-Destiny of the three great Bishops._

[Sidenote: Subject of the chapter.]

From the decay of Polytheism and the decline of philosophy, from the
moral and social disorganization of the Roman empire, I have now to turn
to the most important of all events, the rise of Christianity. I have
to show how a variation of opinion proceeded and reached its
culmination; how it was closed by the establishment of a criterion of
truth, under the form of ecclesiastical councils, and a system developed
which supplied the intellectual wants of Europe for nearly a thousand
years.

[Sidenote: Introduction to the study of Christianity.]

The reader, to whom I have thus offered a representation of the state of
Roman affairs, must now prepare to look at the consequences thereof.
Together we must trace out the progress of Christianity, examine the
adaptation of its cardinal principles to the wants of the empire, and
the variations it exhibited--a task supremely difficult, for even
sincerity and truth will sometimes offend. For my part, it is my
intention to speak with veneration on this great topic, and yet with
liberty, for freedom of thought and expression is to me the first of all
earthly things.

[Sidenote: Distinction between Christianity and ecclesiastical
organizations.]

But, that I may not be misunderstood, I here, at the outset,
emphatically distinguish between Christianity and ecclesiastical
organizations. The former is the gift of God; the latter are the product
of human exigencies and human invention, and therefore open to
criticism, or, if need be, to condemnation.

[Sidenote: Moral state of the world at this period.]

From the condition of the Roman empire may be indicated the principles
of any new system adapted to its amelioration. In the reign of Augustus,
violence paused only because it had finished its work. Faith was dead;
morality had disappeared. Around the shores of the Mediterranean the
conquered nations looked at one another--partakers of a common
misfortune, associates in a common lot. Not one of them had found a god
to help her in her day of need. Europe, Asia, and Africa were tranquil,
but it was the silence of despair.

[Sidenote: Unpitying tyranny of Rome.]

Rome never considered man as an individual, but only as a thing. Her way
to political greatness was pursued utterly regardless of human
suffering. If advantages accrued to the conquered under her dominion,
they arose altogether from incident,