is not to persuade, but to use force? Thus, then, it is plain you would transgress even the laws of your own religion."[D] Lardner calls attention to the fact that as under pagan emperors previous to Constantine, Christianity had been in a state of persecution, so now, after Constantine, he proceeds to show that paganism under Christian emperors was all along in a state of persecution--"However, I would hope, not so severe and vigorous as that of the Christians in the foregoing period of near three hundred years."[E] And so LeClerc, as quoted by Lardner: [Footnote A: The law is extant in the Theodocian Code.] [Footnote B: Neander, vol. ii. p. 34] [Footnote C: Neander Ch. Hist., vol. ii, pp. 88-110.] [Footnote D: Ibid., p. 67.] [Footnote E: Lardner, Works, vol. viii, p. 164.] "Thus it was that the Christians continued to return to the pagan what they had suffered from them during the first three centuries, instead of gaining them by patience and mildness, which they had so much recommended when they were the weakest. This conduct was proper to make the pagans more obstinate, by teaching them that the Christians affected to speak of humanity and moderation from interest only, and not from a principle of religion as they pretended. At least it is certain that thereby they lost the right to complain of the manner in which the pagans had treated them in times past, or to boast of the mildness of their religion, which they effectually disparaged by those persecutions. * * * * * * * Nor ought we to imagine that the penalties laid by Christians upon the pagans were light. If a sacrifice was offered in a private place, with the knowledge of the proprietor, the place was confiscated; if not, they were to pay a fine of twenty pounds of gold, as much as if it had been done in a temple; and in some cases the penalty of death was appointed. We may look into the oration of Libanius for the temples, where that orator sustains the same character before Theodosius as the Christians had formerly done before pagan emperors. I must acknowledge that this phenomenon, if I may so call it, gives me pain: for I could wish that they who defended the truth had preserved to themselves the honor of being the only persons that were persecuted for religion."[A] [Footnote A: Lardner Works vol. viii, p. 276.]