There can be but one answer: it is Christianity. In every community religion is the life principle, the central fire, which fills the whole with living force, and communicates its own spirit to every cell of the organism.[[173]] That is a law which is becoming ever more apparent in all anthropological, sociological and religious science. From this general law we might conclude in this particular case, that it is the religion that gives the civilization its character. But we need not appeal to general principles; history tells us in the clearest tones that the peculiarities which distinguish Western civilization from every other spring directly or indirectly from the Christian faith.
Now one way of classifying religions is to divide them into two groups, spontaneous and founded. The former are results of the united unconscious action of a tribe or people: for example, the religions of Greece and Rome. The latter spring from some particular man, and are inseparably connected with his life: for example, Buddhism, Christianity and Mohammedanism.
That Christianity is a founded religion, and that it springs from Christ, admits of no question. Tacitus, the Roman historian, in speaking of the great fire at Rome in 64 A. D., which devastated ten of the fourteen districts into which the Imperial city was divided, says that the people got their heads filled with the suspicion, that the Emperor himself (Nero was then on the throne) had used his agents to set the city on fire. He then continues:—
“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished; or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.
“Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.”[[174]]
Christ, then, is a historical person. He was a Jew; He founded Christianity; and He was executed by Pontius Pilatus during his procuratorship of Judæa, i.e., between 27 and 37 A. D.[[175]] Other facts enable scholars to fix the date of His death within narrower limits: a few adopt 30 A. D., but by far the greatest number prefer 29 A. D.;[[176]] and that date we adopt here.
Here, then, are the facts: Christ was put to death by the Roman Governor of Judæa in 29 A. D., but this did not extinguish Christianity; for it spread not only in Judæa but beyond; so much so, that in 64 A. D. “an immense multitude” of Christians were found in Rome, and were for their faith put to death with horrible barbarities.
Such is the first chapter of the history of Christianity in Europe. From this point onwards the facts are well known. The furious hostility visible here in the spirit of the Roman Empire against the Christian faith ended in the victory of the latter, in its gradual acceptance by the races of Europe, and the continuously increasing infiltration of Christian ideas into the minds of the people. The process is far from complete; for the contrast between the old spirit and the new is so extreme that only long ages of discipline and the slow processes of evolution will suffice to work the transformation. We have seen how essentially different the spirit in our modern life is from the spirit of Græco-Roman life: how much greater would be the contrast, if one were to oppose the pure spirit of Christ to the spirit of Paganism! When men accept Christ, they are conscious of the authority of His perfect character and His heavenly life, and they know that He claims their complete submission to Him; but they have no idea how far-reaching this claim is. Christ demands that not only every part of the individual’s life—thoughts, feelings, words, deeds—but every aspect of social and political life as well should be made subject to His law of love. This is easily stated: how hard is it to work it out, except in a long series of generations!
But imperfect as has been the perception of Christ’s aims, and still more imperfect the execution of these by the peoples of Europe, yet the results of even their very partial submission to them have been, as we have seen, momentous in the highest degree. Christ has made modern Europe.
Now we found from our study of Virgil’s prophecy that he believed that a new age was just about to open. Like other thinking men of his day, he felt that the civilization under which he lived was played out, that new life was needed, new morals and a fresh organization of society. He believed that in the new age the leader and king would be a great Roman, and that under him the world would be transformed.