THERE IS A GOD. ^ 
 
 unbeliever say that it possessed this necessary intelli- 
 gence ? And if the earth did not design its proper 
 size, who did ? 
 
 However, we have not yet done with the earth. It 
 is surrounded by an atmosphere containing the lung- 
 conserving ingredient of oxygen. In one hundred 
 grains weight of the atmosphere, there is a little more 
 than twenty-three grains of oxygen; if there were 
 only nineteen or less, we should die of cold; if there 
 were thirty or more we should die of fever: has the 
 atmosphere arranged its component parts, if not who- 
 has appointed them? Moreover, the many hundred 
 millions of inhabitants aie continually inhaling this 
 oxygen, and exhaling it, under the form of a poisonous^ 
 gas — now, how, or by whom, is the continual fresh. 
 supply furnished ? 
 
 The sun supplies us with light and heat, yet it does^ 
 not afford sufficient heat, as according to the experi- 
 ments made by the astronomer Pouillet, in 1838, with. 
 the pyrheliometer invented by him, the stars supply 
 more than four-fifths of the heat afforded by the sun. 
 the proportion being 100 to 85. Will the unbeliever 
 say that the sun and the stars have arranged between 
 themselves their places in space, and the quaniity of 
 heat they should emit, so as to afford the genial tem- 
 perature that charms us; so as to give us, without 
 scorching or freezing, the flowers of spring, the fruits 
 of summer, the golden grain of the autumn ? 
 
 The wonders of the sky plainly reveal tlu m -a 
 of Infinite Power. This globe on which uc live 
 weighing six thousand millions of billions of tons is 
 swung around the sun in a year's time by the agency 
 of two forces: the one, attracting; the other repelling; 
 
4 THERE IS A GOD, 
 
 yet attracting and repelling with such precision that 
 it never leaves its orbit. No skilled charioteer ever 
 reined- in his spirited steeds, as those forces rule the 
 earth. The repelling-centrifugal force is unexplained 
 by science. What is it but the impetus received 
 when flung forth from the Hand of the Creator? 
 
 The book of Job proposes some puzzling questions 
 
 to the unbeliever: "Where was thou when I laid the 
 
 foundations of the earth? Tell me if thou hast 
 
 understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof 
 
 if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon 
 
 it ? Upon what are its bases grounded ? or who laid 
 
 ihe corner stone thereof? When the morning stars 
 
 l)raised Me together, and all the sons of God made a 
 
 joyful melody? Who shut up the sea with doors, 
 
 when it broke forth issuing out of the womb ? When 
 
 I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it 
 
 in a mist as in swaddling bands? I set my bounds 
 
 around it, and made it a bar and doors; And I said: 
 
 Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no further, 
 
 and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves. Didst 
 
 thou since thy birth command the morning, and show 
 
 the dawning of the day its place ? Hast thou entered 
 
 into the depths of the sea, and walked in the lowest 
 
 parts of the deep? Have the gates of death been 
 
 opened to thee, and hast thou seen the darksome 
 
 doors ? Where is the way where light dwelleth, and 
 
 where is the place of darkness? Didst thou know 
 
 then that thou shouldst be born ? and didst thou 
 
 know the number of thy days? Hast thou entered 
 
 into the storehouses of the snow, or hast thou beheld 
 
 the treasures of the hail ? By what way is the light 
 
 spread ? Who gave a course to violent showers, or a 
 
THE BLESSED TRINITY. 5 
 
 way for noisy thunder ? Shalt thou be able to join 
 together the shining stars, the Pleiades or canst thou 
 stop the turning about of Arcturus? Canst thou 
 bring forth the day star in its time, and make the 
 evening star to rise upon the children of the earth ? 
 Canst thou send lightnings and will they go, and will 
 they return and say to thee: Here we are ?" 
 
 Unbeliever, can you answer those questions, if not 
 be ashamed of your dullness in failing to perceive in 
 the universe the handiwork of God ? If you do not 
 believe the Church, believe, at least, the teaching of 
 the wondrous, of the magnificent Creator. 
 
 THE BLESSED TRINITY. 
 
 We learn from Divine Revelation, and from the 
 teaching of the infallible Church, that in this one God, 
 there are three Divine persons; the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost, really distinct and equal in all 
 things; in eternity, in wisdom, in power, in goodness, 
 in all perfections. We believe mysteries of religion 
 though we do not understand them; we believe them 
 because God has revealed them. They are above 
 reason, not contrary to it. A child of a few years 
 cannot be taught the intricacies of science, or the 
 structure of language, not because of the knowledge, 
 but because of the child's undeveloped intellect. The 
 mystery of the Blessed Trinity towers above the 
 intellect of man. 
 
 The following story is told, which perhaps may not 
 be true, but whether true or not, it pleasingly 
 illustrates the subject.— A certain bishop about to 
 preach or write on the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, 
 thought deeply on the subject, as he paced up and 
 down by the silent seashore, silent save in the voice of 
 
-« 77^5" BLESSED TRINITY. 
 
 its waves. As he pondered yet more and more, he 
 perceived a charming little boy, moving to and from 
 i:he edge of the ocean, bearing in his hands a tiny shell 
 filled with the sea-water which he poured into an 
 ■opening that he had made in the sand. "Little boy," 
 said the bishop, "what are you trying to do?" "I am 
 trying to pour the whole ocean into the opening in the 
 sand," replied the little boy. The bishop smiled and 
 said, " Child, you never could do that, you never 
 <:ould pour the waters of the ocean into that little 
 space. ' ' * 'Bishop' ' replied the graceful child, * 'I could 
 much more easily pour the waters of the ocean into 
 that little space, than you could grasp the great mys- 
 tery of the Blessed Trinity with your little mind." 
 The child disappeared. The astonished bishop re- 
 turned to his home, thanking God for the favor and 
 the lesson of the celestial visitor. 
 
 We ought not to be surprised that there are heavenly 
 mysteries, inasmuch as we live amid numberless 
 mysteries of earth. We believe that we sleep, speak, 
 think, yet we do not understand how we sleep, how 
 -we speak, how we think. One studying music must 
 :spend years at the key -board of the piano, before ease 
 in playing is acquired, yet without training, the lips, 
 teeth, tongue, throat and palate form words with ease, 
 and utter them in quick succession. We partake of a 
 meal, and after some lapse of time, the meats are 
 changed into flesh, blood, skin, bone, muscles, sinew, 
 hair and nail. We plant a grain of corn, and it pro- 
 •duces many grains. We sow flower seed, and as they 
 grow, the sun paints one, white, another, red; a third, 
 purple; whilst the grass charms the eye with its vivid 
 :green. As man is incapable of understanding the 
 
THE BLESSED TRINITY, 7 
 
 mysteries of nature, why then should he be surprised 
 at not understanding heavenly ones? 
 
 In the Creed ascribed to St. Athanasius we read, 
 *' Now the Catholic Faith is this; that we worship one 
 God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. 
 
 Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the 
 substance. For there is one Person of the Father, 
 another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, 
 the majesty co-eternal. 
 
 Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy 
 Ghost uncreated. 
 
 The Father incomprehensible, the Son incompre- 
 hensible, the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. 
 
 The Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Ghost 
 eternal. 
 
 And yet they are not three eternals, but one eter- 
 nal. As also they are not three uncreated, nor three 
 incomprehensibles; but one uncreated and one incom- 
 prehensible. 
 
 In like manner the Father is almighty, the Son 
 almighty, the Holy Ghost almighty. 
 
 And yet they ar« not three almighties, but one 
 almighty. So the Father is God, the Son God, and 
 the Holy Ghost God. 
 
 And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. 
 
 So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, 
 and the Holy Ghost is Lord. 
 
 And yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord. 
 For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity 
 
8 THE BLESSED TRINITY. 
 
 to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and 
 Lord. So we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to 
 say there are three Gods or three Lords. 
 
 As Sunday is dedicated to the Blessed Trinity, we 
 ought to say, occasionally at least, on that day the 
 prayer termed the doxology: ''Glory be to the Father, 
 and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in 
 the beginriing, is now and ever shall be, world with- 
 out end, Amen.'' 
 
 CREATION. 
 
 ANGELS. 
 
 The great Being of whom we have treated, one God 
 in three Divine persons, lived by himself from all eter- 
 nity. In Himself He enjoyed infinite happiness. In 
 Him were centred all perfections; goodness, mercy, 
 justice, holiness, beauty, truth, wisdom, independ- 
 ence, immensity, liberty, immutability; yet these 
 words express but faintly the character of the Al- 
 mighty God. The combined knowledge of heaven 
 and earth is but an atom in His omniscience; the daz- 
 zling splendor of heaven and earth but a sparkle of 
 His beauty; the concentrated kindness of all mothers 
 but a drop in the infinite deeps of the ocean of His 
 mercy. Living by Himself, He was infinitely happy, 
 yet it pleased Him to create that He might scatter 
 happiness around Him. However, His happiness in 
 no way depended on the happiness or unhappiness of 
 creatures. If all were lost, their loss could not lessen 
 in the smallest degree the essential happiness of God; 
 if all were saved their united Te Deums could not add 
 one particle to the same essential happiness. God 
 created through love, and through love only. 
 
CREATION. ^ 
 
 How wonderful, how powerful is God! During an 
 eternity silence reigned, no footfall of time. It then 
 pleased God to speak. God speaks. *'Let there be 
 light," and instantly whole armies of most beautiful 
 creatures — angels — sprang into existence. Armies, it 
 is the general opinion that in the ninth choir alone 
 there are more angels than there will be men. from 
 Adam to the day of doom. 
 
 The nine choirs are divided into three hierarchies. 
 The first, the Seraphim inflamed with love; the sec- 
 ond, the Cherubim, glorious for supernatural science; 
 the third, the Thrones, eminent for especial submis- 
 sion to the Divine Will. The second hierarchy; The 
 Dominations filled with zeal for the Kingdom of God; 
 the Virtues, replete with invincible force in the ser- 
 vice of God; the Powers, possessed of marvelous be- 
 nignity. The third hierarchy: The Principalities, em- 
 inent for purity of intention; the Archangels, lovely 
 for their peculiar participation in the virtues, both of 
 their superiors and inferiors; the Angels delightful to 
 God from the humility with which they govern the 
 world. 
 
 The angels are spiritual substances. They are not 
 burdened with corruptible bodies and in this are supe* 
 rior to man. The substance of the angels is the most 
 subtle in the world. They are more spiritual than the 
 soul, yet they are gross and material as compared with 
 God. People object that the angels cannot be seen, 
 and therefore ought not to be believed in. but we 
 should remember that the finer parts even of matter 
 are not visible even to our best optical instruments. 
 We do not see the air, light or eleclricity. why then 
 wonder at not seeing the spiritual sub&tance of the 
 
10 CREATION. 
 
 angels? Their substance is the most noble after that 
 of God, and so their understanding is the most subtle. 
 They have wonderful knowledge of the secrets of 
 nature. Art, science, language, medicine are open 
 books to them. They need but glance to know. Their 
 knowledge is intuitive and derived from the Beatific 
 Vision. But they do not know all. They do not know 
 future events by their natural science, nor the secrets 
 of hearts unless these are betrayed by brain or other 
 reflectors. The deep mysteries wound up with the 
 Incarnation are unknown to them also. When created, 
 they were resplendent with sanctifying grace, and with 
 the infused virtues of faith, hope and charity. The 
 Blessed Trinity, Incarnation, future events and eternal 
 punishment were revealed to them. They speak to 
 one another by their wills. Our mode of speaking is 
 much less perfect, as we have to use lips, tongue, teeth, 
 throat, palate. They ask light of those above them, 
 and communicate it to those below them. They have 
 charge of the heavenly bodies; sun, stars, planets, 
 comets are under their care. 
 
 The angels at their creation were simply magnifi- 
 '^cent in the splendor of sanctifying grace. The sun in 
 its noonday brightness was but darkness compared 
 with the radiance of the least among them. However, 
 they did not enjoy the Beatific Vision, and having free 
 will could sin. It pleased the good God to give them 
 a time of probation as He gives to men, but a large 
 number of them were proud, and so failed in the test. 
 The veil of time was lifted up and looking forward, 
 they beheld the Babe of Bethlehem lying on a little 
 straw in the manger of a poor stable. They were 
 called upon to make an act of faith, and an act of ador- 
 
ANGELS. 11 
 
 ation, but like the infidel of to-day, refused in the 
 spirit of pride. Immediately, sanctifying grace de- 
 parted; the splendor became dim; deep darkness encir- 
 cled them; they were forever shut out from the Beat- 
 ific Vision; black despair so took possession of them, 
 as to become an eternal companion. It is the teaching 
 of very famous theologians that the fall of the angels 
 had its origin in the revelation to them, of the Mys- 
 tery of the Incarnation. 
 
 In some respects men are inferior to angels; in 
 others, superior. Men are inferior in natural gifts. 
 No man could do by human power that which the angel 
 Raphael did by angelic power: who proved himself to 
 be a physician of the soul; who restored sight to the 
 blind, venerable Tobias; who knew the secret powers of 
 nature; who troubled the waters of Bethsaida; and who 
 bound Satan in the desert. Men are superior to angels 
 in this particular, that human nature has been won- 
 drously dignified by its assumption into the Godhead. 
 The eternal, omnipotent God by an infinite condescen- 
 sion that St. Paul terms annihilation, incorporated 
 Himself with a human babe, and so exalted man. that 
 the brilliance of the highest angel dwindles by co m- 
 parison into insignificance. Angels and men arc equal, 
 in having Almighty God for their Creator; in sharing 
 equally in a life that will never end; and in being fel- 
 low citizens of the Paradise of God. 
 
 The angels have not only charge of the material 
 universe, but are also the guardians of men, infusing 
 good thoughts, protecting in danger, and praying for 
 those intrusted to them. Each one has his guardian 
 angel. They begin their charge at the time of concep- 
 tion, and continue to the last expiring sigh. They do 
 
12 CREATION. 
 
 SO most affectionately, with wonderful -^eal, with per- 
 petual joy. 
 
 We should cultivate therefore a deep affection for 
 our guardian angel, because Almighty God has 
 deputed him to assist us continually; because he has 
 taken charge of us with a most tender love, beyond 
 that of father, mother, brother or sister; because he 
 never abandons us for a single moment although we 
 may totally forget him; because he has taken a most 
 particular care of us when we were children; because 
 he acts continually as our master; from him come good 
 thoughts, inspirations, lights and hints that lead us 
 on to salvation; because he is always endeavoring to 
 incline our will to good works; because by his power 
 he is always removing the obstacles that stand in the 
 way of perfection; because in those occasions of sin 
 that meet us without any fault of ours, he assists us, 
 and gives us interior warnings; because he bridles the 
 force of the devils that they may not tempt us beyond 
 our power; because in troubles of spirit and sufferings 
 of body, he assists us to suffer patiently; because 
 when we invoke him in our doubts, he always gives 
 us counsel; because he prays continually for us, and 
 offers our prayers to God; because he is never dis- 
 turbed, neither does he abandon us when we fall into 
 sin; because he assists us at our death with a most 
 diligent solicitude.* 
 
 We should never neglect to make a loving act of 
 thanksgiving to him, morning and evening. 
 EVII. SPIRITS. 
 
 Not only are there blessed spirits who watch over 
 and protect us, but there are evil spirits — the fallen 
 angels — who are jealous of man, because Almighty 
 ^Faber. Notes on Doctrinal Subjects. 
 
ANGELS. 13 
 
 God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ assumed 
 human nature in preference to the angelic. Just as 
 He preferred the poverty of the little Bethlehem to 
 the splendor of imperial Rome; so He incorporated 
 Himself with poor humanity, in preference to the 
 brilliance of the Seraph. The fallen angels are but 
 creatures, and like other creatures are influenced by 
 jealousy. Their places in Paradise are to be occupied 
 by beings lower than themselves, hence the effort to 
 prevent this by causing men to rebel against God as 
 they did. 
 
 Some very prominent men have rendered themselves 
 despicable by their mean jealousy of others. Plato 
 never deigned to notice Zenophon, and Zenophon was 
 continually carping at Plato. Plato wrote better. 
 When Racine read his first tragedy, Corneille advised 
 him never to write another. Boccaccio offered 
 Petrarch a copy of Dante; Petrarch refused to look at 
 it. Hegel could not bear to hear the name of Schopcn- 
 hauser. The higher the faculty of mind; the deeper 
 seems the spirit of jealousy. 
 
 The enemies of the Church know well the impor- 
 tance of denying the existence of evil spirits. * 'Satan 
 is all Christianity," said Voltaire, meaning thereby 
 that if people believed in evil spirits, it would tend to 
 make them think seriously of eternal things. 
 
 The Holy Scripture clearly and abundantly teaches 
 this doctrine: — "Then was brought unto Him one 
 possessed with a devil, blind and dumb: and He 
 healed him. so that he both spoke and saw." iS. 
 Matth, 12-22. 
 
 "And lo, a spirit seizeth him, and he suddenly 
 crieth out, and he throweth him down, and teareth 
 
14 CREATION. 
 
 him; so that he foameth, and bruising him, hardly 
 departeth from him." 5*. Luke, 9-39. 
 
 "And when evening was come, they brought ta 
 Him many that were possessed with devils: and He 
 cast out the spirit with his word, and all that were 
 sick He healed." S, Mdtth, 8-16. 
 
 "And when they were gone out, behold, they 
 brought to Him, a dumb man possessed with a devil. 
 And the devil being cast out, the dumb man spoke, 
 and the multitude wondered, saying: "The like was 
 never seen in Israel." 6*. Matth. 9. . 
 
 "And when He had called His twelve disciples 
 together, he gave them power over unclean spirits, to 
 cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and 
 to heal all manner of sicknesses." 
 
 "And He gave them power to heal sicknesses and 
 to cast out devils." 
 
 "Then having called together the twelve apostles, 
 He gave them power and authority over all devils, 
 and to cure diseases." ^. Luke, 9 i. 
 
 "And the seventy-two returned with joy, saying: 
 Lord, the devils also are subject to us in Thy name.^' 
 "And God wrought special miracles by the hand of 
 Paul. So that even there were brought from his 
 body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the 
 diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits 
 went out of them. Now some of the Jewish exorcists 
 who went about, attempted to invoke over them that 
 had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: 
 I conjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And 
 there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva a Jew, a 
 chief priest, who did this- But an evil spirit answer- 
 ing, said to them: Jesus I know and Paul I know;. 
 
ANGELS. 15 
 
 but who are you ? And the man in whom the evil 
 spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering them 
 both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of 
 that house naked and wounded." Acts. 19-11 to 16. 
 The evil spirits though cast out of heaven yet pos- 
 sess the natural powers of the angel, and so are vastly 
 superior to man in science, language, literature, medi- 
 cine; in a word,, in all created knowledge. As when 
 a military officer is degraded and can no longer wear 
 tte golden epaulette or badge of honor, yet does not 
 thereby lose the knowledge he had previously attained; 
 so the spirits of evil, though deprived of the splendors 
 with which they had been endowed, yet retain their 
 angelic knowledge. Hence they can transform them- 
 selves, and assume any form they please, using the 
 air, light, and other latent means, in ways that we 
 know not of. We are not to be surprised at this, as 
 even men can effect wonders by means of matter. The 
 sculptor takes a block of rough marble, unsightly in 
 shape, and using his chisel, little by little, and stroke 
 by stroke, the graceful form of some hero is evolved — 
 Washington, Grant, Lee, present themselves. The 
 artist with brush and color lights up the plain canvass 
 with forms of beauty; the grapes depend in clusters 
 from the vine; the flower seems to need only fragrance 
 to prove its reality; the human figures painted by the 
 "Great Masters" seem almost to look, to speak, to 
 listen; the photographer grasps the solar ray, and in- 
 stantaneously outlines his picture. What wonder, 
 then, that with angelic art, Satan can assume mate- 
 rial forms at pleasure. 
 
 In ancient times people believed in being^s possessed 
 of knowledge that could not be acquired by natural 
 
16 CREA TION. 
 
 means, and under the name of oracles had recourse for 
 information through them to none other than evil 
 spirits. Classic Greece was famed for its oracles. 
 That at Delphi was the most famous. Delphi was an 
 ancient city of Phocis in Achaia. It stood upon the 
 middle of the side of Mount Parnassus on some even 
 ground, surrounded by precipices. An exhalation 
 arose from a cavity in the mountain that seemed to 
 intoxicate those who inhaled it. A shepherd having 
 approached it was seized with violent bodily agitation, 
 and began to pronounce words that he himself did not 
 understand, especially because they related to futurity. 
 After this occurrence the cave was approached with 
 fear and a certain reverence. The vapor was believed 
 to be of the other world. A priestess was appointed, 
 who, influenced by the exhalation of the cave, an- 
 swered all manner of questions. Of course she was 
 but the agent of the evil spirits who hovered about 
 Parnassus. The city of Delphi rose insensibly around 
 this cave, and a temple was erected, which afterwards 
 became very magnificent. This temple having been 
 burned, the Amphyctrions, celebrated judges of Greece, 
 rebuilt it, at a cost of about two hundred thousand 
 dollars of our money. It became enriched with an 
 almost incredible number of presents. Princes, cities, 
 and private persons, had heaped up in it tripods, vases, 
 tablets, shields, crowns, chariots, and statues of gold 
 and silver of all sizes. According to Herodotus, Croe- 
 sus, King of Lydia, alone made presents of gold to the 
 value of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and 
 of silver to about the same amount. Among the 
 statues of gold presented by Croesus was that of his 
 cook. Alyattes, the father of Croesus, married a sec- 
 
ORACLES. 17 
 
 ond wife, who resolved upon the death of Croesus, 
 that the crown might descend to one of her own chil- 
 dren. For this purpose she engaged the cook to place 
 poison in a loaf prepared for the prince's table. The 
 cook being a tender-hearted woman was horrified, and 
 gave notice to Croesus. The loaf was then served to 
 her own children, who were poisoned, thus leaving the 
 crown to its rightful owner. When he ascended the 
 throne, in gratitude to his benefactress, he erected a 
 statue to her memory in the temple of Delphi. 
 
 If asked why the evil spirits selected this spot, we 
 can only suppose that as birds of prey are attracted by 
 the odor of the decomposing carcass, so some cause 
 unknown to us, attracted the evil spirits; or, it may be 
 that the cave around which the temple was built, was 
 an outlet of their infernal home. The answers were 
 in many cases, mere guesses, but frequently the guesses 
 proved true. Again not unfrequently the answers 
 were ambiguous, and could bear opposite meanings, so 
 as to be truthful in one or the other meaning attached. 
 Let us remark that even men can in many cases, guess 
 the future with a becoming amount of certitude. 
 Thus the skilful physician in a Urge number of cases, 
 foresees the certain nearness of death; the meteorolo- 
 gist gives notice of the coming storm; the astronomer 
 can foretell the time of the coming eclipse with aston- 
 i.shing accuracy. 
 
 The atmosphere is well peopled with evil spirits. 
 St. Paul speaks of the "spirits of wickedness in the 
 high places." They can communicate with one an- 
 other with a speed unknown to us. Telegraphy is 
 slowness compared with their messages. We can com- 
 municate with a friend in a distant land by telegram 
 
18 ORACLES. 
 
 in a short time; a spirit can communicate inslantane- , 
 ously. 
 
 The Roman emperor, Trajan, had experience of this. 
 Hearing wonderful things of the Oracle at Heliopolis, 
 he determined to test it, and summoning a trusty offi- 
 cer, handed to him a sealed packet, to be laid on the 
 altar; to await a reply; and to see that the seal remained 
 unbroken. The packet contained a blank parchment, 
 and had rested on the aliar only a little time and in 
 presence of the officer, when another sealed packet 
 of like size was placed by its side. The officer bore 
 the reply to the emperor. Trajan was amazed on 
 opening the reply, to find it blank also. Tertullian 
 explains the fact by saying that the evil spirits of Rome 
 and Heliopolis communicated instantaneously with one 
 another. 
 
 Answers were ambiguous or evasive, when the evil 
 spirit could not guess with some degree of certitude. 
 It happened once that Thebes in Egypt, was visited by 
 an epidemic that swept off numbers of the people. A 
 delegation was immediately sent to ask a remedy from 
 the Oracle. Gifts were laid on the altar, and a petition 
 beseeching a cure. The sickness being a Divine mess- 
 enger sent for the occasion, the Oracle could not pre- 
 scribe a cure, but delivered an answer involving a 
 mathematical puzzle, that has never yet been solved. 
 "Go back" was the answer "and erect an altar in 
 your temple, twice the size of the present one." The 
 delegation returned. The altar in the temple of Thebes 
 was a perfect cube: a new one was quickly erected, 
 twice the height, length ahd breadth. The plague 
 continued to rage. Messengers were quickly dispatched 
 to state the failure of the remedy given. "You have 
 
ORACLES, 19 
 
 built an altar, eight times the size, not twice," replied 
 the oracle. From that day to this, no mathematician 
 has succeeded in doubling a cube. In theory it is still 
 unsolved; practically it can only be approximated. The 
 devil is a good mathematician. 
 
 The answers were frequently ambiguous. When 
 Croesus was about to invade Media, he consulted the 
 Oracle at Delphi to know if he would be victor. The 
 Oracle replied that if he passed the river Halys, he 
 would ruin a great empire. Which Empire? The 
 answer would suit Cyrus as well as Croesus. Also 
 Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, about to attack the Romans, 
 received the following reply: "Thee to subdue the 
 Romans I appoint." Place a comma after **Thee," 
 Pyrrhus would conquer; place a comma after* 'subdue,** 
 the Romans should conquer. The exact words were: 
 ''Aio te Aeacida Ro7?ianos vincere posse,'' 
 
 The pagans of old believed 'in the apparition of spir- 
 its. An ancient Latin writer tells us that the Roman 
 general Drusus when about to cross the Rhine was 
 met by a spirit under the form of a woman who said 
 to him. "Whereto, Drusus? Back! The end of thy 
 deeds and life is near." Drusus terrified, returned 
 immediately, but died before reaching the Rhine. 
 
 The old Greek biographer, Plutarch, tells us that 
 Brutus, who stabbed Julius Caesar, heard a noise at 
 the door of his tent on a certain night and looking saw 
 the figure of a man of prodigious height and terrible 
 countenance. Brutus, struck with astonishment, 
 was silent. The giant stood by his bed in silence also. 
 Brutus at length speaks, "who art thou ?" "I am thy 
 evil genius, Brutus, thou shalt see me at Philippi.*' 
 Brutus boldly answered, "I'll meet thee there." The 
 
20 SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 giant spectre appeared a second time the night before 
 the second battle, but spoke not a word. Brutus 
 defeated at Philippi by Antony and Octavianus, ended 
 his life by falling upon his own sword. Plutarch 
 writes as if he himself believed in the apparition. 
 
 The spiritualism of to-day is another proof of the 
 existence of spirits. Of course, there is a great deal 
 of deceit and imposition, yet we cannot reasonably 
 doubt that in many cases, spirits have appeared to 
 those using incantations. The spiritualism of to-day 
 is simply the necromancy forbidden in the book of 
 Deuteronomy: ** Neither let there be found among you 
 any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making 
 them to pass through the fire, or that consulteth sooth- 
 sayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let 
 there be any wizard.'* 
 
 **Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic 
 spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth 
 from the dead." Z?^w/. xviii, lo-ii. 
 
 To spiritualists the dead do not appear, but are per- 
 sonated by evil spirits, who because of their state and 
 intelligence — as has been adverted to before—have 
 facilities for knowing the circumstances of families, 
 and of giving secret information concerning them. 
 
 Moreover, both in Europe and America, many men 
 of eminent intelligence and social position, who inves- 
 tigated spiritualism, thinking it a delusion or a cheat, 
 became thoroughly convinced of the reality of many 
 apparitions, from undeniable facts, so proved, as to 
 exclude any possible fraud. Among the many, the 
 following are named: T- W. Edmonds, New York, 
 Judge of Supreme Court and ex-Senator; Robert Hare, 
 M. D., Professor of Chemistry in the University of 
 
SPIRITUALISM. «1 
 
 Pennsylvania; Nathaniel Talmadge, ex- Governor of 
 Wisconsin; George Bancroft, the great American his- 
 torian; Horace Greely; Robert Dale Owen; Longfellow 
 and Bryant, the poets; Fennimore Cooper; the Angli- 
 can Archbishop Whately; Lord Lindsay; Lord Lytton; 
 William Ewart Gladstone; Alfred Russell Wallace, the 
 famous English naturalist; the English Professors: 
 Challis, Huggins, Gregory, Mayo, De Morgan, Wil- 
 liam Crookes; the English Doctors of Medicine: Elliot- 
 son, Haddock, Cameron; the English Jurists: Rob, 
 Chambers and Cox; the English writers: Thackeray, 
 Trollope, Owen, Howitt, Hall; and Varley, the elec- 
 trician. 
 
 It seems as if Almighty God, in permitting those 
 manifestations, would say to unbelievers, **Yon have 
 no excuse left for your infidelity. If you do not 
 believe the Church, believe at least from the testimony 
 of your own eyes and ears, that there is a spirit-land — 
 one that you yourselves will soon enter." 
 
 APPARITIONS. 
 
 Well-attested apparitions to holy persons have been 
 so numerous, that the recital of them all would 
 necessitate many volumes. So many and so grave 
 are the testimonies, both heathen and Christian, lo the 
 reality of apparitions, that even the cautious Cardinal 
 Bona says, 'It is wonderful how any man of sane 
 mind can be found to deny them, or ascribe them to a 
 dehided imagination." Let us hear the following: 
 
 Peter the Venerable relates a vision which he had 
 at Rome in the monastery of Santa Maria Nuova. 
 William, the late Prior of Cluni, who had shortly 
 before died, appeared to him, and spoke, in reply to 
 the questions put to him by the abbott, respecting bis 
 
22 APPARITIONS. 
 
 own happy state, the vision of God, the certainty of 
 the Christian faith, and the cause of his own death, 
 which he affirmed, weeping, to have been by poison: 
 *'So it was afterwards proved" he adds "on my return 
 to France, by the public confession of the prisoner. 
 During all the time that this vision lasted, I felt 
 conscious that I was not sleeping, and I proposed my 
 questions in the shortest manner possible, from sup- 
 posing that he could not remain long conversing with 
 the living. I awoke weeping." 
 
 "I know it to be true," says St. Vincentia, "that a 
 soul may return, for I had been defanied by a certain 
 detractor, and he came, after death, and sought my 
 pardon." 
 
 The sister of St. Thomas of Aquin, abbess of St. 
 Mary at Capua, appeared to him after her death, and 
 told him of her state in heaven, and of the condition 
 of his two brothers, Andulph being still in purgatory, 
 and Raynald already in paradise. 
 
 Again, one night as the Angelic Doctor prayed in 
 the Church of St. Dominic at Naples, Father Romain, 
 to whom he had ceded the chair of theology at Paris, 
 appeared to him before the other had heard of his 
 death, and told him that he was amongst the blessed, 
 and answered many questions of St. Thomas; and to 
 his query respecting heaven, replied "We see, as we 
 have heard." 
 
 Trithemius, in his Chronicle of Hirschan, relates 
 the following occurrence which took place in 1321. 
 Godfrid was a dyer in the town of Bruchsall in the 
 diocese of Spire, a man who never thought about 
 saving his soul. Falling sick he had great remorse 
 and profound sorrow; so he sent for a priest, to whom 
 
APPARITIONS, 23 
 
 he made a devout confession, received the Communion, 
 promising aloud to do penance, if God should spare 
 him. Relapsing into silence about an hour after, he 
 seemed to expire — this was about seven o'clock in the 
 evening, on the twenty-fifth of May. As the night 
 was advancing, they would not bury him till the next 
 day; so during that night the neighbors assembled, 
 and sat around his body, which was placed on a bier, 
 and talked variously about the state of his soul. At 
 two o'clock in the morning he sat up and said, 'O God 
 how just and hidden are thy judgments! Blessed be 
 thy name, who hath been merciful to me penitent.' 
 
 All in an instant fled; some through the window, as 
 the door was too small; others over the people's heads, 
 in short as they could. Godfrid rose, went into the 
 garden, and knelt down where he was found still 
 kneeling at sunrise. The crowds gathered around, 
 and the priest who had heard his confession, came 
 and said 'Godfrid how is it with you?' but he making 
 the cross on his mouth said *0 woe, woe!* and thus 
 groaning walked to the Church and entered, followed 
 by the priest and all the people. There he fell prone 
 on the pavement before the altar, with arms extended 
 in a cross, and remained two hours. Then rising up 
 he said to the priest, 'What doth this people want i^ 
 *They wish to know,' replied the priest, 'whether you 
 were really dead, or where you were, or how you have 
 come back to life.' To whom he replied 'There is a 
 time for speaking and a time for silence: let them go 
 home for they will hear nothing from me at present.' 
 So saying, he prostrated himself again on the earth. 
 The people by the priest's order left the Church, all 
 but four of the chief inhabitants with three priests: 
 
24 APPARITIONS. 
 
 and when the crowd was gone, the priest charged 
 Godfrid on obedience to speak. *0 go<;d men of God,' 
 cried he, 'if I had one hundred mouths and as many 
 tongues, I could not relate the one-thousandth part of 
 what I have seen and heard since with those below. 
 Yea, I was dead, and for penitence, by God's mercy, 
 permitted to return to the body. After my soul with 
 incredible pressure and grief had gone forth, I was 
 presented at the Divine Judgment, though how or 
 by whom I know not. So full of sadness was I that 
 the whole world could not contain or understand it. 
 All the sins of my life, to the very least were clear 
 and open before me. O good God, what confusion, 
 what immense calamity encompassed me; I cannot say, 
 nor without unutterable horror think of it; neither can 
 I relate what was said to me by the Judge, and the 
 surrounding angels and the demons, for it was 
 ineffable. In a moment I was in the place of eternal 
 and of temporal punishment. I saw souls in hell of 
 whose salvation no one in this life ever doubted, and 
 I saw souls in purgatory reserved for salvation, whom 
 the judgment of men had pronounced to be unques- 
 tionably in hell. Think not that the disposition, 
 quality, and mode of punishment bore any resemblance 
 to what painters and preachers represent. I felt that 
 these torments could never be expressed by signs or 
 tongues of men, for they are quite beyond what the 
 human intelligence can conceive. O! I would rather 
 weep now than speak, only that you can command 
 me on obedience to speak. O misery of all miseries! 
 far surpassing all thought; how horribly and unutter- 
 ably aie to be dreaded the torments of eternal woe! 
 for the perpetual fire of hell lasts in the soul, which 
 
APPARITIONS. 25 
 
 is always agitated with a fury inconceivable, always 
 desolated with a terrific sadness; always associated 
 with restless demons, without hope, without consola- 
 tion, without any respite — only every thing is seen, 
 and heard, and felt spiritually, and not as we figure 
 it. And now, father, that I have obeyed you. and 
 spoken, spare me, and yourself from henceforth, for I 
 will speak of it no more, to you or to any one. 
 Endeavor to lead the people to repent, and preach to 
 them what you think useful. 
 
 From that time Godfrid lived twelve years in such 
 austerity of life, that no one could doubt but that he 
 had seen what he had said. Winter and summer he 
 went barefoot, in one grey vest always clad; he daily 
 fasted save on Sunday; neither ate fish nor flesh; would 
 not taste wine; injured or derided was always silent, 
 not even changing countenance. With the labor of 
 his hands, he supported his wife and children, he em- 
 ployed himself constantly in prayer: daily before the 
 crucifix he knelt and gave himself stripes; he often 
 confessed and daily heard Mass. He slept on the 
 bare ground, with a stone for a pillow; and solived till 
 his death, when he was buried in the parish church, 
 before the altar of St. George. 
 
 Though this story need not be believed, yet it ought 
 to cause people to reflect. 
 
 As the evil spirits are so powerful, and endowed 
 with so much knowledge, let us always be careful to 
 pray in the time of temptation. 
 
 CREATION. 
 
 THK WORLD. 
 
 A vast array of brilliant angels fell by pride and 
 
26 CREATION. 
 
 disobedience; thrones of glittering light became vacant: 
 then the great Creator sent forth another 7?<3^/. "Let 
 us make man to our own image and likeness." But 
 before creating man, God prepared for him a home. 
 The sun in its golden splendor; the silvery moon; the 
 stellar clusters; the azure of the sky; the emerald of the 
 fields; the tints of the flowers; the song-birds; moun- 
 tain and valley; ocean and streamlet; breeze and sun- 
 shine; all were at-hand when man stepped into crea- 
 tion. 
 
 Holy Scripture tells us that it pleased God to use 
 six days in creating. Some have supposed these days 
 to have been periods of time, numbering millions on 
 millions of years; others, that they were days of ordi- 
 nary length. A Catholic is at liberty to adopt either 
 view, as the Hebrew word signifying day, signifies a 
 period also; and because three days had elapsed before 
 the creation of the sun that marks the length of the 
 ordinary day. Geology is in perfect accord with the 
 work of the demiurgic days, no matter what length 
 may be attributed to them 
 
 "The short account of the creation given in the first 
 chapter of Genesis is in accordance with the results of 
 geological discovery, in as complete a manner as would 
 be possible in so brief a summary, destined, not to 
 instruct the world in geology, but without violating 
 truth, to convey a general notion of the work of 
 Omnipotence in the process of creation. lyight was 
 first created, that is, the universally diffused ether, by 
 whose properties, not only light, but heat and proba- 
 bly electricity and magnetism, if not gravity itself, 
 severally exist. The firmament was next made, that 
 is, space and the stars in countless numbers, which 
 
THE EARTH. 27 
 
 occupy it, each of which is the centre of attraction to 
 a group of surrounding bodies, and among these stars, 
 the sun." 
 
 "According to Genesis, the organic creation was 
 produced in four successive intervals of time, figura- 
 tively called days as we now apply that term to any 
 period during which a certain succession of phenomena 
 are manifested. Thus we speak of the morning and 
 the evening of life " 
 
 ''The first epoch was preceded by the formation of 
 the outlines of land and water. The rupture of the 
 incipient crust of the earth, by throwing the solid sur- 
 face into different levels, divided the earth into oceans, 
 seas, continents and islands. This is stated briefly 
 but distinctly enough in Gen. ich, 9-10: *And God 
 said. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered 
 together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, 
 and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, 
 and the gathering of the waters called the Seas: and 
 God saw that it was good.' " 
 
 **The surface of the land was now clothed with veg- 
 etation. Verses 11, 12: *And God said, Let the earth 
 bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the 
 fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is 
 in itself, upon the earth, and it was so. And thetrarth 
 brought forth gra.ss and herb, yielding seed after their 
 kind, an I the tree yieldin^^ fruit, whose seed was in 
 itself after its kind, and God saw that it was good.* 
 
 '*The second epoch of organic creation was signal- 
 ized by the production of animal life in its lowest forma, 
 being limited to marine tribes included under the gen- 
 eral and familiar name of Fishes. Verse 20: *And 
 God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly after 
 
28 CREA TION. 
 
 their kind.' This was succeeded by the creation of 
 Birds: 'And every winged fowl after its kind, and 
 God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, 
 saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in 
 the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.' " 
 
 *'In complete accordance with this account, geologi- 
 cal researches show, that in the stages which imme- 
 diately rest upon the azoic formation, beds of coal are 
 found, proving that the first land was clothed with 
 vegetation. The animal remains found in the same 
 deposits, consist almost exclusively of marine tribes. 
 Some foot tracks of birds are also found in these forma- 
 tions. No traces of land animals yet appear. Thus 
 in accordance with Genesis, geology announces that the 
 first acts of creation were the production of 'the grass, 
 the herb yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit after 
 its kind,' and then the Creator caused the 'waters to 
 bring forth abundantly after their kind,' and called 
 into existence every winged fowl after its kind." 
 
 The third epoch of creation was signalized by the 
 production of Mammifers and of land animals gener- 
 ally. Verse 24: 'And God said, Let the earth bring 
 forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and 
 creeping thing, and beasts of the earth after its kind, 
 and cattle after their kind, and everything that creep- 
 eth upon the earth after its kind, and God saw that it 
 was good.' " 
 
 "The later geological ages, and especially the 
 Tertiary, are here indicated, in which, the tribes 
 mentioned in this short and popular statement were 
 created." 
 
 The fourth, last, and latest great act of Omnipo- 
 tence was the creation of the human race. On the 
 
THE EARTH, 29 
 
 last day or epoch of creation, God said: "Let us make 
 man to our own image, after our likeness: and let him 
 have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over the cattle of the field, and 
 over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 
 creepeth upon the earth. So God created man, to His 
 own image, to the image of God he created him; 
 male and female he created them.' " 
 
 **It is, perhaps, in this last part of the Mosaic nar- 
 rative that the most striking and interesting accord- 
 ance with geological science is observable. According 
 to Genesis, the last epoch of creation was exclusively 
 given to the creation of the human race. Naturalists 
 have reduced animal forms to seventy- eight orders, in 
 one of which man stands alone. It appears from the 
 researches of paleontologists that of these seventy- 
 eight, all but one, that including man. were created 
 before the close of the Tertiary period, and that in the 
 creation which followed that period man was the only 
 animal order added to those of former creations. 
 
 "I have thought it right to develop these points at 
 some length, inasmuch as many consciences have 
 felt alarmed at the supposed discordance between 
 Scriptural history and geological discovery. It will, 
 however, be seen from what I have here stated, that 
 not only no such discordance exists, but that making 
 such allowances for the latitude of language as are in- 
 dispensable in the interpretation of so brief and popu- 
 lar a description, designed not for the scientific, but 
 for the mass of mankind, as that given in Genesis, 
 there is the most remarkable and satisfactory accord* 
 ance with natural phenomena.** * 
 
 * Laniner. Museum. V\)t, XII, p. 160. 
 
30 CREATION. 
 
 MAN. 
 
 According to the second chapter of the book of Gen- 
 esis, Almighty God created man from the slime of the 
 earth, and then breathed into him a living soul. 
 "And the lyord God formed man of the slime of the 
 earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, 
 and man became a living soul." Gen. 2, ch. yv. Eve 
 was formed from a bone of Adam. 
 
 It was just as eas}^ for the great Creator to create 
 man instantaneously as the Holy Scripture seems to 
 imply, as to create gradually, yet, during the last two 
 centuries especially, some scientists have endeavored 
 to render themselves famous by trying to prove that 
 life is capable of springing into being of itself, or that 
 man is the last link in a chain of animals evolved one 
 from the other. Spontaneous Generation has died a 
 natural death; Evolution, to say the least, remains alto- 
 gether unproved. 
 
 The doctrine of Spontaneous Generation has been 
 revived within recent years by Dr. Bastian after a 
 series of elaborate experiments on the Beginnings of 
 Life. Stated in his own words, his conclusion is this: 
 "Both observation and experiment unmistakably tes- 
 tify to the fact that living matter is constantly being 
 formed de novo in obedience to the same laws and 
 tendencies which determine all the more simple chem- 
 ical combinations." Life, that is to say, is not the 
 Gift of Life. It is capable of springing into being of 
 itself. It can be spontaneously generated." 
 
 This announcement called into the field a phalanx of 
 observers, and the highest authorities in biological 
 science engaged themselves afresh upon the problem. 
 The experiments necessary to test the matter can be 
 
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION, 31 
 
 followed or repeated by any one possessing the slight- 
 est manipulative skill. Glass vessels are three parts 
 filled with, infusions of hay or any organic matter. 
 They are boiled to kill all germs of life, and hermetic- 
 ally sealed to exclude the outer air. . The air inside, 
 having been exposed to the boiling temperature for • 
 many hours, is supposed to be likewise dead, so that 
 any life which may subsequently appear in the closed 
 flasks must have sprung into being of itseif. In Bas- 
 tian's experiments, after every expedient to secure 
 sterility, life did appear inside in myriad quantity. 
 Therefore, he argued, it was spontaneously generated. 
 But the phalanx of observers found two errors in 
 this calculation. Professor Tyndall repeated the same 
 experiment, only with a precaution to insure absolute 
 sterility suggested by the most recent science, 
 a discovery of his own. After every care, he con- 
 ceived their might still be undestroyed germs in the 
 air inside the flasks. If the air were absolutely germ- 
 less and pure would the myriad life appear? He ma- 
 nipulated his experimental vessels in an atmosphere, 
 which, under the high test of optical purity — the most 
 delicate known test- was absolutely germless. Here 
 not a vestige of life appeared. He varied the experi- 
 ment in every direction, but matter in the germless air 
 never yielded life. 
 
 The other error was detected by Mr. DalHnger. 
 He found among the lower forms of life, the most sur- 
 prising and indestructible vitality. Many animals 
 could survive much higher temi>erature than Dr. 
 Bastion had applied to annihilate them. Some germs 
 almos* refused to be annihilated — they were all but 
 fire-proof. 
 
32 SPON TANEO US GENERA TION. 
 
 These experiments have practically closed the ques- 
 tion. A decided and authoritative conclusion has now 
 taken its place in science. So far as vScience can settle 
 any thin^, this question is settled. Spontaneous 
 Generation has had to be given up. And it is now 
 •recognized on every hand that Life can only come 
 from the touch of Life. Huxley categorically an- 
 nounces that the doctrine of Biogenesis, or life only 
 from life is * 'victorious along the whole line at the 
 present day." And even while confessing that he 
 wishes the evidence were the other way, Tyndall is 
 compelled to say, *'I affirm that no shred of trust- 
 worthy experimental testimony exists to prove that 
 life in our day has ever appeared independently of 
 antecedent life." * 
 
 Darwin's theories clearly lead to the Creed of 
 Spontaneous Generation, but it remained for Haeckel 
 in trying to improve on the teaching of Darwin, to 
 erect a structure that quickly crumbled into dust. 
 Ernst Haeckel born in 1834, became famed as a 
 scientist, and because his name became connected with 
 the famous Bathybius, Haeckel quotes it as a clear 
 case of Spontaneous Generation. It was discovered 
 by Huxley in 1868, who called it Bathybius Haeckelii. 
 It was simply a jelly like substance which Haeckel 
 assumed spontaneously generated the beginning of 
 life. It received its name from being found in the 
 depths of the ocean from 12,000 to 24,000 feet. 
 Beginning with this, Haeckel formed a chain of some 
 twenty or twenty-two links of which the following are 
 the principal: first, the Bathybius; second, an amoeba; 
 third, a ciliated larva; then a worm; a higher class of 
 worm; a still higher class of worm; a sacciform worm; 
 
 ^Drummond, Natural Law in Spiritual Life, pp 60-61. 
 
EVOLUTION. 33 
 
 a vertebrate animal; a dog fish; a mud fish; an 
 amphibian; a kind of salamander; a beaked animal; a 
 kind of kangaroo; an animal like an ape; an ape with 
 a tail; a monkey without a tail; the man-monkey; the 
 man! 
 
 Haeckel here defends a lost cause. The Bathybius, 
 that he characterizes as 'one of the chief supports of 
 the modern theory of evolution' does not really exist: 
 it has never existed. Huxley himself who named it, 
 and gave it a fictitious existence, no longer believes 
 in its reality. Here we quote his own words: *'I fear 
 the thing to which I gave that name is little more than 
 sulphate of lime precipitated in a flocculent state from 
 the sea-water through the strong alcohol in which the 
 specimens of the deep sea soundings which I examined 
 were preserved. The Bathybius exists only in the 
 dark depths of scientific superstition. 
 
 At the Congress of German Naturalists, held at 
 Hamburg in 1876, Professor Moebiusof Kiel, delivered 
 a discourse on the marine fauna and the expedition of 
 the "Challenger" which he sumraed-up as follows: 
 *Onthe plains — submarine plains, from 12000 to 13000 
 feet in depth — it was asserted, was spread the mysteri- 
 ous Bathybius. Unfortunately, the fates have proved 
 the contrary. The Bathybius which harmonizes so well 
 with the modern ideas of the origin of life, proved to 
 be only an artificial product, a precipitate of gypsum, 
 dissolved in sea water by the alcohol in which the 
 preparation was preserved. Whenever any one has 
 examined fresh preparations on board, it has been 
 impo.ssible to discover the lea.st trace of the Bathybius. 
 
 There was a moment of profound astonishment in 
 the audience when Moebiu.s, using such a . •simple recipe, 
 Thein. Chrisiian Anthropohi^y,^^. 2^7, S68. 
 
U ANTIQUITY OF MAN, 
 
 made the Balhybius appear in a glass filled with sea- 
 water, by adding thereto a certain quantity of alcohol. 
 The Bathybius having failed, the chain of Ernst 
 Haeckel became dissolved and disappeared. 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
 Although the Catholic Church has not defined the 
 number of years that have elapsed since the crea- 
 tion of man, yet the general acceptation is 1656 years 
 to the time of the Deluge; 2348 years from the Deluge 
 to the birth of Christ; and 1900 from the birth of Christ 
 to the present time. 
 
 But there have been scholars, and there are now-a- 
 days scholars who do not at all accept the generally 
 received six thousand years as the elapsed period since 
 the creation of man. Some of them assign periods 
 many thousands of years longer. But in this as in kin- 
 dred matters, the greatest mistakes have been made, 
 mistakes that must be admitted even by the learned. 
 
 Egypt is probably the oldest civilized portion of the 
 globe. Some claim for this country a much higher an- 
 tiquity than the Mosaic chronology or the facts will 
 warrant. It is claimed, for example, that on the an- 
 cestral tablets only lately recovered, the names of cer- 
 tain Pharaohs are found, each reigning so many years, 
 and when you come to compute the whole list, it carries 
 you back beyond our era five thousand years or more. 
 Which is true. But then they overlook the important 
 fact that these kings did not reign successively, but, in 
 many instances, contemporaneously, rival Pharaohs 
 being on the thrones of Upper and Lower Egypt at 
 the same time, and in other instances father and son 
 were associated in the government of the country. 
 Then, there are many gaps or omissions in these tab- 
 lets, which, when supplied with the proper data, re- 
 
EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY. 85 
 
 move all difiBculties in harmonizing the Hebrew and 
 Egyptian Chronology. 
 
 It is further argued that the sediment deposited 
 during the annual overflow of the Nile accumulates at 
 the rate of so many inches in a century, and as from 
 twenty to thirty feet of this alluvial deposit are found 
 over some of these buried cities, they, therefore, must 
 be from six to eight thousand years old. This, how- 
 ever, does not follow, as the deposit some years is 
 greater than others, and forms in the eddies over these 
 ruins much faster than out on the naked plain. It is 
 also a notable fact that the oldest relics found in the 
 oldest tombs of Egypt are wooden coffins and idols, in 
 many instances not the least decayed; embalmed mum- 
 mies, the linen wrappings upon them scarcely soiled; 
 rolls of papyri, as legible as if written on but yester- 
 day; eggs looking as fresh as if just taken from the 
 nest; garden seeds and wheat said still to retain their 
 vitality; loaves of bread, different kinds of vegetables, 
 even honey in the comb; nothing to warrant a more 
 remote antiquity than the Mosaic account, e.specially 
 if we adopt the Septuagint standard. And what makes 
 the-ie statements of the skeptic appear even more ab- 
 surd, is the fact that in some of these cities which they 
 affirm have been buried ten thousand years or more, 
 recently have been found coins and pieces of pottery 
 belonging to the Greek and Roman jHrriod.* 
 
 Mr. Horner, from borings in the mud of the Delta, 
 found a piece of pottery at the depth of thirty-nine 
 feet; immediately it was inferred that the pottery had 
 been buried 13,000 years. Sir John Lubbock and Sir 
 Charles Lyell accepting this conclusion drew wonder- 
 ful inferences, read in various papers before learned 
 * De Hass, BurUi Cities, pp. 27, SS. 
 
36 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
 
 societies. They concluded that the bricks and pot- 
 tery of Egypt date back from 12,000 to 60,000 years. 
 Unfortunately for all this fine speculation, Sir R. Ste- 
 phenson found in the Delta near Damietta at a greater 
 depth than Mr. Horner had reached, a brick bearing on 
 it the stamp of Mohammed Ali. Mr. Horner, more- 
 over, rated the growth of the mud deposits in a given 
 spot at only three and a half inches in a century, but 
 a description of the same spot by a Mohammedan 
 writer only six centuries ago shows that the mud is 
 deposited at the rate of over eighteen inches in a hun- 
 dred years. No wonder that even the Anthropological 
 Review pronounces Mr. Horner's evidence as prepos- 
 terous, and laments that Sir Charles Ly ell should have 
 thought it worth his while to notice such absurdities. 
 The attention to Egyptian monuments and litera- 
 ture in modern times has been indeed fertile in objec- 
 tions to sacred history, which, like every other study, 
 it has overthrown in its advance. The controversy 
 upon the zodiacs of Dendera, the ancient Tentyris, and 
 Esneh, or Latopolis, is a remarkable proof of this as- 
 sertion. 
 
 The expedition into Egypt under Napoleon, which 
 shed as much lustre on the literary ardor of France as 
 it cast shadow upon her martial prowess, first made us 
 acquainted with these curious monuments. At Den- 
 dera were found two; one was an oblong painting 
 formed by two parallel but separate bands, enclosed 
 within two monstrous female figures. Upon these 
 bands, in an inner subdivision, were disposed the 
 zodiacal signs, with numerous mythological represen- 
 tations; on the outside were a series of boats, represent- 
 ing the decans of each sign. This zodiac was painted 
 
EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY, 37 
 
 in the portico of a temple, where like all the others it 
 occupied the ceiling. The second zodiac, or rather 
 planisphere, is circular, and has been transported to 
 France from an upper chamber of the same temple by 
 MM. Saulnier and Lelorrain. Esneh contributed 
 also two zodiacs, one from the greater, the second 
 from the smaller of its temples. These two. with the 
 rectangular zodiac of Dendera, can alone claim par- 
 ticular attention; the circular planisphere must follow 
 the fate of the zodiac painted in the same temple. 
 
 No sooner were representations of these monuments 
 published, than Europe, and particularly France, teemed 
 with memoirs and dissertations discussing their an- 
 tiquity. It was in general taken for granted that they 
 represented the state of the heavens at the period when 
 they were projected, and when the edifices which they 
 adorned were erected. Some discovered in them the 
 point in which the solstitial colures cut the ecliptic at 
 that time, and with Burckhardt, attributed to the 
 great zodiac of Esneh the frightful antiquity of 7000, 
 to that of Dendera of 4000 years; while Dupuis upon the 
 same premises, stinted the latter to 3,562. Others 
 assumed that they represented the state of the heavens 
 at the commencement of a Sothic period; and like Sir 
 W. Drummond, assigned to that of Dendera, 1322. to 
 that of the great temple of Esneh, 2800 years before 
 our era. A third class, in fine, saw in them the heli- 
 acal rising of Sirius at some given period, and con- 
 cluded with Fourier, that the zodiacs of Esneh were 
 constructed 2500, that of Dendera 2000 years before 
 Christ, or with Nouet, that the latter was traced 
 2500. the greater of the former, 4600 years anterior 
 to that era. The same basis led different speculators 
 
38 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
 
 to opposite conclusions, and error thus betrayed itself 
 by the characteristic variety of its hues. 
 
 Early in the contest there was a class of investiga- 
 tors who ventured to suggest that the alarming 
 antiquity thus conceded to these curious monuments 
 should be examined not upon astronomical, but upon 
 archaeological principles. The venerable and learned 
 Monsignor Testa and the celebrated antiquary 
 Visconti, were among the number. The latter 
 remarked in particular, that the temple of Dendera, 
 though of Egyptian architecture, bore characteristic 
 marks, which could not be more ancient than the 
 Ptolemies, and that Greek inscriptions upon it 
 referred to a Caesar, who, he thought, must be 
 Augustus or Tiberius. This reasoning, however, 
 was overlooked for twenty years, and astronomical 
 illustrations were alone admitted. Mr. Bankes during 
 his visit to Egypt, paid considerable attention to this 
 interesting investigation; and in a letter to Mr. David 
 Baillie, communicated his grounds for believing these 
 temples to be of no greater antiquity than the reigns 
 of Adrian and Antoninus Pius. He remarked that 
 while the capitals of the most ancient columns of 
 Thebes are a simple bell, and placed on polygonal or 
 fluted shafts, those of Esneh and Dendera are labor- 
 iously rich with foliage and fruit. More than this, 
 the hieroglyphics upon the columns are not certainly 
 Egyptian, for Mr. Bankes found an inscription, 
 stating that they were traced in the reign of Antoninus. 
 
 The archaeological arguments, however, for the 
 modern construction of these monuments, received 
 their full development from the hand of M. Letronne. 
 This learned scholar collected all necessary informa- 
 
EG YPTIAN ANTIQUITY, 39 
 
 tion from the publications and reports of travellers 
 regarding their architecture, and illustrated the 
 inscriptions still existing upon them. MM. Huyott 
 and Gau furnished him with interesting particulars on 
 the former subject. Among other facts they proved 
 from its style and from the colors employed, that the 
 pronaon of the small temple of Esneh, in which the 
 zodiac is painted, is of the same date with the temple 
 itself. Now an inscription, probably the same alluded 
 to by Mr. Bankes, was copied by these artists from a 
 column of the latter, in which it is stated that two 
 Egyptians caused the paintings to be executed in the 
 tenth year of Antoninus — the 147th after Christ. 
 Such then is the date of the small zodiac of Esneh, to 
 which an age had been assigned of from two to three 
 thousand years anterior to Christ. The temple of 
 Dendera has shared the same fate. A Greek inscrip- 
 tion on its portico, which had been overlooked, 
 declares it to be dedicated to the safety of Tiberius.* 
 Again, an unnatural antiquity to the astronomical 
 discoveries of the Hindoos was given by the unfortu- 
 nate Bailly. During his life he possessed, at least 
 among less profound mathematicians, a very brilliant 
 reputation; but he was infected with all ths defects of 
 his time, — a love of bold and startling hypothesis, 
 splendidly supported by ingenious and diversified argu- 
 ments. "It was not for learned men that he wrote,** 
 says Delambre, "he aspired to a more extensive reputa- 
 tion. He yielded to the pleasure of entering into the 
 lists with Voltaire; he revived the old romance of the 
 Atlantis; he had a good many readers and that ruined 
 him. The success of his first paradox led him to cre- 
 ate others. He devised his extinct nation, and his 
 Card. Wiseman, ScUnci and Rtii^iom, 88-91 
 
40 THE ANTIQITV OF MAN, 
 
 astronomy perfected in mythological times; he made every 
 thing bear upon this favorite idea; and was not very 
 scrtipulotis in his choice of means to give color to his 
 hypothesis. Hence, he assigned 4,320,000 years to 
 the great period of the Cali-yuga, which being investi- 
 gated, Montucla concludes that Indian astromony boast- 
 ing such wonderful antiquity was simply borrowed 
 from the inhabitants of Western Asia. 
 
 To the Indian astronomic work, known as the 
 Surya Siddhanta, the Brahmans gave an age of 
 several millions of years. Mr. Bentley's essay on the 
 subject appears in the sixth volume of the Asiatic 
 Researches. In this he gives strong reasons to con- 
 clude that the author of the book was Naraha, whose 
 disciple Sotanund is known to have lived about 700 
 years ago. Thus disappears the antiquity of the 
 Surya Siddhanta. 
 
 THE RACES OF MEN. 
 Not only have the enemies of revealed religion 
 taught the erroneous antiquity of man, but they deny 
 that the differently colored races of men could descend 
 from Adam and Eve, yet theWord of God has always 
 considered mankind as descended from one parent, and 
 the great mystery of redemption rests upon the belief 
 that all men sinned in their common father. Suppose 
 different and unconnected creations of men, and the 
 deep mystery of original sin, and the glorious mystery 
 of redemption are blotted out from religion's book. 
 
 Let us look around and we shall find that food, climate 
 and surroundings have much to do with color. All 
 the fowls in Guinea, and the dogs, too, according to 
 Beckman are as black as the inhabitants. The ox of 
 the Roman campagna is invariably gray, while in 
 
THE RACES OF MEN. 41 
 
 some other parts of Italy the breed is mostly red; 
 swine and sheep are also here chiefly black, while in 
 England white is their prevailing hue. In Corsica, 
 horses, dogs and other animals, become beautifully 
 spotted, and the carriage dog as it is called, belongs to 
 that country. Many writers have attributed to 
 particular rivers the quality of giving color to the 
 .cattle on their banks. Thus Vitruvius observes that 
 the rivers of Boeotia, and the Xanthus, near Troy, 
 gave a yellow color to their herds, whence the river 
 Xanthus took its name. Mr. Stewart Rose in his 
 Letters from the North of Italy, says, that a similar 
 quality is attributed to the Po at the present day. 
 
 The texture of the hair undergoes similar changes. 
 Every attempt to produce wool in the East Indies has 
 failed, because sheep, if transported thither, entirely 
 lose their wool, and become covered with hair. This 
 is the same in other hot climates. "The Sheep in 
 Guinea," says Smith, "have so little resemblance to 
 those in Europe, that a stranger, unless he heard 
 them bleat, could hardly tell what animals they were, 
 being covered only with light brown and black hair, 
 like a dog;" so that a fanciful writer observes: "here 
 the world seams inverted, for the sheep are hairy and 
 the men woolly." A similar phenomenon occurs in 
 the country around Angora where almost every 
 animal, sheep, goats, rabbits, cats are covered with a 
 beautiful, long, silken hair, so celebrated in oriental 
 manufactures. Other animals are subject to this 
 change, for Bishop Heber informs us that "dogs and 
 horses carried into the hills from India arc soon 
 covered with wool, like the shawl goats of that 
 climate." 
 
 Card, Wiseman, 
 
42 THE RACES OF MEN. 
 
 According to Bosman, "European dogs soon degen- 
 erate to a strange degree on the Gold Coast; their ears 
 grow long, and stiff like a fox's, to the color of which 
 animal they also incline; so that they grow very ugly 
 in three or four years, and in as many broods, their 
 barking turns to a howl or a yelp." Barbot says, in 
 like manner, that the "native dogs are veiy ugly, being 
 much like our foxes, with long upright ears; their 
 tails long, small and sharp at the end, without any 
 hair, having only a naked bare skin, either plain or 
 spotted, and never bark, but only howl. The blacks 
 call them cabre de matto^ which in Portugese signifies a 
 wild goat, because they eat them, and value their flesh 
 beyond mutton." 
 
 The reasonings sanctioned by these facts, present a 
 strong ground of analogy, applicable to the human 
 species; nor is it easy to see why varieties as great, 
 may not have been produced, and transmitted by 
 descent, among men, as among inferior animals. It 
 seems to me then clear that in each family, or race, of 
 the human species there are occasionally produced 
 varieties tending to establish within it the characteris- 
 tics of some other. There are indeed examples of 
 much more decided and stranger varieties arising 
 among men, than what constitutes the specific char- 
 acteristics of any race, and of such being continued 
 from father to son — such varieties as would have 
 made the problem in hand far more difficult to solve, 
 than at present it is, had they sprung up in a distant 
 quarter of the globe, and been extended to any con- 
 siderable population. 
 
 The most remarkable of these is, doubtless, what 
 has been traced through three generations in the fam- 
 Card, Wiseman, 
 
THE RACES OF MEN. 43 
 
 ily of Lambert, commonly known by the name of the 
 porcupine man. The founder of this extraordinary 
 race was first exhibited as a boy by his father in 1731, 
 and pame from the neigborhood of Euston Hall in 
 Suffolk. Mr. Mackin in that year described him in 
 the Philosophical Transactions as having his body cov- 
 ered with warts as thick as pack-thread and half an 
 inch long. The name, however, is not given. In 
 1755 he was again exhibited with the fore-named title, 
 and was described by Mr. Baker in a paper purporting 
 to be a supplement to the former. But what is im- 
 portant, is that, being now forty years of age. he had 
 had six children, every one of whom, at the same pe- 
 riod, nine weeks after birth, had presented the same 
 peculiarity, and the only surviving one, a boy eight 
 years old, was exhibited with his father. Mr. Baker 
 gives a drawing of the boy's hand, as Mr. Mackin had 
 before of his father's. In 1802 the children of this 
 boy were exhibited in Germany by a Mens, and Mde. 
 Joanny, who pretended that they belonged to a race 
 found in New Holland, or some other very remote 
 place. Dr. Tilesius, however, examined them most 
 minutely, and published the most accurate account we 
 have of this singular family, with full length figures 
 of the two brothers — John, who was twenty -one. and 
 Richard, who was thirteen years of age. Their father, 
 the boy of Mr. Baker's narrative, was still alive, and 
 was game-keeper to Lord Huntingfield at Heavening- 
 ham Hall, in Suffolk. Upon being shown the draw- 
 ing of his hand in the Philosophical Transactions, they 
 both instantly recognized it by the peculiar button at 
 the wrist. Tilesius's description from page 30 to the 
 end of his work is most minute and corresponds ex- 
 
44 THE RACES OF MEN. 
 
 actly with that given of their progenitors. The whole 
 of the body excepting the palms of the hands, the 
 soles of the feet, and the face, was covered with a 
 series of horny excresences of a reddish brown, hard, 
 elastic, and about half an inch long, which rustled 
 against one another when rubbed with the hand. I 
 do not know with what I can compare the appearance 
 of this singular integument as given in Tilesius's 
 plates better than to a collection of basaltic prisms, 
 some longer, some shorter, as they are generally 
 grouped in nature. Once a year this horny clothing 
 was shed, and its falling off was accompanied by some 
 degree of uneasiness; it yielded also to the action 
 of mercury, which was tried for the purpose, but in 
 both cases it gradually returned after a very short pe- 
 riod. The conclusions which Mr. Baker draws from 
 this extraordinary phenomenon are very just, and have 
 still greater weight now that it has been reproduced in 
 another generation. "It appears therefore" says he 
 "past all doubt, that a race of people may be propa- 
 gated by this man, having such rugged coats or cover- 
 ings as himselt; and if this should happen and the acci- 
 dental origin be forgotten, 'tis not impossible they 
 might be deemed a different species of mankind: a con- 
 sideration which would almost lead one to imagine, that 
 if mankind were produced from one and the same stock 
 the black skin of the negroes, and many other differ- 
 ences of a like kind, might possibly have been origo- 
 nally owing to some such accidental cause." 
 
 But it may be asked, have we any instance of whole 
 
 nations having been so changed; or, in other w^ords, 
 
 have we any example of such changes on a larger scale? 
 
 To answer this question would of course close at once 
 
 "^ Card. Wiseman, 
 
THE RACES OF MEN. 45 
 
 with all the difficulties of the subject, but I will refer 
 to some cases. 
 
 We have a very striking example in the intelligent 
 and accurate traveller, Burckhardt. The town of Soua- 
 kin situated on the African coast of the Red Sea, lower 
 down than Mecca, contains a mixed population, formed 
 first of Bedouins or Arabs, including the descendants 
 of the ancient Turks, and secondly of the towns- people, 
 who are either Arabs from the opposite coast or Turks 
 of modern origin. The following is his account of the 
 two classes. Of the first he says: "The Hadherebe or 
 Bedouins of Souakin have exactly the same features, 
 language and dress, as the Nubian Bedouins. In gen- 
 eral they have handsome and expressive features, with 
 thin and very short beards. Their color is of the dark- 
 est brown approaching to black; but they have nothing 
 of the negro character of countenance.'* The others 
 who are descended entirely from settlers from Mosul, 
 Hadramout, etc., and from Turks sent thither by Sclim, 
 upon his conquest of Egypt, have undergone the same 
 change. "The present race " says Burckhardt **have 
 the African features and manners, and, are in no way 
 to be distinguished from the Hadherebe." Here wc 
 have two distinct nations, Arabs and Turks, in the 
 course of a few centuries, becoming black in Africa, 
 though originally white. 
 
 Again we are credibly informed that In some parts 
 of India the descendants of Europeans long ago set- 
 tled there have totally changed their color, though, of 
 course, not their features. "It is remarkable, how- 
 ever, to observe," says Heber. "how surely all these 
 classes of men ( Persians, Greeks, Tartars, Turks, and 
 Arabs) in a few generations, even without any inter- 
 
46 ADAM, 
 
 marriage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, 
 little less dark than the negro, which seems natural to 
 the climate. The Portugese have, during a three hun- 
 dred years* residence in India, become as black as Caf- 
 fres. Surely this goes far to disprove the assertion 
 which is sometimes made that climate alone is insuffi- 
 cient to account for the difference between the negro 
 and the European. It is true that in the negro are 
 other peculiarities which the Indians have not, and to 
 which the Portuguese colonist shows no symptom o£ 
 approximation; but, if heat produces one change, other 
 peculiarities of climate may produce other and addi- 
 tional changes, and when such peculiarities have three 
 or four thousand years to operate in, it is not easy to 
 fix any limits to their power. ' ' * 
 
 ADAM. 
 It is not easy for a man to be at once religious and 
 thoughtful without having a great deal of devotional 
 tenderness connected with the memory of Adam. His 
 life is a sort of foreshadowing of the history of God's 
 elect, and the vicissitudes of his Holy Church. The 
 creation of Adam, the supernatural gifts which adorned 
 him, the one fact which tells volumes of the character 
 of God, namely, that he was created, not in a state of 
 nature, but of grace, the beauty of his terrestrial dwell- 
 ing place, the sublimity of his intelligence, his empire 
 over the powers and laws of nature, his mysterious in-' 
 timacy with his Creator, his relation to the angels, his 
 union with the immaculate Eve, the fall with its man- 
 ifold revelations of himself, of Eve, of man's nature, of 
 Satan's malice and of God's perfections, his nine hun- 
 dred years of heroic penance, and his justification by 
 ■'^Card. Wiseman. 
 
BAPTISM. 47 
 
 faith, penance, and the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. 
 and last of all his succumbing to death, which was as 
 it were his own creation. All these are so many mys- 
 teries for meditation. He was the maker of death, 
 and he had seen it and shuddered at it in his own mar- 
 tyred son. 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 Adam by his fall deprived himself of sanctifying 
 grace, and through him his descendants were deprived 
 also, except the Most Blessed Virgin. The sacrament 
 of Baptism was instituted to restore this grace to men. 
 Not many days elapse after a child of Catholic pa- 
 rents is born before he is carried to the baptismal font. 
 There by the almost momentary action of the Most 
 Holy and undivided Trinity, the child is regenerated. 
 Nothing can be more easy or more instantaneous. Yet 
 let us consider all that is involved in an infant's bap- 
 tism. Not only are the eternal consequences of the 
 fall to his particular soul in one instant destroyed, but 
 the child becomes entitled to the most stupendous 
 privileges and inheritance, which would not have been 
 due to him naturally even if Adam had not fallen. 
 He is at once raised to a far higher state than one of 
 pure nature. He is the child of God. The Divine 
 nature has been communicated to him by sanctifying 
 grace. Extraordinary possibilities of spiritual devel- 
 opments and earnests of evei lasting life have been im- 
 planted in him by certain mysteriously infused habits 
 of the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity, 
 perhaps of the other virtues also. Seven other supernat- 
 ural habits, standing in the same relation to the actual 
 impulses of the Holy Ghost as the other infused habits 
 stand to actual grace, and which bear the name of the 
 
48 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 
 
 Gifts of the Holy Ghost, are also infused into him, 
 containing in themselves spiritual provisions for the 
 greater occasions of his life, for his more intimate in- 
 tercourse with God, and if so be, for the magnificent 
 operations of heroic sanctity. Meanwhile, if he dies 
 before the use of reason, there is secured to him the 
 eternal vision of God, with all the intellectual glories 
 of an immortal spirit, whose intelligence had never 
 been developed on earth at all. Now all this haste, if 
 we may so speak, with which the divine mercy seizes 
 the infant's soul, refusing to wait for his consent, or 
 till he can accept God's great gift by a rational act of 
 his own, implies such a determined and exuberant 
 love on the part of the Creator that it is not easily to 
 be conceived that the rest of the process of salvation 
 shall not partake of the same character of divine im- 
 patience and facility. 
 
 THE IMMACULATK CONCEPTION. 
 
 "My daughter," said the Saviour Jesus to a holy 
 soul one day, '*I wish to speak to you to-day of My 
 Mother. Her conception was immaculate; and so it 
 needed to be, in order that she might be worthy of 
 Me. I am Sanctity Itself; now, could I have become 
 incarnate in a body which had been stained by sin? 
 All the substance of My Body was taken from the 
 body of Mary; consequently if Mary's flesh had been, 
 even for a single instant stained by sin. My Flesh 
 would have been a flesh over which sin had for an 
 instant held dominion; and this was incompatible with 
 My Divinity and My Sanctify. This is why Mary, 
 who was destined to be My Mother, was exempt from 
 original sin; this is why, from the first moment of her 
 conception, Mary received from Me, sanctity as her 
 '''Faber. 
 
ST, JAMES THE LESS. 65 
 
 between Abyssinia and Egypt. It was thus that by 
 an arrangement of Providence, every Apostle should 
 rest, even after his death, in the country assigned to 
 him for the planting of the Gospel, until the day when 
 Rome, to save their precious relics from profanation, 
 would bring them to her bosom.* 
 
 ST. JAMES THE I.ESS, APOSTLE. 
 
 St. James the Less was the son of Alpheus and 
 Mary, a near relation of the Blessed Virgin. St. 
 Jerome and St. Epiphanius inform us that the Saviour 
 at the moment of His ascension, recommended to him 
 the Church of Jerusalem, and that, in consequence, 
 the Apostles established him Bishop of that city, when 
 they were separating to preach the Gospel. The 
 holy Bishop of Jerusalem made the Jews respect him, 
 in spite of the fury with which they persecuted Chris- 
 tians. It was about the year 59 that he wrote the 
 letter which bears his name. It is entitled Catholic 
 or Universal, because it was not addressed to any 
 particular Church, but to all the converted Jews in 
 general, scattered over various parts of the earth. 
 The Apostle therein refutes the errors of some false 
 doctors, who taught that Faith alone would suffice for 
 salvation, and accordingly that good works would be 
 useless. He also lays down some excellent rules for 
 leading a holy life, and exhorts the faithful to receive 
 the Sacrament of Extreme Unction in their sicknesses. 
 
 At the same period, St. Paul having eluded, by his 
 appeal to the emperor, the evil designs of the Jews, 
 the latter determined to satisfy their rage on the holy 
 Bishop of Jerusalem. Ananus. a worthy son of the 
 the infamous Annas mentioned in the Gospel, assem- 
 bled the Sanhedrim, and had St. James, with many 
 
66 THE APOSTLES. 
 
 other Christians, brought forward for trial. The 
 Apostle was accused of having violated the I^aw of 
 Moses, and was condemned to be stoned. Before being 
 delivered to the people, he was taken up to the platform 
 of the temple; there he was asked to deny his Faith in 
 such a w^ay as to be heard by every one. He was told 
 that this would be a means of undeceiving those whom 
 he had seduced. The Saint, far from doing what was 
 required of him, began to confess Jesus Christ in the 
 most solemn terms. The Scribes and Pharisees, mad 
 with indignation, cried out, "What, the just man is 
 gone astray, too!" They rushed in all haste to the 
 place where he stood, and cast him down headlong. 
 St. James was not killed by the fall; he had yet 
 strength enough to place himself on his knees. In 
 this posture he raised his eyes to heaven and im- 
 plored of God the pardon of his murderers, saying like 
 his Divine Master, "For they know not what they do." 
 The populace rained on him a shower of stones, till at 
 length they fuller completed the work by striking him 
 on the head with a club, such as is used in dressing cloth. 
 This happened on the festival of the Pasch, the loth of 
 April, in the year of Our Lord, 6i. Such was the 
 opinion entertained by the Jews concerning the death 
 of the venerable Bishop, that they attributed to his un- 
 just death the destruction of Jerusalem 
 
 SS. JUDB, SIMON, AND MATTHIAS, APOSTLES. 
 
 St. Jude was surnamed Thaddeus, which means 
 praue^ and Lebbeus, which means a man of intelligence. 
 He was the brother of St. James, the Less, and a near 
 relation of the Divine Master. Chosen like the rest to 
 deliver the world from the sway of the devil, he quit- 
 ted Judea after Pentecost, made his way into Africa, 
 
SS. JUDE, SIMON AND MATTHIAS, 67 
 
 and planted the faith in Lybia. In the year 62 St. 
 Jude returned to Jerusalem, and assisted at the elec- 
 tion of St. Simon, his brother, as Bishop of that city. 
 It is recorded that he died at Ararat in Armenia. One 
 thing is certain, to this day the Armenians honor SS. 
 Bartholomew and Jude as their first apostles. We 
 have an epist}e from St. Jude, addressed to all the 
 Churches, and especially to the converted Jews. Its 
 chief object was to fortify the Faithful against the ris- 
 ing heresies of the Nicolites and Gnostics. 
 
 All that is known of St. Simon is that the ardor of 
 his zeal for the glory of His Divine Master obtained 
 for him the surname of The Zealous, and that he evan- 
 gelized Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Mauritania. The 
 martyrologies of St. Jerome, Bede, Ado, and Usuard, 
 place his martyrdom in Persia, in a city called Suanir, 
 and they attribute his death to the fury of the idola- 
 ters. 
 
 St. Matthias, a few days after Pentecost, was elected 
 by the Apostles as a substitute for Judas Iscariot. Wc 
 are not acquainted with the particulars either of his 
 evangelical conquests in Judea and Hthiopia. or of his 
 death. His life, like that of St. Simon, is hidden 
 in Jesus Christ, and written only by the Angels in the 
 imperishable book of eternity. 
 
 ST. MARK, EV.\NGKUST. 
 
 St. Mark was of Jewish origin. Drawn to the Faith 
 by the Apostles after the Ascension, he became the 
 companion of St. Peter. The Head of the Apostolic 
 College having in his first journey to Rome converted 
 a great many persons, it was at the request of these 
 new believers, and especially of the Roman Knights, 
 that St. Mark wrote his Gospel. He collected all that 
 1. Gaumt. 
 
68 THE APOSTLES. 
 
 he had heard from the Apostle, and formed his work 
 thereof. St. Peter was delighted with the longing 
 that the Christians showed for the word of life. He 
 approved of St. Mark's Gospel, and impressed upon it 
 the seal of his authority, that it might be read in the 
 assemblies of the faithful. The Apostle, departing 
 again for the East, sent St. Mark into Egypt with the 
 title of Bishop of Alexandria, which was, after Rome, 
 the most celebrated city in the world. 
 
 St. Mark preached during the space of twelve years 
 in various parts of Egypt, after which he came to 
 Alexandria, where in a little while he formed a very 
 numerous church. The astonishing progress of Chris- 
 tianity set the Pagans in such a rage that they decided 
 on destroying the instrument of so many wonders; but 
 St. Mark found a means of concealing himself for some 
 time. At last he was discovered, as he was celebrat- 
 ing Mass. The boldest among the Pagans laid hold of 
 him, bound him fast with cords, and dragged him 
 along the streets, crying out that he must be led to 
 Bucoles, which was a place near the sea, full of rocks 
 and precipices. This happened on the 24th of April, 
 in the year 68, the fourteenth year of the reign of 
 Nero. 
 
 The saint was dragged about during the whole day. 
 The ground and the stones were spotted with his 
 blood, and every where might be seen pieces of his 
 torn flesh. All through this frightful torture, the ven- 
 erable old man never ceased to bless God for having 
 thought him worthy to suffer for the glory of His 
 name. When evening was come, the Pagans threw 
 him into prison. Next morning he was dragged out 
 again, as on the day before, and under so many cruel- 
 
^5. MARK AND LUKE. 69 
 
 ties he expired. The Christians gathered up the 
 remains of his body, and interred them at Bucoles, in 
 the very place where they usually assembled for prayer. 
 St. Mark in his Gospel, has only abridged St. Matthew. 
 His style of narration is concise: it has all the charms 
 of an elegant simplicity. After the example of St. 
 Matthew, he makes the Saviour known to us as a Man, 
 a Legislator, and a Model. He does not relate what 
 the Son of God said in praise of St. Peter, but enters 
 into all the particulars of his denial, in order to gratify 
 the holy Apostle's humility. 
 
 ST. LUKE. EVANGKLIST. 
 
 St Luke was a native of Antioch, the metropolis of 
 Syria, where he laid the foundation of many excellent 
 studies, which he afterwards perfected by traveling into 
 Greece and Egypt. His taste inclined him particularly 
 towards medicine, but it seems that it was only after his 
 conversion to Christianity that charity induced him to 
 practice an art which he found to be compatible with 
 the labors of an apostolic ministry. St. Jerome assures 
 us that he excelled in it; and all tradition adds that he 
 was no less expert in painting. 
 
 He was already a perfect model of cvcr>' virtue, when 
 St. Paul chose him to be his companion and fellow- 
 laborer about the year 51. These two great saints 
 never afterwards separated, except at intervals and 
 when the neccessities of the Church reijuired it. St. 
 Luke followed the great apostle to Rome in 6a, when 
 the latter was sent thither a prisoner, and did not leave 
 him till he had the happiness of seeing him released in 
 63. 
 
 This same year he completed the Acts of the Apot- 
 Gaunu, 
 
70 THE EVANGELISTS. 
 
 ties, a valuable history which he had undertaken at 
 Rome by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It forms 
 as it were a continuation of his Gospel. He proposes 
 to himself therein to refute the false accounts that 
 were published regarding the lives and labors of the 
 founders of Christianity, and to leave an authentic 
 record of the wonders that God had wrought in favor 
 of His Church, an unanswerable proof of the resurrec- 
 tion of the Saviour and the divinity of the Gospel. 
 After the death of St. Paul, the Evangelist preached 
 in India and Dalmatia. He terminated his long career 
 by a glorious martyrdom. 
 
 SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS. 
 
 St. Irenaeus, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine find a 
 symbol of the Evangelists in the four mysterious fig- 
 ures of Ezeckiel and the Apocalypse. Hence, the por- 
 trait of each of the Evangelists is usually accompanied 
 with one of these symbols. It is generally agreed that 
 the eagle denotes St. John, who, at the very outset 
 rises to the Deity, there to contemplate the Word. 
 The ox is symbolic of St. Luke, who begins by making 
 mention of the priesthood of the God Man, and the 
 sacrifice of Zachary. St. Matthew is represented by 
 the figure of a man, because he begins by relating the 
 temporal generation of the Saviour, with whose sa- 
 cred humanity he desires to acquaint us. Last of all 
 the lion characterizes St. Mark, because he explains 
 the royal dignity of the Saviour, the true lion of the 
 fold of Juda, and begins with his retreat in the desert, 
 the usual abode of the lion. 
 
 ST. PETER, APOSTLE. 
 St. Peter, Prince and Primate of the Apostles, at 
 their dispersion, first went to Caesarea, afterwards to 
 
ST. PETER. rt 
 
 Antioch, where the Gospel was making rapid progress. 
 It was here that the disciples were first called Chris- 
 tians. According to the division of the world which 
 the Apostles made among themselves, St. Peter was 
 destined to carry the Gospel to the capital of the Ro- 
 man Empire, but he did not immediately execute his 
 design. The moment of Divine Providence had not 
 arrived. While awaiting it, he was, by the common 
 consent of the Apostles, established Bishop of Antioch, 
 the capital of Syria. It is believed that he ruled this 
 Church for seven years. This does not mean that he 
 constantly remained there. As a matter of fact, the 
 indefatigable Apostle preached during this time to the 
 Jews scattered through all Asia — in Pontus. in Gala- 
 tia, in Bithynia, and in Cappadocia. Notwithstand- 
 ing these painful labors the Vicar of the Son of God 
 led an exceedingly frugal life. St. Gregory Nazianzen 
 tells us that he was content with eating daily a half- 
 penny worth of lupins, which are a kind of beans. 
 
 Meanwhile Herod, surnamed Agrippa. had renewed 
 the persecutions against the Christians. He had already 
 put to death St. James, the brother of St. John, the 
 Evangelist. To this unjust death he wished to add 
 that of St. Peter. The Chief Pastor of the Church 
 having returned to Jerusalem, was therefore arrested 
 and cast into a narrow pri.son. bound by a double 
 chain. Here he was guarded by sixteen soldiers, di- 
 vided into four bands, so as to succeed one another. 
 Two were near the prisoner day and night, the other 
 two kept sentry before the door. 
 
 Peter was miraculously delivered, and then left Je- 
 rusalem as soon as possible, and made his way to the 
 maritime frontier of Judea. He visited the young 
 
n SS PETER AND MARK, 
 
 Churches and established Bishops everywhere, dis- 
 tributing the benefits of his doctrine and miracles. At 
 length he resolved to go to Rome. 
 
 SS. PETER AND MARK ENTER ROME. 
 
 On the fifteenth of the Calends of February in the 
 year from the building of the city DCCXCVI, Clau- 
 dius Augustus for the third, and Lucius Vitellius for 
 the second time, being consuls, there entered the gates 
 of Rome two lowly wayfarers from Palestine. 
 
 They might have passed for father and son, if one 
 attended solely to their years, but from the contour 
 and deportment of the younger of them, in whom the 
 gravity of manhood was still blended with the modest 
 gracefulness of youth, it was easy to discern that no 
 tie of earthly kindred united him to the venerable 
 man by whose side he walked w ith the reverential air 
 of a disciple.* 
 
 Three score years and upwards seemed to have 
 passed over the old man's head. It was bald and 
 shorn upon the crown, and encircled by a fillet or 
 wreath of hair, like to that of his beard, which was not 
 white or flowing, but crispy and of a silvery gray. 
 His brow was elevated, as if in lofty thought. His 
 cheeks were furrowed with contrition. His whole as- 
 pect was pale and of an expression that imparted a cer- 
 tain air of dignity to a person rather less than the mid- 
 dle size. His eye, vivid as the lightning of heaven, 
 indicated an impetuous spirit, but its glance was tem- 
 pered by humility. A reed terminating in a cross was 
 his only staff, and even that he seemed to carry rather 
 as an emblem of his mission than to alleviate his pil- 
 grimage or sustain the infirmity of his years. About 
 
 *Miley. 
 
ENTRY INTO ROME. 73 
 
 him there was an air of mystery that confounded the 
 conjecture it excited. He looked like an ambassador, 
 the agent of some mighty enterprise; yet, who more 
 destitute of everything that is wont to distinguish the 
 representative of a terrestial potentate? Unheralded 
 and unadorned by pomp, jaded and travel-stained , he 
 journeyed on with his meek companion — barefooted 
 and in silence. If heeded, it was to be scoffed at, or 
 eyed with contempt by the proud and gorgeous multi- 
 tudes thronging to the metropolis of all nations. 
 
 Embassies vying with each other in the costliness 
 and singularity of their gifts, and in the splendors of 
 their retinues — envoys even from the climes of India, 
 
 **Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed," 
 astrologers from Chaldea, merchants and magicians, 
 priests and sorcerers from Egypt, Asiatic monarchs 
 upon elephants caparisoned with jewelry and gold, 
 Moorish Kings and Parthian satraps, with squadrons 
 of wild horsemen from beyond the Hydaspes and 
 Mount Atlas: 
 
 "Praetors, pro-consuls to their provinces 
 Hastening, or on return in robes of state, 
 Lictors with rods, the ensigns of their power, 
 Legions and Cohorts, turms of horse and wings;" 
 
 men of all colors, and costumes, and degrees of civili- 
 zation, from the Ethiop, the Arab, and the Sarmatian, 
 to the Attic Greek — the pomp, the chivalry, and 
 stately religion of the whole Roman world, seemed to 
 be grouped together, and interwoven in that concourse 
 (brilliant and interminable as the march of Xerxes), 
 as it moved along the Appian way, like an august pro- 
 cession, bearing the tributes and the offerings of all 
 
74 55. PETER AND MARK. 
 
 people to the queen of empire, and the domicile of the 
 pagan gods. 
 
 Tombs and stately mausoleums, adorned with pre- 
 cious marbles, with statuary, and elegiac inscription, 
 lined the great thoroughfare, on either side, for many 
 a mile before it passed beneath the city gate; and as 
 Death had come out to welcome the myriads hastening 
 to his carnival, the brave, the gay, and the ambitious 
 in pressing forward were encountered by the funeral 
 processions, which issued forth towards the suburbs in 
 all the ostentatious circumstances of mourning.* 
 
 First in the sad procession went musicians of various 
 kinds, pipers, trumpters, and players upon a long flute 
 that made a grave and dismal .^^ound; then nursing 
 women called praejicae, rehearsing the praises of the 
 dead in a wild dirge, or rhapsody, which they chanted 
 like so many priestesses of grief. Next came buffoons 
 and pantomimes, who danced and sung; one of them 
 called the arch mimic, imitating the gestures and ex- 
 pressions, and in every respect, supporting the charac- 
 ter of the deceased. Then followed his freedmen, 
 wearing caps in token of their liberty — they like the 
 rest, bearing lighted torches called funales from being 
 made of twisted hemp. Immediately before the corpse, 
 borne upon Siledica or couch, decorated, were carried in 
 chariots or on couches the images of the deceased and 
 of his ancestors, in the same complexion and garb as 
 when alive; so that each one's remains seemed to be 
 conducted, by the long line of his progenitors to the 
 tomb. 
 
 If the deceased had distinguished himself in war, 
 the crowns and rewards which he had received for his 
 valor were displayed, together with the spoils and 
 "^Miley. 
 
PALACE OF LATERANUS, 75 
 
 Standards he had won in battle. The fasces and the 
 curule chair were borne before the magistrate; the con- 
 queror was preceded by his war-horse, his triumphal 
 chariot, the representations of the provinces he had 
 subdued, and of the cities he had taken. Behind the 
 bier walked the friends of the deceased clad in mourn- 
 ing; his sons with their heads veiled, his daughters 
 with their hair dishevelled, magistrates without their 
 badges, the nobility without their ornaments; and a 
 long line of clients and domestics usually closed the 
 funeral. 
 
 As the pilgrims moved slowly onward through the 
 double range of sepulchres, there was no vicissitude or 
 incident connected with the burial of the dead that 
 was not brought under their observation. 
 
 Absorbed in thought upon these occurrences Peter 
 turned aside from the great Appian thoroughfare, 
 close to the tombs of the Horatii and crossed the Via 
 Latina, in order to reach the Asinarian gate which was 
 comparatively unfrequented. 
 
 Immediately within the walls, to the left, there stood 
 a palace upon that gentle eminence called Grii Man^ 
 ta7ia, of extent and aspect so imposing that it might 
 have been mistaken for the abode of Caesar; yet it was 
 to this edifice the lowly wayfarer directed his steps, 
 without a moment's hesitation, for it was the first he 
 met. The gates of bronze were fiung wide open, and 
 looked as burnished and stately as the portals of 
 Olympus. The pilgrim a.scended the marble flight 
 which led to the platform in front of the portico, 
 entered the vestibule mtekly, but still with the unhes- 
 itating tread of one who is conscious that his errand 
 deserves a welcome; nor was he barred of entrance by 
 
76 55. PETER AND MARK. 
 
 the ostiarii or porters, who lounged about, nor did he 
 pause himself until he came to the first atrium or 
 grand reception- hall. 
 
 A hundred columns of jasper sustained its roof — a 
 dome covered* with lamina, or valves of gold inlaid 
 with diamonds, and enamelled paintings in the most 
 exquisite manner of the Greeks. The frieze, rivalling 
 that of the Parthenon in beauty, represented a triumph 
 during the Marsic war. The wainscot around the 
 walls — consisting of rafe and beauteous marbles, the 
 undulated Thasian, or Carystian, the vermiculated 
 Phrygian spotted with the blood of Atys — was trimmed 
 with ivory and decorated with beautiful medallions 
 and arabesques. In arcades behind the peristyle, were 
 ranged in chronological order, tribunes of the people, 
 censors — the long line of statesmen, patriots, and great 
 captains, who had shed lustre on a house renowned, 
 even in Rome, for its ancestral laurels. The tablinium 
 was hung with portraits, some of them as old as the 
 times of Fabius Pictor. For the most part, the ima- 
 ges were enshrined in costly tabernacles overshadowed 
 with trophies, and the lamps of purest gold that 
 burned before them, were tended as religiously as the 
 fire of Vesta. In the centre of the hall, which was of 
 a circular form, there was an altar to Jupiter Hospita- 
 lis, with no canopy above it, but the heavens, expand- 
 ing over the orifice in the dome like an awning of 
 transparent azure; and from this there descended a 
 flood of splendor that inundated the entire atrium — 
 tinging its furniture and ornaments with the radiance 
 of enchantment.* 
 
 The pilgrims continued to advance through galler- 
 ies, halls, and suites of stately apartments without 
 '^GelVs Pompeiana. 
 
PALACE OF LATERANUS, Tl 
 
 end, a labyrinth of ever-increasing splendor, but they 
 paused not to gaze or wonder at the strange magnifi- 
 cence. The entire place was lighted up and decorated 
 for some grand festivity, as if for the reception of a 
 bride. Yet there was no one to be seen, save now and 
 then a slave gliding like a melancholy vision over the 
 noiseless pavement to tend the lamps, or scatter per- 
 fumes and sweet-scented leaves. The song of one hand- 
 maid, as she adjusted a lily in a garland, startled the 
 venerable pilgrim, as if it had been a parable: 
 
 "Thou, too, for thy bloom art cherish'd; 
 But when that bloom hath perish'd. 
 Thou, too, shall be flung away." 
 
 At last the voluptuous swell of music came from a 
 distance upon the ear, and, directed by the sound, the 
 pilgrims came to the interior recesses of the people, 
 where lay the triclinium or hall of feast. 
 
 It was a sumptuous hall, oblong in form, and di- 
 vided, as to style of decoration and arrangement, into 
 two unequal parts. The greater division was occu- 
 pied by the guests, disposed upon couches, on that 
 side only of the tables next the colonnades, so that the 
 various attendants and ministers of the feast were free 
 to move about on the centre space, extending from the 
 cross- table at the head, between the two lateral ones, 
 down to the second or lesser division of the hall, occu- 
 pied by the orchestra and the stage for jugglers, dan- 
 cers and pantomimes, who exhibited during intervals 
 of the long protracted banquet. Taste, the most re- 
 fined, directing the arts, then in the meridian of per- 
 fection, and administered to by unbounded opulence, 
 had exhausted every resource uj)on this sanctuary of 
 indulgence. The ceilings that beamed with the efful- 
 
78 55. PETER AND MARK. 
 
 gence of a golden firmament glittering with star-like 
 gems, were so contrived as to vary in aspect with the 
 .successive courses, and from them showers as it were 
 of the most exhilirating and aromatic dews were made 
 to distil upon the languishing voluptuaries. The 
 hangings were of Tyrian purple. Flowers in festoons 
 were suspended from the arcades and niches, where 
 stood Apollo, the Muses, Venus, Psyche, the Graces, 
 and the quiver-armed god. Endless, in short, was the 
 variety of scenes and emblems that had been conceived 
 by poetic fancy to revel in that temple of delights, 
 and triumphant art, as with a wand, had given them 
 the very air and breath of life. 
 
 The mosaic pavement, figured with the most gro- 
 tesque devices, was scattered over with the soft pow- 
 der of odorous wood, damped with saffron, vermillion, 
 and other brilliant dyes. It glittered with filings of 
 gold and the dust of the sparkling stone. The board 
 of the feast, made of citron wood from the furthest 
 confines of Mauritania, was supported on feet of ivory, 
 and covered with a leaf or plateau of silver elegantly 
 -enchased. The couches, each of which accommodated 
 three, were made of bronze, overlaid with silver, gold, 
 and tortoiseshell; the mattresses were of Gallic wool, 
 dyed purple; the pillows and cushions of the softest 
 down were covered with the priceless embroidery of 
 Babylon.* 
 
 Abandoned to every effeminacy as they lolled upon 
 these beds like so many deities on sunlit clouds, the 
 lordly voluptuaries were regaled with every dainty of 
 air, earth, and ocean, while nymph- like and obsequi- 
 ous forms were stationed with fans and vases of per- 
 fume, or moved around the couches to sounds of soft 
 GelVs Pornpeiana, 
 
PALACE OF LATERANUS. 79 
 
 melody with goblets of racy wine. Others burned in- 
 cense, or placed fresh viands and flowers on the altars 
 of the household deities, or fed with fragrant oil the 
 lamps and candelabra that cast a mellow splendor over 
 the entire scene. 
 
 The strains of enchanting music which had guided 
 the pilgrims from a distance, seemed to faint away and 
 die in swanlike agonies, and all was still and breath- 
 less, as in a dream, when that venerable stranger and 
 his disciple appeared upon the threshold of that hall of 
 pleasure. Their eyes were downcast, and it was well, 
 for ill would they have brooked to look upon mysteries 
 of wantoness and flnshadow;ed sin. The Apostle lifted 
 his hands as if to bless, saying "Peace to this house!** 
 "And to all who dwell within it," responded his 
 disciple." 
 
 Like the summer sea when the tornado breathes 
 upon it, the lord of the feast sprang up. He shool^ 
 his hands, he shrieked in transports of fury at the 
 messengers who had come with a great blessing to his 
 house; and they seized them, and cast them forth. 
 
 "O my divine Master! it is just!" said the venerable 
 man, as he was lifted by his disciple from where they 
 had left him for death: "it is meet and congruous, for 
 Thou also didst come to Thine own, and Thine own 
 received Thee not, but disowned and rejected Thee 
 with ignominious injuries. Why, therefore, should 
 not Thy unworthy vice-regent, on entering his own 
 city, for the first time, be treated like Thee with in- 
 sult? But suffer not, O Lord, that our first benedic- 
 tion in this predestinated see and metropolis of Thy 
 Kingdom, shall prove abortive! Yes, they have 
 rejected thy peace," he continues, after a moment's 
 
80 55. PETER AND MARK. 
 
 ecstacy, as he gazed upon the palace of Lateranus (for 
 Platius Lateranus was the lord of the palace and the 
 feast) "and, therefore, that proud pile shall fall; but 
 upon its ruins shall rise the mother and the queen of a 
 regenerated world!"* 
 
 St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles * 'shook the dust 
 from his feet," and with his meek disciple and amanu- 
 ensis, St. Mark, pursued his way rejoicing. 
 
 The prophecy of St. Peter was fulfilled; the Lateran 
 Palace became the property of the Emperors, and it 
 was afterwards given by Constantine the Great to 
 Pope St. Sylvester, with other rich possessions in 
 Rome and Italy. 
 
 ST. PETER IN THE PAI.ACE OF PUDENS. 
 
 Thrasia Petus. — ''Whom the gods love die young, 
 Servilius; for instance, who has not heard of Tropho- 
 nius and Agamedes, who built Apollo's temple at 
 Delphi ? Prostrate before the shrine they besought the 
 god, not indeed for any trifling recompense, nor yet for 
 anything definite, but, in general terms, for the best 
 blessing that could be conferred on mortals, to whom 
 Apollo promised, that the object of their prayer should 
 be granted them, on the morning of the third day from 
 thente — when it dawned both were found dead."t 
 
 Lucan — ''Again; there were the two sons of Argias, 
 Cleobis and Biton. The story is well known. On a 
 great festival their father set out in the lofty chariot 
 in which it was his privilege to be drawn when going 
 to sacrifice; between the town and the temple while 
 yet a good distance from the latter, the oxen stopped, 
 and refused to go any further. It was then that the 
 *Miley. 
 ■\Tusc. quaest. 
 
THE PALACE OF PUDENS. 81 
 
 youths, above-mentioned, stripped off their garments, 
 and having anointed their bodies with oil, yoked 
 themselves to the chariot, and so, drew Argias their 
 father to the temple. When arrived, he is said to 
 have implored the goddess to grant his sons, in 
 requital of their piety, the greatest blessing in her 
 gift. After feasting sumptuously with their mother, 
 they went to sleep, and were found dead in the 
 morning." 
 
 Se7ieca — ''Besides, Annaeus, what signifies the 
 longest life ? What is infancy to-day, is youthhood 
 to-morrow, and, in the career of existence, old age, 
 with swift and silent stride, pursues, and has over- 
 taken us before we dream that he is near. From the 
 waters of the Hypanis, which flow from Europe into 
 Pontus, we learn from Aristotle, that little insects are 
 generated which live but a day. Now, one of these 
 that perishes, say at the eighth hour, may be said to 
 have died advanced in age; and that one sees decrepi- 
 tude which survives till sunset. Compare with 
 eternity the most protracted life, and does not our 
 span of being seem brief as that of the ephemeral 
 insect."* 
 
 Fetus — 'Life! alas, what is it but a loan held at the 
 caprice of nature?" 
 
 Cassius. — "It is even worse Thrasea! It is a 
 despotism, fawned on by the base. O Timotheus! 
 thrice happy, yet lamented boy; a premature, and 
 therefore an enviable death has rescued thee, not only 
 from the ordinary ills of life, but frpm the inexpiable 
 disgrace of acquiescing in the degradation of thy 
 country." 
 
 Such was the tenor of the reflections by which his 
 * T)isculan Questions Book /. 
 
82 57: PETER IN ROME. 
 
 friends endeavored to beguile the grief of Servilius 
 Pudens, a venerable senator, from whose embrace a 
 son and heir — a youth of extraordinary promise, had 
 been torn away by death, the very day he had received 
 the manly toga. The obsequies celebrated from the 
 first with patrician pomp, and with the prodigality of 
 a distracted fondness, had been resumed, with increas- 
 ing ardor, as night, for the third time, expanded her 
 wings above the house of mourning; and like the 
 sounds of a distant ocean, one time swelling, another 
 time subsiding, to return anon with a hoarse and louder 
 roar — the reverberations of the mirth and Saturnalian 
 revelry, that reigned in every triclinium, hall, and 
 atrium of the immense palace — were audible at 
 intervals even in the remote apartment where the 
 afnicted Pudens had retired with the most illustrious 
 of his kindred and acquaintance. 
 
 Among the latter were nearly all the most dis- 
 tinguished characters of the age, for Pudens like 
 Pomponius Atticus had the singular good fortune to 
 be courted and esteemed by the best and greatest of 
 all parties. 
 
 Adorned by many virtues, Servilius Pudens was 
 peculiarly distinguished for his hospitalities. His 
 domestics and the retainers of his palace, had it in 
 command to welcome the stranger, and to dispense his 
 bounty freely to those who came for sustenance to his 
 gates; but it was himself who had discharged these 
 kindly offices for St. Peter. His feelings attuned to 
 more exquisite Sensibility than usual by domestic 
 sorrow, had been powerfully affected at beholding the 
 marks of violence and indignity still fresh upon the 
 meek form of the apostle as he presented himself at 
 
THE PALACE OF PUD EN'S. 83 
 
 his gates; and how it was, he could not imagine, but a 
 glow of ineffable comfort seemed to play around his 
 heart, when the venerable pilgrim pronounced the 
 benediction of peace upon his house. He took him by 
 the hand with a cordiality which told his welcome, 
 had him treated with the tenderest solicitude, and 
 placed him amongst his own chosen guests, where the 
 apostle unnoticed and in silence, had listened to the 
 conference of the patricians, noting the vicissitudes of 
 hope and despondency as they passed across their 
 souls like alternations of sunshine and gloom. 
 
 When Caius Cassius bore down like a black tempest, 
 it was Pudens alone who strove to make head against 
 him, maintaining that if the reasons urged against 
 hope were powerful, there were also strong arguments 
 against despair, and sternly refusing to acquiesce in 
 atheism, or to believe that a universe, so full of order, 
 as to fill us with admiration to whatever side we turn, 
 is undirected by a Providence. 
 
 "Who," he cried, "can suggest a single improve- 
 ment in the great fabric of creation ? No mortal shall 
 ever be able to suggest a single one, and should any 
 one madly make the attempt, he shall not mend, but 
 make things worse, and prove that his own notions are 
 incongruous, for: — 'Whatever is. is best.' " 
 
 "Thus no matter to what side we turn — no matter 
 in what order of things we institute research — every 
 where we are met by evidences, that all things are 
 admirably administered by divine wisdom, with a view 
 to the general advantage and for the conservation of 
 all." 
 
 "But," replied Cassius, "the hour is come when we 
 must depart from this prison-cell — I, through the gale 
 
84 57: PETER IN ROME, 
 
 of death; 3'ou, my friends, still longer to enjoy exist- 
 ence; but as to that which is the better lot, the 
 immortal gods may know; but that, no mortal can 
 tell, I am convinced. And Marcus Tullius, after all 
 his sublime declamation in proof of the soul's immor- 
 tality nay of its divinity comes to this: 'But in 
 speculating on the soul's destiny,' he says, *we are 
 affected somewhat similarly to those, who from gazing 
 intently on the setting sun, become so dazzled as 
 hardly to see anything at all; so does it fare with the 
 mind in contemplating itself — all power of fixing 
 anything with precision is lost. Whereupon, bewild- 
 ered, its unsteady ken is turned in every direction, full 
 of hesitation, doubt and terror, as it finds itself drifting 
 away like a bark guideless on the o'cean's immensity.' 
 
 "Instead of the visions which philosophy has 
 taught us to deride, she gives us — can give us — 
 nothing in return, but a forlorn consciousness of 
 ignorance and disappointment. Far from being a 
 iDlessing or an enviable attribute, reason, as we are 
 now circumstanced, is a bitter curse; and better far, 
 -would it have been, had we never been endowed with 
 a faculty, not to be exercised but with ruin to our 
 happiness. As to religion, it has only aggravated and 
 and multiplied the evils by which we are overwhelmed. 
 
 "May malediction, therefore light upon the day of 
 my nativity, and may it be drowned in bitterness. 
 There is no God — no Providence —no hereafter. The 
 only elysium is the sty of Epicurus. Never, never, 
 will I believe, that it was by a deity, benign and 
 and superlatively wise, that man was brought to this 
 extremity. No, nothing but a ruthless demon could 
 .have flung him into this terrestrial Tartarus — appar- 
 
THE PALACE OF PUDENS. 85 
 
 ently for no fault of his — without the possibility of 
 liberation or redress." 
 
 The rising of St. Peter at this crisis, was like that 
 of an apparition from the dead. Astonishment held 
 the patricians mute; and, in spite of his rude garb and 
 diction, their haughty spirits quailed under his words; 
 which fell upon them like thunderbolts of inspiration. 
 He discoursed upon Jesus of Nazareth; showed that 
 he was the Christ, the deliverer, the promised, the 
 long-expected, the Saviour, **the way, the truth, and 
 the life;" the way rendered plain and unmistakable by 
 His own example and leading with infallible certainty 
 to heaven;— the truth long searched for, in vain, by 
 philosophy now revealed audibly by the voice of God^ 
 to be held by faith upon authority — the life, not 
 derived, as by a stream, but self-existing as in the 
 fountain-head from ail eternity. How glorious was 
 the plot that had been marred by disobedience; and how 
 indispensable to the re-establishment of order was the 
 interposition of a God! Little less astounding than to 
 hear the problem solved with facility by a Jewish 
 fisherman, which had baffled all the pride of Greek 
 genius and Roman judgment, was it to discover by 
 what a flimsy, transparent gauze of origin, and fall of 
 man, with the rest of primeval truth had lain con- 
 cealed. 
 
 But what remedy will our foreign teacher apply to 
 the disease prevailing all around Him, the contempt of 
 man as man, and of human life? What power of per- 
 suasion does he bear within him, which was wanting 
 to those philosophers, men of ability, learning and 
 eloquence, who from age to age, and out of every 
 clime, had sought in Rome, as the world's centre, to 
 establish a doctrine and gather a following? They 
 
86 ST. PETER IN ROME, 
 
 have come with many varied gifts of human genius, 
 and after shining for a while, and attracting attention, 
 have dropped away, and their followers after them. 
 But the stranger of whom we are speaking has none 
 of these gifts. He has neither the wisdom nor the 
 eloquence of the Greeks; he is even without the learn- 
 ing of a cultivated mind; a fisherman by trade, poor, 
 old, obscure, a foreigner of the most despised race, 
 how can he succeed as a teacher among these lords of 
 the world ? He has two things within him for want of 
 which society was perishing, and man unhappy; a cer- 
 tain knowledge of God as the Creator, Huler, Judge, 
 and Reward of men, and of man's soul made after the 
 image and likeness of this God. In this name he will 
 speak to Nero and his court; to the patrician, the free- 
 man, and the slave, he will speak; the few will listen 
 and belitrve; the many will reject Presently persecu- 
 tion will arise; he will be tried, condemned, and cruci- 
 fied on a hill overlooking the city. But in that death 
 he will take possession of the city lying beneath him, 
 which from him will receive the germ of a new life. 
 In that city, the centre of idolatry, heathenism, and 
 tyrrany, and of all the corruption that is in the world 
 through lust, he will have been the first of a line of 
 rulers which is never to cease, and which, while the 
 crown of temporal empire falls away from the Capitol, 
 will substitute for it the spiritual rule of purity, gentle- 
 ness, and charity over the whole earth.* 
 
 But whence had this despised foreigner received the 
 double knowledge of God, and of the soul so miserably 
 lost — as we have seen — to this brilliant Roman civili- 
 zation ? He has received it from the lips of Christ 
 Himself who had given him authority to form this 
 "^Allies. 
 
THE PALACE OF PUD ENS. 87 
 
 new society, and in the strength of this word alone, he 
 had come to Rome to inaugurate in the seat of the 
 world's corrupt empire, the everlasting kingdom of 
 charity. 
 
 But still true to the political and utilitarian bias, so 
 characteristic of the Roman mind, it was the complete 
 solution, afforded by Christianity, of tht great problem 
 they had been discussing, that chiefly struck the 
 guests of Pudens. If indeed this new system were 
 really the work of a divine author; and had for sanc- 
 tion the authoritative injunction of the Supreme Lord 
 and Arbiter of all; then was there found at last, a 
 means of retrieving the tottering fortunes of Rome, 
 and of re-establishing its universal empire upon a 
 truly eternal basis. In the programme of the fisher- 
 man, they discerned all that consummate statesman- 
 ship ani the experience of centuries had suggested to 
 their ancestors; a solemn worship based upon august 
 and sacrificial rites, calculated to impress the public 
 with awe and veneration for the Divine Majesty; im- 
 pressive sanctions, arising from the vivid hopes and 
 fears of future retribution; expiations for sin; benisons 
 and sanctifying ceremonies; a cycle of festivals to body 
 forth, and as it were dramatize the wonderful teachings 
 of the new state; to fill the memory with great exam- 
 ples, and to fire the living to emulation of the illustri- 
 ous departed. Above all, they were not a little flat- 
 tered in remarking such a singular coincidence between 
 the hierarchical constitution of the Messiah's empire 
 and their own; various orders and gradations of min- 
 istry under the jurisdiction of one Supreme Pontiff, 
 endowed with sovereign authority, to bind and loose, 
 to regulate, define, enforce, and ordain anew, tallying 
 Allies, 
 
88 57: PETER IN ROME, 
 
 in so many various instances with what had been de- 
 vised by the political wisdom of their great ancestors. 
 But all this referred merely to the skeleton; how de- 
 termine whether this new religion had any pretensions 
 to truth, to a vivifying, interior spirit, to an authority 
 really from Heaven, to a power to sanctify and liberate 
 from sin, better than their old system? The great 
 defect of the religion devised by their forefathers 
 was, that it was an imposture — a grand, admirable 
 scheme, but founded on falsehood. How did they 
 know, how could they be certain, that this system of 
 the fisherman was based on truth ? Was a Jew less 
 likely to be an impostor than Pampilius ? Where were 
 his vouchers for the divinity of the Nazarene ? Where 
 his own credentials that he had been sent ? 
 
 PUDKNS I.E)ADS ST. PKTKR TO THK CHAMBER 
 OF DEATH. 
 
 It was not the hope which emanates from trust 
 in man, it was not the scepticism of affection — incred- 
 ulous to the silence and the decay by which death pro- 
 claims his jurisdiction, and sets his seal upon the 
 cherished object that was generated in the soul of 
 Pudens, and at length found utterance upon his lips as 
 he interrupted the apostle with a profession of faith in 
 Christ's divinity, and in his own power, as vice-gerent 
 of the Redeemer who had taken pity on the widowed 
 mother of Naim, to restore his son to his embrace. 
 
 Followed by the guests, the afflicted Pudens led the 
 apostle to where the nuptials of death were celebrated. 
 The boisterous revel paused for a moment, as the 
 patrician moved along the brilliant galleries and 
 through the halls of the vast palace, spread with ban- 
 queting and crowded with feasting multitudes. But 
 
THE CHAMBER OF DEATH, 89 
 
 again it rushed on and resounded like a tempest, after 
 tlie lull of an instant or like a torrent which becomes 
 more ungovernable by being checked. 
 
 Purchased sympathy, and lamentation without grief 
 were at their orgies in the sanctuary of death itself. 
 The senator waved his hand — the giddy dance stood 
 still — the pantomime looked grave — the timbrel, the 
 madrigal, and the flutes were hushed — and every eye 
 escorted the broken-hearted father, as he led the 
 apostle towards the dead body of his child. 
 
 The boy was habited as on a holiday, and reclined 
 on a glittering couch, as if reposing after the toils of 
 sport. A stole of flowers fell from his shoulders over 
 his white and beauteous costume; the lily and the rose 
 were twined with the clustering ringlets of his hair; 
 but their bloom only served to deepen the shadows 
 that overcast that countenance, so lately beaming with 
 candid joy. Every lineament was now steeped in the 
 noisome mildew of the grave. That form which used 
 to move in all the martial sports and exercises of 
 Roman boyhood, with agility and grace that enchanted 
 every beholder, was now motionless as a Parian statue. 
 That eye so full of Roman majesty and ambition, was 
 shrouded in darkest night. The lips of his son, al- 
 ready livid and conglutinated with the slime of dissolu- 
 tion, were unable to utter even one syllable of comfort 
 to the afflicted father, as he bent over the wreck of al 
 his most cherished hopes. 
 
 Grace chastens and elevates without extirpating the 
 affections. While at a distance, absorbe<l in lofty 
 speculation, and under the excitement of the apostles 
 inspired words, the patrician had felt a rIow of hope 
 around his heart; but when he gazed upon the figure 
 
90 THE CHAMBER OF DEA TH. 
 
 of his child, lapsing with awful rapidity to decay, he 
 wrung his hands, and shook his aged head in token of 
 despair, as he turned his streaming eyes upon the 
 apostle. 
 
 By this time the noble spouse of Pudens, Claudia, not 
 less celebrated for her beauty than her birth as the 
 daughter of Caractacus, distracted with woe and fol- 
 lowed by the chief kindred and friends of their illus- 
 trious lineage, arrived, with the lovely Pudentiana and 
 Praxede, at the scene of grief. The heart-broken 
 mother could not endure the sight, and swooned in the 
 arms of her attendants; while the fair children com- 
 menced a piteous wailing; — they called upon Timoth- 
 eous to awake; and took him by the marble hand with 
 fondness, and after again and again conjuring him by 
 name, as if he still lived, they drew the apostle by the 
 garments towards the bier praying him to awake their 
 brother, and St. Peter looking on them, burst into 
 tears.* 
 
 The guests, who had now assembled from all quar- 
 ters and beheld the distressing scene, began to murmur 
 and cast looks of menace at the apostle, whose emo- 
 tion passed for the trepidation of an unveiled impostor. 
 The malediction was brewing upon many a tongue; 
 many an arm was already nerved to seize the hypocrite 
 who dared to trifle with the sorrows of a noble family, 
 when St. Peter serenely elevated his eyes and hands 
 in prayer to Heaven. 
 
 Whoever in youth has been a pilgrim through the 
 glowing South shall hardly be lonesome in old age. 
 Memorv^ shall have many a verdant spot wherein to 
 retire during the pilgrimage over life's desert in after 
 yearfe — associates from whom neither despotism, nor 
 "^Milev. 
 
THE CHAMBER OF DEATH. 91 
 
 age, nor death can separate it — reveries celestial and 
 refreshing as the vision which came upon fugitive 
 Israel as he slept. But amongst his reminiscences, 
 none shall be more brilliant, or like the coming of the 
 Deity to judgment, than that of sunrise among the 
 Apennines; where morning does not steal through the 
 imperceptible degrees of twilight, but, after a moment's 
 hesitation on the mountain-tops, bursts into full splen- 
 dor over the entire landscape, which lives and laughs 
 in vivifying brightness, suddenly. And thus it was 
 that life, balmy and refulgent, dawned *'like the 
 blushing morn," over the dead body of the youth. 
 He breathed, he panted with exuberant sensation; he 
 bounded from the bier, like an angel from his rest; 
 and his voice, fragrant and musical as nature's matin 
 song, broke out. 
 
 It was long before rapture and astonishment, dis- 
 tracted with ecstacy about the youth, could spare one 
 thought to him who had restored him to animation. 
 The parents embraced their child, and pressed him 
 alternately to their bosoms, as if be'jide themselves 
 with joy. They bathed his warm cheeks, by turns 
 with gushing tears, and the most passionate caresses, 
 then gazed upon him, as if incredulous with delight, 
 and again pressed him anew with redoubled emotioD to 
 their hearts. His sisters folded their Parian arms 
 around him, and looking up with tears that reflected 
 the radiant affection of their brother's smile, upbraided 
 him with their sorrow and made him promise not to 
 die again. 
 
 The revellers who had lingered behind now rushed 
 with tumultuous precipitation to the scene of wonder. 
 The dance fell into anarchy, the lute dropped from the 
 
92 THE CHAMBER OF BE A TH, 
 
 musician's hand, and the goblet from the lip of the 
 voluptuary — the gamester abandoned the dice, the 
 gourmand the banquet — the player who had hastened 
 back to the audience, vociferous for his return, when 
 he made his exit, stood aghast upon the stage in the 
 presence of the spectral solitude — and the drunkard, 
 whom the din of mirth had lulled to sleep, was star- 
 tled into consciousness by the abrupt silence that 
 reigned in the banquet hall. 
 
 Joy, wonder, bewilderment, ecstacy, assumed a 
 thousand attitudes, and the murmur of those who be- 
 held the miracle was varied as the sound of the harp 
 when its chords are swept by the winds of heaven. 
 Even callous scepticism was confounded to see how- 
 long the mirage lasted. The aged lifted up their 
 withered hands in impotent amaze, stern manhood 
 seized his beard, and setting himself firmly on the 
 earth, peered steadfastly from under knitted brows, as 
 if determined that neither credulity nor legerdemain 
 should fool his intellect. The bacchanal, with the ivy 
 tangled in his dishevelled hair, and reeling from his 
 cups, drew a hand across his unsteady vision, the 
 whirl of intoxication stopped, undulated for an in- 
 stant, and looking upon him living, who had been 
 dead, he grew sober from astonishment. 
 
 IMPERIAL ROME. 
 
 PUDKNS SHOWS ST. PETER THE ROME HE IS TO CON- 
 VERT. 
 
 Next morning, about the third hour, the patrician 
 conducted St. Peter to the Capitol. 
 
 The foundations of this fortress, so renowned as the 
 shrine and citadel of Roman power, were made by 
 
PUDENS SHOWING ROME TO ST. PETER. 93 
 
 Tarquinius Pribcus in fulfillment of a vow made dur- 
 ing the Sabine War, upon a scale of surpassing gran- 
 deur. The very gilding of it, according to Plutarch, 
 cost 12,000 talents, or $9,188,250. 
 
 Innumerable were the objects of w^onder that had 
 accosted the strangers that morning at almost every 
 step of their progress from the palace of the senator, 
 in the street of Patricians, across the fashionable quar- 
 ter of the Suburra; but all the rest seemed insignifi- 
 cant when they entered the Roman forum. To Rome 
 what Rome was to the world, all the glories of the 
 illustrious living and of the illustrious dead seemed 
 congregated there. Public buildings of the most su- 
 perb description enclosed it upon three sides; on 
 the fourth the temples of Saturn (the treasury), of 
 Fortune, and of Jove the Thunderer, standing on the 
 clivus or declivity of the capitol seemed to preside over 
 the deliberations of the Roman people, and to hail the 
 conqueror as he approached through a succession of 
 triumphal arches along the via sacra\ the temples, 
 towers, brazen portals, and embattled walls of the cap- 
 itol formed the background of the picture. 
 
 At the feet of Peter lay the immense city; through 
 ii move more than five millions of inhabitants. Noth- 
 ing elsewhere to equal the number and magnificence 
 of its palaces and temples. Rome had stood on seven 
 hills, hut thanks to successive enlargements it crowned 
 under the Caesars a dozen of these heights. It was 
 divided into fourteen wards, and contained 48,719 
 houses. This number included 2,000 palaces of in- 
 credible splendor. Arched to a certain height, and 
 built of stone that resisted fire, they all stood apart 
 from one another, without partition walls; each of 
 
94 IMPERIAL ROME, 
 
 them resembled somewhat a little city, as in each 
 might be seen forums or spacious courts, circuses, por- 
 ticoes, baths, gardens, and rich libraries. 
 
 To satisfy the effeminacy and to nourish the indo" 
 lence of its voluptuous inhabitants, Rome had 900 
 bath establishments, 327 capacious granaries, and 45 
 palaces of debauchery. Within its vast circuit rose 
 470 temples in which the pagan gods were worshipped. 
 Rome also possessed 5 naumachies, or lakes for re- 
 presenting naval battles; statues and obelisks almost 
 without number; 36 triumphal arches formed of ex- 
 quisite marble and ornamented with rare specimens of 
 sculpture; 24 horses of gilt bronze and 94 of ivory; 
 several amphitheatres of which one alone could afford 
 sitting accommodation to 87,000 spectators, and a 
 Grand Circus, which could admit according to those 
 who make the lowest computation 150,000 persons, 
 and according to those who make the highest 483,000. 
 There was not one hospital theie. Far above ever}-- 
 thing else in magnificence rose the imperial palace, 
 built by Nero, less remarkable for the gold and jewels 
 lavished on its ornamentation than for the gardens, 
 ponds, and woods with which it was surrounded. 
 Twenty four roads covered with large flagstones and 
 bordered with superb mausoleums, went out from the 
 twenty-four gates of Rome, leading from the capital of 
 the world to its provinces. 
 
 Let us now descend from the Capitol, and penetrate 
 into the interior of the houses. Before coming to a 
 master we meet with a large number of slaves, who 
 during the day are at the beck of his every caprice, 
 and during the night are shut up in dark and loath- 
 some prisons called ergastula. The multitude of peo- 
 
PUD ENS SHOWING ROME TO ST. PETER, 95 
 
 pie who swarm in the streets, sleep on the tiles, or 
 wherever else they can. During the day they visit the 
 amphitheatre or places of debauchery. There are 
 only two wants; food and pleasure. As for the rich 
 man, he occupies apartments, whose walls are painted 
 in fresco, the floors adorned with costly mosaic, and 
 the ceilings inlaid with gold. He is surrounded 
 with all that we should expect to find in a magnificent 
 palace. History, and the monuments still remaining, 
 tell us that gold, silver, ivory, jewels, and precious 
 woods adorned the furniture. 
 
 Cicero, the modest Cicero, had a table of citron- 
 wood that cost 200,000 sesterces, that is to say about 
 $5,000. A house that he purchased from Crassus 
 cost him 350,000 sesterces or $90,000. 
 
 Julius Caesar had two tables that cost him $50,0 d 
 of our money. This same Caesar used to appear at 
 the public games in a golden chair. 
 
 Crassus owned 2,000,000,000 sesterces between land 
 and money, without counting furniture or slaves. 
 
 Seneca, the Philosopher, had in landed property 
 3,000,000,000 sesteices. 
 
 Another Roman, named Caius Cecilius Claudius 
 Isodorus declared in his will, that though he had lost 
 much during the Civil War, yet he left to his heirs 
 4,116 slaves. 3,600 yoke of oxen, 257.000 other animals 
 with 600,000.000 of sesterces. 
 
 How did they employ their enormous riches, and 
 their power over almost the whole known world ? 
 With regard to God, in sacrilege; with regard to 
 themselves, in immorality; with regard to others, in 
 the most barbarous oppression. These degraded 
 Marcus Aurielcou^ ap. Gaume, 
 
96 IMPERIAL ROME, 
 
 beings turned all creatures into so many instruments 
 of crime. 
 
 Their religion was infamously gross. Their temples 
 were places of debauchery; their feasts, schools of 
 corruption; their gods, the basest passions. 
 
 Of their mysterious and their secret initiations we 
 will not speak, the reason is plain. 
 
 Satan received there under a thousand forms the 
 adoration of mortals. Imperial Rome was the centre 
 of his empire, was his temple. 
 
 Such was Pagan Rome. Such were its inhabitants. 
 Voluptuous people are always cruel people. Debauch- 
 ery is the daughter and the mother of selfishness; and 
 selfishness is hatred of others. Pagan Rome justifies 
 this principle, for that cruelty which is the perfection 
 of hatred reigned everywhere. 
 
 At this period the city had attained to a degree of 
 magnificence and vastness of extent, almost incredible. 
 
 "It would seem," say Aristides, "that all nations 
 have congregated in this one city for the sake of neigh- 
 bourhood, and it accommodates them all; for as one 
 •earth sustains, one Rome has lodging for all." 
 
 It was the boast of Augustus that "having found 
 Rome of brick, he left it of marble." He built the tem- 
 ple and forum of Mars, the Avenger, having stately 
 porticoes on three sides, adorned with statues of his 
 regal ancestry, beginning with his Eneas; the temple 
 of Jupiier Tonans on the brow of the Capitol; that of 
 Apollo on the Palatine, with its libraries and hall for 
 poetical recitation; the theatre of Marcellus; the por- 
 ticoes of lyivia and Octavia, among the most splendid 
 ornaments of the city, and sources of great enjoyment, 
 as affording opportunity for exercise and recreation, 
 
f 
 
 PC/DENS SHOUTING ROME TO ST. PETER. 97 
 
 either on foot or in carriage, in every inclemency of 
 the seasons. The senate often met in them, during 
 the intense heats of summer, and they were adorned 
 with statuary, altars, paintings, and bazaars, in which 
 the most splendid wares, jewelry, pictures, books, and 
 all objects of virtu were exposed to sale. His minis- 
 ters and courtiers followed the emperor's example* 
 The Esquiline, formerly the most filthy and abandoned 
 region, became the most elegant and fashionable 
 through the taste and example of Maecenas. Agrippa 
 built the Pantheon; but his chief object was to adorn 
 Rome with fountains. All who courted favor, at a 
 time when servility was in its first fervor, helped to 
 realize the project of the prime minister, "so to deck 
 out the queen of nations, as to inspire her subjects 
 with admiration, her enemies with awe.*' 
 
 Cato, the Censor, spent upwards of i.ooo talents 
 ($1,250,000) in the cleansing of the subterranean chan- 
 nels of the town, even of his day. The principal clo- 
 cse, or sewers, first constructed by Tarquinius Priscus, 
 were so high and broad that a wagon loaded with hay 
 might pass through them. 
 
 But the palm has been justly given to the aque- 
 ducts among the works of Roman grandeur. Some of 
 them brought to Rome the treasures of the most cool 
 and sequestered fountains from the distance of sixty 
 miles, through rocks and mountain chains, and over 
 rapid riveis and valleys, on an interminable series, as 
 it were, of triumphal arches, rising in some places to 
 more than a hundred feet high. "If any one," says 
 Pliny, "will diligently estimate the abundance of wa- 
 ter supplied to the public baths, fountains, fish-ponds, 
 artificial lakes for galley-fights, to pleasure-gardens, 
 Marcus Aurelius^ ap. Cdmmr, 
 
98 IMPERIAL ROME. 
 
 and to almost every private house in Rome, and will 
 then consider the difficulties that were to be surmounted 
 and the distance from which these streams are brought, 
 he will confess that nothing so wonderful as these 
 aqueducts is to be found in the whole world. ' ' Strabo 
 says they supplied every house, and that their waste 
 waters swept like torrents through the clocae. Some 
 writers say there were twenty, but the principal ones 
 named are only fourteen in number. The Virgo, the 
 Martia, the Alsiatina, were for ponds, fountains, and 
 artificial lakes; the Julia and Annio Novus, the Crebra 
 and Herculanus Rivus were the greatest, the Claudian 
 excepted, which conveyed from the heart of the Appe- 
 nines a torrent that looked like a mountain cataract, 
 in falling from the highest point of the Aventine into 
 a deep glen. 
 
 They supplied in the first place the fountains, of 
 which Agrippa alone constructed seven hundred with 
 lake-like basins; besides, one hundred and five that 
 cast up jets of water in a variety of fashions. Accord- 
 ing to Dio, when the mob once became clamorous for 
 wine, Augustus told them that, * 'Agrippa had taken 
 care that they should not want for drink." 
 
 The thermae, or baths, located in every quarter of 
 the city, were also replenished from the aqueducts. 
 In these temples of health and enjoyment, the lofty 
 apartments were encrusted with costly marbles and em- 
 bellished with statuary (the Laocoon was one of them), 
 and mosaics that imitate the art of the pencil in the 
 elegance of design and variety of colors. Into the ca- 
 pacious basins (where an army at once could swim, 
 disport, and enjoy the water), and which were com- 
 posed of porphyry overlaid with silver, their poured 
 
PUD ENS SHOWING ROME TO ST. PETER. 99 
 
 perpetual streams of the hot, tepid, or cool element, 
 through so many wide mouths of bright and massive 
 silver. Thus the meanest citizen could every day lux- 
 uriate amid scenes of magnificence which no oriental 
 monarch could command. Some of these baths had 
 sixteen hundred bathing places — one had two thou- 
 sand two hundred like that described above — and 
 attached to each therma were porticoes, groves, and 
 halls of recreation, xysti or terraces for gymnastic ex- 
 ercises, libraries and academies where philosophers 
 held lectures or disputations. 
 
 The Campus Martins, which, from being a royal de- 
 mesne or farm of the Tarquins, extending from the 
 foot of the Capitol to the Tiber, had been converted 
 under the Republic into a place of martial exercise for 
 the Roman youth, was adorned with superb monu- 
 ments, arches of triumph, hippodromes, fountains, 
 temples, theatres, umbrageous walks, sylvan scenery, 
 interspersed with shrines and statuary, and marble 
 bowers; but its greatest work of art was the stupen- 
 dous mausoleum or tomb of Augustus, where the ashes 
 of so many of the Julian family were deposittd in 
 golden urns. 
 
 "O, city of the new Jerusalem!" exclaimed St. Peter, 
 "O, capital of the King of kings, what must be thy 
 glory, since so magnificent is the capital of this wretched 
 earth!" 
 
 Perceiving the interest with which the apostle lis" 
 tened to everything connected with their city, the 
 guests of the preceding night (most of whom had 
 joined the patrician as he crossed the forum), now col- 
 lected in a group around himself and St. Peter where 
 they were seated on the summit of the tower, and 
 Marcus Aurelius, ap. Gaum€, 
 
100 IMPERIAL ROME. 
 
 took great pains to instruct the venerable stranger in 
 the most striking details of the wonders before them, 
 extending on every side as far as the eye could reach. 
 "Yes," says Petus, *'the Mediterranean and the 
 lesser seas would seem to have been disposed for the 
 express purpose of facilitating the conveyance to our 
 granaries and marts of the products of the vast and 
 teeming countries which extend around their shores, 
 especially of Africa, Sicily, and Egypt; for whatever 
 is precious and exquisite, the delicacies of every sea- 
 son, the wonders of every ait and climate, are destined 
 by consent of all, as tributes due to Rome. Candid 
 strangers have observed that it is no longer necessary to 
 travel round the world to see whatever is most costly 
 and curious in it, for that they may be all seen at once 
 in the marts and bazaars of Rome. The Scythian 
 hunter roams the forests of the North that we may be 
 wrapped in ermine; it is for us the savage tribes along 
 the Danube and the Baltic, dive for amber; the richest 
 carpets and embroidery are destined for our banquet 
 hails; the looms and the plastic hands of Asia, skilled 
 in every luxurious craft, seem to labour but for us. 
 The spices and the perfumes of Araby are exhausted 
 by our delicacy, and whole argosies, which sail peri- 
 odically from the Red Sea for the distant India, 
 su{)ply the demand for pearls, silks, and diamonds. 
 It is well that you have with your own eyes beheld the 
 furniture and decorations of our palaces, for how 
 could I describe them? Lucullus used to feed five and 
 twenty thousand guests at once, and even at that pe- 
 riod, since which the city has increased much, Rome 
 numbered twenty thousand rich as he. The sounds 
 of mirth and revelry are never silent within our palaces, 
 
PUD ENS SHOWING ROME TO ST, PETER. 101 
 
 crowned by fortune with every gift that can satiate 
 the desires, we hold it to be our fate and our duty to 
 enjoy them." 
 
 But the great delight of the patricians was to enter- 
 tain St. Peter by instituting a variety of quaint com- 
 parisons and contrasts between Imperial Rome as he 
 then beheld it and the Rome of the older ages. This 
 was a national propensity. They dwell with pleasure 
 on the insignificance of their country's origin, and 
 preserved the memorials of it in all their primitive sim- 
 plicity, and with religious care. The ruminal fig tree 
 under which the twins were found was planted in the 
 commitia; the hut of Romulus was preserved in the 
 Capitol; the wooden bridge by which Ancus Martius 
 joined the Janiculum to the city was never suffered 
 to be replaced; and in the repairs which it required 
 from age to age, it was prohibited to use either iron 
 or copper, nothing but wood, and the care of this relic 
 was considered so sacred and important, that those in- 
 trusted with it were deemed most honored. 
 
 With proud complacency the Romans now listen 
 while St. Peter points out to them how accurately the 
 all-conquering force of their country, and its unprece- 
 dented grandeur had been revealed to kings and 
 prophets, in the heart of Asia, before its name or exist- 
 ence had been heard of, beyond the neighboring septs 
 of Latium. So strongly characterized were the em- 
 blems of the 2nd and 7th chapters of Daniel, so graphic 
 the descriptions of the prophetic visions, that, to their 
 minds, they scarcely needed an interpreter. What 
 other than that very empire, whose irresistible might 
 and obstinate perseverance they had been describing to 
 the apostle, could be referred to in that kingdom of 
 
102 ST. PETER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 ■*'tron,** represented by the limbs and feet of that ap- 
 parition which had so terrified King Nebuchodonosor 
 in his sleep; for, *'as iron breaketh and subdueth all 
 things," had not all states and kingdoms been crushed 
 and subdued by Rome? Still more to their fancy, if it 
 •were possible, was that emblem in the yth chapter, of a 
 ^ild beast, terrible and wonderful, and exceeding 
 strong, with great iron teeth, eating and breaking in 
 pieces, and treading down the beasts typical of the 
 other three empires, and trampling them with its feet. 
 In this it was impossible not to recognize an energetic 
 epitome of the conquering career of Rome. Their in- 
 timate acquaintance with history enabled them, at a 
 glance, to recognize in the other emblems, the Babylo- 
 nian empire, personified in Nebuchodonosor (ch. 2, v. 
 38, and ch. 7, v. 4); the empire of the Medes and Per- 
 sians, in the two arms and breasts of silver (ch. 2, v. 
 .32-39); and in the bear (ch. 7, v. 5), a striking type 
 of their austerity of life, and thirst for blood. 
 
 While with respect to Alexander the Great, and his 
 empire, partitioned by Antipater, Seleucus, Ptolemy, 
 and Antigonus, the predictions of Daniel bore to their 
 minds so much the air, not of prophecies, but of his- 
 tories written posterior to the events, that no shadow 
 of doubt remained as to the divine inspiration of the 
 entire series of visions, when it was ascertained that 
 they had been written several hundred years before 
 Alexander's birth. 
 
 This point however, agreed upon, and the undoubted 
 inspiration of the prophet having been tested by expe- 
 rience, by their beholding the first half of the predic- 
 tion literally fulfilled before their eyes, St. Peter went 
 on to interpret that portion of the prophecy which still 
 
ST, PETER'S ADDRESS, 103 
 
 remained to be accomplished, a peroration, the very 
 reverse of flattering to Roman arrogance. 
 
 *'Thou, O King," said Daniel, '*sawest and behold 
 a great image. This great image, whose brightness 
 was excellent stood before thee, and the form thereof 
 was terrible. The head of this image was of fine 
 gold" — the empire of Babylon or of the Chaldees, as 
 the prophet himself explains it — **its breast and its 
 arms of silver — " the empire of the Medes and Persians, 
 who took Babylon under Cyrus, a Persian by the 
 father's side, by the mother's side a Mede — "its body 
 and thighs of brass" — the Macedonian or Greek em- 
 pire — "its legs of iron" — republican or conquering 
 Rome — "its feet" — the declining empire — "part of 
 iron and part of clay." 
 
 "Hitherto," pursued St. Peter, "we have been veri- 
 fying prophecy by our own knowledge and experience 
 of past events; it remains for us now to take the sequel 
 of this same prophecy as our guide into that future, 
 which, without Divine revelation, is impervious to 
 human foresight. Mark well the destiny that awaits 
 this 'iron empire,' now actually bestriding the world, 
 'terrible, and wonderful, and exceeding strong,' 'greater 
 than all the preceding empires, devouring the whole 
 earth, and trampling it down, and breaking it in 
 pieces. * 
 
 •Thus thou sawest, O King,* says the prophet, *till 
 a stone was cut without hands, from a mountain, and 
 it smote the image upon its feet that were iron and 
 clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron 
 the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold — all the 
 power, art, renown, and opulence amassed by succes- 
 sive empires, broken to pieces together, and become 
 
104 57: PETER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 like the dust of the summer threshing floor. ' Behold 
 how perishable the grandeur which you call 'eternal!' 
 'Baths, palaces, amphitheatres, arches, pillars, tro- 
 phies, temples, and all the rest — and the 'wind carried 
 them away, so that no place was found for them!' 
 that is, the very places where they stood shall become 
 a problem to the antiquarian — the very fact of their 
 existence a doubt. 
 
 *'Yes, Fortune as you call her, will turn back upon 
 her sttps, upon these scenes which now excite our ad- 
 miration; not only undoing, but reversing, as if in ca- 
 pricious mockery, every thing that had been achieved 
 and erected upon them under her own auspices. The 
 gorgeous tissue, which according to your poets was 
 woven from exploits and triumphs under kings, con- 
 suls, emperors — the memorabilia of a thousand years — 
 shall be rent to pieces and flung to the deriding winds. 
 
 "As the earth was before, so shall it be." 
 
 Desolate as when Evander crossed it with Eneas, 
 shall be again, that theatre of all that is now most re- 
 nowned, mighty and magnificent; the Roman Forum 
 shall ho: again, a pasture field; the Palatine a heap of 
 ruins. 
 
 ''Matted and mass'd together;" 
 like the vision of a dream, a mirage ot the desert the 
 empire of the Caesars shall vanish; the home of so 
 many nations, shall become their grave; the seven hills 
 a 'marble wilderness.' 
 
 "And yet is Rome destined to be an eternal city," 
 imperishable as the earth itself, over which its sceptre 
 shall still be wielded; for, mark the conclusion of the 
 prophecy: — 'And the stone,' — cut without hands from 
 a mountain — the church built on Peter, 'the stone that 
 
ST. PETER'S ADDRESS, 105 
 
 smote the image' — the pagan empire of Rome, — 'be- 
 came a great mountain and filled the entire earth.' 
 That is, according to the prophet's own interpretation, 
 the empire, or Church of Christ, which hath been in 
 progress of erection, during the entire cycle of these 
 empires, and which is to continue advancing to per- 
 fection to that cycle's close, shall arise upon the ruins 
 of this pagan empire, 'never to be destroyed/ Not 
 like the human empires that we have beheld 'passing 
 from nation to nation,' from Chaldees to the Medes and 
 Persians, from them to the Greeks, from the Greeks to 
 yourselves; 'This kingdom shall not be delivered to 
 another people'; even 'the gates of hell shall not pre- 
 vail against it.' True it is, the powers of darkness 
 shall rouse up all the terrible forces of this 'iron' em- 
 pire of yours, and all the passions of corrupt humanity 
 against it; and formidable as have been the trials and 
 resistance through which you have described the city 
 and empire of Romulus struggling for existence, for 
 territory, for supremacy, they are but trivial compared 
 with the opposition this new Roman empire shall have 
 to encounter. 'But why have the nations raged, and 
 the people devised vain things.' — for its destruction? 
 'The kings of the earth shall rise up. the princes con. 
 spire together against the Lord, and against his Christ; 
 but He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them;' 
 'and the rock shall crush to pieces, and consume all 
 those hostile kingdoms. 'For judgment shall sit in 
 heaven' concluded the prophet — ch. 7. v. 9-28. — in- 
 terpreting the other vision of the four great empires, 
 that the last effort to reinstate the tottering sway of 
 paganism may be frustrated and, 'that its empire may 
 be broken in pieces and perisheth even unto the end; 
 
106 ST. PETER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 that the kingdom and power, and greatness of the 
 kingdom under the whole heaven, may be given to the 
 saints of the Most High whose kingdom' (thus to be 
 established,) is an everlasting kingdom, and, fin it) 
 'all kings shall serve Him and obey Him.' 
 
 "Then shall be realized that sublime ideal of per- 
 fection described, I will say prophesied, by your own 
 Marcus Tullius; *nor shall, be one law at Rome, an- 
 other law at Athens,' one to-day, a different one to- 
 morrow; but a law, one, sempiternal, and immutable, 
 shall unite and hold together in communion all nations 
 throughout all ages, under one common ruler and 
 emperor of all — that God, by whom was devised, 
 drawn up, enacted, this law, in swerving from which 
 we swerve from our own well being, and offer violence 
 to human nature. Nay, more, it is not by force but 
 by persuasion this new empire shall be extended and 
 established ; it shall be held in subordination by charity 
 and faith, and not by coercion. In it 'the first shall be 
 last;' 'he that humbleth himself shall be exalted;' 'ser- 
 vant of servants' shall be its proudest title; poverty, in 
 that empire shall be accounted a beatitude; riches 
 dreaded as a calamity. Chastity and penitential aus- 
 terities, and the works of mercy, will be cultivated with 
 greater enthusiasm than is at present felt for the 'lust 
 of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.' 
 By submitting without a murmur to every insult and 
 outrageous cruelty, its people shall triumph, vanquish- 
 ing even all-conquering Rome, and leading captive the 
 Quirites, the conscript-fathers, the knights, the legions, 
 with the cross upon their banners, and upon the dia- 
 dem of Caesar himself, to pay homage to the Crucified 
 on this Capitol." 
 
 Miley. 
 
RE PL Y OF CA UIS C A SSI US. 107 
 
 "Never, never, never!" cried Caius Cassius. whose 
 scorn could restrain itself no longer; "when you 
 talked of the destruction of this empire, I listened with 
 indifference. Why should hallucinations such as 
 these excite more than a smile of pity? But in these 
 mad antitheses about supplanting pride by humility, 
 libertinism by chastity; of substituting the love of 
 poverty for the love of riches, the cross for the eagle; 
 the outrage upon common sense becomes insufferable. 
 Have you any notion, any shadowy conception, even, 
 of what Rome, of what human nature is, of what you 
 are yourself?" Then launching forth, he showed how 
 paganism was so interwoven and identified with the 
 then existing order of things, that it could not be in- 
 terfered with without disjointing the whole frame of 
 the empire, and overturning all existing ideas and in 
 stitutions; and that the establishment of Christianity 
 demanded, not only a revolution of the Roman gov- 
 ernment, but a subversion of society, and what was 
 still more absurd, a complete metamorphosis of human 
 nature. 
 
 "Bound up with the most ennobling recollections, 
 consecrated by patriotism, eulogized by eloquence, 
 sanctioned by philosophy, embalmed by poetry, and 
 rendered irresistible by all that is most fascinating in 
 the arts; identified with the games of the Circus and 
 of the arena, loved by our people to distraction, inter- 
 dicting no vice, but on the contrary, sanctifying every 
 sensual pleasure. What insanity," he pursued, **to 
 think that the world enervated beyond measure, and 
 abandoned to every gratification, will of a sudden dis- 
 like to live voluptuously, and grow enamoured of auster- 
 ities; and that, too, at the dictation of a recent, an in- 
 
108 RE PL Y OF CAUIS CASSIUS 
 
 comprehensible and ignominious creed, based upon the 
 dogma, that the author of the universe, the Supreme, 
 the only God, was put to death as a malefactor by a 
 Roman magistrate! You say that reason itself con- 
 victs idolatry of error and impiety — agreed. But per- 
 suade the artificer, the augur, the flamen, the state 
 functionary, as much as you please that 'an idol is 
 nothing,' still will the idol be worshipped for its gold. 
 Diana, Phoebus, Jupiter, Optimus, Maximus himself, 
 may be the mere creatures of the imagination, but be- 
 ing wedded to the system by the love of Mammon and 
 of place, the more rotten and false it is proved to be, 
 the more furiously will it be defended; and those who 
 live and multiply, and fatten with their progenies on 
 the imposture, will be fierce and merciless persecutors 
 of all who dare to meddle with it. Alas! old man, be- 
 take thyself to physic, that may purge away this mania 
 that practices so sadly on thy intellect; and, what is 
 worse, luns thee in thy decrepitude on scoffs and chas- 
 tisement."* 
 
 They collected around the apostle, recapitulated and 
 corroborated by additional arguments all that the pa- 
 trician had said. One illustrated by incidents the pro- 
 found and universal depravity of the times; another 
 dwelt with emphasis upon the fury with which society, 
 gangrtrned to the very marrow, would resist the iron 
 and the knife, and maintained that even couid it be in- 
 duced to submit, so mortal and deep seated was the 
 malady, that it must inevitably sink under the attempt 
 to cure. 
 
 Again, they dilate on the blindness of the public 
 mind, its bigoted attachment to error, and portrayed 
 with a bold hand, the apparent absurdity and repulsive 
 * Adapted from Gibbon, 
 
PUD ENS INTERFERES, 109 
 
 features of the system by which he proposed to 
 displace what was so desperately cherished. To 
 exhibit the hopelessness of attempting to reform the 
 reigning superstition, or the reigning scepticism; they 
 enumerated the superior qualifications for such an 
 enterprise of the Greek and Roman sages, who had 
 signally failed in that attempt, and dwelt upon the 
 difficulty of making men hate to be libertines, and 
 love to be saints. He was reminded that it was an 
 age when the lights of philosophy were universally 
 diffused; and therefore that the juncture was perhaps 
 the most unpropitious that could have been selected, 
 for the appearance of an illiterate Jewish fisherman, 
 as the enlightener of nations arrived at the highest 
 pitch of intellectual refinement. To think of eluding 
 the vigilance of the Magistrate, and of carrying on 
 his operations in darkness, was perfectly insane, 
 detection and chastisement were inevitably linked with 
 the attempt. Roman vigilance darted its glance even 
 into the darkest recesses of private life — Roman 
 vengeance was gifted with omnipotence and ubiquity; 
 and a spiritual conspiracy, which calculated for its 
 triumphs upon the ruins of the empire, would be 
 branded with public odium, and exterminated without 
 remorse or consideration." When they came to 
 describe the tortures which were reserved for those 
 who were doomed to be made examples of by Caesar 
 and the senate, Pudens and his son could restrain 
 themselves no longer, but, bursting into tears besought 
 the apostle on berfded knees, not to rob them of their 
 greatest benefactor, by rushing blindly, and to no 
 purpose, upon a fate tremendous as it was inevitable. 
 Then St. Peter, lifting up his hands and his voice 
 
110 ST. PETER'S APOLOGY. 
 
 together, said, "Romans, I am not beside myself; the 
 arguments by which you would persuade me to 
 despair, I regard as the pledges of my success." 
 ST. pktkr's apology for himsklf. 
 '*I was born on the confines of a tranquil lake, 
 embosomed in the sequestered hills of Galilee. I 
 grew up upon its halcyon waters. I loved them from 
 my boyhood, made acquaintance with every shadow 
 that slept in the deep bosom of Genezareth, and held 
 converse with every murmur uttered by the waves in 
 rippling, day and night along its shores. Even, for 
 the fair face of heaven which smiled above it, I 
 imbibed an enthusiastic passion, as I gazed upon 
 it, from my bark, while tending my nets by 
 night; and in its thousand stars, trembling in the 
 fathomless serenity of the deep, I seemed to catch 
 glimpses of angel heralds, advancing from eternity 
 before the 'long expected.' My nets, my little bark, 
 were unto me as friends — I loved my home, and even 
 when I had been called, and that vague, but still 
 vivid anticipation, lit up my uncouth fancy, I did not 
 hesitate to expostulate with him whom I believed to 
 be the Messiah, saying, 'Behold, we have left all^ 
 what, therefore, are we to get in recompense?' 'The 
 least likely, perhaps, of all men, to become an 
 adventurer, is an humble, contented fisherman, on a 
 midland lake; as for my part, I clung to the scenes 
 and associations of my youthhood with tenacity. On 
 every opportunity I returned to my fishing; and even 
 after all the wonders I had witnessed, all the mysteries 
 in which I had been initiated, after all the bright and 
 exciting prospects held out to me by a Master, whose 
 power to perform what he promised I believed to be 
 
57: PETER'S APOLOGY, 111 
 
 omnipotent; still, did he find me. after his resurrec- 
 tion, where first he had called me— engaged with my 
 bark and my nets upon my native and beloved lake. 
 
 "Neither by nature nor by education have I been 
 gifted with high conceptions, with quickness of appre- 
 hension or with foresight. O my heavenly Master, 
 how often didst thou rebuke us, how much oftener did 
 we deserve to be reprehended, for being 'dull and stu- 
 pid, and tardy of belief !' The national bias — our 
 Jewish nature — seemed to have rendered us incapable 
 of spiritual views. The occurrence of events, of 
 which we had been repeatedly apprised, in terms the 
 most explicit and encouraging stunned us with con- 
 sternation, and scattered us like a timid flock, when in 
 the midst of them, the shepherd is struck with light- 
 ning. You imagine that I am courageous, daring even 
 to indiscretion. I was a coward. When my most 
 kind and noble benefactor was seized by ruffian hands, 
 I fled; when charged with being one of his adherents. 
 even by a poor damsel, I denied my Lord and Master; 
 and, when urged, I cursed and swore that I had never 
 seen His face.'* 
 
 Here the apostle hid his troubled countenance in 
 his hands; but he could not hide the big tears which 
 trickled down his furrowed cheeks and beard. 
 
 ** While my Master wasjnoving through all the land. 
 'doing good,' perfoiming the most stupendous mira- 
 cles, and was revered as the Messiah by myriads of my 
 compatriots, and that I had been nominated by Him 
 the viceroy of His eternal kingdom it was still with 
 delight I relapsed into my original obscurity. In the 
 effulgence of His countenance. I was blind— stupid 
 while listening to uncreated Wisdom — a recreant 
 
112 ST. PETER'S APOLOGY. 
 
 through a slight temptation, to Him whom I knew to 
 be omnipotent to protect me. But, after Yi\^ death — a 
 death of the most opprobrious character — I took my 
 stand in the very heart of Jerusalem, and, while the 
 city was crowded with the multitude who had assem- 
 bled for the festival, I rebuked the whole house of 
 Israel with Deicide! When seized and brought before 
 the Sanhedrim, I refused, at the command and menace 
 of the princes who had put Jesus to death, to desist 
 from proclaiming his Divinity. They scourged me, 
 and I was filled with joy. Prisons, insults and the 
 bitterest persecution, since then, have been my lot. 
 And not in me alone, but in thousands of every age, 
 and rank, and sex, and temperament, has a similar 
 transformation taken place. We, who were illiterate 
 can speak all languages; we, whose desires were so 
 grovelling, disdain the greatest gifts of fortune. 
 Twelve poor men, of mean extraction and contracted 
 views, have portioned out the world between them, 
 and the most unworthy of them all, Simon Bar-Jona of 
 Bethsaida, is on the Capitol, preparing to bring the 
 empire of Caesar under the yoke of Christ. 
 
 "Had the career of my beloved Master terminated 
 with his cruel and disgraceful death, must not our am- 
 bition have been inevitably extinguished, instead of 
 having been thus inflamed? For it is not by discom- 
 fiture and in the damp airs of the tomb, that fervid 
 enthusiasm aud fearless ambition are likely to be 
 enkindled. Therefore have I said that the seeming 
 madness of my enterprise is the proof of my inspira- 
 tion. The meanness of my origin, the manner of my 
 life, my deficiencies, my ignoble presence, emphati- 
 cally attest, that it is not by impulse or nature, or 
 
57: PETER'S APOLOGY. 113 
 
 project of human wisdom, that I am here; but purely 
 and exclusively through the behest and impulse of 
 Heaven. No, had not my ears heard, my eyes beheld, 
 my hands touched and tested the truth and rt- ality of my 
 blessed Master's resurrection, I should at this hour, 
 have been busied as of old, with my nets and ray bark; 
 and their humble interests, upon my native lake, tffectu- 
 ally and forever cured of the folly which had seduced 
 me from it for a season, and resolved within myself to 
 live and be gathered to my fathers in unpretending 
 obscurity and peace. If the Spirit of truth and power 
 had not descended upon me and the others, we should 
 have remained as stupid, as slow to believe, as timor- 
 ous as before. 
 
 **Dream not that it is by any furtive expectation of 
 honors, or affluence, or terrestrial aggrandisement, 
 that I am urged upon this enterprise. I know my tate. 
 My Divine Master — who chooseth the "weak things 
 of this world,' and 'the things that are not' for his 
 grande.st ends, that no mistake may exist as to the vir- 
 tue by which I hey are effected He, as if to save me 
 from being elated with the stupendous dignity to which 
 he had exalted me, distinctly predicted, in the presence 
 of my companions, that I shall terminate my labors in 
 His service, by a violent and ignominious death. For 
 when he had given me charge of the fold, He said. 
 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast youngs 
 thou girded.st thyself, and walkedst whither thou 
 wouldst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shah stretch 
 forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry 
 thee whither thou wouldst not.* — *This spake he 
 signifying by what death he should glorify God'.** 
 
 St. Peter returned with Pudens to the palace, a part 
 
114 CHURCH OF ST. PUDENTIANA. 
 
 of wliich thfe senator graciously assigned to the apostle 
 as a church, which exists and is used to this day, 
 under the title of St. Pudentiana, and is esteemed the 
 •oldest church in the world. The writer of these 
 lines had the happiness of celebrating Mass in it 
 several times; the altar at which he celebrated con- 
 taining within, a part ctf the very altar at which St. 
 Peter celebrated. The antiquarians of Rome concur 
 in the statement that the present church of St. 
 Pudentiana is a remnant of the old palace of Pudens. 
 Among the conversions which St. Peter wrought 
 during his first visit, we note especially Pudens 
 himself, his wife Claudia, their two sons Novatus and 
 Timothy, and their illustrious daughters, Praxedes 
 and Pudentiana, both of whom were canonized, St. 
 Praxedes being commemorated on July 21st, St. 
 Pudentiana May 19th. 
 
 Meanwhile the apostle availed himself of his resi- 
 dence in Rome to write his first letter. It is addressed 
 to the Faithful of Pontus, Galatia, Asia and Cappa- 
 docia. Though particularly intended for the converted 
 Jews scattered through these provinces it speaks also 
 to the Gentiles who have embraced tlie Faith. We 
 find in it a dignity and a vigor worthy of the Prince 
 of the Apostles 
 
 The fisherman of Galilee had labored for about 
 seven years to extend the reign of the Cross in the 
 very capital of the Caesars when in the year 51 of 
 Jesus Christ, the eleventh of the Emperor Claudius, an 
 edict obliged all Jews to leave Rome. St. Peter set 
 out therefore for the East, and went to celebrate the 
 Feast of the Pasch in Jerusalem. The same year he 
 presided at the Council which was held in this city 
 
ST, PETER, 115 
 
 and which decided that Gentiles converted to the 
 I^aith should not be obliged to submit to Mosaic 
 observances, as some Jews that had become Christians 
 wished. The apostles express their decision, to which 
 the whole Church yields, with these memorable 
 words, // had appeared good to the Holy Ghost and to us 
 which show the supreme power and infallibility of the 
 Apostolic College. After the Council at Jerusalem, 
 St. Peter continued with the same ardor to rule and to 
 teach. 
 
 St. Peter consecrated St, Appolinaris, Bishop of 
 Ravenna; St. Martial, Bishop of the Gauls: Rufus, 
 Bishop of Capua; and the best known of all, St. Mark 
 the Evangelist. 
 
 About five years after his departure from Rome, he 
 returned never more to leave it. The arrival of St. 
 Peter in the capital of the world served religion 
 much there; but the devil, enraged to see his empire 
 declining day by day, tried every means that cunning 
 and hatred could suggest to stay the progress of the 
 Gospel. Nero, his worthy minister, kindled a violent 
 persecution, which was to procure for St. Peter the 
 crown of martyrdom. 
 
 Lactantius says th it Peui predicted many future 
 events shortly before his death, and amongst the re.st 
 the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and that the 
 number of conversions in his last visit was immense. 
 St. Peter had been apprised by our Lord when 
 appointing him supreme i^astor that he was to he 
 crucified, it was afterwards revealed to him at what 
 time he was to suffer; and St. Alhanasius tells us that 
 it was revealed before-hand to the two glorious apostles 
 that they were to die in Rome. As St. Peter was 
 
116 DOMINE QUO VADIS? 
 
 departing from the city at the entreaty of his people, 
 who had found means to set his prison open, as it was 
 opened before by an angel, he i^ said to have met his 
 Divine Master just outside the Capenian gate coming 
 along the Via Appia as if bearing his cross. * 'Whither, 
 Lord, art Thou going?" exclaimed the apostle. 
 ^^Domine quo vadis'^ ''I am going to Rome," our 
 Lord replied, "to be again crucified." Vado Romam, 
 iterum crucifigi'' Then St. Peter understood that the 
 hour was come, when as Supreme vicar, and locum 
 tenens of the Prince of pastors. He was to be assimi- 
 lated to Him whom he represented, even in the manner 
 of his death. We are informed by Eusebius, that St. 
 Peter was crucified with his head towards the earth. 
 
 NERO SETS FIRE TO ROME. 
 
 "Mehercule ! Is it Julius Ahala of the band Au- 
 gusta once more upon the Capitol ? Yes, it is his 
 mailed hand I grasp — but by Mavors, if Numa or King 
 Brennus had met me in my rounds to-night, or yon 
 grim effigy of Caius Marius had bounded from its 
 pedestal with all its Cimbrian trophies, it could not 
 more astound me. Why, Julius, it is half a lustrum 
 since we numbered thee among the dead, and a ceno- 
 taph erected by thy comrades of the * 'guard" excites 
 the horror of many a fat citizen in his evening stroll 
 along the Nomentan way; for the painted marble ex- 
 hibits thee as being roasted in i-ome outlandish place, 
 by Druids, at an altar — Methinks they call it Mona in 
 the epitaph." 
 
 Julius. — *'Mona is the name, Ventidius. It was 
 there we drove the British cannibals upon the sacri- 
 ficial fires they had lighted up for the Roman soldiers. 
 It is an island on the furiherest coast of Britain, sep- 
 
NERO SETS FIRE TO ROME, 117 
 
 arated from the mountain country of Caractacus by a 
 narrow frith; and as it formed a rallying point for all 
 the malcontents and rebels of the border districts, the 
 general resolved upon reducing it; so where the strait 
 is narrowest, he passed over the infantry on rafts; as 
 to the horse, they threaded their way across the shal- 
 lows, or swam through the deeper channels. Before 
 us, the rugged shores were crowded with a multitude 
 in arms. Every crag was manned, and females re- 
 sembling furies, rushed with dishevelled hair and flam- 
 ing torches from clan to clan; while, around the burn- 
 ing piles intended to torture and consume their ene- 
 mies, the Druids lifted up their hands to draw down 
 curses and confusion on our heads. At the preter- 
 natural horrors of the scene, the men were thunder- 
 struck; and as if paral3zed by some incantation, stood 
 gazing at the spectacle, as if insensible to the darts 
 and stones that showered on them from the cliffs. 
 But roused at length by the cheers and exhortations of 
 the officers, and siiniulaiing each other not to be 
 daunted by a mob of inhuman savages, the eagles 
 moved forward, — the opposing multitudes are slaugh- 
 tered, or driven on the immense fires which hemmed 
 in their entire rear. — Prithee tell me Ventidius about 
 the burning of Rome, by Nero, where did it begin ? 
 
 Ve7itidius.—''\xi the far end of the Great Circus, 
 contiguous to the Palatine and Caelian Mounts. The 
 fire broke out with fury that proved indomitable from 
 the first; for it was pampered into instantaneous vio- 
 lence by the combustible materials of the taverns and 
 stores abounding in that quarter. Along the Circus, 
 from goal to goal, it sweeps with the rapidity of the 
 wind; from the lower ground, the wide-wasting clc- 
 Tacitas. 
 
118 NERO SETS FIRE TO ROME. 
 
 ment mounts the heights, and again rushes down over 
 the interjacent valleys with a swiftness not to be re- 
 tarded by any human efforts. The character of the 
 old town — a labyrinth of torturous and narrow streets, 
 encumbered with enormous piles of building that 
 swarmed with inhabitants to the very tiles contribut- 
 ed to accelerate the catastrophe, and augment its hor- 
 rors. Add to this, the terror-shrieks of women — the 
 touching spectacle of languid age and feeble childhood, 
 making abortive efforts to escape — some, deaf to the 
 cries of nature and of duty, think only to save them- 
 selves; others freely risking their lives to save their 
 friends or kindred, of the darling objects of their affec- 
 tions. Midst the ruin of tumbling edifices, that come 
 down upon them like avalanches of fire, the fugitives 
 are crushed, with the sick and helpless they are drag- 
 ging away on litters, or on their shoulders; some lin- 
 ger in distraction about their flaming dwellings, others 
 take to flight, and all contribute to heighten the con- 
 fusion and preclude the possibility of escape; or, if a 
 few, more fortunate than the rest, succeed in extricat- 
 ing themselves from the surrounding flames, they find 
 to their consternation that parts where they expected 
 shelter are involved in the common ruin. At last, be- 
 wildered as to where or from whence to fly, they choke 
 up the streets in helpless masses, or cast themselves 
 on the earth in despair; while some who actually made 
 good their retreat, on contemplating the misery to 
 which they are so suddenly reduced, rush back with 
 the same eagerness upon destruction that others seek 
 to shun it. As to endeavors to check the conflagra- 
 tion, there were none whatever; for desperate gangs, 
 denouncing every such attempt, roamed through the 
 
NERO. SETS FIRE TO ROME. 119 
 
 burning town in all directions, and tossed flaming 
 brands to spread the fire, vociferating that they knew 
 upon what authority they had acted." 
 
 The parties, who had welcomed Nero with un- 
 bounded acclamation wh«n returning from the murder 
 of his mother, and were ready to deify him for atroci- 
 ties of which others were the victims, fell into differ- 
 ent sentiments when the effects of his destructive ca- 
 price came home to themselves. The tyrant began to 
 be alarmed at the public indignation. Nothing was 
 left undone to stifle the complaints and discontent of 
 the sufferers, every resource of state jugglery was tried. 
 Nero would fain throw the blame upon the gods, or- 
 dered sacrifices to appease their ire, had the Sybilline 
 books consulted, and, by their direction, supplications 
 are made to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpine, beside a 
 lectisternium, in which the Roman matrons endeav- 
 oured, first upon the Capitoi, then on the sea-shore at 
 Ostia, to turn aside the wrath of Juno from the city. 
 But all to no purpose. Neither treasures squandered 
 among the multitude, Hor the improvement as to the 
 regularity, superior elegance, and security of the new 
 city, not even the wiles of superstition, could beguile 
 or blind the public resentment, or acquit the matricide 
 of having ordered the firing of the city. To divert the 
 odium which could not be suppressed, he resolved to 
 supply it with fictitious criminals, upon which it might 
 exhaust its fury. 
 
 "With this view,*' continues the Pagan historian, 
 Tacitus, "Nero inflicted the most exquisite tortures 
 upon a herd of wretches, who, under the vulgar appel- 
 lation of Christians, had already become objects of ex- 
 ecration by reason of their flagitious practices. They 
 
120 NERO SETS FIRE TO ROME. 
 
 derived their name and origin from Christ, who, in the 
 reign of Tiberius, had suffered death by the sentence 
 of the procurator, Pontius Pilate. Checked for the 
 moment by this vigorous step, the baleful superstition 
 burst forth again, spreading itself not only over Judea, 
 the cradle of the calamity, but through Rome, also, 
 the common cesspool into which are discharged the 
 villainies of the whole world, and where every form of 
 superstition, no matter how profligate, can celebrate 
 its mysteries with impunity. -The first proceeding then 
 in the device was to seize upon some miscreants who 
 confessed themselves to be accomplices of the Christians. 
 On this information an immense multitude {multitudo 
 ingens) were convicted, not indeed of setting fire to 
 the city, but of being the enemies of the human race. 
 They were put to the most cruel deaths; their tor- 
 ments were embittered by derision, and turned into 
 sources of sport and merriment for Nero and the mob. 
 They covered their bodies with the skins of wild 
 beasts, that they might be worried and torn to pieces 
 by dogs; they nailed them on crosses, made bonfires of 
 their bodies, having smeared them all over with a mix- 
 ture of lard and pitch, or fastened them in such a man- 
 ner on pedestals, and in conspicuous places, that the 
 flames issuing from them served to light up the impe- 
 rial gardens and to shed lustre on the games and pub- 
 lic entertainments which were blended with the perse- 
 cution of the Christians. Nero had ordered the im- 
 perial pleasure grounds of the Vatican to be thrown 
 open for this exhibition, which was set off with char- 
 iot races and other sports of the Circus on the grandest 
 scale. These games were also due to the munficence 
 of the emperor, who appeared himself dressed as a 
 
NERO SETS FIRE TO ROME. 121 
 
 charioteer, by turns careering upon the course at furi- 
 ous speed, or mingling with the mob on foot. Loaded 
 though they were with guilt," concludes the Pagan 
 slanderer, **and deserving to be made examples of 
 still this revolting mixture of levity and ferociousness, 
 added to the reflection that they were victimized 
 through the savage baseness of the despot, and not 
 through solicitude for the public good, contributed to 
 change abhorrence of these wretches into commisera- 
 tion for their cruel fate." 
 
 "Like the hydra, this monstrous superstition drew 
 energy from its wounds — there seems to be a strange 
 fecundity in their blood — they are multiplied by being 
 massacred. But though we are in the calends of July, 
 the ides of March are come for them." 
 
 **Unriddle this, Ventidius. What mean these Chris- 
 tian 'ides of March ?' " 
 
 "Why, Julius, that they are on the eve of being 
 cut off. For when its heads are severed even the 
 hydra dies." 
 
 "More enigmas! Pray .speak the dialects of camps^ 
 good sir. I am no diviner, but, as you are aware, a 
 rough spun legioner. What hydra-heads arc these?" 
 
 "The chief one, a Galilean. He is to be crucified 
 on the old Acropolis, over the Jews' quarter, beyood 
 the Tiber; the other dies by ihe sword, for he claims 
 the privileges of a Roman citizen." 
 
 "Of what mien and stature is this latter?" 
 
 "Pale in contour, aquiline, and not inelegant; the tra- 
 cery of thought, with a beard, ample, flowing, but not 
 so snowy as his few remaining hairs, imparts to his 
 appearance a venerable bearing, which the vigor and 
 agility of his glance, forbid us to put down entirely to 
 
122 ST. PAUL. 
 
 the account of years. Little headed, diminutive in 
 person, he looks withal, contemptible until he speaks; 
 but then he seems as if inspired by a divinity. I have 
 seen more graceful gesture, listened to periods more 
 symphonious, to diction more elaborate than his — not 
 that he appears undisciplined hi the arts of oratory or 
 unimbued with letters — but when his spirit kindles up, 
 lip, forehead, eye, become refulgent — his words rever- 
 berate upon the mind like lightning; and, as if actuated 
 by omnipotence, 'beat down every altitude, and lead 
 captive every understanding, in obedience to his 
 Christ.' " 
 
 "It must be Paul!" 
 
 "Paul is his name. But how came he known to 
 thee? He is a Jew, if I remember well, of Tarsus." 
 
 "It is even so. Yet, nevertheless, I know him well, 
 Ventidius, nay you will marvel more to learn that I 
 had friendship strict, and long companionship with 
 this same Christian captive; and sore do I lament his 
 present destiny." 
 
 '*Mehercule, but 'tis passing strange! And marvel- 
 lous no doubt, have been the casualties that made 
 companions of an enthusiast Hebrew, and a Praetorian 
 officer. Come, Julius, narrate me this passage of your 
 life. It piques my curiosity to learn it; and I see by 
 the shadow of that tall wizard-stone of Egypt that one- 
 third of the watch is yet to run." 
 
 THK centurion's STORY. 
 
 "It was as he stood — his chain-bound arms up- 
 lifted — making his defense before the king Agrippa 
 that I first saw this man. Shortly after Portius Fes- 
 tus had taken posession of his government, Herod 
 Agrippa, and Berenice his queen, came down to visit 
 
IHE CENTURION'S STORY. 123 
 
 him at Caesarea; and the governor received them with 
 great pomp, and entertain».d them magnificently for 
 many days. Among the rest, 'twas told by Festus to 
 the king, who was a celebrated orator himself, how 
 there was a man of amazing eloquence ihen a captive, 
 whom the Jews had impeached before Felix, of many 
 crimes, but who, refusing to go up to Jerusalem to be 
 judged, had, as a Roman citize4i appealed to Caesar. 
 'Then.' said Agrippa. 'I should like lo hear this man 
 myself.' 'To morrow,' said Festus, '>our majesty 
 shall hear him ' So, next day, when the king and 
 queen, conducted by the proconsul, with his tribunes 
 and the leading men of the city, had come into the 
 grand audience-hall, with an immense concourse of all 
 orders, at the command of Festus, Paul w^as led forth 
 m chains; and, when the governor had stated the 
 charges against him to the king, Agrippa said to Paul, 
 'Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.' 
 
 His statement was very singular. Born of Jewish 
 parents in Tarsus of Cilicia, it appears, that in his 
 boyhood, he had been placed under Gamaliel, a chief 
 rabbi in Jerusalem, at whose feet, to use the oriental 
 phrase, he read the law; and from youth, according to 
 that most ligid sect, had lived a Pharisee Imbued 
 with the prejudices of his party, young Saul became a 
 zealot, and incited by the vehemence of his tempera- 
 ment, did many things against the followers of Jesus 
 of Nazareth, whose name he deemed it a sacred and 
 meritorious duty to detest and persecute. When the 
 Nazarenes were condemned, he charged himself to see 
 the sentence executed, and held the clothes of the 
 executioners, when they were stoned to death Not 
 
124 THE CENTURION'S STORY. 
 
 satisfied with this, he pursued them with vengeance 
 even into foreign cities. 
 
 " 'Whereupon when I was going to Damascus with 
 authority and permission, at mid day, O king,' cried 
 Paul, 'I beheld, as we were journeying, a light from 
 heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining 
 round about me, and them that were in company with 
 me; and when we were all fallen down on the ground, 
 I heard a voice calling to me in the Hebrew tongue, 
 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou, me ? It is hard for 
 thee to kick against the goad.' And I said, *Who 
 art thou, Lord ?' And he answered, 'I am Jesus whom 
 thou dost persecute; but rise up and stand upon thy 
 feet, for to this end have I appeared to thee, that I 
 might make thee an apostle and a witness of those 
 things which thou hast seen, and of those things 
 wherein I will appear to thee — delivering thee from 
 the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send 
 thee to open their eyes, that they may be converted 
 from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
 to God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins and 
 a lot among the saints.' 
 
 "But as he spoke, or rather thundered forth the 
 proofs of the resurrection, his being seemed dilated as 
 if by the presence of a God. He looked, not like a 
 culprit, but an emperor — an emperor of the heart and 
 intellect, wielding an authority by which the haught- 
 iest scorn was abashed, the most stubborn forced to 
 bow. The whole basilica was subdued in this poor 
 captive's presence, and bound as with a spell; the king 
 was half converted; and even Festus, as if irritated by, 
 and dreading the assaults that shook his iron mind,, 
 cried out, 'Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learn- 
 
THE CENTURION'S STORY. 125 
 
 ing doth make thee mad.' And Paul replied, *! am 
 not mad, most noble Festus, but I speak the words of 
 truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these 
 things (the prophecies concerning the Messiah) to 
 whom on that account I speak with confidence; for, I 
 am persuaded that none of these things are unknown 
 to him; for neither were any of these things done in a 
 a corner. Believest thou the prophets, king Agrippa ? 
 I know that thou dost believe them.' But how .shall 
 I repeat his arguments? Suffice it that the king 
 exclaime 1, in hearing them: *In a little time thou 
 persuadest me to become a Christian!' *I would to 
 God,' said Paul, 'that in little and in much, not only 
 thou; but also all that hear me this day, should become 
 such as I also am, except these bonds.' " 
 
 '*The last morning," continued Julius, "had not 
 dawned upon onr voyage, when I was already 
 stationed on the prow to catch the first sight of long 
 sighed -for Italy. Like a transparent veil upon a 
 picture, or a fair group of Phidias, there extended a 
 dim mist over shore and ocean; but, when the jocund 
 god of morn lifted it away, who j^all conceive the 
 vision that broke upon our senses; that has not gazed, 
 as we did then, in ecstacies, upon the bay and sur- 
 rounding scenery of Neapolis ? 
 
 "Argosies of merchant ships from Egypt, and Tyre, 
 and Cyrene. and even from isles remote, and cities of 
 great commerce, beyond the straits of Hercules, were 
 interspersed along the wavy mirror of the deep, with 
 martial gallies, glittering with shield and helmet. 
 Warlike nuisic came along the waters; the mellow 
 horn and the timbrel chimed in with songs in many 
 dialects, as the mariners spread their various colored 
 
126 THE CENTURION'S STORY. 
 
 sails to catch the matin breeze, redolent of the orange 
 groves and gardens of pleasure along the beauteous 
 shores. Oh! it was a sight entrancing; and to sit one 
 down, like a circumspect geographer, to measure dis- 
 tances and note down bearings, while in their first 
 tumult, the senses could hardly believe the scene's 
 reality, would have been to outrage every franchise of 
 imagination. But when the noon- tide calm left the 
 weary galliots to sleep along their decks, I leant over 
 the ship's side, in the shadow of the lofty rigging; and 
 while Paul and his disciple recited their alternate 
 prayer, I rehearsed the scenery at leisure, perused it, 
 line by line, and felt my delight increase the more I 
 ruminated on the lore of history, and recalled the 
 fantasies with which inspired genius has embellished 
 its indigenous traditions. Rude at the best must be 
 the etchings of a hand inured only to the sanguinary 
 implements of war; and besides, since then, the 
 impressions of that bland reverie have been swept over 
 by some turbulent and deformed years. Nevertheless 
 some thoughts remain. 
 
 If you commence the circuit on the right, as yoa 
 are sailing into the crater bay, the land begins at Capa 
 Minerva, and is abrupt and hilly on by the Surren- 
 tiuum, until you come to Stabia, where the ridges sub- 
 side into the smiling valley of the Sarnus, having on 
 its right bank the sport-loving little town of Pompeii, 
 founded by a Greek colony of the Theloboi orTaphi- 
 ans, a piratical people from the mouth of the Achelous, 
 who extended their dominion over the surrounding 
 shores, after having seized on Caprea, in the first in- 
 stance. It was to this delicious isle that Tiberius re- 
 turned to spend the last years of his hateful exij-tence 
 
 Paley. 
 
THE CENTURION'S STORY, 127 
 
 in debauchery the most shocking and in the dark 
 practices of magic, to which he was addicted. 
 
 "Oh! with what mingled rage and wonder the rois- 
 terers of Pompeii and the other sojourns of dalliance 
 did look and laugh at Paul denouncing anathemas 
 against the passions, calling upon all who would escape 
 from wrath to come 'to crucify the deeds of the flesh.* 
 Then laying bare their depravities, which had become 
 not only inbred, but so many tests of piety, he de- 
 scribed to them in tones that held their spirits cower- 
 ing and chained with dread, how God had rained 
 down fire on Sodom and the Pentapolis for similar ex- 
 cesses — cursing with barrenness and fetid desolation 
 and death, the sea, the shore, the very atmosphere of 
 regions the most teeming and beautiful of all the land 
 that 'flowed with milk and honey.* Then pointing to 
 Vesuvius, at the base of which he stood, the captive 
 proclaimed with the vehemence of inspiration that, if 
 like Nineveh of old, ihey did not seek for mercy in 
 seasonable repentance, the crisis was not dtstant when 
 a deluge of fire and wliirlwinds of red-hot ruin would 
 overwhelm them in their sins. 
 
 "After seven days, in which my captive visited his 
 brethren, who were in these parts, we retractd the 
 steps of Horace, along the Via Appia, and so came to 
 Rome. His chains hung lightly on the captive while I 
 remained, and before I was ordered off to Britain, I 
 knew he would be shortly set at liberty. 
 
 "Why do I dwell \\\to\\ every trivial incident con- 
 nected with one comparatively so contemptible, a Jew- 
 ish artisan, an enthusiist, an atheistic wretch, as you 
 call him, already doomed? Because, Ventidius, now 
 that I reflect upon his career and conversation, I am 
 
THE CENTURION'S STORY. 
 
 astonished why, long ago, I have not been what I am 
 now, and what I shall proclaim myself, before the le- 
 gions and the Roman people ere the sun which already 
 streaks the summit of the Alban hills with aigent 
 light shall set. Why scales of impenetrable stupidity 
 thicker than those which once fell from his own eyes, 
 or than this cuirass on my breast, must have hung 
 upon my mental vision. How did I miss perceiving 
 till this instant when it comes upon me like a burst of 
 sunlight, that his mission must be from God? 
 
 '*It was evident as we led him into Rome, that he 
 came, not as a culprit, but as a conqueror. For thirty 
 miles his progress along the great Appian thorough- 
 fare was a triumph. No spolia opima ever looked so 
 proud, or won such admiration as the chains with 
 which Paul was bound for Christ; and we the legion- 
 ers of Rome, were but a guard of honor to conduct this 
 envoy upon the errands of the Crucified; as if Caesar 
 were a vassal, under penalty to provide for the trans- 
 port and safe conduct, by sea and land, of those who 
 preached His Gospel. 
 
 The very elements in their wildest rage respected 
 him. When iron hearted veterans lay paralyzed with 
 dread upon the deck, this feeble scorned Christian 
 •stood forth amongst us like a deity. *Be ye of good 
 cheer,' he cried, 'for there shall be no loss of any 
 man's life among you, but only of the ship. For an 
 angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, stood by 
 me to-night saying, 'Fear not, Paul, thou must be 
 brought before Caesar; and behold God hath given 
 thee all them that sail with thee.' Every tittle was 
 verified as he predicted. I waive the proof, from his 
 miracles, which we all beheld in Melita, that God is 
 
THE CENTURION'S STORY. 129 
 
 with him. His mere apostleship evinces that he is the 
 accredited ambassador of the Divinity. Why should 
 he leave an ancient and renowned profession, in which 
 he was on the high road to fortunes, for a recent and 
 persecuted sect; the members of which would regard 
 him with distrust, if not with aversion, on account of 
 his past cruelties; while, by his former associates and 
 patrons, he was to be branded and pursued as an apos- 
 tate? If an impostor, or a dupe, how account for his 
 successes ? of which not only the fame, but the effects 
 have spread throughout every province of the empire, 
 and extended far beyond the frontiers? We see him 
 in the prosecution of his purpose, traveling from 
 country to country, enduring every species of hard- 
 ship, encountering every species of danger, assaulted 
 by the populace, punished by the magistrates, scourged, 
 beat, stoned, left for dead; expecting wherever he came, 
 a renewal of the same treatment, and the same dan- 
 gers; yet, when driven from one city, preaching in the 
 next, spending his whole time in this employment, 
 sacrificing to it, his pleasures, his ease, his safety, 
 persisting in his course to old age, unaltered by 
 perverseness, ingratitude, prejudice, desertion; unsub- 
 dued by anxiety, want, labor, persecution; unwearied 
 by long confinement, undismayed by the prospect of 
 death. The question is, has imposture been ever 
 found, is it possible to conceive it, sustaining a char- 
 acter like this ? Hypocrites and charlatans there have 
 been, and are, in abundance; but it is an example to 
 be met with, of a man voluntarily undertaking, for no 
 earthly consideration, a life of want and pain, of inces- 
 sant fatigue, of continual peril; submitting to the loss 
 of his home and country, to stripes and stoning, to 
 
130 THE CENTURION'S STORY, 
 
 tedious imprisonment, and the constant expectation of 
 a violent death, for the sake of carrying about a story 
 of what was false, and of what, if false, he must have 
 known to be so ? 
 
 But why do I tarry here ? Already day is on us; 
 and a strange yearning to kiss the chains, to gaze upon 
 the countenance, to hear the heaven-inspired voice of 
 Paul, has seized me. Conduct me to him, good prae- 
 torian: and, as to the argument of my conversion, if you 
 would know the sequel of it, mark well the words of 
 him, who stepping from the ranks to-day, shall, at the 
 'Salvian waters' lay down his military belt, and take 
 his portion, no longer with the tools of a sceptred 
 matricide and incendiary of his country, but with the 
 champion of heaven's emperor. Where have they 
 imprisoned him?" 
 
 "Where many a vanquished enemy of Rome has got 
 his guerdon — where Cethegus and Lentulus were 
 strangled — Jugurtha starved to death — where" — 
 
 ''Enough, Lead on, to the Tullianum. But, hark ! 
 with what jubilee their voices, rising, from the lowest 
 dungeon of the Mamertine, like Matin fragrance to 
 the skies, salute with alternate hymns of praise, the 
 day in which they are "to be dissolved and be with 
 Christ!" 
 
 MARTYRDOM AND BURIAI,' OF SS. PETER AND PAUL. 
 
 But when the subsiding tumult evinced that the 
 city, overpowered by surfeiting and drunkenness, had 
 sunk into a delirious stupor, to be haunted with night- 
 mare visions of the murders and debaucheries in which 
 it had been rioting, there ventured forth under the 
 azure gloom of night, a little band of disciples, who 
 often paused to listen, or drew aside in trepidation un - 
 
MARTYRDOM OF SS. PETER AND PAUL. 131 
 
 der the deep shade of arch and portico, until at last 
 they found themselves beyond the Tiber, on the high- 
 est ridge of the Janiculum. There the lifeless body of 
 St. Peter still hung upon the cross, to which the per- 
 secutors had nailed his venerable hands and feet. Ah! 
 it was a piteous sight. The beard and the grey hairs 
 of the venerable man, were clotted with the gore, 
 trickling down from the wounds by which he hung, 
 and bedeuring his limbs, emaciated with age and 
 apostolic labours. His features were obliterated with 
 blood and livid tumors, as if they had struck him heav- 
 ily on the face; and that frame whose very shadow 
 used to raise up the ulcerous cripple, and the plague- 
 struck from their litters had now "no soundness in it." 
 Oh, how changed since that bright hour on Tabor; 
 when he exclaimed in ecstacy, '"Lord it is good for us 
 to be here!" Dim, drowned in gore, was that eye 
 which had grown familiar with the Incarnate Word; 
 the feet that Jesus washed, that had carried the tid- 
 ings of salvation round provinces and kingdoms, were 
 torn with ghastly wounds; transfixed to the hard wood 
 was that hand which raised the paralytic in the portico 
 called the "Beautiful," and lifted Tabitha from the 
 bier; frozen the tongue that upbraided "the whole 
 house of Israel with decide; and launched forth the 
 suggestions of the Paraciete in themid.sl of Jerusalem. 
 with such potency, as to lay prostrate, in adoration of 
 Jesus, thousands who had shouted "Not him. but 
 Barabbas!" 
 
 The Christians, Timotheus and his venerable parent 
 being of the number, were heart broken with grief tt 
 beholding him; the very stars of heaven looked down 
 as if they were afflicted, so pensive was the light they 
 
132 MARTYRDOM OF SS. PETER AND PAUL. 
 
 shed upon the martyred body, and the group that 
 gazed upon it with streaming eyes, their hands clasped, 
 or lifted in the excess of their tribulation. But no 
 loud cry, no wailing escaped even from the virgin ten- 
 derness of Pudentiana and Praxede, who were assidu- 
 ous in helping their mother Claudia, and the other 
 Christian matrons, to collect every drop of gore in 
 sponges, and to deposit in caskets the very sand satu- 
 rated with his blood. No sound broke the dead still- 
 ness of the night, but stifled sobs, and the almost mute 
 murmuring of psalmody, as they drew out the nails, 
 deposited also with care in another casket; receiving 
 into their arms with great reverence the gory burden 
 now loosened from the gibbet, they wrapped it hastily 
 in a shroud; and then with trembling haste, having 
 sent some before to reconnoitre, bore it away through 
 by-paths and thickets until they came to a lonely re- 
 gion among the sand-mines of the Vatican. Not far 
 off was a grove and oracle of Apollo, where a stream 
 fell with a murmuring sound into a little glen, shaded 
 here and there with olives and wild vines. Here, 
 some others issuing from a crypt, with muffled lights, 
 helped to convey the apostle's body down the glen-side; 
 but at a turn of the rugged descent, they all suddenly 
 disappeared as if by some subterraneous passage con- 
 cealed by brushwood; and after traversing, by the 
 light of flambeaux, a succession of long, narrow corri- 
 dors, apparently without end or order — a labyrinth of 
 darkness — they came at last to where they were anx- 
 iously expected by nearly all the clergy and laity of 
 Rome, assembled in the heart of the catacombs. 
 
 When those who had borne the apostle's body from 
 the cross on the Janiculum, and conveyed it in through 
 
MARTYRDOM OF SS. PETER AND PAUL. 133 
 
 the dismal labyrinth of the catacombs, at length 
 arrived where they were so anxiously expected, and had 
 silently deposited their hallowed burden upon a bier 
 or catafalque in the midst of the assembly, there was 
 at first a profound stillness, a syncope as it were of the 
 very breathing and pulsations of vitality; and with 
 looks rendered more pale by the glare of lamps and 
 torches, their eyes were turned from the lifeless CDrpse 
 of St. Peter upon each other in emotions that baffled 
 utterance. Their half stifled sobs, the moanings of 
 grief, and a low wailing, rendered more intensely pit- 
 eous by the efforts made to stifle it, at last burst forth 
 into gusts of tribulation so loud and universal as to 
 fill the crypts with echoes of woe through all their 
 most remote galleries and recesses. St. Linus de- 
 scending from the chair, where the Prince of the apos- 
 tles, assisted by St. Paul, had installed him. St. Cle- 
 tus, St. Clement, St. Anacletus, with a crowd of holy 
 bishops, who had come on various errands, and from 
 all lands to the "apostolic see," to the * 'mother of 
 Churches" and the "chair of unity," came, and kneel- 
 ing beside the body, or at its feet, kissed its wounds 
 with the tenderest veneration, next the Roman clergy, 
 that august body of presbyters and deacons, who had 
 co-operated with St. Peter and St. Paul in the apos- 
 tolic see; and, finally, the laity, in their classes, ac- 
 cording to sex and age, gathered around their great 
 patriarch and father in the faith; nor did they cease to 
 kiss his wounded feet, or to pour out floods of tears, 
 until every stain of gore had been washed from his 
 venerable limbs. 
 
 "These teais." said St. Linus, "we do not inhibit; 
 to do so would be cruel and unnatural, and subsersive 
 
134 MARTYRDOM OF SS, PETER AND PAUL, 
 
 of hallowed custom. Our Ivord wept over lyazarns. 
 Imitate His example, therfore; let your wailing not be 
 immoderate, but serene, and tempered with the fear of 
 God. If thus you mourn, no offense is offered to the 
 hope of resurrection; your tears will only be a salu- 
 tary confession of that living charity which causes 
 each member of Christ's mystical body to sympathize 
 with all of the others; and if it be an act of filial piety . 
 for children to weep and be afflicted when a fond pa- 
 rent leaves them, though it be only to go into some 
 distant province and return, or to make a voyage at 
 sea. Alas, shall it not be meet and just in us, equita- 
 ble and sulutary, to weep and mourn after the depart- 
 ure of the great father of the faithful though it be to 
 receive a diadem and his throne the kingdom through 
 which we all hope to come?"* 
 
 And small blame to the Romans for being discon- 
 solate when they called to mind the extent of St. Pe- 
 ter's claims upon their gratitude, and of the loss the 
 infant church had sustained in his death. 
 
 While absorbed in sorrow, profound but still tem- 
 pered by resignation and hope, and busied in embalm- 
 ing the venerable body and arraying it in its vest- 
 ments and insignia, they were suddenly filled wdth 
 terror by rapid foot-falls and the gleam of lights com- 
 ing along the galleries from towards the entrance of 
 the catacombs; but just as the bishops and clergy were 
 lifting the body to hurry away with it into recesses 
 still more profound, the salutation of "Peace be to 
 you" from well-known voices, reassured them again, 
 and almost forgetting for an instant the immediate ob- 
 ject of their sorrow and solicitude, they hung upon 
 the lips of the new comers while they described the 
 "^ St. John Chrysostoni. 
 
MARTYRDOM OF SS. PETER AND PAUL, 135 
 
 glorious triumphs by which St, Paul had terminated 
 his career and borne away his crown. It was at a 
 place called the Salvian waters — ad aquas Salvias — 
 about three miles from the Ostian gate, where there 
 are three little springs, that he was beheaded. Xero 
 himself, who had been vehemently incensed against 
 the apostle for having converted some of his para- 
 mours to a life of sanctity, was present to satiate his 
 innate cruelty and to entertain Tiridates, the great 
 Scythian satrap and magician, by this sight; but even 
 under the despot *s eye, and unappalled by the array 
 of death that awaited them, three of the praetorians, 
 one of them Julius, stepped forth from the ranks, ac- 
 coutred as they were, to lay down their military gir- 
 dles and proclaim their faith in that Jesus for whom 
 Paul was about to die. 
 
 The holy offices of the nocturns then commenced, 
 and mingling the psalms of King David with lessons 
 of Holy Writ and with canticles and hymns, their 
 anguished spirits were soothed by degrees, and as the 
 holy rites of the liturgy proceeded, their sorrow was 
 turned into joy. Their strong and lively faith in the 
 communion of saints exalted their thoughts from the 
 dreary crypts to the palace of the eternal King of 
 glory, and it was no longer emaciated and gory corpses 
 they beheld, but two princes, bright and sublime, the 
 envy and admiration of applauding heaven, as each is 
 crowned with a "diadem unfading" by the right hand 
 of the Eternal. After the pledge of Christian charity 
 mutually given according to their respective classes as 
 to age and sex, the offertory, and preface, they took 
 up the triumphal hymn with such fervor, as the holy 
 pontiff Linus was entering on the Canon or action of 
 
136 MARTYRDOM OF SS. PETER AND PAUL. 
 
 the Mass, that, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Saba- 
 oth, full are the heavens and the earth of Thy glory," 
 resounded through the catacombs, and having pro- 
 foundly adored and participated in the body and blood 
 of the Lord, such grace and fortitude came to them with 
 this food of strength and immortality, that they issued 
 from the catacombs not only ready to suffer for the 
 name of Christ, but despising and esteeming as of no 
 account the momentary trials by which they were to 
 purchase "an eternal weight of glory." 
 
 THK CATACOMBS. 
 
 From immemorial antiquity, the catacombs had been 
 the mines from which the sand had been extracted for 
 the erection not only of the enormous piles that cum- 
 bered the seven hills, but of the endless suburbs that 
 spread out over the Campagna; for the Romans, who 
 set the highest value on lands, from first to last, and 
 were too sagacious to destroy a canopy that left their 
 laborers uninterfered with by the most torrid heats, 
 instead of opening wide pits on the surface, sunk 
 shafts or inclined passages to a considerable depth, 
 and then excavating long, narrow, horizontal galleries 
 in every direction, and so planned and formed as not to 
 endanger the stability of the ground above — had the 
 puzzolano or sand, carried forth by slaves or beasts of 
 burden, following one another, each with a small sack 
 or two slung across the back, in long droves through 
 the dark winding passages. And hence from very 
 early times, the whole country round the walls became 
 perforated and undermined, particularly in those re- 
 gions of it bordering the great roads. These original 
 excavations were gladly extended by the Christians, so 
 far as forming junction corridors, by which to escape 
 
 Miley. 
 
THE CATACOMBS. 137 
 
 from one catacomb to another. They also furnished 
 recesses called lociili in the sides of the galleries, like 
 tiers or shelves, where they deposited the martyred 
 dead; they burrowed down, still torming catacomb 
 below catacomb like the successive stages or stories of 
 a house, as if driven by persecution into the very 
 bowels of the earth. They also formed shrines and 
 chapels in their subterranean cities, even decorating 
 them with sacred paintings. 
 
 "Burrowed out," says Aringhi, "with innumerable 
 angles, nooks, and complicated windings, not only 
 under the hills, but the level parts of all the surround- 
 ing country, these caverns, or. as they are more prop- 
 erly called, crypts, can hardly be said to receive a 
 glimmering light, here and there, by means of the 
 narrow holes or shafts between them and the upper 
 world; and they branch out into such an infinity of 
 passages, and are so broken up and subdivided by what 
 may be termed streets and lanes, winding about and 
 crossing and re-crossing one another, that a perfect 
 labyrinth is formed, and that of such immensity, that 
 those by whom they have been explored, compare 
 them, not to one, but to many cities." 
 
 Represent to yourself a subterranean city of many 
 miles in extent, with its different wards, known by 
 illustrious names; its numerous inhabitants of both 
 sexes, and of all ages and conditions; its public squares 
 its crossings, its chapels, its churches, its paintings, a 
 living picture of the sentiments of the generations 
 whose abode it is; its numberless streets or galleries 
 ranged above one another to the number of four and 
 even five, sometimes low and narrow, sometimes 
 straight, sometimes crooked, running in all directions, 
 
138 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES 
 
 intersecting one another, mixing with one another, 
 like the passages of an immense labyrinth; these gal- 
 leries, these squares, these chapels, lighted up from 
 without, at various distances, by openings in the sur- 
 face of the soil, and from within by thousands of 
 earthen or bronze lamps, having the shape of a little 
 boat; every where, to the right and to the left, tombs 
 cut horizontally in the sides of these galleries, even to 
 the spring of the arches; these galleries so numerous 
 and extensive, that if they were placed in a line, they 
 would form a street of nine hundred miles in length, 
 bordered with six million tombs. Represent to your- 
 selves the Early Christians here, our ancestors and 
 our models pure as angels, obliged to conceal them- 
 selves in order to escape the contagion and the fury of 
 pagan society, offering, with the holy mysteries, their 
 prayers, and their tears, either to prepare themselves 
 for martyrdom or to obtain the salvation of the 
 haughty persecutors whose golden chariots roll' noisily 
 above their heads. Having represented all this to 
 yourself, yield to the emotions of Faith, and you shall 
 have an idea of the Catacombs in the days of the In- 
 fant Church.* 
 
 THK FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 No sooner had the apostles commenced to preach 
 the resurrection of their divine Master, than they be- 
 came the objects of that hostility which had pursued 
 and followed Him to the cross. His disciples were 
 everywhere cast out from the synagogues, put under 
 the ban of anathema, and pursued with torture, im- 
 prisonment and death; not only through the land of 
 Palestine, but even **unto foreign cities." The San- 
 hedrim concocted a scheme to render them odious over 
 *Gaume. 
 
THE MARTYRS. 139 
 
 the whole world. "With this view" says St. Justin, 
 Martyr, "their emissaries were sent into all countries 
 with rescripts, or letters, setting forth that the Nazar- 
 enes were an execrable sect, who adored as God one 
 who had been put to death as a criminal, pretending 
 that he had arisen the third day, whereas his dead 
 body had been stolen away by themselves, while the 
 Roman guards were asleep. ' ' 
 
 "There are three principal heads of accusation 
 against us," says St. Athenagoras in his Apology. 
 "the rumor runs that we are "atheists," that we in- 
 dulge in Thyestean feasts, and incestuous intercourse." 
 Similiar enormities were cast in the face of the mar- 
 tyrs of Lyons and Vienne by their tormentors. 
 
 Predisposed to prosecute the objects of imputation, 
 so atrocious, rendered plausible by a variety of circum- 
 stances, the pagans needed only a hint from the ruling 
 powers to discharge their pent-up fury upon the de- 
 voted race. Hence, no sooner were they prescribed 
 by Nero, than they were everywhere pursued and 
 subjected to the most excruciating tortures, as 
 wretches hateful alike to gods and men. They were 
 tormented by slow fires, some on grid irons, some 
 tied to stakes, some in cauldrons made redhot; others 
 were suspended by the feet, that while their bodies 
 were burned with torches applied to the most sensi- 
 tive parts, they might be at the same time suffocated 
 by the smoke and heat. Tigellinus, one of the most 
 infamous minions of Nero, and his chief adjutor in 
 burning the city, so signalized himself by exploits of 
 cruelty, that even the pagan writers animadverted on 
 the execrable ingenuity of one species of torture, to 
 which he seems to have given the preference. The 
 
140 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 process is described thus: the Christian, stripped, was 
 forced to put on a garment called the tunica molesta, 
 made of papyrus, smeared on both sides with wax, and 
 was then fastened to a high pole, from the top of which 
 they continued to pour down burning pitch and lard, 
 a spike fastened under the chain preventing the ex- 
 cruciated victim from turning the head to either side, 
 so as to escape the liquid fire, until the whole body 
 and every part of it was literally clad and cased in 
 flame. Such multitudes were destroyed by this one 
 mode alone, that the whole area of the Vatican Circus, 
 round which they were impaled, was inundated knee- 
 deep with the residium of their bodies. 
 
 Some were chopped to atoms; others fastened on 
 wheels, and torn to pieces by being turned round 
 against serried spikes or hooks of iron. They were 
 stoned to death, beheaded, crucified, whipped with 
 what they called scorpions, till their bones and entrails 
 were laid bare; they were fastened to wild horses, who 
 dashed their heads against rocks, and tore their bodies 
 .through thickets and rough ways in their flight. Some 
 besmeared with honey, were tied to stakes, under a 
 broiling sun, that they might be stung and eaten alive 
 by wasps and insects; others were flung into holes to 
 be devoured by rats; others were buried alive; others, 
 while living were fastened to putrid carcasses, or 
 crushed between huge blocks of stone, or were torn to 
 pieces by lions, tigers, or eaten by wild dogs; they 
 smeared their bodies with pitch and set fire to them; 
 poured boiling lead upon their head, or cast their 
 bodies into it, or made them sit naked in chairs of 
 iron at a red heat; they put them into nets, to be 
 tossed on the horns of wild bulls, or into sacks with 
 
THE MARTYRS 141 
 
 dogs and serpents, and cast them into the sea; they 
 tore the flesh from their limbs with iron prongs and 
 cards, plucked out their teeth and their hair with pin- 
 cers, cut off their ears, their noses, tore out their 
 tongues, inserted reeds under the nails of their toes 
 and fingers, chopped off their hands and feet, flayed 
 them alive, disemboweled them, or distended their 
 bodies upon racks, until every bone started from its 
 socket. *'The judge gloried in devising new and un- 
 heard-of tortures," says Eusebius. "It was deemed a 
 virtue in them to do so. It was their whole study, the 
 summit of their ambition; and that one triumphed over 
 the others, who surpassed them in refinement of 
 cruelty." 
 
 "It would be vain," says Lactantius, ' to attempt 
 the description of the atrocities which the ministers of 
 the imperial vengeance have perpetrated on the disci- 
 ples of Christ, in every region of the world. Merely 
 to enumerate the various species of torments devised by 
 their cruelties would necessitate several chapters, for 
 each followed the peculiar bent of his own barbarous 
 caprice, having received unlimited power over his vic- 
 tims. Some, through apprehension of being accused 
 of lenity, surpassed the cruel orders they had received 
 some were incited by the hatred they had conceived 
 against us; others, by a desire to recommend themselves 
 to the prince's favor and gain promotion; like that 
 Judge in Phrygia, who set fire to the church when the 
 faithful were assembled in it. and burned them all to 
 death." 
 
 Even the poor alleviation of sympathy was dented 
 to the Christians. The Redeemer had repeatedly ad- 
 monished his disciples, that they were to be **hated of 
 
142 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 all for His Name's sake"; and so they were. No mat- 
 ter what calamity befell the empire; "To the lions 
 with the Christians!" was the cry. *'If the Tiber 
 rises," says Tertullian, "or the Nile does not; if an 
 earthquake or drought occur, the Christians are still 
 the guilty cause ' ' The whole circus and amphitheatre 
 rose up to demand the blood — the extermination of the 
 detested race. Such clamors could hardly be resisted; 
 but the emperors and the Roman Magistrates were ever 
 ready to lend them a willing ear The dispensers of 
 justice not only sentenced the Christians who were 
 brought before the tribunals, but declared that all were 
 at liberty to treat them ''quasi non amplius homines 
 essent,'' "as if they were not human beings." "It 
 would seem" wTites an eye-witness of one of those 
 terrific outbreaks, * as if the whole world had con- 
 spired for our destruction." 
 
 It was under the pressure of trials such as these, 
 and not from predilection, that Christianity resorted to 
 the catacombs. The earliest Christian use made of 
 them was for the interment of the martyrs, an office 
 of the most pious and ardent solicitude among the dis- 
 ciples of our Lord from the very first. Nor were they 
 more zealous to discharge than were the persecutors to 
 prevent it. They frequently cast the bodies of the 
 martyrs into the cloacae of the city or into the Tiber, 
 •finding that this could not frustrate the invincible 
 piety of the survivors, they used to throw them where 
 they might be devoured by birds of prey or by dogs, 
 setting guards to watch them from some distant emi- 
 nence or tower; in fine the very bones they used to 
 burn, and cast the ashes on the passing river, to de- 
 stroy, as they thought, their hope of a resurrection. 
 
THE MARTYRS. 143 
 
 At other times they mixed them up with the bones of 
 brute beasts, that the Christians might not be able to 
 discover them, but vain were the attempts of pagan mal- 
 ice in competition with the ingenuity and heroism of 
 Christian charity. Even by timid virgin hands the 
 precious relics of Christ's champions were rescued as 
 it were from the lion's mouth, every drop of their 
 blood collected and religiously enshrined with their 
 bodies, or whatever remained of them. Not unfre- 
 quently the instruments of torture, or fac-similes of 
 them, were also deposited in their tombs. Christians 
 in large numbers fell victims to their fearless zeal in 
 discharging these hallowed rites, and sometimes the 
 intensity of tribulation in this most trying grievance 
 could not be restrained from breaking forth into com- 
 plaint; but still under the dirciction of deacons ap- 
 pointed for the purpose, and in the face of every dan- 
 ger, the bodies were sought out, every bone and frag- 
 ment of the mangled frame, and the very blood stains, 
 were religiousiy collected. Not only that, but the ob- 
 sequies were performed with all solemnity, and the 
 name of the martyr, with some holy emblem — as a 
 palm branch, a dove with the olive, the icthus, or 
 monogram of Christ — were usually sculptured on the 
 slab closing up the loculutn or recess for the body, 
 albeit with little of arti.stic skill, and apparently with a 
 hand unsteady, either from trepidation or from grief. 
 "Assemble in the cemeteries," says St. Clement, pope 
 and disciple of St. Peter, "there attend to the lectures 
 from the sacred books; as also to the recital of psalms 
 and h>nins for the martyrs, for all the saints departed 
 from this world, and for all our brethren who have 
 died in the faith. Let the eucharistic mystery accept- 
 
144 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 able to God be offered up when you thus assemble in 
 the cemeteries, and so fail not to follow your departed 
 brethren in the faith with chanting of psalms." 
 
 It is plain from the tenor of this text that even in 
 the lifetime of the apostles, the catacombs had already 
 become, not only the cemeteries of the Christians, but 
 their only churches; there they received instruction, 
 heard the Gospel preached, recited or sung the divine 
 offices, according to the appointed hours, and joined in 
 solemn formularies of prayer; but, above all, in the 
 eucharistic sacrifice for the souls of the faithful de- 
 parted. Indeed it is expressly stated by an ancient 
 author, that St. Peter himself was in the habit of dis- 
 charging the sacred functions of the apostleship in the 
 catacombs. "Pope lyiberius, A. D. 352, dwelt about 
 three miles from the city," says Anastasius, 'H71 the 
 cemetery of Novella, and near to that of Ostrianus, 
 where Peter used to baptize. ' ' He used also to preach in 
 and baptize in the sand crypts of the Vatican. 
 
 POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 POPES FROM ST. PETER TO MIDDI.E OF THIRD 
 CENTURY. 
 
 It was amidst the sorrows and the sufferings of the 
 catacombs, that the foundations of that throne were 
 laid and consolidated that has seen so many proud dy- 
 nasties disappear, and has itself defied so many assaults 
 of time and violence. There the apostolical succession 
 was continued in spite of every effort to interrupt it. 
 No sooner was one pontiff dragged from the chair of 
 Peter to martyrdom, or massacred while seated in it 
 (as happened to St. Stephen), than a successor was 
 elected, ordained, consecrated and enthroned with as 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 145 
 
 much promptitude and solemnity as if the church en- 
 joyed the most halcyon calm. Linus succeeds to 
 Peter; Cletus succeeds to L,inus; to Cletus, Clement; to 
 Clement, Anacletus; to him, Evaristus; to Evaristus, 
 Alexander; to Alexander, Sixtus; then Telesphorus, 
 Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherius, then 
 Victor, then Zephyrinus, Callixtus, Urban, Pontianus, 
 Anterus; to Anterus, Fabian; to Fabian, Cornelius. 
 
 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 Peter was a Galilean, Linus an Etruscan, Cletus 
 and Clement were of Rome, Anacletus was of Athens, 
 Evaristus of Antioch, Eleutherius of Nicopolis; an 
 African, St. Victor, succeeds to a native of Ionia; the 
 anchoret, St. Telesphorus of Greece, is succeeded by 
 an Athenian philosopher; St. Hyginus, the Athenian, 
 by an Italian; St. Pius of Aquileia, to be followed by 
 St. Soter and other Romans; as if every portion of 
 Christianity was to contribute its purest blood to 
 cement the foundations of that throne which was 
 established, not for any one province, but for the 
 entire church; for, whether from Greece or Africa, 
 from Italy or Asia, the popes of the Catacombs were 
 sure of the martyr's crown. 
 
 And as they had borne his sublime office in life, and 
 participated in his martyrdom, neither were they 
 separated in death from the Prince of the Apostles. 
 "Martyris coronatus, sepultus est juxta corpus Beati 
 Petri, in Vaticano;" that is "having been crowned 
 with martyrdom, he was laid near the body of St. 
 Peter, in the Vatican," is generally during this epoch, 
 the conclusion of each pope's history, as we find it 
 in Anastasius, and in the still more ancient collection 
 made from the archives of the catacombs, by Pope 
 
146 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 Datnasus at St. Jerome's request. It is true, we read 
 of several being interred in the great catacomb, hard 
 by the Appian way, now called the catacomb of St. 
 Sebastian; but this is only another proof of their 
 anxiety to be laid beside St. Peter's body, which, with 
 that of St. Paul, had been translated for greater security 
 to this cemetery, called of Callixtus, because the holy 
 pontiff of that name had it adorned in honor of the 
 apostles. Even when the popes died in exile, their 
 faithful deacons had their bodies carried to Rome, in 
 despite of every difficulty and danger, that they might 
 repose with their predecessors. Thus, the body of St. 
 Pontianus, who suffered death by the blow of a club, 
 in Sardinia, whither he had been banished with St. 
 Hippolytus, one of the cardinal priests, was secretly 
 conveyed on ship-board, by the blessed Fabianus, who 
 had it conveyed to Rome, and laid near the body of 
 St. Peter in the cemetery of Callixtus. 
 
 But although banished from the light of day, 
 dwelling in these dreary crypts and labyrinths of 
 perpetual night and suffering, their influence extended 
 more widely than that of Caesar. Looked up to by 
 all as the successors of St. Peter, as the rulers of that 
 church, "with which, it was indispensable for all 
 churches, that is, for all the faithful of Christ, no 
 matter where dispersed, to be in communion, on 
 account of its superior jurisdiction or supremacy," 
 the trustees of that deposit of doctrine inherited from 
 the two great apostles, established in the chair, or 
 throne, from which sacerdotal unity proceeded, and 
 by which it was to be preserved; all the obscurity of 
 the sepulchres where they dwelt cannot conceal from 
 us their pre-eminence and their universal jurisdiction, 
 Baronius, 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 147 
 
 in the rising kingdom of the Redeemer. Through 
 them the unity of the Church was preserved, and 
 found its expression. All the bishops of the world 
 were bound to be in communion with the popes of the 
 catacombs; for to be in ecclesiastical communion with 
 the see of Peter was to be in communion with the 
 church; and no one was considered a Catholic who 
 was separated from Rome. They were resorted to 
 from all provinces of the Christian world; from Spain 
 and Egypt, from Africa and Pontus, as having 
 authority to reinstate those who had been deposed or 
 separated from communion by the local bishops; to 
 watch over the teaching even of the greatest patriarchs; 
 to prevent innovation and enforce uniformity in dis- 
 cipline whenever th*e welfare of the church required it. 
 The authority by which all heresies were confounded, 
 which in every crisis gave forth the watch-word of 
 orthodoxy (whose great champions it never forsook 
 and always vindicated), the see of Peter, the apostolic 
 see by excellence, though the most incessantly and 
 cruelly persecuted of all, never ceased to watch with 
 vigilant and energetic solicitude over the interests of 
 the universal church. 
 
 But, as if the spiritual empire of Rome, now being 
 founded in the Catacombs, were, in some sort, to re- 
 semble that empire of force, which, from a beginning 
 so insignificant, had arisen to such unexampled great- 
 ness through a variety of difficulties and perils; while 
 extending its care and its energies to the most remote 
 frontiers, and in acquiring new conquests, the Roman 
 Church was ever careful to keep up the most rigid 
 order and discipline at home; nor did its governors like 
 the great statesmen of the old repulic, ever contemn as 
 
148 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 trifling and beneath their notice, anything that could 
 promote decorum, or by which order might be affected. 
 The following enactments (chiefly respective of the 
 city) are taken from the records transmitted to St. 
 Jerome by Pope Damasus, who no doubt had them 
 copied from the original statutes and registries in the 
 archives.* 
 
 St. Linus, who administered the city even in the 
 lifetime and during the intervals of absence of St. 
 Peter, ordained by his direction, **that females should 
 come veiled to assist at the holy mysteries and other 
 offices of religion;" a regulation of the greatest im- 
 portance and necessity, when we recollect what the 
 tone of female conduct was in Rome at a time when 
 Messalina led the fashion. • 
 
 St. Cletus, who had been appointed joint adminstra- 
 tor (for the suburban districts) with St. Linus, having 
 succeeded him in the apostolic chair, divided the city 
 between twenty- five priests. St. Clement appointed 
 * 'seven regions to the faithful notaries of the Church," 
 whose office it was with diligence, solicitude and cir- 
 cumspection, to make out the acts of the martyrs, each 
 in his own region. 
 
 St. Anacletus built an oratory over the body of St. 
 Peter, in the Vatican, where the popes might be 
 buried. 
 
 St. Evaristus divided Rome into titles or parishes, 
 and ordained that seven deacons should attend the 
 bishop in the ministry of preaching, as the statute has 
 it — ' ^propter stylum veritatis. ' ' 
 
 St. Alexander had recitations from the passion of 
 our Lord introduced into the Liturgy of prayers said 
 by the priest in celebrating Mass — ''passionem Dmnini 
 
 "^Ex. Antig. Codic MSS, ap. Miley. 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 149 
 
 miscuit in precationem sacerdotum quando tnissae ceUbraji- 
 tur'' — and ordained that salt should be mingled in the 
 blessed water with which the faithful sprinkled their 
 blessings. 
 
 St. Sixtus ordained that none but ministers of the 
 sanctuary should touch the sacred vessels; that when 
 a bishop was summoned to the apostolic see, he should 
 not, unless furnished with salutations from the pon- 
 tiff, be received in his parish or diocese, and that as 
 the priest began the canon, or action of the Mass — 
 'Hiifra actionem sacerdotis" — the congregation begin- 
 ning the hymn (called Triumphal), should sing, 
 ^^Sanctus^ Sandus, Sandus, Dominus Dens Sabaoth,'^ 
 etc. 
 
 St. Telesphorus ordained that Lent should last seven 
 weeks; that midnight masses should be celebrated on 
 the nativity of our Lord, and that in the beginning of 
 the sacrifice, the hymn of the angels, ''Gloria in ex- 
 celsis Deo,'' should be chanted. 
 
 St. Hyginus arranged the privileges and order of 
 precedency among the clergy. 
 
 St. Anicetus ordained that they should not wear 
 their hair flowing. 
 
 St. Pius issued ordinances concerning the celebra- 
 tion of Easter, relative to which his brother Hermas 
 had a revelation confirmatory of the Roman discipline, 
 which was ultimately enforced all over the church. 
 
 St. Soter ordained that no nun — ''nulla monacha'* — 
 should touch the consecrated vessels, nor minister in- 
 cense in the church. 
 
 St. Eleutherius received letters from Lucius, king 
 of Britain (grandson of Caractacus), praying to be re- 
 ceived into the Church by his mandate, **«/ Chris* 
 
150 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 tianus efficeretur per ejus mandatum'' that is, that the 
 pope would send missionaries to instruct and baptize 
 himself and his people. He condemned the Gnostic 
 practice of abstaining from certain kinds of food, as if 
 from the evil principle. 
 
 St. Victor renewed the ordinance of St. Pius with 
 respect to Easter, and caused councils to meet for that 
 purpose in all countries, from Gaul to Asia. He also 
 defined that, in case of necessity, any Gentile making 
 profession of the Christian faith might be baptized in 
 a spring, a fountain, or the sea. 
 
 St. Zephyrinus decreed that all ordinations, whether 
 of clerics, levites (deacons), or priests should be held 
 in the presence of the people; also, that all the priests 
 should assist when the bishop celebrated, besides other 
 ordinances relative to the distribution of the Blessed 
 Eucharist. 
 
 St. Callixtus instituted the fast of Saturday thrice a 
 a year, to procure from heaven abundance of corn, 
 wine, and oil. 
 
 St. Urban ordained that the sacred vessels should be 
 silver; previously glass ones were in use. 
 
 St. Anterus caused a collection of the Acts of the 
 Martyrs to be made and deposited securely in the ar- 
 chives of the church. 
 
 St. Fabian divided the regions among the deacons, 
 and appointed six subdeacons over the notaries who 
 wrote down the "acts" of those who suffered martyr- 
 dom. He caused many structures to be erected in the 
 cemeteries. 
 
 St. Stephen ordained that priests and deacons should 
 wear the sacred vestments only in the church. 
 
 St. Dionysius made a new arrangement of the 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 151 
 
 churches, making the cemeteries, parishes. 
 
 St. Felix appointed Masses to be celebrated on the 
 tombs of the martyrs. 
 
 POPES OF REMAINDER OF THIRD CENTURY. 
 
 The revolt of the Roman general, Decius, occurred 
 A. D. 249. "No sooner," says Orosius, "had Decius 
 made himself master of the empire by the defeat and 
 death of the Emperor Philip and his brother, than he, 
 as it were, girded himself for the slaughter and perse- 
 cution of the Christians. His general edict, the sev- 
 enth fulminated against them since that of Nero, was 
 proclaimed and put in force all over the Roman world; 
 and forthwith the gates of heaven began to be thronged 
 with the multitudes who came up thither from the 
 midst of the most hideous torments." It would seem 
 as if all the furious and revengeful passions were de- 
 termined to have ample compensation for the tempo- 
 rary check they had experienced during the brief reign 
 of Philip, more disposed apparently, to prevent than 
 promote the legalized and prescriptive cruelty against 
 the Christians; for we are informed by St. Gregory of 
 Nyssa that all public and private business was sus- 
 pended, and that nothing else but the great work of 
 persecution was thought of, either by the magistrates 
 or the citizens, in their furious determination to drag 
 to torture and exterminate whomsoever professed the 
 faith. 
 
 The Christians had long become so numerous, that 
 to exterminate them would have been in a great meas- 
 ure to depopulate the empire. In a few years Chris- 
 tianity had secured so strong a foothold in the Roman 
 Empire, as to fill its disciples with joyful enthusiasm, 
 and its enemies with alarm and dismay. 
 
162 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 Twenty-five years after the death of Christ, St. 
 Paul writing to the Romans, congratulates them in 
 that their "faith is spoken of in the whole world," 
 and of course, spoken of by those who were in sym- 
 pathy and communion with the faith of Rome. 
 
 About thirty years later, Pliny, propraetor of 
 Bithynia, in a letter to the Kmperor Trajan expresses 
 his concern at the growing numbers and influence of 
 the Christians in his own and the neighboring province 
 of Pontus. ''The contagion of this superstition," he 
 says, "has spread not only to the cities, but about the 
 villages and open country." He adds that in conse- 
 quence of the rapid diffusion of Christianity the tem- 
 ples of the gods are almost abandoned, and the sale of 
 victims for the sacrifices well nigh suspended. He 
 asks, therefore, what course he is to pursue in check- 
 ing the further progress of the evil. 
 
 St. Justin, Martyr whose death occurred 66 years 
 after that of St. John the Evangelist, declares that 
 "there is not any one race of men, Barbarian or Greek, 
 or of those who are nomads or shepherds in tents, 
 among whom prayers and eucharists are not offered to 
 the Father of the universe through the name of the 
 crucified Jesus." 
 
 St. Irenaeus, who was born in 120, records with 
 great force the marvellous propagation of Christianity 
 up to his own time: "The Church," he says, "scat- 
 tered throughout the world, even unto the ends of the 
 earth, received from the Apostles and their disciples, 
 the faith in one God, the Father Almighty * "^ "^ The 
 Church having received this faith, although it be 
 scattered abroad through the whole world, caretully 
 preserves it, dwelling as in one habitation, and believes 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 153 
 
 alike in these doctrines, as though she had one soul, 
 and the same heart ^-5^ ^ ^ And although there be many 
 diverse language in the world, yet the power of tra- 
 dition is one and the same." And he proceeds to 
 illustrate by a beautiful comparison, the cause of this 
 unity. As the light, he says, which illumines this 
 world is everywhere the same, because it proceeds 
 from Jesus Christ, the S ni of justice. 
 
 Tertullian who was born about the year i6o, in his 
 Apologia, speaks in still more forcible language of the 
 progiess of Christianity: "We are but of yesterday," 
 he says, "and yet we have filled every place, belonging 
 to you, cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your 
 very camp, your tribes, companies, palaces, senate, 
 forum We leave you only your temples." Again 
 "The kingdom of Christ has no limits. Everywhere 
 there is faith in Him All peoples honor Him. E\'ery- 
 where He reigns and receives the tribute of adora- 
 tion." 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, at the close of the second 
 century writes: 'The word of our Master did not re- 
 main in Judea as philosophy remaii>ed in Greece but has 
 been poured out over the whole world persuading Greeks 
 and Barbarians alike, race by race, and village by 
 village, every city, whole houses and hearers, one by 
 one, nay not a few of these philosophers themselves." 
 
 It is worthy of note that all the writers quoted, '^lived 
 in the first or second century, and the latest of ihem 
 was removtd from our Saviour by an interval of only 
 about 150 years.* 
 
 Because of the number of conversions, me fury of 
 Maximin had been levelled almost exclusively against 
 the hierarchy, in the hope that Christianity would ex- 
 *Card, Gibbons, 
 
154 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 pire with those whose office it was to preserve and 
 propagate it. But this attempt having miscarried, it 
 was resolved by Decius to destroy the faith, without 
 taking away the lives of his Christian subjects. With 
 this design naked swords, crosses, pincers, and hooks 
 of iron for lacerating the flesh, gridirons made red-hot, 
 raging wild beasts, gibbets, and racks, with all the 
 most horrid engines of torture, were arrayed, by order 
 of the pro-consuls and governors of districts, around 
 their tribunals, in order to terrify those who were led 
 before them to abjure the faith. In submitting the 
 confessors to the racks, and to the most diversified 
 and excruciating tortures, they were ever cautious not 
 to endanger life. Nay, after having dislocated and 
 broken the limbs of some, cut and hacked away the 
 flesh of others, bit by bit, and inflicted the most cruel 
 wounds in every shape upon them, they caused their 
 bodies to be skilfully medicated and cured, in order to 
 render them obnoxious to new torments. In like man- 
 ner when those who were confined in dungeons had 
 been reduced to death's door by cruel stripes, by the 
 weight of the fetters, and by starvation, they were 
 tended and cherished with cruel solicitude, in order 
 that they might not escape from their tormentors. 
 
 Every city and village was traversed by frantic mobs 
 vociferating, "To the lions with the Christians! The 
 Christians to the flames! Away with them to the 
 cross!" Nothing was to be heard but the clanking of 
 chains, the mournful and piteous wailings of young 
 boys, aged men, and tender virgins, as they were in- 
 humanly dragged, with blows, and every insulting 
 outrage, before the judges; for these, and their fero- 
 cious satellites were insensible to every sentiment of 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 155 
 
 respect for either the infirmities of age or for virgin 
 modesty. The prisons were crowded with holy con- 
 fessors, so that other great public buildings were em- 
 ployed to receive them. 
 
 How wanton was the cruelty of the heathens towards 
 the martyrs, we learn from one species of torture men- 
 tioned by St. Jerome: "The Christian," says this 
 father, "was first stretched upon the rack and burned 
 with heated hoops or plates of iron, he was then 
 smeared all over with honey, placed with his hands 
 bound behind him in the burning sun, and thus left to 
 putrefy and expire, exposed to the annoyance and 
 stings of insects." 
 
 We must now retrace our steps a little, and refer to 
 the last four popes named in the preceding chapter. 
 The venerable pontiff, St. Fabian, was one of the first 
 victims of this persecution of Decius, as the City of 
 Rome was the chief focus of its violence; for the empe- 
 ror bent on the extirpation of the Christian hierarchy in 
 general, had proclaimed with direful imprecations and 
 blasphemies, that he had rather tolerate a rival in the 
 empire, than suffer a pope to reign or be continued in 
 Rome, 
 
 MARTYRDOM OF POPK CORNELIUS. 
 
 Pope Cornelius was elected in place of the martyred 
 St. Fabian. We may form some conjecture of the 
 apostolic spirit of the new pontiff, and of the general 
 aspect of the church, from the tenor of a letter or re- 
 script, written by St. Cornelius to his legate in Gaul. 
 St. lyupicinus of Vienne: "Know, dearest brother/* 
 says the pope, "that the ark of God is most fiercely 
 assailed by the tempest of persecution, and that in pur- 
 suance of the edicts, the Christians are everywhere 
 
156 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 subjected to various torments; for it would seem that 
 an emperor has been appointed to succeed Decius 
 (slain by the Goths), and reigns in the Roman city for 
 this object alone; so that there is no possibility of cel- 
 ebrating Mass publicly, or even in the more noted 
 crypts. Wherefore let all the faithful of Christ (of the 
 Gallic province) be exhorted by your charity, not to 
 dread those who have power to slay the body, but 
 rather to fear Him who hath power to destroy both 
 body and soul. Already many have been crowned 
 with martyrdom. Pray also that we may run the 
 course which we know by revelation from our I^ord to 
 be in store for us. Brother in the Lord, farewell; sa- 
 lute all who love us in Christ." 
 
 He was soon after banished to Centum Celiac, 
 (Civita Vecchia) from whence he still continued to 
 govern the Church; until a letter sent him by St. 
 Cyprian having been intercepted or seized by the 
 government, he was ordered up to Rome. Though it 
 was night when he arrived, he was immediately 
 brought into the presence of the emperor, Volusianus, 
 who was attended by the prefect of the city, and 
 interrogated thus: — 
 
 "Has thy perversity risen to that pitch, that not 
 content with making light of the gods, thou hast even 
 presumed to carry on correspondence against the 
 republic, in defiance of the laws and of our menaces?" 
 
 Cornelius answered, "The letters which I received 
 were not against the republic; they regarded the crown 
 of the Lord (martyrdom)." 
 
 The emperor in anger ordered him to be taken from 
 his presence, to have his mouth beaten with sticks 
 made heavy with lead, and to be beheaded if he still 
 Baronius. 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 157 
 
 refused to sacrifice. This sentence was made absolute 
 on the pontiff's steady refusal to do so; and he was 
 accordingly handed over for execution to an ofificer 
 named Cerealis. 
 
 It happened that Sallustia, the wife of Cerealis, had 
 been bed-ridden from paralysis for fifteen years; where- 
 upon, the pontiff was no sooner placed in his hands, 
 than this ofi&cer entreated him to come and cure his 
 wife. Cornelius went with him, accompanied by two 
 priests and one cleric, a reader; and when he had come 
 to where the infirm woman lay, the most holy pope gave 
 forth this prayer: "Lord God, Creator of all things 
 visible and invisible, who hast vouchsafed to come to 
 us sinners, in order to redeem us; do thou raise up 
 this Thy disabled handmaid, and extend to her that 
 mercy by which Thou didst give sight to him who was 
 born blind, that she also may recognize Thy giory;*' 
 and holding the hand of Sallustia, he raised her up, 
 saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 
 arise and stand upon thy feet!" Presently, she rose 
 up exclaiming, and crying out, "Truly Christ is God. 
 and the Son of God!" and then she said to Cornelius, 
 "I conjure you, in the name of Christ to baptize me;" 
 and with that she ran and filled a vase with water, 
 and brought it to him. At the sight of so great a 
 miracle, the soldiers also who were with Cerealis, all 
 prostrated themselves at the feet of Pope Cornelius, 
 trembling and imploring to be baptized; and, seeing 
 the hand of God in all this he baptized them, and 
 offered for them the eucharistic sacrifice; and they all 
 were made partakers of the body and blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The emperor being informed of all these things, sent 
 
 •or Ti-ii 
 
158 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 and had all apprehended, both those of the household 
 of Cerealis and the soldiers who embraced the Faith, 
 and led out with the blessed Cornelius that they might 
 be constrained to offer sacrifice. They were brought 
 outside the walls by the Appian gate to the temple of 
 Mars; but instead of sacrificing, they spat in derision 
 at the temple, and were all beheaded with the most 
 blessed pope, to the number of one and twenty, and 
 with them Cerealis also with his wife Sallustia, on the 
 1 8th. of the calends of October. But that same night 
 the blessed Lucina, with some clerics and her own do- 
 mestics came and stole away the bodies of the martyrs, 
 and buried them in her own grounds, in a crypt near 
 the cemetery of Callixtus. 
 
 Pope Cornelius was immediately succeeded by 
 lyucius, one of the priests who had accompanied him in 
 his exile. He also was beheaded in less than two years; 
 on the 4th. of the nones of March, and when hasten- 
 ing to his martyrdom says the Liber Pontificalis, "he 
 confided the administration of the Church to his arch 
 deacon Stephen, by whom he was succeeded in the 
 pontificate after an interval of thirty-four days, April 
 9th. A. D. 257. 
 
 MARTYRDOM OF POPK STEPHBN. 
 
 Valerius and Acilius being consuls, Hippolytus, a 
 citizen of Rome, and a Christian, passed a solitary life 
 in the crypts; to whom many Gentiles resorting for 
 apostolic instruction, were converted to Christ and 
 baptized. This same Hippolytus came frequently to 
 the feet of Pope Stephen, to entreat baptism for his 
 catechumens, whom he brought with him; and so 
 great was the number thus brought over to Christian- 
 ity, that the proceedings of Hippolytus were made 
 Baronius. 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 159 
 
 known by the informers {delatores) to Maximus, the 
 city prefect, and by him reported to the emperors. On 
 hearing thii» Hippolytus went immediately to tell Pope 
 Stephen. Whereupon the blessed Stephen called 
 around him the Christian multitude, and began by 
 holy exhortations and by lore of holy writ, to imbue 
 their minds with sentiments of pious confidence; 
 amongst other things he j^poke the following: — 
 
 "My beloved children, listen tome a sinner. While 
 there is yet time let us be instant in good works, and 
 that not only to our neighbours, but to ourselves; and 
 in the first place let me admonish each one to take up 
 his cross and follow our Lord Jesus Christ, who has 
 vouchsafed to say to us, 'Who loves his life shall lose 
 it; but who loses his life for my sake, shall find it in 
 eternity.' Wherefore, I beseech you all, to be most 
 solicitous, not only for your own, but for your neigh- 
 bour's salvation; so that if any among you have 
 friends or relations still in heathenism, let him hasten 
 to conduct them hither to receive baptism at our 
 hands." 
 
 Then Hippolytus cast himself at the feet of the 
 blessed pontiflF Stephen, saying, "Good father, may it 
 please you, there are my nephew and his sister, both 
 Gentiles, whom I have reared myself; a little boy 
 about ten years of age, more or less, and a girl of thir- 
 teen; their mother, a Gentile, is called Paulina; their 
 father, who sends them both to me from time to time, 
 is named Adrias." Then the blessed Stephen exhorted 
 him to detain the children when next sent, that there- 
 by the parents also might be brought to visit him. 
 
 After two days the above mentioned children came 
 to Hippolytus, bringing certain cakes of bread; who» 
 
160 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES, ' 
 
 detaining them, sent word to the blessed Stephen, who, 
 coming embraced the little ones, and cherished them. 
 Full of solicitude about their children, the parents 
 came in haste to seek them. Then Stephen addressed 
 them on the terrors of the future and tremendous judg- 
 ment, earnestly exhorting them to abandon the idols, 
 as did Hippolytus, also. To whom Adrias, the father 
 of the children said, that he dreaded being despoiled 
 of his property, and put to death, the lot prepared for 
 all who professed themselves Christians. Paulina, sis- 
 ter of Hippolytus, said the same, inveighing against 
 him for urging such a course; for she detested the re- 
 ligion of the Christians; and so they departed, leaving 
 those in the crypts, who had exhorted them without 
 success, but not without hope. 
 
 Then the blessed Stephen, calling the learned priest 
 Eusebius, and Marcellus, a deacon, sent them to 
 Adrias and Paulina, to invite them again to the 
 catacomb, where Hippolytus abode; and when they 
 were come, Eusebius said to them, * 'Christ expects 
 you, that he may introduce you into the kingdom of 
 heaven." And when Paulina began to insist on the 
 glory of the world, and the miserable lot of the Chris- 
 tians, he portrayed to them the ineffable glories of 
 heaven, which they could not attain except through 
 the faith, and being baptized. Paulina declined 
 to decide till the next day. The same night, 
 there came a Christian father and mother, with their 
 son, who was a paralytic, to Eusebius in the catacomb, 
 to have him baptized; who, praying over him, baptized 
 hi en; whereupon he was cured, and his tongue having 
 been loosed he gave praise to God. Then Eusebius 
 offered sacrifice, and all participated in the body and 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 161 
 
 blood of Christ; which when Stephen the bishop heard, 
 he came, and they rejoiced together. 
 
 But when it was morning Adrias and Paulina re- 
 turned, and on hearing of the cure of the boy, being 
 filled with admiration, they prostrated themselves with 
 great contrition, praying of the pontiff to be baptized. 
 Seeing this Hippolytus, giving thanks to God, said 
 to the blessed Stephen, "Holy Father, do not defer 
 their baptism." The blessed Stephen said, ''Let the 
 solemnities be completed, and put to them the prescrib- 
 ed questions, that it may be seen if they truly believe 
 and have no longer any trepidation of heart." After 
 the interrogations he enjoined them a fast, and having 
 instructed all the catechumens, he baptized them in the 
 name of the Trinity; and placing the sign of the cross, 
 he called the boy Neone, the girl Mary; and he offered 
 sacrifice for them. And when all had communicated, 
 the blessed Stephen departed thence. Then the newly 
 baptized began to dwell with Hippolytus, pusebius 
 and Marcellus in the catacombs; but their property 
 which they had in the city, they distributed among 
 the poor. 
 
 Soon as this transaction came to the ears of 
 the emperors, orders were issued to seek out 
 the converts, and a reward of half their property was 
 offered to whoever should detect them. It was then 
 that one Maximus, a writer in one of the government 
 offices, had recourse to this device to find them out. 
 He feigned himself a Christian who begged alms, and 
 coming to a place called Area Carbonaria on the 
 Coelian Mount, remained there begging till he saw 
 Adrias passing by; to whom he thus addressed himself, 
 in order to get proof of his being a Christian, "Through 
 
162 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 Christ whom I believe, I beseech you to take pity on 
 my distress." Then Adrias, taking pity on him, 
 bade him follow. But when they were entering the 
 house, Maximus was seized by a demon, and cried out: 
 ''Men of God! I am an informer. I see above me a 
 dense fire; pray for me, for I am tortured by the 
 flames." Afterwards, when they had supplicated for 
 him with tears, and falling prostrate on the ground, 
 he was cured; and when they lifted him up, he began 
 to exclaim: 'Terish the worshippers of idols; I 
 petition to be baptized." They led him to the blessed 
 Stephen, who having instructed, at length baptized 
 him; and he prayed to remain some days. 
 
 Search was made for Maximus on his non-appear- 
 ance, and the rumor of what he had done, and his 
 house having been visited by some of his fellow-clerks 
 sent from the same department, they found him 
 prostrate in prayer; and, laying hold of him, they 
 brought him before Valerian who said, "Hast thou 
 been so blinded by bribes as to deceive me by false 
 promises?" "True," replied Maximus, "hitherto I 
 have been blind, but now, being illuminated, I see." 
 "In what light?" said the emperor. "In the faith of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," replied Maximus. Then 
 Valerian, in a rage, ordered him to be precipitated 
 from one of the bridges of the Tiber. His body was 
 afterwards interred by Eusebius, in the cemetery of 
 Callistus, on the Appian Way, 13th. of the calends of 
 February. "His tomb," says Cardinal Baronius, 
 ''remains to this day, marked with the inscription, 
 Locus Maximi, A. D. 259." After this. Valerian sent 
 a body of seventy soldiers, with orders to use every 
 diligence till they found Eusebius and the others; and 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 163 
 
 when the holy priest, with Adrias, Hippolytus, 
 Paulina, and the children having been discovered, was 
 led to the forum of Trajan, in bonds, the deacon, 
 Marcellus, gave vent to complaints against the 
 emperor for his cruelties to the friends of truth, and 
 being denounced for this, by Secundinus Togatus, he 
 also was seized. 
 
 Eusebius the priest, was the first interrogated by the 
 judges. "Are you the disturber of the city? — But 
 first what is your name ?" "I am called Eusebius, 
 and a priest. Then the judge ordered him to be set 
 aside, and Adrias to be brought in; who, being first in- 
 terrogated as to his name, and then as to how he came 
 by the abundance of wealth and affluence with which 
 he seduced the people, replied: "In the name of my 
 Lord Jesus Christ, I inherit it from the industry of my 
 parents." "Therefore, make use of your inheritance, 
 and waste it not in subverting others." "I do expend 
 it truly, and without deception for the advantage of 
 myself and my children." The judge said, "Hast 
 thou children and a wife?" He replied, "They are 
 here with me in chains." "Let them be brought in," 
 said the judge. 
 
 Then Paulina with her children, Neone and Mary, 
 was brought within the veil, followed by Marcellus, the 
 deacon, and Hippolytus, when the Judge said "Is this 
 your wife?" "and are these your children ?" "They 
 are, said Adrias. "And who are those other two?** 
 "That is blessed Marcellus the deacon; this is my 
 brother Hippolytus, a singular servant of Christ." 
 Turning to them the Judge said, "Declare with your 
 own mouths by what names you are called." Mar- 
 cellus said, "I am called Marcellus the deacon." 
 
164 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 '*You," said he to Hippolytus, ''what is your name ?'* 
 *'Hippolytus, servant of the servants of Christ." 
 
 The judges then ordered Paulina and her children to 
 be taken aside, and said to Adrias, "Tell where your 
 treasures are, and you, and those who have been led 
 in with you, oifer sacrifice to the gods, and save your 
 lives; which otherwise you shall speedily relinquish." 
 "We," replied Hippolytus, "have already cast away 
 vain idols, and have found the Lord of heaven and 
 earth, Christ the Son of God, whom we believe." 
 Then the judges ordered all to be committed to the 
 public prison, and not to be separated. And they were 
 led to the Mamertine Keep. 
 
 After three days, the prefect, assisted by Probus, 
 held his court in the Tellude, where he had ordered 
 instruments of torture of all descriptions to be kept in 
 readiness. Adrias was brought in first, and interro- 
 gated about his property. When nothing satisfactory 
 was elicited, the altar was ordered to be lighted up be- 
 fore the goddess Minerva, and they were ordered to 
 offer incense. But all rejecting the proposal with 
 horror, laughed at the judge for asking them. They 
 were then ordered to be stripped, and, being then ex- 
 tended on the rack, were beaten with sticks. Then 
 the blessed Paulina, being very severely beaten resign- 
 ed her soul to God. Seeing this, the judge ordered 
 Eusebius and Marcellus to be beheaded. The sentence 
 was executed at the Petra Scelerata, near the amphi- 
 theatre, on the 13th. of the calends of November. 
 Their bodies were left for the dogs; that of St. Paulina 
 was cast out of the court on the pavement; and all 
 three were collected by another Hippolytus, a deacon, 
 and buried near the Via Appia, in the crypt where 
 they had so often met. 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 166 
 
 Secundinus after this, brought Adrias and his child- 
 ren with Hippolytus home to his own house, leaving 
 nothing untried to discover the money, but their ans- 
 wer was, "What we had we expended on the poor; 
 our treasures are our souls, which we can on no ac- 
 count afford to lose; obey your commission." Then 
 Secundinus had the children tortured ; to whom their 
 father said: ''Be constant my children;" who while 
 they were under the strokes said nothing but "Christ 
 assist us!" 
 
 After this he commanded Adrias and Hippolytus to 
 be submitted to torments, directing their sides to be 
 burned with torches; and when they had been tor- 
 tured in various ways, and could in no wise be induced 
 to sacrifice, or even to say that they consented to it, 
 Secundinus said, "Quickly lift the children, Neone 
 and Mary, from the ground, and carrying them to the 
 Petra Scelerata, slay them before their father's eyes.*' 
 When this had been done, their bodies were flung on 
 the public place, where they were collected by the 
 faithful, and interred in the same catacomb, near the 
 Via Appia, with their mother, on the 6th of the kal- 
 ends of November. 
 
 When Secundinus had reported all to Valerian, after 
 eight days he directed his tribunal to be prepared in 
 the Circus Flaminius; and Hippolytus and Adrias 
 bound in chains, to be brought with a herald, crying 
 out before them, "These are the nefarious wretches — 
 the nefarious wretches who overthrow the city;" and* 
 when placed, the judge began again about the money, 
 saying, "Give up the money by which you used to 
 lead the people into error." "We preach Christ," re- 
 plied Adrias, "who deigned to liberate us from error, 
 
 Baromus. 
 
166 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 not for the destruction of men, but that they may have 
 life.'' When Secundinus Togatus saw his words 
 availed nothing, he directed their jaws to be beaten for 
 a long time with loaded sticks while the crier made 
 proclamation to them: "Sacrifice to the gods, by burn- 
 ing incense!" for he had ordered a lighted tripod to be 
 placed there for the purpose. Hippolytus streaming 
 with blood, cried out: "Execute your office, unhappy 
 man, and cease not." Then Secundinus ordered the 
 executioners to cease beating them, and said, "Now at 
 length, consult for yourselves: see how I have compas- 
 sion on your infatuation." They answered, "We are 
 ready to sustain all torments, but not to do what you 
 or the emperor wants of us." Secundinus reported to 
 Valerian, who ordered them to be forthwith destroyed 
 in the presence of the people. 
 
 Accordingly Secundinus commanded them to be 
 brought to the bridge of Antonine, and to be beaten to 
 death; where, after suffering for a long time, they gave 
 up the ghost, and their bodies were left in the same 
 place, near the island I^ycaonia. Hippolytus, a deacon 
 of the Roman Church came by night, and removed 
 them to the same crypt, near the Appian way where 
 the bodies of the other saints had been placed, on the 
 5th of the ides of December. 
 
 Nine months after, a Grecian matron named Marta 
 and her daughter, came to Rome to visit Adrias and 
 Paulina, who were their kinsfolk; and when they had 
 nought them and could not find them, hearing that 
 they had been crowned with martyrdom, they rejoiced 
 exceedingly. And inquiring where their bodies were, 
 when they had found them, they took up their abode 
 in that crypt; passing their nights and days in holy 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 167 
 
 vigils and prayers; until after thirteen yeais, they 
 yielded up their souls in peace, and were there in- 
 terred. 
 
 But these were only the preludes to the pope's mar- 
 tyrdom. When the edict was published, the blessed 
 Stephen, having assembled all the clergy, thus ad- 
 dressed them: 
 
 *' Brethren and fellow soldiers, you have heard of the 
 cruel and diabolical mandates that have been issued; 
 that if any Gentile deliver up a Christian, he shall re- 
 ceive his entire property. Do you, therefore, brethren, 
 reject the goods of this world with contempt, that you 
 may receive a celestial kingdom; fear not the princes 
 of this world, but pray to the Lord God of heaven and 
 to Jesus Christ His Son, who can rescue us from the 
 hands of our enemies and from the malice of Satan, to 
 associate us to his grace." 
 
 Then the presbyter Bonus answering, said, "Not 
 only are we prepared to relinquish earthly possessions, 
 but even to pour out our blood for the name of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may merit to obtain his 
 grace." And having spoken thus, all the clergy pros- 
 trated themselves at the feet of Blessed Stephen, and 
 told him that there were some Gentile children and 
 others of their neighbours not yet baptized, whom they 
 prayed permission to bring, wherefore he directed that 
 all should assemble the day after, in the crypt of 
 Nepotiana. 
 
 When the next day came, there were found assem- 
 bled catechumens of both sexes, to the number of one 
 hundred and eight, all of whom the same Pope Stephen 
 baptized, and offered for them sacrifice, of which all 
 partook. While the pontiff held bis station in this 
 
168 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 catacomb, arranging the affairs of the church, teach- 
 ing, exhorting, holding councils and celebrating Mass 
 through the crypts of the martyrs, multitudes of the 
 Gentiles resorted to him to be instructed and baptized. 
 
 The servant of one of these, Sempronius. had been 
 seized and tried in every way to wring from him where 
 he had disposed of his master's riches; and amongst 
 other things, when the idol of Mars with a tripod was 
 placed before him that he might sacrifice, he said, 
 ''May the Ivord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, 
 destroy thee!" and forthwith the idol melted. Amazed 
 at this, Olympius, the officer charged with his execu- 
 tion, ordered him to be brought to his own dwelling, 
 threatening to exhaust all species of torments on him 
 that very night. 
 
 On coming home, he told his wife, Exuperia, how 
 the idol had melted at the name of Christ. "If then," 
 said she, "so great be the virtue of that name as thou 
 narratest, it is better for us to abandon gods who can- 
 not defend either us or themselves, and seek Him who 
 gave sight to the daughter of Nemesius." Olympius 
 then told his domestic, Tertullian, to treat Sempronius 
 with honor, and try to discover where were the treasures 
 of Nemesius, his master. But that same night, he, with 
 with his wife Exuperia, along with their son, came to 
 Sempronius and falling at his feet, said, "We recog- 
 nize the power of Christ; we seek to be baptized by 
 thee." Sempronius said to Olympius, "If you do 
 penance, with your wife and son, all shall be adminis- 
 tered to you in due season." "Thou shalt have proof 
 even now," said Olympius, "that from my whole heart 
 I believe in the Lord, whom thou preachest," and so 
 saying he opened his chamber, where he had a lalarium, 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 169 
 
 and in it idols of gold, and of silver, and of marble, 
 and told Sempronius that he was ready to do with them 
 whatsoever he should direct. "Then," said Sempro- 
 nius, "destroy them, everyone, with your own hands. 
 The gold and silver ones melt dcwn with fire, and dis- 
 tribute among the poor; and then I shall know that 
 thou believest in thy whole heart." When Olympius 
 had done so, a voice was heard saying, "Let my 
 spirit rest in thee " On hearing this. Olympius and 
 his wife began to be strengthened more and more, and 
 to glow with fervent longing to be baptized. 
 
 Sempronius communicated these things to Xeme- 
 sius, now at liberty, who went in haste to inform 
 blessed Stephen, who returned thanks to God Al- 
 mighty, and went in the night to the house of Olym- 
 pius, who fell at his feet with his wife and son, en- 
 treating to be baptized, pointing to the fragments of 
 the idols in token of his sincerity. Seeing this Blessed 
 Stephen gave thanks to God, and catechized them in 
 ecclesiastical tradition. He then baptized them, and 
 , of their household as many as believed, with their son, 
 whom he called Theodulus, and offered sacrifice for 
 their redemption. After the third day, this news was 
 brought to Valerian and Gallienus, who forthwith or- 
 dered Nemesius and his daughter Lucilla, who had got 
 her sight, to be slain at the temple of Mars on the Via 
 Appia, while Sempronius, Olympius, Exuperia, and 
 Theodulus, were burned to death near the amphithe- 
 atre. They expired singing the praises of Christ, who 
 had vouchsafed to associate them with his martyrs, 
 and their remains having been collected by the clergy 
 were consigned to the tomb by blessed Stephen, with 
 the accustomed hymns. 
 
170 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 After many days special edicts were issned by Vale- 
 rian and Gallienus for the apprehension and punish- 
 ment of Stephen and the clerg}- of the Roman Church; 
 twelve of the latter were immediately seized, and with- 
 out any hearing put to death. Among them was that 
 venerable priest named Bonus, or the good, who had 
 made that glorious declaration when the clergy were 
 addressed in the catacombs by Pope Stephen. Their 
 bodies were collected and laid near those of two other 
 holy martyrs in a crypt near the Via Latina by Tertul- 
 lian, freedman of Olympius. On learning this, the 
 blessed Stephen sent for Tertullian, and having in- 
 structed him regarding the kingdom of God and life 
 eternal, baptized him and gave him in charge, while 
 yet in his white robes to a priest, who specially en- 
 joined him to seek out the holy bodies of the martyrs. 
 After two days he was taken and brought before Va- 
 lerian, where he was interrogated as to the property 
 of Olympius, and having answered and sustained every 
 species of torture with heroic constancy he was finally 
 beheaded at the second mile stone on the Via I^atina. 
 His remains were collected by the blessed Stephen and 
 interred in the same crypt. 
 
 Next day soldiers were sent to seize Pope Stephen 
 and the clergy who were with him, and when they had 
 led him into the presence of Valerian, the emperor 
 said: "It is you who are endeavoring to overthrow 
 the Republic, and by your persuasion to induce the 
 people to abandon the worship of the gods." To 
 whom Stephen replied: "I, indeed, do not overturn 
 the Republic; but the people I admonish and exhort, 
 that forsaking demons, whom they worship in their 
 idols, they would pay homage to the true God, and 
 Baronhis. 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 171 
 
 Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent." Then Valerian 
 commanded him to be led to the temple of Mars, where 
 his sentence was to be read from the tablets. 
 
 Then blessed Stephen having been led out of the 
 city, on the Via Appia, when he had come to the tem- 
 ple of Mars, he said lifting his e5'es to heaven, "Lord 
 God, and Father, who didst destroy the tower of con- 
 fusion at Babel, destroy this place in which the devil 
 deludes the people by superstition." It then began to 
 thunder, and lightning in flashes struck the temple, 
 which fell in part; and the soldiers having fled, Ste- 
 phen, who remained alone, went with his attendant 
 priests and deacon to the neighbouring cemetery of 
 lyUcina, where he encouraged the Christians by many 
 exhortations. After this he offered sacrifice to the 
 omnipotent God. The soldiers who were sent in pur- 
 suit, found him in tLe act of celebrating the holy 3ac- 
 rifice of the Mass; but wiihout being terrified, he con- 
 tinued intrepidly to pursue the mysteries which he 
 had commenced, until they struck off his head, as he 
 sat in the pontifical chair before the altar, on the 4th, 
 of the nones of August. Great was the lamentation 
 made by the Christians, at being deprived of so great a 
 pastor and they interred his body with the chair 
 drenched with his blood, in the same crypt, in the 
 place called the cemetery of Callixtus, A. D. 260, ac- 
 cording to Baronius. 
 
 St. Stephen was succeeded by Pope Sixtus who 
 suffered martyrdom in the catacombs, on the 8lh. of 
 the ides of August, A. D. 261; so St. Cyprian tells us. 
 
 MARTYRDOM OF POPE CAIUS. 
 
 The end of Emperor Valerian, who, after l)eing con- 
 quered by Sapor, king of Persia, and made a footstool 
 
172 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 of, was skinned alive, produced such an effect on his 
 son and colleague, Gallienus, that he recalled the edicts 
 of persecution. The bark of Peter was steered by 
 Pope Dionysius during the interval of tranquility, in 
 which Christian blood however, did not cease to be 
 shed in Rome, where the existing laws were never per- 
 mitted to slumber, by the avarice of the city prefects, 
 and the bigotry of the pagan priests. 
 
 But even this partial lull of the tempest only caused 
 it to break out with greater violence under Aurelian, 
 when the succeeding Pope Felix suffered martyrdom, 
 and with him thousands of others, according to St. Leo 
 the Great. 
 
 The successor of Pope Felix was St. Eutychius who 
 with his own hands buried no less than three hundred 
 and forty- two martyrs, and afterwards suffered mar- 
 tyrdom himself. 
 
 In the times of the next pontiff, Pope Caius, a new 
 stratagem was resorted to, from which there appeared 
 no possibility of escape. In every market-place and 
 mart of traffic, or for provisions, small idols were 
 set up, and no one was permitted to buy or sell with- 
 out previously burning some grains of incense on the 
 altars set before them; the same was insisted on at the 
 mills before getting corn ground; nor was anyone per- 
 mitted to approach the fountains for water without a 
 similar act of idolatry. 
 
 Therefore say the same Acts, by counsel of the pon- 
 tiff Caius, the recent converts were all received into 
 his palace by the illustrious nobleman. Chromatins, and 
 treated with the greatest kindness, so that none of 
 them were exposed to the danger of being forced to sac- 
 rifice. But as it was impossible that tlie conversion of 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 173 
 
 one so illustrious could be long kept private, during the 
 rage of the persecution (when the cupidity of inform- 
 ers was excited by immense rewards), Chromatins by 
 his influence got a rescript authorizing him to visit his 
 estates in Campania, on the plea of recovering his 
 health, and he invited all the Christians who wished 
 it, to accompany him thither, in order to escape the 
 fury of the times. There then arose a pious alterca- 
 tion between St. Polycarp and St. Sebastion, both 
 eagerly claiming to remain in the post of danger, 
 whereas, it was necessary for one of them to accom- 
 pany Chromatins. To whom the venerable Pope Caius 
 said, *'By your both contending for the crown of mar- 
 tyrdom, you expose the people to be left destitute of 
 consolation. Wherefore, I think it expedient, that 
 thou, Brother Polycarp, long experienced in the duties 
 of the priesthood, and filled with the gifts of theologi- 
 cal .science, do set out with the converts, in order to 
 fortify their minds still recent and tender in the faith, 
 and to remove the difficulties and scruples of the du- 
 bious." On hearing these words, the priest acqui- 
 e.sced, and bowed with serenity to the bland orders of 
 the pope. 
 
 The Lord's day being therefore arrived, when the 
 pontiff Caius was celebrating the divine mysteries in 
 the palace of Chromatins, where he had directed the 
 Christians to assemble, he addressed them all in words 
 like these : "Our Lord Jesus Christ, forestalling the 
 weakness of human nature, constituted two grades of 
 believers, to wit, confe.s.Hors and martyrs; that such as 
 find themselves iiot equal to the full weight of the en' 
 counter, may hold to the grace of confession, cheering 
 on the bold champions of Christ, as they enter the 
 
174 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 lists for the honor of His name and by every means in. 
 their power, taking care of, and assisting them with 
 solicitude. Let as many, therefore, as are inclined, 
 take their departure with our sons Chromatins and 
 Tiburtius, and let the rest who prefer to remain with 
 me in this city, remain; for no space of earth can sep- 
 arate us, whom the grace of Christ has united; nor 
 shall our eyes be sensible of your absence, who shal 
 be always present to our affections." 
 
 As Pope Caius was speaking to this effect, Tibur- 
 tius, who was the son of Chromatins, a youth comely 
 in person, but still more comely in mind, and but re- 
 cently a Christian like his father, began to cry out 
 with a loud voice, **I beseech thee, father, and bishop 
 of bishops, constrain me not to turn my back upon the 
 persecutors; for it is to me very delightful to suffer a 
 thousand deaths, if it were possible, for the true God; 
 provided only, that I may thereby attain to the dig- 
 nity of that life, of which no successor can deprive me, 
 and which no duration can bring to an end." 
 
 Then St. Caius shed tears of joy at this glorious 
 outburst of faith, and prayed that all who had re- 
 mained with him might be victorious in the contest, 
 and bear away the crown of martyrdom. There were 
 of the neophytes who chose to remain, Marcellianus 
 and Marcus, with their father, Trauquillinus, a man 
 of rank. Also the blessed Sebastian, and Tiburtius, 
 Nicostratus, a head secretary, with his brother Casto- 
 rius, whose wife Zoe remained with him; Claudius, 
 also, with his brother Victorinus, and his son, Sympho- 
 rianus, who had been freed from the dropsy; but all 
 the others retired with Chromatins to his estates. 
 Marcus and Marcellianus were immediately ordained 
 BaronUis. 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS, 175 
 
 deacons by the Pontiff Caius; their father Tranquil- 
 linus he ordained priest, and the blessed Sebastian, 
 whom the profession of arms enabled to be at large 
 without being suspected to the great adv^antage of the 
 faithful, he appointed defender of the church; the rest 
 he ordained sub-deacons. 
 
 But as no safe place of refuge could be found for 
 them, they all lay concealed with Castulus, a Chris- 
 tian chamberlain of the imperial palace, who lived in 
 one of the top stories. This retreat appeared secure; 
 first, because the chamberlain and his household were 
 ^11 most zealous Christians; and secondly, because 
 while the law regarding the sacrifices in the market 
 places, and at the mills and the fountains, was enforced 
 with extreme rigor everywhere else, it was not minded 
 within the precincts of the palace, where no one imag- 
 ined there could be any Christians. All, therefore, as 
 we said, abode with holy Pope Caius in the apartments 
 of Castulus, and were occupied day and night with 
 sighs and tears in prayer and fasting, entreating the 
 Lord that they might be held deserving to suffer for 
 his Confession, and be admitted into the number of 
 holy martyrs. But there came up to them by stealth 
 religious men and women to entreat from those saints 
 various graces of cures; for, through their intercession 
 the eyes of the blind were illuminated, health was re- 
 stored to the sick, and demons expelled from the bod- 
 ies of the possessed. 
 
 Meanwhile, it happened, matters being thus that as 
 the blessed Tiburtius was passing by, he saw a man 
 who had fallen from such a height that all his bones 
 and members were shattered so, that his parents were 
 only thinking of his funeral, and addressing himself 
 
176 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 to them as they stood weeping he said, "Let me speak 
 a word to him, and perhaps he may recover." And 
 when the crowd retired, he stooped down and repeated 
 the Lord's Prayer and the Creed leisurely over his 
 wounds, and his bones became knit; his head and 
 his bowels were made whole and sound as if nothing 
 had ever happened to him. 
 
 Upon this, Tiburtius was retiring, when he was laid 
 hold of by the man's parents who said, **Come, you 
 must have him for your slave, and we will give you 
 all we are worth along with him; for he was the only 
 one we had and you have restored him to us from 
 death to life." To whom Tiburtius replied, "If you 
 will only do, what I shall tell you, I shall have made 
 sufficient profit of this cure." "And if," said they, 
 "you wish ourselves also for slaves, how shall we have 
 the heart to contradict you? Nay, truly it is our 
 earnest desire, if you only deign to wish it." 
 
 Then taking their hands, he led them aside from the 
 crowd and told the virtue of the name of Christ and 
 seeing their souls steady in the fear of God he led them 
 to the pontiif Caius, saying, "Venerable Father, and 
 prelate of the divine law, behold these two who 
 through me have been gained this day to Christ, in 
 whom my faith, like a young little sapling hath borne 
 fruit for the first time." Then the holy Pope Caius 
 baptized the youth who had been cured, with his 
 parents, giving thanks to God. 
 
 But, passing over many wonders of a like kind, 
 which Christ operated through their instrumentality 
 we should state how each of them obtained the mar- 
 tyr's palm. 
 
 Therefore, it occurred that as the blessed Zoe went 
 
POPES OF THE CATACOMBS. 177 
 
 on the natal day of the apostles to offer prayers at the 
 tomb of St. Peter, she was seized by tht Gentiles, who 
 were on the watch, and brought closely guarded to 
 Petronius, who presided in the same region, called the 
 region of the Naumachia, because of the lake that was 
 there for the ship fights. They strove then to compel 
 Zoe to burn incense to a small idol of Mars that was 
 there, to whom she answered, **To show that your 
 god is a lover of impurity, you are eager to oblige a 
 woman to sacrifice to him; but dream not that the 
 conduct of your most profligate goddess Venus, is to 
 be a pattern for one who carries the trophy of faith 
 upon her forehead; for it is not by any power of my 
 own, but by the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, that I 
 am enabled to set your tortures and your gods at 
 defiance.*' Then Petronius ordered her to be con- 
 fined in a dungeon of profound darkness, where she 
 was not to see a ray of light, or receive any substance, 
 for five days, superadding the menace, that this 
 privation of light and food should be prolonged if she 
 refused to sacrifice. But during that interval, those 
 who were set to guard her dungeon heard her singing 
 hymns of thanksgiving and praise to God. At the 
 end of six days, the judge was reminded of her, when 
 he was in a fury and commanded her to be suspended 
 by her hair from a high tree, and a great smoke to be 
 created under her by burning the most filthy and most 
 fetid substances; and scarcely had they done so, when 
 she gave up her life. But the executioners taking 
 her body fastened to it a large stone and flung it into 
 the Tiber "lest the Christians." said they, **come and 
 take it away to make of her a goddess." 
 
 Having thus suffered she appeared after her martyr- 
 
178 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 dom to blessed Sebastian, in his sleep, and informed 
 him of the manner of her trial, which, when he had 
 narrated to the others, ''Lo!" exclaimed Tranquilli- 
 nus, ''how we men are outstripped by women, who 
 bear away the crown, why do we cling to life?** 
 Wherefore, on the octave day of the apostles, as he 
 was going to pray at the tomb of St. Paul, the Gen- 
 tiles lying in wait, perceived him also; and falling on 
 him, the multitude stoned him to death, and cast his 
 body into the Tiber. 
 
 Nicostratus, also, with Claudius, and Victorinus 
 and Symphorianus, were seized while seeking the 
 bodies of the saints along the river banks, and taken 
 before the city prefect, Fabianus, who exhorted them 
 to sacrifice, but could gain nothing by ten days spent 
 in alternate severities and blandishments. He there- 
 fore, reported to the emperors (Diocletian and 
 Maximian) who ordered them to the torture for the 
 third time; and when they could not be constrained by 
 violence of torment, they were commanded to be 
 brought out, and cast into the sea. At this time the 
 Gentiles became so incensed against the faithful that 
 they could not bear the mention even of the Christian 
 name. 
 
 In the interim, a certain one called Torquatus 
 associated himself to the holy Pope Caius, pretending 
 to be a Christian; but he was an apostate, fraught with 
 duplicity in discourse, and in all his actions full of 
 insidious cunning. But why attempt in many words 
 to portray his wickedness ? Sufficient that when he 
 was upbraided by blessed Tiburtius — noble as he was 
 learned and holy — with his personal vanity, with his 
 incessant feasting in loose company, with his immoral- 
 
POPES OF THE CA TACOMBS, 179 
 
 ity, with neglecting the fasts and offices of the church, 
 and when indulging in sleep when he should rise to 
 join in holy vigils with his brethren and in singing^ 
 hymns of praise to God — when, I say he was for these 
 things severely reprehended by blessed Tiburtius, he 
 pretended to listen with great compunction and grati- 
 tude to his admonitions whilst in reality he laid a plan 
 to have him seized by the Gentiles as he was at 
 prayer; so arranging it, that he should be also himself 
 apprehended with him, and brought before the cruel 
 judges. 
 
 When the judge perceived that the noble young 
 Christian not only evaded the artful attempts of the 
 traitor to make him apostatize, as he had planned to 
 do, but overwhelmed him with glowing indignation, 
 he interposed between them, and said, "No longer dis- 
 grace your lineage, Tiburtius, nor pollute and degrade 
 yourself by mingling with such contaminated dregs; 
 but be what nature and your birth intended you to be, 
 instead of exposing yourself to torture, infamy and 
 death." Tiburtius, said "Oh, most sapient man, 
 worthy to be constituted judge over Romans! Because 
 I refuse to adore the harlot Venus; Jove, the profli- 
 gate. Mercury the rogue, and Saturn the murderer of 
 his own offspring, I, to be sure, disgrace my lineage, 
 and brand my own character with infamy! And be- 
 cause I adore and venerate one true God, whoreigneth 
 in the heavens, you prepare to lacerate me with tor- 
 ments! But, behold us ready; we refuse, resist not 
 the torture; we will not deny Christ— Christ the son of 
 God who descended from heaven to earth, that mortals 
 might be able to ascend from earth to heaven." 
 
 Then Fabianus ordered burning coals to be cast be- 
 Auastatius. 
 
180 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 fore him, with the option either to throw some grains 
 of inceanse on them, or to walk upon them with naked 
 feet. The latter alternative was instantly adopted by 
 Tiburtins, after making the sign of the cross over the 
 burnino^ coals; and as he moved over the fiery mass, 
 he said to the prefect, "Divest yourself of infidelity, 
 and learn that all teachers are subject to that God 
 alone whom we adore. Try you to place your hand in 
 boiling water, in the name of Jupiter and let it be seen 
 if this god of yours can defend you from pain; for as 
 to me, these burning coals feel like a bed of roses, 
 through the name of my Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Fabianus then sentenced him as a blasphemer of the 
 gods, to have his head struck off. All the others, the 
 pious chamberlain who had sheltered him included, 
 attained the same glorious crown; but the venerable 
 Pope Caius escaped for eight years longer, shifting his 
 abode from one crypt and catacomb to another, until 
 at length on the loth, of the calends of May A. D. 
 296, he w^as slain, and interred in the cemetery of 
 Callixtus. After an interval of eleven days he was 
 succeeded by Pope Marcellinus, during whose pontifi- 
 cate the ranks of the martyrs in Rome were swelled by 
 immense numbers of the soldiery. 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE IN FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 "The vast extent of the empire," says Gibbon "was 
 governed by absolute power under the guidance of 
 wisdom, the armies were restrained by the firm but 
 gentle hand of four successive emperors, whose char- 
 acters and authority commanded involuntary respect. 
 The forms of civil administrations were carefully pre- 
 served by Nerva, Trajan, Adrian and the Antonines, 
 who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 181 
 
 with considering themselves as the accountable minis- 
 ters of the laws." 
 
 Domitian who succeeded Titus, and was not free 
 from suspicion of having had a hand in his brother's 
 death, was himself, after a despotic reign of about fif- 
 teen years, got rid of by the poniard. The period be- 
 tween his death, and the accession of Commodusis that 
 in which the Roman world is said to have enjoyed the 
 greatest happiness and prosperity, that is from A. D. 
 96 to A. D. 180. 
 
 "This was the period," says Sismondi, "at which 
 more especially the provincial cities attained the high- 
 est pitch of opulence, and were adorned with the most 
 remarkable edifices. Adrian had a strong taste for the 
 arts, and for all the enjoyments of life. Adrian was 
 continually traveling through the provinces of his vast 
 empire; he excited emulation among the several large 
 cities and the wealthier citizens; and he carried to the 
 furthest extremeties of the Roman dominions that 
 luxury and taste for decoration which before his time, 
 was the exclusive distinction of those magnificent 
 cities which were deemed the depositories of the civil- 
 ization of the world. This example of the emperors 
 was universally imitated by their subjects. Scarcely 
 had the proud structure of the Coliseum been dedicat- 
 ed at Rome" (it was there St. Ignatius disciple of St. 
 John the Evangelist, was devoured by wild beasts) 
 "before the edifices of a smaller scale indeed, but of 
 the same design and materials were erected for the use 
 and at the expense of the cities of Capua, and Verona, 
 
 The inscription of the stupendous bridge of Alcaa^ 
 tara attests that it was thrown over the Tagus by the 
 contribution of a few Lusitanian (Portuguese) comma- 
 
182 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 nities. When Pliny the Younger was intrusted by 
 Trajan with the government of Bithynia and Pontus, 
 provinces by no means the richest or most considera- 
 te of the empire, he found the cities within his juris- 
 <iiction striving with each other in every useful and 
 ornamental work that deserves the curiosity of stran- 
 gers, or the gratitude of their citizens. The opulent 
 senators of Rome and the provinces esteemed it an 
 honor, and almost an obligation, to adorn the splendor 
 of their age and country, and the influence of fashion 
 very frequently supplied the want of taste or generos- 
 ity. Among a crowd of these private benefactors, it is 
 usual with historians to select as a sample, Herodes 
 Atticus, an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age of 
 the Antonines. 
 
 The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia had been 
 invited by liberal rewards to direct the education of 
 young Herodes. Their pupil soon became a celebrated 
 orator, according to the rhetoric of that age, which, 
 confining itself to the schools, disdained to visit either 
 the forum or the senate. He was honored with the 
 consulship of Rome, but the greatest part of his life 
 was spent in philosophic retirement at Athens and his 
 adjacent villas, perpetually surrounded by sophists 
 who acknowledged without reluctance the superiority 
 of a rich and generous rival. The monuments of his 
 genius having perished, some considerable ruins still 
 preserve the fame of his taste and munificence. He 
 liad received a grant of three million drachmae ($500,- 
 000) for the construction of an aqueduct at Troy, but 
 to render it more magnificent he doubled the sum from 
 his own private fortune. At Athens, where he pre- 
 sided over the public games, he built a stadium of 
 
IMPERIAL ROME, 183 
 
 white marble six hundred feet in length, and of suffi- 
 cient size to contain an immense concourse of people. 
 Shortly afterwards, having lost his wife Regilla, he 
 consecrated to her memory a theatre unmatched 
 throughout the whole extent of the empire. The only 
 timber used was cedar, exquisitely carved. The 
 Odeon, built in the time of Pericles, had fallen into 
 ruin. Herodes Atticus rebuilt it at his own cost in 
 all its ancient splendor. Greece was likewise indebted 
 to him for the restoration of the temple of Neptune, in 
 the isthmus of Corinth; for the construction of the 
 theatre at Corinth; for a stadium at Delphi; a bath at 
 Thermopylae; and Italy for an aqueduct at Canusium. 
 Many other cities of Epirus, Thessalia, Euboea, Boe- 
 tia, and Peloponnesus were likewise adorned through 
 his liberality. Every province contained some citizen 
 who resembled Herodes in magnificence. "We cannot 
 refuse the tribute of praise to Atticus," concludes Sis- 
 mondi, "but we must pity the country where such for- 
 tunes can be accumulated; where one man of enormous 
 wealth and thousands of dependent slaves must have 
 taken the place of millions of men, free, happy, and 
 virtuous." 
 
 "The vast extent of ground which had been usurped 
 by the selfish luxury of Nero for his golden palace and 
 its adjacent parks, gardens, hippodromes, and artifi- 
 cial lakes,, was more nobly filled," says Mr. Gibbon, 
 "by the Coliseum (dedicated to murder), the Baths of 
 Titus, the Claudian Portico, the temple dedicated to 
 the goddess of peace, and the temple of the Roman 
 Venus. This last mentioned temple was a public 
 brothel. These monuments of architecture, the prop- 
 erty of the Roman people, were adorned with the most 
 
184 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES, 
 
 beautiful productions of Grecian painting and sculp- 
 ture; and in the Temple of Peace a very curious li- 
 brary was opened to the curiosity of the learned. At 
 a small distance thence was situated the forum of Tra- 
 jan. It was surrounded with a lofty portico in the 
 form of a quadrangle, in which four triumphal arches 
 opened a noble and spacious entrance; in the centre 
 (rather at the west end), arose a column of marble, 
 whose height of one hundred and ten feet denoted the 
 elevation of the hill that had been cut away (by slaves, 
 multitudes of whom were Christians). 
 
 This column, which still subsists in its ancient 
 beauty (surmounted by the statue of St. Peter), ex- 
 hibited an exact representation of the Dacian victories 
 of the founder (Zingis Khan of his age). The vet- 
 eran soldier contemplated the story of his own cam- 
 paigns, and by an easy illusion of national vanity, the 
 peaceful citizen associated himself to the honors of the 
 triumph (and to the merit and havoc of the devasta- 
 tion), all the other quarters of the capital and all the 
 provinces of the empire were embellished by the same 
 liberal spirit of public magnificence, and were filled 
 with amphitheatres, theatres, temples, porticoes, baths, 
 triumphal arches, and aqueducts, all variously condu- 
 cive to the health, the devotion, and the pleasure of 
 the meanest citizen. The aqueducts of the capital 
 claim a just pre-eminence, but the curious traveler, 
 who, without the light of history, should 'examine 
 those of Spoleto, of Metz, or of Segovia, would very 
 naturally conclude that those provincial towns had for- 
 merly been the residence of some potent monarch. 
 The solitudes of Asia and Africa were covered, in the 
 age of the Antonines, with flourishing cities, whose 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 18^ 
 
 populousness, and even whose existence, was derived 
 from such artificial supplies as a perennial stream of 
 fresh water. 
 
 "Italy alone contained eleven hundred and ninety- 
 seven cities. Many were the cities of Gaul; Marseilles, 
 Aries, Nismes, Narbonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Au- 
 tun, Vienne, Lyons, Langres, and Treves, whose an- 
 cient condition might sustain an equal, and perhaps 
 advantageous comparison with their present state. 
 Spain numbered three hundred and sixty cities. In 
 Africa there were three hundred cities within the lim- 
 its of the ancient domain of Carthage, which like Cor- 
 inth, had risen with new splendor from the heap of 
 ruins to which Scipio had reduced it, and where 
 Marius had ruminated upon his own reverse of fortune. 
 Proper Asia alone contained five hundred populous 
 cities, enriched with all the gifts of nature, and 
 adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven cities 
 of Asia had once disputed the honor of dedicating a 
 temple to Tiberius and their respective claims were 
 examined by the senate. Four of them were immedi- 
 ately rejected, as unequal to the burden, and among 
 these was Laodicea, a place deriving great wealth from 
 its trade in the fine wool of its flocks; and which had 
 just before the contest received a legacy of 12,000,000 
 drachmae, by the testament of one of its citizens. If 
 such was Laodicea. what must have been the wealth 
 of those cities, whose claim appeared preferable, and 
 particularly of Perganuis, of Smyrna, of Kphesus, 
 which so long disputed with each other, the primacy 
 of Asia ? The capitals of Syria and Egypt held a supe- 
 rior rank in the empire; Antioch and Alexandria looked 
 down with disdain on a crowd of dependent cities, and 
 
186 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 yielded with reluctance to the majesty of Rome itself. 
 The spirit of improvement had passed the Alps, and 
 had been felt even in the woods of Britain, which were 
 gradually cleared away, to open a free space for con- 
 venient and elegant habitations." 
 
 THE NEMESIS. 
 
 It is scarcely surprising that the Romans, dazzled as 
 they were by the extensive swa}^ and irresistible 
 strength of the emperors, should have suffered them- 
 selves to despise and sometimes to forget the outlying 
 countries possessed by savage nations without arts or 
 discipline or any written laws, and that looking back 
 to their disgrace and sufferings under the first Caesars, 
 they should have extolled the period of Trajan and 
 the Antonines as a golden age. 
 
 Yet it was during this same period that peace and 
 prosperity fostered the colossal growth of a few for- 
 tunes, of those latifundia, or vast domains, which, ac- 
 cording to Pliny the Elder, were the destruction of 
 Italy and the empire. A single proprietor gradually 
 became possessed of provinces which had furnished 
 the republic with the occasion of decreeing more than 
 one triumph to its generals. While he amassed wealth 
 so disproportionate to the wants of a single man, he 
 cleared all the country he got within his grasp of that 
 numerous and respectable class of independent cultiva- 
 tors, hitherto so happy in their mediocrity. Where 
 thousands of free citizens had formerly been found 
 ready to defend the soil they tilled with their own 
 hands, nothing was to be seen but slaves. Even this 
 miserable population rapidly diminished, because its 
 labor was too expensive; and the proprietor found it 
 answer better to turn his land into pasture. The fer- 
 Gibbon, 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 187 
 
 tile fields of Italy ceased to supply food for their in- 
 habitants; the provisioning of Rome depended on fleets 
 which brought corn from Sicily, from Egypt, and from 
 Africa; from the capital to the uttermost provinces, 
 depopulation followed in the train of overgrown wealth; 
 and it was in the midst of this universal prosperity, 
 before a single barbarian had crossed the frontiers of 
 the empire, that the difficulty of recruiting the legioriS 
 began to be felt. In the war against the Quadi and 
 Marcomanni, that was preceded by so long a peace, 
 Marcus Aurelius was reduced to the necessity of en- 
 rolling the slaves and robbers of Rome. 
 
 The frontier provinces, those most exposed to the 
 attacks of the barbarians, those which suffered the 
 most from the presence and the military vexations of 
 the legions, did not suffer so much from the rapid 
 decline of population, and the warlike virtues, as the 
 more wealthy provinces of the interior. The levies of 
 troops were no longer made in Rome; they were raised 
 almost exclusively in northern Gaul, and along the 
 right bank of the Danube. This long Illyriau frontier 
 in particular, for more than two centuries, preserved 
 the reputation of furnishing more soldiers to the 
 empire than all the rest of the provinces combined. 
 This border country had offered little temptation to 
 the cupidity of the Roman senators; they cared not to 
 have their property in a province constantly harassed 
 by the enemy. The land which the senators would 
 not buy remained in the possession of the old proprie- 
 tors; there, consequently a population, free, hardy, 
 robust and numerous maintained itself. It long 
 furnished the army with soldiers, it soon supplied it 
 with chiefs. 
 
188 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contempora- 
 ries should discover in the public felicity the causes of 
 decay and corruption. This long peace, and the 
 uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow 
 and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The 
 minds of men were gradually reduced to the same 
 level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even 
 the military spirit evaporated; Spain, Gaul, Britain, 
 and lUyricum, supplied the legions with excellent 
 soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the 
 monarchy. Their personal valor remained, but they 
 no longer possessed that personal courage which is 
 nourished by the love of independence, the sense of 
 national honor, the presence of danger, and the habit 
 of command. They received laws and governors from 
 the will of despotic sovereigns and trusted for their 
 defense to a mercenary army. 
 
 That army soon ceased to be officered by men who 
 had received a liberal education, and were instructed 
 in the advantages of laws and letters. Effeminacy, 
 and the extinction of every spark of patriotism and 
 independence among the nobles, had made them 
 adverse to the military service; so that their total 
 exclusion from it, by Gallienus, would seem to have 
 been acquiesced in by them, with secret satisfaction. 
 The more polished citizens of the internal provinces 
 were alone qualified to act as lawyers and magistrates. 
 The rougher trade of arms was abandoned to the 
 peasants and barbarians of the frontiers, who knew no 
 country but the camp, no science but that of war, no 
 civil laws, and scarcely those of military discipline; 
 with bloody hands, savage manners, and desperate 
 resolutions, they sometimes guarded, but much oftener 
 subverted the throne of the emperors. 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 18» 
 
 Commodus, son and successor of Marcus Aurelius 
 having been murdered in the year 193, was succeeded 
 by Helvius Pertinax, soon after murdered by the Prae- 
 torian guards, who then set the empire to auction. 
 Didius Julius, a wealthy senator was the highest bid- 
 der, but expiated his presumption with his life, after a 
 reign, such as it was, of only sixty days. It is not 
 improbable, that Septimius Severus, who succeeded, 
 was murdered by hib own son. Caracalla, who in order 
 to rid himself of a partner in the throne, assassinated 
 his brother Getain the arms of their common mother, 
 where the unfortunate young prince had taken refuge. 
 Caracalla fell, in his turn by the hand of a private 
 soldier, and was succeeded by Opilius Macrinus, soon 
 after slain, to be succeeded by Heliogabalus, w^bo was 
 soon murdered, and flung into the Tiber, with a stone 
 tied about his neck. His successor Alexander Severus 
 was murdered in his tent, and succeeded by Maximin 
 a Goth, who, with his son, was soon after murdered. 
 Pupienus and Caelius Albinus who succeeded, were 
 slain by the soldiery, who elect the youthful Gordian 
 emperor: He when hardly eighteen, is also murdered. 
 Philip, an Arab by birth, succeeds with his brother, 
 and both are slain by Decius, who succeeding is him- 
 self slain by the Goths, with his only son. The va- 
 cant purple is given to Gallus by the army, but on 
 seeing a rival advancing at the head of a superior 
 force, they murder himself and his son, and pass over 
 to Julius lunilianus, whom they murder on the ap- 
 proach of Valerian. This emperor having been taken 
 prisoner by Saper, king of Persia, was flayed alive, af- 
 ter having been used as a footstool by his conqueror 
 and treated with various other indignities. The reign 
 
190 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 of his son and colleague Gallienns is the time of the 
 "Thirty Tyrants." 
 
 The election of these precarious emperors, their 
 power, and their death, were equally destructive to 
 their subjects and adherents. The price of their fatal 
 elevation was instantly discharged to the troops by an 
 immense donative drawn from the bowels of the ex- 
 haustive people; whatever their character, or intentions 
 they found themselves reduced to the hard necessity 
 of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts of ra- 
 pine and cruelty. When they fell, they involved ar- 
 mies and provinces in their fall. There is still extant 
 a mandate from Gallienus to one of his ministers, after 
 the suppression of In^enuus, who had assumed the pur- 
 ple in Illyricum. 
 
 '*It is not enough," says that soft and inhuman 
 prince, **that you exterminate such as have appeared 
 in arms; the chance of battle might have served me as 
 eifectually. The male sex of every age must be ex- 
 terminated; provided that in the execution of the chil- 
 dren and old men, you can contrive means to save our 
 reputation. Let everyone die who has dropped an 
 expression, who has entertained a thought against 
 me — against me, the son of Valerian, the father and 
 brother of so many princes. Remember that Ingenuus 
 was made emperor; tear, kill, hew him to pieces. I 
 write to you with my own hand, and would inspire you 
 with my own feelings." 
 
 ''Thus," says Sismondi, "was the world taught by 
 ninety-two years of nearly incessant civil war, on what 
 a frail and unstable foundation the virtue of the Anto- 
 nines had reared the felicity of the empire. During 
 that time, thirty-two emperors and twenty- seven pre- 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 191 
 
 tenders to the empire, alternately hurled each other 
 from the throne, either by open violence or assassina- 
 tion; the sovereignty of the world was put up to auc- 
 tion; the legions of the East and West disputed the 
 fatal honor of decorating with the purple, men taken 
 from the lowest ranks of society, without genius, with- 
 out education, raised by the brutal caprice of their 
 comrades, above all that the world had been accus- 
 tomed to hold in reverence. ' ' When the military order 
 had thus levelled in wild anarchy the laws of the sen- 
 ate, and even the discipline of the camp, the barbari- 
 ans of the North and of the East, who had hovered on 
 the frontiers, boldly attacked the provinces of the de- 
 clining monarchy. The legions enfeebled and reduced 
 to less than 6,000 men each, had been withdrawn from 
 guarding against their invasions, to massacre each 
 other in almost continual conflicts. Their discipline 
 was utterly destroyed; their leaders neither merited nor 
 obtained their confidence. After a defeat, it was im- 
 possible to recruit the army, on account of causes 
 before alluded to, and of the clearance system in par- 
 ticular. At the moment of an attack, it was with the 
 greatest difficulty they could be induced to march. 
 The barbarians, witnesses of this anarchy, and of these 
 conflicts, no longer beholding on their frontiers those 
 formidable camps of the legions which had so lonj^ 
 held them in awe, as if by common consent made in- 
 cursions at all points at once, from the extremities of 
 Caledonia to those of Persia. 
 
 Issuing from the frozen regions beyond the Baltic, 
 the Goths, in the reign of Alexander Severus (A. D. 
 222-235) broke in upon the provinces of Dacta, 
 ravaged Masia in the reign of Philip, and although 
 
192 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 frequently encountered and driven back with slaughter 
 upon the German borders, new swarms succeeded, and 
 advancing further south in each invasion, at length, 
 near an obscure town of Masia, called Forum Tere- 
 bonii, joined battle with the imperial legions, com- 
 manded by Decius in person, routed them with 
 tremendous havoc, slaying the emperor and his son 
 upon the field. Following up this victory, we find 
 them successively plundering, and leaving desolate, 
 the rich cities of (Trapezus (Trebizond), Chalcedon, 
 Nicaea, Nicomedia, Apamaea, Prusa, Cyzicus, thence 
 sweeping along the Bosphorus and propontis, passing 
 the Hellespont with a fleet of five hundred vessels, 
 and so entering the Piraeus. Athens could offer no 
 resistance. A general conflagration burst out at the 
 same time in every district of Greece. Thebes and 
 Argos, Corinth and Sparta, which had formerly waged 
 war against each other, w^ere now unable to defend 
 their ruined walls. Both by land and sea, the rage of 
 war spread from the Eastern point of Sunium to the 
 Western coast of Epirus, nor were the invaders checked 
 in the career of devastation until within sight of Italy. 
 In another direction, the empire was invaded by the 
 Franks, the name of a Confederacy of the Chaucans, 
 Cherucans, Chattans, and other fierce tribes of warlike 
 Germany, whose valor had for centuries proved formid- 
 able to the Romans. The Rhine, though dignified 
 with the title of "Safeguard of the provinces," was an 
 imperfect barrier against their daring spirit. They 
 burst upon Gaul. Their rapid devastations stretched 
 from the river to the foot of the Pyrenees, nor were 
 they stopped by the mountains. Spain, which had 
 never dreaded, was unable to resist the inroads of the 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 193 
 
 Germans, and during twelve years that opulent 
 country was the theatre of unequal and destructive 
 hostilities. Wretched cottages, scattered amidst the 
 ruins of magnificent cities, for centuries afterwards 
 recorded the rage of the barbarians. 
 
 When the exhausted country no longer supplied a 
 variety of plunder, the Franks seized on some vessels 
 in the sea ports and transported themselves into Mau- 
 ritania. The distant province was astonished with the 
 fury of these invaders, who seemed to fall from a new 
 world, as their name, manners, and complexion were 
 equally unknown on the coast of Africa. 
 
 Jealous as were the Germans of military renown, 
 they all confessed the superior valor of the Suevi, 
 whose wide extended name filled the immense coun- 
 tries between the Oder and the Danube. They were 
 distinguished from the rest of their countrymen by 
 their peculiar mode of dressing their long hair, which 
 they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the 
 head, and they delighted in an ornament that showed 
 their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the 
 enemy. At stated periods, the tribes, who gloried in 
 the Sue vie blood, resorted by their ambassadors to a 
 sacred wood, deemed to be the birthplace of the na- 
 tion, and there the memory of their common origin 
 was perpetuated by human sacrifices. Such were the 
 warlike people, who, under the title of Alemans, or 
 "Allmen," first lifted the veil that covered the feeble 
 majesty of Italy. Bursting across the Danube, and 
 through the Rhoetian Alps, they spread dismay over 
 the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, 
 and displayed the victorious banner of barbariana 
 almost in sight of Rome. 
 
 Gibbon, 
 
194 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 In all their invasions, these barbarians preserved the 
 recollection of the long terrors and the long resentment 
 with which the Romans had inspired them. Their 
 hatred was still too fresh and fervent to allow them to 
 show any pity to their vanquished foes. Till then 
 they had seen nothing of the Romans but their 
 soldiers, but when they suddenly penetrated into the 
 midst of these magnificent and populous cities, at first 
 feared that they should be crushed by a multitude so 
 superior to their own; but when they saw and under- 
 stood the cowardice of these enervated masses, their 
 fear was changed into the deepest scorn. Their 
 cruelty was in proportion to these two sentiments, and 
 their object was rather destruction than conquest. 
 The population which had been thinned by the opera- 
 tion of wealth and luxury, was not further reduced by 
 that of poverty. The human species seemed to vanish 
 before the sword of the barbarians. Sometimes they 
 massacred all the inhabitants of a town; sometimes 
 they sent them into slavery, far from the country of 
 their birth. After such calamities, fresh fears, fresh 
 oppression, fresh miseries effectually checked the 
 growth of the population. Vast deserts formed 
 themselves in the heart of the empire. 
 
 General famine was the inevitable consequence of 
 rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce 
 of the present, and the hope of future harvests. 
 Famine is almost always followed by epidemical dis- 
 eases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome food. 
 Other causes must, however, have contributed to the 
 furious plague, which, from the year 250 to the year 
 265, raged without interruption in every province, 
 every city, and almost every family of the Roman 
 Sismondi. 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 195 
 
 empire. During some time five thousand persons died 
 daily in Rome; and many towns that had escaped the 
 hands of the barbarians were entirely depopulated. 
 Applying this authentic fact to the most correct tables 
 of mortality, it evidently proves that above half the 
 people of Alexandria had perished; and could we 
 venture to extend the analogy to other provinces, we 
 might suspect that war, pestilence and famine, had 
 consumed in a few years one-half the people of the 
 empire. 
 
 It is scarcely surprising that the face of nature 
 should have appeared sad and boding to a generation 
 thus overwhelmed with calamities. 
 
 "The showers of Spring time fail us," they said, 
 ''for nourishing the seed, the sun's heat in summer 
 for ripening the corn. While the husbandman 
 languishes in the fields, the sailor at sea. the soldier 
 in the camp, honesty sinks in the mart, justice from 
 the tribunal, affection from friendship, skill from the 
 arts, and discipline from society." 
 
 In short, trom the secular games celebrated by 
 Philip, to the death (by assassination) of the emperor 
 Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years of shame and 
 misfortune, during which period every province of the 
 Roman world, was afflicted by barbarous invaders, or 
 military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to ap- 
 proach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. 
 Claudius, surnamed the Gothic, who succeeded him 
 writes thus to the senate on his accession, 269. 
 
 "Conscript Fathers! I know that three hundred 
 and twenty thousand Goths have invaded the Roman 
 territory. If I vanquish them, your gratitude will re- 
 ward my services. Should I fall, remember that I am 
 
196 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 the successor of Gallienus. The whole republic is 
 fatigued and exhausted; and even though successful 
 against its foreign foes, we shall have still to subdue 
 the thousand usurpers whom a just contempt for Gall- 
 ienus provoked into rebellion. We are in want of 
 darts, of spears, and of shields. The strength of the 
 empire, Gaul and Spain, are usurped by Tetricus, and 
 we blush to acknowledge that the archers of the East 
 serve under the banners of Zenobia." 
 
 In the midst of the Gothic war, which he had carried 
 on for two years with great heroism and ferocity, 
 Claudius died of pestilence at Sirmium recommending 
 as the best man qualified to cope with the perils of the 
 state, the son of a Dacian peasant, who by his match" 
 less valor, had raised himself from the ranks to the com- 
 mand of the Roman armies. This was Aurelian. It 
 is true, his victories, during a four years' reign, which 
 formed but one continuous campaign, were numerous 
 and brilliant; in his triumph, not only Goths, Vandals, 
 Sarmatians, Alemanni. Franks, Gauls, Syrians, Egypt- 
 ians, but queens and emperors were led in chains; but 
 the new line of wall with which he fortified the eter- 
 nal city, was a signal that the frontiers had given way, 
 and that, in spite of all resistance, the surges of invas- 
 ion, would beat, ere long, over the Capitol itself. 
 
 "The wall of Aurelian," says Gibbon, *'was a great 
 but a melancholy labor;" since the defense of the 
 capital betrayed the decline of the monarchy. The 
 Romans of a more prosperous age, who trusted to the 
 arms of the legions the safety of the frontier camps, 
 were far from entertaining a suspicion that it would 
 ever beoome necessary to fortify the seat of empire 
 against the inroads of barbarians. In fact from this 
 
IMPERIAL ROME, Wt 
 
 reign, interrupted as usual by assassination up to the 
 time of Constantine the Great, the provinces of the 
 Roman world were not only desolated by barbarians, 
 but its government and destinies were in their hands. 
 
 Aurelian withdrew the Roman forces from Dacia, 
 and tacitly relinquished that great province to the 
 Goths and Vandals. Probus even invited the barbar- 
 ians to settle within the vast solitudes, which incessant 
 wars had left along the entire extent of Illyria. Into 
 Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, he 
 transported a considerable body of Vandals. Great 
 numbers of Gepidae and Franks were settled on the 
 banks of the Danube and the Rhine; a hundred thou- 
 sand Bastarnae, expelled from their own country, were 
 established in Thrace. Besides all this, vast bodies of 
 the invaders were taken into the Roman service to 
 make head against their own countrymen, whom the 
 effete and demoralized Romans were no longer able to 
 resist. 
 
 "The feeble elegance of Italy." says Gibbon, "and 
 of the internal provinces, could no longer support the 
 weight of arms." The hardy frontier of the Rhine 
 and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal to 
 the labors of the camp, but a peri)etual series of warn 
 had gradually diminished their numbers, and the liber- 
 tinism of manners with the ruin of agriculture rebull- 
 ing from this state of things, not only destroyed the 
 strength of provinces, but intercepted the hopcn of 
 future generations. Rome, no longer able even lo de- 
 fend herself with iron, had recourse to gold, and 
 thenceforward, it was only by contriving to martial the 
 invaders tliemselves in her defense, that she endeav* 
 ored to ward off impending ruin. Nay from the ( 
 
198 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES, 
 
 sion of Diocletian, Sept. 17. 284 — a barbarian and a 
 slave, up to the astonishing rise and triumph of Con- 
 stantine the Great, the whole Roman world was not so 
 much invaded, as ravaged and held in unresisting 
 thraldom, during a period of upwards of thirty years, 
 by emperors devoted to barbarian views and passions, 
 and hostile to the interests and existence of Rome. 
 
 THK TYRANT DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the 
 house of Annulinus, a Roman senator; it is not im- 
 probable that his father, it is certain that his mother, 
 was of barbarian descent. 
 
 When the son of these captives, of whose bitter 
 wrongs and insults he no doubt had often heard, beheld 
 the Roman world at his feet, it was not unnatural that 
 resentments, which could not fail to be excited in a 
 haughty and revengeful spirit by such family recollec- 
 tions, should have given a tinge even to his imperial 
 policy. But no matter what might be their secret 
 spring, his measures were obviously calculated to 
 humble and degrade the Romans; and but for the 
 astonishing rise and triumph of Constantine, must have 
 opened for the barbarians of the North, an easy access 
 to the capital, a full century at least before the Goths 
 ascended it. One of his darling objects was to rival if 
 not eclipse the architectural glories of Rome by those 
 of Nicomedia, to which he had transferred the seat of 
 empire. Except in the twentieth year of his reign, 
 when he celebrated his triumph, it is extremely doubt- 
 ful, according to Gibbon, whether he ever visited the 
 ancient capital; and even then the aristocratic deport- 
 ment of the patricians, and the familiarity of the ple- 
 beians, proved so insufferable to the quondam barbarian 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 199 
 
 slave, that he left, after a stay of scarcely two months, 
 and without, even waiting to assume the consulship, 
 as he had intended. 
 
 ''This dislike," says Gibbon, "was not the effect of 
 caprice, but the result of the most artful policy. That 
 crafty prince had framed a new system of imperial 
 government, and as the image of the old constitution 
 was religiously preserved in the senate, he resolved to 
 deprive that order of its small remains of power and 
 consideration. As the sovereign of Italy, Maximian 
 was entrusted with the execution of this design, and 
 the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. 
 
 "The most illustrious members of the senate, whom 
 Diocletian always affected to esteem, were involved by 
 his colleague in the accusation of imaginary plots; and 
 the possession of an elegant villa, or a well cultivated 
 estate, was interpreted as a convincing evidence of 
 guilt. The camp of the Praetorians, which had ao 
 long oppressed, began to protect the majesty of Rome; 
 by the prudent measures of Diocletian, their numbers 
 were insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished, and 
 their place supplied by two fathful legions of Illyricum. 
 They were veteran corps, recruited from the barbari- 
 ans and semi barbarians of the frontier. Each of them 
 was six hundred strong. 
 
 But the most fatal though secret wound which the 
 senate received from the hands of Diocletian and Max- 
 imian, was inflicted by the inevitable operation of 
 their absence. As long as the emperors resided ml 
 Rome that assembly might be oppressed, but it could 
 scarcely be neglected. The successors of Aagtisltui 
 exercised the power of dictating whatever laws their 
 wisdom or caprice might suggest; but those laws ^ 
 
200 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 ratified by the sanction of the senate. The model of 
 ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations and 
 decrees, and wise princes, who respected the prejudices 
 of the Roman people, were in some measure obliged to 
 assume the language and behaviour suitable to the 
 general and first magistrate of the republic. But Dio- 
 cletian and his subalterns, fixing their residence in 
 distant provinces, threw off the dissimulation that had 
 been recommended by Augustus, disdaining to go 
 through the formality of submitting their measures to 
 effeminate and polished nobles. With no advisers but 
 military adventurers, barbarians like themselves, by 
 origin and dispositions, they governed like ruthless 
 despots. The senate of Rome losing all connection 
 with the imperial court and the actual constitution, 
 was left a venerable but useless monument of antiquity 
 on the Capitoline hill. 
 
 In the selection of colleagues also, by Diocletian in 
 the first instance, and afterwards by Galerius, we trace 
 the working of the same principle. Indeed, the latter 
 less crafty by reason of his savage violence, than Dio- 
 cletian, did not conceal his determination to extirpate 
 the senate and to destroy the Roman people by the 
 sword; then to transport from the seven hills for ever 
 the seat and regalia of the empire, which was thence- 
 forth to be called the empire of Dacia, in honor of the 
 country from which he and his colleagues derived their 
 birth. It is expressly stated by the best history of 
 this period, that a profession of haired of the Roman 
 name was required by Diocletian of those whom he in- 
 vested with the purple. 
 
 The first of these, Maximian Herculius, was a Da- 
 cian peasant from the neighborhood of Sirnium, the 
 Ladantius. Gibbon, 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 201 
 
 same district which had produced Aurelian, and after- 
 wards Galerius, and his kinsman and adopted son, 
 Daza, or Maximin. 
 
 "Ignorant of letters," says Gibbon, "careless of 
 laws, the rusticity of Maximian's appearance and man- 
 ners still betrayed in the most elevated form the mean- 
 ness of his extraction. War was the only art that he 
 professed. Insensible to pity and fearless of conse- 
 quences, he was the ready instrument of every act of 
 cruelty which the policy of his artful manager, Diocle- 
 tian, found it expedient at once to suggest and dis- 
 claim." 
 
 '*In describing the country, extraction, and man- 
 ners of Herculius, the surname which Maximian as- 
 sumed, we have already delineated those of Galerius." 
 says the same historian. "In him," according to one 
 of his contemporaries, "there was an inbred barbansm 
 and a savage ferocity altogether alien to the Roman 
 blood. A thing not surprising since his mother was 
 from beyond the Danube, whence her clan, her tribe, 
 had been driven across the river into the second Dacta 
 by an inroad of the Carpi." In his earlier days he 
 herded cattle in the forests and the wilderness, and 
 thence took pride in the title of Armentariiisor the 
 herdsman; nor did his deportment and policy when 
 emperor in any respect belie the epithet. He detested 
 letters, of which he had not the slightest tincture; 
 enormous bears were his favorite companions; and, 
 whenever he feasted, it was his delight to contemplate 
 the gore and the agonies of the human beings whom 
 they devoured for his gratification, while he was In- 
 dulging in pleasures of the table to the most gluttonous 
 excess. 
 
202 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 Licinius and Daza, to whom he gave his own sur- 
 name of Maximian or Maximin, were selected by him 
 for the imperial dignity, because of their congenial 
 origin and dispositions. Like himself, Daza had 
 tended cattle in his youih; and when invested with 
 the purple he was sent as Caesar, or subaltern-emperor, 
 over the East. He governed its refined and effemi- 
 nate population like a herdsman treating his subjects, 
 not like Roman citizens, but like cattle. In short, 
 Constantius Chlorus was the only Roman of the seven 
 or eight emperors who ravaged the unfortunate em- 
 pire in detail during this period, and his promotion to 
 the rank of Caesar was like a mockery, or a plan to 
 get rid of him, since Britain, the province they as- 
 signed him, had been long poSvSessed by a bold adven- 
 turer, who had not only defied the united forces of 
 Diocletian and Maximian, but had compelled them to 
 asknowledge his title of Augustus. 
 
 One of the most ruinous consequences of Diocletian's 
 system was the enormous increase of the military force 
 at the same time that the resources of the empire were, 
 as we have already seen, almost totally exhausted. It 
 was the ambition of each of the four, at another time 
 of the six, at another of seven or eight emperors, to 
 have armies more numerous than their colleagues, or 
 even than any of the princes who had reigned over the 
 empire when undivided and in its prime. 
 
 "Thus it came to pass," says a writer of that day 
 "that those who were quartered on the taxes outnum- 
 bered those who were to pay them; so that the hus- 
 bandmen and farmers, overpowered and consumed by 
 enormous exactions, forsook their homesteads; and the 
 fields which their industry had tilled, reverted to the 
 
 Gibbon. 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 20t 
 
 wilderness. And that no district might escape the 
 general misery, each province was carved out into a 
 vast number of small departments, and to each of these 
 were appointed presidents, commissioners, inspectors 
 of taxation besides other officials without end; whose 
 functions consisted exclusively, in exhausting and 
 harassing the ill-fated population by every species of 
 rapacity, and in embittering rapacity by insult. More 
 like merciless invaders than officers of the com- 
 monwealth, they seized upon the standing crops, num- 
 bered the cattle, sheep, domestic animals, and even the 
 vines and fruit trees with a view to the levying a tax 
 upon each of all these things. In town and country 
 the inhabitants were mustered; and family, with all its 
 members and dependents, being obliged to stand in 
 separate droves, till they were counted like .so many 
 head of cattle. No infirmity of age or sickness could 
 entitle to exemption. The lanquishing. the disabled 
 and the bed-ridden, were dragged out and numbered in 
 the poll-tax roll, and the proctor, in order to swell the 
 list added to childhood the years which he subtracted 
 from decrepitude. Children were put to the torture 
 before the eyes of their parents; matrons, in the pret- 
 ence of their husbands, to force a confession of pro* 
 perty to the full amount . Those who were not mar- 
 ried, and had no children suffered the torment of the 
 rack till they confessed to an amount beyond the truth 
 in order to escape from torment. Grief and lamenta- 
 tion filled every place. What the Romans had been 
 of old accustomed to practice on their vanquished 
 enemies, they were now doomed to suffer at the hands of 
 barbarian emperors, who were determined to retaliate 
 upon the Roman race, the self-same cruelties and ex- 
 
204 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 actions which their own Dacian sires had been made to 
 endure again and again, particularly by Trajan, 
 
 Each division of tax-gatherers was followed by a 
 train of supervisors, who never failed to increase the 
 amount already rated, no matter how exorbitant that 
 rate might be, lest they might seem wanting in zeal in 
 his service, or to have been commissioned to no pur- 
 pose. Meanwhile, the flocks and herds dwindled, and 
 the human race disappeared. A tax was levied on the 
 dead, so that even in the sepulchre there was no pos- 
 sibility of escape. Few but mendicants remained, and 
 that the empire might not be disgraced by the paupers 
 created by misrule, crowds of miserable wretches were 
 carried out to sea in ships and drowned, under the 
 pretense of punishing them for feigning poverty, in 
 order to escape the tax.. 
 
 The indignities and insults with which females of 
 the Roman race, especially those of the higher ranks, 
 were treated by these barbarian despots, was such as 
 not to admit of description, further than to state that 
 they were deficient in nothing that could be imagined 
 by hacknied panders, and perpetrated by brutality, 
 and, that the same license which was practiced by the 
 emperors, they permitted indiscriminately to their fol- 
 lowers and soldiery. They even cheered on their bar- 
 barians, whom they were ever loading with riches and 
 titles, to every species of rapacity and outrage; and if 
 the vilest of these military ruflians demanded the 
 proudest heiress, the consequence of a refusal was sure 
 to be an imperial mandate to her parents to choose be- 
 tween instant execution and a Dacian son-in-law; for 
 these courtiers and body-guards were for the most 
 part composed of vagabond Goths, who having been 
 
IMPERIAL ROME. 206 
 
 expelled, or escaping from their own countrymen, had 
 been received into the pay of the empire: "That after 
 having disqualified themselves," concludes Lactantius, 
 *'to be even slaves to barbarians, they might become 
 masters and tyrants of Romans." 
 
 But the darkest of all horrors that brooded on the 
 Roman world, and that one which gav« the air of so 
 many judgments to all the rest, were the persecu- 
 tions — barbarous and unrelenting — with which the em- 
 perors, the magistrates, and every order of the popu- 
 lation, had continued to pursue for so many centuries 
 and to torment with ten-fold fury at this junction, the 
 beneficent and unoffending disciples of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Impossible that empire <?ould long exist in which 
 one-half of the people, demented by fanaticism, was 
 let loose against the other half, and hallooed on to 
 every species of outrage against property and life, by 
 those who, as guardians of the commonwealth, were 
 bound not only by justice, but by policy, to repress, 
 instead of fomenting anarchy. Hence we learn from 
 Eusebius, that during the whole ten yeurs* persecu- 
 tion, the empire was torn asunder and subjected to al 
 the worst grievances of civil war. 
 
 "The sea." he says, "was impassible to those who 
 made voyages over it; neither could any person arrive 
 at any port, whatsoever, but they must endure all 
 .sorts of scourges, be tormented, have their sides torn 
 with nails, and be interrogated by their undergoing 
 all sorts of tortures, whether, they came from the 
 enemy's country, and at last they underwent the puo* 
 ishment of crucifixion or were burned to death. 
 
 Famine, pestilence, and the incessant fear of inva- 
 sion were superadded to these miseries, while all the 
 
 Euubius. 
 
206 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 social bonds and the very instincts of humanity were 
 thus destroyed, the public resources wasted, the most 
 virtuous and benevolent members of the community, 
 with its bravest defenders even in the legions, cut 
 down and massacred in thousands, not by a foreign 
 enemy, but by the sword of anti christian ferocity, it 
 was but too manifest that the organization of the 
 mighty Colossus was dissolved already and that it was 
 about to become an easy prey to the barbarians hover- 
 ing round it on all sides. 
 
 THE SOI.DIER MARTYRS. 
 
 The Christians, who abounded in the Roman armies, 
 had been the first to experience the persecuting fury 
 of Diocletian and his colleagues, particularly of 
 Valerius, who, finding that neither the fear of losing 
 their commissions, or of being disbanded, the penalties, 
 first resorted to, nor even wholesale slaughter, as in 
 the instance of the Theban legion could in any degree 
 deter them from Christianity made up his mind at 
 once to chastise and subdue their obstinacy, by doom- 
 ing them to ignominious and exhausting labors. 
 
 "With this view," according to the Acts of Mar- 
 cellinus, "he withdrew all the Christian soldiers 
 whether of Roman or foreign extraction from the 
 ranks, and condemned some of them to mines, others 
 to the sand crypts to raise materials for the con- 
 struction of the immense baths, which he was 
 preparing to build in Rome, with a view to flatter his 
 adopted father, Diocletian, to whom he dedicated 
 them. According to the provisions of the Roman law, 
 such punishments were usually reserved for the most 
 sordid delinquents; and nothing more forlorn than the 
 condition of those engaged in them can be conceived. 
 
THE SOLDIER MARTYRS, JOT 
 
 The soldiers of the Theban legion formed one of the 
 noblest bands of the Christian martyrs. Diocletian in 
 J;he beginning of his reign, employed many Christians 
 near his own person, and in posts of trust and import- 
 ance as Eusebius assures us. Yet even private 
 governors and the giddy populace, were at liberty to 
 indulge the blindest passion and fury against the 
 servants of Christ; and Maximian, on certain extra- 
 ordinary occasions stained his progress with the blood 
 of many martyrs. The Theban legion was one of 
 those sent by Diocletian out of the East to compose 
 his army for his expedition into Gaul. Maximian in 
 crossing the Alps made a halt with his army some days, 
 that the soldiers might repose themselves in their 
 tedious march, while some detachments filed off 
 towards Triers. They arrived at Octodurum, at that 
 time a considerable city on the Rhone, above the lake 
 of Geneva, now a village called Martignac in the 
 Valais. Here Maximian issued an order that the 
 whole army should Join in offering sacrifice to the 
 gods for the success of their expedition. The Theban 
 legion hereupon withdrew itself, and encamped near 
 Agaunum, now called St. Maurice, three leagues from 
 Octodurum. The emperor .sent them repeated orders 
 to return to the camp, and join in the sacrifices, and 
 upon their constant and unanimous refusal he com- 
 manded them to be decimated. Thus every tenth 
 man was put to death, according as the lot fell: the 
 rest exhorting one another all the while to persever- 
 ance. After the first decimation, a fccond was 
 commanded, unless the soldiers obeyed the orders 
 given; but they cried out over their whole camp that 
 they preferred much to suffer death than to deny the 
 
208 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 faith. They were especially encouraged by three 
 principal officers, SS. Maurice, Exuperius, and Can- 
 didus. 
 
 The emperor made fresh threats that they confided 
 in vain in their multitude, and that if they persisted in 
 their disobedience not a man among them should 
 escape death. The legion, by the advice of their gen- 
 erous leaders, answered him by a dutiful remonstrance, 
 the substance of which was as follows: "We are your 
 soldiers, but are the servants of the true God. We 
 owe you military service and obedience, but we cannot 
 renounce Him who is our Creator and Master, and also 
 yours, even whilst you reject Him. In all things that 
 are not against His will, we most willingly obey you, 
 as we have done hitherto. We readily oppose all your 
 enemies, whoever they are, but we cannot dip our 
 hands in the blood of innocent persons. We have 
 taken an oath to God before we took one to you. You 
 can place no confidence in our second oath should we 
 violate the first. You command us to punish the 
 Christians; behold, we are all such. We confess God 
 the Father, Author of all things, and His Son, Jesus 
 Christ. We have seen our companions slain without 
 lamenting them, and we rejoice at their honor. 
 Neither this extremity to which we are reduced, nor 
 any provocation, has tempted us to revolt. We have 
 arms in our hands, but we do not resist, because we 
 had rather die innocent than live by any sin." 
 
 This legion consisted of about six thousand six hun- 
 dred men, who were all well armed, and might have 
 sold their lives very dearly. But they had learned to 
 give to God what is God's, and to Caesar what is Cae- 
 sar's, and they showed their courage more in dying 
 
THE SOLDIER MARTYRS. 209 
 
 than they had ever done in the most hazardous enter- 
 prises. Maximian having no hope of overcoming their 
 constancy, commanded his whole army to surround 
 them and cut them to pieces. They made no resist- 
 ance, but dropping their arms, suffered themselves to 
 be put to death, saying nothing, except mutually to en- 
 courage one another, and not one out of so great a 
 number failed in courage to the last. The ground was 
 covered with their dead bodies, and streams of blood 
 flowed on every side. These are styled by Fortunatus, 
 "The Happy Legion." They were martyred in the 
 year 286. 
 
 The Christian soldiers condemned to the mines were 
 not allowed rest or intermission from toil. They 
 were driven to work with the lash, till at last, over- 
 come with the intolerable weight of their afflictions, 
 they expired in the midst of labor — but to them death 
 was far preferable to life. The tortures endured by 
 three Christian soldiers during the peisecuiijn have 
 been accurately described by eye witnesses, and may 
 be taken as a sample of what happened to the gener- 
 ality of their companions in arms. 
 
 The first of them being placed before the judge and 
 asked his name, made answer, "I am a Chiisiian.*' 
 The judge rebuked him for making mention of that 
 impious profession, and ihe second time commanded 
 him to tell his name. A second time the veteran re- 
 plied: "I am a Christian." Then the judge com- 
 manded the lictors to strike him on the j 4ws heavily, 
 repeating whilst they struck him. "Answer not thus.** 
 "My name," observed the martyr, \ have told you, 
 but if it be the name given me by my parents you 
 wish to know, it is Theraciis; if my miliiary name, 
 
210 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 Victor." When every stratagem to induce the aged 
 Theracus to offer sacrifice to the idols had proved un- 
 availing he was commanded to be stripped and beaten 
 with rods, and while his body was under the lictor's 
 strokes, he said to the judge, that he felt comforted 
 by his wounds and rendered more and more confident 
 in the name of the I^ord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The second, being summoned and interrogated as to 
 his name, replied: "Christian is my title of nobility; 
 in society, I am called Probus." He also, on refusing 
 to sacrifice, was stripped, and submitted to the strokes 
 of the lictors, who scourged him with the thongs of a 
 rawhide. 
 
 While they were scourging him the Centurion 
 Demetrius cried: *'0 man, see how the ground is 
 weeping with your blood ! " ' * My body , ' ' said Probus, 
 "is at your mercy, but these stripes are to me as 
 unguents." As the scourging still continued, "Well," 
 said the judge, "do you abandon 3 our folly, or still 
 persevere in your obstinacy?" "What you call folly 
 is wisdom in the Lord," was the martyr's reply. 
 **Turn him and beat him on the stomach," said the 
 judge. "O Lord, assist Thy servant," he cried while 
 they beat him in this position. Then the judge com- 
 manded the lictors to repeat with each stroke, "Where 
 is thy helper?" Probus said, "He assists me, and 
 will assist me; and through His aid, I disregard your 
 torments." "Attend to your carcass, miserable 
 wretch," cried the president, "see how the ground is 
 saturated with your blood!" "Know," replied the 
 martyr, "that my soul is healed, made sound, and 
 filled with strength in proportion as my body suffers 
 for Christ's sake." "Chain his hands and feet," said 
 
THE "SOLDIER MARTYRS. 211 
 
 the president, "throw him into his dungeon, and let 
 no one go near to give him any comfort." 
 
 When the third was interrogated as to his name, he 
 replied to the same effect as the others, that he was a 
 Christian, but that his ordinary appellation was 
 Andronicus, of one of the noblest families of Ephesus. 
 He likewise refused to sacrifice; and while under the 
 hands of the lictors, the president said, "Miserable 
 youth, are you dead to all feeling, or why do you not 
 take pity on your body?" And when the martyr 
 derided this pretended compassion, the judge desired 
 the lictors to fasten an instrument of torture on his 
 mouth, and torture him energetically — ''Torquete os 
 ejus for titer y After another fit of scourging, he said, 
 "Turn him and lacerate his sides;" and again, "Take 
 that piece of broken pottery, and scrape bis wounds." 
 "It is now," said Andronicus, when they had done 
 this, "that you have comforted my mangled frame.*' 
 "Chain his neck to his feet, and keep him under 
 guard," said the president. And this closed the first 
 trial of the three soldiers. 
 
 Theracus having steadfastly refused to sacrifice on 
 the second day's trial, and instead of yielding to the 
 persuasion of the judge, continued to glory in being a 
 Christian, the lictors were ordered to break his teeth. 
 "Miserable wretch," cried the judge, "see there thy 
 teeth are shattered; have mercy on thyself " * 'Never 
 shall you persuade me to sacrifice." replied Theracus, 
 "though you cause every bone in my body to be 
 crushed." And when he had .spoken thus, he was 
 silent. Then the lictors were ordered to strike him on 
 the mouth, saying at each .stroke, "Respond.*' **My 
 jaws," replied the aged martyr, "you have broken^ 
 
212 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 how can I answer?" And when he again rejected the 
 entreaties of the judge, who spared no arguments to 
 win him from his resolution, the executioners brought 
 burning coals, and placed them by order of the judge 
 on the palms of his hands. Then Theracus said, "Thy 
 temporal fire I fear not, but ihe dread of eternal fire 
 preserves me from yielding to your demands. Through 
 the divine aid, all that you have done to vanquish my 
 resolution has only filled me with new strength." 
 ^'Suspend him on high by the feet," said the presi- 
 dent, **and create a dense, fetid smoke, in which let 
 him hang till he consents to sacrifice." "What care I 
 for your smoke," said Theracus, "who have despised 
 your fire?" ''Bring vinegar, mixed with salt," said 
 the president, "and cast it into his nostrils," thus also 
 were Probus and Andronicus tormented, and with the 
 same result. 
 
 On the third trial, when to the renewed exhorta- 
 tions and arguments of the judge, it was replied by 
 Theracus that the gods of which he spoke were re- 
 served to eternal torments with those who served them, 
 the judge cried out, "Infamous blasphemer, be silent; 
 or thinkest thou to irritate me by thy impieties so that 
 thou mayest escape with the loss of thy head?' ' "No, ' ' 
 said Theracus, "for this would only be a compendium 
 of suffering, whereas I am anxious for protracted ag- 
 onies, that my faith in my Saviour may be increased." 
 *'I will hav^e thee exterminated bit by bit," said the 
 judge, "and have the fragments of thy carcass flung 
 to dogs, so that your vile femak votaries may not be 
 able to embalm you with aromatics or unguents as you 
 expect." Then the lictors were ordered to crush his 
 face with blows, and to cut away his lips. Whr^t they 
 
THE SOLDIER MARTYRS. 213 
 
 called the obelisks were then placed one on each side 
 of his mangled face and ignited, but while thus tor- 
 mented the martyr said, * Even by greater torments 
 than these you shall not be able to move the servant 
 of God to adore ignominious idols." 
 
 '* Bring the shears," said the judge, "and cut off his 
 skin, and shave his head and place on it burning coals 
 of fire." * 'Though you cause my entire body to be 
 excoriated, I recede not from my God, who strength- 
 ens me to withstand thy attacks." "Bind up the ob- 
 elisks," said the president; "make them red hot, and 
 put them under his armpits." And while Theracus 
 was suffering this, he cried, "Let the Lord look down 
 and judge." "Of what Lord speakest thou, accursed 
 wretch?" "The Lord whom thou knowest not," said 
 the martyr," "who rendereth to each according to his 
 deeds." "Did I not tell thee," said the judge, "that 
 I would thus exterminate thy carcass, and put it out 
 of the power of thy infamous Christian females to em- 
 balm thy relics in fine linen and with perfumes; for 
 accursed as thou art, I will cause thee to be consumed, 
 and thy ashes given to the winds." "And I said be- 
 fore, and now repeat," said Theracus, "do as you have 
 a mind, for power is given to you in this life." "Drag 
 him back to prison," said the judge, "and let him lie 
 over for the next exhibition of wild beasts. Bring up^ 
 the next." 
 
 When Probus could not be persuaded, the judge or- 
 dered flesh that had been immolated and other offer- 
 ings of sacrifice to be brought, and to force them dowa 
 his throat. "May the Lord look down," cried the 
 martyr, "and behold from his throne on high how I 
 suffer violence." **Now, wretch," cried the judge^ 
 
 Bartmius, 
 
214 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 "see how, after all your sufferings, you have partaken 
 of the sacrifice. ' ' ' 'You have achieved no great thing, ' ' 
 replied Probus, *4n resorting to force; the Lord looks to 
 the will, ' ' After the torment of the obelisks, they took 
 nails red hot from the fire, and drove them through his 
 hands in derision of the crucifixion. "I give Thee 
 thanks, Lord," said the martyr, "that thou hast 
 vouchsafed my hands should suffer in Thy name." 
 "Many torments make thee vain," said the judge. 
 "And much power maketh thee, O judge, not only 
 foolish, but blind; for you know not of what you do." 
 Then the liclors were bid to thrust out his eyes and 
 cast him back into his dungeon. 
 
 "Bring me out Andronicus," said the judge, "He is 
 here my lord," said the centurion. "Consult for your 
 youth, Andronicus, and sacrifice to the gods, like a 
 pious man; yield, sacrifice to the gods, that you may 
 be set free." But finding that these instances only 
 excited the martyr's contempt, the judge in his rage 
 resorted to new experiments of the most exquisite 
 cruelty, and when the martyr triumphed amidst them 
 all, saying, "I possess Christ the Son of God within 
 me, and despise thee," he cried out, "Wretch! do you 
 not know that we have the Acts of this malefactor, 
 who was condemned by Pontius Pilate." "Hold," 
 exclaimed the martyr, "it is not lawful for thee to 
 speak irreverently of that Sacred Being." Then they 
 took meat offerings from the idol altars and forced 
 them down his throat. "Thrust an iron into his 
 mouth," said the judge, "crush all his teeth; pluck 
 out his blasphemous tongue; reduce it to ashes; scat- 
 ter it far and wide, lest some accomplices of his im- 
 piety, or these female varlets, pick it up, and guard it 
 
THE SOLDIER MARTYRS, 215 
 
 as something precious and sacred. As to the wretch 
 himself, let him be kept with the other two, for the 
 next exhibition." 
 
 All the soldiers who survived the completion of the 
 baths that had been in course of erection for seven 
 years, and still remained unshaken in the Christian 
 profession, were led out of the city to a place near the 
 Salvian springs, called ''Gutta jugiter mayiaiis;'" and 
 there, in a small plain confined by hills, were put to 
 the sword, to the number of ten thousand, two hun- 
 dred and three, on the yth. of the ides of July A. D. 
 298. 
 
 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 THE CIRCENSIAN GAMES. 
 
 At the beginning of the fourth century, the church 
 now numbered among her children, many of the best 
 and noblest of all ranks, and if it should continue to 
 gain in proportionate numbers from the ranks of idola- 
 try, then, the destruction of this latter power was fast 
 approaching. The Empress Prisca, wife of Diocletian 
 and her daughter Valeria, the wife of Galerius were 
 Christians. The highest officers of the Court, such as 
 Dorotheus and Gorgonius, and magistrates of the first 
 rank, (in the provinces, but not in Rome,) made pub- 
 lic profession of the Christian faith. The old orator- 
 ies or chapels, had become too small for the number of 
 the faithful, and in every city (except Rome) others 
 more spacious and more elegant were erected. 
 
 Because of this progress, the arch-enemy of Heaven 
 was excited to rally and rouse up all his forces for one 
 more assault, vehement, universal and not to be re- 
 laxed in, while a vestige of the Christian religion re- 
 mained uncrushed. 
 
216 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 Diocletian who had set himself up, under the title of 
 Jovius, to be worshipped as the supreme God, Maxim- 
 ian the elder, in whom all were commanded to believe 
 that the god Hercules had revealed himself for the de- 
 fense and adoration of the empire; Maximian Galerius, 
 another Hercules, with his kindred deity, Maximian 
 Hercules, or Daza, as he was called while he yet 
 herded cattle, — these, with Maxentius were the chief 
 agents in this enterprise. 
 
 Strictly speaking, this war of extermination against 
 the church of Christ, was proclaimed at Rome, with all 
 the suitable formalities, on occasion of the great Cir- 
 censian games which were opened by the emperor 
 Maximian Hercules, on returning from Africa, with 
 more than ordinary pomp. 
 
 The festival commence i as usual on the Capitol, by 
 a variety of sacrifices and religious ceremonies; and 
 when these had been duly performed, the entire Roman 
 state and people commenced to move through the 
 forum, and along, the way of triumphs in solemn pro- 
 cession, to the Circus Maximus. The youth and 
 beauty of both sexes, the tribes of the ''gens togata,'* 
 the senators in their robes, the magistrates in their 
 gorgeous costumes and insignia of their respective 
 ofl&ces; Augurs, Haruspices, Epuloues, Quindecemviri, 
 and Augustals according to their colleges; the Am- 
 barvales crowned with ears of corn; the Curiones, 
 Fecials, and Titienses, according to their companies; 
 the Rex Sacraficulus, or King of Sacrifices; the P'la- 
 mens with their caps or fillets; the Flamen Dialis or 
 priest of Jupiter, distinguished by a lictor, curule 
 chair, and toga praetexta; the Flamen of Mars; the 
 Flamen of Quirinus; the Salii, accoutred with sword, 
 Tertullian, 
 
THE CIRCENSIAN GAMES. 217 
 
 spear and buckler, as they bounded along; the Lu- 
 percals, priests of Pan, in three divisions — Fabians, 
 Quintilians, and Julians; next came the Palatii and 
 Privarii, priests of Hercules, instituted by Evander; 
 the priests of Cybele, called Corybantes, making a 
 great noise with drums and cymbals, shouting, danc 
 ing, and beating themselves to the sound of a flute. 
 The procession closed with the Vestal Virgins, an 
 order of priestesses derived by Numa Pompilius from 
 Abba Longa, because the mother of Romulus and 
 Remus had been a Vestal. 
 
 As they proceeded through the forum, along the Via 
 Sacra, all the way to the Circus, various lites and sac- 
 rifices continued to be offered upon altars erected and 
 lighted up on either side of the entire line of progress. 
 When arrived in the Circus, and that the emperor, 
 with his court, the nobles with their attendants, the 
 knights and citizens, were stationed in their appointed 
 places along the interminable benches strewed with 
 gorgeous cushions, and rising, tier above tier, to the 
 rich awning that shaded them from the sun, the gods 
 of Rome, with their multifarious symbols and regalia. 
 were bound round the circus to the sound of music, 
 new hecatombs were offered, aud then they commenced 
 the Circensian sports. 
 
 By order of the emperor, a great quantity of large 
 trees, torn up by the roots, were transplanted 
 into the midst of the Circus. The spacious and 
 shady forest with a thousand ostriches, a thousand 
 stags, a thousand fallow deer, a thousand wild boars, 
 and all this variety of game was abandoned to the 
 riotous impetuosity of the multitude. Tha tragedy of 
 the succeeding day consisted of the massacre of a hun- 
 
218 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 dred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred 
 leopards, and three hundred bears. Besides these, 
 twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and varie- 
 gated beauty to the eyes of the Roman people; ten 
 elks, and as many cameleopards, ^he loftiest and most 
 harmless creatures that wander over the plains of Sar- 
 matia and Ethiopia were contrasted with thirty Afri- 
 can hyaenas and ten Indian tigers. The mailed rhi- 
 noceros, and the river horse with a variety of other 
 singular wild beasts, were not wanting in this display 
 of savage nature, that was closed by a majestic troop 
 of thirty-two elephants. 
 
 Then followed contests of agility and strength — 
 running, leaping, throwing the discus or quoit, boxing 
 with gauntlets embossed with iron to make the strokes 
 more severe, wrestling and other displays of gymnast- 
 ics — so called because the champions were stripped in 
 these exhibitions, and their bodies were anointed with 
 a glutinous unguent called **ceroma," laid on by the 
 "aliptae," a certain class of slaves. 
 
 The chariot and horse-races, as crowning the climax 
 of ecstacy for the Romans, were reserved for the finale 
 of the games. From the morning to the evening, 
 careless of the sun or of the rain, the spectators re- 
 mained in eager attention, their eyes fixed on the 
 horses and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope 
 and fear for the success of the colors that they espous- 
 ed; and the happiness, nay the very existence of Rome 
 and the empire seemed to hang on the event of every 
 race. The charioteers, a class of beings second only 
 to the immortal gods in popular estimation, were at 
 this time divided into six companies called factions, 
 each faction distinguished by its own proper color. 
 Gibbon. 
 
THE CIRCEMSIAN GAMES. 219 
 
 There was the ''factio alba'' or the whites; the ''fadio 
 rusatd" or the scarlets; the ''/actio veneta'' or the sky- 
 blues; the ''prassinV or green faction; the auratt and 
 the purpuret or the golden and purple factions added 
 by Domitian. In Rome every body belonged to some 
 one or other of these factions, with high and low, 
 among the females as well as among the men, the dis- 
 cussion of their rival merits formed an inexhaustible 
 source of broils and controversies, not unfrequently 
 conducted with such vivacity that, passing from criti- 
 cism, chitchat, and arguments to handicufTs, and even 
 to deadly weapons; the benches of the Circus from end 
 to end, became the scene of sanguinary tumult and 
 massacre. On one of these occasions no less than 
 thirty thousand people are said to have lost their lives. 
 
 It was on the 15th of the calends of May, in A. D. 
 303, during one of these paroxysms of brutal excite- 
 ment, that the terrific shout, so often heard in circus 
 and amphitheatre before, resounded from the infuri- 
 ated multitude, as they JObe by simultaneous impulse. 
 — Away with the Christians," was twelve limes re- 
 peated by a chorus of four hundred thousand 
 bloodthirsty voices. This was followed by ten rounds 
 of "Death and extermination lo the Christians!" 
 "Wherefore," condudts the Record, "it was reported 
 to the senate by luigenius Hermogenianus, the Prae- 
 torian prefect that a persecution against the Christians 
 should be decreed; and persecution," says the .same 
 document "was decreed accordingly." 
 
 Instead of attempting any detailed de.scription of the 
 scenes that followed all over the provinces of Maxi- 
 mian, and over the wliole Roman world after the edict 
 of Nicomedia, the following passage on the subject is 
 quoted from St. Basil: 
 
220 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 "The houses of the Christians were wrecked, and 
 laid in ruins; their goods became the prey of rapine, 
 their bodies of the ferocious lictors, who tore them like 
 wild beasts, dragging their matrons by the hair along 
 the streets, callous alike to the claims of the aged, or 
 of those still in tender years. The innocent were sub- 
 mitted to torments usually reserved only for the 
 blackest criminals. The dungeons were crammed with 
 the inmates of the Christian homes that now lay 
 desolate; and the trackless desert and the forest cave 
 were crowded with fugitives whose only crime was the 
 worship of Jesus Christ. The house of prayer was 
 profaned by impious hands; the most holy altars were 
 overturned; hardly any place was left for the sacrifice 
 of the Mass; all was profound tribulation, the sacerdotal 
 colleges were dispersed; and no synod or council could 
 meet because of the terror that existed every where.'* 
 
 From Rome, through every province, city and 
 hamlet of the empire, this frenzied resolve to root out 
 and exterminate the Christians diffused itself; and 
 during the course of ten long years (the blackest in 
 the annals of a wofully perverted race), never paused 
 but to devise, or make experiment of, some new 
 species of atrocity. To the magistrates, not only in 
 cities and great towns, but in ever>- petty village and 
 country place there was given the most despotic 
 power, and unrestricted license to plunder, imprison, 
 torture and destroy the Christians; and the magistrates 
 in their turn, delegated the plentitude of their 
 authority in this behalf, to each and every one who 
 chose to exercise it; **free leave being granted to all 
 persons who would be injurious towards them. And 
 moreover it was proclaimed to the multitude," says 
 
THE CIRCENSIAN GAMES 221 
 
 the martyr, St. Philias, **that no one should have any 
 care or pity for us; but that all persons should so 
 think of, and behave themselves towards us, as if we 
 were no longer men." 
 
 In addition to these efforts of physical violence, the 
 most infamous forgeries and aspersions were resorted 
 to, in order to foster and create aversion to the perse- 
 cuted creed Certain Acts, replete with the most 
 blasphemous impieties, having been concocted with all 
 possible ingenuity, were published all over the empire, 
 with a mandate lo have them inscribed on bronze tab- 
 lets, and posted in all public places, both in town and 
 country. Besides this, they seized certain females of 
 abandoned character, and by menaces and bribtry. in- 
 duced them to make pretended confessions corrobora- 
 tive of the slanders with which the Christians had 
 been constantly assailed, and these confessions, to- 
 gether with the Acts, were sent to all school masters 
 and teachers of youth, with the injunction to have 
 them committed to memory by the pupils, and made 
 the subject of declamaion every day, *'so that," says 
 luisebius, "the boys in the schools had in their mouths 
 the blasphemies which were forged against us." 
 
 In fine, so utterly impossible did it appear to be, 
 that the Christian Church could any longer subsist, or 
 continue in any manner to escape being totally annihi- 
 lated, that in the security and unhesitating anticipa- 
 tion of the event, inscriptions were set up in various 
 places, to commt-moratc among the other exploits of 
 the emperors, that they had "destroyed the Christian 
 name," and had not left a single vestige or "trace of 
 the superstition of the Christians." 
 
 Far, however, from realizing these anticipations, in 
 
222 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 themselves so natural, these mighty efforts to destroy 
 the Church of Christ only served to prove its inde- 
 structibility, to augment the lustre of its triumphs; 
 and, so to shatter and disable the empire of paganism, 
 that its most infatuated votaries could not help per- 
 ceiving that it was fast approaching to its fall. 
 
 As to the numbers who were massacred, and tor- 
 tured to death, they are frequently styled by Euse- 
 bius, "An innumerable company throughout every 
 province." In the Thebais alone, he himself, beheld 
 during a succession of years, ten, twenty, thirty, sixty 
 of a day put to death; "and again, at another time a 
 hundred men, together with very small children and 
 women were put to death in one day, being condemned 
 to various and interchangeable sorts of punishments; 
 insomuch that the executioner's sword became blunt, 
 and being rendered unfit for use, was broken, and the 
 the executioners themselves being tired, succeeded one 
 another by turns. At which time also, we beheld a 
 most admirable ardor of rrind, and a truly divine 
 strength and alacrity in those who believed in Christ; 
 for no sooner was sentence pronounced against the 
 first, but others ran hastily from some other direction 
 to make loud profession of their faith, before the 
 judge's "tribunal." From an ancient catalogue pub- 
 lished by Popebrochius, it appears that in thirty days, 
 15,000 were put to death; and yet we find Pope Mar- 
 cellus making a new division of parishes in Rome, in 
 order to meet the religious exigencies of his people 
 who thus multiplied beneath the sword. The same 
 holy pope being arrested, was obliged to work in the 
 stables of the Emperor Maxentius and was martyred 
 A. D. 309, having governed the Church, one year, 
 seven months, and thirty days. 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE EMPERORS. 223 
 
 The iniquity of slaughtering a people so elevated 
 above humanity by their virtues, at length, not only 
 became intolerable to the heathens but ( as would seem 
 from what is so confidently narrated by contemporary 
 writers) wrung tears of compassion from them. Thus 
 the Christians by their magnanimous fortitude ob- 
 tained a moral triumph over the minds and sympathies 
 of their persecutors. 
 
 PUNISHMENT OF THE EMPERORS DIOCLETIAN, MAXI- 
 
 MIAN, MAXIMIN AND GALERIUS, RESULTING 
 
 IN A TRIUMPH FOR CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Not one of the persecuting emperors or their most 
 zealous underlings, escaped the visible strokes of 
 Divine vengeance. 
 
 Diocletian was consumed by a noisome, lingering 
 malady, and died mad. 
 
 *'The other who was next to him in honor,*' says 
 Eusebius, that is the elder Maximian, '*put an end to 
 his own life by hanging himself agreeably to a certain 
 diabolical prediction, promising him that fate on ac- 
 count of his many and audacious villainies." 
 
 As to Maximin, who forged the calumnious and 
 blasphemous Acts, "being tortured with most grievous 
 and acute pains," says the same writer, •*he fell upon 
 his face on the ground, and was destroyed by want of 
 food; all his flesh being melted away by an invisible 
 fire sent upon him from heaven; insomuch that when 
 his flesh was wholly wasted away, the entire shape and 
 figure of his former beauty quite di.sappeared, and all 
 that was left of him was his parched bones, which 
 looked like a skeleton that had been long dried. So 
 that those about him judged his body to be nothing 
 but the grave of the soul buried in a carcass already 
 
^24 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 dead and decomposing. And when the violent heat of 
 his distemper scorched him with a greater vehemence, 
 -even to the very marrow of his bones, his e) es so pro- 
 truded that he became blind. After all this he yet 
 drew his breath, and having given thanks (to the 
 hand that smote him) and made his confession (like 
 Antiochus) to tha L/ord, he called oa death, acknovv- 
 edging these his sufferings due for his contempt and 
 impiety against Christ." 
 
 But, as Galerius had been the chief instigator of the 
 persecution, upon him the judgment fell heaviest. 
 Lactantius has left a description of the horrors of his 
 being eaten alive vSO hideous as not to bear transcrip- 
 tion. Suffice it to say that he died the death of Herod, 
 the first persecutor of Jesus Christ. ' 'These diseases, ' ' 
 says Eusebius, "did spread incurably, and eat their 
 way into his inmost bowels, from which were generated 
 an unspeakable multitude of worms, and a most noi- 
 some stench proceeded therefrom; for, before his de- 
 cease, the whole mass of flesh upon his body (by rea- 
 son of the abundance of food he devoured) was grown 
 to immense fatness, which decomposing, became in- 
 tolerable to those who approached him. Some physi- 
 cians becoming infected by the poisonous matter issu- 
 ing from him, died. Others, when they could admin- 
 ister no remedy (the whole fabric of his body being 
 swelled and past all hopes of recovery) by his orders, 
 were cruelly slain. 
 
 It was while under these torments that he published 
 the edict given by Eusebius, in which he not only re- 
 vokes the decree of persecution, and grants liberty of 
 conscience, and the public exercise of their religion to 
 the Christians, but implores that in return for this 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE EMPERORS. 225 
 
 boon, they "will supplicate their God for his recov- 
 ery." In like matiner was Maximian, who in his 
 edict, had reviled Christianity, as an "accursed impo- 
 sition and fanaticism," a "pernicious folly," a 
 blind error", an "execrable superstition," compelled 
 to publish the formal retractation of his impious and 
 iniquitous edicts. 
 
 The following is a copy of the tyrant's decree in 
 favor of the Christians, translated (^by Eusebius) from 
 the Latin, (the legal dialect of the Roman Empire) 
 into Greek: — 
 
 "Emperor Caej-ar Caius Valerius Maximinus Ger- 
 manicus, Sarmaticus, Pious, Felicitous, Invincible 
 Augustus. 
 
 "We at such time as it came to our knowledge, that 
 in pursuance of an edict issued by our parents, their 
 most sacred majesties Diocletian and Maximian, 
 whereby it was decreed, that the assemblies of the 
 Christians should be utterly aboli.shed, many extor- 
 tions and rapines were committed by the BeneBciaiii 
 (soldiers) and that these hardshijs inflicted on our 
 subjects (whose peace and quiet is our choicest care) 
 had increased exceedingly; their goods and posse.ssions 
 being on this pretence wasted; by our letters written 
 last year to our presidents of every province, we de- 
 creed, — That if any one had a desire to follow that 
 sect, or adhere to the prescriptions of that religion, he 
 might without impediment, persi.st in his resolution, 
 and not be hindered or prohibited by any man; and 
 that every one should freely do what pleased him best, 
 (with respect to his creed) without the least fearer 
 suspicion. 
 
 Hut it could not now escape our knowledge, that 
 
226 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 some of our judges did misapprehend our commands 
 and cause our (Christian) subjects to distrust and 
 doubt our decrees, and made them more slow and 
 fearful in the resumption of those religious solemnities 
 which they approved of as best. Now, therefore that 
 all jealousies, ambiguities and fears may for the future 
 be removed, we have decreed that this our edict be 
 published : — 
 
 '*WHKRKBY ALL MEN MAY KNOW, 
 
 ''That they who desire to follow this sect, and 
 religion are allowed by this our gracious indulgence to 
 apply themselves to that religion which they have 
 usually followed, in such a manner as is acceptable 
 and pleasing to every one of them. Moreover, we do 
 permit them to rebuild their chapels. Moreover, 
 that this our indulgence may appear the larger and 
 more comprehensive it has pleased us to make this 
 sanction: That if any houses or estates (which 
 formerly belonged to and were in possession of the 
 Christians) and are by the edict of our parents 
 (Diocletian and Maximian) devolved to the right of 
 the exchequer, or are seized upon by any city, or sold, 
 or have been sold, or have been granted or bestowed 
 upon any one as a token of imperial favor; we have 
 decreed, that they shall be restored to the ancient 
 tenure and possession of the Christians." 
 
 "These," pursued Eusebius, ''are the expressions 
 of the tyrant, which came from him, not a full year 
 after those edicts he had published against the Chris- 
 tains, and caused to be engraved on plates of brass, 
 and fixed upon the pillars. And now he, who but a 
 little before looked upon us as impious, atheistical 
 persons, and the very pest of mankind; insomuch that 
 
PUNISHMENT OF THE EMPERORS, 227 
 
 we were not permitted to dwell in any city, country 
 place, or even in the deserts; this very same emperor 
 enacted and promulgated these laws and edicts in 
 favor of the Christians.'* 
 
 Thus it was that Christianity had triumphed, and 
 achieved its own emancipation, by the invincible 
 patience of the martyrs, aided and vindicated by so 
 many signal interpositions of the Divine power and 
 approbation. The cross was already the symbol of 
 victory before it was assumed by Constantine. Proof 
 sufficient had already been afforded that the church 
 stood in no need of earthly patronage. It was proved 
 that it could stand without the empire; these solemn 
 edicts of emancipation, wrung from its powerful and 
 deadly enemies, as the end of all the edicts and efforts 
 of three centuries to crush and annihilate it, were 
 proclamations to the whole world, and to all genera- 
 tions, that in despite of the empire, with all its terrors 
 and its might, that church could subsist and flourish; 
 and that even "the gates of hell could not prevail 
 against it." Instead of the church being indebted to 
 the empire, the empire was indebted to the church. 
 It is Gibbon who supplies one of the most cogent 
 proofs of this position; for in his malicious attempt to 
 disparage the motives of Constantine's conversion, his 
 chief argument is this: — that a statesman-like view of 
 the condition of the empire, and of his own po.sition in 
 it, must have dictated to Constantine the sound policy of 
 emhraciiij^ the faith of Christ. 
 
 CONSTANTINK THE GREAT. 
 
 THK BATTLE OK SAXA RUBRA. 
 
 In the year A. D. 306, Constantine was emperor of 
 Britain, Spain and Gaul; Maxcntius. the son of Maxi- 
 
228 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 mian was master of Rome and of all Italy, and of 
 Africa. ''Africa," says Gibbon, ''groaned under the 
 dominion of a tyrant, as contemptible as he was 
 odious." "Maxentius was cruel, rapacious and 
 profligate. He had the good fortune to suppress a 
 slight rebellion in Africa The governor and a few 
 adherents had been guilty; the province sufiFered for 
 their crime. The flourishing cities of Cirta and 
 Carthage, and the whole extent of the fertile country, 
 were wasted by fire and sword. The abuse of victory 
 was followed by the abuse of law and justice." 
 
 The plight to which he had reduced the capital was 
 no less deserving of compassion. "It is impossible," 
 says Eusebius, "to enumerate how many slaughters 
 were ^committed those that were senators, to the 
 end a seizure might be made of each person's estate; 
 numbers of them being put to death, at different times, 
 for various crimes framed against them " 
 
 Not content with despoiling the nobility of their 
 lives and properties, Maxentius rioted in the dishonor 
 of their families. Any show of opposition to his 
 brutality, on the part of husbands or of parents, pro- 
 voked the heaviest vengeance. The dungeons of 
 Rome were crowded with the most dignified matrons 
 and noblemen. Spies and assas.sins ranged through 
 all Italy, a word, a look, a sigh might be treason. 
 The people fled in every direction to the most seques- 
 tered places, and whole cities and districts were left 
 desolate. Famine was added to crown these scenes of 
 misery, because all the corn was seized and hoarded 
 up by the tyrant for his meditated attack on Gaul, and 
 in his desire to insure success, he had recourse to the 
 most atrocious and abominable arts. 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 229 
 
 Such was the miserable state of the Romans, and of 
 the empire at large, when a standard that had never 
 appeared before at the head of the legions, was seen 
 advancing over the summit of the Cottian Alps. This 
 was the Labarum. It is thus described by Eusebius, 
 who saw it with his own eyes, and heard its history 
 from the emperor Constantine himself. 
 
 **A very long spear/ ^ he says, "overlaid with gold, 
 had a piece like sail-yard laid athwart it, framed in 
 fashion of a cross. Above, on the very top of the 
 spear, was fixed a crown made up of precious stones 
 and gold, and inserted in this crown, was the mono- 
 gram or symbol of the saving name; to- wit, two Greek 
 letters, representing the name of Christ (written thus 
 — Christos — in Greek character). The monogram, or 
 symbol, being formed by writing the first two letters, 
 as it were, in a cipher, after this fashion g3. More- 
 over from the cross-piece fixed athwart the spear, 
 there hung a banner or flag of purple tissue, studded 
 all over with precious stones, which dazzled the eyes 
 of the beholders with the splendor of their rays, and, 
 being interwoven with much gold, presented those 
 who viewed it with an inexpressible kind of beauty. 
 This flag hung at the cross-piece, had a length exactly 
 equal to its breadth, but the upright staff of the spear 
 was of very great length, and on its upper part, under 
 the trophy of the cross, and at the very top of the flag 
 embroidered with a variety of colors, it bore a golden 
 picture, or medallion, of the pious emperor, as far as 
 his breast, and also medallion of his children." 
 
 "The safety of the Labarum,** says Gibbon, **was 
 entrusted to fifty guards of approved honor and fidel- 
 ity; their station was marked by honors and emolu* 
 
230 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 inents, and some fortunate accident soon introduced an 
 opinion, that so long as the guards of the Labarum 
 were engaged in the execution of their ofi&ce, they were 
 secure and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy. 
 The most formidable enemies of Constantine felt and 
 dreaded the power of this consecrated banner, the sight 
 of which, in the distress of battle, animated the sol- 
 diers with an invincible enthusiasm, and scattered ter- 
 ror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse le- 
 gions. 
 
 The adoption of this standard by Constantine, while 
 :Still a pagan, occurred as follows: 
 
 Perceiving that war was inevitable with Maxentius, 
 who had made all his preparations for invading Gaul, 
 Constantine determined to anticipate invasion by at- 
 tacking the tyrant in his own territory; and with this 
 view prepared to lead his army across the Alps. But 
 the troops and his most experienced officers —"nearly 
 all his counts and dukes," vSays a contemporary, "not 
 •only murmured, but distinctly declared iheir fears that 
 the enterprise was desperate." And certainly there 
 were fearful odds against it. The troops of Maxen- 
 tius, composed in great part of his father's veterans, 
 long inured to war and victory, and of the praetorian 
 guards, amounted to 170,000 foot and 18,000 cavalry, 
 or nearly 200,000 men; 25,000 horse and foot, accord- 
 ing to Lebeau, 40,000 according to Gibbon, was all 
 that Constantine could muster for this expedition; for 
 this was all that could be spared of his entire force 
 of 90,000 men, after placing sufficient garrisons in 
 Britain, and along the ever-menaced frontier of the 
 Rhine. Thus, according to one account, there were 
 eight to one; according to the most partial account, 
 there were four to one against him. 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 231 
 
 Again, the emperor Maximin, in the East, was in 
 league with Maxentius, wko also calculated in pur- 
 chasing the favor of Licinius, or at least of his legions, 
 who might either invade Gaul, denuded of troops, or 
 pouring in through the Julian Alps, fall on the rear of 
 Constantine, in case he should attempt to march on 
 Rome. Finally two other emperors, with far more 
 numerous armies had been recently defeated in this 
 same enterprise. Galerius had not been able to force 
 his way further than Narni, in the Apennines, and 
 Severus, in attempting to form the siege of Rome, had 
 lost his army with his life. 
 
 It was in this crisis of his affairs, according to 
 Eusebius, that Constantine bethought of addressing 
 his supplications to the only God "entreating Him, 
 that whoever He was, He would manifest Himself to 
 him, and reach out His right hand to his assistance in 
 his present emergencies." 
 
 "Whilst the emperor," continues Eusebius. "was 
 putting up these prayers and earnest supplications a 
 most wonderful sign, sent from God, appeared; which 
 had any other person given a relation of it, would not 
 easily have been received as true. But since the vic- 
 torious emperor himself told it to us, who wrote this 
 history, namely at such time as we were vouchsafed 
 his intimacy and converse, and confirmed his relation 
 with an oath, who will hereafter doubt of giving credit 
 to his narrative, especially since its truth was attested 
 by succeeding events? 
 
 "About the meridian hours of the &an, when the 
 day was declining towards the West, he said he saw, 
 with his own eyes, the trophy of the cross in the 
 heavens, placed over the sun, made up of light, and 
 
232 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 bearing an inscription in these words: — 
 
 ' ' IN THIS CONQUER , " 
 
 and that at the sight thereof, an amazement 
 seized both him and his army who followed him, 
 as he was on his march, and were spectators of the 
 portent." 
 
 "Moreover he began as he said, to ponder with 
 himself what the meaning of this apparition should 
 be; but whilst he was revolving it in his mind, and 
 very intent upon it, night cameon; when, as he slept, 
 the Christ of God appeared to him, bearing that sign 
 which had been shown him in the heavens; and order- 
 ed him to get a standard made in imitation of that 
 which he had seen, and use it as a salutary defense in 
 his engagements with his enemies." 
 
 The breasts, before desponding, now bounded with 
 enthusiasm. The disproportion of their numbers, the 
 fearful odds against the enterprise were forgotten; and 
 before the court of Maxentius had received any cer- 
 tain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the 
 Rhine, Constantine and his legions were winding down 
 the Italian side of Mont Cenis, with the lyabarum 
 glittering in the van. 
 
 However, the city of Susa, situated at the foot of 
 the mountain, strongly fortified and garrisoned, block- 
 ed up the pass, and prepared to check all further 
 progress. But the impatience of Constantine' s troops 
 disdained the tedious forms of a siege; a place that 
 seemed impregnable was carried in the first assault; 
 and, having saved the city from flames, which had 
 spread during the attack, and having won all hearts 
 by his clemency, he advanced into the plains of Turin, 
 where he was expected by a formidable army under 
 the lieutenants of Maxentius. 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 233 
 
 His army which far outnumbered that of Con- 
 stantine, was in great part composed of heavy cavalry 
 of a most formidable description — the horses as well as 
 the men being clothed in complete armor, the joints of 
 which were skillfully adapted to the motions of their 
 bodies. 
 
 "The aspect of this cavalry," says Gibbon. *'\vas 
 formidable, their weight almost irresistible; and as on 
 this occasion, their generals had drawn them up in a 
 compact column, or wedge with a sharp point, and 
 with spreading flanks, they flattered themselves that 
 they should easily break and trample down the array 
 of Constantine." 
 
 These iron masses however, were scattered and 
 driven under the walls of Turin, where few of them 
 escaped the victors, as the city gates were closed 
 against them, in their flight. Turin submitted to the 
 conqueror, as did the other towns and cities between 
 the Alps and the Po, with perhaps the exception of 
 Vercelli. His entrance into Milan was a triumph in 
 which all orders hailed him as their deliverer. 
 
 From Milan to Rome, the Erailian and Flaminian 
 highways, offered an easy march of about four hun- 
 dred miles; but though Constantine was impatient to 
 encounter the tyrant, he prudently directeii his opera- 
 tions against another army of Maxentius, who, by 
 their strength and position, might cither oppose his 
 progress, or, in case of a misfortune, mi^ht intercept 
 his retreat. Ruricius Pomponianus n general distin- 
 guished by his valor and ability, had under his com- 
 mand the city of Verona, and all the troops that were 
 stationed in the province of Venetia. As soon as he 
 was informed that Constantine was advancing towards 
 
234 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 him, he detached a large body of cavalry, which was 
 defeated in an engagement near Brescia, and pursued 
 by the Gallic legions as far as the gates of Verona. 
 
 The- necessity, the importance and the difficulties of 
 the siege of the city, immediately presented themselves 
 to the sagacious mind of Constantine. It was accessi- 
 ble only by a narrow peninsula towards the west, as 
 the other sides were surrounded by the Adage, a rapid 
 river which covered the province of Venetia, whence 
 the besieged derived an inexhaustible supply of men 
 and provisions. It was not without great difficulty, 
 and after several fruitless attempts, that Constantine 
 found means to pass the river at some distance above 
 the city, and in a place where the torrent was less vio- 
 lent. He then encompassed Verona with strong lines, 
 pushed his attacks with prudent vigor, and repelled a 
 desperate sally of Pomponianus. That intrepid gen- 
 eral, when he had used every means of defense that 
 the strength of the place, or that of the garrison could 
 afford, secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for 
 his own, but for the public safety. With indefatiga- 
 ble diligence he soon collected an army, sufficient 
 either to meet Constantine in the field, or to attack 
 him if he obstinately remained within his lines. The 
 emperor, attentive to the motions, and informed of the 
 approach of so formidable an enemy, left a part of his 
 legions to continue the operations of the siege, whilst, 
 at the head of those troops on whose valor and fidelity 
 he more particularly depended, he advanced in person 
 to engage the general of Maxentius. 
 
 The army of Gaul was drawn up in two lines ac- 
 cording to the usual practice of war; but their experi- 
 enced leader perceiving that the numbers of the Ital- 
 Gibbon, 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 235 
 
 ians far exceeded his own, suddenly changed the 
 position, and reducing the second, extended the front 
 of his first line to a just proportion to that of the 
 enemy. Such evolutions, which only veteran troops 
 can execute without confusion in a moment of danger 
 commonly prove decisive; but as this engagement 
 began towards the close of the day; and was contested 
 with great obstinacy during the whole night, there 
 was less room for the conduct of the general than for 
 the courage of the soldiers. The return of light dis- 
 played the victory of Constantine, and a field of car- 
 nage with many thousands of the vanquished. Their 
 general, Pomponianus, was found among the slain. 
 
 "Great feats of prowess," says Muratori, ** were dis- 
 played by Constantine in this battle — throwing him- 
 self, sword in hand, into the thickest melee of the 
 fight; so that after the victory, his officers conjured 
 him, with tears in their eyes, not to hazard in this 
 manner, a life of so much importance." It would 
 appear that Verona held out for some time after; and . 
 it is uncertain whether it was taken by assault, or sur- 
 rendered at discretion. The lives not only of the 
 inhabitants but of the garrison were spared. But as 
 there was not a sufficiency of bonds to secure the latter, 
 Constantine ordered them to be confined with fetters 
 made out of their own swords. It would ap|)ear from 
 a hint in Nazarius, that Aquileia and Modena also 
 made some resistance. 
 
 After these successes, the Labarum advanced to 
 Rome. But instead of being alarmed, Maxentius was 
 delighted at this. Confident in his best troops, still 
 far outnumbering the advancing afmy, and in the 
 impregnable strength of the city, crowded with pro* 
 
236 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 visions: relying also not a little on those heaps of ill- 
 gotten treasure which had proved so irresistible to the 
 legions of Severus, and Maximian; he rejoiced at see- 
 ing his rival coming so completely within his grasp. 
 And it seems obvious that he might have not only 
 defied the invader, but ultimately have stripped him of 
 all his laurels and hi his life, had he merely stood on 
 the defensive. To have formed the blockade of that 
 boundlf ss city with an army so diminutive would have 
 been impossible; any attempt to carry it by storm, gar- 
 risoned as it was and fortified by the enormous walls so 
 recently built by Aurelian, could not be expected to 
 succeed; and for Constantine, retreat, or even a deci- 
 sive check must have proved fatal. But contrary to 
 the warnings of his haruspices and magicians who 
 plied their infernal arts incessantly, he was, as it were, 
 driven out by the hootings and gibes cast at him by 
 the mobs of the Coliseum and the Circus, and forced 
 to meet his rival in the field. 
 
 It would seem from Lactantius that the army of 
 Constantine had met with opposition and suffered some 
 reverses on approaching the vicinity of Rome, and he 
 distinctly states that Constantine in another revelation 
 made to him the night before the battle was directed 
 to have the monogram, or sacred symbol, emblazoned 
 upon the bucklers and arms of his legionaries. As 
 the first rays of the October sun gleamed from this 
 mysterious emblem — already the token to them of so 
 many victories— the soldiers of the lyabarum were 
 again fired with an ardor that could not be resisted. 
 The iion front of the Maxentians, extending along the 
 plain of Saxa Rubra almost as far as the eye could 
 reach, and their deep and serried battalions rested upon 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 237 
 
 the right bank of the Tiber, which at once secured 
 their rear, and left even to the cowardly no alternative 
 but to fight desperately. They far exceeded the army 
 of the cross in number, and they fought with such un- 
 flinching valor, that after the battle the bodies of the 
 praetorians were found upon the same ground on which 
 they met the first charge. 
 
 But wherevei the mystical standard appeared there 
 happened a rout of the enemies, and a pursuit was 
 made by those who had gotten the better; which, when 
 Constaniine perceived, in whatever place he saw any 
 part of the army hard pressed upon, thither he ordered 
 the salutary trophy to be carried as some efficacious 
 talisman to procure a victory. After the doing w^here- 
 of, a victory followed immediately; in regard that 
 strength and courage were by a divine act of Provi- 
 dence infustd into those who fought. 
 
 The victory was decisive. Most of those who es- 
 caped from the field were overwhelmed in the Tiber 
 by the sinking or breaking up of a bridge of boats 
 which had been constructed either at or near the Mil- 
 vian Bridge. The latter had been probably broken 
 down to prevent the approach of Constantine along 
 the Flaminian road. The tyrant persecutor had this 
 bridge of boats so contrived as to go to pieces by ma- 
 chinery, under the management of artisans stationed 
 in the boats for that purpose; and thus, to adopt the 
 idea of Kusebius, who heaid the narrative he gives us 
 from Constantine himself, the wretched persecutor of 
 that sacred name, which was to his rival the pledge of 
 victory, was taken in his own snare; for the bridge 
 having been loo.sened. by mistake or accident, at the 
 very time Maxcntius was retreating over it with his 
 
238 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 guards, he and they were overwhelmed, ' and sank 
 like lead in the deep waters." 
 
 "So that those who by Divine assistance had been 
 victorious," he continues, "in such sort as did the 
 Israelites of old under Moses might have taken up the 
 expressions of that canticle, which was sung over the 
 destruction of Pharaoh, 'We will sing unto the Lord, 
 for He hath been magnificently glorified. The horse 
 and his rider hath He cast into the deep.' And again, 
 •Who is like to Thee, O Lord? Thou hast been glo- 
 rified in the saints, admirable in glories, doing won- 
 ders.' " 
 
 THE TRIUMPH. 
 
 The triumph so called from Thriambos the Greek 
 name of Bacchus, who is said to have been the inventor 
 of such processions, was the highest aim of ambition 
 among the heroes of Rome. It outshone in splendor 
 all the other spectacles of a city, so justly renowned 
 for pageantry. 
 
 According to legal usage, no general was entitled to 
 this honor who had not vslain five thousand enemies of 
 the Republic in one battle, and by that victory 
 enlarged its territory. But whoever had the fortune 
 to have it decreed him, advanced with the first 
 dawn from the Vatican fields at the head of his 
 companions in arms, to the triumphal gate. Here, 
 after a slight refection, he was invested with 
 the triumphal robes; the accustomed rites to the 
 deities stationed at the gate were performed; and then 
 the procession moved along Via Triumphalis, the 
 streets — ranged with altars that smoked with incense — 
 being thickly strewn with flowers. 
 
 First went musicians of various kinds, singing and 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 23^ 
 
 playing triumphal songs; next were led the oxen to be 
 sacrificed, having their horns gilt, and their heads 
 adorned with fillets and garlands; then in carriages 
 were brought the spoils taken from the enemy — 
 statues, pictures, plate, armor, gold, silver, brass; also 
 golden crowns, and other gifts sent by the allied and 
 tributary states. The titles of the vanquished nations 
 were inscribed on wooden frames, on which were borne 
 the images or representations of the conquered coun- 
 tries and cities. The captive leaders and princes 
 followed in chains, with their children, kindred and 
 courtiers; after these captives came the lictors. or 
 executioners (having their hatchets or fasces wreathed 
 in laurel), followed by a great company of musicians 
 and dancers, dressed like satyrs, and wearing golden 
 crowns. In the midst of them was one Pantomime, 
 clothed in female garb, whose business it was, with his 
 looks and gestures, to insult the vanquished. Next 
 followed A long train of persons carrying perfumes. 
 Then came the conqueror, dressed in purple embroid- 
 ered with gold, with a crown of laurel on his head, a 
 branch of laurel in his right hand, and in his left an 
 ivory sceptre with an eagle on the top. His face was 
 painted with vermillion, in like manner as the statue 
 of Jupiter on festival days, and a golden ball was 
 suspended from his neck or his breast, with some 
 amulet in it, or magical preservative against envy. 
 His chariot, in which he stood erect, glittered with 
 gold, was adorned with ivory, and from the time, 
 probably of the Tarquins, certainly of Camillus. was 
 usually drawn by four white horses, sometimes by 
 elephants, or singular wild animals. His children 
 used to ride in the chariot along with him, and that he 
 Adams, RoftMm AntitfuitUs, 
 
240 THE FO UR TH CENTUR Y. 
 
 might not be too much elated, a slave, carrying a 
 golden crown sparkling with gems crouched behind 
 him, frequently whispering in his ear, "' Remember that 
 thou art a mari^ 
 
 His chariot was followed by the consuls and senators 
 on foot; his legati and military tribune, or staff officers, 
 commonly rode by his side. The victorious army, 
 horse and foot, came last in martial array, crowned 
 with laurel, and decorated with the gifts they had re- 
 ceived for their valor, chanting their own praivSes, and 
 those of the general, whom they sometimes assailed 
 with railleries. Shouts of "/<? Triurnphe!'' frequently 
 bursting from the warrior- ranks and chorused by my- 
 riads of the Roman people, re echoed along the Tiber's 
 banks, among the valleys of the seven hills, and 
 seemed to shake the rock-built Capitol itself. 
 
 Arrived at the forum, and before his chariot began 
 to climb the hill of triumphs, through the crowded 
 temples that rose along its aclivities, the conqueror 
 ordered the captive kings and chieftains of the van- 
 quished nations, to be led away by the executioners, 
 and put to death in the Gemonium, a horrid dungeon 
 of the Mamertine prison, at the foot of the Capitol to 
 the right. 
 
 On reaching the temple of Jupiter, it was the usage 
 for him, to wait till informed by the appointed officers, 
 that his sanguinary orders had been complied with; 
 and then, after having offered up a prayer of thanks- 
 giving to Jupiter and the other gods for his successes, 
 he commanded the victims, which were always white, 
 from the pastures of the Clitumnus, to be sacrificed, 
 and deposited his golden diadem in the lap of Jove, 
 to whom he also dedicated a great portion of the 
 spoils. 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 241 
 
 Unnumbered were the pomps of this descriptiom 
 which had inflated the haughty bosom of Rome with 
 arrogance, from the day, its founder, Romuhis, had 
 entered it with captured flocks and cattle — the booty 
 and wailing matrons and orphanage of Alba — until 
 Diocletian and Maximian had triumphed a few years 
 previously, amidst blasphemies against the Crucified, 
 Nov. 2oth. A. D. 303. — and shouts for the blood of 
 the Christians in which even the "/(? Triumphes'' were 
 drowned. But of all the triumphs of a thousand years 
 none could be compared to that which stood prepared 
 to cross the Tiber and the Campus Martins, in the year 
 of redemption 312, just as the first dawn after the bat- 
 tle of the Labarum at Saxa Rubra was lighting up the 
 ridges of the Sabine and Alban mountains. 
 
 "No day," says Nazarnus quoted by Baronius, "had 
 ever diffused through Rome a joy so well founded and 
 overflowing; nothing in the immense series of our an- 
 nals to be compared to the exultation of that triumph. 
 True, no captive princes and generals were driven with 
 mockeries, and in fetters, before the conqueror's car; 
 but instead of these, there went the Roman senators 
 who had been liberated from prison. No prisoners of 
 war were ordered to the Mamertien for execution, but 
 men who had filled the consulship were drawn forth to 
 the enjoyment of liberty, from where they lay in its 
 dungeons condemned to death. Instead of foreign 
 captives, the senate and the Roman people restored to 
 liberty adorned the procession; and instead of being 
 enriched with spoils, the city itself gained deliverance 
 from spoliation. The atrocious crimes that had so 
 long trampled on the honor, and rioteil in every excess 
 at the expense of the citizens, were as if dragged like 
 
242 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 captives at the chariot wheels of him who triumphed." 
 The destruction of the Milvian Bridge had obliged 
 Constantine to encamp on the Vatican fields beyond 
 the Tiber, instead of entering Rome by the Flaminian 
 Way the night of the battle; and thus the Roman 
 emperor and his legions were compelled, as if, by 
 some invisible all-ruling power, to carry the standard 
 of the cross, into the metropolis of paganism by that 
 track, and no other, which had been marked out, 
 from time immemorial, by the senate and the people, 
 as the only legitimate way of triumphs. Having 
 offered up vows at the tomb of St. Peter — as Eusebius 
 tells us — instead of sacrificing to the idols, according 
 to custom, the martial procession began to move across 
 the Tiber, into the plain of the Campus Martins. 
 
 This tract of level ground, expanding like an arena 
 from the Capitoline, the Quirinal and Pincian hills, to 
 the Tiber, w^as adorned in its entire extent ' with 
 theatres, hippodromes, places for war like spectacles 
 and games, with temples surrounded with evergreen 
 groves, and interwoven with shady walks, and velvet 
 lawns; while monuments and trophies of snowy white- 
 ness, and of every order, lined the river side to the 
 water's edge. The whole was populous with statues, 
 inscribed to the most renowned characters in the 
 Roman annals, and presented a scene so fascinating 
 that Strabo tells us, "it was almost impossible to 
 withdraw one's eyes from beholding it." But tower- 
 ing above all, like an Alp of marble, rose the mausoleum 
 or tomb of Augustus Caesar, where the urns of the 
 Julian family and of many emperors were placed. 
 When any of them was to be deified, or added to the 
 number of the gods, his body was carried with great 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 243 
 
 pomp and ceremony upon a couch of gold, and placed 
 on a pile of odoriferous wood upon its summit; and as 
 the flame began to ascend towards the corse, an eagle, 
 fastened there for the purpose, was permitted to take 
 wing, that it might be regarded by the applauding 
 multitude as the genius or ''mens divifiior'' of the 
 emperor soaring aloft to the skies. 
 
 Each terrace and balcony, and veranda of this 
 mighty pile, and of every other tomb, colonnade, and 
 monument, along the line of procession, or within 
 view of it, seemed to swarm with human beings, as 
 the glorious sun poured his orient .'-plendors over the 
 temples and tow^ers of the Capitol, across the adjacent 
 plain. All Rome, from the plebeian to the Consular 
 patrician, and of every age and sex. went forth in 
 gala costume, and wnth hilarity of look, and voice, 
 and feature, that radiated from the heart. Every eye 
 had now been turned for some minutes to the gate of 
 triumph, and every voice was hushed; but when the 
 bronze portals flew open with a sound, the instant 
 they were struck by the first beams of morning, and 
 gave ingress to the legions bearing that sign of con- 
 quest that Rome had never beheld till now, the 
 plaudits and acclamations that shook the Campus 
 Martiuh, and reverberated, from the hills l>eyond the 
 Tiber back again, were taken up and prolonged, *iike 
 the sound of many waters," by the multitudes crowded 
 on every vantage ground, and roof, and along the 
 entire extent of the triumphal way itself. •'After 
 Constantine, who, in that juncture," says Husebius, 
 "acted like Moses, that great servant of God, had 
 offered up his vows and hymns of praise to the author 
 of victory, he made his entry in triumph into the 
 
244 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 imperial city. Whereupon all persons, as well 
 those of the senatorial as of the equestrian order, 
 feeling as it were suddenly liberated from a prison, — 
 they, together with the entire population of Rome, 
 received him, with a joy in their countenances that 
 proceeded from their very souls, with acclamations, 
 and a gladness insatiable; and the men, together with 
 the women, the children and multitudes of slaves 
 hailed him as a redeemer, a benefactor, and a deliverer, 
 with voices that could not be silenced. But both by 
 proclamations and by signs, he intimated that these 
 outpourings were due, not to him, but to that standard 
 of the cross by which he had conquered." "The 
 same symbol," says Gibbon, "sanctified the arms of 
 his soldiers; the cross glittered on their helmets; was 
 engraved on their shields; and interwoven in their 
 banners; and on the helmet and armour of the emperor 
 there were crosses of diamonds and precious stones, 
 that sparkled and shone in the sun's rays with an 
 enchanting brilliancy." 
 
 Passing the field of Mars, where the temples were 
 thickest, the procession of the Labarum moved along 
 through the portico of Octavia, built by Pompey, into 
 the Campus Flaminius; then by the place of the an- 
 cient triumphal gate between the Tarpeian cliff and the 
 Tiber; then by the theatre of Marcellus; the portico of 
 Octavia, sister of Augustus; the (Velabrum); and the 
 Forum Boarium into the Circus Maximus. There the 
 spectators, some few hundreds of thousands, were 
 ranged on the couches and marble benches of this Ely- 
 sium of the Romans, occupying, as it did, the entire 
 valley from one end to the other, between the Palatine 
 hill and the Aventine; then wheeling to the left, the 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 245 
 
 procession moved along between the Palatine and the 
 Coelian, in the vicinity of which, at a place called 
 the * ' Veteres Curiae, ' ' it passed under a temporary 
 arch of triumph, afterwards of marble. It was in- 
 scribed to the Liberator of the City, to the founder of 
 tranquility, and stated that all this he had effected, 
 '^through the inspiration of the Divinity." 
 
 Wheeling again to the left, along the **sacred way/* 
 before descending between the temple of Peace and the 
 palace of the Roman forum, the triumph, midst ever 
 increasing throngs and acclamations, passed under the 
 arch of Titus, of which the (relievi) representing the 
 i^acred emblems and furniture of the Jewish Temple, 
 among the other spoils of conquest, bore perpetual 
 testimony to the accomplishment of our Lord's denun- 
 ciation against Jerusalem. 
 
 But that which above all distinguished this triumph 
 was its termination; for it ended not, as heretofore in the 
 murder of noble captives, and idolatrous sacrifices to 
 Jupiter, but in the planting upon the Capitol of that 
 Cross hitherto regarded with such bitter execration, 
 and so long and cruelly persecuted by Rome. '^And 
 with a loud voice, and by inscription," says Eusebius, 
 ''Constantine made known to all men the standard of 
 salvation by erectiug this great trophy in the midst of 
 the imperial city, with a Latin inscription to the fol- 
 lowing effect: — 
 
 "By this salutary sign, the genuine type of fortitude 
 I have liberated and freed your city from the slavish 
 yoke of the tyrant; and have set at liberty the senate 
 and people of Rome, restoring them to their pristine 
 splendor and dignity." 
 
246 THE FO UR TH CENTUR V. 
 
 CONSTANTINE TAKING A SPADE, DIGS WITH HIS OWN 
 
 HANDS THE FIRST OF THE FOUNDATION OF 
 
 THE BASILICA OF ST. PETER, 
 
 At Rome, for several days after the triumphal entry 
 of Constantine nothing was thought of but festivity 
 and rejoicing. From all quarters of Italy, immense 
 crowds came pouring in, not so much for the sake of 
 the games and spectacles that were given, as to ascer- 
 tain with their own eyes, whether the incredible ru- 
 mors that had been spread abroad concerning the cross 
 were true. On beholding the trophy, and reading the 
 inscriptions, at first, they could not believe their eyes; 
 the next moment they were seized with astonishment 
 and admiration; and vast numbers of all degrees, sexes 
 and ages, upon the spot declared themselves converted. 
 
 The lowly tombs of the apostles, the catacombs, the 
 places where the martyrs had been tortured, or where 
 their blood had been poured out like water, their mem- 
 bers scattered to dogs and beasts of prey; in short, 
 whatever bore the slightest relationship to Christianity 
 became on a sudden the object of enthusiastic interest. 
 Even the most bigoted gave way to emotions of won- 
 der and gratitude in the general fervor of excitement. 
 They were not a little astonished at these things, won- 
 dering at so great and unexpected an alteration of 
 affairs; and crying out that the God of the Christians 
 was the great and only God. They thronged around 
 the champions of Christ wherever they appeared, and 
 gazed upon them as beings more than human; inso- 
 much, that they who before breathed nothing but 
 threats and vengeance against the Christians, now 
 hailed them with plaudits and cheers of welcome, as 
 they issued from the innumerable crypts and tombs 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, 247 
 
 around the city, seeming almost to realize, and display 
 beforehand to the unbelievers, and even in this life, 
 the joys and glories of the resurrection. Moreover, 
 those who had been banished, or who had abandoned 
 all, and taken to the forest and the caves of the moun- 
 tains for the sake of Christ, or who had been long 
 buried in the mines, were now beheld returning to 
 their own habitations, and being glad and overflowing 
 with delight, they came along in companies, lauding 
 the Almighty with hymns and psalms, not only 
 through villages and country places, but along the 
 great highways, and even through the streets and 
 forums of the city. And you might have seen those 
 who had been but lately in bonds, groaning under most 
 severe punishments, and driven from house and home, 
 now reinstated with joyful and pleasant countenances, 
 and with many and signal honors, in their own dwell- 
 ings, being held in high repute and veneration by their 
 former enemies. 
 
 To the successors of St. Peter (for whom during so 
 many centuries there was no security or respite from 
 imperial vengeance, even in the catacombs and sepul- 
 chres of the dead), that stately palace which had been 
 appropriated to t^eir own use by the emperors from 
 the attainder and execution of Plautius Lateranus, 
 was now granted in perpetuity by Constantine, with 
 rich demesnes in Italy and the other provinces. The 
 power and solicitude so long exerted to deprive the 
 martyrs even of an obscure grave were now busied in 
 adorning the scenes of their sufferings, and in erecting 
 magnificent and costly mausoleums above their sepul- 
 chres outside the city walls. 
 
 From the night after the prince of the apostles had 
 
248 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 suffered martyrdom, the crypt, hard by the Circus of 
 Nero, where the dead body of St. Peter had reposed, 
 became a most hallowed spot, and a place of prayer and 
 pilgrimage for the Christians. It formed one of the 
 greatest privileges of his successors to be laid in death 
 beside the great founder or first viceroy of Christ's 
 kingdom. A little oratory or tomb had been erected 
 there so early as the year io6 by one of his own faith- 
 ful priests, who afterwards succeeded him in the pon- 
 tificate. It had shared the fate of all the places con- 
 secrated to Christian worship; or rather, it was the 
 mark of the persecutors' destructive fury in the very 
 first instance, and was still a heap of ruins when, on a 
 certain day, the legions, the senate, and the Roman 
 people being there assembled, the Emperor came to the 
 scene where his predecessor had so inhumanly tor- 
 mented and massacred the Christians, and St. Peter 
 most cruelly of all. There, Constantine having dis- 
 mounted from his chariot, and laid aside his diadem, 
 prostrated himself before the confession, and poured 
 out floods of tears, so that they streamed down over 
 the ornaments of his imperial robes. Then taking a 
 spade he dug with his own hands the beginning of the 
 foundation of the Basilica of St. Peter, and carried 
 away on his shoulders a basket of earth. 
 
 The dimensions of the temple erected at that time 
 were these: The nave from 'the great entrance to the 
 chancel, beyond which stood the altar, measured 390 
 palms, and from beyond the altar to the apse or semi- 
 circular termination, where stood the pontiff's chair, 
 36 palms; the tribune was 44 palms, making 430 
 palms the entire length, not including the width of the 
 transept, which was 406 palms long. The nave was 
 Eiisebius^ Life of Constantine. 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 249 
 
 in height 170 palms, and the distance between the 
 two massive pillars, from which sprung the arch con- 
 necting it with the transept, was 78 palms; but be- 
 tween the colonnade, on each side that is to say, the 
 width of the nave measured 106 palms. On each side 
 of this nave were two aisles, making four aisles in all, 
 besides the centre one, or the nave itself. The two 
 interior aisles, or those next the nave, w^ere each 38 
 palms wide, and 82 in height; each of the exterior 
 aisles were 62 palms high and 39 palms wide; and the 
 colonnades of the Corinthian order, that separated the 
 nave from the aisles, and the aisles from each other, 
 consisted each of 22 pillars; those next the nave being 
 40 palms high, those between the aisles only 26. 
 
 In front of the Basilica was an atrium of quadrang- 
 ular shape surrounded by four porticoes. That one 
 next the Basilica, consisting of 46 columns, was long 
 as the Basilica was wide; that is, it was 285 palms in 
 length, in width 50 palms, in height 59; serving as a 
 vestibule to the Basilica, into which you entered by 
 three lofty portals; one on the right, one on the left, 
 and one in the centre, which last mentioned portal was 
 the greatest of the three. But as to the two lateral 
 porticoes of the rectangular atrium, each of them was 
 250 palms long and 40 broad; ihe fourth side in the 
 centre of which were the great gales of ingress to the 
 atrium or court, was equal of course in length to the 
 corresponding side, forming the vestibule of the tem- 
 ple; but it was only 40 palms wide and 55 palms in 
 height. In the very middle of this atrium there was a 
 great fountain embellished with symbolical ornaments, 
 such as the Agnus Dei. the cross, the palm bratich, 
 winged beings, and flowers in marble and mosaic. 
 
 A Rotnan pahii was ei^hl and oM^-hal/ tNthes, 
 
250 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 The tazza or basin of this fountain was surrounded by 
 a colonnade of porphyry; out of its centre there seemed 
 to grow a stately pine of bronze, which had formerly 
 served as if to shade Cybele in a recess of the Pan- 
 theon; and under the umbrage of its spreading arms, 
 the limpid waters poured out by gilded dolphins served 
 to cool and refresh the Christian pilgrim, reminding him 
 withal of the purity and calmness of spirit required in 
 the worshippers of Him before whom * 'nothing that is 
 impure can enter." 
 
 From this fountain, smaller ones, placed all round 
 the atrium in the porticoes for the purification of those 
 who entered the temple, were supplied perennially; 
 and besides the great fountain for the pilgrims, there 
 was another called by the people Sabatina, nearer to 
 the seventy-five steps of marble, each two hundred 
 palms long, by which you ascended to the platform 
 before the vestibule, which platform, also of marble^ 
 was two hundred palms by seventy-six in depth, to- 
 wards the vestibule of the Basilica. This vestibule 
 itself was covered with gilded tiles, and the facade, or 
 front elevation of the Basilica, had rising above it the 
 apex of its pediment surmounted by a cross, from 
 which golden rays as it were of glory darted out on 
 every side; and under the architrave, and between the 
 windows — of which there were two tiers of an arched 
 shape — all the spaces were decorated with figures and 
 groups in fresco; representing the apostles in various 
 attitudes of adoration, our lyord being depicted on high, 
 with St. Paul on his left hand, having the sword of 
 the word of God, and on his right hand St. Peter with 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The rapidity with which this sacred edifice sprung 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 251 
 
 Up from among the ruins of the Neronian circus, and 
 the temple of Apollo, of which it was almost entirely 
 constructed is scarcely credible; for the genius of 
 Constantine as impetuous and impatient of delay, as 
 it was brilliant and decisive, could not brook the ordi- 
 nary routine of art; but in his architectural enterprises, 
 as in his campaigns, bringing the immense resources 
 at his command to bear upon the point of interest, 
 caused not only temples, but cities as if to rise by 
 magic. Hence there was about the basilicas to the 
 honor of the apostles and martyrs of his erection, all 
 the air of trophies thrown suddenly upon a field of bat- 
 tle, and under the impulse of an enthusiasm, too 
 tumultuous to be heedful of precision, and only eager 
 to signalize and commemorate the triumph. They 
 were on this account the more appropriate; and what 
 they wanted in artistic correctness and elaboration of 
 detail, was eclipsed in one universal blaze of splendor; 
 forgotten in delight and wonder at the gorgeous effect 
 produced by the brilliant coloring, and gold, with 
 which every object shone resplendent, from the mosaic 
 pavements, to the capitals and burni.vhed ceilings. 
 
 Objects of the mo>t divine and touching import 
 saluted the gaze to whatever side it turned. The 
 scene of the Nativity , with the Virgin Mother, the 
 Divine Infant reposing on her bosom, and the angelic 
 choirs proclaiming in hymns of celestial melody "the 
 peace of good will to men." On another side, the 
 baptism in the Jordan; the eiicharistic supper; then the 
 Saviour restoring sight to the blind, curing the paraly- 
 tic, calling Lazarus from the tomb, or feeding the five 
 thousand in the wilderness; the multitude seated 
 around upon the grass, with the gospel narrative faith- 
 
252 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 fully depicted. In another part, the transfiguration 
 on Mount Tabor, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his 
 burial, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost, in tongues of fire, on the 
 day of Pentecost. 
 
 But what most of all arrested the eyes and caused 
 them to overflow with tears — welling up from a con- 
 trite heart — were the stages of the Saviour's passion; 
 for with such vividness and pathos had the painter 
 represented the "man of sorrows," from his bitter ag- 
 ony in the garden until his expiring upon the cross, 
 that the most obdurate beholder could not but be 
 moved to sympathy and repentance. 
 
 But though all parts of the temple shone with re- 
 splendent beauty, the sanctuary attracted the eye in a 
 pre-eminent degree by its admirable light and by the 
 sacred emblems and decorations of gold and silver and 
 precious stones that glittered around the altar, and on 
 everything connected with the Divine Mysteries. 
 
 The Emperor caused a shrine for the relics of St. 
 Peter to be fabricated of Cyprian bronze. This was 
 overshadowed by a baldachino, or canopy of silver, 
 supported by pillars, some of porphyry, others of a 
 costly marble, called tresthynian by the Greeks. The 
 cross placed on the shrine that served for the high 
 altar was of the purest gold, of one hundred and fifty 
 pounds weight. At the foot this cross bore an inscrip- 
 tion, in small characters of a brilliant jet black, stating 
 that Constantine and the Empress Helen, his mother, 
 had caused that Basilica to be made refulgent, and 
 embellished with regal splendor; and the apse, or 
 tribune, where the apostolic throne was placed, being 
 entirely burnished with crimson and gold, most strictly 
 Eusebius. 
 
CONSTANT! NE THE GREAT. 253 
 
 verified the inscription. The four candelabra, two on 
 each side of the altar, were of bronze, ornamented 
 with medallions, and relievi, in silver, representing 
 the Acts of the Apostles. Each candelabrum weighed 
 three hundred pounds, and rested upon ten claws. 
 They made an offering to the altar of three golden 
 chalices, each weighing ten pounds, and each set with 
 fifty emeralds; with two silver vases for the wine of 
 sacrifice, each of two hundred pounds weigiit; also 
 twenty chalices of silver, each of ten pounds weight, 
 besides patenas and other sacred vessels, some of silver, 
 some of pure gold; one in particular adorned with em- 
 eralds and other precious stones to the number of two 
 hundred and fifteen. The golden lamp, which they 
 hung before the shrine, weighed thirty-five pounds, 
 and had fifty lights, each light issuing, as it were, from 
 a dolphin's mouth. The lustre, or pharos of the chan- 
 cel, was of the same form, but of silver; and to the 
 right and left were sixty other silver lamps, each with 
 its dolphin lights; each of eight pounds weight. The 
 censor, or thurible, weighed fifteen pounds, and was 
 of gold, resplendent with diamonds. The altar itself 
 was of gold and silver of the weight of three hundred 
 and fifty pounds, inlaid and thickly studded with 
 pearls and emeralds. 
 
 The gifts of the Emperor and the Empress- mot her 
 to St. Peter's Basilica for thC' support of the Divine 
 worship were as follows: 
 
 Through the diocese of the East — In the city of An- 
 tioch, the hou.se of Datianus, bringing in $1,200 per 
 annum; a small yearly property in Nicea, of something 
 more than $100; in Cerethea a bath, annual rent $210; 
 a bakery in the same place, rent $115; the garden of 
 
254 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 Maro, rent $50; another garden in the same city, rent 
 $10. In the city of Antioch, in the lands of the 
 Sibyl, $1,100; of paper, 150 reams; of aroma or spice, 
 200 pounds; and 35 pounds of balsam. 
 
 The estate of Theatinus Caduas, worth $250, and 70 
 reams of paper. 
 
 In the environs of Alexandria, the estate of Tim- 
 ealca, recently presented to Constantine by Ambronius, 
 rental $3,100; reams of paper, 300; of the oil of Nard, 
 300 pounds; of balsam, 60; of aroma, 150 pounds; 
 and 50 pounds of Isaurian storax. 
 
 The estate of Ealinus. In other parts of Egypt the 
 estate of Agapius recently presented to Constantine; 
 the Cynopolian estate, rent $4,000; of paper, 400 reams; 
 of pepper, 50 medimni; of saffron 100 pounds; of storax 
 150; of cinnamon or sweet spice of Casia, 200; of nard 
 oil, 300; of balsam, 100 pounds; of Cyprian oil, 100 
 pounds; of fine papyrus, 1,000 yards; another estate 
 $2,250; of paper, 200 reams; of spice of Casia, 50 
 pounds; of balsam, 50; also, the estate of Armanazon, 
 near the city of Cyprus in the province of the 
 Euphrates, rent, $1,900; and near Tarsus of Cilicia, a 
 small island. 
 
 But if in the dedication of "the second temple," the 
 old men wept, recollecting the glory of the first, that 
 had been dedicated by King Solomon with so much 
 magnificence, what must have been the emotions with 
 which the Christians who had been accustomed to 
 adore the holy eucharistic sacrifice in crypts and 
 cemeteries, and under the ban of infamy and death, 
 wdien they now beheld the solemn dedication of, and 
 the tremendous mysteries offered up, in this heaven 
 upon earth, so full of dazzling beauty, and golden 
 In United States Money. 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, 255 
 
 glory ? They seemed to have before their eyes what 
 was foreshown in vision to St. John, when he saw the 
 holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending from heaven, 
 new, from God. The venerable pontiff enthroned 
 with his college of bishops and priests seated on each 
 side; the multitude of acolytes accorHingto the various 
 orders and gradation of their ministry: above all. the 
 golden altar, on which faith beheld ''the Lamb as it 
 were slain." and fragrant clouds of incense rising 
 before the altar, like the prayers i f saints: all this 
 seemed to be sketched and copied from the Revelations 
 of St. John, as the tabernacle was copied from the 
 model shown to Moses on the Mount; and they 
 exclaimed, as if by a divine impulse of the Holy Spirit, 
 "Behold the tabernacle of God with men." The 
 sackcloth of mourning was now exchanged for the 
 vestments of gladness and joy: the tribulation and 
 disconsolate gloom of the Passion gave place to the 
 alleluias, the Divine light, and beatitude of the Resur- 
 rection. 
 
 PVom Rome this joyous light diffused itself over the 
 universal church; to Africa, Britain, and all those na- 
 tions that are bounded by the Western ocean in the 
 first instance, and ere long to Pontus, Egypt and still 
 more remote places. 
 
 "All Christendom was now free from the slavery and 
 oppression of tyrants," .says Husebius, **and being re- 
 leased from their former mi.^eries it was acknowletlged 
 by all, and even some pagans expressed themselves to 
 the same effect that God was the defender of the Chris- 
 tians, but amongst us Chri.<>tians there was an inex- 
 pressible joy, and a kind of celestial gladness when we 
 saw the places, that through the impiety of the perse- 
 
256 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 ciitors, had been a little while before reduced to utter 
 ruin, suddenly, as it were, restored to life, and noble 
 temples again springing aloft to a vast height, in 
 splendor even exceeding those that had been destroy- 
 ed. Then appeared a spectacle long and earnestly 
 sighed for, and ardently desired by us all; to wit, the 
 festive solemnities of the dedication of churches through 
 out the cities, and the consecration of newly built ora- 
 tories; the frequent synods and assemblies of bishops; 
 theconcourse of strangers from countries far remote; 
 the mutual love and benevolence of the people; the mem- 
 bers of the mystic body vivified and knit together by 
 the all pervading virtue of the Holy Ghost; one soul, 
 in all the same lively faith; one common unison of all 
 in singing the Divine praises; while great exactness, 
 full of decorum and majesty, was observed in the 
 celebration of the various functions and ceremonies of 
 the church." 
 
 Even in the outlying countries, inhabited by peoples 
 breathing hostility to the civil power of Rome, the 
 genial influence of the Divine light made itself felt. 
 It was hailed with enthusiasm by the Goths and the 
 Germans. 
 
 * 'Its rays," says Gibbon, "illuminated the coast of 
 India, were diffused over Arabia, Ethiopia, and even 
 penetrated the sequestered regions of Abyssinia," so 
 that the empire of the Popes was extended far beyond 
 the frontiers that bounded the empire of the Caesars; 
 and "Rome, constituted the capital of the world by the 
 chair of Peter," had already extended her conquests, 
 by the gospel, much more widely than she had ever 
 been able to extend them by her armies. 
 
 However, it would be quite erroneous to imagine 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, 257 
 
 that Christianity was made the sole religion of the 
 state by Constantine. The edict of Milan, issued 
 jointly by Constantine and Licinius, granted liberty 
 of conscience to all sects, amongst whom it ranked 
 the Christians; conceding also to the latter, the resti- 
 tution of their churches and of the ecclesiastical 
 property of which they had been deprived during the 
 recent persecution. "Having long since perceived," 
 says the edict, '*that a liberty of religion ought not to 
 be denied, but that license in this matter should be 
 permitted to all according to their judgment: — We 
 have decreed that all other persons as well as Chris- 
 tians should retain the faith and observance of their 
 own sect and religion. We have also further decreed 
 in favor of the Christians, that those places wherein 
 they used to convene in times past be immediately and 
 without delay restored to the said Christians without 
 money or exaction; but if those who purchased or had 
 grants of those places, wish to demand compensation, 
 let them address the governor presiding as judge in 
 that province: and in as much as the said Christians, 
 are known to have had possession, not only of those 
 places wherein they usually assembled, but of others 
 also which did not particularly and apart belong to 
 any private persons, but to certain societies or con- 
 gregations of them, the governors shall give orders 
 that they be in like manner restored to the said 
 Christians, according to the claims of the several con- 
 gregations." It is true, that various favors and 
 privileges were subsequently conferred upon his co- 
 religionists by the imperial convert; the practices of 
 magic were forbidden in private houses, and according 
 to a very ancient document, although of dubious 
 
 EuSt'hlHS. 
 
258 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 authenticity, the prince was disuaded only by the 
 earnest entreaties of St. Sylvester the then pope from 
 resorting to severity with the pagans who were 
 unmoved by his arguments; but it is certain, notwith- 
 standing, that long after the dynasty of Constantine 
 had disappeared, the religion of Numa continued to be 
 regarded as that of the constitution, while Christianity 
 was regarded only as a sect. 
 
 So far indeed were the Christians from being in the 
 ascendent, that we find a rescript dated fromSirmium, 
 on the 8th. of the calends of June, 322, that is, ten 
 years after Constantine's conversion, from which it 
 appears that the Christians were again exposed to 
 violence in Rome and throughout Italy, under the pre- 
 tence that it was incumbent on every individual claim- 
 ing the protection of the state, to join in the great 
 social acts of religion that it prescribed. It was 
 during this outbreak of the old persecuting spirit, 
 chiefly directed against the clergy, that Pope Sylvester 
 was compelled to take shelter in a cave on Mount 
 Soracte. This flight of the venerable pontiff is ren- 
 dered intelligible by the fact, that the enmity heretor 
 fore levelled against our Lord Himself, began from 
 this period to be directed against the successor of St. 
 Peter, as the prime agent in propagating and main- 
 taining the Christian superstition as they called it. 
 
 When two years later, in the year 324, and after he 
 had reduced the entire empire under his own dominion, 
 Constantine visited Rome, he found the senate still 
 unshaken in its attachment to the ancient superstitions. 
 He is said to have exerted himself with the zeal of an 
 apostle for their conversion. In a grand assembly of 
 the senate, convened in the Forum of Trajan, he har- 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 259 
 
 angued them with great eloquence and force of argu- 
 ment on the absurdity and wickedness of idolatry; but 
 though the imperial orator was cheered and applauded 
 to the echo, and escorted to the palace by the entire 
 assembly with lighted torches, he soon discovered that 
 little reliance was to be placed upon these very flatter- 
 ing exhibitions; for no sooner did he refuse to conform 
 to the immemorial custom of ascending the Capitol 
 with the troops, there to offer sacrifice and perform 
 other rites prescribed by law, then he incurred the 
 hatred both of the senate and the people. It is the 
 pagan hii^torian Zozimus who mentions this circum- 
 stance, and he adds, that because he could not endure 
 the public insults and execrations to which he was 
 exposed on account of his contempt of paganism that 
 Constantine was, as it were, driven from Rome to 
 found a new capital, where he might follow his newly 
 adopted religion unmolested. 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA. 
 
 The general council of Nice was held in the lifetime 
 of Constantine and seven years after his death the 
 Council of Sardica as an appendix to that of Nice. 
 According to St. Athanasius there were in the Couocil 
 of Sardica three hundred bishop.s. Sulpicius Severus 
 says it was convened from the whole world; Socrates 
 calls it a general council. St. Athanasius names the 
 provinces from which the bishops came; Italy. Gaul, 
 Spain, Africa, Britain, Egypt, Syria, Thrace and 
 Pannonia. Its ordinances and decrees were directed 
 to be observed "by the Catholic Church diffused over 
 the whole world." 
 
 The fourth canon reads thus: "When ati\ ui>hop, 
 on being deposed by the bishops of the province to 
 
260 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 which he belongs, makes his appeal to Rome, let no 
 other on any account whatsoever be substituted in his 
 «ee pending the appeal, or until the cause shall have 
 been determined by the bishop of Rome. ' ' 
 
 The seventh canon lays down the various modes of 
 procedure, any one of which it was competent for the 
 Roman See to adopt: — 
 
 "First — That the Pope would deign to write to 
 the bishops of the neighbouring sees to examine dili- 
 ;gently into the cause of appeal, and to adjudicate upon 
 its fidelity and truth. 
 
 * 'Secondly — That if the Pope so will it, it shall be 
 competent to him to send a legate, even a presbyter to 
 •decide the case. 
 
 **Thirdly — The Pope may send his legate to reas- 
 semble the synod, and conjointly with them to decide. 
 "Fourthly —If it should seem sufficient to refer the 
 case back again for revision by the same bishops, let 
 the Pope do that which in his most wise counsel he 
 shall see fit." 
 
 But Rome, said Pope St. Leo the Great, in his re- 
 script to the bishops of Gaul, did not stand in need of 
 the degrees of Sardica; they only reasserted and gave 
 their solemn sanction to what had been from time im- 
 memorial the usage of the church.* 
 
 Even the heathens knew well that this was the rule 
 of the church. During the great Arian controversy, that 
 involved so much confusion, they could tell that those 
 were right who believed with the bishop of Rome, and 
 that those who differed from him were wrong. In- 
 deed, the conduct of the Arians themselves proclaimed 
 it, while persecuting Athanasius, the great champion 
 of the ancient faith, the Emperor Constantius, says 
 Ep, 89, 
 
THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA. 26t 
 
 the pagan writer Ammianus Marcellinus, was most 
 anxious to have him condemned by the authoritjr 
 which the Bishop of Rome had over the rest.f 
 
 We have instances of such appeals to Rome from 
 the earliest times, Marcion condemned in Pontus by 
 the local bishop, appeals to Rome, A. D. 142. Fortu- 
 natus and Felix from Spain, in the time of St. Cyp- 
 rian. Basilides, from the same province, not long 
 after. St. Dionysius of Alexandria is obliged by the ap- 
 peal of his own suffragans, to plead before the Holy 
 See St. Athanasius, when deposed, appeals to Pope 
 Julius 1st, and is restored. The patriarchs of Con- 
 stantinople and Antioch were reinstated by the same 
 pope. St. Jerome tells us that when he was secretary 
 to Pope Damasus, he had to answer synodal letters 
 from all parts of the East and West. St. Chrysostom 
 appealed to Pope Innocent the First. It should be re- 
 marked that St. Athanasius mentions (Apol. 2) that 
 his own appeal was previous to the decree of Sardica. 
 In fine, Pope Gelasius says that it was after the two 
 African synods against the Pelagians had been con- 
 firmed by the Pope, that St. Augustin uttered his cel- 
 ebrated words, "Rome has spoken, the cause is ended'* 
 — Roma lociita est, causa finita est. 
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 The fourth century closed as it began, in a cruel 
 persecution of the Christians. Especially from the 
 death of Constantine, pagan Romans monopolized the 
 senate and the schools, and by their superior rank and 
 opulence secured the chief posts of influence in the 
 armies and the civil service, for which long practice 
 and experience of affairs had made them better quali- 
 fied than the Chri.stian8, 
 
 u. Lib. xy. 
 
262 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 The Catholics of rank and fortune were naturally 
 attracted to the new capital, where instead of be- 
 ing treated as apostates, and effectually excluded 
 by conscientious scruples, as well as by party preju- 
 dice, from most of the high posts in public life, they 
 were loaded with favors and honored with prefer- 
 ment. 
 
 Notwithstanding, there remained a silent, yet bitter 
 prejudice against those, who having been long and 
 cruelly oppressed as an upstart and superstitious" race, 
 and who had been treated as enemies to Caesar and 
 Imperial Rome, were now raised from their inferiority 
 to the same constitutional level with themselves. The 
 nature of their feelings towards their newly consti- 
 tuted fellow-citizens, became manifest when the acces- 
 sion of the Emperor Julian the Apostate in the year 
 361, afforded them an opportunity to display them. 
 
 The churches and dwellings of the Christians, says 
 Gibbon, were wrecked at the first signal; the tombs of 
 the martyrs desecrated, and their sacred ashes given 
 to the winds. The Christians themselves were seized, 
 and as of old tormented and put to death, and their 
 lifeless bodies dragged through the streets, exposed to 
 the most cruel and disgusting indignities. But it was 
 against priests and bishops, and the virgins who had 
 consecrated themselves to their Redeemer, that they 
 raged with the most frantic inhumanity. Their very 
 entrails were torn out, and after being tasted by 
 these hideous fanatics, were flung to the swine and 
 dogs that infested the purlieus of the cities. 
 
 All the high and emolumentary offices of the empire 
 had been filled with zealots for paganism by Julian, 
 who made hostility to the Christians a necessity for 
 
THE CLOSE. 263 
 
 promotion. A reaction ensued upon the overthrow 
 and death of the apostate, and the re- establishment of 
 Christianity upon the throne. 
 
 "But from that period," says Sismondi," up to the 
 fall of the empire, a hostile sect, that regarded itself 
 unjustly stripped of its ancient honors, inv^oked the 
 vengeance of the gods on the heads of the government, 
 exulted in the public calamities, and probably hast- 
 ened them by its intrigues, though inextricably in- 
 volved in the common ruin." 
 
 This party had its headquarters in Rome. That 
 city, under pagan prefects had in a great degree, re- 
 sumed its independence, and the senate seemed to 
 become every day more republican in views. Scarcely 
 any alteration in its religious aspect took place on the 
 death of Julian; the pagan temples continued open, and 
 altars smoked with sacrifices to a thousand idols, in 
 every direction The patrician nobles continued t© 
 prize, above every other honor, their exclusive privi> 
 lege to fill the various hierarchical colleges. These 
 dignities exalted them ahnost to the level of the empe- 
 rors, and so thoroughly was the idea of supremacy in 
 the state identified with the pagan profession, that 
 they did not recognize the authority of the Christian 
 Caesars to be legitimate, until they had first received 
 the stole and title of supreme pontiff, thus conforming, 
 at least politically, to the religion of the constitution, 
 by becoming nominally its head. 
 
 The darling project of reinstating idolatry in the 
 throne of persecution was never relinquished Kvery 
 ambitious usurper was sure of the sympathy and sup- 
 port of the Roman senate, by holding forth this prom- 
 ise. The pagan iK)ntilTs who waited on Gratinn. in 
 
264 THE FOURTH CENTURY, 
 
 order to invest and ordain him as the head of their 
 college, did not hesitate to declare that if he declined 
 this prescription of immemorial custom, they would 
 speedily transfer their allegiance to another Pontifex 
 Maximus, thus playing on the name of the tyrant, 
 Maximus, who was at that time preparing to usurp the 
 empire of the West. Their hopes were particularly 
 sanguine when Kugenius the rhetorician was invested 
 with the purple after the assassination of the lawful 
 emperor. This happened in 392. Throughout Italy 
 the temples were re-opened; the smoke of incense as- 
 cended from all quarters; the entrails of victims were 
 explored for the signs of victory. The effigies of the 
 heathen gods were substituted lor the cross and the 
 monogram of Christ, upon the standards of the legions. 
 St. Ambrose was obliged to fly from Milan; as the 
 soldiery boasted that they would stable their horses in 
 the churches, and force the ministers of the altar to 
 ^serve the camp. 
 
 In effect, it appears from all history, that the senate, 
 the highest court and order of the empire, and that 
 body which had most uniformly urged the persecution 
 of the church, had in no wise given up its attachment 
 to paganism. The memorials presented by Symma- 
 chus, prefect of the city, to the emperors Valentinian, 
 Theodosius and Arcadius, make it quite evident; since 
 it was in the name of the senate, he demanded of those 
 emperors the restoration of what had been retrenched 
 from the endowments of the pagan hierarchy, and that 
 the altar of Victory should be restored. ''Grant me 
 but the liberty of living according to my ancient 
 usages, " the city is made to say in this apology; "or 
 has ^.t come to this, that I am to be rebuked in my old 
 
THE CLOSE. 265" 
 
 age, for a worship that has subdued the world to my 
 dominion; for those rites that ever repelled the enemy 
 from my walls, the Gauls from the Capitol ? It is too 
 late; it would be discreditable to turn conveit in my 
 decrepitude." 
 
 It is plain, from the refutation of this document by 
 St. Ambrose, that it was not without reason Symma- 
 chus represented his memorial as embodying the wishes 
 of the senate. This petition had been preceded by 
 another to the same effect in the reign of Graiian; and 
 that all the Christian minority could effect on these 
 occasions, was to absent themselves from proceedings, 
 to which they were unable to offer any effectual oppo- 
 sition, or to make known their feelings in the shape of 
 a protest. The worship of the Christ was regarded by 
 the (conscript) fathers, merely as the devotion of the 
 prince; the worship of the ancient gods as that of the 
 Roman empire. Notwithstanding every prohibition, 
 the immolation of animals continued to be practiced 
 with the greatest frequency and publicity. When St. 
 Ambrose was in Rome, every place, he said, was in- 
 fected with the fumes of impure .•jacrifices, and the 
 idols were elevated on all sides, as if to provoke the 
 divine anger. 
 
 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 THK MONK TKT.KMACHUS ENDSTHK <; t a t»i v r. »u. i ^ I 
 GAMKS. 
 
 "The first Christian emperor. Constanttiie," says 
 Gibbon, "may claim the honor of the first edict that 
 condemned the art and amusement of shedding human 
 blood, but this benevolent law expressed the wishes of 
 the prince without reforming an inveterate abui>e Ta 
 
"266 THE FIFTH CENTURY, 
 
 most solemn and sacred portion however, of pagan 
 worship), which degraded a civilized nation below the 
 condition of savage cannibals." 
 
 These inhuman rites of paganism had not been 
 spared by the Christian apologists even under the 
 reign of persecution. "Whoever," says Lactantius, 
 "takes delight in seeing the blood even of a criminal 
 justly condemned to death, befouls his conscience. 
 But the pagans have turned the shedding of human 
 blood into a pastime. So totally has humanity 
 receded from the human breast, that it is deemed an 
 amusement to abet murder, and to sacrifice human 
 life. Now, I ask, can those be called just and pious, 
 who not only suffer to be slam one who lies prostrate 
 under a drawn sword, supplicating for life, but who 
 demand that he be murdered; who give their cruel and 
 inhuman suffrages for death, not satiated with the 
 wounds and gore of their haplCvSs victim ? Nay, when 
 stretched dead before them on the sand, they com- 
 mand the lifeless and bleeding body t^ be stabbed over 
 and over again, and cut and mangled, lest they should 
 be deluded by a sham homicide. They become furious 
 with the combatants who do not quickly despatch each 
 other; and as if they thirsted for human blood, cannot 
 bear delay. Each company of new comers, as they 
 pour into the Circus, vociferate for fresh victims that 
 they may satiate their eyes." 
 
 Christianity had not ceased to raise its voice against 
 the atrocious practice; but paganism mocked at the 
 scruples and pusillanimity of Christianity from the 
 couches of its mighty temple. Honorius renewed the 
 prohibitory law of Constantine but to no purpose; the 
 arena of the Coliseum still smoked with human gore, 
 
THE MONK TELEMACHUS. 267 
 
 when suddenly, and forever it was stopped by the 
 monk Telemachus. 
 
 Faraway in the depths of the Lybian desert, he had 
 heard that the Coliseum of Rome was still reeking 
 with the blood of human victims. Perhaps a descrip- 
 tion of its horrors was given to him by some fugitive 
 penitent who had learned the emptiness and dangers 
 of the world, and had fled to solitude to prepare for 
 eternity. He conceived the idea of making a gener- 
 ous effort to destroy this brutal passion; he felt that 
 something should be done, even though he should 
 have to leave the desert, and shed his own blood in 
 the undertaking Long and fervently did he recom- 
 mend the thought to God. In unbroken nights of 
 prayer and austerities, in many tears and deep humil- 
 ity, he prayed for some token of the Divine Will. 
 What could he do, he thought, a poor, ignorant 
 hermit, slow of speech, bare- footed, and clothed in 
 coarse sackcloth ? Kings and popes and martyrs had 
 failed to eradicate the evil, yet would he succeed ? 
 Fearing some delusion of Satan, he paused and 
 doubted, but grace urged him on, an interior voice 
 said to him, "I can do all things in Him who strength- 
 ens me." He penetrated deeper into the trackless 
 wilds of the desert to consult an old and experienced 
 anchoret, a di.sciple of the great Paul, the first to 
 sanctify those homely regions. The aged monk told 
 him to go, for God had accepted his sacrifices. 
 
 At length he seizes his staff, and with many tears, 
 bids farewell to his beloved cell, his rude cross, and 
 the little stream who.se constant murmurs joined him 
 in the prai.ses of God. The desert was a home of de- 
 lights, but the world before him was dark and gloomy. 
 
268 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 No soldier ever moved with braver step to the battle- 
 field than Telemachus to his combat with the proud 
 passions of men. He moves on through crowded 
 cities, through cultivated plains, and wild mountain 
 passes, — he seeks no roof but the open canopy of 
 heaven; the stone in the desert has been the only 
 pillow he has used for years past. After a journey of 
 weeks and months, and perhaps years, at length, 
 wearied, footsore but delighted, he arrived beneath 
 the walls of the Eternal City. The brilliant sun of 
 heaven was reflected from the glittering domes of the 
 imperial metropolis of the world. The eyes of the 
 poor monk were dazzled with the gorgeous temples, 
 and seemingly endless vistas of marble columns bound- 
 ing palaces and theatres on every side in magnificence 
 such as fancy would paint in the land of dreams. He 
 enters the city, and moves through its crowded streets 
 unconscious of the universal gaze of the people, attract- 
 ed by his extraordinary dress. Some laugh, others 
 insult him, all despise the poor monk, who is being led 
 on to a sublime destiny. 
 
 So far as we can learn, it w^as on the morning of the 
 ist. of January, A. D. 404, that Telemachus entered 
 Rome. The games usually celebrated during the 
 calends of January were inaugurated at the expense of 
 some rich senator; and although far inferior in magni- 
 ficence, they exceeded in brutality the spectacles of the 
 golden age. Telemachus moved with the crowd 
 towards the amphitheatre. When he mounted the 
 Capitol, with its fifty temples still smoking with the 
 sacrifices of abomination, he shuddered. What were 
 his emotions when another moment brought the 
 mighty amphitheatre into full view? It rose in the 
 
THE MONK TELEMACHUS. 269 
 
 valley beneath the Capitol with stupendous majesty, 
 towering over the temples and arches that lined the 
 Forum — immense like pyramids he had seen in his 
 journey through Egypt, more beautiful than anything 
 that had met his gaze in that city of wonders, and 
 raised in the air, apparently higher than the surround- 
 ing hills, with a solidity that would seem to defy decay 
 or the ravages of time. He descended the way of 
 triumph, one of the greatest the world had ever seen. 
 He passed under arches where noble martyrs had been 
 often dragged to be martyred by wild beasts, and a cold 
 feeling of horror passed over him, as he looked for the 
 first time at the blood-stained arena, whose horrors had 
 haunted his dreams, whose destruction was the un- 
 <:easing petition of his prayer. It was early in the day 
 and the games had not yet commenced; the people 
 were pouring into the benches; he took a seat and 
 heedless of the buzz of a thousand voices around him, 
 in a few minutes became wrapt in communion with 
 God, as if he were praying by the banks of his little 
 stream in the desert. 
 
 Wrapt in prayer, with hands folded on his breast, 
 he seemed to the Romans as a vision from the other 
 world. His dress and strange appearance, the halo 
 of sanctity sufifu.sed around ihe servant of God, some- 
 thing that can never be concealed, caused the gather- 
 ing crowd to gaze on him with mingled sentiments of 
 contempt, surpiise, and reverence. Who or what is 
 he? was asked by each wondering stranger as he sud- 
 denly stopped short to gaze on the extraordinary ap- 
 parition that sat motionless on one of the benches. 
 Some thought him a poor fool not to be minded; oth- 
 ers said he was a truant slave from the Hast; others 
 
270 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 again, that perhaps he was a messenger from the ora- 
 cles, for those important persons were generally clothed 
 fantastically, and wrapped in mystery and gloom. 
 But another moment will show them that he indeed is 
 a messenger from the oracles of Eternal Wisdom to 
 teach the world the great truths of Divine revelation. 
 
 The games have commenced. The monk is aroused 
 from his reverie by the inhuman shout that hails the 
 first batch of combatants. Four stout, fierce-looking 
 men have bounded into the arena; they feign cheerful 
 looks^ and each one is certain of being victorious. 
 They march round the arena, that the people may se- 
 lect their favorites to bet on, and anticipate victory. 
 As they pass, they salute their friends. In spite of 
 their efforts to smile bravely on death, their counte- 
 nances bear the pallid stamp of desperation, and na- 
 ture betrays her fear of dissolution. It was a blind 
 fury that made them hasten to the combat, not what 
 the Romans call bravery. Now they are measuring 
 swords and are matched by the prefect of the games; 
 they pass some time in fencing with wooden swords; 
 then come the glittering steel blades, burnished and 
 brightened for the deadly struggle; the gladiators 
 seize them, and in a moment the game of bloodshed 
 has commenced. At the sight of the first red stream 
 of blood, the vast multitude arise, and ''hoc haheV re- 
 sounds from a hundred thousand throats. But see, 
 the monk has risen; he flies through the benches; he 
 leaps over the rail of the podium, and seizing the glad- 
 iators with giant hand, he whirls them around him. 
 
 No pen could describe the scene that followed. The 
 multitude were like to a lion deprived of his prey. 
 Never did the old walls of the amphitheatre ring with 
 
THE MONK TELEMACHUS, 271 
 
 a louder or wilder scream of frenzy; at the very mo- 
 ment their excitement was becoming intense, they 
 were thwarted by this daring stranger, until their in- 
 dignation was roused to fury. The gladiators were 
 thunder struck, and stood in terror as if in the pres- 
 ence of a supernatural being. The monk endeavored 
 to address the people, but they hissed and hooted, and 
 screamed with fiendish rage; and, at length, as if una- 
 ble to control themselves any longer, they tore up the 
 seats and benches, and quickly a shower of broken 
 fragments of seats and pavement, hurled from every 
 side of the amphitheatre felled poor Telemachus to the 
 ground. He knelt, and stretching his arms towards 
 heaven, offered his life as some atonement for the 
 blood-shedding of the Coliseum The martyr of char- 
 ity fell, and covered in his fall one of the darkest 
 stains of the arena. The sacrifice was accepted. The 
 Emperor Honorius immediately prohibited all specta- 
 cles in the Coliseum, and enforced the law with very 
 severe penalties. In the noble self-sacrifice of one man. 
 Christianity expiated in part the crimes of three 
 centuries. 
 
 THE NEMESIS. 
 
 The blood of the Christian martyrs bad cried to 
 heaven for vengeance. The pride and the splendor of 
 imperial Rome were now about to l)e humbled. The 
 barriers of the Danube were thrown opon; the savage 
 warriors of Scythia i.s.sued from their forests; and the 
 uncommon severity of the winter, allowed the poet to 
 remark, in describing their invasion, that they roll- 
 ed their ponderous wagons over the broad and icy back 
 of the indignant river. 
 
 "The Goths," says Gibbon, "lu.stead of being 
 Theodoret ap, LrKfiih, 
 
272 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 impelled as heretofore by the blind and headstrong 
 passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold 
 and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader 
 was descended from the noble race of the Balti, that 
 yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali." 
 
 In the autumn of 402, he forced the passes of the 
 Julian Alps, and descended, like a whirlwind of fire 
 and blood, upon the Frioul and the province of 
 Venetia. He was confronted by the army of Honorius 
 and compelled to retreat from Italy, but sternly deter- 
 mined to return at the first opportunity. A few years 
 afterwards he encompassed the walls of Rome, com- 
 manded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all 
 communication with the adjoining country, and dili- 
 gently guarded the navigation of the Tiber, upon 
 which Rome depended for the sustenance of her 
 immense population. 
 
 The first emotions of the nobles and the people, 
 were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile 
 barbarian should dare to insult the capital of the 
 world. But their arrogance was soon humbled by mis- 
 fortune. 
 
 The doomed city gradually experienced the distress ' 
 of scarcity, and at length the horrid calamities of 
 famine. The poorer citizens who were unable to pur- 
 chase the necessaries of life, solicited the precarious 
 charities of the rich, and for a while the public misery 
 was alleviated by the humanity of the pious Laeta, the 
 widow of the emperor Gratian, who had fixed her 
 residence at Rome, and consecrated to the use of the 
 indigent, the princely revenue which she received from 
 the grateful successors of her husband. But these 
 private and temporary donations were insufficient to 
 
THE NEMESIS, 273 
 
 appease the hunger of a numerons people; and the 
 progress of famine invaded the marble palaces of the 
 senators themselves. The persons of both sexes who 
 had been reared in the enjoyment of ease and luxury, 
 discovered how little is requisite to supply the demands 
 of nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of 
 gold and silver to obtain the coarse and scanty sus- 
 tenance which they would have formerly rejected with 
 disdain. The food the most repugnant to sense or 
 imagination, aliments the most unwholesome and 
 pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured 
 and fiercely disputed by the rage of hunger. A dark 
 suspicion was entertained, that some desperate wretches 
 fed on the bodies of their fellow creatures whom they 
 had secretly murdered; and even mothers (such was 
 the horrid conflict of the two most powerful instincts 
 implanted by nature in the human breast), even 
 mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their 
 slaughtered infants. 
 
 Many thousands of the inhabitants expired in their 
 houses, or in the street, for want of sustenance; and 
 as the public sepulchres without the walls were in the 
 power of the enemy, the stench that arose from so 
 many putrid and unburied carcasses infected the air; 
 and the miseries of famine were speedily aggravated 
 by those of pestilence. 
 
 In this extremity, two ambassadors. Basilius. who 
 had been president of Spain, and John, the first tribune 
 of the Palatine notaries, were appointed by the senate, 
 to go to the Gothic camp, and sue for peace. When 
 they were introduced into the tent of Alaric, they 
 maintained a haughty bearing, to make it appear that 
 they were equally prepared for war as for peace. 
 
274 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 They said that if the king of the Goths refused to sign 
 a fair and honorable capitulation, he might sound his 
 trumpets, and prepare to give battle to an innumer- 
 able people, inured to arms, and animated by despair. 
 **The thicker the grass, the! easier it is mowed," was 
 the reply with which the barbarian mocked them, to 
 the great amusement of his generals who burst into 
 loud and insulting laughter at this stroke of rustic wit. 
 He then dictated the terms on which alone they might 
 expect to have the city spared. First, the surrender 
 into his hands of all the gold and silver within the 
 walls of Rome, whether it belonged to the state or to 
 individuals; all the rich and precious movables; and all 
 the barbarians detained as slaves. 
 
 ''If such, O king!" said one of the ambassadors, 
 **are the things you must have from us, may we ask 
 what it is you intend to leave us?" 
 
 "Your lives," replied the haughty conqueror. 
 There being no longer any human hope, it was re- 
 solved by the Romans to resort once more to the aid of 
 the immortal gods: it was alleged by the advocates of 
 the measure, that the city of Narmi, had been recently 
 saved from the Goths by certain mystic rites and sac- 
 rifices, of the Etruscans who were then in Rome; and 
 these same execrable practices — consisting in dark in- 
 cantations by the gore of murdeied captives — were sol- 
 emnly performed by public edict on the Capitol. It 
 was in vain that the Christian senators exclaimed 
 against this horrible impiety; their voice? were drowned 
 in enthusiastic acclamations for the restoration of pa- 
 gan rites, and in execrations and blasphemies of Christ. 
 It is narrated by Sozomen, that the most reflecting of 
 the Romans looked upon the calamities of the city as a 
 
THE NEMESIS. 275 
 
 just judgment on this incorrigible attachment to 
 idolatry. 
 
 Notwithstanding these rites of propitiation, the 
 lightnings of Jupiter Tonans were not hurled upon 
 the Gothic tents, to which another embassy soon pro- 
 ceeded, with bearing much morfe suppliant than the 
 first. The lowest price of mercy was fixed by the bar- 
 barian at 5,000 lbs. of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 
 4,000 robes of silk, 3,000 pieces of fine scarlet cloth, 
 and 3.000 lbs. of pepper, a favorite ingredient of the 
 best Roman cookery. The best sort was commonly 
 fifteen denarii, or two and a half dollars (U. S. money) 
 the pound. 
 
 Enriched by the contributions of the capital, the 
 Goths retired to winter in the fair and fruitful regions 
 of Tuscany; but before they abandoned the siege, their 
 standard became the refuge of 40,000 barbarian slaves, 
 who had broken their chains, and speedily returned to 
 revenge the injuries and disgraces they bad endured in 
 cruel servitude. 
 
 After many fruitless negotiations, touching the rati- 
 fication by the Emperor Honorius of the terms guaran- 
 teed to Alaric by the senate, the Goth proclaimed his 
 determination to visit Rome again. The eternal city 
 was filled with consternation. Attains (who after- 
 wards figured as Roman Emperor), the patrician Ce- 
 cilianus and Maximian, were sent to implore the 
 emperor's assent to the demands upon which the safety 
 of the queen of cities depended. It was on this occa- 
 sion that Pope Innocent was withdrawn, as Orosius 
 says, like another Lot. from the doomed city: he ac- 
 companied the ambassadors to Ravenna, and was 
 spared the misery of witnessing the horrors that 
 ensued soon after. 
 
276 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 The result of the second investment of the city was, 
 that the Romans, senate and people, throwing off alle- 
 giance to the son of Theodosius, appointed at the dic- 
 tation of Alaric, an emperor of their own. Attains, who 
 was to ratify the conditions rejected by Honorius. 
 This resolution was entirely the work of the pagan 
 faction, who became elated beyond measure at the 
 prospect of seeing the ancient worship again trium- 
 phant. Tertullus, a zealot in the cause, was named 
 consul by Attains, who had been himself educated a 
 pagan, and all the Gentile superstitions, prescribed by 
 the rubric of the Capitol, were scrupulously practiced 
 at his inauguration. In his opening address to the 
 senate, he congratulated the conscript fathers upon the 
 progress already made, and assured them that what 
 had been so auspiciously commenced was only an earn- 
 est of the speedy and complete accomplishment of 
 their long cherished hopes. The consul was, if possi- 
 ble, outstripped in fervor by the new praetorian pre- 
 fect, Lampridius. Zozimus the pagan historian adds, 
 that these appointments were received with acclama- 
 tions by the citizens, and that the Anicii, firmly at- 
 tached to Christianity, stood alone in their discontent, 
 and their murmurs amidst the universal exultation. 
 
 The reward of this new impiety was not long de- 
 ferred. On hearing of the revolution in Rome, the 
 governor of Africa immediately laid an embargo on all 
 ships bound for Ostia with corn, and the consequence 
 was another famine so dire that the Romans began to 
 devour the most revolting matter. 
 
 Many were the Christians who viewed these dread- 
 ful forerunners of the worse calamities still impending 
 as so many warnings from the Divine mercy, by which 
 
THE NEMESIS. Til 
 
 the stroke of justice was withheld, until the most am- 
 ple opportunity should have been afforded for the ob- 
 durate to repent, and for the escape of the faithful. 
 We meet with the names of Paulina, Pamachius, 
 Paula, Fabiola, and others of patrician rank, who took 
 refuge chiefly at Bethlehem, after exhausting their 
 fortunes in relieving the public distress. In the little 
 woody island of Igilium (now called Giglio) great 
 numbers sought shelter; others fled to the forests and 
 most inaccessible crags and fastnesses of the Appe- 
 nines; but next to the East, the greatest number di- 
 rected their flight towards the shores of Africa, where 
 many fugitives of rank held ample patrimonies. 
 Amongst these was Proba, the illustrious widow of 
 Petronius, who had been prefect of the city, and 
 ranked as the first subject of the empir^. Her for- 
 tune was princely — three of her sons had been hon- 
 ored each with the office of consul — but so great was this 
 Christian lady's piety and fortitude, that she not only 
 beheld her palaces in flames with resignation, from the 
 little bark wafting her out to sea, but could hardly 
 contain herself for joy at having the beautiful empress 
 Laeta, her own widowed child, and her grand-daugh- 
 ter, the virgin Demetrias, by her side. 
 
 It is stated by Socrates, the ecclesiastical writer, that 
 Alaric's object in causing Attains to be invested with 
 the purple, was, that in his person the imperial dig- 
 nity might be disgraced and exposed to derision; and 
 that with this view he was one day paraded with all 
 the pomp and majesty of a Roman emperor, and the 
 next exhibited to be mocked in the habit and abject 
 condition of a slave. The first and most solemn of 
 these scenes of mockery was made an entertainment for 
 
278 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 the Goths, just as they were on the point of marching 
 against Rome for the last time. They were marshal- 
 led under arms in a great plain near Rimini, not far 
 from where Caesar crossed the Rubicon; and when At- 
 tains (after being conducted with imperial state, at- 
 tended by his principal officers, TertuUus, the consul; 
 the praetorian prefect, Lampridius, and a gorgeous re- 
 tinue of guards and courtiers) had been ignominiously 
 stripped of the purple and the diadem, in full view of 
 an immense concourse of both Romans and barbarians, 
 the order to march was received with savage exulta- 
 tion, mingled with peals of laughter at the mock maj- 
 esty and sudden downfall of the Roman emperor. 
 Thenceforth, nothing but rapine and vengeance, so 
 long deferred, were in their sanguinary thoughts. 
 They rushed like hungry lions upon their prey. This 
 seems to have been the occasion on which a holy her- 
 mit threw himself in the way of the Gothic king, in a 
 narrow defile of the Appenines. * 'Servant of heaven, ' ' 
 cried Aiaric, "seek not to turn me from my mission. 
 It is not from choice that I lead my army against that 
 devoted place, but some invisible power that will not 
 suffer me to halt a single day, urges me on by violence, 
 continually crying out to me without ceasing, 'For- 
 ward, march upon that city, upon Rome, and make it 
 desolate!' " 
 
 "At the hour of midnight," says Gibbon, the Sal- 
 arian gate was silently opened, and the Romans were 
 suddenly awakened by the tremendous sound of the 
 Gothic trumpet." Thus was the mystical Babylon, 
 like its prophetic type, the city of Baltassar surprised 
 in the midst of its security. "It was by night," says 
 St. Jerome that Moab fell; its wall was laid prostrate 
 
THE NEMESIS. 279 
 
 by night." For although beleaguered by the barbar- 
 ians )with whom they were as if familiarized by the 
 preceding sieges, ) the Romans had such confidence in 
 their lofty rock-built walls, that, like the Babylonians 
 when the Persians surrounded their city, the denizens 
 of the eternal city fevelled, and then retired to their 
 beds, without the slightest shadow of apprehension. 
 Procopius says, the Senators were asleep as the Goths 
 were entering the gate. 
 
 "The cruelties exercised on this occasion," says the 
 Italian annalist "one cannot relate without emotion." 
 
 The city constructed as it were of the spoils and over- 
 flowing with the tributes of so many nations was now 
 at the mercy of the infuriated barbarians. They were 
 lighted on their way by flaming palaces and temples 
 from the Villa of Sallust — a perfect sanctuary and >?:ar- 
 den of Epicurus — on to the Suburra, the Forum, the 
 Capitol; and above all, to the golden palaces of Nero. 
 They were gnided in the pursuit of plunder, and of 
 blood guiltiness, by the forty thousand fugitives who 
 labored during the night of horrors with more as- 
 siduity than they had ever exerted under their task- 
 master's stripes to requite the offices they had re- 
 ceived at Roman hands, and to wash out in patrician 
 gore the hateful vestiges of their chains. The crimes, 
 not to be named, that Rome had so often perpetrated 
 during the sieges, and massacres and burnings of a 
 thousand years, were now retaliated, rigorously, on 
 herself. Her nobles were subjected to tortures the most 
 cruel and ignominious, to wring from them their hid- 
 den treasures; the plel>eians were mowed down in such 
 multitudes that the survivors found it very difficult to 
 inter all of the slain. The Forum, the Circus, and the 
 
280 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 Coliseum, — the Capitol, the streets, the theaters, baths 
 and temples, — ran with blood; the seven-hilled city 
 was in flames; the trophies and monuments, in which 
 the lords of the earth most prided themselves, were 
 the chief objects of Gothic rage; and it was said by 
 eye-witnesses of these terrors, that the trophies, tem- 
 ples, and other public edifices, that defied by their 
 solidity the brands of the barbarians, were struck with 
 thunderbolts from heaven. 
 
 The sack continued, according to Orosius for three, 
 according to Count Marcellinus, for six days. Both 
 accounts are consistent. When the immensity of the 
 Gothic forces is considered, and how enormous was the 
 plunder to be partitioned and loaded in the trains of 
 wagons, that moved, interspersed with droves of cap- 
 tives along the Appian Way, as if they would hardly 
 ever cease, it may be well supposed, that the rear- 
 guard did not issue from the gates for three days after 
 Alaric had sounded a retreat. 
 
 "In the pillage of Rome," says Gibbon, "a just pre- 
 ference was given to gold and jewels, which contain 
 the greatest value in proportion to their weight; but 
 after these portable riches had been removed by the 
 more diligent robbers, the palaces of Rome were rudely 
 stripped of their splendid and costly furniture. The 
 side boards of massy plate, and the variegated ward- 
 robes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the 
 wagons that always followed in the wake of a Gothic 
 army. The most exquisite works of art were roughly 
 handled, or wantonly destroyed; many a statue was 
 melted for sake of the precious materials, and many a 
 vase, in the division of the spoil, was shivered into 
 fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe. The acquisi- 
 
THE NEMESIS 281 
 
 tioii of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of the 
 rapacious barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by 
 blows, and by tortures, to force from their prisoners 
 the confession of hidden treasures." 
 
 From the palaces and temples of the city, the minis- 
 ters of rapine and conflagration spread themselves over 
 the voluptuous garden of Italy. The beauteous re- 
 gions of Campania were laid waste with fire and sword. 
 The towns, from Baiae and Capua to Tarentum and 
 Rhegium were sacked. Those villas, which formed 
 the chief delight of the Roman nobility in their day of 
 pride, were stripped of their exquisite furniture, and 
 after having been made the scenes of outrage and in- 
 sult to the sons and daughters of their once lordly own- 
 ers, were laid in ruins. Nor was the brand of ven- 
 geance to be extinguished, even in the grave of Alaric, 
 drenched though it was by the Rpman gore of the 
 captives whom they forced to dig deep in a river's bed, 
 ani though filled with the spoils and proudest trophies 
 of Rome. 
 
 The city was doomed to another visit, when Adol- 
 phus, the successor of Alaric. led back the Goths from 
 plundering Campania; and among his captives was 
 Galla Placidia, a princess, not less renowned for her 
 beauty than for her rank, and the singular vicissitudes 
 of her life. She soon after became the bride of the 
 Gothic conqueror. The nuptial gift, which according 
 to the custom of this nation was offered to Placidia, by 
 her Gothic lord, consisted of the rare and magnificent 
 spoils of her fallen country. Fifty basins filled with 
 pieces of gold, and fifty filled with jewels of inestima- 
 ble value, were borne by fifty beautiful patrician youths 
 in brilliant attire, and placed at the foot of the throne, 
 
282 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 where the captive bride sat adorned as a Roman em- 
 press; and that nothing might be wanting to the sports 
 of fortune, the Roman emperor, Attains, was appointed 
 to lead the chorus of the hymeneal song, amidst the 
 derisive applause of the barbarians. Thus ended the 
 siege of Alaric. 
 
 THE NUN AND THE SACRED VESSELS. 
 
 During the siege Alaric proclaimed that he warred 
 not against St. Peter. He ordered the churches and 
 places consecrated to Christian purposes to be re- 
 spected; appointed the two great basilicas of the apos- 
 tles as inviolable sanctuaries of refuge; and so strictly 
 was this order observed, that the barbarians not only 
 halted in the career of slaughter on arriving at these 
 hallowed precincts, but many of tliem conducted 
 thither such as had moved them to pity, that under 
 the protection of the apostles, they might be saved 
 from the rage of others, who might not be found 
 equally compassionate. 
 
 "It happened," says Orosius," as the barbarians 
 were rushing in every direction through the city in 
 quest of plunder, that a sacred virgin, who had grown 
 old in the Divine service, to which she had conse- 
 crated her entire being, was discovered in her convent 
 by a Gothic chief, who demanded all the gold and sil- 
 ver in her possession. She replied with Christian com- 
 posure, that the treasures in her keeping were indeed 
 immense, but while the Goth stood in admiration and 
 astonishment, gazing at the splendid hoard of massy 
 gold and silver vessels that she revealed, the virgin of 
 Christ observed, 'Before you are the sacred vessels 
 used in the divine niy>teries, at the altar of St. Peter 
 
THE NUN AND THE SACRED VESSELS. 283 
 
 the apostle; presume to touch them if you be so 
 minded; but mark, the consequences of your sacrilege 
 shall be upon your head; as for me, too feeble to defend 
 them, I shall not vainly attempt resistance.' 
 
 "Struck with reverence and religious awe, and not 
 a little moved by the holy enthusiasm of the nun, the 
 chief, without attempting to lay his hand upon the 
 sacred treasure, sent intelligence of what had hap- 
 pened to King Alaric. An instant and peremptory 
 order w^as returned, to have all the vessels promptly 
 conveyed, just as they were, to the basilica of the 
 apostle; and to guard and protect the nun. and all the 
 other Christians, who should chance to join the pro- 
 cession. 
 
 "The convent was situated on the Caelian Mount 
 (probably near the Lateran), so that the greater part 
 of the city had to be traversed — a very great distance 
 — in order to reach St. Peter's. It was then that an 
 astounding spectacle presented itself to the eyes of all. 
 Through the greatest thoroughfares of the city, and 
 amidst all the horrors of that night, a solemn train is 
 seen advancing, with the same order and measured 
 step as if it moved, not through scenes of slaughter, 
 violence, and conflagration, but through hallowed 
 aisles, on some joyous festival. 
 
 A martial retinue of the Goths marched as a guard 
 of honor to adorn the triumph with their glittering 
 arms, and to defend their devout companions, who 
 bore the sacred vessels of massy gold and silver aloft 
 upon their heads. The voices of the barbarians are 
 united with those of the Romans to .swell the hymns of 
 Christian praise; and these sounds are heard, like the 
 trumpet of salvation re echoing far and wide through 
 
284 THE FIFTH CENTURY, 
 
 the destruction of the city. The Christians start in 
 their hiding places, as they recognize the celestial can- 
 ticles, and crowd from every direction to follow the 
 procession of the Sacred Vessels. Even numbers of 
 pagans, joining loudly in the hymn of Christ, take 
 part in the procession; and thus escape under the 
 shadow of the sacred name, that they may live to assail 
 it with greater violence than ever. Joined by the 
 fugitives from every side, the pageant seems almost 
 endless, and in proportion as it is lengthened by new 
 accessions, the barbarians vie with each other for the 
 privilege of marching as guards, on either side of it, 
 armed with their battle-axes and naked swords." 
 
 Thus it was that Heaven displayed its power to con- 
 duct the objects of its solicitude, through the very 
 midst of despair and death, to a harbour of safety; the 
 city was as it were sifted of the Christians that still 
 remained in it, by means of this procession. In the 
 very crisis of ruin, they were separated and saved from 
 the common havoc, as if by heavenly intervention. 
 But the most astonishing feature of the case was the 
 sudden transition of the Goths from fury to mildness. 
 They abandoned the pursuit of plunder, and wielded 
 their reeking weapons to protect the lives and treas- 
 ures of their vanquished enemies. 
 
 THE GHOST OF GAMALIEI.. 
 Three centuries of martyrdom having passed away, 
 it pleased God to honor the relics of all the martyrs in 
 the person of the first, known as St. Stephen the 
 Proto-Martyr. St. Stephen was the chief of the seven 
 deacons presented to the apostles, who, praying, im- 
 posed hands upon them, to qualify them to become 
 
THE GHOST OF GAMALIEL. 285- 
 
 ministers of God's holy mysteries. The rich sold their 
 estates to relieve the necessities of the poor, and de- 
 posited the money in one common treasury. One 
 charge of the deacons was to distribute this money 
 according to the necessities of each poor applicant. 
 The false charge of blasphemy being brought against 
 St. Stephen he was dragged before the Sanhedrim, and 
 ordered to defend himself. Accordingly he began by 
 boldly preaching Jesus Christ. He added, that as 
 their father had persecuted and slain many of the 
 prophets; so they themselves had betrayed and cruci- 
 fied Jesus Christ himself who had become man to re- 
 deem them. 
 
 This stinging reproach touched them to the quick, 
 and kindled them into a rage, gnashing with their 
 teeth at the holy martyr, and expressing all the 
 symptoms of unbridled passion. The saint not heed- 
 ing what was done below, had his eyes and heart 5xed 
 on higher objects, and being full of the Holy Ghost. 
 and looking up steadfastly to the heavens, saw them 
 opened, and beheld his Divine Saviour standing at the 
 right hand of the Father, appearing by that posture 
 ready to protect, receive and crown his servant. With 
 this vision the saint was inexpressibly affected; his 
 soul was inspired with new courage, and a longing to 
 arrive at that bliss, a glimpse of which was shown 
 him. His lieart overflowed with joy. and in an 
 ecstasy, not being able to forbear expressing his happi- 
 ness in the very midst of his enemies, he said, 
 "Behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of man 
 standing at the right hand of God.'* The persecutors 
 became more hardened and enraged, on hearing the 
 saint's declaration of this vision, and calling him ,^a 
 
^86 THE FIFTH CENTURY, 
 
 blasphemer, resolved upon his death without any 
 further process. In the fury of their blind zeal, they 
 staid not for a judicial sentence, nor for the warrant of 
 the Roman governor, without which no one could at 
 that time be legally put to death amongst them, but 
 stopping their ears against his supposed blasphemies, 
 they with great clamor rushed upon him, furiously 
 dragged him out of the city, and with a tempest of 
 stones satiated their rage against him. In the mean 
 time, the holy martyr prayed, saying, Lord Jesus, 
 receive my spirit\ and on his knees, he cried with a loud 
 voice, and the greatest earnestness, Lord, lay not this 
 sin to their charge. When he had said this, he fell 
 asleep in the Lord. St. Stephen suffered this painful 
 martyrdom of stoning and as we shall see, was buried 
 about twenty miles from Jerusalem, by the direction 
 of Gamaliel and at his expense. 
 
 Four hundred years having nearly elapsed the very 
 remembrance of the place of his burial had been 
 blotted out of the minds of men, and his relics lay con- 
 cealed under an old tomb, in a place twenty miles 
 from Jerusalem called Caphargamala, that is, borough 
 of Gamaliel, where stood a church served by a vener- 
 able priest named Lucian. In the year 415, in the 
 tenth of Honorius and the sixth of Theodosius the 
 Younger, on Friday the 3rd of December, about nine 
 o'clock at night, Lucian was vsleeping in his bed, in 
 the baptistery where he usually lay, in order to guard 
 the sacred vessels of the church. Being half -awake, 
 he saw a tall, comely old man of a venerable aspect, 
 with a long white beard, clothed in a white garment 
 edged with small plates of gold, marked with crosses, 
 and holding a golden wand in his hand. This person 
 
THE GHOST OF GAMALIEL. 287 
 
 approached Lucian, and calling him by his name three 
 times, bade him go to Jerusalem, and tell Bishop 
 John to come and open the tombs in which his remains, 
 and those of certain other servants of Christ lay, that 
 through their means, God might open to many the 
 gates of His clemency. Lucian asked his name. "I 
 am," said he, "Gamaliel who instructed Paul the 
 apostle in the law; and on the East side of the monu- 
 ment lieth Stephen who was stoned by the Jews, 
 without the North gate. His body was left there 
 exposed one day and one night, but was not touched 
 by birds or beasts. I exhorted the faithful to carry it 
 off in the night-time, which when they had done, I 
 caused it to be carried secretly to my house in the 
 country, where I celebrated his funeral rites forty 
 days, and then caused his body to be laiid in my own 
 tomb to the eastward. Nicodemus, who came to Jesus 
 by night, lieth there in another coffin. He was ex- 
 communicated by the Jews for following Christ, and 
 banished out of Jerusalem. Whereupon I received 
 him into my house in the country, and there main- 
 tained him, to the end of his life; after his death, I 
 buried him honorably near Stephen. I likewise buried 
 there my son Abibas, who died at the age of twenty 
 years. His body is in the third coffin that stands 
 higher up, where I myself also was interred after my 
 death. My wife Kthna. and my eldest son Semelias, 
 who were not willing to embrace the faith of Christ, 
 were buried in another ground, called Capharaemalia.** 
 Lucian fearing to pass as an imposter, if he were 
 too credulous, prayed, that if the vision were from 
 God, he might be favored with it a second and a third 
 time, and he continued to fast on bread ami waier 
 
288 THE FIFTH CENTURY, 
 
 On the Friday following, Gamaliel appeared to him 
 again in the same form as before, and commanded him 
 to obey. As emblems of the relics, he brought and 
 showed Lucian four baskets, three of gold and one of 
 silver. The golden baskets were full of roses, two of 
 white and one of red roses; the silver basket was full 
 of saffron of most fragrant smell. I^ucian asked what 
 these were. Gamaliel said, "They are our relics. 
 The red roses represent Stephen, who lieth at the 
 entrance of the sepulchre; the second basket, Nico- 
 demus, who is near the door; the silver basket repre- 
 sents my son Abibas, who departed this life without 
 stain; his basket is contiguous to mine." Having said 
 this, he disappeared. lyucian then awaked, gave 
 thanks to God. and continued his fasts. In the third 
 week, on the same day, and at the same hour, Gamaliel 
 appeared to him again, and with threats upbraided him 
 with neglect, adding that punishment would follow his 
 disobedience. Lucian being now terrified, promised he 
 would no longer defer it. 
 
 After this last vision, he repaired to Jerusalem, and 
 laid the whole affair before Bishop John, who wept for 
 joy, and bade him go and search for the relics, which 
 the bishop concluded would be found under a heap of 
 small stones that lay in a field near his church, 
 lyucian said he imagined the .same thing, and return- 
 ing home, summoned the inhabitants to meet the next 
 morning, in order to search under the mound. As 
 Lucian w^as going the following morning to see the 
 place dug up, he was met by Migetius, a monk of 
 pure and holy life, who told him that Gamaliel had 
 appeared to him, and bade him inform Lucian that 
 they labored in vain in that place. "We were laid 
 
THE GHOST OF GAMALIEL. 289 
 
 there," he said, "at the time of our funeral obsequies, 
 according to the ancient custom ; and that mound was a 
 mark of mourning, placed by our friends. Search 
 elsewhere, in a place called Debetalia. In effect," said 
 Migetius, continuing the relation of his vision, **I 
 found myself of a sudden in the same field where I saw 
 a neglected tomb in ruins, and in it three beds adorned 
 with gold; in one of them more elevated than the oth- 
 ers, lay two men, an old man and a young one, and one 
 in each of the other beds. ' ' Lucian having heard the 
 report of Migetius, praised God for having another 
 witness of his revelation, and having removed to no 
 purpose, the stones of the mound, he went to the spot 
 pointed out by Migetius. In digging up the earth 
 here, three coffins or chests were found, as above men- 
 tioned, whereon were engraved in large legible char- 
 acters, Cheliel, Nasuam, Gamaliel, Abibas. The fiist 
 two are the Syriac names of Stephen or crowned; and 
 Nicodemus. or victory. Lucian sent immediately to 
 acquaint bishop John of this. The bishop at the time 
 was attending the Council of DiospoHs, and taking 
 with him, Eutonius, bi.shopof Sebaste, and Kleutherius 
 bishop of Jericho, came to the place. Upon the open- 
 ing of St. Stephen's coffin, the earth trembled, and an 
 odour issued forth so fragrant that no one present had 
 ever before experienced anything like it. Quite a 
 multitude of people were present, among whom were 
 many affiicted with different ailments, of whom 
 seventy three were cured instantaneously. Some were 
 cured of scrofulous tumors of various kinds; others of 
 fevers, epilepsy, violent headaches, and hemorrhages. 
 The relics being re- inclosed, the bishop selected those 
 of St. Stephen for the church at Jerusalem of which he 
 
:290 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 had been deacon; the rest were left at Caphargamala. 
 The proto-martyr's body was reduced to dust, except 
 the bones, that were entire, and in their natural posi- 
 tion. The relics were borne with singing of psalms 
 and hymns to the church of Sion at Jerusalem. The 
 translation took place on the 26th. of December, on 
 which day the church has ever since honored the mem- 
 ory of St. Stephen. The history of the discovery and 
 translation were written by the priest Lucian himself, 
 and translated into Latin by Avitus a priest and inti- 
 mate friend of St. Jerome and may be found in the 
 appendix to the seventh tome of the works of St. Au- 
 gustine. 
 
 In his last book of the work entitled "Of the City of 
 God," St. Augustine tells us that he had received re- 
 ports of nearly seventy miracles wrought at Hippo by 
 the relics of St. Stephen. Among these he mentions 
 two persons raised from the dead; one the son of a col- 
 lector named Irenaeus; the other a daughter of Bessus, 
 a Syrian. 
 
 St. Augustine also tells us that he himself was an 
 eye-witness to many of the miracles wrought by the 
 relics. Among others, he relates the following: — 
 
 Ten children of a respectable family of Caesarea in 
 Cappadocia, seven sons and three daughters, having 
 been cursed by their mother on account of very bad 
 disrespectful treatment of her, were all seized with a 
 palsy, a violent trembling of the limbs, that became 
 distorted. In this state they wandered about from 
 place to place. Their unhappy disorder attracted the 
 attention of all. The wretched mother grieving at the 
 scourge she had brought upon her children, committed 
 suicide. Paul, the sixth child, and Palladia the seventh 
 
THE RELICS OF ST. STEPHEN. 291 
 
 came to Hippo, the city of St. Augustine iu the year 
 425. A little time before their coming, the holy bishop 
 had received a portion of the relics of St. Stephen over 
 which he erected in his cathedral church an altar, as 
 he himself says, "To God." On Easter Sunday morn- 
 ing, the afflicted young man Paul, praying be- 
 fore the altar of the relics, was perfectly cured. The 
 church echoed with acclamations, the people crying 
 out, "Thanks be to God. Praise be to God." Paul 
 was presented to St. Augustine who embraced him. 
 When sermon time came, the bishop showed Paul to 
 the people saying, * * We have been accustomed to read 
 of the miracles, that God has worked by the prayers 
 of the blessed martyr St. Stephen; but now the pres- 
 ence of this young man supplies the place of a book, 
 nor need we any other writing than his countenance 
 which you all know." He adds, that he would not 
 have been able to support the fatigue of the long ser- 
 vice of the preceding day — (Easter eve) — and night, 
 fasting, and then preaching, had it not been for the 
 prayers of St. Stephen. 
 
 On Easter Tuesday he caused Paul and Palladia to 
 stand on the steps of the pulpit, that they might be 
 seen by all the people; Paul, without any palsied 
 movement; Palladia, trembling in every limb. They 
 both then withdrew, and St. Augustine began to 
 preach on the respect that children owe their parents; 
 and the considerateness due by parents to children. 
 As the sermon proceeded it was suddenly interrupted 
 by the exclamations of the congregation, shouting, 
 "Thanks be to God." Palladia having gone from the 
 pulpit steps to pray at the altar of St. Stephen, was 
 miraculously cured. The sermon — interrupted by the 
 
292 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 miracle — , preached by St. Augustine on the occasion 
 is extant. 
 
 Thus did it please Almighty God, to honor the 
 martyrs of four centuries in the relics of the Proto- 
 Martyr. 
 
 THE NEMESIS. 
 
 When Rome was in the meridian of her pride, she 
 beheld herself reflected in each of the innumerable cities 
 that studded the shores of her seas, and lay scattered, 
 like marble villas near some great capital, over every 
 province within the frontiers. From Gades to Edessa, 
 from Camelodunum and London to the cities of Mauri- 
 tania and the Pyramids; the arts, the fashions which 
 she patronized, her literature and all the elegancies of 
 social existence had spread their influence; but because 
 Imperial Rome had shed the blood of the saints, and 
 was signally punished, yet forgetting her punishment, 
 and again reddening the empire with the martyr's 
 blood; once more the sword of Divine justice gleams at 
 the beginning of the fifth century. 
 
 '*A multitude of barbarous nations," says St Jerome 
 * 'have possessed themselves of all Gaul. The Quadi, 
 the Vandals, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Gepidi, 
 the Heruli, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Suevi, 
 and the Huns, have laid waste the whole country be- 
 tween the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the ocean 
 and the Rhine." 
 
 "The greatest part of the Gallic cities," says Gib- 
 bon, "were besieged and stormed by the Huns, who 
 practised, in the example of Metz, their customary 
 maxims of war. They involved every age, sex, and 
 profession, in promiscuous massacre. The flourishing 
 city was delivered to the flames, and a solitary chapel 
 
THE NEMESIS. 293 
 
 of St. Stephen marked the place where it formerly 
 stood." 
 
 "The situation of Spain, separated on all sides from 
 the enemies of Rome by the sea, by the mountains, and 
 by the intermediate provinces, bad secured the long 
 tranquility of that remote and sequestered country, 
 and we may observe, as a sure symptom of domestic 
 happiness, that in a period of four hundred years, 
 Spain furnished very few materials to the history of 
 the Roman empire. But, says Mariana, whom I have 
 been quoting, the irruption of the Suevi, Vandals, and 
 Alans, was followed by the most dreadful calamities, 
 as the barbarians exercised their indiscriminate cruelty 
 on the Romans and the Spaniards, and ravaged with 
 equal fury the cities and the open country. The pro- 
 gress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to 
 feed on the flesh of their fellow creatures; and even 
 the wild beasts, who multiplied without control in the 
 desert were exasperated by the taste of blood and the 
 impatience of hunger, boldly to attack and devour 
 their human prey. Pestilence soon appealed, the in- 
 separable companion of famire; a large portion of the 
 people was swept away, and the groans of the dying 
 excited only the envy of their surviving friends.** 
 
 "The long and narrow tract of the African coast/' 
 says Gibbon, "was filled with frequent monuments of 
 Roman art and magnificence, and the degrees of im* 
 provement might be accurately measured by the dis- 
 tance from Carthage and the Mediterranean. A sim* 
 pie reflection will impress every thinking mind with 
 the clearest idea of fertility and cultivation. The 
 country was extremely populous; the inhabitants re- 
 served a liberal subsistence for their own use, and the 
 
294 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 annual exportation, particularly of wheat, was so reg- 
 ular and plentiful, that Africa deserved the name of 
 the common granary of Rome and of mankind. On a 
 sudden the fruitful provinces from Tangier to Tripoli 
 were overwhelmed by the invasion of the Vandals." 
 
 "They found a province well cultivated," says Vic- 
 tor Vitensis, a contemporary author, "a country en- 
 joying plenty, the beauty of the whole earth. They 
 carried their destructive armies into every corner of it; 
 they depopulated it by their devastations, exterminat- 
 ing everything with fire and sword. They did not 
 even spare the vines and fruit trees, that those to 
 whom caves and inaccessible mountains had afforded a 
 retreat might find no nourishment of any kind. Their 
 hostile rage could not be satiated, and there was no 
 place exempted from the effects of it. They tortured 
 their prisoners with the greatest cruelty, that they 
 might force from them a discovery of their hidden 
 treasures. The more they discovered, the more they 
 expected, and the more implacable they became. 
 Neither the infirmities of age nor of sex; neither the 
 dignity of nobility, nor the sanctity of the sacerdotal 
 office, could mitigate their fury; but the more illustri- 
 ous their prisoners, the more barbarously they in- 
 sulted them. The public buildings that resisted the 
 violence of the flames, they levelled with the ground. 
 They left many cities without an inhabitant. When 
 they approached a fortified place, that their undiscip- 
 lined army could not reduce, they gathered together a 
 multitude of prisoners, and putting them to the sword, 
 left their bodies unburied, that the stench of the car- 
 casses might oblige the garrison to abandon it." 
 
 **For twenty years and more," writes St. Jerome^ 
 
THE NEMESIS. 295 
 
 **from Constantinople to the Julian Alps, we behold the 
 daily effusion of Roman blood; everywhere g^roansand 
 lamentations; everywhere death appears in various 
 shapes. The whole Roman empire is tumbling." 
 
 A touching and lively picture of the desolate aspect 
 of Bologna, Reggio, Modena, and Piacenza, with the 
 rich interjacent provinces, is given by St. Ambrose 
 even before the beginning of the fifth century. 
 
 "Above four years elapsed from the successful inva- 
 sion of Italy by the arms of Alaric, to the voluntary 
 retreat of the Goths, under the conduct of his succes- 
 sor Adolphus; and during the whole time, they reigned 
 without control over a country, which, in the opinion 
 of the ancients, had united all the various excellencies 
 of nature and art. The fruits of a long peace perished 
 under the rude grasp of the barbarians; and they them- 
 selves were incapable of tasting the more elegant re- 
 finements of luxury that had been prepared for the use 
 of the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, how- 
 ever, claimed an ample portion of the substantial^ 
 plenty, the corn and cattle, oil and wine, that was 
 daily collected and consumed in the Gothic camp, and 
 the principal warriors defiled the villas and gardens, 
 once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the 
 beauteous coasts of Campania. Their trembling cap- 
 tives, the sons and daughters of Roman Senators, pre- 
 sented in goblets of gold and gems, large draughts of 
 Falernian wine to the haughty victors, who stretched 
 their huge limbs under the shade of plane trees, artifi- 
 cially disposed to exclude the scorching rays and to 
 admit the genial warmth of the sun. These delights 
 of the Goths were enhanced by the memory of past 
 hardships: the comparison of their native soil, the 
 
296 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 bleak and barren hills of Scy thia, and the frozen banks 
 of the Elbe and Danube added new charms to the 
 felicity of the Italian climate. ' ' Thus did pagan Rome 
 pay for its cruel treatment of the Christians. 
 
 WHII.K THE ROMAN EMPIRE TOTTERS, THE CHURCH 
 CONVERTS IRELAND. 
 
 As the fifth century progressed, and while the re- 
 mainder of Europe — as we have seen in the preceding 
 chapter — was in a state of bloodshed, overrun by bar- 
 barians, Ireland, the land of the Druid, was converted 
 to Christianity, and converted without the shedding of 
 a single drop of blood. 
 
 Because of this remarkable circumstance, and be- 
 cause of the interest that many readers are likely to 
 take in the relation, a somewhat detailed though brief 
 account will be given of its history. 
 
 Ireland, the "Emerald Isle," the "Green Isle," the 
 "Island of the Holy and the Learned," the "Gem of 
 the Sea," arises from the bosom of the Atlantic, and is 
 situated at the side of Great Britain looking towards 
 America, "The land of the Brave and the Free." Her 
 crystal waters, her green clad mountains, her fairy 
 lakes, her dells and glens and vales, her rocky coast 
 laved by the wild wave.'i, her romantic round towers, 
 her noble monastic and ecclesiastical ruins, all claim 
 the just pride of the Irishman. Though not so large 
 as Kentucky, her soil is sufficiently fertile to support a 
 population of fifteen millions. Her history has been 
 eventful. 
 
 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 It is to be premised that the statements about to be 
 made on this part of very early Irish history, although 
 not clothed with certainty, yet were deemed probable 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 297 
 
 by such men as the Rev. James Todd, D. D. of Dublin 
 University; by George Petrie, L. L. D. the distin- 
 guished arcbaeologist and Celtic scholar; Mr. T. W. 
 Ivongfield of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin; by 
 Mr. Wakeman an Irish antiquarian, and by accredited 
 Irish historians. The probability of historic truth in 
 this matter arises from the fact that the bardic ac- 
 counts are confirmed by monumental record, and by 
 the names of rivers and localities whose origin cannot 
 be traced to the early colonists, so distant is that 
 origin. 
 
 According to the ancient chronicles of Ireland, the 
 first inhabitants were a colony from Greece wbooe 
 leader was Parthalon. about four thousand years ago. 
 It is said that he landed at Kenmare River, accomfM- 
 nied by his three sons and their families and about a 
 thousand followers. Parthalon died in the plain in 
 which Dublin now stands, about thirty >ears after his 
 landing, and in the space of about three hundred years, 
 nearly the whole country perished by pe.«^tilence. The 
 place in which this catastrophe happened was called 
 Sean-Mhagh-Ealta-Hdair, or the Old Plain of the flecks 
 of Adair. The memory of this event is preserved in 
 the name of the village of Tallaght (Tamleacht). which 
 signifies "the plague monument," from Tamh. a 
 plague; and Leacht, a monument. In Irish books the 
 place is called Tamleacht Muintir Parthaloin. or the 
 plague monument of Parthalon's people. The plague 
 is said to have been caused by the decomposed bodkt 
 of dead soldiers slain in the battle field. 
 
 After a (juarter of a century a second colony came 
 from the Southeastern part of Kurope, the Kuxine 
 Sea. led by Nemedius or Neimhidh (pronounced 
 
298 A NCI EN T IRELAND. 
 
 Nevy) and occupied the country sotre few centuries. 
 The annals' record the names of the raths or forts that 
 were constructed and of the plains cleared of wood 
 during this period, and they also mention the eruption 
 of four lakes at this time; Lakes Derryvarragh and 
 Ennell in Westmeath, with two others not identified. 
 Again we read of pestilence and of the ravages of an 
 invasion of pirates called Fomarians, very probably 
 Northmen known as Scandinavians. The Giant's 
 Causeway takes its name from them — Cloghan-na- 
 Fomharaigh, "The Stepping Stones of the Fomarians." 
 The principal battle with them was fought about a 
 thousand years before the Christian era. The 
 strongest fortress of the Fomorians at Tory Island, on 
 the Donegal coast, was stormed by the Nemedians, 
 but the pirates being re-enforced, the battle was 
 renewed on the Strand, the pirates remaining victors. 
 A comparatively small number of the Nemedians 
 escaped and took refuge, some in Albion (Britain) 
 others in Greece. Those who returned to Greece 
 were placed in bondage and received the name of 
 Firbolgs. 
 
 Again some centuries, and the Firbolgs having 
 multiplied considerably in Greece, escaped from bond- 
 age by seizing the ships of their masters and sailing 
 once more to Ireland. The country was divided 
 between their five leaders, the sons of Deala, each of 
 whom ruled in turn over the entire island. The names 
 of the brothers w^ere Slainghe, Rury, Gann, Geanann 
 and Seangann. The river Slaney, in Wexford, 
 derives its name from the first. 
 
 After half a century another formidable host of in- 
 vaders appeared in the Tuathade Danaans. The 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 29» 
 
 leader was Nuad of the Silver Hand, and the first act 
 on landing was to burn their own fleet, in order to 
 render retreat impossible. A battle was fought near 
 the shore of Lough Corrib, in which the Firbolgs were 
 overthrown with great slaughter. Eochy the king 
 fled, but was overtaken and slain at a place in the 
 present county of Sligo, where the cairn or stone heap, 
 raised over his grave, is still to be seen on the sea- 
 shore. 
 
 The victorious Nuad lost his hand in this battle. 
 
 and a silver hand was made for him by Credne Ccrd. 
 
 the artificer, and fitted on him by the physician 
 
 Diencecht, hence the surname that the king received. 
 
 Lugh Lamhfhada succeeded Nuad, and instituted the 
 
 fair of Tailltean now Teltown near the Blackwater in 
 
 Meath, which fair continued to be held until the 12th. 
 
 •century on the ist. of August, a day still called 10 
 
 Irish, Lugh Nasadh or Lugh's fair, of which vivid 
 
 traditions regarding ancient games remain. By the 
 
 Tuatha de Danaans, the Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny 
 
 on which the Irish kings were crowned in subsequent 
 
 ages was brought to Ireland. It was taken to Scotland 
 
 in the Sixth century, preserved afterwards for age^ in 
 
 the monastery of vScone. and taken to England in 1300 
 
 by Kdward I. It now stands in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Before treating of the Milesians we must premise 
 
 somewhat; first: that although the date of the landing 
 
 of the Milesians is differenily stated by different hia- 
 
 torians, yet they agree as to the numl>ei and names of 
 
 the kings, and the facts related of the different rciRnn; 
 
 secondly, that it was quite an easy matter for either 
 
 Greek, or Northman, or Spaniard to make his way lo 
 
 Ireland, as he had only to steer his galleys close lo the 
 
300 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 coast of Continental Europe; then by rounding Lizard 
 Point at Cornwall or Duncansby Head at Caithness, 
 he could easily sail in one day to Innis Ealga (Noble 
 Isle) from either of the points where Holyhead or Port 
 Patrick now stands. The latest historians place the 
 Milesian invasion about fourteen hundred years before 
 the Christian era. It may be said once for all that 
 any differences found in the statements of different 
 historians is owing to the fact that the history, of 
 ancient and medieval Ireland is scattered through 
 thirty thousand pages of Celtic manuscript, much of 
 which is difficult to decipher. 
 
 It is said that Ith (pronounced Eeh), the uncle of 
 Milesius, a venturesome explorer, had in his cruising 
 Northward from Spain, sighted the distant island, and 
 landing at Donegal to explore it, was attacked by the 
 inhabitants, who supposed him to be a spy, and mor- 
 tally wounded ere he could regain his ship He died 
 at sea on his way home. His body was reverently 
 preserved and brought back to Spain by his son Lu- 
 gaid (Lui), who had accompanied him. Eui sum- 
 moned the Milesian host to return with him to avenge 
 the death of his father. Milesius, himself, had died 
 before the return of Eui, biit his six sons quickly re- 
 sponded, and with their widowed mother, Queen 
 Scota, soon sailed in thirty galleys for the Noble Isle. 
 Heber the Fair, Amergin, Heber the Brown, Colpa, 
 Ir, and Heremon, were jubilant in the hope of con- 
 quest. 
 
 At that time the country was governed by three 
 brothers, princes of the Tuatha de Danaan race. 
 Their three wives were Erie, Banva, and Fiola, by any 
 of which names the island was known, and all three 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 301 
 
 are assigned to it in the national poems. The invaders 
 landed in detachments, some at the mouth of the 
 Boyne, others on the coast of Kerry. A short, but 
 fiercely contested campaign decided the fate of the 
 kingdom. In the first battle, fought in a glen a few 
 miles south of Tralee, the Milesians were victorious. 
 The queen-mother, Scota, fell amid the slain, and was 
 buried beneath a royal cairn in Glen Scohene, close 
 by. In a comparatively brief period the Milesian 
 princes subdued the whole country, and then entered 
 into a treaty with the Tuatha de Danaans. Accord- 
 ing to the Constitution then drawn up, and under 
 which Ireland was governed for more than a thousand 
 years, the people consisted of two classes, the Free 
 Clans and the Unfree Clans. The former, the descend- 
 ants of the Milesian soldiers; the lattier, of the sub- 
 jected people. The Unfree Clans may be said to have 
 governed themselves in great part, but could not vote 
 in the election of a sovereign, nor exercise the full 
 rights of citizenship. Heremon became sole ruler of 
 the Island, the divisions being Mononta, Lagentt. 
 Ulidia, Connacia. 
 
 From the Milesian conquest to the time of St. Pat- 
 rick, ii8 sovereigns are named who ruled over the 
 whole islands independently of the petty kings of the 
 provinces. The history of their reigns records the 
 enacting of laws, the erection of palaces, the clearing 
 of forests, the scenes of the battlefield, also the appear- 
 ance of some new rivers, and remarkable natural phe- 
 nomena, intermingled with fabulous legend. Of 
 course, in this chapter, only a mere outline can be 
 given of the principal reigns. 
 
 Among the early Milesian kings a prominent plaee 
 
302 A NCI EN T IREL AND. 
 
 is assigned to Tiernmas, who was the first to institute 
 in Ireland the public worship of idols. The chief idol, 
 Crom Cruach, the sun god, stood in Magh Slecht 
 (Plain of Adoration) in Brefry (Cavan). This idol 
 was covered with gold, and was surrounded with 
 smaller idols, all of which were afterwards destroyed 
 by St. Patrick. During the reign of Tiernmas, gold 
 was first smelted in Ireland, in the district of Foharta, 
 east of the river Liffey, also, goblets and brooches were 
 first plated in gold. He ordained that rank should be 
 distinguished by the number of colors in the dress: the 
 slave, one color; the peasant, two; the soldier, three; 
 the keeper of a house of hospitality, four; chieftain, 
 five; man of learning, six; king or queen, seven. In 
 the reign of Enna Airgeach, perhaps a thousand years 
 B. C, silver shields were made at Airget Ross (Silver 
 Wood), near Kilkenny. 
 
 Ollamh F'odhla (OUav Fola) instituted one of the 
 first Parliaments on record, held at the centrally situ- 
 ated Tara. All the chieftains, bards, historians and 
 military leaders were regularly summoned, and re- 
 quired to attend under penalty of being declared the 
 king's enemies. The bards gave long and glowing 
 accounts of the regal magnificence displayed. Tables 
 were arranged along the centre, and on the walls at 
 each side, the banners of the different septs, so that 
 each chief on entering sat opposite his own. Orders 
 were issued by sound of trumpet. It would appear 
 that the principal duty was the inspection and audit- 
 ing of the national records, the writers of which were 
 obliged to accuracy under grave penalty. Some mod- 
 ern writers object that the art of writing could not 
 have been known at this early period in Ireland; anti- 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND, aOS 
 
 quarians know the contrary. At the close of this 
 chapter the Ogham characters will be treated of. The 
 Parliament assembled every third year at Tara, or less 
 frequently, according to exigency. Ollav Fola ap- 
 pointed also a chieftain over every cantred or hundred, 
 and a secondary officer over every townland, all subject 
 to the Ard Righ or supreme monarch. After a bril- 
 liant reign he died and was buried at Tara. 
 
 King Monemon appointed golden chains as orna- 
 ments for the neck of nobles, and golden finger rings. 
 Some two hundred years after, the town of Kells was 
 founded by Fiacha Finailches; afterwards, four horse 
 chariots by Roiachty; later, pay was given to soldiers 
 by Sidna Inarry; si ill later, silver coin was stamped at 
 the works of Airget Ross. 
 
 The reign of Cimbeath (Kinibay) brings us to the 
 certain period of Irish Chronology, a few centuries B. 
 C. During his reign the royal palace of Ulster named 
 Emania, was founded. He married queen Machawho 
 built it. It was known as the palace of the Red 
 Branch Knights, the home of the kings of Ulster for 
 more than eight centuries. 
 
 Afterwards came Hugony the Great, whose power 
 extended all over the west of Kurope as far as Mtiir- 
 Torrean (Mediterranean.) He divided ihc kingdom 
 into twenty-five parts, which he a.ssigned to members 
 of his own family. During this reign a prince named 
 Lowry Longseach (Lowry of the ships) was exiled, 
 lived some time in Gaul, then returned with Iwothoo- 
 sand foreigners, landed on the coast of Wexford, 
 marched rapidly to the royal residence at Dinrye on 
 the banks of the Barrow which he attacked at night; 
 slew the king, his uncle, and thirty nobles: and tben 
 
304 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 set fire to the palace that was burned to the ground. 
 He then seized the crown and reigned nineteen years. 
 
 Then we read of Achy who again divided the island 
 into five parts; and of Maeve, queen of Connaught, 
 who at the head of an army dashed into Ulster with 
 her war chariots, and moving southward swept the 
 lands at both sides of the Shannon. 
 
 The Milesians and the early settlers never harmon- 
 ized. The Milesian rule became so oppressive that in 
 the reign succeeding Creivan the 2d., the ninety ninth 
 Milesian monarch, a wide-spread conspiracy was 
 organized to abolish Milesian government. After 
 three years secret preparation, the royal and noble 
 Milesian families were invited to a magnificent enter- 
 tainment, to enjoy games, exhibitions, festivities, and 
 banqueting to be held on the plain of Knock Ma in the 
 county of Galway. The great spectacle had lasted 
 nine days when suddenly the Milesians were attacked 
 by the Aitheach-Tuatha, (Atacotti) as the Latin 
 writers call them, and massacred to a man. Of the 
 royal line, there escaped however, three princes, chil- 
 dren yet unborn, whose mothers, wives of Milesian 
 princes, were daughters respectively of the kings of 
 Scotland, Saxony, and Brittany, who escaped to 
 Albion, where the three young princes were born and 
 educated. This occurred about the beginning of the 
 Christian era. 
 
 The Attacotti after the massacre of the Milesians of 
 the royal and noble families, elected as their king, 
 Carbry, who reigned during five years, during which 
 time people suffered much from famine, and the dis- 
 order naturally arising as the sequence of successful 
 rebellion. At the death of Carbry, the crown was 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND, 305 
 
 refused by his son, the wise and prudent Moran, who 
 advised that the rightful heirs be invited back from 
 England to assume the throne of their ancestors. The 
 young princes were accordingly invited home, and one 
 of them Faradach Finnfeachtnach (Righteous) was 
 elected king. Moran, surnamed the Just, administered 
 the law during his reign, in which peace and order 
 were again restored. It was Moran who introduced 
 the famous chain of office to be worn around the neck 
 by one exercising the office of judge. As time rolled 
 on, the Attacotti were subjected to more grievous op- 
 pression than ever, and accordingly a fresh rebellion 
 broke forth. This time the provincial kings were in- 
 duced to join in the outbreak that resulted in a des- 
 perate battle at Maghbolg on the boundaries of the 
 present counties of Cavan and Meath, in which the 
 monarch Fiacha Finfolay was killed. Elim, king of 
 Ulster, who had joined the insurgents was chosen 
 monarch, and had a troubled reign of twenty years. 
 After this reign, a second of the Milesian princes bom 
 in exile, known as Tuathal Teachlar (legitimate) at 
 the invitation of a powerful party returned and slew 
 Elim in battle at Aichill, at the hill of Skreen in 
 Meath. Tuathal reigned thirty years, and fearing re- 
 volt, very unwisely adopted a policy of oppression and 
 extermination. He endeavored al^o to establish his 
 family permanently on the throne, by exacting an oath 
 from the people that his posterity should ever be reot>K- 
 nized as the lawful sovereigns. The oath began with 
 the words, '* By the sun, moon, and elements.'* He 
 cut off from each of the other four provinces a portion 
 of territory of which he formed the separate province 
 of Meath; as the especial possession of the Ard-Righ. 
 
306 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 In his day the parliament at Tara was convoked with 
 great state. 
 
 The rei^n of Conn of the Hundred Battles is one of 
 the most remarkable in ancient Irish history, because 
 of his military character. His kingly life appears to 
 have been spent on the battle-field. 
 
 In the whole history of pre-Christian Erin, the 
 reign of Cormac Ulfadha, A. D. 227, marks the bright- 
 est epoch. This king devoted himself especially to the 
 cause of education. He established a military college, 
 a law college, and a college for the special study of 
 history. He collected and remodelled the laws, and 
 published the code that remained in force throughout 
 the land until the English invasion, and outside the 
 English Pale for centuries after. He assembled the 
 bards and chroniclers at Tara, and directed them to 
 collect the annals of Ireland, and to continue the re- 
 cords of the country from year to year. These annals 
 were known as the Psalter of Tara and contained also 
 a description of the boundaries of provinces, cantreds 
 and smaller divisions of land throughout the country; 
 unfortunately this important record has been lost. The 
 magnificence of Cormac' s palace at Tara was commen- 
 surate with his dignity and authority. Next in state- 
 liness to the palace was the House of Parliament known 
 as the Teach Miodhchuarta capable of accomodating a 
 thousand persons. It formed an oblong hall with 
 fourteen massive doors, seven on the east side and 
 seven on the west. According to Dr. Petrie's measure- 
 ments it was 760 feet long and 90 feet wide. There 
 was a double row of benches on each side, running the 
 entire length of the hall; in the centre, a number of 
 fireplaces in a line between the benches, and over the 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND, 807 
 
 fireplaces a row of spits, at which a large number of 
 joints could be roasted. There is in the **Book of 
 Leinster," a ground plan of the building. The king 
 took his place at the south end of the hall, the nobles 
 and officers were ranged along the sides according to 
 their dignity, the servants and attendants at the north 
 end. At night, they slept on couches, eastern fashion. 
 The appearance of King Cormac is thus described in 
 the "Book of Bally mote," copied from the Book of 
 the Ua Chongabhail. "Beautiful was the appearance 
 of Cormac in that assembly. Flowing and slightly 
 curling was his auburn hair. A red buckler with stars 
 and animals of gold, and fastenings of silver, upon 
 him. A crimson cloak, in wide descending folds 
 around him, fastened at his neck with precious stones. 
 Shoes, with golden buckles. A spear in his right 
 hand. And he was himself, symmetrical and beauti- 
 ful of form, without blemish or reproach." Two 
 golden neck torques of the kind descril>ed can be seen 
 to-day in the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. Some 
 works written by this king are still extant. The first 
 of these is a treatise still in manuscript entitled Teaguse 
 na Riogh or Duties of Princes. It is in form of a dia- 
 logue, between the king and his son. "This book 
 contains as goodly precepts and moral documents as 
 Cato or Aristotle did ever write," says the Irish histo- 
 rian McGeoghegan. King Cormac has provetl him- 
 .self quite a jurist in the Book of Aicill written by him 
 and published in the third volume of the Brehon pub- 
 lications. It may be remarked here that the British 
 Government appointed a commi.ssion known as ihe 
 Brehon Law Commission aided by such men as Rev. 
 Dr. Graves and Rev. Dr. Todd, distinguished in Dtib- 
 
308 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 lin University, and the Celtic scholars, Eugene O' Curry 
 and Dr. O' Donovan. This Book of Aicill proves in- 
 controvertibly that in the third century of the Chris- 
 tian era, there was considerable literary culture in 
 Ireland. The works of Cormac are still extant in the 
 most archaic forms of the Celtic language. The king's 
 daughters also, Ailbhe and Meadhbh wrote some 
 poems that appear in the Book of lyeijjster. Cormac 
 died A. D. 266. 
 
 Niall surnamed Naoi Ghillach (nine hostages) as- 
 cended the throne A. D. 379. He devoted his energies 
 to hostile expeditions against Britain and Gaul. It is 
 said that the incursions of the Irish at that time were 
 the scourge of Western Europe, and that England and 
 France feared the approach of the Irish pirate vessels 
 as much as they did those of the Northmen They 
 plundered and laid waste countries that Imperial 
 Rome, in the day of her decay, could not protect. The 
 Britons were unable to make any stand against them, 
 the Roman walls ceased to be a barrier, and the seas 
 from North to South swarmed with the fleets of the 
 Irish invaders. The Eatin poet, Claudian, refers to 
 the fact of troops being sent by Stilicho, the general of 
 Theodosius the Great, to repel the Irish hosts led on 
 by the brave King Niall. Numerous prisoners and 
 hostages were brought from Scotland, Britain and 
 Gaul, and it was during the last incursion of Niall of 
 the coast of Armoric Gaul, that Patrick, son of Cal- 
 phurnius, a Roman decurio, with his sisters Darerca 
 and Lupila, were carried among other captives to Ire- 
 land towards the close of the fourth century. 
 
 The laws of the ancient Irish formed a vast body of 
 jurisprudence of which only recent researches have en- 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND, 809 
 
 abled the world to appreciate its merits. Several col- 
 lections and revisions of these laws were made by suc- 
 cessive kings from the decisions of eminent judges, 
 and these are now known as the Brehon laws. The 
 Cain Adamnain, the law against the appearance of 
 women in battle; the Cain Lanamnais, the law of hus- 
 band and wife; the Cain Altroma, the law of fosterage; 
 the Urradus, the law of territory: the Cain Cairde, the 
 law regulating the relations between two clans; the 
 Cain Phadraig, the law against kiiling oxen used in 
 ploughing; and the Cain Daire, the law against killing 
 milch cows. One of the most peculiar of the ancient 
 native laws of Ireland was that of Tanaistecht, (suc- 
 cession) O' Curry writes, * 'There was no invariable 
 rule of succession to the throne in the Milesian times, 
 but according to the general tenor of the ancient ac- 
 counts, the eldest son succeeded the father to the 
 exclusion of all collateral claimants of the same line, 
 as well as his brothers, unless it happened that he was 
 disqualified by some personal deformity or blemish, or 
 by imbecility or crime; or unless as happened in after 
 ages, by parental testament, or mutual compact, the 
 succession was made alternate in two or more families. 
 The eldest son being thus recognized as the presump- 
 tive heir and successor to the dignity was denominated 
 Tanaiste (successor) but minor or second, whilst all 
 the other sons or persons eligible in case of his failure 
 were simply called Righdamhua, (king material). 
 When, however, the succession was alternate between 
 two families, then upon the death of the king or chief, 
 he was not succeeded by his own son or brother, but 
 by the senior male member of the other line, subject 
 to the disqualification already mentioned. The Tan- 
 
310 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 aiste, whosoever he might be, had a separate main- 
 tainence and establishment, as well as distinct privi- 
 leges and liabilities. He was inferior to the king or 
 chief, but above all the other dignitaries of the state, 
 as laid down in the ancient 'Institution of Erin,' com- 
 monly called the Brehon laws." 
 
 According to the law of territory, every tribe and 
 every family had a legal right to its proportionate 
 share of land, but the tenure of land, even of a whole 
 tribe, was frequently disturbed by war, and whenever 
 a tribe was driven or emigrated into a district, where 
 it had no hereditary claim, if it obtained land, it was 
 on the payment of rent to the king of the district; 
 these rents being in some instances so heavy, as to 
 compel the strangers to seek a home elsewhere. By 
 the law of eric or mulct, crime, including even murder, 
 was punished by fine, but in the case of murder, the 
 law was only conditional, as the friends of the deceased 
 could insist on capital punishment. According to the 
 law of fosterage, the children of one royal or noble 
 family were frequently nursed and educated by the 
 members of another, and this system of fostering is 
 said to have produced ties of affection betweed differ- 
 ent clans and families almost as strong and sacred as 
 those of blood. The offices of druid, brehon, bard and 
 physician were hereditary, yet not so absolute as that 
 others might not be permitted to aspire to them. It 
 may not be out of place here to remark that fosterage 
 and gossipred, as well as intermarriage with the native 
 Irish, were declared to be treason by the Statute of 
 Kilkenny, 40th. Ed. iii, A. D. 1367. 
 
 Under the term Bards we include the Fileadh, 
 (poets) and the Fer-comge (chroniclers). In pre 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 311 
 
 Christian Erin, and even long after the introduction 
 of Christianity, the chronicler taught the history and 
 genealogy of his clan in verse, the accuracy of which 
 was tested at the triennial parliament of Tara. The 
 chronicler especially commemorated voyages, wars, 
 battles, sensational occurrences. The Ollcamn poet 
 or Doctor of Poetry, was obliged to spend at least 
 twelve years in careful preparation for his final degree, 
 and to have prepared for public recitation, seven times 
 fifty stories of useful, recreative, polished character. 
 Moreover, he should be perfect master of the seven 
 kinds of verse, and the different forms of metre. lo 
 the Book of Ballymote, there is a long list of the cele- 
 brated poets and historians of ancient Ireland. One of 
 the most learned of these was Oilioll Olum (the sage) 
 who flourished from A. D. 183 to 234. The Celtic 
 scholar O'Curry, who has been already quoted, tells as 
 that three poems of the Sage are still preserved in the 
 Book of Leinster. The following Rosg Cata (Martial 
 Ode) is taken from the second volume of '*Thc Trans- 
 actions of the Royal Irish Academy.'* It was song 
 after the battle of Cnuca, by Feargus. son of Finn, 
 and addressed to Gall, the son of Norma, A. D. 150. 
 
 "Cole, vigorous and warlike; 
 Chief of heroes; 
 Generous and brave of hand; 
 The choice of chivalry. 
 Like the bound of full-fed fl^me; 
 A blazing that cannot be quenchcil. 
 
 A hero in many encounters: 
 
 The sway of the royal knights 
 
 A lion rapid to the attack, disabling the foe. 
 
312 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 Bulwark to the brave under blows; 
 Valiant hero in constant after-battles, 
 Who never yielded in a battle of the brave. 
 
 Generous to poets; 
 Rest to knights; 
 Tax on nations; 
 Ruin to invaders; 
 Prince of true tutelage; 
 Subduer of every country; 
 King to the King of laws; 
 A man of firm judgments. 
 
 As the Druids of Erin according to received history, 
 gave the greatest trouble to St. Patrick in the conver- 
 sion of the country, it is necessary to paint a truthful 
 picture of them, in order to estimate justly] the diffi- 
 culties that lay in the way of Ireland's great apostle. 
 At the beginning of the Christian era, and for cen- 
 turies afterwards, there were Druids among all the 
 Celtic tribes of France, Britain and Ireland. In the 
 time of Caesar they were very famous both as priests 
 and scholars. The character and functions of the 
 Druids of Gaul are described by Caesar in the 6th. 
 book of his Commentaries. *'They attend to divine 
 worship, offer public and private sacrifices and explain 
 matters of religion. A large number are gathered 
 around them for the sake of education, and they (the 
 Druids) enjoy the very great honor in that nation. 
 They assign rewards and punishments, and should 
 any one, whether a private individual or a public man, 
 disobey their decrees, then they exclude him from the 
 sacrifices. Persons thus laid under edict are regarded 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND, 3ia 
 
 as impious and wicked people; everybody avoids them, 
 and shuns their society and conversation, lest he 
 should be injured by associating with them. 
 
 "The Druids take no part in warfare, nor do they 
 pay taxes like the rest of the people. They are ex- 
 empt from military service and from all public bur- 
 dens. Attracted by such rewards, many come to be 
 instructed of their own choice, while others are .sent by 
 their parents. They are reported to learn in the schools 
 a great number of verses, so that some remain there 
 twenty years. They think it an unhallowed thing to 
 commit their lore in writing, though in the other pub- 
 lic and private affairs of life, they frequently make use 
 of the Greek alphabet. Beyond all things, they are 
 desirous to inspire a belief that men's souls do not 
 perish." The Druids declined to worship in temples 
 made with hands. They preferred the canopy of the 
 sky, and conducted their religious .services within 
 groves of the venerable oak tree, whose dark foliage 
 cast sombre shade over their rude stone altars. 
 
 The Druids of Ireland appear to have been honored 
 even more than in Gaul, as wc find them in the palace 
 of Laeghaire (Lerey) at Tara. at Cruachan in Con- 
 naught, and at Tulach-na Druadh (Killala) both 
 royal seats of the kings. It must not l)e omitted that 
 they esteemed nothing more sacred than the mistletoe. 
 and the oak tree in which it grew. The mistletoe was 
 called in their language "All heal." It was difficult 
 to be found, and when discovered was gathered with 
 religious ceremonies, particularly at the sixth day of 
 the moon. The sacrifice and the feast being duly pre- 
 pared under the tree, they led thither two white oxen, 
 whose horns were then bound for the first time. This 
 
314 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 ceremony signifying that the animals had never been 
 employed in labor. The Druids, clothed in white, as- 
 cending the tree, cut off the mistletoe with a golden 
 knife, and received it in a white cloth. They then 
 slew the victims, invoking the favor of the deity on 
 the offering. 
 
 Some antiquarians credit the Druidic system as the 
 basis of the ancient Triads, which would argue sur- 
 prising depths of knowledge for those times. The fol- 
 lowing are a few of the Triads: The three qualifica- 
 tions of poetry, endowment of genius, judgment from 
 experience, happiness of mind. The three foundations 
 of judgment— bold design, frequent practice, frequent 
 mistakes. The three foundations of learning — seeing 
 much, suffering much, studying much. The three 
 foundations of happiness — suffering with content, a 
 hope that happiness wull come, and a belief that it will 
 come. The three foundations of thought — perspicuity, 
 amplitude, and justice. The three canons of perspicu- 
 ity — the word that is necessary, the quantity that is 
 necessary, the matter that is necessary. The three 
 canons of amplitude — appropriate thought, variety of 
 thought, requisite thought. 
 
 Such the Druids, such the men, whose terrible op- 
 position was conquered by the brave Apostle of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Strange as it may sound, the Irish people had, some 
 three thousand years ago, an alphabet and a system of 
 writing on stone and wood, much more simple than 
 the hierogl) phics of Egypt. The letters are termed 
 Oghams, because that in bardic history, the invention 
 is attributed to Ogma, son of Elathan, a prince of the 
 Tuatha de Danaans, a people whom all the Celtic tra- 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 315 
 
 ditions represent as the most cultured of the primitive 
 tribes. The alphabet is composed of four sets of five 
 letters each, and five symbols of some dipthongs. The 
 following are the letters, but the symbols are omitted, 
 as they are complicated in form, and could not be 
 easily printed. It will be observed that the consonants 
 form longer lines than the vowels. The lowest line is 
 the word America. 
 
 A U E I 
 
 H D T C Q 
 
 B L F 5 N 
 
 M fi NO 5T R 
 
 A M E 
 
 I C A 
 
 The inscriptions have been invariably found on 
 tombstones. Within the last eighty years aoo such 
 stones have been found in the south and west of Ire- 
 land. Only a few words appear on each, recording the 
 name and family of the deceased, and in some instances 
 of eulogy. The letters are nearly always cut on the 
 angular line of the left side of the upright stone, fadng 
 Bishop iiealy. 
 
316 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 the observer. The inscription begins at the bottom, is 
 read upwardly and sometimes is continued down the 
 right side. It is inferred from the ancient manuscripts 
 that news and messages were written in this way on 
 rods and tablets of wood, that were carried from place 
 to place in small bundles. The bark of trees was used 
 for the same purpose. There is reason to think that 
 the Britons learned the art from Ireland, as twenty-two 
 Ogham stones have been found in the south and west 
 of England and ten in Scotland. Smith an English 
 writer states in his "Antiquities" that even the Druids 
 came first from Erin to Britain, thence to Gaul. 
 Ogham inscriptions may be seen in the British Museum, 
 and in the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. 
 
 The following details of dress, arms and music are 
 gleaned from the writings of Eugene O' Curry, the first 
 of modern Celtic scholars: 
 
 An Irish chieftain attracted the eye, by his Cathbarr 
 (pronounced cow-bar) a helmet of bronze; by his 
 cochall, a mantle usually of green color, beneath which 
 was a tightly fitting tunic of wool called an lonar, but- 
 toned and reaching nearly to the knees, that covered 
 an under garment of silk "Leine Sioda", or of linen 
 "Leine," according to the rank of the wearer. A 
 triuibus (truis) generally striped of several colors, 
 hose and pantaloons united in a single piece. 
 
 The shield named Sciath (skeed) was of wicker-work 
 bound and partly covered with bronze; the Sleagh 
 (shlea) a light bronze-headed spear; the Gae, a small 
 javelin; the Cran Tabhaill (cran-towel) a sling for 
 stone casting; the Beall, a sharp edged battle-axe; the 
 Carbud Searrdha (sharra) a war chariot armed with 
 scythes or knives; such the arms. Every sect had its 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 317 
 
 own banner, distinguished by an emblem or inscription; 
 the banner of the Red Hand was famous. The battle 
 cry was Faire ! Faire! pronounced farra, with accent 
 on last syllable and the second sound of the letter a. 
 
 The musical instruments were the Adharc. (eye-arc') 
 an ox horn; the Corn Buabhaill (boovil) a horn of 
 bronze; the Cruit, a lar^e harp; the Ceis (kesh) a 
 smaller harp; the Fidiol, a violin; the Piopaidhe (pee- 
 pay) unknown; and the Cuisle Ciuil (cushla ciool) a 
 flute. 
 
 Of the four Celtic dialects now existing, the Irish. 
 Scotch, Welsh and Erse, the Irish is justly admitted as 
 approaching nearest to the mother tongue. This is 
 admitted by the late Mr. Richard Garrett, one of the 
 most learned of English philologists, who writes, 
 "Irish is the parent tongue; Scottish Gaelic is Irish 
 stripped of a few inflections; and Welsh and Erse arc 
 merely Gaelic with a few peculiar words, and dis- 
 guised by a corrupt system of orthography.** It is 
 spoken to day as of old in Connaught and part of Mun- 
 ster, and receives some attention in the other two 
 provinces. Foreigners of note, during the last half 
 century, have studied it closely, deeming it one of the 
 keys of language Among these we read the names 
 of Pritchard; of Latham; of Blaclcie, professor of Greek 
 in the University of Edinburgh; of Newman and 
 Lewis, botli iMiglishmen; of Pictet of Geneva; and of 
 German linguists, Zeuss, Herr Gluck, Bopp, Leo, 
 Korner, Sparschuh, Gorres, and Holtxman. The lan- 
 guage of Ireland is copious and very expressi\*e. the 
 wild "Faire" of the Irish regiments siomelimcs struck 
 terror into their opponents. It i.H the language of 
 prayer; its terms are respectful and adoring; it is the 
 
318 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 language of affection: the mother can speak to her 
 child in the most endearing terms, and the child to its 
 mother; it is the language of oratory: it pleads with 
 earnestness or it scathes with sarcasm; or it rings with 
 indignation. In death, it intoned the keenest sorrow; 
 in the judgment-hall, it swayed the hearers; on the 
 battle field, it inspirited the soldier. The following 
 charming lines were written in 1855, by the Rev. 
 Michael MuUin while a student of Maynooth College: 
 
 THE CELTIC TONGUE. 
 
 I. 
 It is fading, it is fading, like the leaves upon the trees! 
 It is dying, it is dying, Hke the western ocean breeze! 
 It is fastly disappearing, as footprints on the shore, 
 Where the Barrow, and the Brne, and Lough Swilly's waters 
 
 roar, 
 Where the parting sunbeam kisses the Corrib in the West, 
 And the ocean, like a mother, clasps the Shannon to its breast! 
 The language of old Erin, of her history and name, 
 Of her monarchs and her heroes, of her glory and her fame. 
 The sacred shrine where rested, through her sunshine and her 
 
 gloom. 
 The spirit of her martyrs, as their bodies in the tomb! 
 The time-wrought-shell where murmured through centuries of 
 
 wrong. 
 The secret voice of Freedom in annal and in song, 
 Is surely, fastly sinking into silent death at last, 
 To live but in the memories and relics of the past. 
 
 II. 
 The olden tongue is sinking, like a Patriarch to rest, 
 Whose youthhood saw the Tyrian, on our Irish coasts a guest, 
 Ere the Saxon or the Roman, ere the Norman or the Dane, 
 Had first set foot in Britain, or the Visigoth in Spain, 
 Whose manhood saw the Druid rite at forest tree, and rock. 
 The savage tribes of Britain, round the shrines of Zernebock, 
 
ANCIENT IRELAND. 81» 
 
 And for generations witnessed all the glories of the Gael, 
 Since our Celtic sires sung war songs round the warrior fires of 
 
 Baal, 
 The tongues that saw its infancy are ranked among the dead. 
 And from their graves have risen those now spoken in their 
 
 stead, 
 All the glories of old Erin, with her liberty have gone, 
 Yet their halo lingered round her, while her olden Tongue lived 
 
 on, 
 For mid the desert of her woe, a monument more vast. 
 Than all her pillar towers it stood, that old Tongue of the Past. 
 
 III. 
 And now 'tis sadly shrinking from the soil that gave it birth. 
 Like the ebbing tide from shore, or the Spring-time from the 
 
 earth, 
 O'er the island dimly fading, as a circle o*er the wave. 
 Still receding, as its people lisp the language of the slave. 
 And with it, too, seem fading, as a sunset into night. 
 All the scattered rays of Freedom, that lingered in its light; 
 For, ah, though long with filial love it clung to Motherlanil, 
 And Irishmen were Irish still, in tongue, and heart, and hand. 
 Before the Saxon tongue, alas! proscribed it soon became. 
 And we are Irishmen to-day, but Irishmen in name. 
 The Saxon chain our rights and tongue, alike doth hold in thrall. 
 Save where amid theConnaught-wilds and hills of Donegal, 
 And by the shores of Munster, like the broad Atlantic blast. 
 The olden language lingers yet, an echo from the Past, 
 
 IV. 
 Through cold neglect 'tis dying, like a stranifer on our short. 
 No Teamhore's halls shall vibrate to its thrilling tonct o'trmort. 
 No Laurence fire the Celtic clans 'round 'le«gnerid AllMidt, 
 No shannon waft froai Luimneach's toweri, thtir wnr-aoogi lo 
 
 the sea. 
 Ah, the pleasant Tongue, whoae accents wert mnaic to tht mx\ 
 Ah, the Magic Tongue, that round us wove its spells an soft nad 
 
 dear! 
 Ah, the glorious Tongue, whose murmur oonld Mch Otilic benrt 
 
 enthrall! 
 
320 ANCIENT IRELAND. 
 
 Ah, the rushing Tongue, that sounded like the rushing torrents 
 
 fall! 
 The tongue that in the Senate, was the lightning flashing bright* 
 Whose echo in the battle, was the thunder in its might; 
 The tongue that once in chieftain's hall, swelled loud the min- 
 strel's lay, 
 As chieftain, serf, or minstrel old, is silent there to-day; 
 Whose pass- word burst upon the foe at Kong and Mullaghmast, 
 Like those who nobly perished there, is numbered w4th the 
 
 Past! 
 
 V. 
 The Celtic tongue is fading, and we coldly standing by — 
 Without a pang within the heart, a tear within the eye — 
 Without one pulse for Freedom stirred, one effort made to save 
 The language of our fathers, lisp the language of the slave ! 
 Sons of Erin ! vain your efforts — vain your prayers for freedom's 
 
 crown, 
 Whilst you crave it in the language of the foe that clove it down. 
 Know you not that tyrants ever, with an art from darkness 
 
 sprung. 
 Strive to make the conquered nation, slave alike in limb and 
 
 tongue. 
 The Russian Bear ne'er stood secure, o'er Poland's shattered 
 
 frame. 
 Until he trampled from her breast, the tongue that bore her 
 
 name. 
 Oh, be Irish. Irishmen, and rallv for the dear old Tongue, 
 Which, as ivy to a ruin, to the dear old land has clung, 
 O, snatch this relic from the wreck, the only and the last, 
 To show what Erin ought to be, by pointing to the Past. 
 
 CHRISTIAN IRELAND. 
 During the reign of Niall A. D. 388, we have seen 
 the pirate galleys of Krin, sweep alon-g the coast of 
 Gaul, laying waste its fair fields, and seizing its 
 youths as captives to be sold in the market, among 
 them being Patrick the son of a Roman decurio. He 
 was then sixteen years of age, and was sold to a 
 
57: PATRICK, 381 
 
 chieftain in Antrim named Milcho, who sent him to 
 tend sheep and swine amid the mountains. He himself 
 tells us of his captivity in his work known as the 
 "Confession," written towards the close of his life. 
 The Rev. James Todd D. D. of Dublin University, a 
 Protestant clergyman, eminent in Celtic literature not 
 only admits that the * 'Confession" is genuine, but 
 quotes in its defense the following distinguished 
 writers: Ware. Usher, Cave, Spelman, Tillemont, 
 Mabillon, D'Achery, Martene, Du Cange, Bollandus, 
 Dupin, O'Connor, Lanigan, and Villaneuva. 
 
 St. Patrick in his "Confession" writes: "I was 
 carried captive into Ireland with many thousands of 
 men, as we deserved, for we had not guarded the com- 
 mandments. After I had come to Ireland, I was daily 
 tending sheep, and many times in the day I prayed, 
 and more the love of God and his faith and fear grew 
 in me, and the spirit was stirred; so that in a single 
 day I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in 
 the night nearly the same, so that I remained in the 
 woods and on the mountains, and before the dawn I 
 was called to prayer by the snow, the ice, and the rain. 
 One night I heard a voice in my sleep saying, 'Thou 
 dost fast well, fasting thou shalt soon go to thine own 
 country,' and again, after a little time I had an answer 
 saying, 'Behold thy ship is ready.' And the place 
 was not near, perhaps at the distance of 200 miles, and 
 I had never been in the place, and knew none of the 
 people living there. After this I fled, and left the 
 man with whom I had been for six years, and I came 
 in the strength of the Lord, who guided my way for 
 good; and I had no fear, until I reached the ship. On 
 the day of my arrival, the ship had nioveil out of her 
 
322 THE FIFIH CENTURY. 
 
 place, and I asked that I might be taken on board and 
 
 sail with them, but the master was unwilling, and 
 
 answered angrily, *By no means attempt to come 
 
 with us.' When I heard the answer, I turned away 
 
 to seek the cottage where I had lodged, and on the 
 
 way I began to pray, and before my prayer was ended, 
 
 I heard one of them shouting with a loud voice, 
 
 'Come quickly, for these men are calling thee,' and 
 
 returning at once, they addressed me and said, 'Come, 
 
 we receive thee in good faith, let us be friends in 
 
 whatever way you will.' After three days we reached 
 
 the land, and for twenty-eight days journeyed through 
 
 an uninhabited country. The men's provisions 
 
 failed, and they suffered grievously trom hunger; and 
 
 one day the master said to me, 'What say est thou, O 
 
 Christian! thy God is mighty and can do all things; 
 
 why cannot you then pray for us, since we are nigh to 
 
 death with hunger, and it will go hard with us ever 
 
 to see the face of man again?' Then, I said to them 
 
 plainly, 'Turn in faith to the Lord my God, to whom 
 
 nothing is impossible that He may send us abundant 
 
 food upon our way, for His storehouses are in all 
 
 places.' And, by the help of God, so it came to pass, 
 
 for behold a herd of swine appeared on the way before 
 
 our eyes, and the men killed a great number, and 
 
 remained there for two nights greatly strengthened 
 
 for already many had been left half dead on the road. 
 
 After this they gave the greatest thanks to God, and 
 
 I was honored in their eyes." 
 
 After visiting his relations, he retired to the monas- 
 tery of his maternal uncle, St. Martin of Tours, where 
 he spent four years in prayer and study, and received 
 clerical tonsure and minor orders. At the end of the 
 
ST. PATRICK. 823 
 
 four years he returned to his friends and edi6ed and 
 charmed all by his saintly life. We then read of a 
 vision accorded to him which he thus describes: "In 
 the bosom of the night I saw a man who seemed to 
 come from Ireland, and he bore innumerable letters 
 with him, one of which he gave to me. And I read 
 the beginning of the letter, in which was written. 
 'The voice of the Irish,' and as I read aloud the first 
 words of the letter, I thought I heard in my mind the 
 voices of tho.se who were nigh to the forest of Focblut 
 Tirawly (Mayo), that borders the Western sea. and 
 they cried out, 'We entreat thee holy youth, to come 
 and walk still among us,' and my heart was deeply 
 pierced, so that I could read no more, and so I awoke. 
 Thanks be to God that after many years the Lord 
 hath granted their desire, as they cried to Him." 
 
 After this we find him at the Island of Lerins in the 
 Mediterranean, studying at the celebrated University 
 there, one of the most famous sanctuaries of piety and 
 learning in the world at that time. In St. Patrick's 
 time Lernis was sanctified by the presence of Hilary of 
 Aries, Eucherius of Lyons, Lupus of Troyes. and 
 Vincent of Lerins, and it was as a pupil of this great 
 school that he first made his appearance at Rome. 
 Leaving Lerins he placed himself under the spiritaal 
 direction of St. Germanus of Auxerre. Probus. a writer 
 of the ninth century, tells us that St. Patrick spent 
 many years with Germanus; ''in patience, obedieBce, 
 charity, and chastity, in sanctity of heart and soul." 
 He was ordained priest at the age of thirty. At length, 
 the holy bishop Germanus was sent by Pope Celestine 
 to Britain to oppose the Pelagian heresy there, and 
 St. Patrick accompanied him, A. D. 429. Two yora 
 
324 THE FIF TH GENTUR V. 
 
 after, Palladius, archdeacon of the same pope, was sent 
 to Ireland to win to the faith the Druid priests and the 
 wild warriors of Erin. Patrick hearing of this was 
 incited anew to his great mission, and immediately set 
 out for Rome to obtain the papal benediction. Having 
 obtained it, he took his departure for Ireland, but 
 being informed on his journey of the death of Palladius, 
 stopped at Eboria (Ivrea) in Gaul, and was consecrated 
 bishop by St. Amator. Though now in his 6oth year, 
 yet fired with an ardent zeal, he moved quickly for- 
 ward on his way to the Green Isle, and this time the 
 galley of the plashing oar bore him onwards, not as a 
 slave, but as an apostle, as a Christian soldier jubilant 
 in the certainty of victory. 
 
 The saint's life has been written by different authors 
 of different countries. Hundreds of writers have borne 
 testimony to his virtues and his labors. Bineen, dis- 
 ciple of St. Patrick, wrote a life of the Saint and tells 
 us that in his time there were already sixty-six 
 lives published. Kieran published one A. D. 480; 
 Benignus, 500; Fiech, about the year, 506; Mael, 492; 
 lyoman, 470; Evin, 510; Tirechan, 655; Adamnan, 660; 
 Probus, 9th century. 
 
 Among the writers of France, Italy, Germany, and 
 other lands who treat of St. Patrick we find Baillet, 
 Birvat, Texier, Heinschenius, Papebrock, Bollandus, 
 Baronius, Bellarrain. Among historians and philoso- 
 phers, we find Guthrie, Gen. Vallancey, Crawford, 
 Keogh, Mosheim, Harris, Ware, Goodwin, Warner, 
 Whittaker, Littleton, and Camden. Of modern Cath- 
 olic historians who write of our Saint, we can say that 
 they form a large number. 
 
 According to the best authorities St. Patrick and 
 
57: PATRICK, 8S5 
 
 his companions landed at the mouth of the river Var- 
 try in Wicklow A. D. 432. Having landed, he ad- 
 dressed himself to Garchon, the ruling chieftain, but 
 was opposed and driven off by his son Nathi, who had 
 expelled Palladius the year before. Patrick moved on. 
 and being tired, lay down on the bank of the river In- 
 bher-Nainge (nanny) and as he slept, a little boy named 
 Benignus (Bineen) attracted by the light of the saint's 
 countenance drew near; then collecting the wild fra- 
 grant flowers around, placed them in the old man's 
 bosom. The saint awaking, was delighted, blessed 
 the child and foretold his future greatness. Benignus 
 succeeded St. Patrick as Archbishop of Armagh. 
 Leaving Meath, he proceeded northwards to Strang- 
 ford Ivough in Down, where he met Dichu prince of 
 the province, who had received orders from Tara to 
 drive the stranger from the shores of Ireland. At first 
 the prince manifested great anger, but affected by the 
 majesty and grace of the Apostle, was converted, and 
 was the first who received Baptism in Ulster. The 
 Saint then set out for his old master Milcho. whose 
 flocks he had guarded so long, but Milcho died as he 
 had lived. As Kaster drew nigh St. Patrick determ- 
 ined to present himself before Laeghaire t!ie Ard-Righ 
 at Tara, on the festival itself. He knew the risk that 
 he ran, but he had fortitude in an especial degree. On 
 Easter Kve he arrived at a place, now called Slane. 
 pitched his tent and lighted the Pa.schal fire a little be- 
 fore nightfall. The king, having heard of the Apostle 
 and seeing the strange fire, was infuriated; next mom* 
 ing mounted his chariot, and accompanied by body* 
 guards, set out to meet him, declaring his determina- 
 tion to have him put to death. When he came within 
 
326 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 sight, he sent for the saint, who was not slow in 
 answ^ering the summons, and as he drew near he sang 
 the Psalm, "Some trust in chariots, and some in 
 horses; but we will call on the name of the Lord our 
 God." One of the company, Kic, son of Dego, was 
 converted. 
 
 On Easter Sunday, our Apostle robed in white vest- 
 ments, with mitre on his brow, and crozier in hand 
 accompanied by his priests in sacerdotal costume ar- 
 rived at Tara and appeared before the king and court. 
 Then was a controversy with the Druids, resulting in 
 the conversion of the queen, and permission to preach 
 the faith. "Afterwards Patrick passed through the 
 whole country, baptizing the believers in the name of 
 the Holy Trinity, and God was his helper, and con- 
 firmed the word, by the signs that followed. St. Pat- 
 rick's success at Tara seems to have laid the country at 
 his feet. After this we see him like a conqueror tri- 
 umphing everywhere. From Tara, he went to Tell- 
 town in Meath, where he found Cairbre and Conall, 
 brothers of the Ard-Righ. Conall was baptized and 
 founded the church at Donagh- Patrick. The Apostle 
 then went to Cavan, and destroyed the idol of Crom 
 Cruach, then passed over the Shannon to Connaught, 
 where he baptized the two princesses Ethne and 
 Feidelm. Leaving Roscommon, our Saint went to 
 Sligo, baptizing and founding churches; then he passed 
 through Mayo UMtil he reached the high mountain 
 that now bears his name Croagh Patrick. Only a little 
 more than a year had passed since his landing, yet he 
 had preached the gospel from the Irish Sea to the 
 Atlantic. On this mountain he remained in prayer 
 forty days, observing so strict a fast that he neither 
 
ST. PATRICK, »7 
 
 ate nor drank all that time. It is said that he spent 
 this Lent especially for the purpose of obtaining by- 
 prayer and penance the conversion of the whole island. 
 Many miracles were worked by the Saint in proof of 
 his divine mission. A miracle is only the interposi- 
 tion of Almighty God either to prove the truth of the 
 doctrine taught, or to attest the sanctity of the person. 
 Whoever believes in Holy Scripture will not be sur- 
 prised at miracles. What greater than those of Elias, 
 Moses, and Josue in the Old Testament, and of Saints 
 Peter and Paul in the New. The conversion of Ire- 
 land without miracle, would be the greatest miracle 
 of all. 
 
 Our Saint having passed into Connaught and re- 
 mained there seven years, preaching, erecting churches 
 and ordaining priests, returned to watch over his con- 
 verts in Ulster and Leinster. We read of him in 
 Tyrone and Donegal, in Antrim, in Louth, in Kildare, 
 in Queens Co., in Ossory, until he arrives at Cashel in 
 Munster. Aengus, the prince of the territory, was 
 converted and baptized. The men of North Munster. 
 especially of Limerick, hearing of his coming, came in 
 their boats, "a very fleet," to meet him, and found 
 him at Terry-Glas in Ormond, on the shores of Ix>ugh 
 Derg, and were baptized there. The saint delighted^ 
 ascended the hill of Sinnine, and imparted his blessiog 
 to all around. The foundation of the church and see 
 of Armagh is the next great event in his life. He 
 himself was its first archbishop. The apostle beomse 
 of his advanced years retired from the See of Aniuigh 
 many years before his death, and during that inlerval 
 saw four archbishops succe.ssively fill the See. The 
 last years of his life were spent at Armaijh. and he hid 
 
328 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 the great happiness of seeing the Faith spread through- 
 out the length and breadth of the land, bishops conse- 
 crated, priests ordained, churches built, monasteries 
 and convents, and schools erected; prince and princess, 
 bard and druid, warrior and peasant, kneeling at the 
 foot of the cross. He died at Saul in Ulster on the 
 17th. of March, A. D. 493, being 120 years old. He 
 was buried at Downpatrick, the funeral obsequies last- 
 ing twelve days. 
 
 St. Evin thus writes of him: "A just man indeed 
 was this man; with purity of nature like the patriarchs; 
 a true pilgrim, like Abraham; gentle and forgiving, 
 like Moses, a praiseworthy psalmist, like David; an 
 emulator of wisdom, like Solomon; a chosen vessel for 
 proclaiming truth, like the Apostle Paul; a man full of 
 grace and knowledge of the Holy Ghost, like the be- 
 loved John; a fair flower-garden to children of grace 
 a fruitful vine-branch; a lion in strength and power; a 
 dove in gentleness and humility; a serpent in wisdom 
 to do good; gentle, humble, merciful to the sons of life; 
 ungentle to the sons of death; a servant of labor for 
 Christ; a king in dignity and power." 
 
 *'THE ISLAND OF THE HOLY AND 
 THE LEARNED." 
 Ireland became a new land under the wondrous in- 
 fluence of Christianity. From the (Jays of St. Patrick 
 it was for centuries as a light to Europe. It has been 
 lauded by the writers of several nations as the home of 
 saints and scholars, and has been honored with the 
 title "The Island of the Holy and the Learned." It 
 will suffice here to quote from the English Cardinal 
 Newman who in turn quotes from the German historian 
 
CHRISTIAN IRELAND, 9» 
 
 Dollinger, we have placed in italics the passages to 
 which especial attention is directed. Cardinal New- 
 man writes, "During the sixth and seven centuries," 
 says Dr. Dollinger the church of Ireland stood in the 
 full beauty of its bloom. The spirit of the gospel 
 operated amongst the people with a vigorous and vivi- 
 fying power, troops of holy men, from the bighe^t to 
 the lowest ranks of society, obeyed the counsel of Christ 
 and forsook all things that they might follow hira. 
 There was not a Coventry of the world during this period, 
 that could boast of pious foundations or of religious 
 communities equal to those that adorned this far dis- 
 tant island. Among the Irish the doctrines of the 
 Christian religion ivere pcrserved pure and entire. The 
 schools of the Irish cloisters were at this time the 
 most celebrated in all the west Whilst almost the 
 whole of Europe was desolated by war, peaceful Ire- 
 land, free from the invasions of external foes, opened 
 to the lovers of learning and piety a welcome asylum. 
 The strangers who vi.sited the island, not only from the 
 neighboring shores of Britain, but also from the most 
 re77ioie nations of the continent received from the Irish 
 people the most hospitable reception, a gratuitous en- 
 tertainment, free instruction and exm the ^ks that 
 were necessary for their studies. Thus, in the year, 
 536 in the time of St. Senanu.s, there arrived at Cork, 
 from the continent fifteen monks who were led thither 
 by their desire to perfect themselves in the practices of 
 an ascetic life under Irish director*, and ic siudy Ike 
 Sacred Scriptures in the school established near the 
 city. At a later period, about the ytar, 650. the 
 Anglo-Saxons in particular passed over to Ireland in 
 great jiumbers for the same laudable purpose. On the 
 
330 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 other hand, many holy and learned Irishmen left their 
 own country to proclaim the faith, to establish or to 
 reform monasteries in distant lands, and thus to become 
 the benefactors of almost every nation of Europe. The 
 foundation of many English Sees is due to Irishmen; 
 the Northumbrian diocese was for many years govern- 
 ed by them, and the abbey of Lindisfarne, which was 
 peopled by Irish monks, and their Saxon disciples 
 spread far around its all-blessing influence. In crowds 
 as Aldhelm writes, the English went to Ireland, or the 
 Irish visited England where the archbishop Theodore 
 was surrounded by Irish scholars. Of the most cele- 
 brated Anglo Saxon-scholars and saints, many had 
 studied in Ireland; among these were St. Egbert, the 
 author of the first Anglo Saxon mission to the pagan 
 continent, and the blessed Willebrod, the Apostle of 
 the Frieslanders, who had resided twelve years in Ire- 
 land. From the same abode of virtue andlearning^ came 
 forth two English priests, both named Ewald, who in 
 690, went as messengers of the Gospel to the German 
 Saxons, and received from them the crown of martyr- 
 dom. An Irishman, Mailduf, founded in the year 670 
 a school, which afterwards grew into the famed Abbey 
 of Malmesbury; among his scholars were St. Aldhelm, 
 afterwards Abbot of Malmesbury, and first bishop of 
 Shelburne or Salisbury, and whom, after two centuries 
 Alfred pronounced to be the best of the Anglo-Saxon 
 poets. 
 
 The Cardinal continues, "The sixth and seventh 
 centuries are the glory of the Irish Church. The Irish 
 missionaries travelled down through England, France, 
 and Switzerland, to lower Italy, and attempted Ger- 
 many at the peril of their lives, converting the bar- 
 
CHRISTIAN IRELAND. 331 
 
 barian, restoring the lapsed, encouraging the desolate, 
 collecting the scattered, and founding churches, 
 schools and monasteries as they went along. In the 
 schools of science, England has no name to rival ihe 
 Irish Erigena in oiiginality, nor the Irish St. Virgil in 
 freedom of thouglit; nor among its canonized women 
 and saintly virgins to compare with the Irish St. Brid- 
 get; nor although it has 150 saints in its calender, can 
 it pretend to tqual that Irish multitude which the 
 Book of Eife alone is large enough to contain The 
 Irishman Clement was the second rector of the .studium 
 of Paris; the Irish John founded the school of Pavia; 
 and the Irish Dungall met and overthrew the pre- 
 sumptuous and heretical Claudius of Turin. Yet, 
 after all, the Irish whose brilliancy of genius has .some- 
 times been considered like the Greek, to augur fickle- 
 ness and change, have managed to preserve to this day 
 the science of the saints long after their ancient 
 rivals have lost the gift of Faith." 
 
 The German Gorres writes, "When we look into the 
 ecclesiastical life of this people, we are almost tempted 
 to believe that some potent spirit had transplanted 
 over the sea, the cells of the valley of the Nile, with 
 all their hermits; its monasteries with all their inmates, 
 and had settled them down on the Western Isle.** 
 
 The Protestant Ware counts no less than 164 mon- 
 asteries, built in the 5th. 6th. and 7th. centuries; and 
 all the great monasteries had large schools attached to 
 them. 
 
 The school ot Armagh was founded by St. Patrick 
 himself, and in the 7th. century numbered 3000 stu- 
 dents. The great scliool of Bangor was founded by 
 the learned St. Comgall in =^^- rho sichool of Clooard 
 
332 THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 by St. Finnian in 527. "From this school," says the 
 Protestant Wilde, "undoubtedly sprang much of the 
 learning both of Britain and the Continent." 
 
 The school and monastery of Clonmacnoise were 
 established in 548 by St. Kieran. "Clonmacnoise," 
 says O'Curry, "continued to be the seat of learning 
 and sanctity, the retreat of devotion and solitude, and 
 the favorite place of interment for kings, chiefs and 
 nobles, of both sides of the Shannon, for a thousand 
 years after the founder's time, till the rude hand of 
 the despoiler plundered its shrines, profaned its sanctu- 
 aries, murdered or exiled its peaceful occupants, and 
 seized on its sacred property." Lismore, the best 
 known of the schools of Munster, was founded by St. 
 Carthage in 633; St. Brendan founded the great school 
 of Clonfert, where frequently 3000 students attend- 
 ed lectures; St. Finbar, the school of Cork; St. 
 Columba, the school of Durrow; St. Ailbe, the school 
 of Emly, that never numbered less than 600 students. 
 
 In Germany, 150 Irish saints are found as patrons of 
 churches: in France, 45, in Belgium 30; in England, 
 44; in Italy, 13; in Norway and Iceland, 8. St. Gall 
 and his companions evangelized Switzerland. The 
 canton St. Gall takes its name from the great Irish 
 saint. The apostolic labors of the great missionary St. 
 Columbanus and his companions in France, Italy, and 
 Germany would require a large volume, and have been 
 in part historically stated by Count Montalembert. 
 St. Rupertus preached the Gospel with great success 
 first in France, afterwards in Germany and merited the 
 title "Apostle of Bavaria." Fridolin surnamed the 
 Traveller, preached Christianity in Lorraine, Alsace, 
 and Switzerland. St. Killian "Apostle of Franconia," 
 
CHRISTIAN IRELAND, 333 
 
 was martyred in Germany, whilst laboring for the 
 church. The famous scholar, St. Virgil, preached the 
 gospel in France, King Pepin the father of Charlemagne 
 being one of his audience. St. Livinius, in the odor of 
 sanctity, left his dear Erin, preached the Gospel 
 through Belgium, and sealed his faith wiih his blood 
 about the year 656. 
 
 It has been calculated, that Irish monks founded in 
 Scotland, 13 monastaries; in England 12; in Armaric 
 Gaul, 12; in Lotharingia, 7; in Burgundy, \2\ io 
 Alsatia, 10; in Belgium, 9; in Bavaria, 16; in Italy. 6; 
 inRetia, Helvetia and Suevia, 15. 
 
 Such the fruits of the labors of St. Patrick. The 
 Catholic Church celebrates the day of a saint's death 
 rather than of his birth, because in death he triumphs; 
 at death, he receives the crown of immortality. On 
 the 17th. of March, therefore, Irishmen, the world 
 over, remember with joy and with gratitude the great 
 man who brought to the shores of green Erin the light 
 of the true faith, and implanted therein the precious 
 cross of Christ. Is it any wonder, then, that on St. 
 Patrick's Day the children of Holy Ireland commemo- 
 rate the festival with prayer and gladness, with song 
 and music and procession, with flag and banner and 
 bannaret, with harp and with shamrock, and though 
 last, not least, with America's Star Spangled Banner? 
 
 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 THE NEMESIS. 
 
 TOTILA, THE GOTHIC KING, DBSTROYS ROMR. 
 
 The task of demolishing the last vestiges of thedty 
 and institutions of Romulus was reserved for Totila, • 
 
 Gothic king. 
 
334 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 After the siege and capture of Naples, the far- 
 famed Belisarius, who had risen from the obscurity of 
 a Thracian peasant to command the armies of Justin- 
 ian pursued the same line of march that Hannibal had 
 taken after the battle of Cannae, and advanced by the 
 Latin-way to Rome. As he approached it the Goths 
 withdrew A. D. 536, after an oppressive and destruc- 
 tive reign of sixty years. However, it was only to 
 prepare for the fated city a new series of disasters, 
 that they retired. From their rustic habitations, from 
 their distant garrisons, the Goths are mustering once 
 more upon the plains of Rimini to prosecute the great 
 mission undertaken by Alaric in the early part of the 
 preceding century; and so in the opening of Spring, 
 537, their squadrons, pouring along to the number of 
 150,000 horse and foot, can be discerned from the 
 walls, destined to be shaken by the fury of their 
 assaults. Procopius the historian, who acted as 
 secretary to Belisarius and was an eye-witness of the 
 scenes that he eloquently describes, has left us a very 
 singular anecdote relative to that portion of the city 
 walls, called "II muro torto," or the leaning wall to 
 the present day. "It was one of the first pointed out 
 to his pioneers by Belisarius, as standing in need of 
 being taken down and rebuilt from top to bottom; but 
 the Romans besought him, on no account, to meddle 
 with it; for that St. Peter had promised to take care 
 of its defence. "The event," he continues, "justified 
 their reliance, for neither in the first assault (which 
 came upon that quarter of the city), nor during all the 
 time they beleagured it, was that part ever once 
 molested; an exception that filled us all with astonish- 
 ment, so that no one ever daring to interfere with it 
 
I 
 
 TOT/ LA DESTROYS ROME. 8S5 
 
 afterwards, it remains there lo this day, leaninj^ over 
 and shattered as when we saw it first." 
 
 Gibbon writes of it, "The fissure and leaning in the 
 upper part of the wall which Procopius observed, is 
 visible to the present hour." 
 
 The traveller may still see this wonderful monument 
 of imperishable ruin, at about a furlong's distance 
 from the Porto. del Popolo, near the back entrance of 
 the Borghese Villa. 
 
 The desertion, during the night, of those who gar- 
 risoned the tower of the Milvian bridge, left the Goths 
 to pass the Tiber unmolested and unobserved; so that 
 Belisarius, in riding out with his guards next morning 
 before dawn, to reconnoitre their forces, deemed to be 
 still beyond the river was suddenly encompassed and 
 attacked by the Gothic ho.sts. * The fate of Ilaly," 
 says Gibbon, "depended on his life, and the deserters 
 pointed to a conspicuous horse, a bay, with a white 
 face, which he rode on that memorable day. 'Aim at 
 the bay horse!' was the universal cry. Every bow was 
 bent; every javelin directed against that fatal object, 
 and the command was repeated and obeyed by thou- 
 sands who were ignorant of its real moti%*e. The 
 bolder barbarians advanced to the more honorsble 
 combat of sword and spear. 
 
 "Belisarius was strong, active, and dexteroos: oo 
 every side he discharged his weighty and martial 
 strokes; his faithful guards imitated his valor, and de- 
 fended his person; and the Goths, after the loaaof a 
 thousand men. fled before the arms of a hero. They 
 were ra.shly pursued, and the Greeks, oppressed by 
 multitudes, made a gradual, and at length a precipl* 
 tons retreat to the gates of the city; the gates were 
 
336 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 closed against the fugitives, and the public terror was 
 increased by the report that Belisarius was slain. His 
 countenance was indeed disfigured by sweat, dust, and 
 blood; his voice was hoarse; his strength almost ex- 
 hausted, but his unconquerable spirit still remained; 
 he imparted that spirit to his desponding companions; 
 and their last desperate charge was felt by the flying 
 barbarians as if a new army, vigorous and entire, had 
 been poured from the city. The Flaminian gate was 
 then thrown open to a real triumph; but it was not 
 before Belisarius had visited every post, and provided 
 for the public safety, that he could be persuaded by 
 his wife and friends to taste the needful refreshments 
 of food and sleep." But these displays of prowess, 
 and the indefatigable valor and energy of the Greek 
 general in defending the circuit of the walls, against 
 the repeated and desperate assaults of the barbarians, 
 instead of being advantageous to the doomed city, only 
 served to hasten the destruction of its people and still 
 remaining monuments. In the walls, as repaired by 
 Belisarius, the fragments of ancient architecture are 
 still discernible. His style of erection was called opus 
 tumultudrium to indicate the heterogeneous character 
 of the materials used, and the reckless hurry with 
 which columns, statues, altars, and entablatures, were 
 seized and piled indiscriminately together, with what- 
 ever else could help to fill up a breach. The work of 
 destruction was carried on with equal industry outside 
 the walls. The besiegers ruined all the noble aque- 
 ducts, that the supply of water might be cut off from 
 the city, and it was also in this siege that the tomb of 
 Hadrian was despoiled of the multitudes of statues 
 that adorned it. The Greeks who had changed it into 
 
TO TIL A DESTROYS ROME, 387 
 
 a fortress, in defending it against an attack of the 
 Goths, tore the masterpieces of Praxiteles and Lysip- 
 pus from their pedestals and hurled the fragments into 
 which they had shattered them, down npon the heads 
 of the assailants. The siege lasted an entire year, and 
 entailed upon the unfortunate Romans the most bitter 
 sufferings. Their granaries, which they had been 
 compelled to store with the fruits of their hard toil, 
 and with what should have been the subsistence of 
 their families, were kept guarded that the foreign gar- 
 rison might be feasted, while they, with their wives 
 and children, were perishing of famine in the streets. 
 They were next doomed to see the pledges of their 
 affection torn from them, by those who called them- 
 selves their protectors, and sent into distant exile, ex- 
 posed to every insult and privation; all on the plea of 
 relieving the garrison. Even when the Goths re- 
 treated, the Romans had but little reason to rejoice. 
 They had already found the Greeks to be worse tyrants 
 than the barbarians had ever been. Meantime the 
 Greek arms were crowned in every direction with sig- 
 nal success, and nothing but this was wanted to con- 
 summate the destruction of Rome, and of whatever of 
 Roman art and manners that still survived in Italy. 
 Belisarius and his lieutenants had routed and driven 
 the Goths before them, from city to city — from Cam- 
 pania to Latium and the Abruzzi, from the .Ahrutti 
 and Latium to Tu.scany and the Picenum. and thence 
 to the Cisalpine provinces — leaving the entire length 
 and breadth of the hapless land, from Naples to 
 Ravenna, strewn with smokinjr ruins and heaps of 
 dead. 
 
 But a terrible reverse followed; in the space of two 
 
338 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 years more, the Greeks were in their turn, routed in 
 all directions by the Goths, and the entire country 
 with its cities and fortresses re-conquered by Totila, the 
 Gothic king who came to put the finishing stroke to 
 the work of desolation. He made it a general rule 
 that the walls of all the cities, and every place that 
 ■could afford shelter to his enemies, were to be levelled 
 with the ground. This policy was pursued by him, in 
 order to deprive the Greeks of the advantages they 
 derived from their superior skill in the arts of defence, 
 and to secure for the Goths the full advantage of their 
 superior numbers and bravery, by bringing the war to 
 an issue in the open field. 
 
 While this was Totila's style of proceeding, the 
 Greeks, officers as well as common soldiers, carried on 
 the war against the unf orunate people within the walled 
 towns, plundering them of their goods without mercy, 
 and ill-using their wives and daughters; so that while 
 the open country was ravished by the infuriated Goths 
 the cities and strong places were made scenes of great- 
 er horror by the Greeks. Thus did every thing con- 
 spire for the extirpation of the once all conquering peo- 
 ple. "Moreover," continues Procopius, "the Caesar- 
 ians — generall}^ foreign mercenaries — struck them^ 
 and insulted them without cause, and so stripped them 
 of everything the}'' had, that they died of destitu- 
 tion.' ' These miseries and the exactions of the tax-com- 
 inissioner caused the Romans to look back with sighs 
 of regret to the far less insufferable tyranny of the bar- 
 barians. To crown their distress, the terrific plague 
 that had raged for the space of fifty years, and had 
 swept away half of the human race all over the known 
 world, arrived at this juncture on the shores of Italy, 
 
TOTILA DESTROYS ROME. 8S9 
 
 A. D. 543 with the armies of theeistera emperor; and 
 it was appropriately enough, amidst this continuation 
 of woes that the king of the Ostrogoths, Totila. sat down 
 before Rome for the last time, determined to finish what 
 the Visigoths had begun under Alaric, and to leave the 
 seven hills of Rome as desolate as they were before 
 Romulus began to build the city. 
 
 *'Totila," says Gibbon, "proceeded not by assault, 
 but to encompass and starve the ancient capitol. 
 **Rome was afflicted by the avarice, and guarded by 
 the valor of Bessas, a veteran chief of barbarian extrac- 
 tion, who filled with a garrison of three thousand 
 Greek soldiers the spacious circle of her venerable walls. 
 From the distress of the people he extracted a profita- 
 ble trade, and secretly rejoiced at the continuance of 
 the siege. It was for his use the granaries had been 
 filled: the charity of Pope Vigilius (then held in exile 
 by the Greek Court) had purchased, and embarked an 
 ample supply of Sicilian corn: but the vessels that es- 
 caped the barbarians were seized by the rapacious gov- 
 ernor, who imparted a scanty sustenance to the soldiers. 
 and sold the remainder to the wealthy Romans The 
 medimnus, or fifth part of the quarter of wheat, was ex • 
 changed for seven pieces of gold; fifty pieces weregiv- 
 en for an ox. As for the common people, they were 
 gradually reduced to feed on dead horses, dogs, cats, 
 and mice, and eagerly to snatch the grass and nettles 
 that grew among the ruins of the city. 
 
 "Among the Roman clergy of that day.** >ays Pro- 
 copius, "was the deacon Pelagius, not long retamcd 
 from Byzantium where during his long sojourn as pt- 
 pal nuncio, he had grown into high favor with the 
 Emperor Justinian. The care of the Roman church 
 
340 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 had been confided to him during the exile • of Pope 
 Vigilius and as the distress of the siege increased, he 
 distributed the most of his wealth among the indigent, 
 thereby greatly adding to the high reputation he had 
 already earned with all his countryman. It was to this 
 Pelagius, that resort was had by the Romans in their 
 extremity, imploring him to repair to the camp of 
 Totila, to beg a truce even of a few days, at the expi- 
 ration of which term they promised to surrender at dis- 
 cretion, if no relief in the interim arrived. The Gothic 
 king received him with every honorable distinction, 
 at the same time declaring his unalterable determina- 
 tion to press the siege, and when taken, to level Rome 
 with [the ground. The Cardinal-deacon's appeal is 
 given 'at length by the historian: he concluded, by 
 solemnly warning the barbarian conqueror, that, high 
 as he was, there was One still higher, whose indigna- 
 tion seldom failed to overtake those, who , in their hour 
 of triumph treated the supplications of the unforunate 
 with insolent contempt. Thus saying Pelagius retired, 
 whom when the Romans saw returning without having 
 succeeded, their apprehensions became insupportable.* 
 Day by day, they saw their numbers thinned by the 
 raging famine, that became more terrible, as it sug- 
 gested aliment abhorent not only to usage, but even 
 to human nature. 
 
 Corn was sold at seven gold pieces the medimnus, 
 by Bessas and Conon who had stored up large quanti- 
 ties. An ox, taken in a foray by the guards, was sold 
 for fifty pieces of gold. He who met with a dead 
 horse or anything of that sort was accounted fortu- 
 nate, and endeavoured to preserve the precious carrion 
 by every art. As to the common people, they lived as 
 
TOTILA DESmOYS ROME. S41 
 
 best they could on nettles, that grew in great quan- 
 tities around the walls, and among the ruins, and 
 to save their mouths and throats from being stung by 
 them, they cooked them as well as they could. While 
 money lasted, the higher ranks of the Romans pro- 
 cured meal and bran, but when they had no more gold, 
 they brought their costly furniture into the Forum, 
 and gave it for what would provide a miserable meal. 
 
 Meanwhile the arrival of Belisarius at the mouth of 
 the Tiber created the most feverish excitement of hope 
 in the survivors. From the Capitoline towers, from 
 the Aventine, and the parapets of the walls, his cavalry 
 could already be descried moving along the Ostian 
 way and the river banks, to cover a convoy of troops 
 and provisions for their relief. These succours were 
 conveyed in a flotilla of 200 boats, each boat betog 
 protected by a strong rampart of thick plauks, with 
 narrow slits and port holes for the discharge of mis- 
 siles. The entire flotilla, towed along by thousands of 
 oxen, was commanded by Belisarius in person, stand* 
 ing on a wooden castle that floated on two large ves- 
 sels, linked and fastened to one another by great beams 
 of timber. This tower of considerable height was 
 filled with the most desperate of his soldiers, and pro* 
 vided with a magazine of fire, sulphur and bitumen to be 
 discharged from the parapets upon the enemy. Nor 
 had Totila been wanting in foresight and exertions to 
 prepare a becoming reception for the great captain. 
 Ninety furlongs below the city, he had joined the two 
 banks where the river Tiber is the narrowest, by llie 
 trunks of large trees in the form of a bridge. On 
 this he erected two lofty towers, manned by the brav- 
 est of his Goths, well provided with whate%*er weapoiis 
 
342 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 and missiles w ere best calculated to inflict annoyance 
 and destruction on the Greeks. The approach to the 
 bridge and towers was covered by a strong and massy 
 chain of iron. 
 
 Upon the issue of the collision for which Greek and 
 Goth are equally prepared and equally nerved, depends 
 the forlorn hope of Rome. That hope also is wound up 
 almost within grasp of certainty of liberation, as if to 
 render the agonies of wild despair aud distracted grief 
 more insupportable. From their walls and towers, 
 whence they had stretched out their lank arms, and 
 raised their feeble shrieks as the battle raged, the Ro- 
 mans now beheld their last chance of deliverance from 
 the barbarians put to flight, and now in despair see no 
 possibility of escape. 
 
 But that the unity of the grand tragedy of retribu- 
 tion may be deficient in nothing, the city is doomed to 
 be taken for the last, as it had been the first time, by 
 night and by treachery. 
 
 Four sentinels of one of the gates — Isaurians — let 
 themselves down by a rope ladder from the battle- 
 ments, while their officers and companions of the 
 guard were sleeping, and soon found themselves in 
 presence of Totila, to whom they offered to betray the 
 city. It was not, however, till they had twice re- 
 peated their noccurnal visit to the Gothic camp, and 
 that he had the place twice carefully examined that 
 the Goth put his bands in motiotj, and silently entered 
 the Asinarian gate. This was at dead of night. To 
 guard against treachery or ambush, the Goths halted 
 in order of battle, soon as they had got within the 
 walls, and rested on their arms, until the dawn brought 
 with it the certainty that Bessas and his mercenaries 
 
TO TIL A DESTROYS ROME. 343 
 
 had fled. Decius, Basilius and a few other patricians 
 who still had horses to carry them, also took to flight; 
 but the remnant of the senate and the people sought 
 to shelter themselves from the sword, by crowding 
 round the shrine of St. Peter. The names of Olibrius. 
 Orestes and Maximus, occur among those who were 
 thus preserved. 
 
 **It being now clear day," says Procopius, '*and no 
 cause to suspect an ambuscade or treachery, strange to 
 tell, while Totila repaired to the temple of Peter the 
 Apostle, the Goths in their fury attacked whom they 
 met; whereupon twenty-six of the soldiery, and sixty 
 of the people were slain. When Totila came to the 
 temple, Pelagius (the Cardinal archdeacon before men- 
 tioned) presented himself before him, extending to- 
 wards him the oracles of Christ, with outstretched 
 hands, and earnestly implored him saying: 'Spare, 
 spare thy people, O king!' The king laughed scorn- 
 fully, and said in a tone of bantering, 'So now, Pela- 
 gius comes a suppliant!' 'Yes,' said Pelagius, *a sup- 
 pliant: because now by the will of God, I am ihy 
 servant. But do thou, O king, for the rest, be clement 
 to thy servants.' " 
 
 Yielding to this entreaty, he issued strict command 
 that no Roman should be further injured or insulted; 
 but, after reserving a royal portion of the »poil for 
 himself, he gave free license to the Goths to plunder 
 and carry off whatever they thought worth taking. 
 Great was the wealth still left in palaces, in the em- 
 bellishment of which nothing had been used hot what 
 was artistic and costly. In the palace occupied by 
 Bessas. the gold, with whatever else was meal valua- 
 ble in Rome, was found in abundance; and It would 
 
344 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 seem as if that sordid and hard-hearted wretch, aided 
 by direful distress, had been sent as an active agent to 
 wring from the grasp of the Romans their last obolus, 
 and to scrape together everything in the shape of 
 riches that it might be ready to the barbarian hand 
 which was to carry away, and scatter back again, this 
 last balance of restitution over the long plundered 
 earth. 
 
 In this revolution, the sons and daughters of Roman 
 consuls tasted the misery which they had often spurn- 
 ed and relieved. In the tattered garments of slaves 
 and handmaids, they wandered through the streets 
 and begged a sordid pittance, at the gates of their own 
 hereditary mansions, row occupied by the barbarian 
 conquerors; often driven away with blows and fero- 
 cious mockery, to cast themselves down among the 
 ruins of fallen empire, and mourn over calamities too 
 great for utterance. At length when everything was 
 collected from the palaces and public edifices that were 
 still erect, Totila gave orders to prepare for the work 
 of demolition. The walls first cemented by the blood 
 of Remus, shed by the hand of his own brother, who 
 gave a beginning and a name to Rome, had been ex- 
 panding from age to age, to make room for the spoils 
 of one nation after another, until they attained their 
 greatest expansion under Aurdian. Their foundations 
 were again reddened, on that occasion, by the blood of 
 barbarian captives, immolated on the altars of the 
 Capitol. To level them therefore to the ground, was 
 the first task of the Goths. Fire and engines were 
 next prepared to consume, subvert, and tear down 
 whatever of the seven-hilled city still remained entire; 
 *'and the world," says Gibbon, "was astonished by 
 
TOTILA DESTROYS ROME. 345 
 
 the fatal decree that Rome should be changed into a 
 pasture for cattle." 
 
 Were it not for the interference and entreaties of 
 Pelagius. the remnant of the senate, would have been 
 all executed, the day after the city was taken; ibey 
 were now rudely driven forth by the Gothic cavalry. 
 They all perished not long after, being put to death 
 in their own Campanian villas, that were made their 
 prisons, while their sons were likewise massacred in 
 the North of Italy. Thus did the institution of Romu- 
 lus expire. As to the Roman people, a mi.<ierable 
 handful of forlorn and emaciated outcasts — not more 
 than five hundred, men, women, and children, as they 
 were — was the only shadow left of that once mighty 
 name. Even these were now led away into .slavery by 
 the Goths, who also toie down the gates of the Eter- 
 nal city, and carried them off as trophies. Not a 
 single human being was permitted to remain. The 
 words most expressive of perfect solitude and deser- 
 tion are those adopted by Prccopius to describe the 
 condition in which Totila left the region of the Seven 
 Hills. "In Rome he suffered nothing human to re- 
 main; leaving it altogether, in every part, a perfect 
 desert." The Chronicle of Marcellinus adds, that for 
 forty days and upwards, Rome had n'> inh >Uitant.H but 
 wild beasts and birds of prey. 
 
 It was towards the close of this interval, that Belia* 
 arius felt a de.sire to vi.sit and survey with hin own 
 eyes, the ruins of a place that had been the theatre of 
 so much grandeur and renown; and, with this view, 
 he sallied forth from the sea-port at the head of a 
 strong squadron of his guards. 
 
 'A marble wilderness extended on every side, as far 
 
346 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 as the eye could reach, strewed with the ruins of 
 vitruvian villas, temples, and aqueducts; the waste 
 water of the latter had filled the valleys and overflowed 
 the long rounds of the Canipagna, converting into 
 marshes and mantling pools, those regions, which, 
 erewhile, had abounded with all the delights of the 
 Hesperides. The thoroughfares of the nations were 
 silent and lonely as the double line of tombs, through 
 which they passed. The towers and inscriptions over 
 the gates had been torn down, and their bronze portals 
 carried off in the plunder train of the barbarian. The 
 rock-built walls of Rome lay low; and the tramp of 
 their war-horses was muffled by the grass, as Belisar- 
 iiis and his troops rode under a succession of disman- 
 tled arches, down towards the forum, alongthe "Sa- 
 cred Way." 
 
 The fox looked out from the casements of the 
 Palatine, and barked sharply at the intruders as they 
 rode on; wolves prowled through the vacant streets, 
 or littered in the palace halls; wild dogs hunted in 
 packs, through the great circus, through the baths, 
 along the Campus Martins and on to the gardens of 
 Sallust and Maecenas, through the promenades of the 
 Suburra. Wild beasts as if escaped from the menag- 
 eries and keeps of the amphitheatres — lay sleeping and 
 enjoying themselves in the sunshine of the porticoes, 
 or tore one another to pieces, as the factions had done 
 of old, around the rostrum and in the assembly-place 
 of the people; others growled and snarled, and gloated 
 over the unburied carcasses and whitening skeletons of 
 the dead. Ravens and vultures desisted from feeding 
 their sanguinary nestlings, to hoot the warriors, as 
 they wound slowly among the prostrate columns and 
 
TOT/ LA DESTROYS ROME. 347 
 
 entablatures of temples that encumbered the ascent ta 
 the capitol, or starting from their perching-places on 
 trophy and triumphal arch, hovered, and flapped their 
 sable wings above the plumage of their helmets. 
 Once more, the Roman eagle soars above the Tarpeian 
 tower — that eyry whence for a thousand years, it had 
 flown forth to carnage; and the martial bngle makes 
 the field of Mars resound again. But instead of the 
 war-like response of legions — clamoring to be led 
 against the Samnite or the Parthian — there broke forth 
 a hideous melody of yells and howling, yelp, bark, 
 and roar, outtopped by the shrill cries of ill omened 
 birds, startled from their roosts in the sanctuary 
 recesses, and from the niches and cornices of the 
 senate-house. The warriors listened for some human 
 sound. In vain they listened, and listened again! 
 There was the Palatine, the Forum, the Capitol, the 
 Campus Martins, and the Tiber flowing under the 
 beauteous summer, beneath the Tarpeian cliff — bat 
 the legions, the emperors, the senate, and the Roman 
 people, where were they ? 
 
 "When that savage uproar had at last sul>sided, 
 save a casual outbreak of a howl among the ruins, and 
 along the valleys, and the river banks, all, within the 
 boundaries of the Seven TTilU w i^ avain silm! .is ihe 
 grave. 
 
 Never had mortal eye bchcKl a cat.i-slrophc more 
 impressive. Fortune had turned back njx>n her steps. 
 and made it her sport to reverse everything, npon that 
 very scene, where, beyond alt otheis, men had become 
 elated with, imagining, that .she had at length 
 descended from her slippery glol)e for ever, and 6xcd 
 her perpetual sojourn. Hut it would sieem as If she 
 
348 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 had lured the Romans to the highest pinnacle of 
 grandeur and felicity, only to render their downfall 
 the more tremendous, had helped them to build up 
 testimonials of boundless empire, and to stamp a 
 character of eternity upon their works, merely that 
 the vouchers of her own stability might endure for 
 ever. 
 
 'After being deified by the prostrate earth, and 
 having temples, and priests, and altars, consecrated for 
 their worship, the pagan emperors of Rome were led 
 about as harlequins, to grace the triumph and contrib- 
 ute mirth to the counsels of the Goths. The iron 
 legions, that had trodden down the nations, had been 
 trodden down in turn. The slave had seen his tyrant 
 lord a suppliant at his feet for life; at his gate for 
 bread; to escape from dignities for which the Gracchi, 
 the Scipios and the Caesars had contended, men of pa- 
 trician lineage, had themselves branded and ranked as 
 slaves. To be a Roman, once a distinction prouder 
 than that of royalty, had become the vilest badge of 
 infamy. The lords of palaces that resembled cities, 
 and of estates that included kingdoms within their lim- 
 its, saw themselves without a home or rood of land. 
 To the very weft the fates had unravelled their most 
 gorgeous tissue, and from the ruins of the Palatine and 
 the Capitol, had abandoned the fame of kings, consuls, 
 and emperors, to the scoffing winds. 
 
 Even the memorials of her ancient glories served, and 
 that not a little, to multiply and increase the calami- 
 ties of Rome. The sight of them infuriated the barba- 
 rians. They made it a sacred duty to slaughter the 
 •craven multitudes they found loittrring around, and 
 boasting alliance with monuments, intended to perpet- 
 
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT. S4» 
 
 uate the memory of the injuries and insults inflicted by 
 their sires upon humanity; and it would seem as if so 
 many millions had been gathered into one place, by 
 allurements of largesses, shows, and every sensual in- 
 dulgence, that the scythe of the destroyer might mow 
 them down with the greater facility and expedition. 
 The metropolis of the nations had become their sepul- 
 chre; and the soil of their pampered bodies fattened and 
 almost filled up the valleys of the Seven hills." 
 
 THE PESTILENCE AND POPE GREGORY. 
 
 As might be expected the lands swept by the Gothic 
 hordes suffered dreadfully long after the death of 
 Totila. "Between the years 566 and 569, the whole 
 of Italy," says Muratori, "was afflicted by a pestilence 
 which almost seemed to reduce the country to a desert. 
 Such was the mortality, that in many districts nearly 
 all the inhabitants were swept away, so that it became 
 almost impossible to find laborers to reap the har\'est, 
 or gather in the vintage. With the approach of win- 
 ter," continues the annalist, "the sound of the war 
 trumpet was audible day and night, and it was the 
 impression of many that they could discern the sounds 
 of an approaching army. These were but preludes of 
 additional woes that now impended over Italy, for 
 Alboin, king of the Lombards, burst through the 
 passes of the Julian Alps in the following year; and at 
 the head of an immense army of rapacious and san- 
 guinary barbarians swept with irresistible fury, o\*er 
 the hapless land, to devastate by fire and sword what* 
 ever the plague had spared. These ruthless bands, 
 composed of the fiercest and most warlike adventurers 
 from a variety of barbarous nations, either Arisns in 
 religion, or still addicted to the most ssvmge pndicct 
 
350 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 of heathenism, overran the country with such rapidity, 
 that in less than sev^en years, we find them perma- 
 nently established not only in the rich provinces on 
 which they have impressed their name, but also in 
 Tuscany, Spoleto, and Beneventum; while the garri- 
 sons of the Greek emperors, formidable only to the 
 exhausted and heart broken Italians, beheld from the 
 walls of Ravenna, and a few other fortified places, the 
 dwellings of their subjects in flames, and the people 
 themselves coupled together like dogs, and dragged 
 away beyond the sea into slavery. 
 
 "The invaders, who spread themselves in every di- 
 rection without resistance, were to be tracked by the 
 horrors they left behind." 
 
 "Behold," says Pope St. Gregory, writing to the 
 Emperor Maurice, "everything in these parts is given 
 up to the mercy of the barbarians; the cities are de- 
 stroyed, the fortresses dismantled, the open country 
 stripped of its inhabitants is become a wilderness for 
 want of cultivation; and the servants of Christ are the 
 daily victims immolated by the sanguinary supersti- 
 tion of these idolaters." Their fanaticism, ef^pecially 
 directed against the sanctuaries, the clergy, and what- 
 ever else was consecrated to Catholic worship, left St. 
 Gregory to mourn over many a ruined church, and to 
 complain that in several districts there was not left a 
 single priest even to baptize the newly-born or absolve 
 the dying from their sins. 
 
 It was the destiny of Rome to be as pre-eminent in 
 the disasters of Italy as she had been in its triumphs. 
 To beleaguer, plunder and make desolate the queen 
 of empire, had been the grand object of ambition, a 
 kind of inspired mania, that every invader, from 
 
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT, S61 
 
 Alaric, who found it an aggregation of palaces, baths, 
 theatres, and temples, down to Totila who left it "a 
 marble wilderness." 
 
 *'The lofty tree," says Gibbon, "was deprived of its 
 leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to 
 wither on the ground. The ministers of command, 
 and the messengers of victory, no longer met on the 
 Appian or Flaminian Way; and the hostile approach 
 of the Lombards was often felt and continually feared. 
 The Campagna was reduced to the state of a dreary 
 wilderness; in which the land was barren; the water 
 impure; and the air infectious. Curiosity and ambi- 
 tion no longer attracted the nations to the Capital of 
 the world; but if chance or necessity directed the steps 
 of a wandering stranger, he contemplated with horror 
 the vacancy and solitude of the city, and might be 
 tempted to ask 'Where is the senate, and where are 
 the people?' " 
 
 Such was the condition of the Eternal City when 
 the popes, the successors of the fisherman, were 
 induced not by ambition, but through mercy, to take 
 it under their protection; and if those regions along 
 the Tiber which had been the theatre, for so many cen- 
 turies, of all that was most illustrious and important in 
 human affairs, have not reverted to a state of altonginal 
 wildness and solitude, similar to that in which they 
 were when first explored by the shepherd king. 
 Iwander, it is to the popes, as succesaors of Ihefiaher* 
 man, the credit must be given. ''Like Thebct. or 
 Babylon, or Carthage,*' says Gibbon, '*the name of 
 Rome might have been erased from the earth, if the 
 city had not been animated by a vital principle that 
 again restored her to honor and dominion." 
 
352 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 One could scarcely imagine anything more wretched 
 and utterly hopeless than the condition of Rome at the 
 time that St. Gregory was compelled by the united 
 and passionate entreaties both of clergy and people, to 
 abandon the cell where he had consecrated his life 
 to study, austerity and prayer, in order to undertake 
 the labors and solicitudes of the pontificate, and with 
 them, the still more intolerable burden of watching 
 over the temporal affairs not only of Rome, but of all 
 Italy. A pestilence aided by the stagnant waters 
 which an inundation of the Tiber had left behind it, 
 was raging at the time of his accession, and such was 
 the mortality, that according to the testimony of an eye- 
 witness, no less than eighty persons fell dead during the 
 procession of the Litanies. ''The sword has reached 
 the very soul," cried out Pope Gregory. 
 
 To imagine, however, that Pope Gregory's patriot- 
 ism was confined to the outpouring of lamentations 
 over the public calamities, would be to misconceive his 
 history. Notwithstanding painful bodily infirmities, 
 and the cares and duties of his apostolic office, his 
 pontificate of fourteen years was signalized by exer- 
 tions the most devoted and effective for his country. 
 During that period, the defence and administration, 
 not only of Rome, but of Italy, were thrown upon his 
 shoulders, by the neglect and embarassments of the 
 Greek emperors, so absorbed in troubles at home, and 
 in struggles against the Avars and Persians, as to be 
 utterly incapable of affording any protection or assist- 
 ance to their Italian subjects. It is to no purpose that 
 the pontiff prays for succour against the public enemy. 
 His remonstrances both by letter and through his 
 nuncios at Constantinople are equally ineffectual. 
 
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT S5S 
 
 The emperor Mauritius never interferes unless to re- 
 quite the sacrifices of the pontiff with reproach and 
 invective, or to frustrate his plans for the public 
 safety. 
 
 Gibbon who is justly recognized as an implacable 
 and accomplished enemy of the popes, pays the follow- 
 ing tribute to Pope Gregory: — 
 
 "The misfortunes of Rome, involved the apostolic 
 pastor in the business of peace and war; he sends gov- 
 ernors to the towns and cities; issues orders to the gen- 
 erals; relieves the public distress; treats of peace and 
 of the ransom of captives with the enemy. What 
 wonder if in discharging these offices, in conjunction 
 with those of his supreme vicariate over the church, 
 the dignities of prince and pontiff should seem to be 
 united in his person. 
 
 *'The church of Rome," Gibbon continues, "as has 
 been formerly observed, was endowed with ample pos- 
 sessions in Italy, Sicily and the most distant provinces; 
 and her agents who were freciuently sub-deacons, had 
 acquired a civil and even criminal jurisdiction over 
 their tenants and husbandmen. The successor of St. 
 Peter administered his patrimony with the temper of a 
 vigilant and moderate landlord; and the epistles of 
 Gregory are filled with salutary instructions to abstain 
 from doubtful and vexatious law suits; to preserve the 
 integrity of weights and measures; to grant every 
 reasonable delay, and to reduce the capitation of the 
 slaves and the glebe. The rent on the produce of 
 these estates was transported to the mouth of the Tiber, 
 at the risk and expense of the pope; in the tise of 
 wealth he acted like a faithful steward of the church 
 and of the poor, and liberady applietl to their wania the 
 
354 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 inexhaustible resources of abstinence and order. The 
 voluminous accounts of his receipts and disbursements 
 were kept above three hundred years in the Lateran as 
 a model of Christian economy. 
 
 '*The instant distress of the sick and helpless, of 
 strangers and pilgrims, were relieved by the bounty 
 of each day and of every hour; nor would the pontiff 
 indulge himself in a frugal repast till he had sent the 
 dishes from his own table, to some objects deserving of 
 his compassion. The misery of the times had reduced 
 the nobles and matrons of Rome to accept without a 
 blush, the benevolence of the church; three thousand 
 virgins received their food and raiment from the hand 
 of their benefactor, and many bishops of Italy escaped 
 from the barbarians to the threshold of. the Vatican. 
 Gregory might justly be styled the father of his coun- 
 try and such was the extreme sensibility of his con- 
 science, that for the death of a beggar who had perished 
 in the streets, he interdicted himself for several days 
 from the exercise of sacerdotal functions. 
 
 '^Gregory awakened the Emperor Mauritius; ex- 
 posed the guilt and incapacity of the exarch and his 
 inferior ministers; complained that the veterans were 
 withdrawn from Rome for the defence of Spoleto; en- 
 couraged the Italians to defend their cities and altars, 
 and condescended in the crisis of danger, to name the 
 tribunes, and to direct the operations of the provincial 
 troops. 
 
 "If we may credit his own declarations, it would 
 have been easy for Gregory to exterminate the Lom- 
 bards by their domestic factions, without leaving a 
 king, a duke, or a count, to save the unfortunate 
 nation from the vengeance of their foes. As a Chris- 
 
 I 
 
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT. Si6 
 
 tian bishop, he preferred the salutary offices of peace; 
 his mediations appeased the tumult of arms; but he 
 was too conscious of the arts of the Greeks, and the 
 passions of the lyombards, to engage his sacred prom- 
 ise for the observance of the truce. . Disappointed in 
 the hope of a general and lasting treaty, he presumed 
 to save his country without the consent of the emperor 
 or the exarch. 
 
 * 'The sword of the enemy was suspended over Rome; 
 it was averted by the mild eloquence, and seasonable 
 gifts of the pontiff, who commanded the respect of the 
 heretics and barbarians. The merits of Gregory were 
 treated by the Byzantine Court with reproach and insult 
 but in the attachment of a grateful people, he found ike 
 purest reward of a citizen, and the best right of a sovere- 
 ign." 
 
 Such the character of Pope St. Gregory the Great, 
 by Gibbon, the well known enemy of Christiaotty. 
 Yet this was the pope who in his letters subscribed 
 himself "Servant of the servants of God/* — 
 Servus servoruvi Dei, a practice since followed by the 
 popes. 
 
 POPE GREGORY SENDS AUGUST? V»- TO 
 CONVERT ENGLAND. 
 The affecting incident that first inspired St. Gn^ : . 
 the Great with the object of converting iV 
 Saxons, has been often told. The sight of 
 young captives about to l>c sold as slaves, aa h^ 
 one day passing through the city to hia cou.^m;. 
 excited his liveliest compassion. He enquired from 
 what country they came, and on being told they were 
 Angli, he said, they deserved rather to lie called 
 
356 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 Angeli — that is to be named not Angles but Angels; 
 and from that moment resolved to spend his life in 
 bringing a people so gifted by heaven from the servi- 
 tude of idols to a participation in the dignity and 
 blessings of Christianity. Although he was at this 
 time only a simple monk, his extraordinary virtues 
 and endowments had so endeared him to the Romans, 
 that on discovering his intention, and that he had left 
 his convent, they pursued, and having overtaken him 
 when already advanced upon his journey constrained 
 him, notwithstanding all his efforts and entreaties to 
 the contrary, to return to Rome again. But though 
 thwarted thus by the ardent attachment of his fellow- 
 citizens, and effectually debarred by his after elevation 
 to the papacy, from the prosecuting holy enter- 
 prise in person, he did not fail to confide it in due time 
 to some of the most zealoui and learned of his monastic 
 disciples. Among these none seemed better qualified 
 than Augustine, prior of St. Gregory's Monastery, 
 dedicated to St. Andrew in Rome. Him therefore, the 
 pope appointed superior of this mission, allotting to 
 him several assistants who were Roman monks. 
 
 On reaching the Isle of Thanet, Kent, where they 
 first landed, the missionaries sent to apprise King 
 Ethelbert, that they had come from Rome, and were 
 the messengers of good tidings, tidings- that must in- 
 fallibly secure the eternal joys of heaven, and a crown 
 of never-ending glory to those who receive them with 
 docility. After some days delay the king came in 
 person to the island, and sent to inform the strangers 
 that he was ready to receive their embassy. They are 
 described by the venerable Bede as forming an august 
 procession, as they advanced with the cross, and an 
 
57: AUGUSTINE CONVERTS ENGLAND. S57 
 
 image of the Saviour, embroidered on a standard, at 
 their head; they chanted the Litanies in alternate choirs 
 as they moved along, imploring the aid of Heaven 
 upon their enterprise, and its choicest blessings upon 
 the people to whom they came. The Kentish mon- 
 arch received them under a spreading oak and after 
 listening attentively to St. Augustine, who, as chief 
 of the apostolic embassy, announced to him the great 
 message of salvation, informed them, that though for 
 the present he was not inclined to abandon the deities 
 of his country and his sires, he permitted them to 
 preach their doctrines to his subjects. With anthems 
 of praise and supplicating heaven to bless the country 
 they were entering, they proceeded in the same order 
 of procession, from Thauet to Canterbury, where 
 Ethelbert had assigned an ancient church of St. Martin 
 built in the time of the Romans, for their abode. 
 There they persevered in devout exercises, in celebrat- 
 ing the Divine mysteries with great solemnity, in 
 preaching to the multitudes, and in supplicatinf^ the 
 Almighty with fasting and prayer for their conveniion. 
 These labors were so successful, that before the expira- 
 tion of twelve months, the venerable pontiff who had 
 so ardently prayed and exerted himself for the Hnglt»h 
 was filled with joy and consolation by the tidings, thai 
 King Ethelbert and more than ten thousand of his 
 subjects had embraced the faith. A. D. 597. 
 
 "When the Saxons," says Dunham, •'arrived at the 
 luiglish coast, they were amongst the most barbarous 
 of the Germanic tribes. Unacquainted with the list 
 of letters; savage in their habits; ignorant of the neces- 
 sary arts of life, and despising all except that of war; 
 with no desires except such as in their gratiGcatioo 
 
358 THE SIXTH CENTURY, 
 
 were injurious to public or individual prosperity; 
 acknowledging no law except individual will; and con- 
 temning more polished, because more feeble nations, 
 they were barbarians in the truest sense of the word. 
 Nor was their contact with the Briton likely to benefit 
 them. The Britons were almost as rude as themselves; 
 the last lingering traces of Roman civilization were 
 almost faded away through the interminable wars 
 that signalized the long decline of the empire; and even 
 if the natives had been qualified to instruct their vic- 
 tors, an hostile spirit would forever have kept the two 
 people separate. To Christianity the Saxons were in- 
 debted not only for the ornamental, but for the useful 
 arts of life; not only for literature, but for science. 
 Without the instructions of the missionaries, and that 
 intercourse that followed their conversion, they would 
 have continued to live, like the wild beasts of the 
 desert, the terror of their local habitations. Histor- 
 ians with more prejudice than information, or perhaps 
 with dishonesty superior to both, have not hesitated 
 to condemn the labors and views of the Roman mis- 
 sionaries; have deplored the subversion of the ancient 
 British church, and regarded the arrival of the stran- 
 gers as in every respect portentous of evil to this 
 island. The truth however, is, that to the Roman 
 missionaries, our ancestors were indebted for every- 
 thing that improves life, for their hopes of immortality, 
 for their greatness, probably for their existence as a 
 nation. The effects of this moral revolution were in- 
 deed vast, but sufficiently explicable. Hitherto, the 
 only path of distinction lay in war; the use of arms, 
 therefore, was the chief, almost the only branch of 
 education, and with such intensity had it been culti- 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS. SM 
 
 vated that the ''strife of spears,** was loved c\'cn for 
 its own sake, and the human feelings entirely for- 
 gotten. Hence the noblest faculties of our nature had 
 lain dormant, until religion called them forth. She 
 indicated to the eye of ambition other fields than those 
 of blood, other enjoyments than that of tossing the 
 helpless infant on the point of the lance. By her pre- 
 cepts, by the preaching and example of the mission- 
 aries, by intercommunication with the civilized states 
 of France and Italy, the character of the people was 
 soon elevated; not only religion but intellectual knowl- 
 edge began to be esteemed; in the cloister all that 
 could be learned at that period was prosecuted with 
 eager study; and in less than two centuries from the 
 arrival of St. Augustine, England could boast of a 
 higher degree of mental culture, than any other 
 European country." 
 
 The introduction of letters and of schools to diflFuac 
 the first rudiments of learning,. was a portion of the 
 instructions of ,St. Gregory to those whom he sent to 
 found the gospel; but for the pre-eminence to which 
 they attained in literature and the sciences, the Anglo- 
 Saxons were mainly indebted to Pope Vitalian. He 
 selected for the see of Canterbury, and for the Abbey 
 of St. Peter's in the same city, two of the most accom- 
 plished scholars of the age; the one. Theodore, a native 
 of Tarsus, in Cilicia. whom he appointed arcbbisbop; 
 the other, Abbot Adrian, by birth, an African. Both 
 were masters of the Greek and Latin languages, and 
 eminently versed in the circle of the sciences, as Ibey 
 were then known. Kre long the residence of Arch- 
 bishop Theodore, and the monastery of Abbot Adrian. 
 became Normal schools for all the kingdoms ol the 
 Duttham, Europe Durimg ikr Middt4 Agt%. 
 
360 THE SB VENTH CENTUR Y. 
 
 heptarchy. The fire of emulation which they enkin- 
 dled soon illuminated the entire land, extending its 
 humanizing influence from the cloisters to the fortress, 
 castles of the nobility, and to the courts of the royal 
 princes. Even the Anglo-Saxon ladies became in- 
 flamed with the general enthusiasm for letters; and 
 their accomplishments and classic taste may well excite 
 the surprise, if not the envy, of their fair descendents 
 of the present age. "They conversed with their absent 
 friends," says Dr. Lingard, "in the language of ancient 
 Rome; and frequently changed the labors of the dis- 
 taff and the needle (in which they excelled), for the 
 more pleasing and more elegant beauties of the Latin 
 poets. ' ' 
 
 But it was not alone for mere intellectual advanta- 
 ges and enjoyment that the English were indebted to 
 the introduction of Christianity. It brought in its 
 train, all those humbler arts that are so indispeUvSable 
 to the well-being of society, as well as those that exalt 
 and embellish the human character. The trades of the 
 ironsmith, the joiner, and of those who worked in the 
 precious metals, were held in such high repute among 
 the monastic orders, that it was considered honorable 
 for the highest dignitaries, not only to patronize, but 
 occasionally to ennoble them, by practicing them with 
 their own hands. In the female communities, the 
 labors of the distaff and the loom were plied with well- 
 regulated assiduity; and in needle work and the art of 
 embroidery, the nuns of those ages attained a skill 
 that has left the specimens of their works that have 
 survived, unrivalled for elegance, even at the present day , 
 
 But it was the superior knowledge and persevering 
 industry of the monks, as agriculturists, that con- 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 961 
 
 tributed more than everything else to beautify the 
 aspect of the whole country, and to enrich the popula- 
 tion with an abundance of those substantial comforts, 
 to which they had been almost total strangers. Some 
 of the fairest and most fertile tracts of England were 
 originally re-claimed from the desert and the morass 
 by the self devotedness of the Benedictine Monks. 
 Through a spirit of mortification and a love of soli- 
 tude, they usually preferred the most desolate and 
 sequestered districts, and such as seemed to hold out 
 the least hope of a return for the expenditure of 
 fatigue. But, laboring as they did, through a spirit 
 of penance and divine charity, they speedily effected 
 what to the theowas, or slave-laborers, of the lay pro- 
 prietors, must have ever remained impossibilities; and 
 in addition to the spontaneous enthusiasm with which 
 as servants of Christ and of his needy members they 
 applied themselves to toil, the monastic orders pos- 
 sessed immense advantages in those agricultural tradi- 
 tions of the ancient Romans, that were cherished in 
 the rural fraternities of St. Benedict, long after they 
 had been forgotten, and lost everywhere else. They 
 cleared the forests, drained the fenny regions, con- 
 structed roads and embankments, crecteti uiiIIh and 
 bridges, and never hesitated to attempt whatever im- 
 provement was not impossible for the most devoted 
 industry to accomplish. The least favored regions of 
 the island became the scenes of smiling plenty; the 
 verdant meadow and rich pasture lands, extended 
 where the stagnant waters of the marsh nsed before 
 to engender pestilence; and fragrant herbsfteand many 
 tinted flowers seemed to spring up and flourish, where- 
 ever religion passed through fb- l»t».l uthui hir errand 
 of benediction. 
 
362 THE SEVENTH CENTURY, 
 
 The coast of Norlhumbria was cultivated by the 
 monks of Coldingham, I^indisfarne, Bambrough, Tin- 
 mouth, Jarrow, Weremouth, Hartpool, and Whitby: 
 the marshes of the Gervii were drained and improved 
 by the monks of Croyland, Thorney, Ely, Ramsey and 
 Medhamstead. This fenny region, the theatre of mon- 
 astic industry, extended the space of sixty-eight miles, 
 from the borders of Suffolk to Wainfleet in Ivincoln- 
 shire. After the lapse of so many centuries, there is 
 reason to fear, that a very considerable part of it will 
 be again lost to cultivation by repeated inundations. 
 
 In architecture as in letters, the first impulse was 
 given by St. Augustin and his companions, who sub- 
 stituted a rough but solid masonry for the walls of 
 mud or timber, the only materials used before that 
 time by the Angles even in their temples; but still there 
 was no very great advance until the Saxon pilgrims, 
 in their frequent visits to the tombs of the Apostles, 
 had become impressed with the miserable inferiority of 
 their own churches, whose whitewashed walls and 
 windows without glass, had before excited their admi- 
 ration. St. Wdfrid and St. Bennet Biscop, the great 
 improvers af Saxon architecture, made several pil- 
 grimages to Rome, (the former, three or four; the lat- 
 ter, no less than five,) and never did they return^ 
 without a rich importation of manuscripts, chalices, 
 various utensils, vestments, and ornaments for the 
 altar; besides statubes and pictures to adorn the tem- 
 ples, which their opservation of the Roman and conti- 
 nental structures had enabled them to erect. In these 
 new structures, they exhibited to their admiring coun- 
 try-men all the wonders of cut stone walls and towers, 
 lead roofs, and glass windows with other astonishing 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS. SSt 
 
 improvements, "juxta Romanorum morem." And it 
 may well be imagined, that not the least attractive of 
 these novelties werethe creation of the Italian or Grecian 
 pencil. With these they adorned the sacred edifices, 
 "that all who entered them, even the illiterate." lo ose 
 St. Bennet's own expression, "might be led to salutary 
 reflections by the sight of their Saviour's image and 
 those of His saints, by the scene of the Nativity, of the 
 lyast Judgment, or by the other sacred subjects which 
 meet their gaze to whatsoever side they turn." 
 
 "The interior of these edifices," says Dr. Lnigprd, 
 "exhibited an equal spirit of improvement, and a 
 superior display of magnificence. Of the spoils that 
 their barbarous ancestors had wrested from a more 
 polished people, a considerable portion was now 
 dedicated to the service of the Dtity; and the plale 
 and jewels, which their piety poured into the treasuries 
 of the principal churches are represented of such value. 
 that it is with reluctance we assent to the testimony 
 of contemporary and faithful historians. From them 
 we learn that on the more solemn festivals the Micred 
 vessels used were either of gold or silver; thai the 
 altars sparkled with jewels and ornaments of the 
 precious metals; that the vestments of the priests were 
 of silk, and that the walls were hung with foreign 
 paintings and the richest tapestries." In the Church 
 of York stood two altars entirely covered wllh plates 
 of gold and silver: one of them was also ornameiitcd 
 with a profusion of gems, and supported a loCly 
 crucifix of e(iual value. Above were suspended thfte 
 ranges of lamps in a pharos of large dimensioos. 
 Even the books employed in the oflSces of rellgioo 
 were decorated with similar magnificence. St. Wilfrid 
 
364 THE SE VENTH CENTUR V. 
 
 ordered the four gospels to be written on a purple 
 ground with letters of gold, in which were encased a 
 number of precious stones. 
 
 Nor were the Anglo-Saxons content to sit down and 
 enjoy themselves amidst so many spiritual and tem- 
 poral advantages. The Divine spirit of Christianity 
 had flowed in upon their hearts from too pure a 
 fountain, and had penetrated too deeply not too give 
 birth, in due season, to a kindred zeal to communicate 
 the hopes of salvation, and the happiness of loving 
 and serving their Redeemer, to their fellow creatures, 
 still aliens from the Gospel. 
 
 No sooner were the Anglo-Saxons well initiated in 
 Christianity than they became inspired with zeal for 
 the foreign missions. The North of Germany, inhab- 
 ited by kindred tribes, presented an ample field to 
 their exertions; the merit of rescuing those tribes from 
 idolatry and barbarism inflamed their ardor; and with 
 such intrepidity and perseverance did they devote their 
 abilities, fortunes, and lives to the pious enterprise, 
 that they succeeded, under the auspices of successive 
 pontiffs, not only in diffusing the light of the Gospel 
 over the vast regions of ancient Germany, but in 
 transplanting among the most savage tribes the litera- 
 ture, sciences, and arts, that we have seen them 
 deriving from the missionaries of Rome. 
 
 The first to lead his countrymen into this, as into 
 every other great and holy enterprise, was St. Wilfrid, 
 whose preaching converted great numbers of the 
 Frisians. However, as it was only during his first 
 exile from the See of York, and when on his way to 
 prosecute the appeal for his restoration, before the 
 Pope, that he labored in this field, his preaching must 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 86^ 
 
 be ascribed rather to fortunate accident than to any 
 systematic plan. The merit of establishing the Anglo- 
 Saxon on a permanent and orderly footing must be 
 allotted to Egbert, a native of Northumbria. Like 
 multitudes of other noble youths in England, having 
 resorted to Ireland for the sake of study, he became so 
 attached to that country and its inhabitants, that be 
 gladly relinquished all idea of ever returning to his 
 own turbulent and distracted home. His application 
 was unwearied. He soon became celebrated as a great 
 master, and saw himself surrounded by several of his 
 youthful compatriots as devoted to learning and piety 
 as himself. It was then, he first conceived the design 
 of diffusing the light of the gospel through the Xorth 
 of Germany, and w4th this view selected for his asiQ- 
 ciates the most learned and zealous of his hearers. 
 Circumstances, however, prevented him from embark- 
 ing personally in the holy enterprise; but his disciples 
 labored with great success, not only among the Frisians, 
 but among the neighboring tribes, as far as Denmark, 
 under the direction of St. Willibrord. who was conse- 
 crated by Pope Sergius. and directed to fix his 
 metropolitan see at Utrecht. 
 
 Of the Anglo-Saxons associated to Si. Willibrord, 
 the names of several are renowned in hi.ntory. The 
 Boructuarii, who inhabited the presegt Duchy of Berg, 
 and the country of Mark, were evangelized by Si. 
 Swidbert; and when driven thence by a furious irmp- 
 tion of the pagan Saxons, he retired to ihe island of 
 Keisserswerdt, on which he built a monastery, and 
 whence he occasionally made excursions to inslmct 
 the remaining inhabitants. Adelbert, a prince of die 
 royal race of Northumbria, chose the North of HoUsiid 
 
366 THE SE VENTH CENTUR Y, 
 
 for the exercise of his zeal; the pagans listened with 
 ■docility to his instructions; and his memory was long 
 held in veneration by the inhabitants of Egmond, the 
 place of his residence and death. Two other disciples 
 of Egbert, brothers, of the name of Ewald, proceeded 
 to the territories of the old Saxons, but were martyred 
 by that most cruel and incorrigible of the Germanic 
 tribes. By Pepin of Heristal, their bodies were hon- 
 ored with a magnificent funeral at Cologne; by the 
 Anglo-Saxon church their names were immediately 
 enrolled in the martyrology, A. D. 692. The Batavi, 
 who dwelt on the island formed by the Rhine and the 
 Wahal, owed their conversion to the instructions of 
 Werenfrid. Wiro, Plechelm and Otger, devoted them- 
 selves to the inhabitants of Gueldres. Their principal 
 residence was in the neighborhood of Ruremond. 
 
 But of these Christian adventurers the most eminent 
 for the extent of his conquests and the important com- 
 missions with which he was intrusted by the Holy See, 
 was Winfrid, born at Crediton, in Devonshire, but 
 better known by the name of Boniface, given him by 
 Pope Gregory 2nd, when, on his second visit to Rome, 
 he consecrated him bishop, that he might the better 
 prosecute his apostolic labors, already crowned with 
 extraordinary success. Three times he visited the 
 tombs of the apostles. First, when with several of 
 his young companions, he came bearing commendatory 
 letters from his diocesan, to supplicate the Supreme 
 Pontiff, to be sent to convert the pagans. Secondly, 
 when the fame of his successes in Hesse, Saxony, and 
 Thuringia, caused him to be summoned back to Rome 
 to receive the episcopal consecration; and lastly, when 
 in his old age, and covered with glory, he came to give 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS, mi 
 
 an account of his mission to Pope Gregory 3rd. Again 
 after this he returned to his apo^tolical career with 
 redoubled zeal, not only to extend the frontiers of 
 Christ's kingdom, but as legate of the Pope, to rekin- 
 dle zeal, and enforce the observance of canonical dis- 
 cipline in its most ancient provinces. 
 
 The first care of the missionary, after he had received 
 the episcopal consecration, was to increase the number 
 of his associates. In a circular letter addressed to the 
 bishops and principal abbots of England, he painted in 
 lively colors the wants of the missions, and exhorted 
 his countrymen to assist him in liberating the scab oi 
 their fellow-creatures from the yoke of ignorance and 
 paganism. His exhortations were read with congenial 
 sentiments by the more fervent of the monks and cler- 
 gy: the merit of converting the infidels, and the hope 
 of obtaining the crown of martyrdom, taught them to 
 despise the dangers and difficulties of the enterprise, 
 and many zealous missionaries crossed the sem, and 
 placed themselves at the disposal of the new apostle. 
 No motives but those of the purest zeal could have 
 supported them under the numerous privations and 
 dangers to which they were continually exposed- 
 Bread, indeed, they were able to obtain from thegrati* 
 tude of their proselytes, and the menaces of the Franks 
 protected them from the insults of the vamiuinhcd bar- 
 barians who refused to listen to their doctrine, but for 
 clothing and most every other neccessar>\ ihey were 
 compelled to depend on the casual benevolciioe of their 
 distant friends. The fruits of their labors were fre- 
 quently destroyed, and their lives endangered by Ibe 
 hostility of the tribes, that still retained the religioo 
 and independence of their fathere. By one incttrsioo. 
 
368 THE SE VENTH CENTUR V. 
 
 no less than thirty churches were levelled with the 
 ground. 
 
 The next object of the archbishop was to insure a 
 permanent supply of missionaries. With this view he 
 erected several monasteries, and exhorted his associates 
 to copy his example in their different districts. His 
 first foundation was the small cell of Ordof; this was 
 followed by the larger monasteries of Fritzler and 
 Amelburg; and to them succeeded the rich and magnif- 
 icent abbey of Fulda. An extensive forest, known by 
 the name of Buchow, lay in the midst of Franconia, 
 Hesse, Wetteravia, and Thuringia. Through it ran 
 the river Fuld, on the banks of which, Boniface dis- 
 covered a spot, adapted in his opinion, to the purposes 
 of a monastic life. A grant of the place was readily 
 obtained from the piety of Carloman, the son of Pepin; 
 Sturm, his beloved desciple, with seven associates 
 cleared the wood, and erected the necessary buildings; 
 and Boniface himself taught them the strict rule of St. 
 Benedict. The abbey placed under papal protection by 
 its founder, continued to flourish long after his death. 
 Within the space of a few years it contained four hun- 
 dred monks, and continued to diffuse the light of liter- 
 ature and piety over the surrounding countries long 
 after, not only Lindisfarne and Jarrow, but even Can- 
 terbury itself had been made desolate by the ravages 
 of the Danes. 
 
 For the education of the female sex, Boniface 
 solicited the assistance of Tetta, the abbess of Win- 
 burn; and Ivioba, with several of the sisters, devoted 
 themselves to so meritorious a work. To these he 
 afterwards associated several other English ladies, who 
 were animated with similar views, and equally desirous 
 Lingard's Anglo-Sax. Antiq. 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS, S6» 
 
 to partake in the merit of the missionaries. Lioba 
 was placed in the convent of Bischofesheim, on the 
 Tuber; Tecla, at Chitzingen, in Franconia; Walpurgc, 
 Heidenheim, near the Brentz, and Chunihild and 
 Chunitrude were sent, the former to Thurinj^n^* a«d 
 the latter into Bavaria. 
 
 As Boniface advanced in age, he found himself 
 unequal to the administration of so extensive a diocese. 
 With the permission of the pontiff, and the consent 
 of Carloman, he established four episcopal sees at 
 Erford, Buraburg, Aichstad, and Wurtzburg; and 
 intrusted them to the care of four of the most zealous 
 among his associates, Adelhard, Wintan, Willibald, 
 and Burchard. 
 
 Not was it alone to the nations converted by bis 
 preaching that his pastoral solicitude was directed. 
 In quality of apostolic legate, he visited Bavaria, and 
 was received by the Duke Odilo with respect and 
 kindness. The Bavarian Church was then governed 
 by Vvjilo, a prelate ordained for that mission by the 
 sovereign pontiff. Boniface judged that a greater 
 number of pastors was necessary to accelerate the 
 progress of the gospel, and divided the country into 
 four smaller dioceses. Vivilo was obliged to conttot 
 himself with the bishopric of Passau; John, an Anglo* 
 Saxon was ordained for that of Saltzburg;andCoibftld 
 and Erembert were placed in the churches of RAti*bon 
 and Frezegen. 
 
 Thus it was that the Holy See. and Chriateodom at 
 large, were nobly requited by the Anglo-Saxons far 
 the blessing of conversion. The career of St. Boni- 
 face, one of the most glorius and devoted legmlca 1^ 
 whom the supreme vicars of Christ were ever 
 
370 THE SE VENTH CENTUR V. 
 
 was ultimately crowned with martyrdom; but there 
 was an imperishable vitality in his works. The see of 
 Mentz continued to be illustrated by his virtues in the 
 person of his favorite disciple, St. I^ullus, whom he 
 was permitted, as an extraordinary favor, to appoint 
 his successor before departing on the mission to Frisia 
 where he met his death; and the monks o^ Fulda, and 
 the other monasteries continued for centuries after- 
 wards, not only to uphold the cause of learning and 
 discipline, but to push the conquests of the Gospel not 
 only to its shores, but even beyond the Baltic. 
 
 Dunham writes of him, '*No man ever exceeded 
 Boniface in devotion to the Court of Rome, which he 
 certainly regarded as the abode of Christ's Vicar on 
 earth, and to which the church universal was divinely 
 subjected. The oath which he took of fidelity to it, 
 on his elevation to the archbishopric of Mentz, might 
 have been dictated by Bellarmine himself, and in the 
 councils over which he presided, he caused the d^ty 
 of receiving the Pallium from Rome, and the propriety 
 of papal intervention in the internal affairs of each 
 diocese, to be formerly recognized." 
 
 POPE ST. MARTIN AND THE GREEK 
 EMPEROR CONSTANS. 
 Saint Martin ist. son of Fabriciup, a rich and noble 
 personage of Todi, a town in the States of the Church, 
 was elected Pope on the 5th. of July, 649, and conse- 
 crated without waiting for the consent of the emperor, 
 who afterwards accused him of taking the pontificate 
 irregularly, and without his consent. The pope him- 
 self informs us in a letter contained in Labbe's Coun- 
 cils, that this was the reason why he was persecuted. 
 
THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR, J71 
 
 Pope Martin convened a Council that met in the Basil- 
 ica of St. John Lateran on the 5th. of October 649, in 
 which Monothelism was condemned, althongh the 
 emperor Constans had decreed severe penalties against 
 all refusing to subscribe to the heretical doctrine. The 
 decrees of the Council required huppoit, and the 
 Ivombard kings were disposed to uphold them; they 
 therefore declared for Pope Martin against the emper- 
 or. Constans then determined to punish the pope by 
 stratagem, and gave orders for his a>sassination. Bat 
 Martin never went forth except attended by a number 
 of the clergy, and the exarch Olympias, who had re- 
 ceived the order to execute the crime, failed to execute 
 it. However, being eager to obey, he one day sent to 
 beg that the pope would give him communion in the 
 Church of St. John Lateran. Con.slant watch fi*aa 
 kept, on account of the designs against the Holy 
 Father. The bishops were foremost in showing semi 
 and eagerness to honor and serve the pontiff No »» ic 
 supposed that Olympias, clothed in the great digmu 
 of exarch, would thus draw the pope into an ambosh. 
 and dare to commit a sacrilege in the church il^lf. 
 Nevertheless, a.< the faithful at that time received com- 
 munion at the place in the church in which they pray- 
 ed, and as the pontifif carried it to them, as at the pre*' 
 ent time it is carried only to the pope in the Rumao 
 Ceremonial, Olympias was to be apart, surroandcd bf 
 his guards, and his personal attendant reidy to stab lilt 
 pontiff at the moment when he stooped to prooooBOt 
 the words of communion. The pope, attended by hit 
 bishops, advanced, and Olympias lent It to receive Iht 
 communion, but the assassin was appalled and Mtrtia 
 retired unmolested. Olympias demanded why hb 
 
372 THE SE VENTH CENTUR V, 
 
 attendant had not killed the pope. He replied that 
 at the moment the communion commenced, he seemed 
 to be suddenly stricken with blindness and in his agita- 
 tion and a trembling that he could not control, it 
 seemed to him the pope disappeared. 
 
 Olympias who already had begun to feel some re- 
 morse for the crime he had contemplated, did not 
 punish his attendant, but on the following day, threw 
 himself at the pope's feet, confessed the horrible pro- 
 ject of assassination, confided to him the order that 
 had been sent from Constantinople, promised not to 
 execute it, and solicited his pardon. Martin, much 
 affected raised Olympias from the ground, embraced 
 and pardoned him. The emperor recalled Olympias 
 from his exarchate, and sent him to Sicily to fight the 
 Mussulman who had already invaded that island. 
 
 A new exarch, Calliopas, was sent into Italy with 
 peremptory orders to seize Pope Martin by force. 
 Caliopas arrived in Rome at the head of a large body 
 of troops, June 15th. 653. 
 
 The pontiff though well aware of his designs, sent 
 his clergy to present his salutations due to the repre- 
 sentative of his sovereign, not being able to go in per- 
 son, on account of a severe and protracted illness. 
 To this deputation the Greek expressed how anxious 
 he was to present his personal homage to the holy 
 father, excusing himself on the score of fatigue, from 
 doing so until the next Saturday. This however, he 
 failed to do, fearing that the concourse of people would 
 be too great to permit the execution of his design. But, 
 on Monday he sent to complain to the pope, that mu- 
 nitions of war had been provided in the I^ateran palace, 
 as if to ward off a violence to which their was not the 
 
THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR, S7S 
 
 slightest intention of resorting. This, however, was 
 only a pretense to gain information; and as soon as it 
 was ascertained by his spies that no preparation for 
 defence had been made, he invested the palace with 
 his squadrons in most formidable array. Having got 
 admission to the presence of the pontiff who lay 
 stretched on his sick bed before the altar of the Basil- 
 ica, he produced an imperial mandate to the clergy, to 
 proceed to a new election, pretending that Martin was 
 to be looked upon as deposed, having, he said, been in- 
 truded into the see. The clergy and domestics were 
 inclined to show resistance, but the Holy Father, who 
 abhorred every species of violence, and had rather die 
 ten times over, than be the cause of bloodshed, forbade 
 the slightest attempt of the kind. He was therefore 
 carried forth amidst the cries of the clergy, who re- 
 peatedly exclaimed "Be he anathema who shall say or 
 believe that Pope Martin hath changed or ever will be 
 induced to alter one particle of the faith, or that he 
 will not be faithful unto death in the orthodox belief." 
 Calliopas had his victim carried on board a small 
 vessel in the Tiber on the 19th of July, and conveyed 
 in the first instance, to Misenum, thence to Calabria. 
 After casting anchor at several of the Greek islands, 
 during a voyage of three months, they came at length 
 to Naxos in the Archipelago, where there was a delay 
 of several months more It would be difficult lo de- 
 scribe the sufferings of the venerable pontiff during all 
 this time. Deprived almost of the common necesaa- 
 ries, languishing in sickness, and confined in the hold 
 of a miserable vessel, from which he was not permitted 
 to embark even once, he suffered during the entire 
 time from dysentery, extreme exhaustion and m- 
 Labb€, 
 
374 THE SE VENTH CENTUR Y, 
 
 sickness, from which he had scarcely an interval of 
 respite. The clergy, and the faithful of the Greek 
 islands at which the vessel touched, used to flock from 
 all sides, to testify their homage and compassion; but 
 they were fiercely repulsed by the guards, who de- 
 nounced as an enemy to the emperor whoever was a 
 friend to Pope Martin; at the same time seizing the 
 gifts and presents that were brought for the holy Con- 
 fessor's use. "Such was the condition to which this 
 innocent and patient sufferer was reduced," says the 
 historian, "that one cannot think of it without being 
 excited to indignation, both against the despot who 
 ordered, and the vile minions who executed such out- 
 rage upon a Roman pontiff so venerated by the entire 
 church of God." 
 
 From the authentic narrative of the sufferings of St. 
 Martin by Labbe, we leain that he was conveyed from 
 the isle of Naxos to Constantinople on the 17th of 
 September, 654. He was immediately cast into a dun- 
 geon, and prevented from seeing or conversing with 
 any one whomsoever for three months. On the 19th of 
 December, he was submitted to examination by the 
 chancellor or fiscal of the imperial court, by whom a 
 variety of false accusations were brought against him. 
 Perceiving their object, the intrepid pontiff conjured 
 the imperial officers to do with him, at once, what he 
 knew they were bent upon effecting, without going 
 through the mockery of a trial; and thereby procure 
 for him a great recompense in heaven. By order «f 
 the Emperor he was then carried in a chair (he not 
 being able to walk, or so much as stand) into an outer 
 piazza where there was an immense concourse of peo- 
 ple. There the pallium and other pontificial orna- 
 
THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR. 875 
 
 ments and robes were taken off him by the soldiers. 
 so that he remained almost stripped. Then, placing a 
 collar of iron around his neck he was dragged from 
 the palace through the entire city chained to the jailer, 
 or executioner, as if he were a culprit, going to execu- 
 tion. Amidst so many outrages and sufferings, the 
 venerable martyr never lost his serenity, and the great- 
 er part of the multitude wept aloud, and mourned 
 over such a spectacle of iniquity. Dragged back to 
 his dungeon, he continued to be treated with the great- 
 est barbarity, exposed to every hardship and privation. 
 until, at length, he was summoned from the place of 
 his exile in the Chersonesus, to receive the immortal 
 recompense of his trials for the faith. 
 
 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 SOME POPES AND SOME KINGS OF PRANCR. 
 
 •'The truce granted to the cities of Italy depending 
 on the Greek empire, having expired^ in the year 749, 
 the city of Perugia," says Muratori, "was immediately 
 beleagured by Rachis, the Lombard king; he likewbe 
 threatened to let loose his fury upon the entire extent 
 of the Pentapolis. These disa.strous tiding* had no 
 sooner reached the ears of Pope Zachary. who had 
 succeeded to Gregory III , than with a number of 
 prelates and magnates of Rome, he hastened to 
 Perugia, and by moving entreaties jig mollified the 
 barbarian, that he consented to raise the siege. Nay 
 more, with such a contempt for the former object* of 
 his ambition, and with such profound remorse for hb 
 past career of blood and rapacity did the words of iht 
 venerable pontiff inspire him that he determined to 
 become a monk. Soon after he resigned the crow©, 
 
376 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 came to Rome, and having received the m'onk's dress 
 at the hands of the Pope, retired to the monastery of 
 Monte Cassino; while Tassia, his queen, and her royal 
 daughters, became nuns, and founded the convent of 
 Piombaruola. Astolphus who obtained the throne 
 thus vacated, happening to die without issue, in the 
 year 766, a violent contest for the succession arose 
 amongst several pretenders. The scale seemed to 
 incline in favor of Desiderius, duke of either Istria or 
 Tuscany, until to his great alarm, and the general 
 surprise, the royal monk of Monte Cassino declared 
 his wish to lay aside the dress of the monk, and again 
 resume the 'iron crown.' Then it was," continues 
 Muratori, "that no other resource was left to Deside- 
 rius, than to throw himself upon the successor of St. 
 Zachary, Pope Stephen II, making at the same time 
 unbounded profession of his willingness and anxiety 
 to see regarded as inviolate the donation of King 
 Pepin, and all the cities and territories belonging to it, 
 still detained by the Lombards, restored. Through 
 the influence of the Pope, the royal monk was dis- 
 suaded from violating his solemn vows; but Desiderius 
 as soon as he obtained power to perform his promises, 
 seemed to have altogether forgotten them. However, 
 he was ever ready with his tribute of fair words, and 
 plausible excuses, until the death of Pepin appeared 
 to leave the patrimony of St. Peter without protection. 
 But no sooner had he become certain of the death of 
 Pepin, than in the year 772, he broke in upon the 
 estates of the church; giving up to sack, slaughter 
 and conflagration the whole country, towns, and cities, 
 castles and farm-houses from Sinigaglia, on the 
 Adriatic, on by Montefeltro, Urbino, Gubbio, through 
 
THE POPE'S TEMPORAL POWER, m 
 
 Roman Tuscany where the ashes of Bieda were extin- 
 guished in the blood of its people; nor was the career 
 f)f devastation checked, until the ravager had possessed 
 himself of the castle of Otricoli within sight of Rome. 
 Nor indeed was the Lombard overwise either. Hav- 
 ing secured the plundered provinces by strong garrisons, 
 he returned to Pavia, to prepare for new aggressions; 
 and in the opening of the following year, Pope Adrian 
 I. and his people were alarmed at the intelligence that 
 he was moving down at the head of his armies upon 
 Rome. The courageous pontiff hastened to provide 
 against the coming storm. The troops were called in 
 from Campania, Tuscany, Perugia, and from some of 
 the towns beyond the Apennines: the basilicas of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul being without the city walls, were 
 divested of whatsoever might tempt too strongly the 
 delicacy of the Lombard conscience: the Vatican was 
 strongly barricaded from within by bam of Iron. 
 When these preparations were complete, Bnatnutns, 
 Andreas, and Theodosius, bishops of Albano, Pak*- 
 trina and Tivoli, were sent forward to meet the 
 invader, with the intimation, that the sentence of ex- 
 communication would be fulminated against him, if he 
 presumed to cross, without the Pope's consent, the 
 confines of the Roman duchy. He had already 
 arrived at Viterbo, when the legate met him. Thai 
 embassy had the desired effect. Desiderius had not 
 the hardihood to advance farther btit retired with 
 great reverence and in confusion." 
 
 There arrived, however, in Rome .soon after ihi^ as 
 ambassadors from King Charles (who had Micceedcd 
 his father, Pepin le-bref, both in hisestatcn and in the 
 protectorate of the church,) a bishop named Gregory; 
 
378 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 Gulford, an abbot; and Albinus, a nobleman in high 
 favor with said king. Their chief errand was to ascer- 
 tain, if the lyombard (as he had stated to King; 
 Charles.) had really made restitution of the states be- 
 longing to St. Peter's, of which he had so long retained 
 the unjust possession. They soon di-coveredhis aver- 
 ments, on this head, to be utterly without foundation. 
 However, on returning to France, they presented them- 
 selves at the Court of Pavia, and used every argument 
 and exhortation to persuade the usurper to do justice; 
 but all without avail. Even after their return a new 
 embassy was sent into lyombardy by Charles, with 
 offers of fourteen thousand pounds of gold, as an 
 inducement to Desiderius to fulfill what he had bound 
 himself to by so many oaths and solemn engagements, 
 but malice blinded him to the ruin he was bringing on 
 the nation and on himself. It was now evident, that 
 nothing but the strong arm of force could restrain this- 
 perfidious prince from his unjust designs against Rome 
 or wrest from his grasp the estates of St. Peter's, and 
 of the poor. King Charles accordingly concentrated 
 his forces in Geneva; resolved to pass into Italy; and 
 having ascertained that Desiderius had taken post at 
 Chnsi, and was fortifying the passes of Mount Cenis, 
 he hastened to cross the Alps by that route himself^ 
 with the main body, directing his generals to lead the 
 rest of his army by the route of Monte Giove. But 
 before coming to hostilities, he tries another embassy, 
 offering to be content with a renewal of former stipula- 
 tions, provided three hostages were given for their 
 fulfillment. The result of the encounter that ensued, 
 on this final rejection of every proposal of peace by 
 Desiderius, was, that the Alpine passes were carried^ 
 
THE FOPE^S TEMPORAL POWER. ra- 
 
 the Lombards routed, and the incorrigible aggressor 
 cooped up within his capital. 
 
 Desiderius was at length compelled to surrender at 
 discretion, and was led captive from Pavia into France. 
 with Ansa his queen. According to some writers he 
 was placed in the safe-keeping of Agilfred. bishop of 
 Liege, where he ended his days, after sincere repent- 
 ance; but, if we may credit the monk of St. Gall, it 
 was in the monastery of Corbie he was confined; there 
 he lived for some years and died in peace. In Deside- 
 rius the turbulent dynasty of the Lombards became 
 extinct, after having desolated Italy, and held the 
 pontiffs and their people in direful alarm and affliction 
 for the space of upwards of two hundred years 
 
 It was pending the siege, or the blockade rather, of 
 Pavia, commenced probably towards the autumn of 
 773) that Charles paid his first visit to Rome. HU 
 object was two fold; — to celebrate the great 
 festival of Easter in the holy city, and to confer with 
 Pope Adrian, for whom be cherished the highc!»t ven- 
 eration and friendship. At Novi. thirty miles from 
 the city, he was met by an august embassy of Roman 
 senators, sent to salute him on the part of his Holine«i 
 and the Roman people; all the military forces of Ibe 
 papal states, with banners flying and military miiaic, 
 advanced as far as the third mile stone, and drew up in 
 grand array to receive the king of the Franks; while 
 all the children of the schools even, marched in pro- 
 cession to meet him; sinfi:ing hymn?*, and bearing 
 branches of olive in their hands. CIomt Id the gates be 
 was met by the Roman clergy and the religioos orders. 
 At the sight of the cros.ses and sacred gonhilons befoce 
 them, the king dismounted. walke<l *viih his grttl 
 
380 THE EIGHTH CENTURY, 
 
 officers uncovered, until he entered the great atrium of 
 St. Peter's. There arrived, instead of mounting on 
 foot the flight of cteps leading to the platform before 
 the vestibule, where the Pope with his court and a vast 
 concourse of the Roman people expected him, he 
 ascended upon bended knees, kissing each step devout- 
 ly as he advanced. The pontiff embraced the royal 
 hero with cordial affection, and then conducted him 
 by the hand, amidst canticles and hymns of jubilee 
 and triumph, to return thanks at the confession, or 
 shrine of St. Peter. On the Wednesday of Easter 
 week, he confirmed the donation of his father. King 
 Pepin, and deposited the diploma or deed of donation, 
 upon the altar of the apostle. . 
 
 It is on this occasion that Anastasius gives us the 
 enumeration of the provinces of which it consisted. 
 Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Cesano, Sinigaglia, 
 Jesi, Forlim popoli, Forli, with the castle of Sussubio 
 (at present, the town of Bertinaro), Montefeltro, Acer- 
 ragio, Monte de Lucaro, Serra, Castel di San Marino 
 (most probably the present miniature republic of San 
 Marino), Bobio (not that of lyiguria), Urbino, Cagli, 
 Luceolo, Gubbio, Comacchio, and the city of Narni. 
 In addition to these, all included in the gift of Pepin, 
 we find mention of the provinces of Venezia, Istria, 
 the dukedoms of Spoleto and Benevento, Parma, Reg- 
 gio, Mantua, Monttfelice, and the island of Corsica. 
 We learn from the same writer that some of those of 
 Spoleto and Rieti came to Rome, entreating to be re- 
 ceived into the dominions of the pope, rather than be 
 subject to the Lombards. This was even before De- 
 siderius had been defeated, and put to flight from the 
 Alps; but when that news was spread, and that the 
 
CHARLEMAGNE, 381 
 
 Spoletini, who had served under him had returned 
 home, the entire dukedom had recourse to the pope. 
 with an humble petition to be taken into the service 
 of St. Peter's. 
 
 King Charles paid a second visit to Rome in 781, 
 when his son Carloman, so called after his uncle had 
 his name changed to Pepin, and was crowned king of 
 Italy by Pope Adrian. In this and still more particu- 
 larly in a third visit, 787, his great object was to 
 secure the services of able professors, and other assist- 
 ance towards carrying out his grand project for the 
 revival of letters which had sunk into most deplorable 
 neglect throughout his vast dominions. The Lombard 
 invasion, to crown the calamities which it brought 00 
 Italy, had destroyed the ancient seats of learning, and 
 established ignorance everywhere it spread. But when 
 Charlemange had succeeded in repelling the fresh tor- 
 rents of invasion from the South and North*Easl and 
 had established an eifeclive and uniform govenimeQt 
 throughout his various kingdoms, he set about the 
 revival of learning. Among the profe.ssors of the var- 
 rious branches of learning whom he brought from 
 Rome was the celebrated Alcuin of England, who hid 
 come to Rome on behalf of his venerable patroo. 
 Egbert, archbishop of York, to procure the palliooi 
 from Pope Adrian. Alcuin was skilled in Greek as well 
 as in Latin, and conversant with all the sciences wUcb 
 he had learned under Kgbert, and of which hegivesoft 
 thfs catalogue: ' •Grammar, rhetoric, jurii 
 poetry, astronomy, natural history, mathematics^ < 
 nology, and the explication of the scriplarts." Ire- 
 land supplied him with professors for the ooiftllitlM 
 of Paris, Pavia, Bologna, and other seats of 
 
382 THE EIGHTH CENTURY, 
 
 Pope I^eo the 3rd. was crowned pope in 795. As 
 years rolled on, enemies grew up thickly around him so 
 much so that in 799 being threatened with assassina- 
 tion, he set out to implore the protection of Charle- 
 magne. The Emperor was at Padreborn with his 
 armies, when he had advice that Pope Leo was on his 
 way across the Alps to meet him. On the instant the 
 archbishop of Cologne was sent forward by the king, 
 at the head of an august procession of prelates and 
 noble paladins to bid the Holy Father welcome and 
 soon after, he dismis*^ed his eldest son Pepin, king of 
 Italy, with a warlike train of barons and valiant 
 knights. But vast multitudes collecting from far and 
 near, did joyfully hail the Pontiff as he came along — gaz- 
 ing on the successor of the blessed Peter with vener- 
 ation and wonder. Finally, having been received by 
 King Pepin, he was led by the royal youth to where 
 Charlemagne himself expected him. To do honor to 
 the advent of a guest so venerable, the king had drawn 
 out, and marshalled, all his armies, and when the holy 
 pastor came in view, the ranks of armed men fell down 
 upon the earth to pay him homage and implore his 
 blessing. But the king advancing from the centre 
 dismounted from his horse, and having first prostrated 
 himself before Christ's Vicar, and then embraced him 
 with filial affection, they went hand in hand, the Pon- 
 tiff and King Charles, first to the temple of the Most 
 High to return thanks, and then to the royal palace. 
 There the festivities and rejoicing were perpetual dur- 
 ing the many days that the pontiff tarried with the 
 king. 
 
 Meanwhile, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and 
 clergy from the surrounding countries, came to pay 
 
CHARLEMAGNE. M 
 
 liomage to the apostolic father, and to receive his bene- 
 •diction, and at their entreaties, he went about through 
 many provinces consecrating churches and altars. In 
 the royal palace of Aqnisgrana (Aix-la-Chapelle) he 
 consecrated a chapel to Mary ever Virgin. Next, at 
 the humble prayer and solicitation of the venerable 
 father Gerbald, bi.shop of Leodien, he consecrated 
 churches to the glorious Virgin Mary both in Tungrae 
 and Visite, and in Colonia Agrippina, he consecrated 
 altars both in St. Martin's and on the Capital; and in 
 many other monasteries he consecrated altars and 
 chapels throughout Gaul and Germany, conferring 
 many indulgences everywhere he went. 
 
 In fine at the entreaty of the aforesaid glorious king 
 and of the venerable archbishop of Cologne, the smoie 
 holy pope surrounded by cardinals and prelates, and 
 escorted in every respect wiih regal pomp, set sail 
 along the Rhine towards Werda. And the holy broth- 
 erhood of St. Swithbert's convent, with the inbalN- 
 tants of the town, came in procession to meet the holy 
 father at the river-side, and thence conducted him, 
 with the king and his courtiers, amidst devout canti- 
 cles and great honors, into the church of St. Swilh- 
 bert. And on that day all Werda. as well as t>»- ••^n 
 vent, fasted by apostolical authority. 
 
 But on the next day, which, was the day bc(ofc the 
 nones of September, the holy pope Leo, Charles the 
 king, and the others assembled in the charch of Si. 
 Switbert. The divine office being chanted and llaaa 
 celebrated with all solemnity by the Archbiabop 
 Hildebald, the '^Acts" of the life of St. Switbert and 
 his many miracles— as narrated by his fellow country* 
 man and companion, the venerable prkal Mafcellua — 
 
384 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 the holy pope Leo, with the assent of his cardinals 
 and of the other prelates there present, solemnly 
 inscribed St. Switbert in the calendar of the saints. 
 Upon this the convent bells rang a joyous peal, making 
 a delightful harmony for many hours in honor of 
 God, thus glorified by his servant; and the choirs of 
 holy monks with humble and overflowing hearts 
 poured forth their thanksgiving to heaven, chanting 
 the hymn Te Deum laudamus. In the meantime, 
 while these things were proceeding, the aforesaid 
 Archbishop Hildebald, in presence of the most holy 
 apostolic Leo, devoutly lifted up the relics of the 
 saint from the grave where they had lain buried; and, 
 as he did so, a most delicious odour diffused itself 
 around. 
 
 There were present on the occasion of the canoniza- 
 tion, the victorious Charles, king of the Franks; the 
 venerable fathers, Cardinal-Archbishops Bernardus of 
 Ostia; Fortunatus of Treveris; Theodorus of Sabina; 
 Nicholaus of the title of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem; 
 Eustochius of St. Praxede; and Boniface of the title of 
 SS. Marcellinus and Peter; — cardinal priests, Gerbold 
 of Leodiensi; Nolquin, bishop of the Normensians; as 
 also many other prelates and dignitaries, but, more 
 especially, Felix Hildebald, archbishop of Cologne, by 
 whose advising and at whose pious instances, the holy 
 Leo had enrolled the blessed Switbert amongst the 
 saints. Moreover, it was decreed by the most holy 
 pope, Leo, that the anniversary day of the canoniza- 
 tion should be kept holy, during all time, by the 
 inhabitants of Werda, in honor of St. Switbert. His 
 church was favored with special indulgences by the 
 same holy pope, for the clergy who would celebrate 
 Anastasiiis. Baronius. 
 
CHARLEMAGNE. |8i 
 
 there on the festival of the holy bihhop St. Switbert, 
 and for the faithful who should devoutly assist at the 
 holy mysteries. The same pope also made an ofTcring 
 of a small golden cross, in which was inserted a parti- 
 cle of the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bal 
 the emperor Charles offertd two chalices of pure gold, 
 with two golden cruets, and several other sacred ves- 
 sels for the aliar, with the proviso,- that every time ihe 
 divine mysteries were celebrated in the convent of 
 Werda, memento should be made of the emperor. 
 Others also made offerings. They also contributed 
 according to their means, towards a canopy and shrine, 
 in which might be placed the relics of St. Switbert. to 
 the praise and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 liveth and reigneth with God the Father in the unity 
 of the Holy Ghost through the infinite ages of 
 eternity. 
 
 But when the rumor had spread abroad that the holy 
 pope Leo, and Charles the most serene emperor, and 
 the other prelates and princes were coming to Werda 
 to canonize St. Switbert, there assembltd ffon all 
 quarters multitudes of both sexes, with their aooa and 
 daughters, to receive the apostolical benediction of the 
 holy pope, and to witness the grand solemnity. 
 Amongst the rest was a certain noble lady, Iningarda. 
 a matron, honorable and respected, the aiater of arch* 
 bishop Hildebald. and wife of the xmliant Paladin 
 Bertoldus of Grienberg, at that time residing at Troja, 
 otherwise called Zantis. This noble lady having ob- 
 tained leave from her husband to go and be prtaeot at 
 the festivai, embarked at Xantis. in company wHli 
 many other gentle folk, to sail to Werda, taking with 
 her only two domestics and her first bom GoctUinus, 
 An^siasius. 
 
386 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 a little boy of only eight years and six months. Now» 
 as they were drawing near to Werda, the steersman, 
 seeing the immense crowd of boats that were below 
 him, put the helm about suddenly, in order to get to a 
 convenient berth near the shore, and in so doing, the 
 boat in which was Irringarda, struck another boat, and 
 little Gocellinus, losing his feet as he stood at the prow 
 beside his mother, fell over into the Rhine and sank. 
 His mother, who had been thrown down by the collis- 
 ion of the two boats, on seeing what had happened 
 and not being able to save her child, tried to cast her- 
 self headlong into the Rhine, but being held and pre- 
 vented by her two attendants and other kind people, 
 who tore away the long veil that fell gracefully from 
 her head over her person, and bathed in floods of tears 
 on account of intense anguish, the disconsolate Irrin- 
 garda filled the shores of the Rhine with her cries and 
 lamentations. This happened about the time of Ves- 
 pers, or the fifth hour of the evening. But when the 
 archbishop her brother heard it, he vented his afflic- 
 tion in heavy sighs, being exceedingly grieved; and 
 sent a messenger in all haste to Bertoldus with the sad 
 tidings that his son was drowned. But the lady 
 Irringarda clapping her hands like a woman out of her 
 mind, entered into St. Switbert's church with groans 
 and piteous cries imploring God to take pity on her, 
 and to vouchsafe through the merits of St. Switbert, 
 to give her back her child. In the long run being 
 somewhat soothed, by many most noble and compas- 
 sionate matrons who gathered round her, and above all 
 by the archbishop her brother, she suffered herself to 
 be conducted by him into the hospice, where they en- 
 deavoured to refocilate and console her broken 
 heart. 
 
GOCELLINUS RESTORED TO LIFE. 887 
 
 But she utterly unable to rest, passed the entire 
 night without sleep, assiduously prayed to St. Switbert 
 with a devout and anguished heart, imploring him 
 not to forsake in her distress her whom he had 
 befriended in so many tribulations, and vowing that 
 if, through his intercession, her Gocellinus was again 
 restored to her bosom, she would devote him to serve 
 perpetually in God's sanctuary. 
 
 Next day, when morning beamed forth, with re- 
 splendent brightness, certain good men. at the en- 
 treaty of the archbishop, having put out their boats 
 began to search for the body of Master Gocellinus that 
 had sunk in the Rhine. This they did with drmwnets, 
 and iron hooks, and other suitable instruments. At 
 last, about the eighth hour, just before the solemn 
 Mass, one called Lambert Dohet dc Rubrica, feeling 
 his hook to have fastened in something which he im- 
 agined to be a child's clothes, having called his com- 
 panions to his assistance, they with great skill drew 
 up the dead body, and lifting it from the water, gave 
 it to the heart-broken mother. She. on beholding the 
 dead body of her darling child, swooned away, ox-er- 
 powered by the sight; and, on coming to her^lf again. 
 she took the body in her armn. and being followed by 
 many illustrious and kind hearted persons of both 
 sexes, weeping and condoling with her. she laid it 
 down before the shrine of St. Switbert and all having 
 devoutly joined together in prayer, life returned to 
 the boy. He opened his eyes and was alive again. 
 and on getting on his feet he began to wonder at the 
 multitudes and throngs of people who were all gaaing 
 at him with astonishment, and immediately taking off 
 his dripping garments, at the suggestion of some per* 
 
•388 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 son, on account of the rush and pressure of the 
 crowds, they placed the boy standing on a high place, 
 where he could be seen by all. At the sight thereof, 
 there burst forth a shout, in loudness like to thunder 
 from the multitude, praising God in St. Switbert, on 
 •account of the great and manifest mercy which he had 
 there effected before all, through the merits of his 
 hoi)' servant. 
 
 In the same hour, Bertoldus came riding at full 
 speed, with a retinue of only ten horsemen, although 
 he was lieutenant of the king in those parts, such was 
 his distraction and disconsolate sorrow for the loss of 
 his beloved vson; but when entering into the church, 
 he beheld him restored from death to life, he glorified 
 God in his servant Switbert. Then the most holy 
 apostolic lyco, and Charles the King, apprised of these 
 things by the Archbishop of Cologne, uncle of Gocelli- 
 nus, who had been raised from the dead, commanded 
 the said child to be brought and placed before him; 
 whom when they beheld now living, who for nearly 
 fifteen hours had been under the waters of the Rhine, 
 they praised the benignity of God, who ever, by various 
 wonderful interpositions, magnifies and honors his 
 saints. But the archbishop, with the consent of his 
 parents, took off the gold bracelet from the neck of the 
 little boy, and ordained him a cleric, (clipping his 
 hair) and changing his name, called him Switbert, 
 and entering the monastery of his gracious patron, the 
 boy (like Samuel in the temple) served him always 
 there in great humility; and Count Bertoldus, through 
 'love of St. Switbert and his son, assigned to the afore- 
 said monastery certain lands to be holden by it in per- 
 petuity, 
 
 Muratori, Baronius. 
 
POPE LEO III AND CHARLEMAGNE. 389- 
 
 At length after having tarried many days with the 
 king, visited and honored by the prelates of all those 
 parts, and by the laity of all ranks, assembled in con- 
 siderable numbers from adjacent countries, the apos- 
 tolic Leo resolved to take leave of Charlemagne and 
 his court (by whom he was loaded with sumptuous 
 presents) and return to Rome. 
 
 The archbishop of Cologne, and Aaron, archbishop^ 
 of Saltzburg with the bishops, Bernard of Worms, 
 Atzone of Frisinga, Jesse of Amiens, and Cunibert, as 
 also the Counts Retigarius, Germanus, and Elenget, 
 were sent by the king to accompany the holy pontifif, 
 who was received as an apostle in all the cities througb 
 which he passed. Having arrived at Rome, on the 
 vigil of St. Andrew's festival, all the clergy, the sen- 
 ate, and the Roman people, the troops drawn up in 
 grand array, the members of the monastic orders, the 
 noble matrons, and all the foreign colleges of Franks, 
 Frisians, Saxons, and Lombards came out as far as the 
 Milvian Bridge to meet the holy father, and with gon- 
 falons and banners, conducted him to the Vatican Bas- 
 ilica along the Tiber bank, which with the overhanging 
 hills on the right of the way, reverberated with the 
 canticles of triumph and jubilee that ihey chanted as 
 they moved along. There the pontiff celebrated the 
 solemn Mass, at which all the congregation devoutly 
 received the body and blood of our Lord Jesius Christ: 
 and next day, when the festival of the blessed apoatle 
 had been solemnized — according to the ancient cus- 
 tom—crossing the Tiber, the holy pope entered the 
 city of Rome, and was conducted with great porop and 
 rejoicing to the patriarchal palace of the Lateran. 
 
 In the autumn of the following year, Charlema^e 
 
390 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 assembled a diet at Magonza, in which he made known 
 the object of his passing into Italy — the entire French 
 monarchy being at that time in a state of subordina- 
 tion — set out at the head of a powerful army, and after 
 halting seven days at Ravenna, moved on by Ancona, 
 whence he dismissed King Pepin with his forces to 
 Beneventum, and so crossing the Apennines he came 
 to Rome. Full of joy at the arrival of such a guest, 
 the pontiff sent the magnates and the senate a distance 
 of thirty miles to meet him. He was met at the first 
 mile stone from the city, by the Roman troops, and by 
 the clergy in procession, preceded by the children of 
 the various schools with palm branches and boughs of 
 olive in their hands, chanting canticles and hymns of 
 joy as they advanced. At the sight of the cross the 
 emperor dismounted from his horse, and surrounded 
 by his paladins and royal court, proceeded on foot to 
 the Vatican Basilica. There, the Pontiff, surrounded 
 by his cardinals and the prelacy, with a multitude of 
 the Roman people, awaited his approach. The mon- 
 arch ascended the steps leading to the vestibule of St. 
 Peter's upon his knees, devoutly kissing each step in 
 succession until he came to the platform of the porch 
 where having been embraced by the apostolic Leo, they 
 both advanced to the Confession of St. Peter, to return 
 thanks to the Most High, amid joyful canticles and 
 acclamations from all sides. 
 
 But the greatest day of all was the feast of Christ- 
 mas in the year 800, a day that beheld the successor 
 of the "fisherman," bestowing the diadem of the Cae- 
 sars on Charlemagne; and Charlemagne binding him- 
 self by vows in the name of Christ, to devote himself 
 with all the vast resources at his command, to defend 
 
CORONA TION OF CHARLEMAGNE. 391 
 
 and protect the empire of Peter. During the celebra- 
 tion of the Pontifical Mass, the venerable pope took 
 from the altar an imperial diadem, and with his sacred 
 hands placed it on the brow of the Emperor. Then, 
 the faithful Romans, remembering the devotedness of 
 this hero in the defense of the Church of Christ and 
 of his vicar, burst forth into the acclamation, '*Long 
 life and victory to Charles, crowned of God, the great 
 and pacific emperor of the Romans." Thrice was this 
 acclamation taken up by the people, the princes, and 
 the hierarchy; and all with joyful voices, united in the 
 litanies of the saints that were chanted before the 
 shrine of St Peter, while Charlemagne was anointed 
 emperor with holy chrism by the blessed pope on that 
 Christmas day. Then Charlemagne made solemn oath 
 in the name of Christ, before God and his blessed 
 apostle St. Peter, to be, to the utmost of his power, 
 knowledge, and ability, the defender and champion of 
 the Roman Church. He likewise made offerings to 
 the apostle's shrine — most in massive plate, with vases 
 and ornaments, such as lamps, chalices and crowns, al| 
 of gold, and sparkling with diamonds and jewels — no 
 small portion of the Gothic plunder, that had been 
 won by Clovis, from the successors of Astolphus. 
 Thus were the treasures and embellish nients that had 
 been rudely torn from the (|ueen of pagan empire 
 brought back again to grace the church of Christ. In 
 fine, the donation of King Pepin, his royal father, to 
 St. Peter's as augmented by the estates and provinces 
 which he himself had already added to it, was sol- 
 emnly ratified and renewed by Charlemagne as Em- 
 peror of the Romans. 
 
 On hearing these tidings, the pilgrims could not 
 
392 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 restrain themselves from joy, but broke, as if, with 
 one voice, into the hymn, Te Deum laudamus! 
 
 THE POPE AND THE TURK. 
 No race casts so broad and dark a shadow on the page 
 of ecclesiastical history, and leaves so painful an impres- 
 sion on the mind of the reader, as the Turkish. The 
 fierce Goths and Vandals, and then again the I^om- 
 bards were converted to Catholicism. The Franks 
 yielded to the voice of St. Remigius, and Clovis their 
 leader, became "the eldest son of the church." The 
 Anglo-Saxons gave up their idols at the preaching of 
 St. Augustine and his companions. The German 
 tribes acknowledged Christ amid their forests, though 
 they martyred St. Boniface and other English and 
 Irish missionaries who came to them. The Maygars 
 in Hungary were led to the faith through loyalty to their 
 temporal monarch, their royal missioner St. Stephen. 
 The heathen Danes reappear as the chivalrous Nor- 
 mans, the haughty but true sons and vassals of St. 
 Peter. The Saracens even, who gave birth to an im- 
 posture withered away at the end of 300 or 400 years, 
 and had not the power though they had the wili, to 
 persevere in their enmity to the cross. The Tartars 
 had both the will and the power, but they were far-off 
 from Christendom, or they came down in ephemeral 
 outbreaks, which were rather those of freebooters 
 than of persecutors, or they directed their fury as often 
 against the enemies of the Church, as against her 
 children. But the unhappy race of whom we treat, 
 from the first moment they appear in the history of 
 Christendom, are its unmitigated, its obstinate, its 
 consistent foes. They are inexhaustible in numbers, 
 
THE POPE AND THE TURK. 393 
 
 pouring down upon the South and West, and taking 
 one and the same terrible mould of misbelief as they 
 successively descend. They have the populousness of 
 the North, with the fire of the South; the resources of 
 Tartars, with the fanaticism of Saracens. And when- 
 their strength declines and age steals upon them, 
 there is no softening, no misgiving; they die and 
 make no sign. In the words of the Wise Man^ 
 "Being born, they forthwith ceased to be; and have 
 been able to show no mark of virtue, but are consumed 
 in wickedness," God's judgments, God's mercies are 
 inscrutable; one nation is taken, another is left. It is 
 a mystery, but the fact stands; since the year 1048^ 
 the Turks have been the great Antichrist among the 
 the races of men. 
 
 Since this date, because then it was that Togrul Beg 
 finally opened the gates of the North to those descents^ 
 which had taken place indeed at intervals, before, but 
 then became the habit of centuries. In vain was the 
 power of his dynasty overthrown by the Crusaders; ia 
 vain do the Seljukians disappear from the annals of 
 the world; in vain is Constantinople respited; in vain is 
 Europe saved. Christendom in arms had not yet fin- 
 ished, it had but begun the work, in which it neede<l 
 the grace to persevere Down came the savage hordes 
 as at first, upon Sogdiana, and Khorasan, so thea 
 upon Syria and its neighbouring countries. Some- 
 times they remain wild Turcomans, sometime they fall 
 into the civilization of the South; but there they are, 
 in Egypt, in the Holy Land, in Armenia, in Anatolia, 
 forming political bodies of long or short duration, 
 breaking up here to form again there, in all cases 
 trampling on Christianity, and beating out its sacred 
 Card, Newman. 
 
394 THE POPE AND THE TURK. 
 
 impression from the breasts of tens of thousands. Nor 
 is this all; scarcely is the race of Seljuk quite extinct, 
 or rather when it is on its very death bed, after it had 
 languished and shrunk and dwindled and flickered and 
 kept on dying through a tedious two hundred years, 
 when its sole remaining heir was just in one obscure 
 court, from that very court we discern the birth of 
 another empire, as dazzling in its rise, as energetic and 
 impetuous in its deeds as that of Togrul, Alp and 
 Makk, and far more wide-spreading, far more power- 
 ful, far more lasting than the Seljukian. This is the 
 dynasty of the Ottomans or Osmanlis; once the admi- 
 ration, the terror of nations now even in its downfall, 
 an object of curiosity, interest and anxiety; but whether 
 high or low, in all cases to the Christian the inveter- 
 ate and hateful enemy of the cross. There is a cer- 
 tain remarkable parallel and contrast between the 
 fortunes of these two races, the Seljukian and the 
 Ottoman. In the beginning of the twelfth century, the 
 race of Seljuk all but took Constantinople, and over- 
 ran the West, and did not; in the beginning of the fif- 
 teenth, the Ottoman Turks were all but taking the 
 same city, and then were withheld from taking it, and 
 at length did take it, and have it still. In each case 
 a foe came upon them from the North, still more fierce 
 and vigorous than they, and humbled them to the 
 dust. 
 
 These two foes, which came upon the Turks 
 respectively, are Zingis, and Timour. Zingis came 
 down upon the Seljukians, and Timour came down 
 upon the Ottomans. Timour pressed the Ottomans 
 even more severely than Zingis pressed the Sel- 
 jukians; yet the Seljukians did not recover the blow of 
 
THE POPE AND THE TURK. 395 
 
 Zingis; but the Ottomans survived the blow of Timour 
 and rose more formidable after it, and have long out- 
 lived the power which inflicted it. But the Turk had 
 a much more powerful adversary who outlasted both 
 Zingis and Timour, and whose tremendous blow was, 
 the cause in great part of the fall of the Seljukian 
 dynasty. That adversary was the pope. From the 
 eleventh to the eighteenth century he held incessant 
 war with the Turks. 
 
 Pope Sylvester the Second united the Christian 
 nations against them; Pope Gregory the Seventh col- 
 lected 50,000 men to repel them; Pope Urban the 
 Second set in motion the long cru.sade; Pope Honorius 
 the Second instructed the Knights Templars to protect 
 the pilgrims from their assault; Pope Eugenius the 
 Third sent St. Bernard to preach the Holy War; Pope 
 Innocent the Third advocated it in the august council 
 of theLateran; Pope Nicholas the Fourth negotiated 
 an alliance with the Tartars for its prosecution; Pope 
 Gregory the Tenth was in the Holy Land in the midst 
 of it, when he was elected Pope; Pope Urban the Fifth 
 received and reconciled the Greek emperor with a view 
 to its renewal; Pope Innocent the' Sixth sent the 
 Blessed Peter Thomas the Carmelite to preach in its 
 behalf; Pope Boniface the Ninth raised the magnificent 
 army of French, Germans, and Hungarians, who 
 fought the great battle of Nicopolis; Pope Eugenius 
 the Fourth formed the confederation of Hungarians 
 and Poles, who fought the battle of Varna; Pope 
 Nicholas the Fifth sent round St. John Capistran to 
 urge the princes of Christendom against the enemy; 
 Pope Callixtus the Third sent the celebrated Hunuiades 
 to fight with them; Pope Pius the Second addressed 
 Card, Newman, 
 
396 THE POPE AND THE TURK. 
 
 to their Sultan an apostolic letter of warning and 
 denunciation; Pope Sixtus the Fourth fitted out a fleet 
 against them; Pope Innocent the Eighth made them 
 his mark from the beginning of his pontificate to the 
 end; finally the power of the Turk was crushed under 
 Pope St. Pius the Fifth in the famous battle of 
 Lepanto, October 7th. 1571. In that battle, the Turks 
 lost 30,000 men, with their general Hali, and more 
 than two hundred ships and galleys, besides ninety, 
 that were stranded, burnt, or sunk. There were 
 taken one hundred and sixteen pieces of great cannon, 
 two hundred and fifty-six smaller, 5000 prisoners with 
 a large number of officers of rank, among whom were 
 two sons of Hali, nephews to the grand signior. The 
 booty was exceeding great; for the Turkish fleet was 
 laden with the plunder of many merchant vessels, and 
 of several islands; fifteen thousand slaves that were 
 found chained on board their galleys were set at liberty. 
 At Lepanto, the crescent paled before the splendor of 
 the cross. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Notwithstanding the inroads of Hun and Goth and 
 Vandal; notwithstanding the destruction that followed 
 in the wake of Alaric and Attila and Totila; of Zingis 
 and of Timour, and the swift Bajazet surnamed 
 Ilderim (Lightning); notwithstanding famine, slaught- 
 er, pestilence; notwithstanding that the blood of her 
 children flowed in torrents; yet the Church built the 
 University, the Church preserved Literature. 
 
UNIVERSITIES FOUNDED BY CA THOLICS 397 
 
 Date. 
 
 Date. 
 
 433, 
 
 Bologna, Italy. 
 
 1386, 
 
 630, 
 
 Cambridge, England. 
 
 1390, 
 
 700, 
 
 Cracow, Poland. 
 
 1394, 
 
 729, 
 
 Paris, France. 
 
 
 802, 
 
 Oxford, England. 
 
 1403, 
 
 820, 
 
 Lyons, France. 
 
 1405, 
 
 926, 
 
 I/Duvain, now in Bel- 
 
 1409, 
 
 
 gium. 
 
 1409, 
 
 968, 
 
 Cordova, Spain. 
 
 1411, 
 
 1145, 
 
 Rheims, France. 
 
 1419, 
 
 
 Thirteenth Cmtuxy. 
 
 1422, 
 
 1209, 
 
 Valencia, Spain. 
 
 1431, 
 
 1224, 
 
 Naples, Italy. 
 
 1436, 
 
 1228, 
 
 Padua, Italy. 
 
 1439, 
 
 1229, 
 
 Toulouse, France. 
 
 1440, 
 
 1233, 
 
 Salerno, Italy 
 
 1445, 
 
 1239, 
 
 Salamanca, Spain. 
 
 1450. 
 
 1245. 
 
 Rome, Italy. 
 
 1450, 
 
 1263, 
 
 Sorbonne, France. 
 
 1464, 
 
 1264. 
 
 Ferrara, Italy. 
 
 1456, 
 
 1289, 
 
 Montpelier, France. 
 
 1460, 
 
 
 Fourteenth Century. 
 
 1460, 
 
 1305, 
 
 Orleans, France. 
 
 1460. 
 
 1307, 
 
 Perugia, Italy. 
 
 1466. 
 
 1308, 
 
 Coimbra, Portugal. 
 
 1465, 
 
 1339, 
 
 Grenoble, France. 
 
 1472, 
 
 1343, 
 
 Pisa, lUly. 
 
 1473, 
 
 1346, 
 
 Valladolid, Spain. 
 
 1474, 
 
 134S, 
 
 Prague, Austria. 
 
 1476. 
 
 1349. 
 
 Perpignan, France. 
 
 1476, 
 
 1360, 
 
 Pavia, Italy. 
 
 1477, 
 
 1364, 
 
 Angers, France. 
 
 1477, 
 
 1364, 
 
 Anjou, France. 
 
 1477, 
 
 1366, 
 
 Vienna, Austria. 
 
 1482, 
 
 1366, 
 
 Orange, France. 
 
 1491. 
 
 1368, 
 
 Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
 1494. 
 
 1380, 
 
 Sienna, Italy. 
 
 1498. 
 
 1886, 
 
 Cologne, Germany. 
 
 Mi»9, 
 
 Heidelburg,'Germany . 
 Erfurt, Germany. 
 Palermo, Italy. 
 Fifteenth Century. 
 Wurzburg, Germany. 
 Turin, Italy. 
 Leipsic, Germany. 
 Aix, France. 
 St. Andrew's, Scotland. 
 Rostock, Germany. 
 Dole, France. 
 Poitiers, France. 
 Caen. France. 
 Florence, Italy. 
 Mechlin, Germany. 
 Catania. Italy. 
 Glasgow, Scotland. 
 Barcelona, Spain. 
 Valence, France. 
 Greifswalde, Germany. 
 Nantes, France. 
 Basel, Switzerland. 
 P'ribourg, Gennauy. 
 Bourges, France. 
 Budapest, Hungary. 
 Bordeaux, France. 
 Treves, Germany. 
 Saragossji, Spain. 
 Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 Upsala, Swetlen. 
 Tubingen. Germany. 
 Mentz, Gennany. 
 Innspruck, Gcrmaay. 
 Pantia. Italy. 
 Muustcr, Germany. 
 Al>erdeen. ScollamL 
 Madrid, Spain. 
 Toledo. S)>ain. 
 
398 UNIVERSITIES FOUNDED BY CA THOLICS. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Sixteenth Century. 
 1502, Wittenberg, (Termany. 
 1504, Seville, Spain. 
 1506, Frankfort, Germany. 
 1506, Breslau, Germany. 
 1517, Siguenza, Spain. 
 
 1532, Santiago, Spain, and 
 
 Salamanca. 
 
 1533, Evora, Portugal. 
 1537, Granada, Spain. 
 1540, Macerata, Italy. 
 1548, Messina, Italy. 
 1562, Sassari, Italy. 
 
 1564, Besancon, France. 
 
 1565, Dillengen (Suabia) 
 
 Germany. 
 1568, Douai, France. 
 1568, Braunsberg, Germany. 
 SINCE THE BATTIvE: OF 
 I<EPANTO. 
 Nancy, France. 
 Wilna (Polish) Russia 
 
 Date. 
 1621, 
 
 1572, 
 1578, 
 1580, 
 1580, 
 1585, 
 1592, 
 
 Strasburg (Alsace) Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Salzburg, Austria. 
 
 Bruges, France. 
 
 Urbino, Italy. 
 Eighteenth Century. 
 1722, Dijon, France. 
 
 Pau, France. 
 
 Camerino, Italy, 
 
 Erlangen, Bavaria, 
 Germany- 
 
 Grosswardein, Hun- 
 gary. 
 
 Ivemberg, Austrig. 
 Nineteenth Century. 
 1808, Clermont, France. 
 
 Rennes, France. 
 
 Liege, Belgium. 
 
 Ghent, Belgium. 
 
 Munich, Germany. 
 
 Brussels, Belgium. 
 
 Drumcondra, Ireland. 
 
 Agram, Hungary. 
 
 Czernowitz, Austria. 
 
 Prague (Bohemia) Aus- 
 tria. 
 
 Washington, United 
 States. 
 
 Lille, France. 
 
 1623. 
 1665, 
 1671, 
 
 1722, 
 
 1727, 
 1743, 
 
 1780, 
 
 1783, 
 
 1808, 
 1816, 
 1816, 
 1826, 
 1834, 
 1862, 
 
 1887, 
 
 1888, 
 
 Klausenburg, Hungary. 1874, 
 
 Orviedo, Spain. 1875, 
 
 Gratz, Austria. 1882, 
 
 Venice, Italy. 
 Seventeenth Century. 
 1603, Cagliara, Italy. 
 1606, Parma, Italy. 
 1614, Paderborn, Germany. 
 
 At present the Catholic Church numbers about 
 260,000,000 members. There are about 1,200 bishops, 
 counting some 15 patriarchs, 200 archbishops, and 20 
 prelates with dioceses. There are some 350,000 Cath- 
 olic priests in the whole world. The inhabitants of 
 Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Belgium, and Ireland 
 are nearly all Catholic. In Switzerland about half are 
 
PROTESTANT TRIBUTES. 809 
 
 Catholics; in Germany over a third of the population, 
 and in Russia, 11,000,000. In Europe about three- 
 quarters of the entire population are Catholic. In 
 America, there are 80,000,000 Catholics, of whom there 
 are 11,000,000 in the United States, while Mexico, 
 South and Central America, with the exception of 
 Brazil, are almost entirely Catholic. The adjacent 
 islands are mainly Catholic. In Asia there are 10,- 
 000,000 Catholics; in Africa, 3,000,000; in Australia, 
 1,000,000. 
 
 PROTESTANT TRIBUTES. 
 
 RIGHT REV. RANDOLPH S FOSTER. 
 
 It cannot be disputed that the Catholic Church de- 
 scends in direct and unbroken line from the Apostolic 
 time and Church. 
 
 Within her pale both recently and anciently, have 
 been many of the most illustrious saints and scholars. 
 
 She presents the most compact and powerful organ- 
 ization that has ever l^en set up among men. She has 
 wielded more power over wide spaces of time and place 
 than any other institution, ancient or modern. She is 
 still to-day as powerful as she was in the time of the 
 great Gregory or Hildebrand in essential respects. 
 That there are still many saints within her pale there is 
 no reason to doubt. Her Episcopal Throne on the 
 Tiber still moves the world. It is not perfectly clear 
 that she will ever be less powerful than 2>he is to*day. 
 
 Her communion is as large as in her palmiest days, 
 and her children not less loyal in constraine<l allegi* 
 ance. Neither England nor Germany nor the Uuited 
 States is free from her grasp. In the United States, 
 in fifty years, she has passed from nothing to absolute 
 mastery. 
 
400 PROTESTANT TRIBUTES, 
 
 There is no mission field in the world where she has 
 not more converts than all combined Protestantism. 
 The elements of her conservative power have no par- 
 allel. Missionary efforts in her own dominion have 
 'hitherto been effectual to win a score of thousands of 
 converts which are an inappreciable loss from her fold, 
 not missed more than a hair from the head. 
 
 LORD MACAULKY. 
 
 The history of that church joins together the two 
 great ages of human civilization. No other institution 
 is left standing which carries the mind back to the 
 times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the 
 Pantheon and when camelopards and tigers bounded 
 in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal- 
 houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the 
 line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace 
 back in an unbroken series from the Pope who crowned 
 Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who 
 crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time 
 of Charlemagne the august dynasty extends. The 
 Republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the 
 Republic of Venice was modern when compared with 
 the Papacy, and the Republic of Venice is gone, and 
 the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in 
 decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youth- 
 ful vigor. The' Catholic Church is still sending forth 
 to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as 
 zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine 
 and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit 
 with which she confronted Attila. The number of 
 her children is greater than in any former age. Her 
 acquisitions in the New World have more than com- 
 pensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her 
 
PRO'IESTANT TRIBUTES. 401 
 
 spiritual ascendency extends over the vast countries 
 which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape 
 Horn, countries, which a century hence, may not 
 improbably contain a population as large as that which 
 now inhabits Europe. Nor do we see any sign which 
 indicates that the term of her long dominion is 
 approaching. She saw the commencement of all the 
 governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments 
 that now exist in tbe world; and we feel no assurance 
 that she is not destined to see the end of them all. 
 She was great and respected before the Saxon had set 
 foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the 
 Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at 
 Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the 
 temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undi- 
 minished vigor when some traveller from New Zea- 
 land shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his 
 stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the 
 ruins of St. Paul's. 
 
ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 145, line 27, read Martyrio instead of Martyris, 
 
 The few remaining errors are corrected in the pages subse- 
 quent to them. 
 
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