[12] The word slova means "speech"; the Slavs are those who speak the same language.
[13] See pages 309, 315.
[14] A more accurate designation than Servia. Originally, all Slavic peoples called themselves Serbs.
[15] See page 284.
[16] Of the eight sieges to which Constantinople was subjected in medieval times, only two succeeded. In 1204 A.D. it was captured by the Venetians and in 1453 A.D., by the Ottoman Turks. See pages 477 and 492.
CHAPTER XV
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST TO 1054 A.D. [1]
120. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
A preceding chapter has traced the early history of Christianity. We there saw how the new religion appeared in the Orient, how it spread rapidly over the Roman Empire, how it engaged with the imperial government in the long conflict called the Persecutions, how the emperor Constantine, after his conversion, placed it on an equality with paganism, and how at the end of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius made it the state religion. By this time the Church had become a great and powerful organization, with fixed laws, with a graded system of officers, and with councils attended by clergy from all parts of the Roman world. To this organization the word Catholic, that is, "universal," came to be applied. Membership in the Catholic Church, secured only by baptism, was believed to be essential to salvation. As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."