$2 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION .PART 



(3) in the assumed infallibility of the words of Jesus 

 reported therein; we have three factors which suffice 

 to explain why the great movement towards discovery 

 of the orderly relations of phenomena was arrested 

 for centuries, and theories of capricious government 

 of the universe sheltered and upheld. 



While, as has been said, the unity of the Empire 

 secured Christianity its fortunate start ; the multi- 

 form elements of which the Empire was made up 

 philosophic and pagan being gradually absorbed 

 by Christianity, secured it acceptance among the 

 different subject - peoples. The break up of the 

 Empire secured its supremacy. 



The absorption of foreign ideas and practices by 

 Christianity, largely through the influence of Hellenic 

 Jews, was an added cause of arrest of enquiry. The 

 adoption of pagan rites and customs, resting, as these 

 did, on a bed-rock of barbarism, dragged it to a 

 lower level. The intrusion of philosophic subtleties 

 led to terms being mistaken for explanations : as 

 Gibbon says, * the pride of the professors and of their 

 disciples was satisfied with the science of words.' 

 The inchoate and mobile character of Christianity 

 during the first three centuries gave both influences 

 pagan and philosophic their opportunity. For 

 long years the converts scattered throughout the 

 Empire were linked together, in more or less regular 

 federation, by the acknowledgment of Christ as 

 Lord, and by the expectation of his second coming. 

 There was no official priesthood, only overseers 

 1 episkopoi ' for social purposes, who made no 

 claims to apostolic succession ; no formulated set 

 of doctrines ; no Apostles' Creed ; no dogmas of 



