of a hundred years, it was revived by the
Arminians of Holland, Grotius, Limborch, and Le Clerc; in England by
Chillingworth, the latitudinarians of Cambridge, (Burnet, Hist. of Own
Times, vol. i. p. 261-268, octavo edition.) Tillotson, Clarke, Hoadley,
&c.]

[Footnote 39: I am sorry to observe, that the three writers of the
last age, by whom the rights of toleration have been so nobly defended,
Bayle, Leibnitz, and Locke, are all laymen and philosophers.]

[Footnote 40: See the excellent chapter of Sir William Temple on the
Religion of the United Provinces. I am not satisfied with Grotius, (de
Rebus Belgicis, Annal. l. i. p. 13, 14, edit. in 12mo.,) who approves
the Imperial laws of persecution, and only condemns the bloody tribunal
of the inquisition.]

[Footnote 41: Sir William Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 53,
54) explains the law of England as it was fixed at the Revolution. The
exceptions of Papists, and of those who deny the Trinity, would still
have a tolerable scope for persecution if the national spirit were not
more effectual than a hundred statutes.]

[Footnote 42: I shall recommend to public animadversion two passages in
Dr. Priestley, which betray the ultimate tendency of his opinions. At
the first of these (Hist. of the Corruptions of Christianity, vol. i.
p. 275, 276) the priest, at the second (vol. ii. p. 484) the magistrate,
may tremble!]

[Footnote 4211: There is something ludicrous, if it were not offensive,
in Gibbon holding up to "public animadversion" the opinions of any
believer in Christianity, however imperfect his creed. The observations
which the whole of this passage on the effects of the reformation,
in which much truth and justice is mingled with much prejudice, would
suggest, could not possibly be compressed into a note; and would indeed
embrace the whole religious and irreligious history of the time which
has elapsed since Gibbon wrote.--M.]

Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.--Part I.

The Bulgarians.--Origin, Migrations, And Settlement Of The
Hungarians.--Their Inroads In The East And West.--The
Monarchy Of Russia.--Geography And Trade.--Wars Of The
Russians Against The Greek Empire.--Conversion Of The
Barbarians.

Under the reign of Constantine the grandson of Heraclius, the ancient
barrier of the Danube, so often violated and so often restored, was
irretrievably swept away by a new deluge of Barbarians. Their