The same uniform original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the most distant ages and countries, the same methods of deceiving the credulity, and of affecting the senses of mankind: [89] but it must ingenuously be confessed, that the ministers of the Catholic church imitated the profane model, which they were impatient to destroy.

The most respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity.
The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.

[90] [9011] [Footnote 86: D'Aubigne (see his own Memoires, p.

156-160) frankly offered, with the consent of the Huguenot ministers, to allow the first 400 years as the rule of faith.

The Cardinal du Perron haggled for forty years more, which were indiscreetly given.