=Amalgamation of Christianity with Græco-Roman Philosophy.=--But while the Christian ideals and training were developing and crystallizing, the Greek philosophy in its Roman form was being continued and expanded. This movement has been seen to be very different from early Christianity in its general purpose. It concerned itself chiefly with life in this world. The problem it attempted to solve was how one should live so as to get the most satisfaction out of life. The Hellenized Roman schools may, therefore, be accounted as ‘worldly’ as the Christian schools were ‘otherworldly’ in their aim. A general feeling of this marked difference in purpose and organization between Christianity and the contemporaneous Græco-Roman culture was destined to cause an opposition to pagan learning to spring up among the Christians. But for two or three centuries this is scarcely noticeable, especially in the Eastern empire, where it was felt that philosophy was, like Christianity, a search after truth; and, as far as it went, confirmed the Bible. There was even a tendency to unite the two movements. As the new religion spread throughout the Roman world, and was compelled to defend itself against charges of immorality, atheism, and treason, the educated converts attempted to set forth the Christian teachings in terms of Greek thought, and to solve speculative problems that had never been considered by Jesus and his disciples. The first Hellenizing Christians are known as _Apologists_, since their efforts were directed toward reconciling Christianity with the Græco-Roman philosophy. In general, they mingled Stoicism with the teachings of Jesus. Later, other Hellenistic philosophers unified Christian doctrine with the principles of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle. Perhaps the most extreme of these philosophic positions within Christianity was a combination with Platonism known as _Gnosticism_, which was intended to be a sort of esoteric knowledge and to show the relation of Christianity to other religions and to the universe. [Sidenote: Pupils in the school at Alexandria allowed to study all Greek subjects.]