CHRISTIAN ROME. 499 



worked in the fields with his own hands ; when every 

 temple was the monument of a victory, and every 

 statue the memorial of a hero ; when door posts were 

 adorned with the trophies of war, and halls with the 

 waxen images of ancestors ; when the Romans were 

 simple, religious, and severe, and the vices of luxury 

 were yet unknown, and banquets were plain and 

 sociable repasts, where the guests in turn sang old 

 ballads while the piper played. Nor shall we pause 

 on the Rome of Augustus, when East and West 

 were united in peace and with equal rights before 

 the law ; when the tyranny of petty princedoms, and 

 the chicanery of Grecian courts of law, and the 

 blood -feuds of families had been destroyed ; and the 

 empire was calm and not yet becalmed, and rested a 

 moment between tumult and decay. We shall pass 

 on to a Rome more great and more sublime ; a Rome 

 which ruled Europe, but not by arms ; a Rome 

 which had no mercenary legions, no Praetorian guards, 

 and which yet received the tribute of kings, and whose 

 Legates exercised the power of proconsuls. In this 

 Rome a man clad in the purple of the Caesars and 

 crowned with the tiara of the Pontifex sent forth his 

 soldiers armed with the crucifix, and they brought 

 nations captive to his feet. Rome became a City 

 of God : she put on a spiritual crown. She cried 

 to the kings, Give, and gold was poured into her 

 exchequers ; she condemned a man who had defied her, 

 and he had no longer a place among mankind ; she 

 proclaimed a Truce of God, and the swords of robber 

 knights were sheathed ; she preached a crusade, and 

 Europe was hurled into Asia. She lowered the pride 

 of the haughty, and she exalted the heart of the poor ; 

 she softened the rage of the mighty, she consoled the 



