l judgment of mankind. The
assurance of a lasting reputation upon earth, a motive so congenial to
the vanity of human nature, often served to animate the courage of the
martyrs.

The honors which Rome or Athens bestowed on those citizens who
had fallen in the cause of their country, were cold and unmeaning
demonstrations of respect, when compared with the ardent gratitude and
devotion which the primitive church expressed towards the victorious
champions of the faith. The annual commemoration of their virtues and
sufferings was observed as a sacred ceremony, and at length terminated
in religious worship. Among the Christians who had publicly confessed
their religious principles, those who (as it very frequently happened)
had been dismissed from the tribunal or the prisons of the Pagan
magistrates, obtained such honors as were justly due to their imperfect
martyrdom and their generous resolution. The most pious females courted
the permission of imprinting kisses on the fetters which they had worn,
and on the wounds which they had received. Their persons were esteemed
holy, their decisions were admitted with deference, and they too often
abused, by their spiritual pride and licentious manners, the preeminence
which their zeal and intrepidity had acquired. [91] Distinctions like
these, whilst they display the exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable
number of those who suffered, and of those who died, for the profession
of Christianity.

[Footnote 89: Whatever opinion we may entertain of the character or
principles of Thomas Becket, we must acknowledge that he suffered
death with a constancy not unworthy of the primitive martyrs. See Lord
Lyttleton's History of Henry II. vol. ii. p. 592, &c.]

[Footnote 90: See in particular the treatise of Cyprian de Lapsis, p.
87-98, edit. Fell. The learning of Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprianic. xii.
xiii.,) and the ingenuity of Middleton, (Free Inquiry, p. 162, &c.,)
have left scarcely any thing to add concerning the merit, the honors,
and the motives of the martyrs.]

[Footnote 91: Cyprian. Epistol. 5, 6, 7, 22, 24; and de Unitat.
Ecclesiae. The number of pretended martyrs has been very much
multiplied, by the custom which was introduced of bestowing that
honorable name on confessors. Note: M. Guizot denies that the letters
of Cyprian, to which he refers, bear out the statement in the text. I
cannot scruple to admit the accuracy of Gibbon's quotation. To take only
the fifth letter, we