Excerpt from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 2

Our Perplexity in defining the Miraculous Period; Use of the primitive Miracles; IV. The Fourth Cause. Virtues of the First Christians; Effects of their Repentance; Care of their Reputation; Morality of the Fathers; Principles of Human Nature; The Primitive Christians condemn Pleasure and Luxury; Their Sentiments concerning Marriage and Chastity; Their Aversion to the Business of War and Government; V. The Fifth Cause. The Christians active in the Government of the Church; Its primitive Freedom and Equality; Institution of Bishops as Presidents of the College of Presbyters; Provincial Councils; Union of the Church; Progress of Episcopal Authority; Pre-eminence of the Metropolitan Churches; Ambition of the Roman Pontiff; Laity and Clergy; Oblations and Revenue of the Church; Distribution of the Revenue; Excommunication; Public Penance; The Dignity of Episcopal Government; Recapitulation of the Five Causes; Weakness of Polytheism; The Scepticism of the Pagan World proved favourable to the New Religion; As well as the Peace and Union of the Roman Empire; Historical View of the Progress of Christianity; In the East; The Church of Antioch; In Egypt; In Rome; In Africa and the Western Provinces; Beyond the Limits of the Roman Empire; General Proportion of Christians and Pagans; Whether the First Christians were Mean and Ignorant; Some Exceptions with regard to Learning; - with regard to Rank and Fortune; Christianity most favourably received by the Poor and Simple; Rejected by some Eminent Men of the First and Second Centuries; Their Neglect of Prophecy; - of Miracles; General Silence concerning the Darkness of the Passion

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint) (Edward Gibbon)