Paganism leaned for support on the learning of its philosophers, Christianity on the inspiration of its Fathers.
The Church thus set herself forth as the depository and arbiter of knowledge; she was ever ready to resort to the civil power to compel obedience to her decisions.

She thus took a course which determined her whole future career: she became a stumbling-block in the intellectual advancement of Europe for more than a thousand years.
The reign of Constantine marks the epoch of the transformation of Christianity from a religion into a political system; and though, in one sense, that system was degraded into an idolatry, in another it had risen into a development of the old Greek mythology.

The maxim holds good in the social as well as in the mechanical world, that, when two bodies strike, the form of both is changed.

Paganism was modified by Christianity; Christianity by Paganism.
THE TRINITARIAN DISPUTE.

In the Trinitarian controversy, which first broke out in Egypt--Egypt, the land of Trinities--the chief point in discussion was to define the position of "the Son." There lived in Alexandria a presbyter of the name of Arius, a disappointed candidate for the office of bishop.