Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 5 | Page 4

occupation of a painter, so profane and odious in
the eyes of the primitive Christians. The Olympian Jove, created by the
muse of Homer and the chisel of Phidias, might inspire a philosophic
mind with momentary devotion; but these Catholic images were faintly
and flatly delineated by monkish artists in the last degeneracy of taste
and genius. ^14
[Footnote 7: After removing some rubbish of miracle and inconsistency,
it may be allowed, that as late as the year 300, Paneas in Palestine was
decorated with a bronze statue, representing a grave personage wrapped
in a cloak, with a grateful or suppliant female kneeling before him, and
that an inscription was perhaps inscribed on the pedestal. By the
Christians, this group was foolishly explained of their founder and the
poor woman whom he had cured of the bloody flux, (Euseb. vii. 18,
Philostorg. vii. 3, &c.) M. de Beausobre more reasonably conjectures
the philosopher Apollonius, or the emperor Vespasian: in the latter
supposition, the female is a city, a province, or perhaps the queen
Berenice, (Bibliotheque Germanique, tom. xiii. p. 1 - 92.)]
[Footnote 8: Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. i. c. 13. The learned Assemannus
has brought up the collateral aid of three Syrians, St. Ephrem, Josua
Stylites, and James bishop of Sarug; but I do not find any notice of the
Syriac original or the archives of Edessa, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 318,
420, 554;) their vague belief is probably derived from the Greeks.]
[Footnote 9: The evidence for these epistles is stated and rejected by
the candid Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297 - 309.) Among
the herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from this convenient, but
untenable, post, I am ashamed, with the Grabes, Caves, Tillemonts, &c.,
to discover Mr. Addison, an English gentleman, (his Works, vol. i. p.
528, Baskerville's edition;) but his superficial tract on the Christian
religion owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested
applause of our clergy.]
[Footnote 10: From the silence of James of Sarug, (Asseman. Bibliot.
Orient. p. 289, 318,) and the testimony of Evagrius, (Hist. Eccles. l. iv.

c. 27,) I conclude that this fable was invented between the years 521
and 594, most probably after the siege of Edessa in 540, (Asseman. tom.
i. p. 416. Procopius, de Bell. Persic. l. ii.) It is the sword and buckler of,
Gregory II., (in Epist. i. ad. Leon. Isaur. Concil. tom. viii. p. 656, 657,)
of John Damascenus, (Opera, tom. i. p. 281, edit. Lequien,) and of the
second Nicene Council, (Actio v. p. 1030.) The most perfect edition
may be found in Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 175 - 178.)]
[Footnote 11: See Ducange, in Gloss. Graec. et Lat. The subject is
treated with equal learning and bigotry by the Jesuit Gretser,
(Syntagma de Imaginibus non Manu factis, ad calcem Codini de
Officiis, p. 289 - 330,) the ass, or rather the fox, of Ingoldstadt, (see the
Scaligerana;) with equal reason and wit by the Protestant Beausobre, in
the ironical controversy which he has spread through many volumes of
the Bibliotheque Germanique, (tom. xviii. p. 1 - 50, xx. p. 27 - 68, xxv.
p. 1 - 36, xxvii. p. 85 - 118, xxviii. p. 1 - 33, xxxi. p. 111 - 148, xxxii. p.
75 - 107, xxxiv. p. 67 - 96.)]
[Footnote 12: Theophylact Simocatta (l. ii. c. 3, p. 34, l. iii. c. 1, p. 63)
celebrates it; yet it was no more than a copy, since he adds (of Edessa).
See Pagi, tom. ii. A.D. 588 No. 11.]
[Footnote 13: See, in the genuine or supposed works of John
Damascenus, two passages on the Virgin and St. Luke, which have not
been noticed by Gretser, nor consequently by Beausobre, (Opera Joh.
Damascen. tom. i. p. 618, 631.)]
[Footnote 14: "Your scandalous figures stand quite out from the
canvass: they are as bad as a group of statues!" It was thus that the
ignorance and bigotry of a Greek priest applauded the pictures of Titian,
which he had ordered, and refused to accept.]
The worship of images had stolen into the church by insensible degrees,
and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious mind, as
productive of comfort, and innocent of sin. But in the beginning of the
eighth century, in the full magnitude of the abuse, the more timorous
Greeks were awakened by an apprehension, that under the mask of
Christianity, they had restored the religion of their fathers: they heard,

with grief and impatience, the name of idolaters; the incessant charge
of the Jews and Mahometans, ^15 who derived from the Law and the
Koran an immortal hatred to graven images and all relative worship.
The servitude of the Jews might curb their zeal, and depreciate their
authority; but the triumphant Mussulmans,