Consult Gibbon, ch. xvi; Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman History, Eng. tr. Lect. cxli; and Boissier, La Fin du Paganisme (2e édit. 1894), tom. i, Appendice, for critical views, as distinguished from those of the ecclesiastical historians. Compare also Milman’s account in the first chapter of his History of Latin Christianity. The alleged Neronian persecution is specially sifted by Hochart, Études au sujet de la persécution des Chrétiens sous Néron, 1885. For a complete record of the cult of the emperors see Le Culte Impérial, son histoire et son organisation, par l’Abbé E. Beurlier, 1891.
§§ 2, 3, 4. Establishment and Creed-Making; Reaction under Julian; Re-establishment; Disestablishment of Paganism.
Boissier’s La Fin du Paganisme goes very fully into the question of Constantine’s conversion and policy, but does not supersede Beugnot, Histoire de la destruction du paganisme en occident, 1835, 2 tom. (Both are misleading on the subject of the labarum, as to which see the variorum notes in Reid’s Mosheim, and in Bohn Gibbon, ad loc.) Compare Gibbon, chs. xix–xxv, and Hatch, Organization. A good modern survey is Victor Schultze’s Geschichte des griechischrömischen Heidentums, 2 Bde. 1887. Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century gives an intensely orthodox view of its subject. Mosheim and Milman and Neander are more judicial. See also Harnack’s Outlines, and the references given above to ch. i, § 6. On Manichæism it is still well to consult Beausobre, Histoire critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme. Compare Mosheim, Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, vol. iii, and the account of Neander, General History, vol. ii. The legend of Manichæus is discussed in the author’s Pagan Christs. Rendall’s The Emperor Julian: Christianity and Paganism, 1879, is a learned and competent research, usually fair, and gives light on the previous reigns, as well as on Julian’s. Gibbon’s survey here remains important. On Gregory of Nazianzun there is a monograph by Ullmann (Eng. tr. 1851). See Milman as to the falsity of the death-legend concerning Julian. As to the disestablishment of paganism, Beugnot and Schultze are the best guides, but Boissier is discursively instructive. Chapter III—Failure with Survival
The narrative may be checked throughout by Neander’s General History of the Christian Religion and Church (trans. in Bohn Lib.); by Mosheim, with the variorum notes of Reid’s edition; by Gibbon’s chapters; by the histories of dogma; by the above-cited monographs on the Fathers, St. Chrysostom’s Picture of his Age (S.P.C.K. 1875), and Rev. W. E. Stephens’s St. Chrysostom, His Life and Times (1872); by Milman’s History of Latin Christianity, vols. i and ii; by Finlay’s History of Greece (Tozer’s ed.), vols. i and ii; and by Bury’s History of the later Roman Empire (two vols. 1889). On the intellectual life compare further Boissier, La Fin du Paganisme; Ampère, Histoire littéraire de la France, 1839, tom. i and ii; and Lecky’s History of European Morals.
Part III—MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY
Chapter I—Expansion and Organization
§ 1. Position in the Seventh Century
Hatch (Organization) is still a guide. For special details consult Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History gives some specific ideas as to the early life of the medieval Church. Bryce’s Holy Roman Empire is valuable for its general view.