itself; this remarkable family, the appointed channel for the
centralizing forces, reaching its climax in his son Charlemagne;
creator of a Holy Roman Empire.

There had appeared an enemy to the true faith more to be feared than
paganism.

Less than one hundred years after the death of Clovis, there had come
out of Asia, that birthplace of religions, a new faith, which was
destined to be for centuries the scourge of Christendom, and which
to-day rules one-third of the human family. Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ,
had successively come with saving message to humanity, and now (A.D.
600) Mahomet believed himself divinely appointed to drive out of Arabia
the idolatry of ancient Magianism (the religion of Zoroaster).

Christianity had passed through strange vicissitudes. Kings, emperors,
popes, and bishops had been terrible custodians of its truths; and
while many still held it in its primitive purity, ecclesiastics were
fiercely righting over the nature of the Trinity, the divinity of the
Virgin Mother, and the Church was shaken to its foundation by furious
factions.

In this hour of weakness the Persians (A.D. 590) had conquered Asia
Minor. Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary were profaned; the Holy
Sepulchre had been burned, and the cross carried off amid shouts of
laughter. Magianism had insulted Christianity, and no miracle had
interposed! The heavens did not roll asunder, nor did the earth open
her abysses to swallow them up. There was consternation and doubt in
Christendom.