§ C. THEODOSIUS THE GREAT AND HIS SUCCESS0K8. 65
He only continued Gralian's policy of confiscating the temple property and withdrawing entirely the public contribution to the support of idolatry. But in many places, especially in the East, the fanaticism of the monks and the Christian populace broke out in a rage for destruction, which Libanius bitterly laments. He calls these iconoclastic monks "men in black clothes, as voracious as elephants, and insatiably thirsty, but concealing their sensuality under an artificial paleness." The be lief of the Christians, that the heathen gods were living beings, demons,' and dwelt in the temples, was the leading influence here, and overshadowed all artistic and archaeological considerations. In Alexandria, a chief seat of the Neo-Platonic mysticism, there arose, at the instigation of the violent and unspiritual bishop Theophilus,' a bloody conflict between heathens and Christians, in which the colossal statue and the magnificent temple of Serapis, next to the temple of Jupiter Capitoliuus in Korae the proudest monument of heathen architecture," was destroyed, without verifying the current expectation that upon its destruction the heavens w^ould fall (391). The power of superstition once broken by this decisive blow, the other temples in Egypt soon met a similar fate ; though the eloquent ruins of the works of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Roman emperors in the valley of the Nile still stand and cast their twilight into the mysterious darkness of antiquity. Marcellus, bishop of Apamea in Syria, accompanied by an armed band of soldiers and gladiators, proceeded with the same zeal against the monuments and vital centres of heathen worship in his diocese, but was burnt alive for it b}^ the enraged heathens, wlio went unpunished for the murder. In Gaul, St. Martin of
' Ambrose, Resp. ad Symmachum : " Dii enim gentium daemonia, iit Scriptura doeet." Comp. Ps. xcvi. 5, Scptuag. : Tldvrei oi S)€o\ tSiv iSivaiv Saifjiovia. On thia principle especially St,. Martin of Tours proceeded in his zeal against the idol temples of Gaul. He asserted that the devil himself frequently assumed the visible form of Jupiter and Mercury, of Minerva and Venus, to protect their sinking sanctuaries. See Sulpit. Severus : Vita B. Martini, c. 4 and 6.
" Gibbon styles him, unfortunately not without reason, " a bold, bad man, whoaa hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood."
' Sec an extended description of the Serapeion in Gibbon, and especially in Mit man •. Hist, of Christianity, &c., book iii. c. 8 (p. ^>11 sqq. N. York ed.).
66 TntRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Tours, between the years 375 and 400, destroyed a multitude of temples and images, and built churches and cloisters in their stead.
But we also hear important protests from the church against this pious vandalism. Says Chrysostom at Antioch in the beginning of this reign, in his beautiful tract on the martyr Baby las : " Christians are not to destroy error by force and violence, but should work the salvation of men by persuasion, instruction, and love." In tlie same spirit says Augustin, though not (|uite consistently : " Let us first obliterate the idols in the hearts of the heathen, and once they become Christians they will either themselves invite us to the execution of so good a work [the destruction of the idols], or anticipate us in it. Now we must pray for them, and not exasperate them." Yet he commended the severe laws of the emperors against idolatry.
In the west the work of destruction was not systematically carried on, and the many ruined temples of Greece and Italy at this day prove that even then reason and taste sometimes prevailed over the rude caprice of fanaticism, and tliat tlie maxim. It is easier to tear down than to build up, has its exceptions.
"With the death of Theodosius the empire again fell into two parts, which were never afterward reunited. Tlie weak sons and successors of this prince, ARCADros in the east (395- 408) and IIoNORros in the west (395-423), and likewise TnEO- D0SIU8 II., or the younger (son of Arcadius, 408-450), and Yaeentlnian III. (423-455), repeated and in some cases added to the laws of the previous reign against the heathen. In tlie year 408, Honorius even issued an edict excluding Iieathcns from civil and military office ; ' and in 423 appeared another
' Cod. Thcodos. xvi. 5, 42: "Eos qui Catholicac sectac sunt iiiiniici, intra jialatium inilitarc proliibcmus. Nullus nobis sit aliqua rationc conjunctus, q\n a nobis fide ct leligiono discordat." According to the somewhat doubtful but usually admitted testimony of Zosimus, 1. v. c. 46, this edict was revoked, in consequence of the threatened resignation of a pagan general, Generid, whom Honorius could not dispense with. i3ut Theodosius issued similar laws in the east from 410 to 439. Sen Gibbon, Milman, SchriJckh, and Ncandcr, 1. c. The latter erroneously places th« edict of Flonorius in the yiar 416, instead of 4'i8.