OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

407

secrafe, by solemn decrees, the divine memoryof their sovereigns; and Constantine himselfwas associated, after his death, to those godswhom he had renounced and insulted duringhis life. The title, the ensigns, the preroga-tives, of sovereign pontiff, which had beeninstituted by Numa, and assumed by Augus-tus , were accepted, without hesitation, by sevenChristian emperors; who were invested with amore absolute authority over the religion whichthey had deserted, than over that which theyprofessed . 1

The divisions of Christianity suspended theruin of paganism;™ and the holy war against the

1 The fourth Dissertation of M. dc la Bastie, sur le Souverain Ponti-ficat des Einperems Roman s (in the Mem. de l’Acad. tom. xv, p. 75-144), is a very learned and judicious performance, which explain* thestate, and proves the toleration, of paganism from Constantine toGratian. The assertion of Zosimus, that Gratian was the first whorefused the pontifical robe, is confirmed beyond a doubt; andthemur*imirs of bigotry, on that subject, are almost silenced.

m As I have freely anticipated the use of pagans and paganism, I shallnow trace the singular revolutions of those celebrated words. 1. Tiaynin tiie Doric dialect, so familiar to the Italians , signifies a fountain ;and the rural neighbourhood which frequented the same fountain, de-rived the common appellation of pagiuand pagans (Festns sub voce, andServing ad Virgil . Georgic. ii, 382). 2. By an easy extension of the

word, pagan and rural became almost synonymous (Plin. Hist. Natur,xxviii, 5) ; and the meaner rustics acquired that name, which has beencorrupted into peasants in the modern languages of Europe . 3. Theamazing increase of the military order introduced the necessity of acorrelative term (Hume’s Essays, vol. i, p. 555); and all the people whowere not enlisted in the service of the prince were branded with thecontemptuous epithet of pagans (Tacit. Hist, iii, 24, 43, 77- Jnve*sal. Satir. xvi. Tertullian de Pal ij, c. 4). 4. Tin* Christians were the

soldiers of Christ; their adversaries, who refused his sacrament , or mi-litary oath of baptism, might deserve the metaphorical name of pa-gans ; and this popular reproach was introduced as early as the reignof Valentinian (a. d. 3C5) into imperial Jaws (Cod. Theodos. I. xvi, tit.ii, leg. 18) and theological writings. 5. Christianity gradually filled

tbe

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