The Triumph of Christianity

Probably Rostovtseff is right in holding that a large part of the army was Christian, and that this was what most influenced Constantine. However that may be, the Christians, while still a minority, had a kind of organization which was then new, though now common, and which gave them all the political influence of a pressure group to which no other

Christians soon discovered that they had many significant disagreements among themselves regarding many of the most basic elements of their faith.

The growth of Christianity before Constantine, as well as the motives of his conversion, have been variously explained by various authors. Gibbon IX assigns five causes: “1. The inflexible, and, if we may use the expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from the narrow and unsoci

Cela ne signifie pas pour autant que le christianisme, même dans sa forme inaccomplie, soit un échec. Au contraire, il a presque réussi l’impossible. La religion chrétienne a permis d’élever l’âme de chacun, plaçant l’esclave, le maître, le roturier et le noble sur un pied d’égalité métaphysique, les rendant égaux devant Dieu et la loi.

The society produced by Christianity was far less barbaric than the pagan—even the Roman—ones it replaced. Christian society at least recognized that feeding slaves to ravenous lions for the entertainment of the populace was wrong, even if many barbaric practices still existed. It objected to infanticide, to prostitution, and to the principle that