all the expenses of the religious worship of the state. As the service
of the altar was not incompatible with the command of armies, the
Romans, after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the place of
pontiff, or of augur; the seats of Cicero and Pompey were filled, in the
fourth century, by the most illustrious members of the senate; and the
dignity of their birth reflected additional splendor on their sacerdotal
character. The fifteen priests, who composed the college of pontiffs,
enjoyed a more distinguished rank as the companions of their sovereign;
and the Christian emperors condescended to accept the robe and ensigns,
which were appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when
Gratian ascended the throne, more scrupulous or more enlightened, he
sternly rejected those profane symbols; applied to the service of
the state, or of the church, the revenues of the priests and vestals;
abolished their honors and immunities; and dissolved the ancient fabric
of Roman superstition, which was supported by the opinions and habits of
eleven hundred years. Paganism was still the constitutional religion of
the senate. The hall, or temple, in which they assembled, was adorned by
the statue and altar of Victory; a majestic female standing on a globe,
with flowing garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her
outstretched hand. The senators were sworn on the altar of the goddess
to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire: and a solemn
offering of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of their public
deliberations. The removal of this ancient monument was the only injury
which Constantius had offered to the superstition of the Romans. The
altar of Victory was again restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian,
and once more banished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian. But the
emperor yet spared the statues of the gods which were exposed to the
public veneration: four hundred and twenty-four temples, or chapels,
still remained to satisfy the devotion of the people; and in every
quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians was offended by the fumes
of idolatrous sacrifice.

But the Christians formed the least numerous party in the senate of
Rome: and it was only by their absence, that they could express their
dissent from the legal, though profane, acts of a Pagan majority. In
that assembly, the dying embers of freedom were, for a moment, revived
and inflamed by the breath of fanaticism. Four r