The Emperor Claudius caused slaves who were thus cruelly treated to be proclaimed freemen. It was the merciful and charitable conduct of the early Christians towards slaves, of whom such vast numbers helped to people the Roman Empire, that caused the doctrines of the Gospel to spread so rapidly throughout the Roman world. The slave found in the Gospel of Christ the first system of religion and philosophy which took any account of the poor, the helpless, and the slave; the rich and cultured saw in the teachings of the Church of Christ the only system which embraced mankind as a whole. Juvenal[524] has indicated for us the value of a slave’s life in these times. “Go, crucify that slave. For what offence? Who the accuser? Where the evidence? For when the life of man is in debate, No time can be too long, no care too great. Hear all, weigh all with caution, I advise. ‘Thou sniveller! is a slave a man?’ she cries. ‘He’s innocent! be’t so; ’tis my command, My will; let that, sir, for a reason stand.’” Although there is evidence that hospitals for the reception and treatment of sick and destitute persons were established in India in very early times,[525] and though we know that these were attached to some of the temples of ancient Greece, and the Romans had convalescent institutions for sick slaves and soldiers, it cannot be doubted that we owe to Christianity the hospital as it exists amongst us at the present day. Christianity taught the world not only that God is the Father of mankind, the pagan world already knew Him as Zeus pater, but that as His children we are the brethren and sisters of each other. The Church in Rome, in the third century, says Eusebius,[526] supported “widows and impotent persons, about a thousand and fifty souls who were all relieved through the grace and goodness of Almighty God.” St. Basil the Great (A.D. 379) founded at Cæsarea a vast hospital, which Nazianzen calls a new city, and was named after him Basiliades. The same author thought “it might deservedly be reckoned among the miracles of the world, so numerous were the poor and sick that came thither, and so admirable was the care and order with which they were served.”[527] In this institution St. Gregory of Nazianzus said, “disease became a school of wisdom, and misery was changed into happiness.”