Explore "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The indissoluble connection of civil and ecclesiastical affairs has compelled and encouraged me to relate the progress, the persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual corruption of Christianity. I have purposely delayed the consideration of two religious events, interesting in the study of human nature, and important in the decline and fall of the Roman empire: I. The institution of the monastic life; [4401] and, II. The conversion of the northern Barbarians.
[4401]: The origin of the monastic institution has been laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de l'église, tom. I, pp. 1119-–-1426) and Hippolyte Hélyot (L'Histoire des ordres monastiques, tom. I, pp. 1-–-66). These authors are very learned, and tolerably honest, and their difference of opinion shows the subject in its full extent. Yet the cautious Protestant, who distrusts any Popish guides, may consult the seventh book of Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church. ↩︎