ought not to be supposed that this present petition came from the senate. No: a few Gentiles take upon them the name of the body. And he says that two years before, when a like petition was attempted, Damasus, bishop of Rome, assured him that at that time he received a letter from Christian senators, and signed by very many of them, who complained and said that they never desired any such thing, nor could join in such a petition; nor was it 'fit that the emperor should grant such petitions to Gentiles. They also made complaints privately and publicly, and said that they would not come to the senate if such a petition was granted.' So writes Ambrose. However, it seems to me, if I rightly understand him, that the Christian senators had not interposed when this petition to Valentinian was drawn up in the senate. He seems to allow that no Christian senators were then present. It will be asked,' says he, why they were not present in the senate, when the petition was drawn up?' He answers, their mind was sufficiently known though they were not present: it was sufficient that their • mind was known to the emperor.' b Ambrose therefore supposeth that Christian senators were then very numerous, though he does not say that any of them were present in the senate when this petition was agreed upon. And Tillemont, relying upon Ambrose, says, that even in the time of Gratian the Christian senators were very numerous: but Frederick Spanheim thought that the majority of the se 'nate were Gentiles in the time of Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius.' For certain there were from early times some Christians in the senate. Tertullian in his Apology, written before the end of the second century, speaks as if there were some considerable numbers of Christians in the senate. And in another work, written some few years afterwards, he says that the • emperor Severus openly withstood the fury of the people against some men and women of the first quality, whom he knew to be of this sect; and was so far from bearing hard upon them, that he gave them an honourable testimony:' by men and women of the first quality,' probably meaning senators and their wives. After which time the number of Christian senators may have increased, before the conversion of Constantine and afterwards. It may be difficult for us to determine exactly the proportion between the number of Christian and Gentile senators; however I do not think that the Christians were the majority of the Roman senate in the time of Valentinian, when this petition was presented by Symmachus. · Did Secondly, it may be inquired whether those proceedings were just and reasonable? the Christian emperors act justly and rightly in removing the altar of Victory, which had long stood in the senate-house? And did they act justly and rightly in seizing the estates and revenues, which had been long since settled by public authority, for the maintenance of vestal ⚫ virgins, and other priests, and for performing sacrifices for the welfare of the public?' To me it seems that Christian emperors acted rightly in removing the altar of Victory, and in refusing to restore it after it had been taken away: I think this might be rightly done, even supposing that the number of Christian senators was much inferior to the Gentiles; for that there were some such none can deny. Let us only recollect what Symmachus said, that at the altar of Victory the senators swore fidelity to the emperor, and in all their votes in the senate to determine according to the best of their knowledge.' But was that fit to be done by Christians? At this altar the senators took an oath, when first chosen and introduced, or annually; and usually, if not always, at their entrance into the senate they offered incense at this altar, or gave some other token of respect; and frequently sacrifices were offered at this altar. But was it fit that such things should be done by Christians, or joined in by them? or that they should be compelled to them? By no means. Nevertheless all such things would be expected of them by the Gentile senators, so long as the altar of Victory stood there; and, as I a Si fortasse dicatur: Cur dudum, non interfuerant Senatui, cum ista peterentur ? Satis loquuntur quid velint, qui non interfuerunt: satis loquuti sunt, qui apud Imperatorem loquuti sunt. ap. Symm. p. 320. ap. Ambr. p 826. b Et des le temps de Gratien il y avoit un nombre comme infini de Sénateurs Chrétiens. L'Emp. Theodos. art. 48. Paganæ superstitionis tenaces manserunt adhuc gentes plurimæ, et permixti Christianis populi, cives, magistratus, Judices, Senatores, Consules, Proconsules, Vicarii, ac Præsides provinciarum. Quinimo sub Valentiniano, Theodosio, Arcadio, Senatum Romanum adhuc fuisse maximâ ex parte d Hesterni sumus, et vestra omnia implevimus,decurias, Palatium, senatum, forum. Sola vobis relinquimus templa. Apol. cap. 37. e Sed et clarissimas feminas, et clarissimos viros, Severus sciens hujus sectæ fuisse, non modo non læsit, verum testimonio exornavit, et populo furenti in os palam restitit. Ad Scap. c. 4. p. 87. a apprehend, compulsion was unavoidable; but that would be persecution. Somewhat of this kind is imitated by Ambrose in his first letter to Valentinian. There was therefore a necessity that the altar of Victory should be removed by Christian emperors; and it was reasonably done. It remains that we consider the seizing of the lands which had been allowed for the maintenance of the vestals, and for performing the sacrifices offered by them, and by other priests for the public welfare. Here I suppose none can think that Christian emperors were obliged to maintain the vestals, and other priests, and their sacrifices out of the public revenue. They might have allowed these things to be done by the Gentiles; that is all that can be expected from principles of moderation, extended to the utmost; and this might have been done. And certainly there still were Gentile people enough at Rome, among their senators and other opulent families, to maintain six or seven vestals, and other priests, and to provide for the proper sacrifices. But this privilege would not satisfy. It would not be accepted of by Symmachus, and other rigid and superstitious Gentiles: they would have said, that all public sacrifices offered for the benefit of the state must be allowed by public authority, and out of the public treasury, with the consent of the supreme powers: all their virtue and efficacy depended upon that; and without it they were of no value. Consequently when those lands were seized, and other revenues were withheld, there would be an end of all those sacrifices, and they would fall to the ground, and no longer be performed: the most free and extensive toleration would not uphold them: their subsistence depended upon the encouragement of public authority; which, I think, could not be reasonably granted, nor expected from Christian magistrates. I shall just observe here, that Ambrose, in his letter to Eugenius, then emperor, written in the year 392 or 398, tells him that those revenues had not been taken away by his advice, but he advised that they should not be restored. V. Before we conclude this article somewhat should be said of Symmachus himself, who, in the year 384, was deputed to the emperor by the senate, and presented their petition to him. His history may be seen in Tillemont, who has been occupied by our writers of Universal History; and in other authors. с His name at length was Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, son of L. Aurelius Avianius Symmachus, who was præfect of Rome in the year 364. He had one son only, named Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus. He was 'grand pontiff of paganism, quæstor, prætor, and corrector of Lucania and the Prutians in the year 365 or 368, proconsul of Africa in the year 370 or 373, præfect of Rome in the year 384, and ordinary consul in the year 391 by his interest his son was made questor in the year 392, and prætor in the year 397, or, as some think, in the year 401; and it appears that young Symmachus was proconsul of Africa in the year 415, and præfect of Rome in the year 419: some have thought him to have been consul in the year 424, but that is now supposed to be a mistake. Symmachus was in great reputation for eloquence as an orator, but none of his orations are preserved. We have however a collection of his epistles, which had been kept by his secretary, and a friend named Elpidius; which were published by his son after his death, in ten books, the last containing his letters to the emperors: thus imitating the edition of Pliny's Letters, both in the number of the books, and order of the epistles; and they are much commended by Macrobius. Totus hic Christianorum periclitatur Senatus. Si hodie Gentilis aliquis Imperator (quod absit) aram statueret simulacri, et eo convenire cogeret Christianos, ut sacrificantibus interessent, et in eâ Curiâ sententiam dicerent, ubi jurati ad aram simulacri sententiam rogarentur: (propterea enim interpretantur aram locatam, ut ejus sacramento unusquisque conventus consuleret in medium :) cum curia majore jam Christianorum numero sit referta, persecutionem esse crederet Christianus, qui cogeretur tali optione ad Senatum venire: quod fit plerumque. Nam etiam injuriis convenire coguntur. Ambros. libellus primus: ap. Symm. p. 319. ad. Ambros. p. 815. Vide iterum ap. Symm. p. 321. fin. ap. Ambros. p. 828. in. Dedi libellos Imperatoribus duos, quibus significarem, sumtus Christianum virum non posse reddere: et non fuisse VOL. IV. me auctorem cum tollerentur: auctorem fieri, quo minus decernerentur: deinde, quia dare eos ipsis simulacris videretur, non reddere. Ad Eugen. ep. xv. al. Ivii. p. 1010. L'Emp. Théodose. i. art. 91. d Vol. xvi. p. 448, &c. • Vid. Voss. De Hist. Latin. lib. 3. Gothofred. Prosopogr. Cav. H. L. T. i. p. 347. Fabric. Bib. Latin. lib. 3. cap. xiv. Tom. i. p. 632. f Vide Symm. 1. i. ep. 41. et alibi. 8 Me dudum, Proconsularem virum, cedentem jam diu potentium moribus, ante capere magistratum quam expectare voluistis. 1. x. ep. 16. pingue et floridum; in quo Plinius Secundus quondam, et nunc nullo veterum minor noster Symmachus luxucap. i. riatur. Macrob. 1. 5. ++ с a Whilst Symmachus was præfect of the city in the year 384, and Prætextatus præfect of the prætorium, there were some reflections made upon both of them, as if they had treated some Christians very injuriously; Symmachus, in particular, was charged with having taken some Christians out of churches to put them to torture; and with having imprisoned some bishops, fetched by him from distant countries, others from neighbouring places. At hearing of this, the emperor was so provoked as to send an edict addressed to the people, in which Symmachus was reproved very sharply. Symmachus then wrote to the emperor, vindicating himself from those calumnies, and sent him a particular account of what had been done in the execution of his office, and with the depositions of the officers of justice, bearing witness to his innocence. He also received a letter from Damasus bishop of Rome, in which he declared that the præfect had not been guilty of any injury to the Christians. He farther says, he was assured by his officers that among all the persons shut up in prisons, charged with various crimes, there was not one Christian. Symmachus appears to have been much chagrined by these calumnies, as any honest man might well be. And in his letter to the emperor, he could not forbear to express a desire to resign an office which he had not sought, but had been put into it by the emperor's own choice and designation. d I hope it will not be disagreeable to any of my readers, if I conclude this section with an Inscription upon a monument erected to the honour of Symmachus by his son, where the several offices discharged by him are particularly mentioned. Q. AURELIO. SYMMACHO. V. C. LUCANIÆ. ET. BRITTIORUM SECTION IV. THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MAXIMUS OF MADAURA AND AUGUSTINE. I SHALL now observe the correspondence between Augustine and Maximus, a grammarian of Madaura in Africa, which is placed about the year 390, by those who have carefully digested the history of Augustine, that is, before he was presbyter, and whilst the rites of Gentilism were openly practised in that country. And Tillemont observes that this letter of Augustine is placed by Possidius at the head of his epistles against the Pagans. Moreover it is supposed that Augustine was now at Tagaste, the place of his nativity, not far from Madaura. I am always pleased with your conversation,' says Maximus to Augustine, with which Qui Præfecturam sine ambitu meruimus, sine offensione ponamus. Ibid. Vid. et not. . e Vide Macrob. Sat. 1. 5. cap. i. in notis. et Tillemont. Theodos. art. 91. p. 808. Benedictini de Vita Augustin. 1. 3. cap. iii. num. 5. Tillemont S. Augustin. art. 57. et note 13. Avens crebro tuis affatibus lætificari, et instinctu tui sermonis, quo me paullo ante jucundissime salvâ caritate pulsåsti, paria redhibere non destiti, ne silentium meum pœnitudinem appellares. Sed quæso, ut si hæc quasi seniles artus esse duxeris, benignarum aurium indulgentiâ prosequaris. Olympum montem deorum esse habitaculum sub incertâ fide Græcia fabulatur. At vero nostræ urbis forum salutarium you have sometimes favoured me; and I should be glad to have it oftener renewed. I now take notice of some difficulties which not long since, though without breach of friendship, and in a pleasing manner, you proposed, relating to my sentiments. And I the rather do it lest silence should be taken for an acknowledgment of conviction. And I entreat you not to slight what I say, because I am in years, as if it proceeded from dotage. The Greeks, among their ⚫ other fables, tell us, but without proof, that the mountain Olympus is the habitation of the gods: but we see and know that in the forum of our city we have the presence of the good gods our protectors; and that there is one supreme God, without beginning, and without any natural issue, the great and glorious father of all, none denies, or doubts, it being a most certain truth. His powers diffused throughout the mundane system we invoke under many names, because we do not know what is his proper name; for the word God is a name common to all objects of worship: and in this way presenting severally many supplications to his powers, as 'to his members, we think we worship God entire. But indeed I cannot dissemble that I am quite out of patience with the error which is now getting ground among us. For who can bear to think that Mygdo should be preferred to Jove the thunderer, and Sanae to Juno, Minerva, Venus and Vesta; and, horrible to think, that the arch-martyr Nymphanio should be preferred to the immortal gods! To omit now the names ⚫ of innumerable others, hateful to gods and men, guilty of the greatest extravagances, and adding one crime to another, who under the appearance of a glorious death, have suffered, ' execrable as they were, an end well worthy of their evil deeds. And truly, now fools frequent their sepulchres, forsaking the temples, and forgetting all respect to their venerable ancestors. So that I seem to see fulfilled the unwelcome presage of the poet, "Rome in the temples of the gods swearing by shadows." And at this time I see again, as it were renewed the Actiac war, and Ægyptian monsters contending with the gods of the Romans, but I hope without 'success. But I beseech you, great Sir, that laying aside your eloquence, by which you are become so famous, and the subtle arguments of Chrysippus, your usual weapons, and logic, which serves only to make all things appear alike probable, you will indeed shew us who is the God whom you Christians claim as peculiar to yourselves, and whom you think you see present with you in obscure places. For we worship the gods in the light, openly and before all men, and offer ⚫ up our supplications in the hearing of all, and by acceptable sacrifices render them propitious to us; and our desire is that these things should be seen and approved by all. • But it is high time for such an old man as I am to conclude the argument, and say with the Mantuan orator, " Every man has his fancy." And now, good Sir, who have forsaken our way of worship, I make no doubt this letter is to be destroyed by fire, or some other way; • if it should be so, it is only the loss of so much paper; the argument shall be kept for the numinum frequentiâ possessum nos cernimus, et probamus. Ita Sed impatientem me esse tanti erroris, dissimulare non possum. Quis enim ferat, Jovi fulmina vibranti præferri Mydonem: Junoni, Minerva, Veneri, Vestæque Sanaëm, et cunctis, proh nefas, diis immortalibus archimartyrem Nymphanionem, inter quos Lucitas etiam haud minore cultu suscipitur, atque alii interminato numero (diis hominibusque odiosa nomina) qui conscientiâ nefandorum facinorum, specie gloriosæ mortis, scelera sua sceleribus cumulantes, dignum moribus, factisque suis exitum maculati repererunt. Horum busta, si memoratu dignum est, relictis templis, neglectis majorum suorum manibus, stulti frequentant, ita ut præsagium vatis illius indigne ferentis emineat: Inque Deûm templis jurabit Roma per umbras. Sed mihi hac tempestate propemodum videtur bellum Actiacum exortum, quo Egyptia monstra in Romanorum deos audeant tela vibrare, minime duratura. 3. Sed illud quæso, vir sapientissime, uti, remoto facundiæ robore atque exploso, quâ cunctis clarus es, omissis etiam quibus pugnare solebas Chrysippeis argumentis, postpositâ paullulum dialecticâ, quæ nervorum suorum luctamine nihil certi cuiquam relinquere nititur, ipsâ re approbes, quis sit iste deus, quem vobis Christiani, quasi primum, vindicatis, et in locis abditis præsentem vos videre componitis. Nos etenim deos nostros luce palam ante oculos, atque aures omnium mortalium piis precibus adoramus, et per suaves hostias propitios nobis efficimus, et a cunctis hæc cerni et probari contendimus. 4. Sed ulterius huic certamini me senex invalidus subtraho, et in sententiam Mantuani rhetoris libenter pergo: Trahit sua quemque voluntas. Buc. Eclog. 3. Posthac non dubito, vir eximie, qui a meâ sectâ deviâsti, hanc epistolam, aliquorum furto detractam, flammis vel quolibet pacto perituram. Qyod si acciderit, erit damnum chartulæ, non nostri sermonis, cujus exemplar penes omnes religiosos retinebo. Dii te servent, per quos et eorum atque cunctorum mortalium communem patrem, universi mortales, quos terra sustinet, mille modis concordi discordiâ veneramur et coimus. Ap. Augustin. Ep. 16. al. 43. T. 2. ' use of all pious men. May the gods preserve you, through whom we, and all people whom the earth bears, in a thousand different ways, with an agreeing discord, worship and praise, the 'common Father of all men!' That is the genuine letter of a zealous Gentile grammarian. He was apprehensive it would be destroyed: but it has been preserved and kept safe among Augustine's papers. It has also been handed down to us; and we read it without much offence, and without any danger of being perverted by it. We are pleased with his acknowledgment of one supreme Deity, creator of all, and with the marks of civility to a learned and ingenious Christian, then eminent for his abilities, though as yet he was only between thirty and forty years of age. But we cannot but think there appears some distrust of the goodness of his cause when he desires his correspondent, in his answer, to lay aside the advantage to be made by eloquence, acute reasoning, and logic. Moreover, he bears testimony to the great progress of Christianity in the world, which too had been very much owing, as here intimated, to the steady and patient perseverance of Christians in the profession of those principles which they supposed they had received upon good grounds. But we must think it hard and unequitable that the Christians, who some time since had died as martyrs for their religion at Madaura, or other places in Africa, should be charged with extravagances, and represented as 'criminals unworthy to live upon earth.' At the same time we must suppose this to be the true spirit of Gentilism: and those eminently good men, whose lives had been unjustly taken from them, must for ever have suffered in their memories, if Gentilism had continued to prevail. So that the change which had been made in the world in favour of Christianity, not only gave liberty to its present professors, but also restored and secured the credit of those who had suffered in former times. For certainly there never were better subjects, nor more innocent and virtuous men, than the Christians who lived in the first ages, before the conversion of Constantine. Augustine, in his answer to this letter, treats it as ludicrous, and unsuitable to so serious a subject, and therefore not deserving a particular reply. He wonders that Maximus an African, living in Africa, and writing to a native of the same country, should ridicule the African names of some Christian martyrs as harsh and absurd, when the Romans had like names among them for their priests, and for their gods and goddesses. He forbears to upbraid him with those rites, which were concealed from all but a few; or the rudeness and extravagance of the Bacchanalian festivals, when the greatest magistrates of their city ran about the streets like furies and madmen. He defers to enter farther into the debate till Maximus is more serious. However, he puts him in mind that there is in his city a church of catholic Christians by whom no dead men are adored, nor any being worshipped as a deity who had been made by God, but only the one God himself, who made and formed all things. I have one remark to add which perhaps is not quite needless. Maximus by this letter bears testimony not only to the progress of Christianity in his own time, and that there were then many Christians at Madaura, and in other parts of Africa; but he is also a witness that Christianity had been received there long before. He speaks of many martyrs in Africa, who must have suffered before the conversion of Constantine. And my readers may remember that in the writings of Apuleius also of Madaura, who flourished about the year 263, in the times of a Seriumne aliquid inter nos agimus, an jocari libet? &c. Ep. 17. al. 44. init. Nam quod nomina quædam Punica mortuorum collegisti, quibus in nostram religionem festivas (ut tibi visum est) contumelias jaciendas putares, nescio utrum refellere debeam, an silentio præterire-Miror, quod nominum absurditate commoto, in mentem non venerit habere tuos et in sacerdotibus Eucaddires, et in numinibus Abaddires. Non puto ego, ista cum scriberes, in animo non fuisse-quanta in vestrâ superstitione ridenda sunt. Neque enim usque adeo teipsum oblivisci potuisses, ut homo Afer scribens Afris, cum simus utrique in Africâ constituti, Punica nomina exagitanda existimares -Verum tamen si ridere delectat, habes apud vos magnam materiam facetiarum: deum Stercutium, deam Cloacinam, Venerem calvam-Ibid. num. 2, 3. c Quod autem dicis, eo nostris vestra sacra præponi, quod vos publice colitis deos, nos autem secretioribus conventiculis utimur: primo, abs te quæro, quomodo oblitus sis Liberum illum, quem paucorum sacratorum oculis committendum putatis. Deinde tu ipse judicas nihil aliud te agere voluisse, cum publicam sacrorum vestrorum celebrationem commemorares, nisi ut nobis decuriones et primates civitatis per plateas vestræ urbis bacchantes ac furentes, ante oculos quasi spectacula poneremus: in quâ celebritate, si numine inhabitamini, certe videtis quale illud sit, quod adimit mentem, num. 4. d Ad summam tamen, ne te hoc lateat, et in sacrilega convitia imprudentem trahat, scias a Christianis catholicis, quorum in vestro oppido etiam ecclesia constituta est, nullum coli mortuorum, nihil denique ut numen adorari, quod sit factum et conditum a Deo, sed unum ipsum Deum, qui fecit et condidit omnia. Disserentur ista latius, ipso vero et uno Deo adjuvante, cum te graviter agere velle cognovero. Ibid. num. 5. |
