Therefore of
those who were contending for worldly power and empire, one actually
favoured and flattered them, and another may be suspected to have joined himself to them partly from consideration of interest: so considerable
were they become, under external disadvantages of all sorts." (Lardner,
vol. vii. p. 380.) This at least is certain, that, throughout the whole
transaction hitherto, the great seemed to follow, not to lead, the public
opinion.
It may help to convey to us some notion of the extent and progress of
Christianity, or rather of the character and quality of many early
Christians, of their learning and their labours, to notice the number of
Christian writers who flourished in these ages. Saint Jerome's catalogue
contains sixty-six writers within the first three centuries, and the
first six years of the fourth; and fifty-four between that time and his
own, viz. A. D. 392. Jerome introduces his catalogue with the following
just remonstrance:--"Let those who say the church has had no
philosophers, nor eloquent and learned men, observe who and what they
were who founded, established, and adorned it; let them cease to accuse
our faith of rusticity, and confess their mistake.
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