name, he says, which the heathen blaspheme, has efiticted not the destruction, but the salvation of the city.' Odoacer, who put an end to the western Roman empire in 476, was incited to his expedition into Italy by St. Severin, and, though himself an Arian, showed great regard to the catholic bishops. The same is true of his conqueror and suc- cessor, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, who was recognized by the east-Roman emperor Anastasius as king of Italy (a.d. 500;, and was likewise an Ai'ian. Thus between the barbarians and the Romans, as between the Romans and the Greeks and in a measure also the Jews, the conquered gave laws to the con- querors. Christianity triumphed over both. This is the end of Graeco-Roman heathenism, with its power, wisdom, and beauty. It fell a victim to a slow but steady process of incurable consumption. Its downfall is a sublime tragedy which, with all our abhorrence of idolatry, we cannot witness without a certain sadness. At the first appear- ance of Christianity it comprised all the wisdom, literature, art, and political power of the civilized world, and led aU into the field against the weaponless rehgion of the crucified !N^aza- rene. After a conflict of four or five centm-ies it lay prostrate in the dust without hope of resurrection. With the outward protection of the state, it lost all power, and had not even the courage of martyi'dom ; while the Christian church showed countless hosts of confessors and blood-witnesses, and Judaism lives to-day in spite of aU persecution. The expectation, that Christianity would fall about the year 398, after an existence of three hundred and sixty-five years,'' turned out in the fulfil- ment to relate to heathenism itself. The last glimmer of life in the old religion was its pitiable prayer for toleration and its ' Aug. : De civit. Dei, 1. i. c. l-R. ' Augustin mentions this story, De civit. Dei, xviii. 53. Gieseler (vol. i. § 19, not. 17) derives it from a lieathen perversion of the Christian (heretical) expectation of the second coming of Christ and the end of the world ; referring to Philastr. haer. 106 : " Alia est haeresis de anno annunciato ambigens, quod ait propheta Esaias : it Annuntiare annum Dei acceptabilem et diem retribidionis. Putant ergo quidam. 70 THIRD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590. lamentation over the ruin of the empire. Its best elements took refuge in the church and became converted, or at least took Christian names. Now the gods were dethroned, ora- cles and prodigies ceased, sibylline books were biu*ned, tem- ples were destroyed, or transformed into churches, or still stand as memorials of the victory of Christianity.' But although ancient Greece and Rome have fallen forever, p the spirit of Graeco-Eoman paganism is not extinct. It still lives in the natural heart of man, which at this day as much as ever needs regeneration by the Ipirit of God. It lives also in many idolatrous and superstitious usages of the Greek