in the very city of those to whose ears for five centuries the very name of king had been abominable, it was necessary that one man should rule whose word should be law, according to the maxim, "Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem;" though, like Caligula, he might sum up his power as being "the right of all things over all men," or like Nero, when seeking poison to destroy his brother Britannicus, he might ask of the poisonvender, "Have I to fear the Julian law ?"*

But even this was not the worst. There was a portion of the wealthy Roman's house called the Pædagogium, that in which the young male slaves were brought up, with a certain varnish of education and accomplishments. Seneca gives the portrait of one. "Dressed out like a woman, he struggles with his years: he must not go beyond the age of youth; he is kept back; and though his figure be massive like that of a fighter, he has a smooth chin where the hair is rubbed away, or plucked out by the root." I forbear to quote what follows. In a word, as Nero must surpass all other men, while every wealthy Roman may possess his harem of male slaves, the emperor has a harem of freemen.‡

Thus slavery, after stamping all honest labour

"Sane

"Monenti Antoniæ aviæ, tanquam parum esset non obedire, Memento, ait, omnia mihi et in omnes licere." Suet. Cal. 29. legem Juliam timeo." Suet. Ner. 33.

† Seneca, Ep. 47; quoted by Döllinger, p. 719.
"Ingenuorum." Suet.

with ignominy, and vitiating in its source the social and political spirit of the free, had this further result, that it destroyed the general morality, and in doing so caused the population to decay with a force which no remedial laws could prevent; no filling up from its own ranks counterbalance.

And through every part of the slave-law runs an utter disregard of human life. Man as man has lost his value. He is become the cheapest of all things. In the amphitheatres lives are mown down by thousands yearly, and all Rome gloats over the spectacle of blood. Within the prisonhouse, which slavery has made of each private family, the vices, luxury, and caprice of masters waste away generation after generation in their first bloom and vigour.

Here, then, in the midst of this Roman empire, so grand in its outward tranquillity, under whose guardianship the civilised nations of the earth aspire not in vain after the blessings of universal peace, we find a despotism without limit in the internal relations of society, in the master over the slave, in the father over the wife and children, in the patron over the client, that is, the rich over the poor, and in the prince over the subject; and with the despotism a moral corruption and a disregard of human life, which are eating away the population, and undermining the foundations of the state.

It was the world of Nero prolonged in the minds of those outside the Church to his own.

time which St. Augustine saw and described to the life, when a chorus of voices arose from the worshippers of the old gods in favour of a state which gave them an abundance of material goods. What wonder that they, to whom Jupiter with his cupbearer Ganymede was the model of one sex, and Venus with her lover Mars of the other, should be touched by no moral turpitude in such a government? "Only let it remain," they said, "only let it be still abundant in wealth, and glorious with victories, or better still, secure in peace. Why obtrude upon us this notion of sin? What we care about is that wealth should increase, to provide these daily supplies. Poverty is weak, and wealth is strong, and it is natural that strength should command weakness. The poor may well obey the rich, if they be fed by them, and enjoy a quiet idleness under their patronage. Let a universal suffrage approve not those who provide for its good, but who supply its pleasures. Impose no hard command, but do not prohibit enjoyment. Kings should regard not their subjects' morality, but their obedience; and provinces obey their rulers not as models of virtue, but as yielding material sway, and providing for material needs. Their tribute should be not sincere loyalty, but servile fear. The province of the law is to protect property, not to interfere with private vice. Bring to trial whoever has injured the estate, or house, or life of another, or been troublesome to him;

but

may

he not do what he likes with his own? or with those who join him voluntarily? Give us in abundance the instruments of public licentiousness for all who choose to enjoy them, or for those specially who cannot have them to themselves. There cannot be too much of large houses, rich feasts, and revelry by day and night. We will have no restrictions on our theatres, no squeamishness as to the pleasures which they offer. Count that man a public enemy who likes not such prosperity. But should he attempt to meddle with it, let a free people close their ears to him, pluck him from his place, and sweep him from the earth. Count those for true gods who have provided and preserved such gifts for the people. Let them have what worship they desire, ask for such games as they like, wherein their worshippers shall be companions or instruments. All we ask of them is to suffer no enemy, no plague, no calamity to interfere with such prosperity."*

But what is the mental condition of which these things are the token? On what root do they grow? The actions of men are the results. of what they believe, hope, fear, and desire. have seen how Roman heathenism was acting. What then was its belief?

We

First of all, the whole of this heathenism† which Rome inherited, represented, and sustained,

S. Aug. De Civ. Dei, ii. 20.

† Döllinger, Heid. und Jud. p. 652.

was destitute of what we mean by religious doctrine, and of teachers whose office it was to promulgate and propagate such doctrine. It had nowhere a moral authority: what it possessed was only transmitted ceremonies and fables. To take, for instance, the most universal of religious rites, the rite of sacrifice. The reason and meaning of the institution were every where lost. So priests and priesthoods existed every where, interwoven with the civil government, as in all the Hellenic cities, and in Rome herself especially; but nowhere was it imagined that "the priest's lips should guard knowledge, and that they should seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts."* Religious rites were separated from what we understand by religion, that is, the obedience and homage of heart and will to God, and from morality, not to say that they were too often connected with the most flagrant breach of moral purity. Nowhere accordingly were the priests moral or religious teachers; and what the priests were not, the philosophers sought to be. And as this great gap in the moral life of a people yawned every where frightfully open and void, the few in every age who thought for themselves and busied themselves with the problem of human life, sought to fill it up. "They who seek wisdom," says Cicero,† "are called philosophers; nor is philosophy any † De Officiis, ii. 2.

* Malachi, ii. 11.