 The Centuriators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg headed by Matthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volume "Magdeburg Centuries" to discredit the papacy and identify the pope as the Antichrist.To a large degree, Protestantism believes that Constantine the Great (c. 325 AD) merged paganism with Christianity, seeking to bring unity and stability under his rule, and advance acceptance of and the power of the church by all sectors of the empire.However, this had a corrupting effect on the beliefs of the church and through decades of succession by poor, often politically motivated leadership, abuses of scriptural application became prevalent.