so preserved,[454] and there have survived down to our own
times examples of the animal sacrifice which in early Christian days
may well have been preserved by this famous edict.[455] But beyond
these illustrations of the two stated objects of Pope Gregory's letter
there are innumerable additional results from such a policy,[456]
results which prove that British pagandom was not stamped out by edict
or by sword, but was rather gradually borne down before the strength
of the new religion--borne down and pushed into the background out of
sight of the Church and the State, relegated to the cottage homes, the
cattle-sheds and the cornfields, the countryside and the denizens
thereof.[457]

This is where we must search for it, and I think this important
element in our studies will be better understood if we turn for one
moment to the results of Christian contact with earlier belief in the
one country where Christianity has set up its strongest political
force, namely, Italy. Dr. Middleton wrote a series of remarkable
letters which tell us much on this point, but before referring to
this, I wish first to quote a hitherto buried record by an impartial
observer[458] in the year 1704. It is a letter written from Venice to
Sir Thomas Frankland, describing the travels and observations of a
journey into Italy. The traveller writes:--

"I cannot leave Itally without making some general
observations upon the country in general, and first as
to their religion; it differs in name only now from
what it was in the time of the ancient heathen Romans.
I know this will sound very oddly with some sort of
people, but compare them together and then let any
reasonable man judge of the difference. The heathen
Itallians had their gods for peace and for war, for
plenty and poverty, for health and sickness, riches
and poverty, to whom they addressed themselves and
their wants; and the Christian Itallians have their
patron saints for each of these things, to whom they
also address according to their wants. The heathen
sacrificed bulls and other beasts, and the Christian
ones after the same manner a piece of bread, which a
picture in the garden of Aldobrandina at Rome, painted
in the time of Titus Vespasian, shews by the altar and
the priests' vestments to have been the same as used
now. The Pantheon at Rome was dedicated by the