perstition long afterwards dictated to the
monks in the lazy gloom of their convents. [175] Of these holy romances,
that of the apostle St. James can alone, by its singular extravagance,
deserve to be mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the Lake of
Gennesareth, he was transformed into a valorous knight, who charged at
the head of the Spanish chivalry in their battles against the Moors. The
gravest historians have celebrated his exploits; the miraculous shrine
of Compostella displayed his power; and the sword of a military order,
assisted by the terrors of the Inquisition, was sufficient to remove
every objection of profane criticism. [176]

[Footnote 171: Serius trans Alpes, religione Dei suscepta. Sulpicius
Severus, l. ii. With regard to Africa, see Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3.
It is imagined that the Scyllitan martyrs were the first, (Acta Sincera
Rumart. p. 34.) One of the adversaries of Apuleius seems to have been a
Christian. Apolog. p. 496, 497, edit. Delphin.]

[Footnote 172: Tum primum intra Gallias martyria visa. Sulp. Severus,
l. ii. These were the celebrated martyrs of Lyons. See Eusebius, v. i.
Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 316. According to the Donatists,
whose assertion is confirmed by the tacit acknowledgment of Augustin,
Africa was the last of the provinces which received the gospel.
Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. i. p. 754.]

[Footnote 173: Rarae in aliquibus civitatibus ecclesiae, paucorum
Christianorum devotione, resurgerent. Acta Sincera, p. 130. Gregory of
Tours, l i. c. 28. Mosheim, p. 207, 449. There is some reason to believe
that in the beginning of the fourth century, the extensive dioceses of
Liege, of Treves, and of Cologne, composed a single bishopric, which had
been very recently founded. See Memoires de Tillemont, tom vi. part i.
p. 43, 411.]

[Footnote 174: The date of Tertullian's Apology is fixed, in a
dissertation of Mosheim, to the year 198.]

[Footnote 175: In the fifteenth century, there were few who had either
inclination or courage to question, whether Joseph of Arimathea founded
the monastery of Glastonbury, and whether Dionysius the Areopagite
preferred the residence of Paris to that of Athens.]

[Footnote 176: The stupendous metamorphosis was performed in the ninth
century. See Mariana, (Hist. Hispan. l. vii. c. 13, tom. i. p. 285,
edit. Hag. Com. 1733,) who, in every sense, imitates Livy, and the
honest detection of the legend of St. James by Dr. Geddes,