r religious assemblies,
or to deliver their sacred books to the flames. The pious obstinacy of
Felix, an African bishop, appears to have embarrassed the subordinate
ministers of the government. The curator of his city sent him in chains
to the proconsul. The proconsul transmitted him to the Praetorian
praefect of Italy; and Felix, who disdained even to give an evasive
answer, was at length beheaded at Venusia, in Lucania, a place on
which the birth of Horace has conferred fame. [158] This precedent, and
perhaps some Imperial rescript, which was issued in consequence of it,
appeared to authorize the governors of provinces, in punishing with
death the refusal of the Christians to deliver up their sacred books.
There were undoubtedly many persons who embraced this opportunity of
obtaining the crown of martyrdom; but there were likewise too many who
purchased an ignominious life, by discovering and betraying the holy
Scripture into the hands of infidels. A great number even of bishops
and presbyters acquired, by this criminal compliance, the opprobrious
epithet of Traditors; and their offence was productive of much present
scandal and of much future discord in the African church. [159]

[Footnote 157: Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. tom. v. part i. p. 43.]

[Footnote 158: See the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 353; those of Felix
of Thibara, or Tibiur, appear much less corrupted than in the other
editions, which afford a lively specimen of legendary license.]

[Footnote 159: See the first book of Optatus of Milevis against the
Donatiste, Paris, 1700, edit. Dupin. He lived under the reign of
Valens.]

The copies as well as the versions of Scripture, were already so
multiplied in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could no
longer be attended with any fatal consequences; and even the sacrifice
of those volumes, which, in every congregation, were preserved for
public use, required the consent of some treacherous and unworthy
Christians. But the ruin of the churches was easily effected by the
authority of the government, and by the labor of the Pagans. In some
provinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shutting
up the places of religious worship. In others, they more literally
complied with the terms of the edict; and after taking away the doors,
the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were in a funeral
pile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice. [160]
It is perhaps to