thing
itself, of which it is the name; for the thing itself which is
now called the _Christian religion_, really was known to the
ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of
the human race, until the time when Christ came in the flesh,
from whence the true religion, _which had previously existed_,
began to be called _Christian_; and this in our days is the
Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former
times, but as having in later times received this
name."[410:1]

Eusebius, the great champion of Christianity, admits that that which is
called the Christian religion, is neither new nor strange, but--if it be
lawful to testify the truth--was known to the _ancients_.[410:2]

How the common people were Christianized, we gather from a remarkable
passage which Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, has preserved for
us, in the life of Gregory, surnamed "_Thaumaturgus_," that is, "the
wonder worker." The passage is as follows:

"When Gregory perceived that the simple and unskilled
multitude persisted in their worship of images, on account of
the pleasures and sensual gratifications which they enjoyed at
the Pagan festivals, _he granted them a permission to indulge
themselves in the like pleasures_, in celebrating the memory
of the holy martyrs, hoping that in process of time, they
would return of their own accord, to a more virtuous and
regular course of life."[410:3]

The historian remarks that there is no sort of doubt, that by this
permission, Gregory allowed the Christians to dance, sport, and feast at
the tombs of the martyrs, upon their respective festivals, and to do
everything which the Pagans were accustomed to do in their temples,
during the feasts celebrated in honor of their gods.

The learned Christian advocate, M. Turretin, in describing the state of
Christianity in the fourth century, has a well-turned rhetoricism, the
point of which is, that "it was not so much the empire that was brought
over to the faith, as the faith that was brought over to the empire; not
the Pagans who were converted to Christianity, but Christianity that was
converted to Paganism."[410:4]

Edward Gibbon says:

"It must be confessed that the ministers of the Catholic
church imitated the profane model which they were impatient to
destroy. The most respectable bishops had persuaded
themselves, that th