Here then (1) in the attitude of the early Christians toward all mundane affairs as of no moment compared with those affecting their souls' salvation; (2) in the assumed authority of Scripture as a full revelation of both earthly and heavenly things; and (3) in the assumed infallibility of the words of Jesus reported therein; we have three factors which suffice to explain why the great movement toward discovery of the orderly relations of phenomena was arrested for centuries, and theories of capricious government of the universe sheltered and upheld. While, as has been said, the unity of the Empire secured Christianity its fortunate start; the multiform elements of which the Empire was made up--philosophic and pagan--being gradually absorbed by Christianity, secured it acceptance among the different subject-peoples. The break up of the Empire secured its supremacy. The absorption of foreign ideas and practices by Christianity, largely through the influence of Hellenic Jews, was an added cause of arrest of inquiry. The adoption of pagan rites and customs, resting, as these did, on a bedrock of barbarism, dragged it to a lower level. The intrusion of philosophic subtleties led to terms being mistaken for explanations: as Gibbon says, "the pride of the professors and of their disciples was satisfied with the science of words." The inchoate and mobile character of Christianity during the first three centuries gave both influences--pagan and philosophic--their opportunity. For long years the converts scattered throughout the Empire were linked together, in more or less regular federation, by the acknowledgment of Christ as Lord, and by the expectation of his second coming. There was no official priesthood, only overseers--"episkopoi"--for social purposes, who made no claims to apostolic succession; no formulated set of doctrines; no Apostles' Creed; no dogmas of baptismal regeneration or of the real presence; no worship or apotheosis of Mary as the Mother of God; no worship of saints or relics.