ruinous system of dowering the Church with State funds. The emperor
directed the treasurers of the province of Carthage to pay over to the
bishop of that district £18,000 sterling, and to honour his further
drafts. Constantine also gave his subjects permission to bequeath their
fortunes to the Church, and scattered public money among the bishops
with a lavish hand. The three sons of Constantine followed in his steps,
"continuing to abrogate and efface the ancient superstitions of the
Romans, and other idolatrous nations, and to accelerate the progress of
the Christian religion throughout the empire. This zeal was no doubt,
laudable; its end was excellent; but, in the means used to accomplish
it, there were many things worthy of blame" (p. 88). Julian succeded to
part of the empire in A.D. 360, and to sole authority in A.D. 361. He
was educated as a Christian, but reverted to philosophic Paganism, and
during his short reign he revoked the special privileges granted to
Christianity, and placed all creeds on the most perfect civil equality.
Julian's dislike of Christianity, and his philosophic writings directed
against it, have gained for him, from Christian writers, the title of
"the Apostate." The emperors who succeeded were, however, all Christian,
and used their best endeavours to destroy Paganism. Christianity spread
apace; "multitudes were drawn into the profession of Christianity, not
by the power of conviction and argument, but by the prospect of gain,
and the fear of punishment" (p. 102). "The zeal and diligence with which
Constantine and his successors exerted themselves in the cause of
Christianity, and in extending the limits of the Church, prevent our
surprise at the number of barbarous and uncivilised nations, which
received the Gospel" (p. 90); and Dr. Mosheim admits that: "There is no
doubt but that the victories of Constantine the Great, the fear of
punishment, and the desire of pleasing this mighty conqueror and his
imperial successors, were the weighty arguments that moved whole
nations, as well as particular persons, to embrace Christianity" (p.