Excerpt from The Conquering Cross: The Church The Apostles disappear - representative figures Of bishops and martyrs take their place on the canvas. The dim Shadows Of their ancient heathen rivals confront them for a moment and pass. The confused murmur Of Old controversies and apologies, ' drowned in the raging clamour of persecution, startle the ear, but are at length stilled for awhile in the Splendid ascendancy of the Christian Church under Constantine. Viewed as a consecutive narrative, this book must appear defective. Out of the many Persecutions (which become mono tonous after a time), only a characteristic scene here and there has been selected; out Of the many Martyrs, only a few Of the leading types; out Of the many Princes, only the most illustrious or notorious; out Of the many Apologies, only the most cogent; out Of the many Controversies, only the most salient; out Of the many Heretics, only the most intellectual or picturesque; out Of the many Saints, only the most phenomenal. 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.