The path of the Greek to mastery had been through all fields of intellectual development. Out of the old Pelasgic cradle he had grown to the full grandeur of Attic manhood. The blood of many tribes flowed through his veins, and he had absorbed the strongest and best elements of all.
The growth of their philosophical systems was contemporaneous with their national prosperity. The dealing with the fundamental questions of human existence and destiny by Socrates and Plato reveals a deep moral purpose. The most spiritual of the entire circle of Greek philosophers was Plato. In many departments of his philoso phy, such as the unity and spirituality of God and the immortality of the soul, he made, though un consciously, very near approaches to the truths of revelation. Eusebius said: "Plato alone, of all the Greeks, reached the vestibule of truth and stood upon its threshold." When Christianity began its contest for the world's possession, the Roman rule was universal. Law was the Roman habit and to govern was the Roman passion. The hold of the old mythology was broken, and a general skepticism as to all be liefs prevailed. But the emperors regarded the preservation of the ancestral faith as the great bul wark of the throne. Political government and fi delity to the prevailing mythology were held to be inseparable. Hence Christianity was bitterly opposed, so soon as its antagonism was discovered. It was seen to be hostile to the elaborate temple service.
The more clearly Christianity came into view, the more stringent became the measures for its suppression The Christians made nn conceal ments. They absented themselves from the tem ples, threw off all faith in the ruling mythology, and openly declared their hostility to it.
The Twelve Tables of the Roman law forbade the existence of foreign faiths within the domin ions, but the usage had been to conciliate the con quered provinces by toleration of the existing re ligions. The appearance of the Christians, how ever, was the signal for the revival of the old prohibition. The bonds uniting the Christians were close. Their separate services were declared an act of hostility to the country. They were accused of disobedience to the laws and of a spirit ripe at any moment for insurrection. They were charged with
immoral practices at their services. All public calamities, such as earthquakes, inundations, pesti lence, and defeat in war, were attributed to them. A popular proverb ran thus: "Deus non pluit due od Christionos!"—"It does not rain—lead against the Christians!" From A. D. 64 to 3t3, until Constantine granted an edict of toleration to the Christians, persecu tions prevailed about seventy years. All forms of torture and violent death were inflicted. There was no security at home. The exiles were numer ous, but the Christians carried their faith and life with them to their new places of abode, where they built up societies, which in turn became centers for the wider dissemination of the gospel. Christianity had conquered in the realm of political life.
(3) Christianity and the Roman Empire (A. D. 313-768). Constantine declared himself a Christian in sympathy, early in his reign. Beforethe decisive battle of the Rubra Saxa with Maxentius he claimed to see in the sky the sign of the cross, with the words, En touto nika—"By this conquer." He accepted the token as an argument in favor of Christianity, gained the battle for the crown of the Roman empire, and henceforth avowed his belief in Christianity. His vision, though in the line of his sympathies, was probably only a shrewd method to attract the Christians to his support. He carried the labarum, a standard inscribed with the cross, in all his subsequent wars. His policy was at first to make all Christians favor his rule, and by granting concessions to heal the alienation from the empire which the repressive policy of his predecessors had produced.
The edict tolerating Christianity as one of the legal religions of the empire was published in A.D. 3t3. But in 323 he enlarged the scope of his favor and made Christianity the established faith of all his dominions. Among the chief special acts of Constantine in favor of the Church were: his order for the civil observance of Sunday, his con fiscation in the East of pagan temples for Chris tian churches, his emancipation of slaves, his ex emption of the clergy from military and municipal duty, and his ardent promotion of Christian edu cation among his subjects.