GIBBON, EDWARD - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

EDWARD GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Great Books Volume 40, Gibbon I

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen centuries, that religion is still professed by the nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion of human kind in arts and learning as well as in arms.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 179

As the protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable degree of vigour and purity.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 180

The contemporaries of Moses and Joshua had beheld with careless indifference the most amazing miracles.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 180

The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for defense, but it was never designed for conquest.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 180

The divine promised were originally made, and the distinguishing rite of circumcision was enjoined, to a single family.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 180

The conquest of the land of Canaan was accompanied with so many wonderful and with so many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neighbours.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 180

The descendants of Abraham were flattered by the opinion that they alone were the heirs of the covenant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing the value of their inheritance by sharing it too easily with the strangers of the earth.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 180

The painful and even dangerous rite of circumcision was alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte from the door of the synagogue.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 181

The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the Law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 182

In a few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the Law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 182

There are some objections against the authority of Moses and the prophets which too readily present themselves to the skeptical.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 183

The Gnostics were distinguished as the most polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy of the Christian name; ...They were almost without exception of the race of the Gentiles, and their principle founders seem to have been natives of Syria or Egypt, where the warmth of the climate disposes both the mind and the body to indolent and contemplative devotion.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, pg. 183

The writings of Cicero represent in the most lively of colours the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death, they inculcate, as an obvious though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of life; and that those can no longer suffer that no longer exist.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, II. Doctrine of Future Life, pg. 186

Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no further than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation that can ascertain the existence and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, II. Doctrine of Future Life, pg. 186

The duty of a historian does not call upon him to interpose his private judgement in this nice and important controversy; but he ought not to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may reconcile the interest of religion with that of reason, of making a proper application of that theory, and of defining with precision the limits of that happy period, exempt from error and from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of supernatural powers.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, III Miraculous Powers, pg. 190

...and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate... And the practice of shaving the beard went according to the expression of Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious attempt improve the works of the Creator. When Christianity was introduced among the rich and the polite, the observation of these thinking the laws was left, as it would be at present, to the few her ambitious of superior sanctity.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, IV Pure and austere morals, pg. 192

It was their favorite opinion that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings. The use of marriage was permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint, however imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, IV Pure and austere morals, pg. 193

The practice of second nuptials was branded with the name of legal adultery.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, IV Pure and austere morals, pg. 193

Since desire was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect, it was consistent with the same principles to consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to the Divine perfection.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, IV Pure and austere morals, pg. 193

The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the Dove; but as the former was refined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, pg. 194

Instead of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, or of Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tiber we're supposed to have been honoured with the preaching and martyrdom of the two most eminent among the apostles, and the Bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the person or to the office of Saint Peter.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, pg. 196

The fervour of the first proselytes prompted them to sell those worldly possessions which they despised, to lay the price of them at the feet of the Apostles, and to content themselves with receiving an equal share out of the General Distribution.  The progress of the Christian religion relaxed and gradually abolished this generous institution, which, in hands less pure than those of the Apostles, would too soon have been corrupted and abused by the returning selfishness of human nature; and the converts who embraced the new religion were permitted to retain the possession of their patrimony to receive legacies and inheritance and the conference who embrace the new religion were permitted to retain the position of their patrimony, to receive legacies and inheritances, and to increase their separate property by all the lawful means of trade and Industry.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, pg. 197

In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the opinion of the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth, that vessels of gold and silver were used in their religious worship, and that many among their proselytes had sold their lands and houses to increase the public riches of the sect, at the expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children who found themselves beggars because their parents had been saints.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 197

We should listen with distrust to the suspicions of strangers and enemies on this occasion, however, they receive a very specious and probable colour from the two following circumstances, the only ones that have reached our knowledge which  define any precise sums or convey any distinct idea.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government,  pg. 197

These oblations, for the most part, were made in money; nor was the society of Christians either desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable degree, the incumbent of landed property.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 198

Their love of the marvelous and supernatural, their curiosity with regard to future events and their strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits of the visible world, were the principal causes which favoured the establishment of polytheism.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 201

The authentic histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek language and a considerable distance from Jerusalem, and after the Gentile converts were grown extremely numerous. As soon as those histories were translated into the Latin tongue they were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome excepting only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt for whose benefit particular versions were afterwards made.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 201

The public highways, which had been constructed for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries...

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 201

Silence is indeed consistent with devotion but as is seldom compatible with zeal we may perceive and lament the languid state of Christianity in those provinces which had exchanged the Celtic for the Latin tongue, since they did not, during the first three centuries, give birth to a single ecclesiastical writer.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 203

The progress of Christianity was not confined to the Roman Empire; and, according to the primitive fathers, who interpret facts by prophecy, the new religion, within a century after the death of its Divine Author, had already visited every part of the globe. "There exists not," says Justin Martyr, "a people, whether Greek or Barbarian, or any other race of men, by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell under tents, or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things."

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 204

...but, as we are left without any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the primitive Christians.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 204

They presume to alter the Holy Scriptures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith, and to form their opinions according to the subtle precepts of logic. The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of their admiration; and they express in uncommon reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidel, and they corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel by the refinements of human reason. (Quoting Eusebius)

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 15, V Christian Republic, I. Rewards of government, pg. 205

If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian religion, the sanctity of its more impressive and the innocent as well as austere lives of the greater number of those who during the first ages embraced the faith of the Gospel, we should naturally suppose that so benevolent a doctrine would have been received with due reverence even by the unbelieving world; that the learned and the polite, however they might deride the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues of the new sect; and that they magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected and order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws, though they declined the active cares of war and government. If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offense the Christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects who had chosen for themselves a singular, but an inoffensive mode faith and worship.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 206

The separate (if it be possible) a few authentic as well as interesting facts from an undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate, in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, of the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the first Christians were exposed, is the design of the present chapter.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 207

The secretaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution.
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 207

The difference between them is simple and obvious, but according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest importance. The Jews were a nation, the Christians were sect; and if it was natural for every community to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent upon them to persevere in those of their ancestors.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 208

By imitating the awful secrecy which reigned in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians had flattered themselves that they should render their sacred institutions more respectable in the eyes of the Pagan World. But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtle policy, deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was concluded that they only concealed what they would have blushed to disclose. Their mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity to believe, the horrid tales which described the Christians as the most wicked of human kind, who practiced in their dark recesses every abomination that a deprived fancy could suggest, and who solicited the favor of their unknown God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue. There were many who pretended to confess or to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society. It was asserted that a new-born infant, entirely covered over with flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol of initiation, to the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflicted many a secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his error; that as soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and pledged themselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness of guilt.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 210

History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honorable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants or to justify the maxims of persecution. It must however, be acknowledged that the conduct of the emperors who appeared the least favorable to the primitive church is by no means so criminal as that of modern sovereigns who have employed the arm of violence and terror against the religious opinions of any part of their subjects.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 211

By the wise dispensation of Providence a mysterious veil was cast over the infancy of the church, which, till the faith of the Christians was matured, and their numbers were multiplied, served to protect them not only from the malice but even from the knowledge the Pagan world.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 211

It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed almost to at the same time the temple of Jerusalem and the capital of Rome;

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 214

The emperors levied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although the sum assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the use for which it was designed, and the severity with which it was exacted, was considered as an intolerable grievance.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 214

The impatient clamours of the multitude denounced the Christians as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest tortures, and, venturing to accuse by names some of the most distinguished of the new sectaries, required with irresistible vehemence that they should be instantly apprehended and cast to the lions.  The provincial governors and magistrates who presided in the public spectacles were usually inclined to gratify the inclinations,  and to appease the rage of the people by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 216

Distinctions like these, whilst they display the exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number, of those who suffered and of those were died for the profession of Christianity.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, Pg. 220

The epistles which Ignatius composed as he was carried in chains through the cities of Asia breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that, when he should be exposed in the amphitheater, they would not, by their kind but unseasonable intercession, deprived him of the crown of glory; and he declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be employed as the instruments of his death.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, Pg. 220

"Unhappy men!" exclaimed the proconsul Antonimus to the Christians of Asia, "unhappy men! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so difficult for you to find ropes and precipices?"

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 220

The minds of those princes had never been enlightened by science; education had never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords and in their most elevated fortune they still retained their superstitious prejudices of soldiers and peasants. 

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 226

 (Galerius) though he readily consented to exclude the Christians from holding any employments in the household or the army, he urged in the strongest terms the danger as well as cruelty of shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, pg. 226

It was enacted that their churches, in all the provinces of the empire should be demolished to their foundations; and the punishment of death was denounced against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious worship.

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GB Vol. 40 – GIBBON I, chapter 16, Conduct towards Christians, Pg. 227