It was a mixture of northern myth and oriental dreams of metempsychosis, coarse, mystical, and cruel.

The Roman paganism which was superimposed by the conquering race was the mere shell of a once vital religion.

Educated men had long ceased to believe in the gods and divinities of Greece, and it is said that the Roman augurs, while giving their solemn prophetic utterances, could not look at each other without laughing.
In the year 312--alas for Christianity!--it was espoused by imperial power.

When the Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, there was no doubt rejoicing among the saints; but it was the beginning of the degeneracy of the religion of Christ.

The faith of the humble was to be raised to a throne; its lowly garb to be exchanged for purple and scarlet; the gospel of peace to be enforced by the sword.
The empire was crumbling, and upon its ruins the race of the future and social conditions of modern times were forming.