OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 197 



on earth ; the Manichaean, with his incongruous mix- 

 ture of Persian philosophy; Arians, Eutychians, 

 Gnostics, Montanists, Marcianites, Sabelhans, Va- 

 lentinians, and a host of obscurer sects, all rose up 

 in the theological arena, to foment new divisions, 

 and perplex religion with trivial and unintelligible 

 distinctions. Each of these had their leaders and 

 abetters, whose names gave a sanction to the wild- 

 est reveries that human imagination could invent. 

 Of their deluded followers, some macerated their 

 bodies with hunger and thirst ; some tore their flesh 

 with scourges of whipcord; and others, tired of 

 terrestrial vanities, shut themselves up in dens and 

 holes of the earth, leading a life more v^^orthy of a 

 savage animal than a rational being. To this uni- 

 versal degeneracy of manners and opinions were 

 added the vices that degraded the character of the 

 clergy. The primitive examples of peace, love, and 

 charity, of singleness of heart and disinterested 

 zeal, had vanished amid the struggles of jarring fac- 

 tions and ambitious prelates. The infatuated dis- 

 putants contended with implacable fury about points 

 the determination of which lay beyond the reach of 

 human intellect. It was the remark of a heathen 

 writer, not more severe than true, concerning the 

 Christians cf the fourth century, " that their ani- 

 mosity towards each other exceeded the ferocity of 

 the beasts against man."* The quarrels of rival dig- 

 nitaries cast a reproach on the faith of which they 

 were the unworthy defenders. So keenly were the 

 supreme honours of the church contested, that 

 episcopal elections became scenes of bribery, vio- 

 lence, and murder. Damasus and Ursicinus, at 

 Rome, in the year 366, carried their priestly strife 

 to such an extreme, that the city was given up for 

 the time to anarchy and massacre, not fewer than 

 137 persons beinfffound killed in one day in the 

 church of Sicininus. Such was the lamentable state 



* Animian. T.Iarcellin. lib. xxi. xrvii. 

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