abused the Emperor's too great credulity, for the gratification of their
own inordinate wickedness, and insatiable avarice; and such no doubt was
that SOPATER the philosopher, who was at last put to death upon the
accusation of Adlabius, and that by the righteous dispensation of God,
for his having attempted to alienate the mind of Constantine from the
true religion." (_Pagi Ann._ 324, quoted in Latin by Dr. Lardner, vol.
iv. p. 371, in his notes for the benefit of the _learned_ reader, but
gives no rendering into English.)

FOOTNOTES:

[419:1] "Numerous bodies of ascetics (Therapeutae), especially near Lake
Mareotis, devoted themselves to discipline and study, abjuring society
and labor, and often forgetting, it is said, the simplest wants of
nature, in contemplating the hidden wisdom of the _Scriptures_. Eusebius
even claimed them as _Christians_; and some of the forms of monasticism
were evidently modeled after the _Therapeutae_." (Smith's Bible
Dictionary, art. "_Alexandria_.")

[420:1] Comp. Matt. vi. 33; Luke, xii. 31.

[420:2] Comp. Matt. vi. 19-21.

[420:3] Comp. Matt. xix. 21; Luke, xii. 33.

[420:4] Comp. Acts, ii. 44, 45; iv. 32-34; John, xii. 6; xiii. 29.

[420:5] Comp. Matt. xx. 25-28; Mark, ix. 35-37; x. 42-45.

[420:6] Comp. Matt. xxiii. 8-10.

[420:7] Comp. Matt. v. 5; xi. 29.

[420:8] Comp. Mark, xvi. 17; Matt. x. 8; Luke, ix. 1, 2; x. 9.

[420:9] Comp. Matt. v. 34.

[420:10] Comp. Matt. x. 9, 10.

[421:1] Comp. Luke, xxii. 36.

[421:2] Comp. Matt. xix. 10-12; I. Cor. viii.

[421:3] Comp. Rom. xii. 1.

[421:4] Comp. I. Cor. xiv. 1, 39.

[421:5] The above comparisons have been taken from Ginsburg's "Essenes,"
to which the reader is referred for a more lengthy observation on the
subject.

[421:6] Ginsburg's Essenes, p. 24.

[421:7] "We hear very little of them after A. D. 40; and there can
hardly be any doubt that, owing to the great similarity existing between
their precepts and practices and those of primitive Christians, the
Essenes _as a body_ must have embraced Christianity." (Dr. Ginsburg, p.
27.)

[422:1] This will be alluded to in another chapter.

[422:2] It was believed by some that the order of _Essenes_ was
instituted by Elias, and some writers asserted that there was a regular
succession of hermits upon Mount Carmel from the time of the prophets to
that of Christ, and that the hermits embraced Christianity at an early
period. (See Ginsburgh's Essenes, and Hardy'