Pagans Abandon Their Idols

So it was that, among those who had been slaves of superstition, when they saw with their own eyes their delusion exposed and saw the actual ruin of the temples and images in every place, some turned to the saving teaching of Christ; while others, though they declined to take this step, still condemned the folly they had received from their fathers, and laughed to scorn what they had so long been used to regarding as gods. Indeed, what other feelings could fill their minds when they saw the utter uncleanness hidden beneath the fair outside of the objects of their worship? Inside were found either the bones of dead men or dry skulls, deceitfully adorned by the arts of magicians, or filthy rags full of loathsome impurity, or a bundle of hay or straw. Seeing all these things heaped together inside their lifeless images, they condemned the extreme folly of their fathers and their own, especially when no occupant could be found either in the secret recesses of the temples or in the statues themselves: no demon, no giver of oracles, no god or prophet, as they had supposed until then; no, not even a dim and shadowy phantom could be seen. So every gloomy cavern and every hidden recess lay open to the emperor’s agents. The inaccessible secret chambers, the innermost shrines of the temples, were trampled by the soldiers’ feet; and so the blindness of mind that had ruled the pagan world for so many ages became plain to the eyes of all. [a]