The dragon would be a beast from the natural world (if such a creature actually existed) and as such could represent nothing more than a civil empire; but in the vision under consideration he is represented as accompanied by _angels_ actuated by his spirit and defending his cause. By this combination of symbols is set forth the politico-religious system of the empire--a religion that denied the doctrine of the one exclusive God and the divinity of Jesus Christ. It was the religion of _infidelity_. It was the dragon as a false religious system that Christianity attacked, and not the State itself. The following quotation from Butler's Ecclesiastical History will show the relation of Christians to the empire: "The Romans were accustomed to tolerate all new religions if they took their place by the side of those already existing, and if they did not cast reproach upon them.... But Christianity, by its very nature exclusive in its claims ... was offensive to the Romans and to the State. A religion which cast contempt upon the religions and rites sanctioned by the laws, and endeavored to draw men away from them, seemed to express thereby contempt and hostility for the State itself. Hence Christianity was branded as a malignant superstition, and Christians spoken of as the enemies of the human race.... From the letter of Pliny to Trajan, it was evidently recorded as an _religio illicita_, and the mere fact of being a Christian was counted of itself a crime.... The exclusiveness of Christianity seemed also to place its disciples in a position of direct disloyalty to the emperors and the State. 'The emperor was ex-officio _Pontifex Maximus_; the gods were national. Cicero declares as a principle of legislation, that no one should be allowed to worship foreign gods, unless they were recognized by public statute. Maecenas thus counselled Augustas: Honor the gods according to the customs of your ancestors, and compel others to worship them. Hate and punish those who bring in strange gods.' As the Roman empire was founded on the absolutism of the State, and made nothing of personal rights, Christianity, which first taught and acknowledged them, would be peculiarly offensive to the State. Moreover, the conscientious refusal of Christians to pay divine honor to the emperor and his statutes, and to take part in idolatrous ceremonies at public festivals ... and their constant assembling themselves together, brought them under the suspicion and obloquy of the emperors and the people." Pp. 49, 50.