We shall find the early Christians10 no exception to the operation of this influence of repose11. Whenever it was accorded them, either through the mercy or the indifference12 of the emperors, internal dissensions, the intrigues13 of aspiring14 prelates and the rise of heresies15 characterized those periods. Even Milner, who wrote his great work to counteract16 the influence of the too candid17 Mosheim; who takes to task other ecclesiastical writers for making too much of the wickedness that has existed in the church; who declares in the introduction of his Church History that genuine piety18 is the only thing he intends to celebrate, and announces it to be his purpose to write the history of those men only, irrespective of the external church to which they belonged, who have been real not nominally19 Christians[1]—even Milner, I say, admits and deplores20 the mischief21 wrought22 by these periods of peace which came to the church between the storms of persecution2 which plagued it; and refers in several places to the marked and steady declension of the Christian spirit in those centuries with which at present I am dealing23. He admits that a gloomy cloud hung over the conclusion of the first century; and argues that the first impressions made by the effusion of the spirit are generally the strongest; that human depravity, overborn for a time, arises afresh, particularly in the next generation—hence the disorders24 of schism25 and heresy26 that arose in the church, the tendency of which was to destroy the work of God.[2]
The same writer upon the authority of Origen says that the long peace granted the church in the third century produced a great degree of luke-warmness and religious indecorum. "Let the reader," says he, "only notice the indifference which he [Origen] here describes, and the conduct of the Christians both in the first and second century, and he will be affected27 with the greatness of the declension." Then follows the picture drawn28 by Origen: "Several come to church only on solemn festivals; and then not so much for instruction as diversion. Some go out again as soon as they have heard the lecture, without conferring or asking the pastors29 questions. Others stay not till the lecture is ended; and others hear not so much as a single word; but entertain themselves in a corner of the church."
Coming to the middle of the third century, just previous to that severe persecution inaugurated by the Emperor Decius, and speaking of Cyprian, bishop30 of Carthage: Milman exclaims: "A star of the first magnitude! when we consider the times in which he lived. Let us recreate ourselves with the contemplation of it. We are fatigued31 with hunting for Christian goodness; and we have discovered but little and that little with much difficulty. We shall find Cyprian to be a character who partook indeed of the declension which we have noticed and lamented32; but who was still far superior, I apprehend33, in real simplicity34 and piety to the Christians of the East."[3] This same Cyprian, in whom Milner delights, speaking of the effects of the long peace which preceded the Decian persecution, says: "Each had been bent35 on improving his own patrimony36; and had forgotten what believers had done under the apostles, and what they ought always to do. They were brooding over the arts of amassing37 wealth; the pastors and the deacons each forgot their duty; works of mercy were neglected, and discipline was at the lowest ebb38; luxury and effeminacy prevailed; meritricious arts in dress were cultivated; fraud and deception39 practiced among brethren. Christians would unite themselves in matrimony with unbelievers; could swear not only without reverence40 but even without veracity41. With haughty42 asperity43 they despised their ecclesiastical superiors; they railed against one another with outrageous44 acrimony, and conducted quarrels with determined45 malice46. Even many bishops47, who ought to be guides and patterns to the rest, neglected the peculiar48 duties of their stations, gave themselves up to secular49 pursuits. They deserted50 their places of residence and their flocks; they traveled through distant provinces in quest of pleasure and gain; gave no assistance to the needy51 brethren; but were insatiable in their thirst of money. They possessed52 estates by fraud and multiplied usury53. What have we not deserved to suffer for such conduct? Even the divine word hath foretold54 us what we might expect: 'If his children forsake55 my law and walk not in my judgments57, I will visit their offenses58 with the rod and their sins with scourges59.' These things had been denounced and foretold, but in vain. Our sins had brought our affairs to that pass, that because we had despised the Lord's directions, we were obliged to undergo a correction of our multiplied evils and a trial of our faith by severe remedies."[4]
The last forty years of the third century were years of peace to the church. That period began with the ascension of Gallienius, a man of taste, indolence, philosophy and toleration, to the throne; and his example was followed by the emperors to the end of the century. A new scene this, Christianity tolerated by a pagan government for forty years! "This new scene did not prove favorable to the growth of grace and holiness," writes Milner. "In no period since the apostles was there ever so great a general decay as in this; not even in particular instances can we discover during this interval60, much of lively Christianity."[5]
Though conscious of having already quoted copiously61 upon the point under consideration, I cannot withhold62 the testimony63 of Eusebius who was a witness of the effects of that peace granted the church previous to the last great pagan persecution, the Diocletian. After describing the multitudes which flocked into the church before the declension in the spirit of true Christianity so greatly prevailed, he remarks: "Nor was any malignant64 demon65 able to infatuate, no human machinations prevent them so long as the providential hand of God superintended and guarded his people as the worthy66 subjects of his care. But when by reason of excessive liberty, we sunk into negligence67 and sloth68, one envying and reviling69 another in different ways, and we were almost, as it were, upon the point of taking up arms against each other with words as with darts70 and spears, prelates inveighing71 against prelates, and people rising up against people, and hypocrisy72 and dissimulation73 had arisen to the greatest height of malignity74, then the divine judgment56, which usually proceeds with a lenient75 hand, whilst the multitudes were yet crowding into the church, with gentle and mild visitation began to afflict76 the episcopacy; the persecution having begun with those brethren in the army. But as if destitute77 of all sensibility, we were not prompt in measures to appease78 and propitiate79 the Deity80; some indeed like atheists, regarding our situation as unheeded and unobserved by a Providence, we added one wickedness and misery81 to another. But some that appeared to be our pastors deserting the law of piety, were inflamed82 against each other with mutual83 strifes, only accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalship, hostility85 and hatred86 to each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of sovereignty for themselves."[6]
Let it be remembered that this is quoted from a writer contemporary with the events, and who says in the very chapter following the one from which the foregoing is taken that it was not for him to record the dissensions and follies87 which the shepherds of the people exercised against each other before the persecution. He also adds: "We shall not make mention of those that were shaken by the persecution, nor of those that suffered shipwreck88 in their salvation89, and of their own accord were sunk in the depths of the watery90 gulf91."[7] Then in his Book of Martyrs92, referring to events that occurred between the edicts ordering the persecution, he says: "But the events that occurred in the intermediate times, besides those already related, I have thought proper to pass by; I mean more particularly the circumstances of the different heads of the churches, who from being shepherds of the reasonable flocks of Christ, that did not govern in a lawful93 and becoming manner, were condemned94, by divine justice, as unworthy of such a charge, to be the keepers of the unreasonable95 camel, an animal deformed96 in the structure of his body; and condemned further to be the keepers of the imperial horses. * * * Moreover, the ambitious aspirings of many to office, and the injudicious and unlawful ordinations97 that took place, the divisions among the confessors themselves, the great schisms98 and difficulties industriously99 fomented100 by the factions101 among the new members, against the relics102 of the church, devising one innovation after another, and unmercifully thrusting them into the midst of all these calamities, heaping up affliction upon affliction. All this, I say, I have resolved to pass by, judging it foreign to my purpose, wishing, as I said in the beginning, to shun103 and avoid giving an account of them."[8]
Hence, however bad the condition of the church is represented to be by ecclesiastical writers, we must know that it was still worse than that; however numerous the schisms; however unholy the ambition of aspiring prelates; however frequent and serious the innovations upon the primitive104 ordinances105 of the gospel; however great the confusion and apostasy106 in the church is represented to be; we must know that it is still worse than that, since the church historians contemporaneous with the events refused to record these things in their fullness lest it should prove disastrous to the church; just as some of our modern scholars professing107 to write church history express their determination to close their eyes to the corruption108 and abuses which form the greater part of the melancholy109 story of ecclesiastical history, for fear that relating these things would make it appear that real religion scarcely had any existence.[9] But it is all in vain. "It is idle, it is disingenuous," remarks the editor[10] of Gibbon's great work, "to deny or to dissemble the early depravations of Christianity, its gradual but rapid departure from its primitive simplicity and purity, still more from its spirit of universal love." If the intermittent110 peace accorded to the church in the first three troubled centuries of its existence was productive of the evils admitted by the writers who have felt that the cause of religion demanded that these evils as much as possible should be covered up, naturally enough one exclaims, what then must have been the result of that repose which came to the church after the elevation111 of Constantine to the imperial throne! When from a proscribed112 religion Christianity was exalted113 to the dignity of the state religion of the empire; and her prelates and clergy114, recalled from exile and suffering, poverty and disgrace, were loaded with the wealth and the honors that the lords of the Roman world could bestow115! Let imagination do her best or worst in picturing the rapid decline of whatever remained of true Christianity, conjecture116 can scarcely outrun the facts. If when the office of bishop was attended with danger and scant117 revenues it aroused the inordinate118 ambition of men to possess it, how infinitely119 more must it have become the object of envy, strife84 and ambition when by the patronage120 of Constantine it became not only free from danger but endowed with revenues that a prince might envy, and accorded an influence in the palace scarcely second to that granted to the governors of the provinces!
If before the Decian persecution the rivarly between the bishops of Rome and Carthage prompted a bitter controversy121 which threatened the unity122 of the church, how much more likely were such conflicts to arise between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople—rival bishops of rival cities, Rome proud of her past, Constantinople vain of her present glory; the former jealous of the place she had filled in the world's history; the latter ambitious of future influence! If heresies were fomented and schisms created when to be a Christian invited espionage123 and perhaps death, what an increase there must have been in these and other disintegrating124 influences when it became a reproach rather than a praise not to be a Christian, and the door of the church stood wide open to the evil-minded, who sought membership, not to enjoy the consolation125 of religion but for worldly advantage!

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disastrous
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adj.灾难性的,造成灾害的;极坏的,很糟的 | |
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persecution
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n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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Christian
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adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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mischievous
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adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
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renowned
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adj.著名的,有名望的,声誉鹊起的 | |
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calamities
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n.灾祸,灾难( calamity的名词复数 );不幸之事 | |
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reins
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感情,激情; 缰( rein的名词复数 ); 控制手段; 掌管; (成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的)保护带 | |
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providence
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n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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devoted
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adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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Christians
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n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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repose
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v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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indifference
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n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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intrigues
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n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 );神秘气氛;引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 );激起…的好奇心 | |
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aspiring
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adj.有志气的;有抱负的;高耸的v.渴望;追求 | |
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heresies
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n.异端邪说,异教( heresy的名词复数 ) | |
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counteract
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vt.对…起反作用,对抗,抵消 | |
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candid
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adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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piety
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n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
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nominally
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在名义上,表面地; 应名儿 | |
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deplores
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v.悲叹,痛惜,强烈反对( deplore的第三人称单数 ) | |
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mischief
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n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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wrought
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v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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dealing
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n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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disorders
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n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调 | |
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schism
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n.分派,派系,分裂 | |
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heresy
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n.异端邪说;异教 | |
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affected
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adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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drawn
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v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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pastors
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n.(基督教的)牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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bishop
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n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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fatigued
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adj. 疲乏的 | |
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lamented
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adj.被哀悼的,令人遗憾的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apprehend
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vt.理解,领悟,逮捕,拘捕,忧虑 | |
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simplicity
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n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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bent
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n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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patrimony
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n.世袭财产,继承物 | |
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amassing
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v.积累,积聚( amass的现在分词 ) | |
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ebb
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vi.衰退,减退;n.处于低潮,处于衰退状态 | |
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deception
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n.欺骗,欺诈;骗局,诡计 | |
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reverence
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n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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veracity
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n.诚实 | |
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haughty
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adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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asperity
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n.粗鲁,艰苦 | |
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outrageous
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adj.无理的,令人不能容忍的 | |
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determined
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adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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malice
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n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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bishops
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(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
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peculiar
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adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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secular
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n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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deserted
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adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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needy
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adj.贫穷的,贫困的,生活艰苦的 | |
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possessed
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adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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usury
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n.高利贷 | |
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foretold
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v.预言,预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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forsake
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vt.遗弃,抛弃;舍弃,放弃 | |
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judgment
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n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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judgments
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判断( judgment的名词复数 ); 鉴定; 评价; 审判 | |
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offenses
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n.进攻( offense的名词复数 );(球队的)前锋;进攻方法;攻势 | |
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scourges
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带来灾难的人或东西,祸害( scourge的名词复数 ); 鞭子 | |
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interval
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n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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copiously
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adv.丰富地,充裕地 | |
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withhold
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v.拒绝,不给;使停止,阻挡 | |
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testimony
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n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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malignant
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adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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demon
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n.魔鬼,恶魔 | |
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worthy
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adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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negligence
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n.疏忽,玩忽,粗心大意 | |
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sloth
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n.[动]树懒;懒惰,懒散 | |
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reviling
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v.辱骂,痛斥( revile的现在分词 ) | |
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darts
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n.掷飞镖游戏;飞镖( dart的名词复数 );急驰,飞奔v.投掷,投射( dart的第三人称单数 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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inveighing
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v.猛烈抨击,痛骂,谩骂( inveigh的现在分词 ) | |
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hypocrisy
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n.伪善,虚伪 | |
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dissimulation
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n.掩饰,虚伪,装糊涂 | |
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malignity
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n.极度的恶意,恶毒;(病的)恶性 | |
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lenient
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adj.宽大的,仁慈的 | |
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afflict
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vt.使身体或精神受痛苦,折磨 | |
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destitute
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adj.缺乏的;穷困的 | |
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appease
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v.安抚,缓和,平息,满足 | |
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propitiate
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v.慰解,劝解 | |
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deity
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n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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misery
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n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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inflamed
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adj.发炎的,红肿的v.(使)变红,发怒,过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mutual
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adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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strife
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n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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hostility
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n.敌对,敌意;抵制[pl.]交战,战争 | |
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hatred
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n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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follies
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罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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shipwreck
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n.船舶失事,海难 | |
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salvation
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n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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watery
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adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
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gulf
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n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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martyrs
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n.martyr的复数形式;烈士( martyr的名词复数 );殉道者;殉教者;乞怜者(向人诉苦以博取同情) | |
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lawful
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adj.法律许可的,守法的,合法的 | |
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condemned
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adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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unreasonable
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adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的 | |
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deformed
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adj.畸形的;变形的;丑的,破相了的 | |
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97
ordinations
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n.授予神职( ordination的名词复数 );授圣职 | |
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98
schisms
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n.教会分立,分裂( schism的名词复数 ) | |
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99
industriously
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100
fomented
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v.激起,煽动(麻烦等)( foment的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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101
factions
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组织中的小派别,派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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102
relics
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[pl.]n.遗物,遗迹,遗产;遗体,尸骸 | |
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103
shun
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vt.避开,回避,避免 | |
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104
primitive
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adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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105
ordinances
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n.条例,法令( ordinance的名词复数 ) | |
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106
apostasy
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n.背教,脱党 | |
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107
professing
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声称( profess的现在分词 ); 宣称; 公开表明; 信奉 | |
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108
corruption
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n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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109
melancholy
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n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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110
intermittent
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adj.间歇的,断断续续的 | |
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111
elevation
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n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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112
proscribed
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v.正式宣布(某事物)有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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113
exalted
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adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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114
clergy
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n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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115
bestow
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v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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116
conjecture
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n./v.推测,猜测 | |
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117
scant
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adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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118
inordinate
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adj.无节制的;过度的 | |
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119
infinitely
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adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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120
patronage
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n.赞助,支援,援助;光顾,捧场 | |
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121
controversy
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n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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122
unity
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n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
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123
espionage
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n.间谍行为,谍报活动 | |
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124
disintegrating
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v.(使)破裂[分裂,粉碎],(使)崩溃( disintegrate的现在分词 ) | |
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125
consolation
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n.安慰,慰问 | |
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