OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 207 machus,^^ and by the personal friendship which he expressed to Libanius ; "•^ and the two eloquent apologists of Paganism were never required either to change or to dissemble their religious opinions. The Pagans were indulged in the most licentious freedom of speech and writing ; the historical and philosophical remains of Eunapius, Zosimus/^ and the fanatic teachers of the school of Plato, betray the most furious ani- mosity, and contain the sharpest invectives, against the senti- ments and conduct of their victorious adversaries. If these audacious libels were publicly known, we must applaud the good sense of the Christian princes who viewed, with a smile of con- tempt, the last struggles of superstition and despair."- But the Imperial laws which prohibited the sacrifices and ceremonies of Paganism were rigidly executed ; and every hour contributed to destroy the influence of a religion which was supported by custom rather than by argument. The devotion of the poet or the philosopher may be secretly nourished by prayer, medita- tion, and study ; but the exercise of public worship appears to be the only solid foundation of the religious sentiments of the people, which derive their force from imitation and habit. The interruption of that public exercise may consummate, in the period of a few years, the important work of a national revolu- tion. The memory of theological opinions cannot long be pre- served without the artificial helps of priests, of temples, and of books."^ The ignorant vulgar, whose minds are still agitated by the blind hopes and terrors of superstition, will be soon per- 83 Denique pro meritis terrestribus asqua rependens Munera, sacricolis sunimos impertit honores. Ipse magistratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal Contulit. Prudent, in Synimach. i. 617, &c. ™ Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that Tlieodosius should thus distinguish a man, who even in his presence would swear by Jupiter. Yet this presence seems to be no more than a figure of rhetoric. "^ Zosimus, who styles himself Count and Ex-advocate of the Treasury, reviles, with partial and indecent bigotrv, the Christian princes, and even the father of his sovereign. His work must have been privately circulated, since it escaped the in- vectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to Evagrius (1. iii. c. 40-42), who lived towards the end to the sixth century. [For date of Zosimus, see above, vol. ii. App. I.] 2et the Pagans of Africa complained that the times would not allow them to answer with freedom the City of God ; nor does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the charge. "'^ The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserved the Mahometan religion above a century, under the tyranny of the Inquisition, possessed the Koran, with the peculiar use of the Arabic tongue. See the curious and honest story of their ex- pulsion in Geddes (Miscellanies, vol. i, p. 1-198).
