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FINAL DESTRUCTION OF PAGANISM. INTRODUCTION OF THE WORSHIP OF
SAINTS AND RELICS AMONG THE CHRISTIANS.

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389. Its final Destruction

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MAP OF WESTERN ASIA, SHOWING THE MARCHES OF JULIAN

AND HERACLIUS

Frontispiece.

THE

HISTORY

OF

THE DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER XX.

THE MOTIVES, PROGRESS, AND EFFECTS OF THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANLEGAL ESTABLISHMENT AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN OR CATHOLIC CHURCH.

TINE.

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THE public establishment of Christianity may be considered as one of those important and domestic revolutions which excite the most lively curiosity, and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories and the civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of Europe; but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch; and the ecclesiastical institutions of his reign are still connected, by an indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests of the present generation.

Date of the

Constantine.

In the consideration of a subject which may be examined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with indifference, a difficulty immediately arises of a very unexpected nature-that conversion of of ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of Constantine. The eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of A.D. 306. his court, seems impatient' to proclaim to the world the glorious

1 The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been accurately discussed, difficulties have been started, solutions proposed, and an expedient imagined of two original editions-the former published during the persecution of Diocletian, the Tillemont, Mém. Ecclélatter under that of Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Præfat. p. v.

siast. tom. vi. p. 465-470. Lardner's Credibility, part ii. vol. vii. p. 78-86. For my own part, I am almost convinced that Lactantius dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, persecuted the Christians; that is, between the years 306 and 311.

VOL. III.

B

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