Vol. 4, part 2, chap. 1, says: "It is certain that the greatest part
both of the bishops and presbyters were men entirely destitute of
learning and education. Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who
looked upon all sorts of erudition, particularly that of a
philosophical kind, as pernicious, and even destructive of true piety
and religion, increased both in number and authority. The ascetics,
monks and hermits augmented the strength of this barbarous faction, and
not only the women, but also all who took solemn looks, sordid
garments, and a love of solitude, for real piety, were vehemently
prepossessed in their favor." In almost any history of England we will
find it recorded that, even in the ninth century, King Alfred lamented
that there was at that time not a priest in his dominions who
understood Latin; and even for some centuries after the bishops and
prelates of the whole Christian community were marksmen, i. e., they
supplied by the sign of the cross the inability to write their own
names. If the bishops and priests were so supremely ignorant what can
he said in reference to the literary attainments of the laity?

The Christians were alternately persecuted and tolerated by the Roman
Emperors until the first quarter of the fourth century, when certain
events occurred through which the Church of Rome became the recipient
of Imperial Patronage. Constantine I., called the Great, having made
himself sole Emperor by destroying all other claimants to the throne,
applied to Sopater, one of the priests of the established religion, for
absolution, and was informed that his crimes were of such an atrocious
character that there was no absolution for him. Believing that the
Phlegethon, or lake of fire and brimstone, awaited him in the future
life, unless he could obtain absolution, he became very much distressed
when one of his courtiers, learning the cause and referring him to the
Church of Rome, he at once applied to her Bishop, Silvester, who,