THE ORIGINS OF PROTESTANTISM 



organized into great nations, covering a vast ex- 

 tent of territory, and secured by their concen- 

 trated military strength against the gravest dan- 

 gers of barbaric attack. In European history, 

 the first conspicuous approach to this new state 

 of things was made by the tremendous conquests 

 of Rome. For a period of five centuries after 

 the overthrow of Carthage and Macedonia, the 

 Roman government held together a greater 

 number of men of different races, tongues, and 

 faiths than had ever before been so long held 

 together since the world began ; and, through- 

 out the vast territory over which it held sway, 

 it succeeded in maintaining a state of peace which, 

 imperfect and fitful as it seems from the point 

 of view which we moderns have reached, still 

 presented a striking contrast to the perpetual 

 and universal warfare of primitive peoples. Un- 

 der this condition of things, the old ideas and 

 feelings began to be modified in many ways. 

 The passage from ancient to modern ideas of 

 social obligation can be largely traced in the 

 wonderfully suggestive history of the Roman 

 jurisprudence. In the early ages of the Repub- 

 lic we find the legal existence of the individual 

 well-nigh merged in that of his family, and we 

 find his duties and obligations defined entirely 

 by the status in which he is born. But, by the 

 time of the great codification which went on 

 under the Empire we find the legal existence 

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