ered not so well as the beasts of the field.
Organized Christianity secured human treatment of prisoners while they
were in confinement, and the abolition of punishment by crucifixion.
Gladiatorial shows were suppressed, and laws permitting the freer
manumission of slaves were passed. The exposure of children, common to
both Greeks and Romans, was finally forbidden by law. The laws of
marriage were modified so that the sanctity of the home was secured;
and, finally, a law was passed securing Sunday as a day of rest to be
observed by the whole nation. This all came about gradually as the
church came into power. This early influence of the Christian religion
on the legislation of the Roman government presaged a time when, in the
decline of the empire, the church would exercise the greatest power of
any organization, political or religious, in western Europe.

_Christians Come Into Conflict with Civil Authority_.--It was
impossible that a movement so antagonistic to the usual condition of
affairs as Christianity should not come into conflict with the civil
authority. Its insignificant beginning, although {274} it excited the
hatred and the contempt of the jealous and the discontented, gave no
promise of a formidable power sufficient to contend with the imperial
authority. But as it gained power it excited the alarm of rulers, as
they beheld it opposing cherished institutions. Nearly all of the
persecutions came about through the attitude of the church toward the
temporal rulers. The Roman religion was a part of the civil system,
and he who would not subscribe to it was in opposition to the state.

The Christians would not worship the emperor, nor indeed would they, in
common with other nations, set up an image or shrine in the temple at
Rome and worship according to the privilege granted. They recognized
One higher in power than the emperor. The Romans in their practical
view of life could not discriminate between spiritual and temporal
affairs, and a recognition of a higher spiritual being as giving
authority was in their sight the acknowledgment of allegiance to a
foreign power. The fact that the Christians met in secret excited the
suspicions of many, and it became customary to accuse them on account
of any mishap or evil that came upon the people. Thus it happened at
the burning of Rome that the Christians were accused of setting it on
fire, and many suffered persecution on account of these suspicions.

C