A RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE. 243 



selves into it with passion. It was something which 

 belonged to them and to them alone. They were not 

 acquainted with Cicero or Seneca: they had never tasted 

 intellectual delights, for the philosophers scorned to 

 instruct the vulgar crowd. And now the vulgar crowd 

 found teachers who interpreted to them the Jewish books, 

 who composed for them a magnificent literature of 

 sermons and epistles and controversial treatises, a 

 literature of enthusiasts and martyrs, written in blood 

 and fire. The people had no share in the politics of 

 the Empire ; but now they had politics of their own. 

 The lower orders were enfranchised ; women and slaves 

 were not excluded. The barbers gossipped theologi- 

 cally. Children played at church in the streets. The 

 Christians were no longer citizens of Rome. God was 

 their Emperor : Heaven was their fatherland. They 

 despised the pleasures of this life ; they were as emi- 

 grants gathered on the shore waiting for a wind to 

 waft them to another world. They rendered unto 

 Csesar the things that were Caesar's, for so it was 

 written they should do. They honoured the King, for 

 such had been the teaching of St. Paul. They regarded 

 the Emperor as God's viceregent upon earth, and diso- 

 beyed him only when his commands were contrary to 

 those of God. But this limitation, which it was the busi- 

 ness of the bishops to define, made the Christians a dan- 

 gerous party in the state. The Emperor Constantine, 

 whose title was unsound, entered into alliance with this 

 powerful corporation. He made Christianity the re- 

 ligion of the State, and the bishops peers of the realm. 

 In the days of tribulation it had often been pre- 

 dicted that when the Empire became Christian war 

 would cease, and men would dwell in brotherhood 

 together. The Christian religion united the slave and 



