d the
pardon and release of some Jewish priests, who were prisoners at Rome.]

[Footnote 41: The learned Dr. Lardner (Jewish and Heathen Testimonies,
vol ii. p. 102, 103) has proved that the name of Galilaeans was a very
ancient, and perhaps the primitive appellation of the Christians.]

[Footnote 42: Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 1, 2. Tillemont, Ruine des
Juifs, p. 742 The sons of Judas were crucified in the time of Claudius.
His grandson Eleazar, after Jerusalem was taken, defended a strong
fortress with 960 of his most desperate followers. When the battering
ram had made a breach, they turned their swords against their wives
their children, and at length against their own breasts. They dies to
the last man.]

[Footnote 42a: This conjecture is entirely devoid, not merely of
verisimilitude, but even of possibility. Tacitus could not be deceived
in appropriating to the Christians of Rome the guilt and the sufferings
which he might have attributed with far greater truth to the followers
of Judas the Gaulonite, for the latter never went to Rome. Their revolt,
their attempts, their opinions, their wars, their punishment, had
no other theatre but Judaea (Basn. Hist. des. Juifs, t. i. p. 491.)
Moreover the name of Christians had long been given in Rome to the
disciples of Jesus; and Tacitus affirms too positively, refers too
distinctly to its etymology, to allow us to suspect any mistake on his
part.--G. ----M. Guizot's expressions are not in the least too strong
against this strange imagination of Gibbon; it may be doubted
whether the followers of Judas were known as a sect under the name of
Galilaeans.--M.]

[Footnote 43: See Dodwell. Paucitat. Mart. l. xiii. The Spanish
Inscription in Gruter. p. 238, No. 9, is a manifest and acknowledged
forgery contrived by that noted imposter. Cyriacus of Ancona, to flatter
the pride and prejudices of the Spaniards. See Ferreras, Histoire
D'Espagne, tom. i. p. 192.]

[Footnote 43a: M. Guizot, on the authority of Sulpicius Severus, ii. 37,
and of Orosius, viii. 5, inclines to the opinion of those who extend the
persecution to the provinces. Mosheim rather leans to that side on this
much disputed question, (c. xxxv.) Neander takes the view of Gibbon,
which is in general that of the most learned writers. There is indeed no
evidence, which I can discover, of its reaching the provinces; and the
apparent security, at least as regards his life, with which St. Paul
pursued his travels duri