Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry an obvious but unsatisfactory answer may be returned; that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence if its great Author.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1:15), pp. 415-416
… as long as their [pagan] adoration was successively prostituted to a thousand deities, it was scarcely possible that their hearts could be susceptible to a very sincere or lively passion for any one of them.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1:15), p. 459
In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor … If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus [96–180].
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1:1; 3:76), pp. 5, 76 – a perfect time to spread the evangelical message of Christianity
– a perfect time to spread the evangelical message of Christianity
The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius [379-395], is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition, and may therefore deserve to be considered as a singular event in the history of the human mind.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (3:28), p. 111
I have purposely refrained from describing the particular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgusting pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage executioners, could inflict on the human body … But I cannot determine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much I ought to believe. The gravest of ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to disgrace, of religion.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (16), pp. 59-60
But we may surely be allowed to observe that a miracle, in that age of superstition and credulity, lost its name and merit, since it could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the ordinary and established laws of nature.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (3:28), p. 131