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The Revolutions, Insurrections, and Conspiracies of Europe (1)
The Revolutions Insurrections and Conspiracies of Europe - 1 Author:William Cooke Taylor Volume: 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1843 Original Publisher: R. Bentley Subjects: Europe History / Europe / General History / Military / World War II History / Revolutionary History / Medieval Juvenile Nonfiction / History / Medieval Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the ori... more »ginal. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 45 CHAPTER II. The overthrow of Paganism and establishment of Christianity in the Western Empire. -- Second Epoch: The struggle of Christianity for ascendancy. In the age of Valentinian, the converts to Christianity in the Western empire consisted chiefly of the middle classes in the towns. The agricultural population still adhered to the traditions and superstitions of their ancestors, with such tenacity that the word " Pagans," which literally signifies the inhabitants of rural districts, became a generic name for all classes of idolaters. In the higher ranks, the Christians were chiefly found among the officers of state and the ministers of the imperial court, who were for the most part unconnected with the patrician body, and owed their elevation either to their military services or to imperial favour. The old patrician families, who affected to trace their descent to the great aristocratic houses of the ancient republic, the " Gentiles" as they loved to call themselves, adhered topolytheism, which now alone afforded any external evidence of their hereditary rank; and hence " gentile-man," or " gentle-man," came to be used indifferently for a man of exalted birth or polished manners, and for one who rejected the truths of Christianity. " Gentile" properly signifies a man of ancient family, from " Gens :" the Latin Fathers, however, rather inaccurately employed it as the translation of the ...« less