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withdrawn from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable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The divine promised were originally made, and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
