became a titular bishop, claiming to be "Bishop of Rome." This grievously defective claim was denounced by Cyprian, and he closed his melancholy career with the reputation of schism and heresy together. Such and so little was the venerable see of Clement, down to good Sylvester and the first Ecumenical Council.

26. THE GALLICANS.

Truly might the Gallican Church, if she were yet faithful to her history and traditions, assert her splendid character in the primitive age as the mother of Catholic orthodoxy in Western Europe. This is her true position through Irenæus and his disciples. Not only does Gaul owe everything to the illumination of his genius, but through him the churches of Britain, and so also the Church of England, derived not a little of that Greek type of orthodoxy which has always distinguished their history. Of the development of Gallicanism we shall learn more by and by. But here we must pause, with a brief glance at the spread of the Gospel down to the times of Constantine.

27. CHRONIC PERSECUTIONS.

From the days when St. Stephen fell asleep in the stony hail-storm, to the days when the rage of Diocletian had left the Universal Church apparently in desolation and in ruins, the faithful soldiers of Christ fought their good fight with unflagging zeal, patience, and intrepidity. Efforts have been made to minimize the extent of the ten persecu

tions, their atrocities, the numbers of those who perished, and the mystery of the uninterrupted increase of the Church. But the writings of the Apologists, and those of Tertullian and Cyprian, with the final testimony of Lactantius, are sufficient to prove that persecution was the chronic estate of the primitive Church. It was looked upon as the normal condition of Christian life. The Church's children accepted their profession as that of "dying daily"; they looked for the coming of Christ as near at hand, but they seem not to have anticipated before His appearing any relief from their lot of "laying down their lives for His sake." The unaffected language of the Apologists and later writers is evidence of this: nor is it to be accounted for, if the persecutions were, at worst, only what such writers as Gibbon are willing to concede. Truly, were the Master's words fulfilled, — “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." Yet how gloriously did the martyrs copy the blessed example of their Master in praying for their murderers! At the stake they chanted the psalms, or lifted up their voices in the Christian. hymns, in the Gloria in Excelsis at daybreak, or in their even-song for the sunset, or "the lighting of the lamps."1 In the Coliseum whole families. were thrown to the wild beasts, refusing to save their lives by throwing a grain of incense on the brazier that glowed before an idol. Tender women clasped their husband's necks, entreating them not to surrender, and little children, clinging to their fathers' knees, or the white raiment of their mothers, 1 See Note B'.

cried out, "We shall all sup with Jesus; let the lions come on." From the martyrdoms of Antioch to those of Lyons and Vienne, from those of Proconsular Asia and Northern Africa to those of our forefathers at St. Alban's, the blood of the

-

martyrs became the seed of the Church.

But

"How that red rain did make the harvest grow!"

28. GROWTH OF THE CHURCH.

They have tried, also, to minimize the blessed result; but the testimony of our Christian authors is unequivocal, nor could they have hazarded such. language as they habitually used had their statements been such as their adversaries could deny. Of this the crowning evidence is the submission of Constantine. The conversion of the Empire, which was its immediate consequence, and which Julian might have very readily suppressed had it rested on any other than the solid base of a defeated Paganism, is the pyramid of evidence which none. can overthrow.

It is noteworthy how often, in a great moral revolution, reactionary periods have been allowed to defeat themselves, and to give the last clinching blows that confirmed the change with the very hammer lifted to destroy it. Julian's apostasy drove the last nail into the coffin of Paganism, a word which, coming into vogue at this epoch, proved that Christianity had become predominant everywhere save among rustics and barbarians in uncivilized villages (pagi), even Julian himself with his adherents treating the old myths as a creed outworn, and striving to give it a new base of

poetical and philosophical theory. Note, too, what the admissions of his apostasy imply. His own new and theoretical heathenism demonstrates the extinction of the old idolatries; the apostate borrows from Alexandria the ideas of Clement and of Athanasius, who had made learning, and not ignorance, the handmaid of religion. From the Church, too, he catches the ennobling principle that a lofty moral system must sustain the new augurs and priests of his reformed mythology; they must rival the clergy at least in outward respectability. Note, too, what a tribute he pays to Christianity, in closing the Christian schools, and trying to throw education, even in grammar and rhetoric, into the hands of his philosophers. From first to last, his effort to supplant the work of Constantine demonstrates the superior statesmanship of the latter, whose sagacity discovered that nothing remained of Numa's priestcraft but a hollow shell. Even if his dying lips are not to be credited with the words, we may say with truth that his bitter convictions must have been, as he bit the dust in death, "O Galilean! thou hast conquered."

29. CONVERSION OF THE EMPIRE.

Thus this most wonderful revolution of institutions, laws, and manners which the world has ever seen, was proved to be the outcome of a popular conviction so general as to furnish it with a firm support. It had become a necessity. This is the only logical way of accounting for the conduct of the soldiery, who hailed the accession of Jovian, and who restored the cross to their ensigns, never again

to be dishonoured. Look at this dilemma of unbelief. If the Christians were not numerous, if the cross had not won its triumph, then all the greater the miracle. Then Constantine supplanted the Roman eagles on the Imperial standards while yet the cross was infamy and all but universally abhorred. Who can credit this? But more, on such a theory, he substituted churches for idol temples, and removed the capital itself from the immemorial seat of empire to adorn the first Christian city, none presuming to remonstrate, while Christians were yet inconsiderable in numbers and in the influence of their characters. Is this to be credited? But be it so! Then is the miracle all the greater: all the stronger the right hand, all the more manifest the stretched-out arm of the Cruci

fied, in giving his churches rest. Have it as you will: here is the fulfilment of the promises, but only in part. The ages of persecution have demonstrated the fact that the gates of hell cannot prevail: they have made the heathen feel that the chariots of salvation cannot be stayed in their career of conquest and of universal dominion. Nay, more, they have made the princes of this world to feel that "they come to naught."

30. CÆSARS CONQUERED BY MARTYRS.

Yes, and still further, they have taught kings and Cæsars that, as Christ can triumph in spite of them, so too can He reign without them. Come then, ye Cæsars,1 if ye choose to be wise at last; now when this humbling lesson has been forced upon you, so

See Note C'.