52 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



hath reigned or lived, made his mind continually present 

 and entire. He likewise approached a degree nearer unto 

 Christianity, and became, as Agrippa said unto St. Paul, 

 half a Christian; holding their religion and law in good 

 opinion, and not only ceasing persecution, but giving way 

 to the advancement of Christians. 



There succeeded him the first Dim fratres, [Divine 

 brothers,] the two adoptive brethren, Lucius Commodus 

 Verus, (son to ^Elius Verus, who delighted much in the 



10 softer kind of learning, and was wont to call the poet 

 Martial his Virgil,) and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ; 

 whereof the latter, who obscured his colleague and survived 

 him long, was named the Philosopher : who, as he excelled 

 all the rest in learning, so he excelled them likewise in 

 perfection of all royal virtues ; insomuch as Julianus the 

 emperor, in his book intitled Ccesares, being as a pasquin 

 or satire to deride all his predecessors, feigned that they 

 were all invited to a banquet of the gods, and Silenus the 

 jester sat at the nether end of the table, and bestowed a 



20 scoff on every one as they came in ; but when Marcus 

 Philosophus came in, Silenus was gravelled, and out of 

 countenance, not knowing where to carp at him ; save at 

 the last he gave a glance at his patience towards his wife. 

 And the virtue of this prince, continued with that of his 

 predecessor, made the name of Antoninus so sacred in the 

 world, that though it were extremely dishonoured in 

 Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bore the 

 name, yet when Alexander Severus refused the name, 

 because he was a stranger to the family, the senate with one 



30 acclamation said, Quomodo Augustus, sic et Antoninus : [Let 

 the name of Antoninus be as the name of Augustus.] In such 

 renown and veneration was the name of these two princes, 

 in those days, that they would have had it as a perpetual 

 addition in all the emperor's styles. In this emperor's times 

 also the Church for the most part was in peace ; so as in 

 this sequence of six princes we do see the blessed effects of 



