The French essay takes up the history nearly where Professor Tschirner left it; but the subject proposed by the Royal Academy of Inscriptions has limited M. Beugnot's inquiries to the West. M. Beugnot was only known to us hitherto as the author of a work, displaying much useful research, on a subject not altogether disconnected with the present-the history of the Jews in the West of Europe- Les Juifs d'Occident. Without the depth and comprehensiveness of knowledge displayed by the German Professor, M. Beugnot has executed his task with very creditable learning and judgment. On some points we have not arrived at the same conclusions, but we are grateful to him for the diligence with which he has traced the still lingering, still reviving influence of paganism, the wavering and expiring flame upon the altars of Jupiter and Mars. He has adduced the testimony of the Christian writers themselves to prove to how late a period paganism still obstinately resisted the encroachments of the new faith; and by a careful examination into public documents, the laws of the empire, coins and medals, and more especially extant inscriptions, he has thrown much light, not merely on the extent, but on the nature and character of the surviving heathenism. The strife between Christianity and paganism endured for five centuries. Tschirner had divided that long contest into four periods. He proposed to devote one book to each: first, the introduction of the new faith into the Roman world and the commencement of the conflict with the old and established religion; this took place in the age of the Antonines: secondly, the undecided contest between the world divided into heathenism and Christianity; this period lasts from the time of the Antonines to that of Constantine: thirdly, the triumph of Christianity under Constantine and his sons, which is followed by the rapid decline, but by no means the dissolution, of heathenism, since it raises itself again under Julian, and still stands firm under his successors: finally, the fall of heathenism itself, which took place during the time of Theodosius, although its last vestiges entirely disappear only under Justinian. Of this splendid and comprehensive plan Tschirner only executed the first part and commenced the second. During the reign of the Antonines, the Roman world, to all outward appearance, was still exclusively pagan. The traveller who passed through the empire would see nothing but temples to the various deities of the ancient faith. Every city met, if with diminished, still with what might appear a general concourse of the inhabitants, at the games, the theatre, the festival dedicated to the local divinity. Here and there the votaries, to VOL. LVII. NO. CXIII. D one one acquainted with the practice of former times, might appear less numerous; the murmurs of the priesthood might be heard at the godless, the irreligious aspect of the times, the scantier offerings, the less frequent victims. But as yet the stranger would observe no traces of the great change which was silently underworking the very foundations of the Pagan worship. At what time the Christian churches arose as public buildings is not quite certain, but it is universally admitted that it was not till towards the reign of Alexander Severus. Christianity was the retired and private worship-of multitudes indeed--but still of multitudes designated by no peculiar mark or badge, and holding their assemblies in some secluded, or, at all events, undistinguished chamber. The neighbours of the individual or the family might notice their rigid and unsocial seclusion from all the public amusements and festivities; they might be looked upon by the town in which they dwelt with jealousy or aversion; the hatred excited by their abandonment of the national worship might be constantly on the watch to demand from the cruel or indifferent præfect that they should be summoned to sacrifice, or cast, without trial, to the lions; but the visible face of society was yet unchanged: on the laws, on the habits, on the manners of the people at large, they had as yet made no impression; they dwelt apart, and, excepting on occasions of popular excitement, unnoticed. They had already, indeed, become casually and in places committed with the public authorities. But the first persecutions were clearly local, or connected with particular circumstances. That of Nero was, no doubt, confined to Rome; we should require no further proof of this than the security with which St. Paul appears to have travelled during that period in other parts of the empire. That of Domitian was confined, as far as Rome was concerned, to members of his own family, in whom the tyrant had detected atheism and Jewish manners.' It extended to Palestine, only, according to the singular story in the ecclesiastical historian, on account of certain traditions, which assigned the dominion of the world to a particular race among the Jews. All writers of Christian history have related the apprehension of, and the somewhat contemptuous mercy shown to, the relatives of our Lord. The persecution under Trajan, which rests on the undoubted authority of Pliny's memorable letter, appears to have been a provincial affair. The language of Trajan's reply clearly intimates that the government had not yet adopted any settled policy; much was left to the discretion of the individual governor; and though the arbitrary power of life and death was admitted to belong, in all extreme cases, to the representative of Rome, the regulations, under which this autho rity was to be exercised, show that the government as yet enter- In the subsequent reigns the Christian apologists were permitted to approach the throne; their open appeal to the justice and humanity of the emperor proves that they were under no necessity of disguising or dissembling their religion, and that they were by no means excluded from the protection of the government or the privilege of Roman subjects. It is certainly remarkable that the first direct and general collision with the government was during the reign of the last Antonine-Marcus Aurelius the philosopher was the first persecutor of Christianity. We are of opinion that the causes of this change in the sentiments and conduct of the Imperial government, and the manifestly infuriated hostility of the Roman people towards the Christians, have not yet been explained on their true principles. But this is not the opportunity which we should choose for the development of our views. Tschirner has directed the attention of his readers to the important fact that, as Christianity became more powerful, the Roman people began vaguely to apprehend that the fall of their old religion might, to a certain degree, involve that of their civil dominion. The anxiety of some, and those not the most discreet, of the apologists, to disclaim all hostility towards the temporal dignity of the empire, implies that they were obnoxious to this charge. The Christians are calumniated,' writes Tertullian to Scapula, præfect of Africa under Severus, with regard to the majesty of the emperor' (circa majestatem imperatoris). He first dexterously insinuates that among the Christians could be found no followers either of Niger, or of Albinus, or of Cassius, the competitors of Severus for the empire. He proceeds: The Christian is the enemy of no man, assuredly not of the emperor, whom, knowing that he is appointed of God, he must of necessity love, revere, and honour, and wish for his safety, with that of the whole Roman empire, as long as the world endures-quousque sæculum stabit-for so long will it endure.' But the language In of other Christian documents, or at least documents eagerly disseminated by the Christians, was in a very different tone. common with many German interpreters, not merely those of what is called the rationalist, but of a more orthodox school, Tschirner considers the Apocalypse to refer to the fall, not of a predicted spiritual Rome, but of the dominant pagan Rome, the Be this as it visible Babylon of idolatry, and pride and cruelty. may; the imagery of the Apocalypse was manifestly borrowed in other writings, and its menacing and maledictory tone of vaticina D 2 tion tion directed to the total abolition of Paganism in its temporal as well as its religious supremacy. The Apocalypse, we need not tell our readers, was no work of this period; but the reign of the Antonines seems to have been fertile in forged prophetic writings, which could not emanate from any quarter but that of the more injudicious and fanatical Christians. The third book of Esdras is of this class; it betrays distinctly that it was written after the reign of the twelve Cæsars. The doctrine of the Millennium, which was not exploded, mingled with all these prophetic anticipations of future change in the destinies of mankind. Whether Gibbon be right in elevating this doctrine to the rank of one of those five causes which mainly contributed to the triumph of Christianity, we have very little doubt that its indiscreet and enthusiastic assertion was a main cause of the persecutions. The throne of Christ was to be erected on the ruins of all earthly empires; the nature of this kingdom would of course be unintelligible to the heathen, and all that he would comprehend would be a vague notion that the sovereignty of the world was to be transferred from Rome, and that this extinction of the majesty of the empire was in some incomprehensible manner connected with the triumph of the new faith; his terror, his indignation, or his contempt would lead alike to fierce and implacable animosity. Even in Tertullian's Apology, the ambiguous word 'sæculum' might mean no more than a brief and limited period which was yet to elapse before the final consummation. But the most curious illustration of this dangerous spirit of exulting menace at the approaching simultaneous fall of Roman idolatry and of Roman empire is found in the Sibylline verses, either the production of, or at least copiously interpolated by, Christian writers. We translate from Tschirner : 'After the time of Hadrian, Christian poets or prophets again come forward, who raise up their vehement testimony against heathenism, and with its fall proclaim the destruction of all lands and the approaching ruin of Rome. From the most ancient times, Sibyls, prophesying women, had existed in all parts of the heathen world; everywhere oracles and prophesies, mostly in verse, had abounded, which either had been, or pretended to have been, uttered by these Sibyls. Those Christians who had some acquaintance with Grecian poetry and style (for their Grecian colouring breathes little indeed of the spirit of Homer and Hesiod, though their mode of expression imitates the language of those poets) began to entertain the thought of representing passages of the sacred writings, Christian doctrines, precepts, and predictions, as oracles or prophecies of the sibyls-whether their intention was to introduce their poems as genuine works of the older sibyls, and by such means convert the heathen; or, whether (as is more probable) without any design of deception, they wished to clothe their communications in a form form expressive and acceptable to the heathens. Of this character are the eight books of sibylline oracles which have descended to us, of which much in truth belongs to an earlier period, and is the production, not of Christians, but of Jews-[we would observe that the Christians in this respect seem only to have followed the example of the Jews of Alexandria, the staple, we suspect, of Jewish and of Christian forgery]; -some part likewise is of a very late period; far the greatest portion, however, was composed by Christians, who, during the reigns of Hadrian and the Antonines, lived in Asia Minor, and particularly in Alexandria, as is shown by the frequent mention of Egyptian cities and Egyptian modes of worship. At all events, the poems contained in the fifth and sixth books belong almost entirely to that time; the passages to be adduced will therefore be selected entirely from these.' Tschirner quotes several passages of strong animadversion against heathenism, and thus proceeds :-- 'With this denunciation of heathenism, the sibyllists connect the announcement of its approaching fall, which would be accompanied by the ruin of many states and the desolation of many lands. One of them addresses, in these words, the gods of Egypt:-" Isis, thrice. hapless goddess, thou shalt remain alone on the shores of Nile, a solitary Mænad by the sands of Acheron. [We have ventured to give a sense to these obscure words, which Tschirner despairs of.] No longer shall thy memory endure on all the earth; and thou, Serapis, who restest upon thy stones, much must thou suffer; thou shalt lie, the mightiest ruin in thrice hapless Egypt. . . . . And one of the linen-clothed priests shall say, 'Come, let us build the beautiful temple of the true God; let us change the awful law of our ancestors, who, in their ignorance, made their pomps and festivals to gods of stone and earth; let us turn our hearts, hymning the everlasting God, Him the eternal Father, the Lord of all, the True, the King, the Creator and Preserver of our souls, the great, the eternal God." As the ruin of Egypt is here proclaimed in connexion with the fall of her gods, so another sibyllist, who manifests himself as a contemporary of the age of the Antonines, connects together the fall of Rome and that of the gods of Rome:"O haughty Rome, the chastisement of Heaven shall come down upon thee from on high, and first thou shalt bow thy neck." And " Thou shalt be broken up from thy foundations, and fire shall altogether consume thee, bowed down to the ground;-[why has Tschirner omitted these images?]-and thy wealth shall perish, and wolves and foxes shall inhabit thy ruins; and thou shalt be as if thou hadst never been. Where then will be thy Palladium? which of thy gods of gold, of stone, or of iron will save thee? where will then be the decrees of thy Senate [omitted by Tschirner]? where will be the race of Rhea, of Saturn, all the inanimate deities and images of the dead which you worship? When thrice five splendid Cæsars [so many may be reckoned from Julius Cæsar to Hadrian], who have enslaved the world from east to west, shall have been, one will arise with a name like that of a sea. (Hadrian and the Hadriatic Sea). [Tschirner omits the lines in |