Chapter 27
713 This history is related by St. Ambrose in a letter to his sister Marcellina; by St. Paulinus of Nola, in his _Life of Ambrose_; and by St. Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xxii. 8; _Confess._ ix. 7.
714 Plutarch thought they were known by Plato, but this opinion has been much questioned. See a very learned discussion on the subject in Farmer's _Dissertation on Miracles_, pp. 129-140; and Fontenelle, _Hist. des Oracles_, pp. 26, 27. Porphyry speaks much of evil daemons.
715 Josephus, _Antiq._ viii. 2, -- 5.
716 This very curious subject is fully treated by Baltus (_Reponse a l'Histoire des Oracles_, Strasburg, 1707, published anonymously in reply to Van Dale and Fontenelle), who believed in the reality of the Pagan as well as the patristic miracles; by Bingham (_Antiquities of the Christian Church_, vol. i. pp. 316-324), who thinks the Pagan and Jewish exorcists were impostors, but not the Christians; and by Middleton (_Free Enquiry_, pp. 80-93), who disbelieves in all the exorcists after the apostolic times. It has also been the subject of a special controversy in England, carried on by Dodwell, Church, Farmer, and others. Archdeacon Church says: "If we cannot vindicate them [the Fathers of the first three centuries] on this article, their credit must be lost for ever; and we must be obliged to decline all further defence of them. It is impossible for any words more strongly to express a claim to this miracle than those used by all the best writers of the second and third centuries."-_Vindication of the Miracles of the First Three Centuries_, p. 199. So, also, Baltus: "De tous les anciens auteurs ecclesiastiques, n'y en ayant pas un qui n'ait parle de ce pouvoir admirable que les Chretiens avoient de cha.s.ser les demons" (p. 296).
Gregory of Tours describes exorcism as sufficiently common in his time, and mentions having himself seen a monk named Julian cure by his words a possessed person. (_Hist._ iv. 32.)
_ 717 Vit. Hilar._ Origen notices that cattle were sometimes possessed by devils. See Middleton's _Free Enquiry_, pp. 88, 89.
718 The miracle of St. Babylas is the subject of a homily by St.
Chrysostom, and is related at length by Theodoret, Sozomen, and Socrates. Libanius mentions that, by command of Julian, the bones of St. Babylas were removed from the temple. The Christians said the temple was destroyed by lightning; the Pagans declared it was burnt by the Christians, and Julian ordered measures of reprisal to be taken. Amm. Marcellinus, however, mentions a report
719 See the _Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus_, by Gregory of Nyssa. St.
Gregory the Great a.s.sures us (_Dial._ iii. 10) that Sabinus, Bishop of Placentia, wrote a letter to the river Po, which had overflowed its banks and flooded some church lands. When the letter was thrown into the stream the waters at once subsided.
720 "Edatur hic aliquis sub tribunalibus vestris, quem daemone agi constet. Jussus a quolibet Christiano loqui spiritus ille, tam se daemonem confitebitur de vero, quam alibi deum de falso. aeque producatur aliquis ex iis qui de deo pati existimantur, qui aris inhalantes numen de nidore concipiunt... nisi se daemones confessi fuerint, Christiano mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite. Quid isto opere manifestius? quid haec probatione fidelius?"-Tert. _Apol._ xxiii.
_ 721 Apol._ i.; _Trypho_.
_ 722 Cont. Cels._ vii.
_ 723 Inst. Div._ iv. 27.
_ 724 Life of Antony._
_ 725 Octavius._
_ 726 De Superst.i.tione._
727 i. 6.
_ 728 De Mort. Peregrin._
729 Origen, _Adv. Cels._ vi. Compare the curious letter which Vopiscus (Saturninus) attributes to Hadrian, "Nemo illic [i.e. in Egypt]
archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum presbyter, non mathematicus, non aruspex, non aliptes."
730 "Si incantavit, si imprecatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo impostorum utor) exorcizavit."-Bingham, _Antiquities of the Christian Church_ (Oxf., 1855), vol. i. p. 318. This law is believed to have been directed specially against the Christians, because these were very prominent as exorcists, and because Lactantius (_Inst. Div._ v. 11) says that Ulpian had collected the laws against them.
731 Philostorgius, _Hist. Eccl._ viii. 10.
732 See Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 314-335.
733 See Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 520-530.
_ 734 Metamorphoses_, book x.
735 See their _Lives_, by Lampridius and Spartia.n.u.s.
736 The conflict between St. Cyprian and the confessors, concerning the power of remitting penances claimed by the latter, though it ended in the defeat of the confessors, shows clearly the influence they had obtained.
737 "Thura plane non emimus; si Arabiae queruntur scient Sabaei pluris et carioris suas merces Christianis sepeliendis profligari quam diis fumigandis."-_Apol._ 42. Sometimes the Pagans burnt the bodies of the martyrs, in order to prevent the Christians venerating their relics.
738 Many interesting particulars about these commemrative festivals are collected in Cave's _Primitive Christianity_, part i. c. vii. The anniversaries were called "Natalia," or birth-days.
739 See her acts in Ruinart.
740 St. Clem. Alex. _Strom._ iv. 10. There are other pa.s.sages of the same kind in other Fathers.
_ 741 Ad Scapul._ v. Eusebius (_Martyrs of Palestine_, ch. iii.) has given a detailed account of six young men, who in the very height of the Galerian persecution, at a time when the most hideous tortures were applied to the Christians, voluntarily gave themselves up as believers. Sulp. Severus (_Hist._ ii. 32), speaking of the voluntary martyrs under Diocletian, says that Christians then "longed for death as they now long for bishoprics." "Cogi qui potest, nescit mori," was the n.o.ble maxim of the Christians.
742 Arrian, iv. 7. It is not certain, however, that this pa.s.sage alludes to the Christians. The followers of Judas of Galilee were called Galilaeans, and they were famous for their indifference to death. See Joseph. _Antiq._ xviii. 1.
743 xi. 3.
744 Peregrinus.
745 Zosimus.
746 "Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?-yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred."
747 See Renan's _Apotres_, p. 314.
748 M. Pressense very truly says of the Romans, "Leur religion etait essentiellement un art-l'art de decouvrir les desseins des dieux et d'agir sur eux par des rites varies."-_Hist. des Trois premiers Siecles_, tome i. p. 192. Montesquieu has written an interesting essay on the political nature of the Roman religion.
749 Sueton. _Claud._ xxv.
750 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ vii. 31.
751 Tacit. _De Orat._ x.x.xv.; Aul. Gell. _Noct._ xv. 11. It would appear, from this last authority, that the rhetoricians were twice expelled.
752 Dion Ca.s.sius, lii. 36. Most historians believe that this speech represents the opinions, not of the Augustan age, but of the age of the writer who relates it.
753 On the hostility of Vespasian to philosophers, see Xiphilin, lxvi.
13; on that of Domitian, the _Letters_ of Pliny and the _Agricola_ of Tacitus.
754 See a remarkable pa.s.sage in Dion Chrysostom, _Or._ lx.x.x. _De Libertate_.
755 Cic. _De Legib._ ii. 11; Tertull. _Apol._ v.
756 Livy, iv. 30
757 Val. Maximus, i. 3, -- 1.
758 Livy, xxv. 1.
759 Val. Max. i. 3, -- 2.