How did Edward Gibbon respond to accusations that he falsified evidence about Christianity?

Following the publication of his work, Edward Gibbon faced significant criticism and ridicule from various pamphleteers who were unsettled by his skeptical treatment of Christianity in the 15th and 16th chapters of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

While Gibbon generally chose to ignore his detractors, he made a notable exception for those who accused him of falsifying his evidence. To address these specific charges, he published a devastating rebuttal titled A Vindication of Some Passages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1779).1