Excerpt from The Early Conflicts of Christianity It is thus7 that, throwing ourselves back into that age, we have endeavored to display the faith, tracing as clearly as possible its successive triumphs over every enemy. There is nothing new in the following pages - no attempt at origi nality of View - for every thing which is brought forward on these subjects must necessarily be gleaned from the writings of those who have gone before us. It is on the manner only in which these truths are presented7 that we must rest our claim to attention. History is generally too much broken up into distinct periods7 and the natural course of events interrupted, to mark the end of particular centuries. Of this, Mo sheim's Ecclesiastical History is the most glaring example. The consequence often is a confusion in the mind of an ordinary reader7 as turning from one subject to another, he is obliged to re sume the thread of the narrative where some time ago it was abandoned. It is this we have endeavored to avoid, tracing - as far as is neces sary for the general reader - through successive centuries, the gradual waning of a particular form of opposition, until its power was broken, and it ceased to be numbered among the for midable enemies of the faith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.