Excerpt from Studies in Religious History, Vol. 1: Leaders of Christian and Anti-Christian Thought The present volume is the first of a series it is intended to publish of the fugitive pieces that have been contributed, from time to time, by Ernest Renan to the columns of the Revue des deux Mondes, the Debats, and other French periodicals, bearing on the subject of religion and its history. The series shall bear the general title of "Studies in Religious History," and the present volume the specific title, "Leaders of Christian and Anti-Christian Thought." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.