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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

Edward Gibbon · 1782 (written); 1845 (revised)

passage 82 of 469 · Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part I. > Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.—Part III. (11/11)

↪ you wandered here via “Manichaean two principles doctrine” — the connecting lines are tinted below

(return) [ The worship practised and inculcated by Tertullian, Lactantius Arnobius, &c., is so extremely pure and spiritual, that their declamations against the Pagan sometimes glance against the Jewish, ceremonies.]

88 (return) [ Faustus the Manichaean accuses the Catholics of idolatry. Vertitis idola in martyres.... quos votis similibus colitis. M. de Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 629-700,) a Protestant, but a philosopher, has represented, with candor and learning, the introduction of Christian idolatry in the fourth and fifth centuries.]

89 (return) [ The resemblance of superstition, which could not be imitated, might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has seized this idea, which he distorts, by rendering it too general and absolute, (Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126, &c.)]

90 (return) [ The imitation of Paganism is the subject of Dr. Middleton’s agreeable letter from Rome. Warburton’s animadversions obliged him to connect (vol. iii. p. 120-132,) the history of the two religions, and to prove the antiquity of the Christian copy.]

9011 (return) [ But there was always this important difference between Christian and heathen Polytheism. In Paganism this was the whole religion; in the darkest ages of Christianity, some, however obscure and vague, Christian notions of future retribution, of the life after death, lurked at the bottom, and operated, to a certain extent, on the thoughts and feelings, sometimes on the actions.—M.]

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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3 · Edward Gibbon · 1782–1845