hioned to the imitation of the capital. Yet notwithstanding
the many favorable occasions which might invite the Roman missionaries
to visit their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed either
the sea or the Alps; [171] nor can we discover in those great countries
any assured traces either of faith or of persecution that ascend higher
than the reign of the Antonines. [172] The slow progress of the gospel
in the cold climate of Gaul, was extremely different from the eagerness
with which it seems to have been received on the burning sands of
Africa. The African Christians soon formed one of the principal members
of the primitive church. The practice introduced into that province of
appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequently
to the most obscure villages, contributed to multiply the splendor and
importance of their religious societies, which during the course of the
third century were animated by the zeal of Tertullian, directed by the
abilities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius.

But if, on the contrary, we turn our eyes towards Gaul, we must content
ourselves with discovering, in the time of Marcus Antoninus, the feeble
and united congregations of Lyons and Vienna; and even as late as the
reign of Decius, we are assured, that in a few cities only, Arles,
Narbonne, Thoulouse, Limoges, Clermont, Tours, and Paris, some scattered
churches were supported by the devotion of a small number of Christians.
[173] Silence is indeed very consistent with devotion; but as it is
seldom compatible with zeal, we may perceive and lament the languid
state of Christianity in those provinces which had exchanged the
Celtic for the Latin tongue, since they did not, during the three first
centuries, give birth to a single ecclesiastical writer. From Gaul,
which claimed a just preeminence of learning and authority over all the
countries on this side of the Alps, the light of the gospel was more
faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and Britain; and if
we may credit the vehement assertions of Tertullian, they had already
received the first rays of the faith, when he addressed his apology
to the magistrates of the emperor Severus. [174] But the obscure
and imperfect origin of the western churches of Europe has been so
negligently recorded, that if we would relate the time and manner of
their foundation, we must supply the silence of antiquity by those
legends which avarice or su