that new appointed ftage of preferment; but veneration for martyrs naturally ended in profound reverence towards thofe whofe business it had been once to bury them, and fcarlet ftockings, linings, &c. formerly badges of mifery, and mere appendages to diftrefs, were now become diftinctions of honour, and gradations towards magnificence. The church had not as yet required celibacy from her members, and Felix, juftly fo called, was immediate and lincal, not collateral ancestor in the third degree to Gregory the Great. Gelafius Gelafius upon his demife enjoyed fupremacy over all his own clergy, and claimed it from the patriarch at Conftantinople, but was refufed. He made a decree to exclude lame and blind, &c. from the priesthood, he burned the Manichæan books, and banished those who had been hopelessly mifled by them: but although he claimed, and perfuaded many to think him pof| feffed of infallibility, he tried, but was unable to abolish the lupercal, a grofs inftitution of pagan origin, which Christian emperors had vainly endeavoured to annul, and 'twas Gelafius who diftinguished canonical books of fcripture from apocrypha. Meanwhile the retrospective eye will, in the days when Symmachus adorned the papal chair and chanted aloud the gloria in excelfis, obferve the still blinded Jews collecting their civil and canon laws into a thalmud or repository,* regardful of the letter, but mindless of the spirit in which they were at first compofed. Unobfervant alfo, or ftrangely prepoffefs'd against the true fenfe of thofe prophecies which long before had fo minutely defcribed their miferable ftate; and promifed future, though diftant release from it; a fure if late recall to their inheritance, from amongst all the nations they are fcattered over; a congregating of their tribes by a greater than Rabbi Affer. Since his appearance upon earth incarnate, and condemnation by these his infatuated, and every way peculiar people, five hundred years have now been in this little fuperficial work * Thalmud means (as Sir William Jones tells us) people exifting in fecret excavations of rocks; whence perhaps thalmud, a fecret repofitory for their law: thus thalmud of Babylon. flightly flightly reviewed; and the twelve vultures feen by Romulus on his Capitoline Hill, have winged their destined flight twelve centuries with the addition of about half another, past fince his firft foundation of the city, to that melancholy but fcarcely noticed day, when the last prince who ever bore his name, yielded that city tamely up to Odoacer; but if I remember well the augury, thofe vultures* wheeling round pass'd him again. Rome while I write, has for twelve centuries more, and half another, ruled o'er her fubject world a fecond time, and clothed in papal, as once in imperial purple, has again held in fevere fubjection princes, potentates, warriors. But we return to Retrospect. * And I do fancy these swans were the old vultures whitened by Virgil, as a compliment to Auguftus. -Ni fallor. Ni fruftra augurium vani docuere parentes, Aut capere, aut captas jam defpectare videntur. Et cætu cinxere polum, cantufque dedere: СНАР. T2 CHAP. IX. TO THE EXPULSION OF THE GOTHICK KINGS. WHILE FIRST PORTION OF THE SIXTH CENTURY. HILE Goths and Vandals, with devouring rage wafted the once well-cultivated Roman empire, so that scarce a trace of civilization remained either in Spain or Africa, our retrospective eye will be accounted happy in not having time to dwell upon fuch scenes as Procopius (no fcrupulous hiftorian) forbears to relate; lest from my book, fays he, fhould in fome future day be learned, leffons of yet unheard-of inhumanity: but 'tis agreed upon by all our writers, that no period of this globe's existence ever equalled, or even approached near to the fifth and fixth centuries, for complicated afflictions, and distress stopping little short of defpair. Famine and peftilence followed the Gothick wars, of which indeed they were confidered as inftruments; when, if a garrifon held out too long, the befiegers made no fcruple to kill all their prisoners in cold blood, and piling them up in heapspoison the wretched creatures of the town, and force them to defert it. Authors perfift in faying, and with truth, that every province under Roman protection was grown effeminate, and in fome measure, we may fay enervated, by the free commerce entertained with the capital, and thus fell unrefiftingly before the Barbarian troops: but before fuch troops Cæfar muft have fallen. There was no art of war, no energy of mind, that could poffibly withstand enemies who profeffed rapacity and murder, not conteft; and who laughed at the feeble ties of honour and humanity. When Stilicho had taken fome Goths Goths into his pay, hoping their affiftance against invaders from other countries, not their own, what was the confequence? Only this; that adding treacherousness to ferocity, the brutal mercenaries turned all that fkill and difcipline they had learned, against the people who employed them: nor did their rage of devaftation ceafe, till all their northern hive was drained of fwarms, that migrated like myriads of ants in India, when the whole earth for miles appears to move; and while the lordly elephant is covered, incumbered, and even his bones picked by the black army, as 'tis emphatically called there, the gazelle or the kangaroo alone escape, by swiftness and light bounds. Thrace, Hungary, France, Spain, Italy now, and Grecce were gone, divided among thefe nations of new names, new manners, new ideas. A revolution was about to take place in men's minds, as well as in their government. Oriental customs had, fince removal of the royal refidence to Conftantinople, infected the fouthern parts of Europe, but now the Septentrionifts came forward, and brought with them other notions. A foldier and a freeman with them were fynonimous; and none were counted bafe but fuch as were inactive. Women too had privileges not dreamed on in the caft, where fome princes, paffionately addicted to the fex, began to take up thefe opinions, and release their female flaves from confinement. Cabades, who ruled in Perfia, was of this mind : pleased with the respect paid to their domes- · tick companions by the Germans, he gave more open licence to the ladies, and by that innovation, irritated fuch of his subjects as were attached to the old way; till rebellion became the natural effect, and Cabades was dethroned. Imprifonment of courfe followed degradation, but one of his women, who had early profited by thefe new regulations, made herself an object interefting to the gaoler, who could refufe nothing to fuch a folicitrefs, and by her arts gained freedom for her indulgent fovereign. Dreadful was the revenge he took on all concerned, nor was his fury likely to fpare Anaftafius, ill furnamed Decorus, then emperor of the eaft, late chamberlain, now confort to hafty hafty and unfeeling Ariadne, who having buried one hufband alive, expofed his fucceflor to Cabades' refentment, by perfuading him to refie money requested by that prince, for purpofe of reducing his tumukuous fubjects to obedience. This he effected foon, without help from Conftantinople, towards which he advanced, attacking the ftrong fortrefs of Tzundadaer, where much treasure was deposited; and 'tis, for ought I have learned, on this occafion that we are first introduced to the acquaintance of dæmons and fpirits-poetical machinery! which has fucceeded in a certain manner to the heathen deities, in modern epick and dramatick tales: and which now with various devices, and under innumerable forms, dragons efpecially, guarded the magick caftle against Cabades. That king unable to find out, he faid, or Perfian foothfayer, or Jewish rabbi, capable of breaking these charms, and binding these aerial combatants; had at length recourse to fome Chriftian bifhop, who by prayer put his army into immediate poffeffion of the fort; on which, converted fuddenly of courfe, he turned away his thoughts from hurting the profeffors of that religion he had now adopted. Thus in these gloomy days did misty superstition magnify cach object, and cast a halo round each trifling or common occurrence, till our once pure and fimple worship dimmed, though enlarged to eyes of common obfervers, seemed as if affuming fantastick fhapes, which frighted many, and confounded more. The standard and criterion of our faith, God's holy word, was funk or loft: difregarded quite, and more than half abforbed in dull though wild traditionary tales, while fierce opinions battled in the dark. In vain the virtuous Pope employed his powers, relieved the bishops banifhed to Sardinia, and fet up alms-houfes the first upon record. The Emperor himself was a fanatick, and accused him of leaning toward the Manichæan herefy. The Manichæans all were driven away, no matter: Anaftafius's warm head could not be quiet. He wanted Tribulation, a character in Ben Jonfon's comedy, to cry out, I do command thee, spirit of zeal but trouble, to peace within him. Like Ananias |