Egypt soon met a similar fate ; though the eloquent ruins of the works of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Roman emperors in the valley of the Kile still stand and cast their twilight into the mysterious darkness of antiquity. Mar- cellus, bishop of Apamea in Syria, accompanied by an armed band of soldiers and gladiators, proceeded with the same zeal against the monuments and vital centres of heathen worship in his diocese, but was burnt alive for it by the enraged heathens, who went unpunished for the murder. In Gaul, St, Martin of * Ambrose, Eesp. ad Symmachum : "Dii enim gentium daemonia, ut Scriptura docet." Comp. Ps. xcvi. 5, Septuag. : TldvTes ol Sieol tSiv (bviiiv Sai/x6via. On this principle especially St. Martin of Tours proceeded in his zeal against the idol temples of Gaul. He asserted that the devil himself frequently assumed the visible form of •Tupiter and Mercury, of Minerva and Venus, to protect their sinking sanctuaries. See Sulpit. Severus : Vita B, Martini, c. 4 and G. * Gibbon styles him, unfortunately not without reason, " a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood." ' See an extended description of the Serapeion in Gibbon, and especially in Mil- man ; Hist, of Christianity, &c., book iii. c. 8 (p. 377 sqq. N. York ed.). VOL. 11. — 5 66 THIED PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. Tonrs, between the years 3Y5 and 400, destroyed a multitude of temples and images, and built ehurclies and cloisters in their stead. But we also hear important protests from the church against this pious vandalism. Says Chrysostom at Antioch in the be- ginning of this reign, in his beautiful tract on the martyr Baby- las : " Christians are not to destroy error by force and violence, but should work the salvation of men by persuasion, instruc- tion, and love." In the same spirit says Augustin, though not quite consistently : " Let us first obliterate the idols in the hearts of the heathen, and once they become Christians they will either themselves invite us to the execution of so good "a work [the destruction of the idols], or anticij^ate us in it. Now we must pray for them, and not exasperate them." Yet he commended the severe laws of the emperors against idolatry. In the west the work of destruction was not systematically carried on, and the many ruined temples of Greece and Italy at this day prove that even then reason and taste sometimes prevailed over the rude caprice of fanaticism, and that the maxim, It is easier to tear down than to build up, has its exceptions. "With the death of Theodosius the empire again fell into two parts, which were never afterward reunited. The weak sons and successors of this prince, Arcadits in the east (395- 408) and HoNORros in the west (395-423), and likewise Theo- Dosros II., or the younger (son of Arcadius, 408-450), and YALENTEsriAN III. (423-455), repeated and