edit. Lug.
Bat. 1650.)
And not more than twenty years after Constantine's entire possession of
the empire, Julius Firmiens Maternus calls upon the emperors Constantius
and Constans to extirpate the relics of the ancient religion; the
reduced and fallen condition of which is described by our author in the
following words: "Licet adhue in quibusdam regionibus idololatriae
morientia palpitont membra; tamen in eo res est, ut a Christianis
omnibus terris pestiferum hoc malum funditus amputetur:" and in another
place, "Modicum tautum superest, ut legibus vestris--extincta
idololatriae pereat funesta contagio." (De Error. Profan. Relig. c. xxi.
p. 172, quoted by Lardner, vol. viii. p. 262.) It will not be thought
that we quote this writer in order to recommend his temper or his
judgment, but to show the comparative state of Christianity and of
Heathenism at this period. Fifty years afterwards, Jerome represents the
decline of Paganism, in language which conveys the same idea of its
approaching extinction: "Solitudinem patitur et in urbe gentilitas. Dii
quondam nationum, cum bubonibus et noctuis, in solis culminibus
remanserunt.
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