A. D.

286. The Northmen attack the Roman Empire in the West, and the Persians in the East.

the frontiers ravaged by invaders.

292. Partition of the Roman Empire into four kingdoms, under Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius.

four temporary divisions.

295. Alexandria taken by Diocletian.

Diocletian takes Alexandria.

302. The tenth persecution, under Diocletian. a general extermination decreed.

305. The Council of Elvira enjoins celibacy on the clergy. gainsay the written law.

306. Constantine, emp. in the West, Licinius in the East. they halve the whole empire.

307. Arnobius issues his treatise against the Gentiles. a great writer against paganism.

311. The Donatist schism.

the great controversy about Cicilianus.

312. Constantine the Great embraces Christianity. the history of Christianity is affected by it.

313. Edict of Milan : Constantine grants toleration to the Christians.

a grand change in their history.

318. The Arian controversy begins: the Emperor becomes an Arian.

the head of the Church an Arian!

321. Constantine commands the observance of Sunday on all his subjects.

the holy day to be observed.

324. Constantine becomes sole emperor in East and West. a great date in sacred (history).

Christianity becomes the religion of the State.
the holy faith established.

SECT. 18. From Constantine to the Fall of the Western Empire. (324-476.)

A. D.

325. Council of Nice condemns Arianism.

they agree in defining "the Logos."

330. Constantinople becomes the cap. of the Roman emp. the government is gone from the West.

336. Death of Arius.

the greatest heretic of antiquity.

337. Death of Constantine the Great.

a great gap produced.

339. The Council of Antioch deposes Athanasius. the heretics have a triumph.

350. Constantius strictly prohibits heathen sacrifices. heathenism at last on the wane.

356. Athanasius expelled by force from his see by Constantius.

he gained his laurels at Nice.

359. The Gospels translated into Moso-Gothic by Bishop Ulphilas.

the Gothic Ulphilas a translator.

361. Julian the Apostate becomes emperor.

a heathen monarch's accession.

371. Pelagius, founder of Pelagianism, born in Britain about this time.

the great Pelagian controversy.

373. Death of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria.

a great opponent of heresy.

375. Apollinaristic Controversy.

the heresy of Apollinarus of Laodicea.

379. Theodosius the Great becomes emperor: advances

Christianity.

heathenism persecuted in turn.

382. First General Council, of Constantinople: Macedonius

condemned.

the Holy-Ghost reckoned divine.

A.D.

385. Jerome translates the Hebrew Scriptures into Latin.

the Hebrew rendered into Latin.

387. Valentinian II. embraces Catholicism: great triumph over Arianism.

the heresy of Arius put-down.

391. Ambrose induces the Emperor Theodosius to do penance for the massacre at Thessalonica.

a great triumph to the Church.

392. The temple of Serapis at Alexandria destroyed, and the final overthrow of Paganism in the East. the heathen temples are demolished.

395. Augustine appointed Bishop of Hippo.

the hero of theological literature.

Final division of the empire between the sons of
Theodosius.

a great event is looming.

397. Death of Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan.

the great Italian prelate.

Theophilus of Alexandria anathematises Origen, and denounces the Anthropomorphites.

a harsh and violent prelate.

407. Death of Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople. sinks on the way to Pityus.

410. Rome sacked and burned by Alaric, king of the Visigoths.

they sack the capital of the West.

411. The Pelagian controversy begins at Carthage. a serious controversy commences.

415. Cyril becomes Bishop of Alexandria.

the austere bishop of Alexandria.

428. Nestorius becomes Patriarch of Constantinople: the Nestorian controversy begins.

serious differences arise.

430. Death of Augustine.

the saintly Augustine expires.

A.D.

431. Third General Council, at Ephesus, condemns Pelagian and Nestorian tenets.

sailors guard Cyril.

439. The Vandals overrun Africa, patronise the Arians, and persecute the Orthodox.

savage Genseric the Vandal.

443. The Huns, under Attila, lay waste the Roman Empire, after conquering the Germans.

savage Scythian hordes.

447. Simon Stylites, the hermit of Syria, founder of the sect of the Stylites.

Simon stands on his pillar.

449. The Jutes and Saxons arrive in Britain, and nearly extirpate Christianity.

the Jutes and Saxons in Thanet.

451. Fourth General Council (Chalcedon) condemns the tenets of Eutyches, and ratifies the doctrine

of two natures and one person in Christ: Monophysite controversy.

the separate elements of Christ's (person).

461. Leo the Great, Pope of Rome, claims to be vicar of Christ.

sets-up an impious claim.

476. Monophysite doctrine declared the religion of the Eastern Empire.

the State patronises the Monophysites.

Extinction of the Western Empire by the Goths.
the succeeding period is Mediaval.

PART SECOND.-PROFANE HISTORY.

PERIOD I.—ANCIENT HISTORY.

CHAP. I.-HISTORY OF EGYPT.

(B. C. 2550-30.)

[The Author deems himself peculiarly fortunate in those whose cooperation he has secured in preparing the following introduction to his Chronology of Ancient Egypt. The portion bearing on the History of Egypt is from the pen of Mr W. Osburn, R.S.L., the author of many learned works on Egyptology, and who, from having devoted the greater part of his laborious life to the elucidation of the monuments of that country, and to the testimony which they afford to the truthfulness of the books of Moses, now occupies the foremost place among British Egyptologists. The second portion-that bearing on the Great Pyramid -bears the peculiar impress of its esteemed author, further mentioned in the final note. This paper cannot fail to be appreciated by the Christian who, with soundness in the faith and loyalty to the Master, combines a scientific interest in the order and history of the wonderful Cosmos which He has created.]

PART I.-THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT.

THE early history of Egypt is older by centuries than that of any other nation with which we are acquainted. The natural and physical causes which account for this lie at the threshold of the inquiry. The situation of Egypt on the surface of the globe is in the driest parallels of latitude all round the earth, and in both hemispheres. To the eastward and westward of Egypt, and for nearly 3000 miles in each direction, it is closely hemmed in by sandy deserts, through which the river Nile forces its way all but due northward and southward. The periodical overflow of this river, consequent upon the tropical rains, has in the course of ages reclaimed from the desert, on each bank, a thin strip of land of extreme fertility, seldom exceeding half a mile in breadth on each side, and nowhere reaching further than eight or ten miles on both sides.