THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 065
The Tenacity of Paganism in the West
4-16. The Tenacity of Paganism in the West
In the West paganism shewed itself much stronger. It displayed its greatest tenacity in Rome itself, and there were many reasons why it should do so. The old paganism had been closely connected with the State and when it ceased to be the privileged religion it had no common centre round which to rally. In Rome it was otherwise. Its stronghold was the Senate, and all the elements of opposition to Christianity could group themselves round that venerable assembly. The Senate had lost its powers but its prestige remained, and the Emperors were chary of attacking its dignity. It represented the ancient grandeur of Rome and was the heir and defender of old Roman traditions. The city was full of monuments of Rome's past greatness. They were, for the most part, temples built to commemorate signal victories, and were visible signs of the old religion under which Rome had grown to greatness. The Senate took pride in preserving these witnesses of the past splendours of the Imperial city and in seeing that the old ceremonial rites were duly performed in spite of anti-pagan legislation.
During the second half of the fourth century and into the fifth, the pagan senators of Rome flaunted their religion in the face of the world. They were at pains to record on their family tombstones and other private monuments that they had been hierophants of Hecate, had been initiated at Eleusis, had been priests of Hercules, Attis, Isis, or Mithras. In spite of the edicts and efforts of the sons of Constantine and of successors of Julian paganism was the state religion of Rome down to 383. Its worship was performed according to the old rites. The days consecrated to the old gods, and others added in honour of the newer Oriental deities, were the Roman holidays. Every year on 27 January the Praefectus urbi went down to Ostia and presided over "games" in honour of Castor and Pollux. All these costly ceremonies, sacrifices, and shows were provided for out of the Imperial treasury. They were part of the state religion, and the Senate were determined that they should be so regarded. The Emperor might be a Christian, but he was nevertheless Pontifex Maximus, the official head of the old pagan religion, and they believed themselves justified in performing its rites in his name.
The Emperor Gratian delivered the first effectual blow against this state of matters. He refused to assume the office of Pontifex Maximus, probably in 375. In 38£ he ordered that the great pagan ceremonies and sacrifices should no longer be defrayed out of the Imperial treasury, and saw that he was obeyed. He took from the ancient priesthoods of Rome the emoluments and immunities which they had enjoyed for centuries. He removed from the Senate House the statue of Victory and its altar on which incense had been duly burnt since the days of Octcavius. The last great battle for the official recognition of paganism raged over these decrees. It lasted about ten years. Symmachus and Ambrose, both representatives of old Roman patrician families, were the leaders on the pagan and on the Christian side. The pagan party in the Senate fought every inch of ground against the advancing tide of Christianity. Its leading members enrolled themselves in the ancient priesthoods and assumed the dignities of the sacra peregrina. They provided for the sacrifices and other sacred rites at their own expense. They spent their means in restoring ancient temples and in building new ones. They had high hopes of a pagan reaction under Maximus, who had defeated and slain Gratian; under the short-lived Emperor Eugenius, who promised on his leaving Milan to meet Theodosius in battle that, on his return, he would stable his horses in Christian basilicas.
The victory of Theodosius (394) on the Frigidus ended these hopes. They revived again for the last time when Alaric made Attalus a rival emperor to Honorius and when that ruler gathered round him counsellors who were for the most part pagans professed or secret. But paganism was not destined to obtain even a temporary victory. Perhaps, as Augustine said, it only desired to die honourably. Its political defeats did not quench the zeal of its lessening number of votaries. They engaged in polemical contests with their opponents. They wrote books to prove that the invasions of the barbarians and the weakness of the Empire were punishments sent by the gods for the abandonment of the ancient religion, and called forth such replies as the Historia adversus paganos of Paulus Orosius and the De Civitate Dei of St Augustine.
The tenacity of paganism in the West was not confined to Rome. The poems of Rutilius, the Homilies of Maximus of Turin and of Martin of Bracara, the Epistles of St Augustine, the history of Gregory of Tours, and the series of facts collected in the Anecdota of Caspari, all shew that paganism lingered long in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, and that neither the persuasions of Christian preachers nor the penalties threatened by the State were able to uproot it altogether. The records of district ecclesiastical councils tell the same tale.
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