and vows of chastity on the religious of both sexes—­all these and many more rites and ceremonies are equally parts of pagan and popish superstition.  Nay, the very same temples, the very same images, which were once consecrated to Jupiter and the other demons, are now consecrated to the Virgin Mary and the other saints.  The very same rites and inscriptions are ascribed to both, the very same prodigies and miracles are related of these as of those.  In short, almost the whole of paganism is converted and applied to popery; the one is manifestly formed upon the same plan and principles as the other; so that there is not only a conformity, but even a uniformity, in the worship of ancient and modern, of heathen and Christian Rome.”

Debasement of Christianity.  Thus far Bishop Newton; but to return to the times of Constantine:  though these concessions to old and popular ideas were permitted and even encouraged, the dominant religious party never for a moment hesitated to enforce its decisions by the aid of the civil power—­ an aid which was freely given.  Constantine thus carried into effect the acts of the Council of Nicea.  In the affair of Arius, he even ordered that whoever should find a book of that heretic, and not burn it, should be put to death.  In like manner Nestor was by Theodosius the Younger banished to an Egyptian oasis.

The pagan party included many of the old aristocratic families of the empire; it counted among its adherents all the disciples of the old philosophical schools.  It looked down on its antagonist with contempt.  It asserted that knowledge is to be obtained only by the laborious exercise of human observation and human reason.

The Christian party asserted that all knowledge is to be found in the Scriptures and in the traditions of the Church; that, in the written revelation, God had not only given a criterion of truth, but had furnished us all that he intended us to know.  The Scriptures, therefore, contain the sum, the end of all knowledge.  The clergy, with the emperor at their back, would endure no intellectual competition.

Thus came into prominence what were termed sacred and profane knowledge; thus came into presence of each other two opposing parties, one relying on human reason as its guide, the other on revelation.  Paganism leaned for support on the learning of its philosophers, Christianity on the inspiration of its Fathers

The Church thus set herself forth as the depository and arbiter of knowledge; she was ever ready to resort to the civil power to compel obedience to her decisions.  She thus took a course which determined her whole future career:  she became a stumbling-block in the intellectual advancement of Europe for more than a thousand years.

The reign of Constantine marks the epoch of the transformation of Christianity from a religion into a political system; and though, in one sense, that system was degraded into an idolatry, in another it had risen into a development of the old Greek mythology.  The maxim holds good in the social as well as in the mechanical world, that, when two bodies strike, the form of both is changed.  Paganism was modified by Christianity; Christianity by Paganism.