paganism, pagan is me

[Eng. pagan; -ism.] The state or condition of a pagan; heathenism; the worship of idols or false gods. "The ruin of paganism , in the age of Theodosius, is, perhaps, the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition."-Gibbon: Roman Em pire , ch. xxviii. Used specially of that of ancient Rome. Licin ius having made war against Const an tine, A. D. 314, and again in 324, after the conversion of the latter to Christianity, was supported by the good wishes and the power of the pagan priests. Const an tine believed that paganism was a danger to the throne, and began to discourage it. In 331 he ordered the destruction of the pagan temples throughout the Roman empire. Julian, in 361, began to rebuild them, but the work ceased with his death. In 385 Theodosius I. i ued an edict against pagan sacrifices, and soon afterward closed the temples and the shrines. In 388 the Roman Senate renounced paganism, and in 391 it was legally abolished through the whole Roman empire, and afterward gradually died away.