“Diocletian himself, though he paid so much deference to the older faith as to assume the title of Jovius, as belonging to the Lord of the world, yet, on his accession, when he would exculpate himself from all concern in the murder of his predecessor Numerian, appealed in the face of the army to the all-seeing deity of the sun. It is the oracle of Apollo of Miletus, consulted by the hesitating emperor, which is to decide the fate of Christianity. The metaphorical language of Christianity had unconsciously lent strength to this new adversary; and, in adoring the visible orb, some, no doubt, supposed that they were not departing far from the worship of the ‘Sun of Righteousness.’” In a foot-note, Milman quotes: “Hermogenes, one of the older heresiarchs, applied the text, ‘He has placed his tabernacle in the sun,’ to Christ, and asserted that Christ had put off his body in the sun.”[182] Dr. GEIKIE touches the point, and shows in a few words how Christianity yielded to paganism and its corrupting results; he says: “Helios, the sun, was the great object of worship, and so deep-rooted was this idolatry that the early Christian missionaries knew no other way of overthrowing it than by changing it into the name of Elias, and turning the temples into churches dedicated to him.”[183] Two important factors touching the union of Christianity and the state are now before the reader. 1. Under the Roman empire all recognized religions were controlled by the civil law. The persecution of Christians was based upon the idea that their worship was illegal; or rather that their refusal to worship the national gods, according to the legal _cultus_, was an offence against the commonwealth. 2. Sun-worship in its higher and lower forms was the prevailing and popular cult at Rome in the third and fourth centuries of Christian history. The emperors were devotees of this cult. It was therefore a foregone necessity that when Christianity grew strong enough to be entitled to recognition rather than persecution, it should be adopted by the state, and further commingled with the prevailing sun-worship. The next chapter will show how this was accomplished. FOOTNOTES: [175] _Church History_, vol. iii., pp. 131, 132, New York, 1884. [176] _The Institutes of Justinian_, by Thomas Collett Sandars, Oxford, Eng., Introduction, p. 4, Chicago, 1876. [177] _Prolegomena of the History of Religions_, by Albert Reville, D.D., p. 169, London, 1884. [178] _Outlines of the History of Religions_, C. P. Tiele, Boston, 1877, pp. 237, 238. [179] Schaff, _History of the Christian Church_, vol. ii., pp. 58, 59. [180] _Decline_, etc., vol. i., pp. 170, 171, New York, 1883. [181] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 361. [182] _Hist. Christianity_, book ii., chap. ix. [183] _Life and Words of Christ_, vol. i., pp. 53, 54. Appleton & Co., 1883. CHAPTER X. THE CONTROL OF CHRISTIANITY BY THE STATE UNDER CONSTANTINE AND HIS SUCCESSORS.