OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 195 perfect freedom and security, if compared with the CHAP. rigorous treatment which they experienced under the 1 !_ short reign of Decius ^ The virtues of that prince will scarcely allow us to suspect that he was actuated by a mean resentment against the favourites of his pre- decessor; and it is more reasonable to believe, that in the prosecution of his general design to restore the purity of Roman manners, he was desirous of deliver- ing the empire from what he condemned as a recent and criminal superstition. The bishops of the most considerable cities were removed by exile or death : the vigilance of the magistrates prevented the clergy of Rome during sixteen months from proceeding to a new election ; and it was the opinion of the christians, that the emperor would more patiently endure a com- petitor for the purple, than a bishop in the capital^. Were it possible to suppose that the penetration of Decius had discovered pride under the disguise of hu- mility, or that he could foresee the temporal dominion which might insensibly arise from the claims of spiritual authority, we might be less surprised that he should consider the successors of St. Peter as the most for- midable rivals to those of Augustus. The adminisitration of Valerian was distinguished by OfVale- a levity and inconstancy, ill suited to the gravity of the [i'^^^^ ^^^j Roman censor. In the first part of his reign, he sur- his succes- passed in clemency those princes who had been sus- "^ ^.p. pected of an attachment to the christian faith. In the 2^"^~2^^" last three years and a half, listening to the insinuations of a minister addicted to the superstitions of Egypt, he adopted the maxims, and imitated the severity, of his predecessor Decius. The accession of Gallienus, f Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 3, 4. After celebrating the felicity and increase of the church, under a long succession of good princes ; he adds, " Extitit post annos pluriinos, execrabile animal, Decius, qui vexarel ecclesiasm." S Euseb. 1. vi. c. 39; Cyprian, Epistol. 55. The see of Rome remained vacant from the martyrdom of Fabianus, on the twentieth of January, A. D. 250, till the election of Cornelius, the fourth of June, A. D. 251. Decius had probably left Rome, since he was killed before the end of that year.
- ' Euseb. 1. vii. c. 10. Mosheim (p. 548.) has very clearly shown, that
the prefect Macriauus, and theEgyptian Mcigns, are one and the same person. o2
