. The history of Christianity: consisting of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the adventures of Paul and the apostles; and the most interesting events in the progress of Christianity, from the earliest period to the present time. HE fifth century dawned luridly upon our sadworld. There was no stable government any-where. The Koman empire, which, oppressiveas it had often been, was far better than anarchy,had now become but a crumbling ruin, whichno human energy or skill could rebuild. Theattempt by Julian the Apostate to reinstatepaganism had proved so utter and humiliating a failu
. The history of Christianity: consisting of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the adventures of Paul and the apostles; and the most interesting events in the progress of Christianity, from the earliest period to the present time. HE fifth century dawned luridly upon our sadworld. There was no stable government any-where. The Koman empire, which, oppressiveas it had often been, was far better than anarchy,had now become but a crumbling ruin, whichno human energy or skill could rebuild. Theattempt by Julian the Apostate to reinstatepaganism had proved so utter and humiliating a failure, thatthere was no possibility of the undertaking being ever againrepeated. There can be but one religion which an enlightened worldwill accept; and that is Christianity. If Christianity is re-nounced, the world will never adopt any substitute which hasyet been proposed. The superstitions of barbarians are all toosenseless to be thought of for a moment. Though there wasa political party in the Eoman empire who rallied aroundJulian, even many of his partisans regarded his efforts to rein-state paganism with ridicule and contempt. The wits of theday lampooned him mercilessly. Honorius, Emperor of the West, after a disastrous reign of. THE FIFTH CENTURY. 367 twenty-eight years, died in tlie year 423. Weary scenes ofanarchy and bloodshed ensued, which we have no space todescribe. Placidia, a Christian princess, daughter of the greatTheodosius, had been carried away captive by the Goths. of her birth, her marvellous personal beauty, and theelegance of her manners, won universal admiration. The youngGothic king Adolphus, who was a man of unusual grace bothof person and mind, won the hand and heart of his nuptials were attended with great splendor at Narbonne,as we have mentioned in the previous chapter. The bride, writes Gibbon, attired and adorned like aEoman empress, was placed on a throne of state; and theking of the Goths, who assumed on this occasion t
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