The Rise and Spread of Christianity in Europe; Or, the Overthrow of Paganism Under the Cross, the Sceptre and the Sword

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897. Excerpt: ... indebted to Uhlhorn's Struggle of Christianity with Heathenism as well as to the works of De Pressense' on The Apostolic Age and The Martyrs and Apologists. For the mediaeval period, special use has been made of Hardwicke's Church History of the Middle Age, of the Rev. G. F. Maclear's Christian Missions of the Middle Ages, and of Apostles of Mediceval Europe and other shorter works by the same able and fascinating writer. Kurtz's Clmrch History and Dean Milman's History of Latin Christianity have also furnished valuable suggestions. A word may be added in explanation of the titles given to the three periods into which the history is divided. The first embraces the struggle of the early Church with pagan Rome. This period of two centuries and a half, during which the power of the Church lay in her very weakness and sufferings, is fitly symbolized by the Cross. The second period, beginning with the professed conversion of Constantine, is marked by the influence of the Sceptre in matters of religion. While in the former period the spread of Christianity had begun among the poor and despised, and had gradually reached the upper strata of society, we now find the missionaries to various nations seeking, as a rule, in the first place, to enlist the influence of the king or chieftain, in order to promote the acceptance of the gospel among his subjects. The third period, commencing with Charlemagne, or rather, perhaps, with his father Pepin, is that in which the violent agency of the Sivord was brought into use, in order to coerce he obstinate adherents of the old pagan systems; not, of course, to the exclusion of the agencies characterizing the two earlier periods. This lamentable perversion of the spirit of Christ's religion was accompanied and accentuated by t...