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 the honor of the church, were applauded by the credulous
multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the
suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history.

[Footnote 178: Such is the fair deduction from two remarkable passages
in Eusebius, l. viii. c. 2, and de Martyr. Palestin. c. 12. The prudence
of the historian has exposed his own character to censure and suspicion.
It was well known that he himself had been thrown into prison; and it
was suggested that he had purchased his deliverance by some dishonorable
compliance. The reproach was urged in his lifetime, and even in
his presence, at the council of Tyre. See Tillemont, Memoires
Ecclesiastiques, tom. viii. part i. p. 67.]

[Footnote 178a: Historical criticism does not consist in rejecting
indiscriminately all the facts which do not agree with a particular
system, as Gibbon does in this chapter, in which, except at the last
extremity, he will not consent to believe a martyrdom. Authorities are
to be weighed, not excluded from examination. Now, the Pagan historians
justify in many places the detail which have been transmitted to us by
the historians of the church, concerning the tortures endured by
the Christians. Celsus reproaches the Christians with holding their
assemblies in secret, on account of the fear inspired by their
sufferings, "for when you are arrested," he says, "you are dragged to
punishment: and, before you are put to death, you have to suffer all
kinds of tortures." Origen cont. Cels. l. i. ii. vi. viii. passing.
Libanius, the panegyrist of Julian, says, while speaking of the
Christians. "Those who followed a corrupt religion were in continual
apprehensions; they feared lest Julian should invent tortures still more
refined than those to which they had been exposed before, as mutilation,
burning alive, &c.; for the emperors had inflicted upon them all these
barbarities." Lib. Parent in Julian. ap. Fab. Bib. Graec. No. 9, No.
58, p. 283--G. ----This sentence of Gibbon has given rise to several
learned dissertation: Moller, de Fide Eusebii Caesar, &c., Havniae,
1813. Danzius, de Eusebio Caes. Hist. Eccl. Scriptore, ejusque tide
historica recte aestimanda, &c., Jenae, 1815. Kestner Commentatio de
Eusebii Hi