The Star in the West

156 THE STAR IN THE WEST Renan , before he assumes the biting satire of a Saladin , or the poetic iconoclasm of a Swinburne . Christ , firstly , as the Son of God , is divine , omni potent , in fact he is God ; secondly , as the Son of Man , is noble , generous , lovable , in fact , man ; but , thirdly , as the offspring of the carnalities of a Byzan tine mob , which is the true Christ of history , he assumes a vampire form , a horror fed on the blood of children , the virility of youths , the chastity of maidens . Hardly a single evil of the present day , if traced back a few hundred years , and frequently not half so long as that , but finds its birth in some cor ruption practised by the Harlot of the seven hills , or the Monster of the six wives . It is only necessary to study such works as those of Buckle or Draper , of White or Stewart Ross , or better still , if time permits , those of ecclesiastical historians , written by the pens of divines , to become aware of the appalling gloom that was cast over the splendour that was Greece , and the grandeur that was Rome , in that dismal night of a thousand years which lapped the Western world in a sea of blood and tears . Ignorance crushed the mind of Europe , as a hammer of lead , from the time that Constantine - tyrant , murderer , and debauchee threw in his lot with the yelping mob of Constantin ople . On that fateful day a fiery cross shone in the sky ,' and to this day it has been our lot to carry its cankerous form branded on our hearts and corroded in our minds . Not till now are we waking from the turbid dreams , the feverish lust , and dismal super stition , that sprang from the gaberlunzies of the Suburra : In hoc signo vinces .