V. PART I.

as the Persians and the Romans were at variance, CENT. so often did the Christians who dwelt in Persia feel new and redoubled effects of their monarch's wrath; and this from a prevailing notion, not perhaps entirely groundless, that they favoured the Romans, and rendered real services to their republic [x]. In this persecution, a prodigious number of Christians perished in the most exquisite tortures, and by various kinds of punishments [y]. But they were, at length, delivered from these cruel oppressions by the peace that was made in the year 427, between Vararenes and the Roman empire [z].

It was not from the pagans only that the Christians were exposed to suffering and persecution; they were moreover harassed and oppressed in a variety of ways by the Jews, who lived in great opulence, and enjoyed a high degree of favour and credit in several parts of the east [a]. Among these, none treated them with greater rigour and arrogance than Gamaliel, the patriarch of that nation, a man of the greatest power and influence, whose authority and violence were, on that account, restrained, in the year 415, by an express and particular edict of Theodosius the younger [b].

V. It does not appear, from any records of Christianity history now remaining, that any writings against opposed by Christ and his followers were published in this enemies. century, unless we consider as such the histories

[x] Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. xxxix. p. 245. Bayle's Dictionary, at the article. Abdas. Barbeyrac, De la Morale des Pères, p. 320.

[y] Jos. Sim. Assemanni Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican. tom. i. p. 182. 248.

[z] Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xx. p. 358. [a] Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xüi. p. 349. cap. xvi. p. 353. Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 265.

[b] Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 262.

secret

PART I.

CENT. of Olympiodorus [c] and Zosimus, of whom V. the latter loses no opportunity of reviling the Christians, and loading them with the most unjust and bitter reproaches. But though the number of books written against Christianity was so small, yet we are not to suppose that its adversaries had laid aside the spirit of opposition. The schools of the philosophers and rhetoricians were yet open in Greece, Syria, and Egypt; and there is no doubt but that these subtle teachers laboured assiduously to corrupt the minds of the youth, and to instil into them, at least some of the principles of the ancient superstition [d]. The history of these times, and the writings of several Christians who lived in this century, exhibit evident proofs of these clandestine methods of opposing the progress of the gospel.

[c] Photius, Biblioth. Cod. lxxx. p. 178.

[d] Zacharias Mitylen. De Opificio Dei, p. 165. 200. edit. Barthii.

PART II.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the State of Learning and Phi

losophy.

V.

PART II.

Christians.

I. THOUGH, in this century, the illiterate and CENT. ignorant were advanced to eminent and important stations, both ecclesiastical and civil, yet we must not conclude from thence, that the sciences were The state held in universal contempt. The value of learn- of letters ing, and the excellence of the finer arts, were yet among the generally acknowledged among the thinking part of mankind. Hence public schools were erected in almost all the great cities, such as Constantinople, Rome, Marseilles, Edessa, Nisibis, Carthage, Lyons, and Treves; and public instructors of capacity and genius were set apart for the education of the youth, and maintained at the expense of the emperors. Several bishops and monks contributed also to the advancement of knowledge, by imparting to others their small stock of learn ing and science. But the infelicity of the times, the incursions of the barbarous nations, and the scarcity of great geniuses, rendered the fruits of these excellent establishments much less than their generous founders and promoters expected.

II. In the western provinces, and especially in In the west, Gaul, there were indeed some men eminently distinguished by their learning and talents, and every way proper to serve as models to the lower orders in the republic of letters. Of this we have abundant proof from the writings of Macrobius, Salvian, Vincentius, bishop of Liris, Ennodius,

VOL. II.

C

CENT. Sidonius, Apollinaris, Claudian, Mamertus, DraV. contius, and others, who, though in some respects PART II. inferior to the more celebrated authors of anti

quity, are yet far from being destitute of elegance, and discover in their productions a most laborious application to literary researches of various kinds. But the barbarous nations, which either spread desolation, or formed settlements in the Roman territories, choked the growth of those genial seeds, which the hand of science had sowed in more auspicious times. These savage invaders, possessed of no other ambition than that of conquest, and looking upon military courage as the only source of true virtue and solid glory, beheld, of consequence, the arts and sciences with the utmost contempt. Wherever therefore they extended their conquests, ignorance and darkness followed their steps, and the culture of the sciences was confined to the priests and monks alone. And even among these, learning degenerated from its primitive lustre, and put on the most unseemly and fantastic form. Amidst the seduction of corrupt examples, the alarms of perpetual danger, and the horrors and devastations of war, the Sacerdotal and Monastic orders lost gradually all taste for solid science, in the place of which they substituted a lifeless spectre, an enormous phantom of barbarous erudition. They indeed kept public schools, and instructed the youth in, what they called the seven liberal arts [d]; but these, as we learn from Augustin's account of them, consisted only of a certain number of dry, subtile, and useless precepts; and were consequently more adapted to load and perplex the memory, than to improve and strengthen the

[d] These seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. See Cent. VIII. Part II. Chap. II. in this volume.

V.

PART II.

judgment. So that, towards the conclusion of CENT. this century, the sciences were almost totally extinguished; at least, what remained of them was no more than a shadowy form, without either solidity or consistence.

philosophy

III. The few that applied themselves to the The state of study of philosophy in this age had not, as yet, in the west. embraced the doctrine or method of Aristotle. They looked upon the system of this eminent philosopher, as a labyrinth beset with thorns and thistles [e]; and yet, had they been able to read and understand his works, it is probable, that many of them would have become his followers. The doctrine of Plato had a more established reputation, which it had enjoyed for several ages, and was considered, not only as less subtile and difficult than that of the Stagirite, but also as more conformable to the genius and spirit of the Christian religion. Besides, the most valuable of Plato's works were translated into Latin by Victorinus, and were thus adapted to general use [ƒ]. And Sidonius Apollinaris [g] informs us, that all those among the Latins, who had any inclination to the study of truth, fell into the Platonic notions, and followed that sage as their philosophical guide.

IV. The fate of learning was less deplorable In the east. among the Greeks and Orientals than in the western provinces; and not only the several branches of polite literature, but also the more solid and profound sciences, were cultivated by them with tolerable success. Hence we find among them more writers of genius and learning than in other

[e] The passages of different writers, that prove what is here advanced, are collected by Launoius, in his book, De varia Aristotelis Fortuna in Academia Parisiensi.

[f] See Augustini Confessionum lib. i. cap. ii. sect. 1. p. 105, 106. tom. i. opp.

[9] See his Epistles, book iv. ep. iii. xi. book ix.

ep. ix.