" These laws, as Gothofred rightly observes, seem to have been published at the instance of the African fathers, who, as appears from one of the canons of the African code, peti tioned the emperor, that such temples as were in the country only, and private places not serving for any ornament, might be destroyed. Arcadius published such another law for the Eastern empire, which relates only to the destruction of tem ples in country-places, and not in cities, where now there was no such danger of superstition, since they might be converted to a better use. And upon this ground the author, under the name of Prosper, commends Honorius for his piety and devo tion, because he gave all the temples, with their adjacent places, to the church, only requiring the idols to be destroyed. 'Tis true, indeed, after this we find a law of Theodosius Junior commanding all temples to be destroyed ; but, as Gothofred seems rightly to interpret it, " the word destroy ing, in that law, is to be understood only of despoiling them of their superstition, because it follows in the same law, that they were to be expiated by placing the sign of the cross upon them, which was a token of their being turned into churches. And his observation may be confirmed fur ther from what Evagrius reports of Theodosius—that he turned the Tvcmum, or Temple of Fortune at Antioch, into a church called by the name of Ignatius. The like was done by a great temple at Tanis in Egypt, as Valesius has observed out of the Itinerary of Antonius the martyr.
" Cluver also, in his description of Italy, takes notice of a place in the Jerusalem Itinerary, called Sacraria, betwixt Fulginum and Spoletum, near the head of the river Clitumnus, which he thinks was no other than the temple of Jupiter Clitumnus, though another learned antiquary makes it some what doubtful as to the present church now standing there. However, we have seen instances enough of this practice, and Bede tells us, that Gregory the Great gave Austin the monk instructions of the same nature about the temples here among the Saxons in Britain,—that if they were well built they should not be destroyed, but only be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God.' And so he observes it was done at Rome, where, not long after, Boniface the Fourth turned the heathen temple, called the Pantheon, into the church of All Saints, in the time of the emperor Phocas. Sometimes the temples were pulled down, and the materials were given to the church, out of which new edifices were erected for the service of religion, as Sozomen and Ruffin particularly observe of the temples of Bacchus and Serapis at Alexandria. l have already shown out of Antonius, that the Roman halls or basilica: were like wise turned into churches. The like is reported of some Jewish synagogues by the author of the Chronicon Alexan drinum, who takes notice particularly of a synagogue of the Samaritans, in a place called Gargarida, which Zeno the emperor converted into a large Christian church.
"And though it is not agreed by learned men whether the temples said to be built by Hadrian were intended for the worship of himself, or the worship of Christ ; for Casaubon and Pagi think he designed them for himself, whilst Huctius defends Lampridius, his relation, who says, " He designed them for the honour of Christ ;" yet it is certain, that after they had been used to other purposes, they were at last, some of them, turned into Christian churches : for Epiphanius says, ' There was a great temple at Tiberias, called the Hadrianum, which the Jews made use of for a bath; but Joscphus Comes, the converted Jew, in the time of Constan tine, turned it into a church.' And the like was done by
another of them by Athanasius at Alexandria, having before been the hall or place of Licinius, as the same Epiphanius informs us. So that now, partly by the munificence of the emperors, and partly by their orders for converting heathen temples into churches, and partly by the great zeal and libe rality of private Christians in times of peace, churches became another thing from what they were in former ages, that is, more noble and stately edifices, more rich and beautiful." Thus far Bingham, who seems to conclude from the above quotations of the early writers, that to convert heathen tem ples into Christian churches was not an uncommon prac tice: a writer, however, in the Quarterly Review, in a cri tique on the publications of Knight and Bunsen, on Eccle siastical Antiquities, arrives at a very different conclusion ; and as he has evidently given more than ordinary attention to the subject, it may not be amiss to refer to his remarks, in this place :— " The antipathy," says he, "borne by the early Christians to the fine arts, debased by the pollutions of heathen idolatry, can neither be denied nor concealed; and the same causes which prevented the cultivation of the arts, ensured the degradation and subversion of their proudest and most splendid monuments. Excluding for the present the consideration of other agencies, the first paragraph in the rise of Christian architecture, must narrate the fall of the structures devoted to the superstition, which it was the end of the gospel to obliterate and destroy.
"The heathen temples were doomed to inevitable ruin. Laws had been promulgated by Theodosius for their preser vation ; conducive to the decoration of the city, they might be perhaps rendered useful for the purposes of civil society. Some may have been thus respited, though not rescued, until the decayed remains crumbled to the ground ; they were never respected or honoured by public opinion, and could rarely be adapted to the objects pointed out by the imperial law, without such alterations as in most cases amounted to destruction. Others were accidentally preserved in desolate or secluded situations, in the forest or the marsh, or the mountain-glen, or on the shore, whence the inhabitants have been extirpated, or chased away. Such are the columns of Piestinn : the heavens arc yet as bright as when the garlands hung down from the ruined architrave ; the sea as azure as when the waves were ploughed by the painted prows ; the crushed herbs beneath your feet, still send up their rich perfume. To the senses, the works of art are still as noble, the works of nature as sweet and gay; but the whole scene mourns under the curse inflicted upon scoffing, lascivious, corrupted Hellas. Language, people, race—their very name has disappeared. The wasting pestilence still hovers, and will ever hover, marking the vengeance which has fallen on the deserted shore.