4. After the Church had passed through a great variety of persecutions, during a period of nearly three centuries, the Christians became superior in numbers to the pagans in the Roman empire. In the early part of the fourth century, a free toleration in religious matters was declared by Constantine the Great, who took the Church under his especial protection.
5. The Christians of the first and second centuries usually worshipped God in private houses, or in the open air in retired places, chiefly on account of the persecutions to which they were often subjected. It was not until the third century, that they ventured to give greater publicity to their service, by building churches for general accommodation. When the Cross had obtained the ascendency, in the subsequent age, many of the heathen temples were appropriated to Christian purposes; and many splendid churches were erected, especially by Constantine and his successors.
6. In the middle ages, a great number of edifices were erected for the performance of divine worship, which, in loftiness and grandeur, had never been surpassed; and the greater part of these remain to the present day. Some of the most famous churches are, St. Peter's, at Rome; Notre Dame, at Paris; St. Stephen's, at Vienna; the church of Isaac, at St. Petersburg; the minsters at Strasburg and Cologne and St. Paul's, in London.
7. Up to the time of the great change in favor of Christianity, just mentioned, the whole Church had often acted together in matters of common interest, through the medium of general councils; and this practice continued for several centuries afterwards. But the variance and dissensions between the Pope of Rome, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, combined with some other causes, produced, about the close of the ninth century, a total separation of the two great divisions of the Church.
8. At the time of this schism, the whole Christian world had become subject to these two prelates. The part of the Church ruled by the Patriarch, was called the _Eastern_, or _Greek Church_; and that part which yielded obedience to the Pope, was denominated the _Western_, or _Latin Church_. Many attempts have been since made to reunite these two branches of the Church; but these endeavors have hitherto proved unsuccessful.