CHRISTIANITY IN THE SUDAN 27 of the Sudan at the present day, the fact that the country became a Christian one in the latter half of the sixth century, during the decadence of Roman influence, is remarkable. And that Christianity should have spread with such rapidity, through savage hordes, into regions so far removed from the then modern civilization, is yet more extraordinary.

But it must not be forgotten that there was already a basis on which to work. The heathen and savage were not unleavened. The colonies of ancient Egyptians, however completely they may seem to have vanished, had their influence ; the exiled Theban priests of Amen-Ra transplanted a religious atmosphere, and though their line terminated about 200 A.D., there are evidences that a century later their religion still existed.

For over 200 years before this, Christianity had taken root in Egypt, and St. Mark is supposed to have led the movement for many years there, if, indeed, not farther south also. The news of salvation forced its way past Roman persecution and Egyptian superstition, over hungry deserts, mid heathen tribes, with the resistless penetration by which the tender seedling pushes its head through the hardest of surfaces.

Persecution drove the converts south along the line of least resistance, and the Blemmyes who were defying Diocletian may have harboured, or at least have tolerated, them.

By 330 A.D. Christianity had begun its invasion