truth is that the history of the twelve apostles is utterly unknown, and
that around their names gathers a mass of incredible and nonsensical
myth and legend, similar in kind to other mythological fables, and
entirely unworthy of credence by reasonable people.

Nor is proof less lacking of submission "from the same motives, to new
rules of conduct." Nowhere is there a sign that Christian morality was
enforced by appeal to the miracles of Christ; miracles were, in those
days, too common an incident to attract much attention, and, indeed, if
they could not win belief in the mission from those Jews before whom
they were said to have been performed, what chance would they have had
when the story of their working was only repeated by hearsay? Again, the
rules of conduct were not "new;" the best parts of the Christian
morality had been taught long before Christ (as we shall prove later on
by quotations), and were familiar to the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians,
from the writings of their own philosophers. There would have been
nothing remarkable in a new sect growing up among these peoples,
accustomed as they were to the schools of the philosophers, with their
various groups of disciples distinguished by special names. Why is there
anything more wonderful in these Christian societies with a high moral
code, than in the severe and stately morality inculcated and practised
by the Stoics? For the submission of conduct to the "new rules," the
less said the better. 1 Corinthians does not give us a very lofty idea
of the morality current among the Christians there, and the angry
reproaches of Jude imply much depravity; the messages to the seven
Churches are generally reproving, not to dwell on many scattered
passages of the same character. Outsiders, moreover, speak very harshly
of the Christian societies. Tacitus--whose testimony must be allowed
some weight, if he be quoted as a proof of the existence of the
sect--says that they were held in abhorrence for their crimes, and were