Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

92 STOICISM.he forbade entirely the teaching of philosophy, anddrove the professors forth from Rome. We may wellask what were the causes of this bitter hostility andpersecution.It might seem at first sightthat there could belittle in the Stoic creed which could bringits votariesinto rude collision with the ruling powers. It had amarked tendency, as we have seen, to wean menfrom the cares of pubhc life,and in evil days tomake them find a solace and distraction in the indulgenceof a tranquil meditation. As in Christian timesthe retirement to the cloister seemed to end thedanger from a disturber of the public peace,so itmight be thought that the staff and mantle of philosophywould set at rest for ever all fears of revolutionaryaction from those who had embraced thespiritual life. The Empire posed, indeed, as thedefender of the faith, and threw its protection roundthe forms of the established Church, and as suchmight fear the insidious action of free thought. Butof all systems Stoicism at the first could be harmonizedmost easily with the old Italian creed, andthrough its principles of allegory could explain withoutexcessive boldness even the later fancies of theHellenic myths. To this itmay be also added, thatunbelieving rulers have often patronized religion inthe interests of policy, as checking the passions ofthe vulgar through the influence of fear ;and Stoicismtook the place to many hearts of a kind of religiouscreed, and threw all its authority into the scale of