ith the same weapons
which the Greek and Latin fathers had already provided for the Arian
controversy, they repeatedly silenced, or vanquished, the fierce and
illiterate successors of Ulphilas. The consciousness of their own
superiority might have raised them above the arts and passions of
religious warfare. Yet, instead of assuming such honorable pride, the
orthodox theologians were tempted, by the assurance of impunity, to
compose fictions, which must be stigmatized with the epithets of
fraud and forgery. They ascribed their own polemical works to the most
venerable names of Christian antiquity; the characters of Athanasius and
Augustin were awkwardly personated by Vigilius and his disciples; and
the famous creed, which so clearly expounds the mysteries of the Trinity
and the Incarnation, is deduced, with strong probability, from this
African school. Even the Scriptures themselves were profaned by their
rash and sacrilegious hands. The memorable text, which asserts the unity
of the _three_ who bear witness in heaven, is condemned by the universal
silence of the orthodox fathers, ancient versions, and authentic
manuscripts. It was first alleged by the Catholic bishops whom Hunneric
summoned to the conference of Carthage. An allegorical interpretation,
in the form, perhaps, of a marginal note, invaded the text of the
Latin Bibles, which were renewed and corrected in a dark period of ten
centuries. After the invention of printing, the editors of the Greek
Testament yielded to their own prejudices, or those of the times; and
the pious fraud, which was embraced with equal zeal at Rome and at
Geneva, has been infinitely multiplied in every country and every
language of modern Europe.

The example of fraud must excite suspicion: and the specious miracles by
which the African Catholics have defended the truth and justice of their
cause, may be ascribed, with more reason, to their own industry, than
to the visible protection of Heaven. Yet the historian, who views this
religious conflict with an impartial eye, may condescend to mention
_one_ preternatural event, which will edify the devout, and surprise the
incredulous. Tipasa, a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles
to the east of Caesarea, had been distinguished, in every age, by the
orthodox zeal of its inhabitants. They had braved the fury of the
Donatists; they resisted, or eluded, the tyranny of the Arians. The
town was deserted on the approach of an heretical bis