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2i6 A Short History of The World appeal to the personal intelligence. In the ages of barbaric confu- sion that were now at hand in western Europe it was the Christian church that was mainly instrumental in preserving the tradition of learning. The persecution of Diocletian failed completely to suppress the growing Christian community. In many provinces it was ineffec- tive because the bulk of the population and many of the officials were Christian. In 317 an edict of toleration was issued by the associated Emperor Galerius, and in 324 Constantine the Great, a friend and on his deathbed a baptized convert to Christianity, became sole ruler of the Roman world. He abandoned all divine pretensions and put Christian symbols on the shields and banners of his troops. In a few years Christianity was securely established as the official religion of the empire. The competing religions disappeared or were absorbed with extraordinary celerity, and in 390 Theodosius the Great caused the great statue of Jupiter Serapis at Alexandria to be destroyed. From the outset of the fifth century onward the only priests or temples in the Roman empire were Christian priests and temples.