DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0269
XIII.] TILL AFTER THE TIME OF CONST AN TINE. 215
We find that the Cretans continued to worship the old
deities of their island, and to venerate the tomb of Zeus,
half a century after this legal establishment of Christ-
ianity throughout the empire14. It was only when the
Spaniard Theodosius made himself the blind instrument
of orthodox fanatics, and annexed the severest penalties
to the celebration of the sacrifices and ceremonies of
the old religion, that the corrupted Christianity of the
fourth century prevailed. Those who wish not to see
penal laws applied to religious opinions, will regret
that such unholy aids should have been had recourse
to, in order to accelerate the triumph of the Christian
faith, which its own truth, and its comparatively tolerant
establishment by Constantine, must, soon or late, have
caused to spread into every part of the empire15.
After the Theodosian persecution of the heathens,
we hear no more of the tomb of Zeus as an object of
reverence to the people of his native island. But, at
all events, it seems as if the pomps and glories of the
old religion retained, for nearly four centuries after
the Christian era, an unrelaxed hold on the convictions
and affections of the Cretan people, notwithstanding the
labours of Titus, and the elders whom he established
among them. And it does not surprise us that Christ-
ianity should have failed to take root suddenly and
deeply in a mountainous country like Crete; the in-
habitants of which, though they must have been pretty
free from that vain wisdom and false philosophy, which
made the disputants in the schools of Athens turn a
deaf ear to the preaching of St Paul, yet, being a nation
of mountaineers, would naturally be like the other
Pagans of whom we read, and the stubbornness of
14 Julius Firmicus, de Error. Prof. Rel. p. 19. A vanis Cretensibus
adhuc mortui Jovis tumulus adoratur.
15 Neander's account of the Theodosian persecution is fuller and more
impartial than Mr Fallmerayer's, which is briefly given, in very strong
language, in his interesting work, Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea waehrend
des Mittelalters, p. 113. foil.
We find that the Cretans continued to worship the old
deities of their island, and to venerate the tomb of Zeus,
half a century after this legal establishment of Christ-
ianity throughout the empire14. It was only when the
Spaniard Theodosius made himself the blind instrument
of orthodox fanatics, and annexed the severest penalties
to the celebration of the sacrifices and ceremonies of
the old religion, that the corrupted Christianity of the
fourth century prevailed. Those who wish not to see
penal laws applied to religious opinions, will regret
that such unholy aids should have been had recourse
to, in order to accelerate the triumph of the Christian
faith, which its own truth, and its comparatively tolerant
establishment by Constantine, must, soon or late, have
caused to spread into every part of the empire15.
After the Theodosian persecution of the heathens,
we hear no more of the tomb of Zeus as an object of
reverence to the people of his native island. But, at
all events, it seems as if the pomps and glories of the
old religion retained, for nearly four centuries after
the Christian era, an unrelaxed hold on the convictions
and affections of the Cretan people, notwithstanding the
labours of Titus, and the elders whom he established
among them. And it does not surprise us that Christ-
ianity should have failed to take root suddenly and
deeply in a mountainous country like Crete; the in-
habitants of which, though they must have been pretty
free from that vain wisdom and false philosophy, which
made the disputants in the schools of Athens turn a
deaf ear to the preaching of St Paul, yet, being a nation
of mountaineers, would naturally be like the other
Pagans of whom we read, and the stubbornness of
14 Julius Firmicus, de Error. Prof. Rel. p. 19. A vanis Cretensibus
adhuc mortui Jovis tumulus adoratur.
15 Neander's account of the Theodosian persecution is fuller and more
impartial than Mr Fallmerayer's, which is briefly given, in very strong
language, in his interesting work, Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea waehrend
des Mittelalters, p. 113. foil.