If before the Decian persecution the rivarly between the bishops of Rome and Carthage prompted a bitter controversy which threatened the unity of the church, how much more likely were such conflicts to arise between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople--rival bishops of rival cities, Rome proud of her past, Constantinople vain of her present glory; the former jealous of the place she had filled in the world's history; the latter ambitious of future influence! If heresies were fomented and schisms created when to be a Christian invited espionage and perhaps death, what an increase there must have been in these and other disintegrating influences when it became a reproach rather than a praise _not_ to be a Christian, and the door of the church stood wide open to the evil-minded, who sought membership, not to enjoy the consolation of religion but for worldly advantage! Footnotes 1. Church History, Vol. i, Introduction. In justification of his course, in a foot note he argues that "A history of the perversions and abuses of religion is not properly a history of the church; as absurd were it to suppose a history of the highwaymen that have infested their country to be a history of England." He appears oblivious to the fact that he throws himself open to the retort: A history of the blessedness and charity of the purely good men alone is not properly a history of the church; as absurd were it to suppose a history alone of the honest men of England that have blessed their race to be a history of that country. Milner's work is more properly a history of piety than of the church. In every age and country he seeks out the good men who have nearest conformed their lives to Christian precepts and celebrates them in his pages. Therefore, whatever admissions we find this author making as to the corruptions and abuses which found their way into the church: we shall be justified in considering as of special weight since they are admitted by him only on compulsion, and when there is no chance of either denying or excusing them. I have already called attention to the same disposition in Eusebius, p. 37; and hence his testimony may also be regarded as of special value in relation to the decline of the true Christian spirit. 2. Ch. Hist., Vol. i, ch. xv. 3. Milner's Ch. Hist., Vol. i, cent. iii, ch. vi. 4. Milner's Ch. Hist., Vol. i, cent. iii, ch. viii. 5. Milner's Ch. Hist., Vol. i, cent. iii, ch. xvii. 6. Eusebius' Eccl. Hist., Bk. viii, ch. i. 7. Eusebius' Eccl. Hist., Bk. viii, ch. ii. 8. Book of Martyrs, ch. xii. 9. See Milner's Introduction to his Church Hist., Vol. i. 10. This is the Rev. H. H. Milman who edited and annotated Gibbon's "Decline and Fall." The above quotation will be found in the editor's preface. CHAPTER IV. CHANGES IN THE FORM AND SPIRIT OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT--CORRUPTION OF THE POPES.