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General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1918 Original Publisher: Naegele Subjects: Catholic church Religion / Christianity / Catholic Religion / Christianity / History Religion / Christianity / General Religion / Christian Church / History Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: The Church and the Barbarians Christianity becomes religion of Roman Empire. Thenceforth there was nothing to prevent Christianity from becoming the religion of the Roman Empire, that is, of all the nations grouped under the shadow of the Roman civilization. For indeed what were all the other dangers awaiting the Church compared to the danger which had nearly destroyed her on the threshold of life? The bloody persecutions which marked the three centuries of her early life proved no obstacle to her growth. It is true that the fury of her persecutors spilled the blood of multitudes of her children; but this blood, in accordance with the expression of an apologist, was a seed of marvelous fecundity. After three hundred years of a war of extermination, the Roman Empire had to acknowledge itself conquered by its victim and had to surrender to her its arms. By the edict of Milan, promulgated in 312, Emperor Constantine the Great proclaimed that henceforth all might adore God as they wished. This was recognizing implicitly the right of Christianity to exist. But it is the glorious privilege of the Catholic Church that she needs naught but the common right in order that she may conquer the universe. As soon as liberty of conscience was established, the Roman world in its entirety asked for admission into the communion of the faithful, and before the fourth century had drawn to a close the pagans saw themselves re...