idolatry in Arabia, by force, and prepares to make war on the
Roman Empire.--His successors conquer Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor,
North Africa, Spain, and invade France.

As the result of this conflict, the doctrine of the unity of God
was established in the greater part of the Roman Empire--The
cultivation of science was restored, and Christendom lost many of
her most illustrious capitals, as Alexandria, Carthage, and,
above all, Jerusalem.


THE policy of the Byzantine court had given to primitive
Christianity a paganized form, which it had spread over all the
idolatrous populations constituting the empire. There had been an
amalgamation of the two parties. Christianity had modified
paganism, paganism had modified Christianity. The limits of this
adulterated religion were the confines of the Roman Empire. With
this great extension there had come to the Christian party
political influence and wealth. No insignificant portion of the
vast public revenues found their way into the treasuries of the
Church. As under such circumstances must ever be the case, there
were many competitors for the spoils--men who, under the mask of
zeal for the predominant faith, sought only the enjoyment of its
emoluments.

ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTES. Under the early emperors, conquest had
reached its culmination; the empire was completed; there remained
no adequate objects for military life; the days of
war-peculation, and the plundering of provinces, were over. For
the ambitious, however, another path was open; other objects