r contributed to destroy the influence of a
religion, which was supported by custom, rather than by argument. The
devotion or the poet, or the philosopher, may be secretly nourished
by prayer, meditation, and study; but the exercise of public worship
appears to be the only solid foundation of the religious sentiments
of the people, which derive their force from imitation and habit. The
interruption of that public exercise may consummate, in the period of
a few years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory of
theological opinions cannot long be preserved, without the artificial
helps of priests, of temples, and of books. [66] The ignorant vulgar,
whose minds are still agitated by the blind hopes and terrors of
superstition, will be soon persuaded by their superiors to direct their
vows to the reigning deities of the age; and will insensibly imbibe an
ardent zeal for the support and propagation of the new doctrine, which
spiritual hunger at first compelled them to accept. The generation that
arose in the world after the promulgation of the Imperial laws, was
attracted within the pale of the Catholic church: and so rapid, yet so
gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only twenty-eight years after
the death of Theodosius, the faint and minute vestiges were no longer
visible to the eye of the legislator. [67]

[Footnote 61: Libanius suggests the form of a persecuting edict,
which Theodosius might enact, (pro Templis, p. 32;) a rash joke, and a
dangerous experiment. Some princes would have taken his advice.]

[Footnote 6111: The most remarkable instance of this, at a much later
period, occurs in the person of Merobaudes, a general and a poet, who
flourished in the first half of the fifth century. A statue in honor of
Merobaudes was placed in the Forum of Trajan, of which the inscription
is still extant. Fragments of his poems have been recovered by the
industry and sagacity of Niebuhr. In one passage, Merobaudes, in
the genuine heathen spirit, attributes the ruin of the empire to the
abolition of Paganism, and almost renews the old accusation of Atheism
against Christianity. He impersonates some deity, probably Discord,
who summons Bellona to take arms for the destruction of Rome; and in
a strain of fierce irony recommends to her other fatal measures, to
extirpate the gods of Rome:--

Roma, ipsique tremant furialia murmura reges.
Jam superos terris atque hospita numina pelle:
Romanos popular