The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A small number of temples was protected by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence of the civil and ecclesiastical… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
As for this young Ali, one cannot but like him. A noble-minded creature, as he shows himself, now and always afterwards; full… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, with an… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
According to the faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, [Chosroes] sunk without hope into a still deeper abyss [Hell]; and it… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In the second century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict which… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws;… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West:… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of Heaven while they are employed in measuring… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image