a gentle decline; and twenty-eight years after the death of Theodosius, the vestiges of the ancient religion were scarcely discernible in the Roman empire.

A superstition, in many respects as absurd and irrational, began to pollute the Christian church in those ages, and still continues to maintain a very extensive influence. This was the worship of saints and relics. At Rome, the bones of St. Peter and St. Paul

-or rather what they believed to be such-were removed from their graves one hundred and fifty years after their death, and deposited in magnificent shrines. In the following ages, Constantinople, which could boast no treasures of that kind within her own walls, had recourse to the provinces, and acquired from them the supposed bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy, after these had been dead for three hundred years. But these sacred treasures were appropriated solely to the churches of the capitals of the empire; other cities and their churches borrowed portions of these older relics; and where they had not interest to procure these, their priests had dexterity to discover relics of their own. The possession of these bones was found to conduce very much to the acquisition of more substantial treasures. It was easy to find skeletons, and to give them names; but it was necessary to prove their authenticity and virtue, by making these bones perform miracles. Artifice and roguery had a powerful assistant here in popular credulity; and even natural events, when ascribed to the mediation of saints and martyrs, became proofs of their divine and supernatural power. It was easier for the vulgar mind to approach in prayer the image, or simply the idea of a holy man-one who had been on earth subject to like. passions with themselves-than to raise their imaginations to the tremendous and incomprehensible nature of the Supreme Power: hence the prayers to saints, and the peculiar devotion to one out of many, -as he to whom most frequent court was paid, would be naturally held to take the greatest interest in the welfare of his votary.

As the objects of religion were become more familiar to the imagination, it was not wonderful that such rites and ceremonies should be introduced as were best fitted to affect the senses of the vulgar. The pompous pageantry of the pagan superstition was soon rivalled by that of the Christian; and as the polytheism of the former found a parallel in the numerous train of saints and martyrs of the latter, the superstitions and absurd ceremonies of both came very soon to have a near resemblance.

The attachment to the pagan systems of philosophy, particularly the Platonic, which found its votaries among many of the Christian doctors at this period, led to a variety of innovations in point of doctrine, which in a little time acquired so deep a root as to be considered as essential parts of the Christian 'system. Such, for example, was the notion of an intermediate state, in which the

soul was to be purified by fire from the corruptions and vices of the flesh hence also the celibacy of the priests, and various other notions, which yet prevail in the church of Rome, and have in the minds of the people acquired from time an equal authority with the express institutions of the gospel.

*

With regard to the celibacy of the priests, we know that in the primitive church all the orders of the clergy were allowed to marry. It was, however, thought, that as abstinence and morti ication was a Christian duty, there was more sanctity and virtue in celibacy than in wedlock.

Monastic institutions had likewise their origin in the fourth century, the most destructive species of superstition that ever took hold of the minds of mankind. But of these and of their progress of the diversities of their orders, and of their rapid increase over all the Christian kingdoms, we shall afterwards treat more at large, in our account of the state of the church in the age of Charlemagne.

In our next chapter we shall pursue the outlines of the history of the Romans, to the entire extinction of the empire of the West-a period which furnishes the 'delineation of ancient history.

CHAPTER V.

Last Period of the Roman History-Arcadius and Honorius-Theodosius II.His Code of Laws-Attila-Progress of the Goths-Gothic Kingdom of Italy.

WE have now arrived at the last period of the empire in the West, when every thing tending irresistibly to decline, prognosticated a speedy and absolute extinction of the Roman name in those regions where it first was known.

The barbarous nations, we had observed, from frequent inroads, though most commonly repulsed, had yet gradually begun to establish themselves in the frontier provinces: we had remarked the progress they made in the reigns of Valentinian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius; but at this period our attention was solicited to the consideration of an object of peculiar importance, the extinction of paganism in the Roman empire, and the full establishment of the Christian religion. This great event naturally led to a brief retrospective view of the progress of Christianity during the four preceding centuries. We now proceed to a

* 1st Epistle to Timothy, ch. iii.

rapid delineation of this last period of the history of the Romans, --from the end of the reign of Theodosius, to the fall of the Western empire.

Theodosius the Great, who, by the death of Valentinian II., enjoyed the undivided sovereignty of the empires of the East and West, made a partition upon his death-bed between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, assigned the Eastern empire to the former, and the Western to the latter.* At the time of the accession of these princes, Arcadius was seventeen, and Honorius ten years of age. Their ministers were Rufinus and Stilicho, to whom Theodosius had intrusted the government during the nonage of his sons. Rufinus, a man of no principle, but of great ambition, soon became jealous of an associate in power; and in order to gratify his mean ambition, he considered it a small matter to make a sacrifice of his country. Courting his own elevation in the public ruin, he invited the barbarian nations to invade the empire. The Huns were not slow in obeying the summons. They poured down from Caucasus, and overspread in an instant Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Syria. A band of the Goths at the same time, under. the command of Alaric, made dreadful havoc in the provinces between the Adriatic and Constantinople. Stilicho, the emperor's chief general, who was possessed of excellent military abilities, made head against these barbarians with considerable success ; until, by the infamous machination of his rival Rufinus, the greater part of his troops were compelled to leave their commander, and purposely called off upon another service, at the very eve of an engagement with Alaric, which, in all probability, would have given the Romans a decisive victory. Stilicho was obliged to retreat with precipitation; but this involuntary dishonor was amply revenged by his troops, who no sooner returned to the Eastern capital, than, with furious indignation, they massacred Rufinus in the presence of the emperor Arcadius. ‡

Alaric the Goth, in the meantime, ravaged Greece, took the city of Athens, and, pouring down on the Peloponnesus, laid waste the whole country. He was again opposed by Stilicho, whose success was a second time disappointed by the eunuch Eutropius, who had succeeded Rufinus in his influence over the weak and dissolute Arcadius. This abandoned minion made a

The following was the division of the empire between these princes. Honorius had the sovereignty of Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Britain; with the provinces of Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia. Arcadius governed Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, and the whole country, from the lower Danube to the confines of Persia and Ethiopia. Illyrium was divided between the two princes.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 29.

That Rufinus carried on a treasonable correspondence with the barbarians has not, I believe, been directly proved, but his frequent visits to the camp of the Goths, and the circumstance of their sparing his'estates amidst the general devastation, were considered as strong presumptive evidence of his treason.

A scene which is described by the poet Claudian (lib. ii. in Rufin.) in strong, but horrid colors.

peace with Alaric, and even bestowed upon the Goth the government of eastern Illyria, under which denomination was at that time comprehended the whole of Greece. How miserable must have been the abasement of the Eastern empire at this time, when the Goths had thus established themselves under the very walls of the capital!

The influence of the eunuch Eutropius was unbounded with his sovereign; but though courted, as we may suppose, like all other ministers, by the parasites of the court, he was deservedly detested by the people. A striking monument of his fears from the popular odium, and the apprehension of undergoing that fate which he merited, appears in that most sanguinary of the Roman statutes, the law of Arcadius and Honorius for the punishment of those who should conspire the death of the emperor's ministers. A capital punishment was inflicted on the offender himself; it is declared that his children shall be perpetually infamous, incapable of all inheritance, of all office or employment; that they shall languish in want and misery, so that life itself shall be a punishment to them, and death a consolation.* Amid the other laws of Arcadius and Honorius, many of which are remarkable for their clemency and moderation, this sanguinary statute would strike us with just surprise, were it not known to have been framed by the infamous Eutropius for the security of his own precarious authority, and as a shelter for himself against the public odium.

Secure as he now imagined himself in the favor of his sovereign, and defended by the terror of his own uncontrolled authority, this base eunuch endeavored to engross the whole power of the government. He caused the weak Arcadius to create him a Patrician, to honor him with the title of father to the emperor, and at length to confer on him the consulship. His image, preceded by the fasces, was carried in triumph through all the cities of the East, but was more generally saluted with hissing than with applause. At length that insolence, which, in mean souls, is the usual attendant of undeserved elevation, so far transported him. beyond the bounds of decorum, that having affronted the empress Eudoxia, a high spirited princess, she painted his character in such colors to her husband Arcadius, that he dismissed him from all his dignities, gave him up to the cries of the people, who demanded justice upon him as a traitor, and caused him to be publicly beheaded.

Arcadius, however, was not emancipated from his bondage; he only changed his governor : for Gainas, a Goth, the rival of Eutropius, and who had been instrumental in accelerating his downfall, succeeded to his whole power and influence. He would have proved a dangerous minister, as he aimed at nothing less than

* Ut his denique perpetua egestate sordentibus, sit et mors solatium et vita supplicium.-Codex. Just. 1. 9. tit. 8. 1. 5.

a declared share of the empire; but his ambition was checked in the beginning of his career, for he lost his life in an attack made by the Huns, in the neighborhood of the Danube.

Alaric, we observed, had obtained from Arcadius the sovereignty of Illyria. This ambitious prince was not so to be satisfied. His army proclaimed him king of the Visigoths, and he prepared to penetrate into Italy, and take possession of Rome. He passed the Alps, and Rome trembled for her safety, but was preserved by the policy, or rather treachery of Stilicho, who commanded the armies of Honorius. He drew Alaric into a negotiation, under the notion of giving him a settlement beyond the Alps, and then suddenly fell upon his army, while unsuspicious of an attack; Alaric was forced to return to Illyria, but meditated a full and terrible revenge.

On this occasion, Honorius celebrated at Rome a splendid triumph, and a monument was erected, recording, in the proudest terms, the eternal defeat of the Goths, Getarum nationem in omne ævum domitam.* But this vain eternity was bounded by the revolution of a very few months.

rius.

The Gothic prince, at the head of an immense army, appeared again in Italy, and determined to overthrow the capital of HonoRome was panic-struck ;-resistance appeared fruitless; and Stilicho exerted his political talents in negotiating a truce with Alaric, for the payment of an immense sum of money. 4000 pounds' weight of gold was the sum stipulated, on promise of which, Alaric returned again into Illyria. This was the last public service of Stilicho;-the man who had repeatedly saved his country from destruction, fell a victim at last to the jealousy of his contemptible sovereign, and to the machinations of a rival, Olympius, who wished to supplant him in' his power. He was beheaded by the mandate of Honorius. The character and talents of Stilicho are recorded in the poems of Claudian, whose genius deserved to have been the ornament of a better age. Alaric, soon after, made his demand for the promised tribute. It was contemptuously refused by Honorius, and the incensed Goth again entered Italy, and with amazing celerity penetrated to the gates of Rome. he made himself master of the Tiber, cut off the city from all supply, both by land and water, and reduced it to such extremity, that deputies were sent by Honorius, who again purchased a cessation of hostilities for 5000 pounds' weight of gold and 30,000 of silver; but to secure its payment, the Goth insisted that several of the principal citizens should put their children into his hands as hostages. On these terms Alaric again returned.

The Alani, Suevi, and Vandals taking advantage of these disorders in the Western empire, passed the Pyrenean mountains, and desolated all Spain. Their ravages were beyond imagination.

Mascou, Hist. of Anc. Germ., viii. 12.