A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

379and the greater number as Venus, according to a difference ofname, not a variety of deities?31. They ask to have her altar erected in the Senate House ofthe city of Rome, that is where the majority who meet togetherare Christians! There are altars in all the temples, and an altaralso in the Temple of Victory. Since they delight in numbers,they celebrate their sacrifices everywhere. To claim a sacrificeon this one altar, what is it but to insult the faith? Is it to be bornethat a heathen should sacrifice and a Christian be present?…Shall there not be a common lot in that common assembly? Thefaithful portion of the Senate will be bound by the voices of thosewho call upon the gods, by the oaths of those who swear by them.If they oppose they will seem to exhibit their falsehood, if theyacquiesce, to acknowledge what is a sacrilege.(f) Codex Theodosianus, XVI, 10, 12; A. D. 392.Decree of Theodosius prohibiting heathen worship as a crimeof the same character as treason.The following decree may be said to have permanently forbiddenheathenism, at least in the East, though as a matter offact many heathen not only continued to practise their rites indefiance of the law or with the connivance of the authorities,but also received appointments at the court and elsewhere.The law was never repealed. In course of time heathenismdisappeared as a religious system.XVI, 10, 12. Hereafter no one of whatever race or dignity,whether placed in office or discharged therefrom with honor,powerful by birth or humble in condition and fortune, shall in [347]any place or in any city sacrifice an innocent victim to a senselessimage, venerate with fire the household deity by a more privateoffering, as it were the genius of the house, or the Penates,and burn lights, place incense, or hang up garlands. If any one