Christianity civilised the barbarians; by unity of faith, it established political unity amongst peoples who were split up into hostile races--a result which would only have been arrived at in former days by the annihilation of nationalities, the dominion of the sword, and the force of oppression. History presents no spectacle more worthy of our attention than the steady and deep operation of this new principle of life infused into a society in a state of decay. This principle could only succeed in remoulding and directing the world by first assimilating men as individuals, and that amidst the excesses, the violence, and the disorders of a barbarism which, even after the lapse of centuries, would not allow itself to be crushed. But it was endowed with a persevering and indomitable energy. Consider how it affected everything, how it enlisted into its service all the forces which society from time to time placed at its disposal, or, to speak more correctly, permitted it to create! By means of the monastic orders, how many necessary works did it not accomplish? The soil was transformed by cultivation; bridges, dykes, and aqueducts were constructed in every direction; manuscripts were preserved in the monasteries; education was given in numberless schools, where the poor were taught gratuitously; the universities were made learned and prosperous; architecture was raised into a science; beneficent institutions were established and liberally endowed. “Christianity was the greatest benefactor of the Middle Ages,” said M. Benjamin Guérard; “and what is most striking in the revolutions which took place in these semi-barbarous times, is the action of the Church and of religion. The dogma of a common origin and destiny for all men alike, was an unceasing argument for the emancipation of the people; it brought together men of all stations, and opened the way for modern civilisation. Men, though they did not cease to oppress one another, began to recognise the fact that they were all members of the same family, and were led, through religious equality, up to civil and political equality; being brothers in the sight of God, they became equal before the law, the Christian became the citizen. “This transformation took place gradually and slowly, as being necessary and inevitable, by the continued and simultaneous enfranchisement of men and of land. The slave whom paganism, as it disappeared, handed over to the Christian religion, passed first from a state of servitude to a state of bondage, from bondage he rose to mortmain, and from mortmain to liberty.” Under the influence of the bishops, legislation was formed upon the principles of Christian morality. In the great councils of the nation, and in the royal councils, they gave a Christian direction to the government of the country, and more than once preserved national unity from being broken up. “The bishops,” says Gibbon, “constructed the French monarchy just as the bees construct the hive.”