y of Rome after the Council of
Nicaea. The religious revolution which took place in the world was much
more rapid in respect to theory than it was in practice.

This is the history of all evolutions of the ideal. The first
missionaries are exalted by their enthusiasm above common nature; they
soar to the clouds. The martyrs are not restrained by any of the ties of
various sorts which bind humanity; they despise the flesh. But their
converts partake of their spirit in a lesser degree; as these increase,
a growing proportion of them realize that for them life must continue to
be very much what it always has been. It is not possible for all to
maintain themselves in an intense and eager quest for the ideal. The
heroic leaders may attain the empyrean, but the multitude must drag on
the ground, thankful if at the most they can keep their feet; for, be
our ideals what they may, in reality the chief business of life is
living.

Again, as in all other movements, when the Church began to grow in
popularity, numbers came within her pale whose minds were more attracted
by her philosophy than their hearts were affected by her principles.
Consequently the Christians were early divided on matters of theological
opinion. There were all shades of variation in belief, and each
distinction of faith meant a sect more or less divided from the common
body of Christians. And it must be admitted that very quickly, even
before the fires of persecution had been quenched, there appeared that
bitterness which has always characterized and disgraced theological
differences in the Church. The leaders of orthodoxy began to deprecate
deviations from the common rule of faith with greater severity than they
did lapses from fundamental morality. The Church consequently lost much
of its pristine influence, which had been so successful in purifying the
lives of the Christians. Metaphysical dogmas were exalted at the expense
of holy deeds, and it became possible for corrupt rulers to be lauded as
defenders of the faith and for unchaste women to receive those
ecclesiastical privileges which formerly had been but grudgingly
restored to those who had done no more than burn a handful of incense on
the altar of Venus to save themselves from martyrdom.

In the letter of the bishops against Paul of Samosata, who was
Metropolitan of Antioch about the year 290, he is charged with conniving
at the institution of the _subintroductae_,--that is, women who were
pledg