We need not think that it was in consequence of the clamour they raised that he adopted a different style with reference to church matters in his subsequent volumes.

A more creditable explanation of his different tone, which will be presently suggested, is at least as probable.

In any case, these two chapters remain the chief slur on his historical impartiality, and it is worth while to examine what his offence amounts to.
Gibbon's account of the early Christians is vitiated by his narrow and distorted conception of the emotional side of man's nature.

Having no spiritual aspirations himself, he could not appreciate or understand them in others.

Those emotions which have for their object the unseen world and its centre, God, had no meaning for him; and he was tempted to explain them away when he came across them, or to ascribe their origin and effects to other instincts which were more intelligible to him.