CHAP. XV.
most modest calculation will not surely reduce it lower than a million of inhabitants, of whom the christians might constitute at the most a twentieth part[1].
The western provincials appeared to have derived In Africa the knowledge of Christianity from the same source western which had diffused among them the language, the sentiments, and the manners of Rome. In this more important circumstance, Africa, as well as Gaul, was gradually fashioned to the imitation of the capital. Yet notwithstanding the many favourable occasions which might invite the Roman missionaries to visit their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed either the sea or the Alps[2]; nor can we discover in those great countries any assured traces either of faith or of persecution that ascend higher than the reign of the Antonines[3]. The slow progress of the gospel in the cold climate of Gaul, was extremely different from the eagerness with which it seems to have been received on the burning sands of Africa. The African christians soon formed one of the principal members of the primitive church. The practice introduced into that province, of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequently to the most obscure villages, contributed to multiply the splendour and importance of their religious societies, which during the course of the third century were animated by the zeal of Tertullian, directed by the abilities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence of Lactantius. But if, on the contrary, we
- ↑ This proportion of the presbyters and of the poor, to the rest of the people, was originally fixed by Burnet, (Travels into Italy, p. 168.) and is approved by Moyle, vol. ii. p. 151. They were both unacquainted with the passage of Chrysostom, which converts their conjecture almost into a fact.
- ↑ Serius trans Alpes, religione Dei suscepta. Sulpicius Severus, 1. ii. These were the celebrated martyrs of Lyons. See Eusebius, v, 1 ; Tillemont. IIem. Ecclesiast. torn. ii. p. 316. According to the Donaiists, whose assertion is confirmed by the tacit acknowledgement of Augustin, Africa was the last of the provinces which received the gospel. TiUemont, iM6m. Ecclesiast. torn. i. p. 754.
- ↑ Turn primum intra Gallias martyria visa. Sulp. Severus, 1. ii. With regard to Africa, see Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3. It is imagined, that the Scyllitan martyrs were the first. Acta Sincera Ruinart. p. 34. One of the adversaries of Apuleius seems to have been a christian. Apolog. p. 496, 497. edit. Delphin.
