excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the
fundamental laws of history, has not paid a very strict regard to the
observance of the other; and the suspicion will derive additional
credit from the character of Eusebius, * which was less tinctured with
credulity, and more practised in the arts of courts, than that of
almost any of his contemporaries. On some particular occasions, when
the magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest or
resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn
the altars, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike
the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed, that every mode
of torture which cruelty could invent, or constancy could endure, was
exhausted on those devoted victims. Two circumstances, however, have
been unwarily mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment of
the Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of justice,
was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. 1. The
confessors who were condemned to work in the mines were permitted by the
humanity or the negligence of their keepers to build chapels, and freely
to profess their religion in the midst of those dreary habitations. 2.
The bishops were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal of
the Christians, who voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of the
magistrates. Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts,
who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a glorious
death. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement would
expiate the sins of a whole life; and others again were actuated by the
less honorable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhaps
a considerable profit, from the alms which the charity of the faithful
bestowed on the prisoners. After the church had triumphed over all her
enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to
magnify the merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distance
of time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and the
frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs, whose wounds
had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose
lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient
for the purpose of removing every difficulty, and of silencing every
objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to th