Library of Samuel Teleki: Part One

they excel brute animals, to be stolen from them? That the nature and condition of the Christian religion is such that it has always used good letters as a torch, and that the cultivation of them has been the greatest support for spreading the light of the Gospel among the nations and for confirming Christian doctrine, there is no one who does not know. Hence, Prince Julian, hostile to the Christians, intending to overturn the Christian religion by secret tunnels, and affecting this in the manner of tyrants so cleverly as to not appear to use force, when he was using it the most, is said to have held it among the secrets of domination 1.) See Iac. Gothofredi Orat. on the secret arts of the Emperor Julian for the destruction of the Christian religion, among his Minor Works, page 315. that Christians should be prohibited from the reading of Gentile books and from literary games; however, under Domitian, the persecutor of Christians, not only were all philosophers removed from the city and Italy, 2.) Sueton. 10. and Dio LXVII. 13. but violence was also inflicted upon their books. 3.) Tacit. Agric. 2. They understood, indeed, that the fortress of the Christian religion, invading it, was overturned if it was supported by the protections of letters, and