Freethought Archives > G W Foote & J M Wheeler > Crimes of Christianity

[2:6] Rev. 2:6,15. Irenaeus, the first Christian Father who mentions the four Gospels, says: "The Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the deaconate by the apostles. They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence.'' Against Heresies, book i., chap. 26, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, p. 97.

[4:6] De Spectaculis, ch. 30. Translated by Dr. James Martineau in The Rationale of Religious Inquiry, p. 217. Gibbon's elegant and forcible paraphrase of a portion of this dithyramb will be found in his fifteenth chapter.

[4:7] Epistle 14 (ad Heliodorium).

[4:8] "If any man come unto me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

[5:9] History of European Morals, vol. i, p. 451.

[5:1] Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History, sec. 74.

[5:2] 1 Cor. 5:1; 11:21; Jude 12.

[5:3] Justin Martyr, Apology 1:26.

[6:4] Lardner, Works, vol. viii., p. 311.

[6:5] Lardner, vol. viii., p. 400.

[6:6] Treatise on Fasting, chap. 17.

[6:7] E. P. Meredith, in his Prophet of Nazareth, pp. 223-231, argues that the Christians were guilty of even worse excesses in their Agape, rivalling the worst features of the Bacchanalian orgies.

[7:8] Origen, although fond of allegorising Scripture, followed literally the hint in Matthew 19:12, and castrated himself to become a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake.

[7:9] Decline and Fall, chap. 15.

[7:1] Vol. II, p. 159.

[8:2] Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iii., p. 218.

[8:3] Chap. 3.

[9:4] See p. 17.

[9:5] Works, vol. iv. p. 391.

[9:6] J. H. Newman, Two Essays on Miracles, p. 273.

[10:7] Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, article Constantine.

[10:5] Chap. 18.

[11:9] Chap. 18.

[12:1] Gibbon, Chap. xx.

[13:2] J. C. Morison, "Gibbon" (English Men of Letters), p. 127.

[13:3] Vol. II., p. 137.

[14:4] Murdoch, footnote to Mosheim, vol. i., p. 289-290.

[15:5] It is remarkable that Constantine calls the Lord's Day dies solis. He evidently wished to patronise Christianity as a powerful religion, without offending the ears of his Pagan subjects, who, although less admirably organised, were still more numerous.

[16:6] Vol. I, p. 288.

[17:7] Gibbon, Chap. xx.

[17:8] Chap. 15.

[18:9] Les Apôtres, first edition, p. 315.

[18:1] History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, p. 52.

[19:2] Vol. I., p. 305.

[19:3] Vol. II., p. 25.

[19:4] Chap. 20.

[19:5] Mosheim, Vol. i., p. 291.

[19:6] Vol. II., p. 69.

[20:7] Chap. 20.

[20:8] L'Esprit des Lois, Book 29, chap. 16.

[20:9] Eusebius, Life of Constantine, Book 3, chap. 44.

[21:1] Works, vol. iv., p. 47.

[21:2] Vol. II., p. 27.

[21:3] Jortin, vol. ii., p. 66.

[22:4] Dr. Samuel Chandler, History of Persecution," p. 85; 1813.

[22:5] Lardner says, "Every part of this sentence, I think, had been decreed before the Council broke up." Vol. IV., p. 59.

[23:6] Newman, Two Essays on Miracles, p. 328.

[23:7] Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. i., p. 279.

[23:8] Vol. II., p. 63.

[23:9] Vol. I., p. 396.

[24:1] Jortin, vol. i., p. 71.