XXI. to Carthage, the decrees of the councils of Rome CHAP. and of Arles, and the supreme judgment of Constantine himself in his sacred consistory, were all favourable to the cause of Cæcilian; and he was unanimously acknowledged by the civil and ecclesiastical powers, as the true and lawful primate of Africa. The honours and estates of the church were attributed to his suffragan bishops; and it was not without difficulty, that Constantine was satisfied with inflicting the punishment of exile on the principal leaders of the donatist faction. As their cause was examined with attention, perhaps it was determined with justice. Perhaps their complaint was not without foundation, that the credulity of the emperor had been abused by the insidious arts of his favourite Osius. The influence of falsehood and corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent, or aggravate the sentence of the guilty. Such an act, however, of injustice, if it concluded an importunate dispute, might be numbered among the transient evils of a despotic administration, which are neither felt nor remembered by posterity. Schism of A. D. 315. But this incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely deserves a place in history, was productive of a memorable schism, which afflicted the pro- the dovinces of Africa above three hundred years, and natists. was extinguished only with christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom and fanaticism animated the donatists to refuse obedience to the usurpers, whose election they disputed, and whose spiritual powers they denied. Excluded from the civil and religious communion of mankind, XXI. CHAP. they boldly excommunicated the rest of mankind who had embraced the impious party of Cæcilian, and of the traditors, from whom he derived his pretended ordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost with exultation, that the apostolical succession was interrupted; that all the bishops of Europe and Asia were infected by the contagion of guilt and schism; and that the prerogatives of the catholic church were confined to the chosen portion of the African believers, who alone had preserved inviolate the integrity of their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supported by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a proselyte, even from the distant provinces of the East, they carefully repeated the sacred rites of baptism" and ordination; as they rejected the validity of those which he had already received from the hands of heretics or schismatics. Bishops, virgins, and even spotless infants, were subjected to the disgrace of a public penance, before they could be admitted to the communion of the donatists. If they obtained possession of a church which had been used by their catholic adversaries, they purified the unhallowed building with the same jealous care which a temple of idols might have required. They washed the pavement, scraped the walls, The councils of Arles, of Nice, and of Trent, confirmed the wise and moderate practice of the church of Rome. The donatists, however, had the advantage of maintaining the sentiment of Cyprian, and of a considerable part of the primitive church. Vincentius Lirinesius (p. 332, ap. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi, p. 138) has explained why the donatists are eternally burning with the devil, while St. Cyprian reigns in heaven with Jesus Christ. XXI. mn burnt the altar, which was commonly of wood, CHAP. melted the consecrated plate, and cast the holy eucharist to the dogs, with every circumstance of ignominy which could provoke and perpetuate the animosity of religious factions. Notwithstanding this irreconcilable aversion, the two parties, who were mixed and separated in all the cities of Africa, had the same language and manners, the same zeal and learning, the same faith and worship. Proscribed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the empire, the donatists still maintained in some provinces, particularly in Numidia, their superior numbers; and four hundred bishops acknowledged the jurisdiction of their primate. But the invincible spirit of the sect sometimes preyed on its own vitals; and the bosom of their schismatical church was torn by intestine divisions. A fourth part of the donatist bishops followed the independent standard of the maximianists. The narrow and solitary path which their first leaders had marked out, continued to deviate from the great society of mankind. Even the imperceptible sect of the rogatians could affirm, without a blush, that when Christ should descend to judge the earth, he would find his true religion preserved only in a few nameless villages of the Cæsarean Mauritania.* See the sixth book of Optatus Milevitanus, p. 91-100. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiastiques, tom. vi, part i, p. 253. He laughs at their partial credulity. He revered Augustin, the great doctor of the system of predestination. СНАР. XXI. troversy. The schism of the donatists was confined to Africa: the more diffusive mischief of the triniThe trini- tarian controversy successively penetrated into tarian con- every part of the christian world. The former was an accidental quarrel, occasioned by the abuse of freedom; the latter was a high and mysterious argument, derived from the abuse of philosophy. From the age of Constantine to that of Clovis and Theodoric, the temporal interests both of the Romans and barbarians were deeply involved in the theological disputes of arianism. The historian may therefore be permitted respectfully to withdraw the veil of the sanctuary; and to deduce the progress of reason and faith, of error and passion, from the school of Plato to the decline and fall of the empire. The system The genius of Plato, informed by his own of Plato. meditation, or by the traditional knowledge of Christ 360. the priests of Egypt,' had ventured to explore Before the mysterious nature of the deity. When he had elevated his mind to the sublime contempla tion of the first self-existent, necessary cause of the universe, the Athenian sage was incapable of conceiving how the simple unity of his essence could 1 Plato Egyptum peragravit ut a sacerdotibus barbaris numeros et celestia acciperet. Cicero de Finibus, v. 25. The Egyptians might still preserve the traditional creed of the patriarchs. Josephus has persuaded many of the christian fathers, that Plato derived a part of his knowledge from the Jews; but this vain opinion cannot be reconciled with the obscure state and unsocial manners of the Jewish people, whose scriptures were not accessible to Greek curiosity till more than one hundred years after the death of Plato. See Mar. sham, Canon. Chron. p. 144. Le Clerc, Epistol. Critic. vii, p. 177 XXI. admit the infinite variety of distinct and successive CHAP. ideas which compose the model of the intellectual world; how a being purely incorporeal could execute that perfect model, and mould with a plastic hand the rude and independent chaos. The vain hope of extricating himself from these difficulties, which must ever oppress the feeble powers of the human mind, might induce Plato to consider the divine nature under the threefold modification; of the first cause, the reason or logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. The logos His poetical imagination sometimes fixed and animated these metaphysical abstractions; the three archical or original principles were represented in the platonic system as three gods, united with each other by a mysterious and ineffable generation; and the logos was particularly considered under the more accessible character of the son of an eternal father, and the creator and governor of the world. Such appear to have been the secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in the gardens of the academy; and which, according to the more recent disciples of Plato, could not be perfectly understood, till after an assiduous study of thirty years.m the school The arms of the Macedonians diffused over taught in Asia and Egypt the language and learning of of Alex andria. Before m The modern guides who lead me to the knowledge of the pla-Christ 300. tonic system are, Cudworth (Intellectual System, p. 568-620); Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, 1. iv, c. iv, p. 53-86); Le Clerc. (Epist. crit. vii, p. 194-209); and Brucker (Hist. Philosoph. tom. i, p. 675706). As the learning of these writers was equal, and their intention different, an inquisitive observer may derive instruction from their disputes, and certainty from their agreement. |