invariably made the charge that its theology was derived from the
ancient Paganism. After its establishment as the state religion of the
Empire, the hierarchy of the church, knowing that this charge was
unanswerable, instigated the Emperor Theodosius I. to promulgate an
edict decreeing the destruction of all books antagonistic to
Christianity. This edict, directed more particularly against the
writings of Celsus, was carried out so effectually that we know nothing
of what he wrote, only as quoted by Origen, the distinguished church
father of the third century, who attempted to answer in eight books
what Celsus had written in one, entitled "The True Discourse." In one
of his quotations from Celsus' work he makes that philosopher say "that
the Christian religion contains nothing but what Christians held in
common with heathens, nothing that was new or truly great." See
Bellamy's translation, chapter 4. During the earlier centuries the
Christians were divided into numerous sects, entertaining very
divergent views, and each faction, holding all others to be heretical,
charged them with having derived their doctrines from the Pagan
religion. Upon this subject we find that Epiphanius, a celebrated
church father of the 4th century, freely admits that all that differed
from his own were derived from the heathen mythology. Such was the
position of all orthodox writers during the Middle Ages, and since the
Reformation the Protestant clergy have uniformly made the same charge
against the Catholic; a few quotations from their writings we present
for the edification of our readers.

Jean Daille, a French Protestant minister of the 17th century, in his
treatise entitled La Religion Catholique Romaine Institute par Nama
Pompile, demonstrates that "the Papists took their idolatrous worship
of images, as well as all their ceremonies, from the old heathen
religion." Bishop Stillingfleet of the English church and a writer of