During the first three hundred years after the promulgation of Christianity, it was assailed by the learned, ridiculed by the sarcastic, opposed by the mighty, and on all sides persecuted and oppressed. Yet the church grew and prospered. The disciples of Christ had other lessons to learn and other duties to perform than the schools of human wisdom could inculcate, but this did not prevent the existence of many learned Christians. The great Origen was surpassed by none of his cotemporaries among the Greeks; and Minucius Felix, Tertullian, and Lactantius stood first in Latin ranks. It was a time when injured rights and insulted virtue demanded the most exalted oratory, and the early fathers were not wanting in its divinest use. Chrysostom, for example, warmed his century like a sun. In good time certain men of the most despised nation came up to the great city of power and pride. They were regarded as the scum and offscouring of the lowest ranks, and their religious rites were declared to be impious. Their God had been crucified under the Procurator of Judea, and his body had been stolen from a hidden grave. But the new doctrines continued to spread, although the magistrates resisted them, and more than ten times the Augusti raised their swords against the "execrable superstition." The altars of the great gods were deserted, their temples decayed, their images were dethroned, and in their stead, in their very place often, rose the edifices of those who adored the Nazarene, and scorned the ancient deities of the Quirites. Thenceforth Rome ceased to be invincible. The East was encroached upon, and the West fell under the flood of hostile barbarians. The sceptre was removed to another city, and the huge universal empire was dissolved. Rome was humbled to the lowest degree, and bowed her neck to her captors.