natural inclination to religion, but he doth not force him in the choice."

43. The Altar of Victory sometimes replaced in the Senate-house, sometimes removed, according to circumstances.

The successors of Jovian adopted the same principles, and however attached they were to the Christian religion, all their measures against idolatry were confined to gradual restrictions on its exercise, according as circumstances permitted. The principles which guided their policy in this matter may be best learned from their conduct with regard to the altar of Victory, whose history may be said to epitomize the vicissitudes of paganism in the West, after the reign of Constantine. This altar, which had been first removed by Constans, in 357, was restored by Julian the Apostate. Valentinian I., allowed it to remain in deference to the pagan senators, and in accordance with the general liberty which he considered himself bound to give all his subjects in the exercise of their religion.3 Gratian not only ordered it to be removed in 382, but seized moreover, and confiscated at the same time, the revenues allotted for the support of the pontiff, and the expenses of the ancient worship.* The pagan senators, highly indignant at this measure, resolved to address a remonstrance to the emperor, and for that purpose deputed Symmachus, one of the most illustrious members, and generally considered as the first orator of his day. The Christian senators on the other hand, who were the majority of the senate, also presented an address, in which they disclaim

5

Themistii Or. V. (Inter ejusdem Orat. Paris, 1684, in fol. p. 68, &c.) ; Labletterie, Hist. de Jovien, p. 102; Beugnot, ubi sup. p. 226, &c.

2 Hist. des Auteurs Ecclés, by D. Ceillier, vol. vii. p. 337, 339, 340, 522527; vol. xviii. p. 74-76. Beuguot, Hist. de la Destr. du Pagan. en Occident, vol. i. p. 410, &c.

3 Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. iv. book xvi. n. 29; Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, vol. v. p. 8, &c.; Lebeau, Hist. du Bas-Emp. vol. iv. book xvi. n. 19. See above, p. 19, our observations on that subject, note 3.

Fleury, ibid. book xviii. n. 31 ; Beugnot, Hist. de la Destruction du Pagan. vol. i. p. 353, &c.

St. Ambrose, and after him the majority of modern authors, state expressly that at this period the majority of the senate was Christian. (St Am

that of the pagans; they even protested publicly, as well as privately, that they would never assist at the senate, if the emperor assented to the pagan petition. Pope Damasus forwarded the Christian address to St. Ambrose, who presented it to Gratian. It produced on that prince the impression that might naturally be expected; when the pagan senators solicited an audience, the emperor would not receive them.

After the death of Gratian, about two years later, in 384, Symmachus, then prefect of Rome, presented his petition to Valentinian II., brother of Gratian; but this second attempt was

brose, Epist. 17, n. 9 et 10 (Operum, tom. ii. p. 825.). D. Cellier, ubi supra, vol. vii. Baronius, Annales, anno 384, n. 9. Fléchier, Hist. de Théodose, book iii. n. 30. Lebeau, Hist. du Bas-Empire, vol. v. book xxii. n. 27.De la Luzerne, ubi supra, n. 76.) M. Beugnot supposes the contrary (ubi supra) p. 412, &c.), but he appears to have misunderstood the text of St. Ambrose, which he translates incorrectly (p. 426). We shall cite here the words of the holy doctor. After stating that the Christians had reason to think themselves persecuted if they were forced to assist at the deliberations of the senate in a place where they should be present at pagan sacrifices, and should take the oath of allegiance to the emperor before the altar of an idol, St. Ambrose adds, "that the pagans themselves are persuaded the altar of Victory was placed in the senate in order that the oath given before that altar should serve as the prelude for all their deliberations, though the Christians were then a majority of the senate." Propterea enim interpretantur (Gentiles) aram locatam, ut ejus sacramento, ut ipsi putant, unusquisque conventus consuleret in medium, CUM MAJORE JAM CURIA CHRISTIANORUM NUMERO SIT REFERTA (n. 9)...."All the bishops," adds the holy doctor, "would join with me in imploring you not to sanction such an impiety, if the intelligence which attributes this incredible measure to your own council, or to that of the senate, had not been so unexpected. But God forbid that the senate should make such a demand; it is all the work of a small number of pagans who abuse the name of that assembly. Absit, ut hoc senatus petisse dicatur; PAUCI GENTILES COMMUNI UTUNTUR NOMINE. In fact, the pagans, ten years before, having made a similar attempt, the holy pope Damasus forwarded to me a petition from the Christian senators, a very great number indeed (libellum Christiani senatores dederunt, ET QUIDEM INNUMERI), in which they declare that they had made no such request, and that the demand of the pagans ought not to be granted. They declared, both in public and in private, that if it were granted they would appear no more in the senate" (n. 10). The language of St. Ambrose on this point is confirmed by that of Prudentius, a cotemporary poet, who in his books against Symmachus, states, as a notorious fact, that the senate and people of Rome are Christian, that all Rome is Christian, and, especially in the senate, that you could scarcely ind a few pagans tenaciously attached to the old superstition, and obstinately closing their eyes against the light.

'Respice ad illustrem, lux est ubi publica, cellam (i. e. curiam) ;

Vix pauca invenies gentilibus obsita nugis

Ingenia, obtritos ægrè retinentia cultus;

Et quibus exactas placeat servare tenebras

Splendentemque die medio non cernere solem."

-Prudentius, contrà Symmach. lib. i. v. 570, &c. Rome, 1789, 4to. vol. ii. p. 749 (Bibliothec. Patr. vol. v. p. 1046).

not more successful than the preceding. Valentinian communicated the petition to St. Ambrose, who refuted it, in two letters addressed to the emperor himself. These letters were read in the council, in presence of counts Banton and Rumoris, both military prefects, who signed the decision pronounced by the emperor against the pagan senators, notwithstanding their wellknown bias in favour of the petition. The pagans were not yet discouraged; they made a last attempt under Theodosius, in 388, very probably through the same Symmachus. But the emperor not only rejected the petition, but ordered Symmachus to be seized and carried off a hundred miles from Rome, in punishment of his obstinacy. He was recalled in a short time, that punishment being deemed sufficient to silence thenceforward the principal champion of paganism.

44. Final blow given to Paganism by Theodosius.

But, however decided was the firmness of Gratian, Valentinian, and of Theodosius, against the pretensions of the pagan senators, they yet believed themselves bound to tolerate idolatry at least in the West. St. Ambrose manifestly supposes that toleration, in his letter to Valentinian against the petition of Symmachus. "The zeal," he observes, "manifested by the pagans for their false religion, must teach you what you ought to have for the true faith. It is no injury to man to prefer God to him. The pagans are entirely free to hold their own private opinions, for you compel no person to adore what he does not wish. But keep the same liberty for yourself; and who can complain, because that he has not extorted from you a concession, which himself would not grant to you, should you happen to ask it ?"3

1 St. Ambrose, Epist. 17, 18, Oper. tom. ii.

' Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. vol. iv. book xix. n. 15.

3

Taking occasion from the zeal of the pagans for their false worship, the holy doctor thus addresses Valentinian: "Sed proprio studio (superstitionis sua conservanda) docere et admonere te debet (Gentilis) quemadmodùm veræ fidei studere debeas, quando ille tanto motu veri vana defendit. . . . Nullius injuria est, cui Deus omnipotens antefertur. Habet ille (Gentilis) sententiam

It was reserved for Theodosius to give the final blow to idolatry throughout the empire; the universal contempt into which it had fallen enabled that great prince to prohibit it altogether, or at least to enforce more rigorously than had yet been done the edicts promulgated by his predecessors.1 In the twelfth year of his reign (391), three years after the last petition of the pagan senators, he issued an edict, prohibiting any of his subjects to sacrifice to idols, or to enter any of their temples for the performance of any rite of pagan worship; the transgressors of this law, should they even be magistrates or governors of provinces, were condemned to a fine of fifteen livres of gold. In the following year, another law prohibited the sacrifice of victims under penalty of death, and all other acts of idolatry, under penalty of the confiscation of the place in which they had been committed. The enforcement of those edicts met with

suam. Invitum non cogitis colere quod nolit; hoc idem vobis liceat, imperator, et unusquisque patienter ferat, si non extorqueat imperatori, quod molestè ferret, si ei extorquere cuperet imperator."-St. Ambrose, Epist. 17, n. 6, 7.; Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. iv. book xviii. n. 32; Beugnot, ubi supra, p. 426.

The principal edicts of Theodosius on this point are cited by Fleury, but not in strict chronological order. Hist. Ecclés. vol. iv. book xviii. n. 9, 38; book xix. n. 15, 32, 34, 50. The proper dates may be found from the Commentary of Godefroy Sur le Code Théodosien. See also D. Ceillier, Hist. des Au

teurs Eccles. vol. viii. p. 611, &c.; Beugnot, ubi supra, p. 358.

2 "Nemo se hostiis polluat; nemo insontem victimam cædat; nemo delubra adeat, templa perlustret, et mortali opere formata simulacra suspiciat (i. e. veneratione prosequatur); ne divinis atque humanis sanctionibus reus fiat. Judices quoque hanc formam contineant (i. e. hanc legem in judiciis observent), ut si quis, profano ritui deditus, templum uspiam, vel in itinere, vel in urbe adoraturus intraverit, quindecim pondo auri ipse protinùs inferre cogatur."Cod. Theodos. lib. xvi. tit. x. n. 10.

"Nulli sacrificandi tribuatur potestas; nemo templa circumeat (religioso cultu); nemo delubra suspiciat; interclusos sibi, nostræ legis obstaculo, profanos aditus recognoscant; adeo ut si quis vel de diis aliquid contra vetitum sacrisque molietur, nullis exuendum se indulgentiis recognoscat. Judex quoque (i. e. consulares et præsides, juxta Gothofredi interpretationem), si quis, tempore administrationis suæ, fretus privilegio potestatis, polluta loca sacrilegus temerator intraverit, quindecim auri pondo, officium verò ejus (i. e. officiales), nisi collatis viribus obviârit, parem summam ærario nostro inferre cogatur."Ibid. n. 11.

Supposing with Paucton, that the Roman livre was 10 ounces, 23-24ths of our avoirdupois, and that a marc of gold is worth 337. 12s. 6d., the fifteen livres of gold mentioned here would be worth about 6901. of our money.-Paucton, Métrologie, p. 291, 305. See, in support of this calculation, No. 2 of the Documentary Evidence, at the end of this volume.

3 "Quòd si quispiam immolare hostiam sacrificaturus audebit, aut spirantia

slight obstruction in the East, where paganism had very few adherents in the higher classes of society. But the case was different in Italy, and especially at Rome, where a good number of senators, attached to the ancient worship, redoubled their zeal for its interests, in proportion as the numbers of its partizans diminished. Theodosius, accordingly, deemed it prudent not to enforce so vigorously his laws against paganism in Rome, and he connived at their non-observance by individuals, in order not to excite any agitation prejudicial to the public interests. But after the defeat of Eugenius in 394, he summoned to his presence all the senators attached to the pagan religion, who had taken advantage of the usurper's brief triumph to restore the altar of Victory. He addressed them in an animated. discourse, exhorting them to renounce their old superstitions, and to embrace the Christian faith. Not one, if we believe Zozimus, would listen to the emperor's exhortations; they answered unanimously that they never could renounce that religion under which Rome had been founded, and had lasted twelve hundred years; adding, that if they consented to such a change, they knew not what would be the consequences. Theodosius then declared to them that the public treasury was so heavily burdened, that it could not supply the expenses of the sacrifices and of the other pagan ceremonies, that the money required would be much better employed in supporting his armies. In vain the senators urged in reply, that the ceremonies could not be duly observed, if the expense was not borne by the state; their remonstrance was ineffectual. The sacrifices ceased, the pagan ceremonies were neglected, the priests and priestesses were dismissed, and all the temples consecrated to idols were

exta consulere; ad exemplum, majestatis reus (i. e. velut majestatis reus), licitâ cunctis accusatione delatus, excipiat sententiam competentem, etiamsi nihil contra salutem principum aut de salute quæsierit.... Si quis verò mortali opere facta, et ævum (i. e. interitum) passura simulacra imposito thure venerabitur; .... is, utpotè violate religionis reus, eâ domo seu possessione mulctabitur, in quâ eum gentilitia constiterit superstitione famulatum."— Ibid. n. 12.

'Beugnot, ubi supra, p. 411, &c. p. 489, &c.