484 THE CHRISTIANS. 



their hands together and have faith, and abstain from 

 the impiety of providing for the future. The principles of 

 Jesus were not conducive to the welfare of society ; he was 

 put to death by the authorities ; his disciples established 

 a commune; Greek Jews were converted by them, and 

 carried the new doctrines over all the world. The Chris- 

 tians in Rome were at first a class of men resembling 

 the Quakers. They called one another brother and 

 sister ; they adopted a peculiar garb, and peculiar 

 forms of speech ; the church was at first composed of 

 women, slaves, and illiterate artisans ; but it soon 

 became the religion of the people in the towns. All 

 were converted excepting the rustics (pagani), and the 

 intellectual free-thinkers, who formed the aristocracy. 

 Christianity was at first a republican religion ; it pro- 

 claimed the equality of souls ; the bishops were the 

 representatives of God, and the bishops were chosen by 

 the people. But when the emperor adopted Christi- 

 anity and made it a religion of the state, it became a 

 part of imperial government, and the parable of Dives 

 was forgotten. The religion of the Christians was 

 transformed ; its founder was worshipped as a god ; 

 there was a doctrine of the Incarnation ; they had their 

 own holy books, which they declared to have been 

 revealed ; they established convents, and nunneries, 

 and splendid temples, adorned with images, and served 

 by priests with shaven heads, who repeated prayers 

 upon rosaries, and who taught that happiness in a 

 future state could best be obtained by long prayers 

 and by liberal presents to the Church. In the Eastern 

 or Greek world, Christianity in no way assisted civiliza- 

 tion, but in the Latin world it softened the fury of the 

 conquerors, it aided the amalgamation of the races. 

 The Christian priests were reverenced by the barbarians, 



