that the prerogatives of the Catholic Church were confined to the
chosen portion of the African believers, who alone had preserved
inviolate the integrity of their faith and discipline. This rigid theory
was supported by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a
proselyte, even from the distant provinces of the east, they carefully
repeated the sacred rites of baptism and ordination; as they rejected
the validity of those which he had already received from the hands of
heretics or of schismatics" (Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," vol. iii. pp.
5, 6). A number of Donatists, known as Circumcelliones, "maintained
their cause by the force of arms, and overrunning all Africa, filled
that province with slaughter and rapine, and committed the most enormous
acts of perfidy and cruelty against the followers of Caecilianus" (p.
109). To complete the darkly terrible picture of the Church in the
fourth century, we need only note the various orders of fanatical monks,
filthy in their habits, densely ignorant, hopelessly superstitious,
amongst whom may be numbered the travelling mendicants called
Sarabaites. "Many of the Coenobites were chargeable with vicious and
scandalous practices. This order, however, was not so universally
corrupt as that of the Sarabaites, who were, for the most part,
profligates of the most abandoned kind" (p. 102). The pen wearies over
the list of scandals of these early Christian ages; we can but sketch
the outline here; let the student fill the picture in, and he will find
even blacker shades needed to darken it enough.

CENTURY V.

This century sees the destruction of the Roman Empire of the West, and
the rise into importance of the great Gothic monarchies. The Christian
emperors of the East put down paganism with a strong hand, conferring
state offices on Christians only, and forbidding pagan ceremonies
[unless under Christian names]. The sons of Constantine had pronounced
the penalty of death and confiscation against any who sacrificed to the
old gods; and Theodosius, in A.D. 390, had forbidden, under heavy
penalties, all pagan rites. This work of repression was rigorously
carried on. Clovis, king of the Franks, embraced Christianity, finding
its profession "of great use to him, both in confirming and enlarging
his empire" (p. 117); and many of the barbarous tribes were "converted
to the faith" by means of pretended miracles, "pious frauds ... very
commonly practised in Gaul and in Spain