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countries.

The change of circumstances was not without a great and lasting
influence. Paganism threatened no more. It was conquered. No further
danger was to be apprehended from the departed religion of a gloomier
age. The clerical profession, warmed and nourished by the rays of
imperial favour, was soon effectually distinguished from the crowd of
laymen which surrounded it. The desire to render this separation
systematic and all-pervading was too natural to slumber for any length
of time, and the absence of an order of architecture peculiar to the
ministers of the new religion came to be severely felt. Rank and wealth
have ever delighted in drawing towards them the eyes of the world. The
worldliness and splendour of the church have been long the subject of
violent animadversion. But how could it be otherwise? From the moment
that Christianity became a favoured creed, conversions were rapid and
frequent; but not all the neophytes converted in form, had undergone a
similar change of spirit. Millions flocked through the open gates of the
church. To teach all, before they entered, was an impossibility. If
there was time to _awe_, that was something. If general conviction was
out of the question, universal respect was easily attainable. The
charms, the sensual enjoyments of the pagan altars, were once more
offered to the heathen. The smoke of incense filled the church; the
spoils of antiquity adorned its roofs and columns; the robes of the
clergy were covered with gold; the rites of the church delighted in
colours. But decoration and ornament alone were borrowed from paganism.
The temples of the heathen could not be copied in form: they could not
serve the purposes of Christian worship.

The destination of the temple was different from that of the church. The
temple was the house of an idol: limited in extent, it received
sufficient light through the open door. The rites of paganism were
performed in the colonnade surrounding the temple, not in the temple
itself, and the crowd of spectators stood beyond the limits of the
sacred building. The sanctuary of Pandrosus at Athens, admits only of a
few persons; and even the temple of Athenae is not to be compared for
size with our modern churches. The Christian religion is essentially
didactic. It requires space for its hearers and disciples. But its
sacraments were mysteries, and none but the elect were admitted to them.
Thus, it was necessary to separate true believers fro