inguished
by a sullen inflexibility of temper, [165] entertained the new doctrine
with coldness and reluctance; and even in the time of Origen, it was
rare to meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early prejudices
in favor of the sacred animals of his country. [166] As soon, indeed, as
Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal of those barbarians obeyed
the prevailing impulsion; the cities of Egypt were filled with bishops,
and the deserts of Thebais swarmed with hermits.

[Footnote 162: Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. 2, c. 20, 21, 22, 23, has
examined with the most critical accuracy the curious treatise of Philo,
which describes the Therapeutae. By proving that it was composed as
early as the time of Augustus, Basnage has demonstrated, in spite
of Eusebius (l. ii. c. 17) and a crowd of modern Catholics, that the
Therapeutae were neither Christians nor monks. It still remains probable
that they changed their name, preserved their manners, adopted some
new articles of faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyptian
Ascetics.]

[Footnote 163: See a letter of Hadrian in the Augustan History, p.
245.]

[Footnote 164: For the succession of Alexandrian bishops, consult
Renaudot's History, p. 24, &c. This curious fact is preserved by the
patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i. p. 334, Vers. Pocock,) and its
internal evidence would alone be a sufficient answer to all the
objections which Bishop Pearson has urged in the Vindiciae Ignatianae.]

[Footnote 165: Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 16.]

[Footnote 166: Origen contra Celsum, l. i. p. 40.]

A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the
capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious, whoever was
guilty or suspected, might hope, in the obscurity of that immense
capital, to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a various conflux
of nations, every teacher, either of truth or falsehood, every founder,
whether of a virtuous or a criminal association, might easily multiply
his disciples or accomplices. The Christians of Rome, at the time of the
accidental persecution of Nero, are represented by Tacitus as already
amounting to a very great multitude, [167] and the language of that
great historian is almost similar to the style employed by Livy, when
he relates the introduction and the suppression of the rites of Bacchus.
After the Bacchanals had awakened the severity of the senate, it was
likewise apprehended that a very great multitude,