nor that; the heathen themselves adored different gods but that they scrupled to pay the Emperor the divine honor which was his due, was not to be endured. Not their abandonment of other religious rites of Paganism, but their refusal to strew incense to the Emperor, was what decided the fate of most of the martyrs. The worship of the Emperor strengthened heathenism by giving it a common centre and by connecting together its diversified forms; yet it also sensibly weakened it. Men saw too plainly