dissenting minority, intermittently persecuted. This changed rapidly. Constantine ended persecution and offered the Church support and official favour. Of the emperors who followed him, only one was a pagan. Christianity became the official state religion. The link between the church and the state was greeted enthusiastically by some at the time (e.g. *Eusebius of Caesarea) and is still defended by many today. But some had doubts from the beginning, and it is increasingly fashionable today to regard