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94 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvii that many persons, among whom a bishop 105 and a proconsul 106 may be named, were entitled to the crown of martyrdom. The same honour has been ascribed to the memory of count Sebas- tian, who professed the Nicene creed with unshaken constancy ; and Genseric might detest, as an heretic, the brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival. 107 VI. A new mode of conversion, which might subdue the feeble, and alarm the timorous, was employed by the Arian ministers. They imposed, by fraud or violence, the rites of baptism ; and punished the apostacy of the Catholics, if they disclaimed this odious and profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the will and the unity of the sacrament. 108 The hostile sects had formerly allowed the validity of each other's baptism; and the innovation, so fiercely maintained by the Vandals, can be imputed only to the example and advice of the Donatists. VII. The Arian clergy surpassed, in religious cruelty, the king and his Vandals ; but they were incapable of cultivat- ing the spiritual vineyard which they were so desirous to possess. A patriarch 109 might seat himself on the throne of Carthage ; some bishops, in the principal cities, might usurp the place of their rivals ; but the srnallness of their numbers and their ignorance of the Latin language 110 disqualified the Barbarians for the ecclesiastical ministry of a great church ; and the Africans, after the loss of their orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public exercise of Christianity. VIII. The emperors were the natural protectors of the Homoousian doctrine ; and the faithful people of Africa, both as Romans and as Catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to the 105 Victor, ii. 18, p. 41. 106 Viotor, v. 4, p. 74, 75 [iii. 27, ed. Halin]. His name was Victorianus, and he was a wealthy citizen of Adruinetuni, who enjoyed the confidence of the king ; by whose favour he had obtained the office, or at least the title, of proconsul of Africa. 107 Victor, i. 6, p. 8, 9. After relating the firm resistance and dexterous reply of count Sebastian, he adds, quare [quem, Halm] alio [leg. alius] generis argumento postea bellicosum virum occidit. 108 Victor, v. 12, 13. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. torn. vi. p. 609. 109 Primate was more properly the title of the bishop of Carthage ; but the name of patriarch was given by the sects and nations to their principal ecclesiastic. See Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 155, 158. 110 The patriarch Cyrila himself publicly declared that he did not understand Latin (Victor, ii. 18, p. 42) ; Nescio Latine ; and he might converse with tolerable ease, without being capable of disputing or preaching in that language. His Vandal clergy were still more ignorant ; and small confidence could be placed in the Africans, who had conformed.