The Transition From Heathen to Christian Civilization, from the Time of the Antonines to the Fall of the Western Empire

Extract

The old legal dictum, that Christianity is “part and parcel of the law of the land,” had a more definite meaning in the days of Blackstone than now; and the somewhat popular saying, that “religion is an affair between a man and his God,” considerably modifies the fact every day, not only in England, but in all Europe. Christianity, of course, has not been interwoven with the laws of Western Christendom for so many ages without greatly moulding the men and the institutions of the present; but we can see that its influence will, in future, be felt less and less as a definite objective system, even if more and more (as we may trust) subjectively.