relating to the Church, and for fuller particulars touching the relation
between Church and Empire see the articles CONSTANTINE; GRATIAN;
THEODOSIUS; JUSTINIAN.)

For a long time after the establishment of Christianity as the state
religion, paganism continued strong, especially in the country
districts, and in some parts of the world had more adherents than
Christianity, but at length the latter became, at any rate nominally,
the faith of the whole Roman world. Meanwhile already before the
beginning of the 3rd century it went beyond the confines of the Empire
in Asia, and by the end of our period was strong in Armenia, Persia,
Arabia and even farther east. It reached the barbarians on the northern
and western borders at an early day, and the Goths were already
Christians of the Arian type before the great migrations of the 4th
century began. Other barbarians became Christian, some in their own
homes beyond the confines of the Empire, some within the Empire itself,
so that when the hegemony of the West passed from the Romans to the
barbarians the Church lived on. Thenceforth for centuries it was not
only the chief religious, but also the chief civilizing, force at work
in the Occident. Losing with the dissolution of the Western Empire its
position as the state church, it became itself a new empire, the heir of
the glory and dignity of Rome, and the greatest influence making for the
peace and unity of the western world.

2. _The Christian Life._--The most notable thing about the life of the
early Christians was their vivid sense of being a people of God, called
and set apart. The Christian Church in their thought was a divine, not a
human, institution. It was founded and controlled by God, and even the
world was created for its sake (cf. the _Shepherd of Hermas_, Vis. ii.
4, and 2 Clement 14). This conception, which came over from Judaism,
controlled all the life of the early Christians both individual and
social. They regarded themselves as separate from the rest of the world
and bound together by peculiar ties. Their citizenship was in heaven,
not on earth (cf. Phil. iii. 20, and the epistle to Diognetus, c. 5),
and the principles and laws by which they strove to govern themselves
were from above. The present world was but temporary, and their true
life was in the future. Christ was soon to return, and the employments
and labours and pleasures of this age were of small concern. Some went
so far as to give up their a