e the end of the first year, that he must either be the
slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries. The soldiers demanded
a third part of the land of Italy. Orestes rejected the audacious
demand, and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a
bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to
associate under his command they might extort the justice that had been
denied to their dutiful petition. Orestes was executed, and Odoacer,
resolving to abolish the useless and expensive office of the emperor of
the West, compelled the unfortunate Augustulus to resign.

So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman
emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the
promontory of Misenum.

* * * * *

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--III

_I.--The Growth of the Christian Church_

The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned
religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened,
and by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The
various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all
considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally
false; by the magistrate as equally useful. Under this spirit of
toleration the Christian church grew with great rapidity. Five main
causes effectually favoured and assisted this development.

1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from
the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.

2. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional
circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important
theory.

3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.

4. The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.

5. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually
formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
Empire.

The early Christians of the mother church at Jerusalem subscribed to the
Mosaic law, and the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all
circumcised Jews. But the Gentile church rejected the intolerable weight
of Mosaic ceremonies, and at length refused to their more scrupulous
brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited
for their own practise. After the ruin of the temple of the city, and of
the public religion of the Jews, the Nazarenes, as t