“Nero and Domitian soon found themselves face to face with Peter and Linus;--the first, armed masters of the world, having upon their side legality, which is so different from justice, representatives of the old world which cried out in the circus, ‘To the lions with the Christians!’--the latter, poor, weak, misunderstood, and calumniated, propagating the kingdom of God by authority, education, ceremonies, and example; declaring that unto Cæsar should be rendered the things which are Cæsar’s, but nothing more, neither worship nor the sacrifice of one’s sentiments and convictions.”--(Cantù.) [Illustration: Fig. 202.--The Jewish Religion assisting at the death of Jesus Christ. The figure has a bandage over the eyes, the Decalogue is falling from its hands, and its spear is broken to pieces.--Sculpture in Strasburg Cathedral (Thirteenth Century).--From a Photograph by Charles de Winter, of Strasburg.] This struggle, begun by St. Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, and first pope, and continued by his successor St. Linus, went on for three centuries. Nevertheless the popes, unchecked by persecutions, had effected the moral conquest of the Roman world,--even the palace of the Cæsars was full of Christians when their legal existence became recognised by Constantine. The seat of the empire was transferred to Byzantium; the luxury and effeminacy of the East enervated the degenerated race of the Cæsars, while under the influence of the Bishops of Rome, officially recognised at that date as the sovereign pontiffs of the Christians, the West continued to advance rapidly in the path of modern civilisation. [Illustration: Fig. 203.--The Christian Religion assisting at the death of Jesus Christ. Crowned and triumphant, the figure holds in one hand the standard of the cross, and in the other the chalice of the eucharist.--Sculpture in Strasburg Cathedral (Thirteenth Century).--From a Photograph by Charles de Winter, of Strasburg.] The emperors, converted to Christianity, ere long became the opponents of the popes; “laying aside the sword of defence for disputations on theology.” Their weakness handed the West over to the Germanic races; primitive society, whose organization still remained heathen, despite the change in religious belief, was swallowed up by the invasion of these Northerners, whose institutions facilitated the triumph of the ideas of political liberty and equality, the germ of which was deposited in the Gospel. [Illustration: Fig. 204.--The spiritual and the temporal powers dependent upon Jesus Christ, who is handing to St. Peter the keys and to Constantine the standard surmounted by the cross.--Mosaic of the Tenth Century in the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, at Rome.]