About this book Read this bookThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire By Edward Gibbon, William Smith

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
By Edward Gibbon, William Smith
Published 1862
J. Murray
Rome



 About this book Read this bookThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire By Edward Gibbon, William Smith: "audience In a very long discourse which is still extant the royal preacher expatiates on the various proofs of religion but he dwells with peculiar complacency on the Sibylline verses 59 and the The fourih fourth eclogue of Virgil 60 Forty years before the birth of vi ie Christ the Mantuan bard as if inspired by the celestial muse of Isaiah had celebrated with all the pomp of oriental metaphor the return of the Virgin the fall of the serpent the approaching birth of a godlike child the offspring of the great Jupiter who should expiate the guilt of human kind and govern the peaceful universe with the virtues of his father the rise and appearance of an heavenly race a primitive nation throughout the world and the gradual restoration of the innocence and felicity of the golden age The poet was perhaps unconscious of the secret sense and object of these sublime predictions which have been so unworthily applied to the infant son of a consul or a triumvir 61 but if a more splendid and indeed specious interpretation of the fourth eclogue contributed to the conversion of the first Christian emperor Virgil "


 About this book Read this bookThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire By Edward Gibbon, William Smith: "may deserve to be ranked among the most successful missionaries of the Gospel 62 The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were con Devotion cealed from the eyes of strangers and even of catechumens i gdesPofV h an affected secrecy which served to excite their won constantine gi an j CUriosity 63 But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an Imperial proselyte whom it was so important to allure by every gentle condescension into the pale of the church and Constantine was permitted at least by a tacit dispensation to enjoy most of the privileges before he had contracted any of the obligations of a Christian Instead of retiring from the congregation when the voice of the deacon dismissed the profane multitude he prayed with the faithful disputed with the bishops preached on the most sublime and intricate subjects of theology celebrated with sacred rites the vigil of Easter and publicly declared himself not only a partaker but in some measure a priest and hierophant of the Christian mysteries 64 The pride of "

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