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mastery, when it came, absorbed the attention of Europe for three hundred years. The part which Leo played in this transaction gave plausibility to the assertion of later popes that the empire had been transferred from the East to the West by the authority of the see of St. Peter.

Christianity had become so intermingled with elements of su perstition and legalism that it could not quickly revolutionize the State of Chris. thoughts and practices of the Teutonic peoples. Too tian life. often it almost seemed to substitute merely the saints and Mary for the gods, to replace a few idols by a multitude of images and relics. The spiritual truths of the gospel could only gradually supplant the crude but deeply rooted polytheistic ideas. The clergy, whose teaching should have inculcated them, and whose lives should have exemplified them, were in many cases grossly ignorant and immoral.

The consciousness of Christ as the Redeemer became obscured. Men were less troubled by moral evil than by physical afflictions. From these they sought relief in the pity of the saints, and especially of St. Martin at Tours, whose influence in his lifetime had been felt through all Gaul. They gave lavishly to the poor, built and endowed churches, made long pilgrimages to Rome or other celebrated shrines, and all as a means of soothing an awakened conscience or of allaying fears of future retribution.

New festivals were added; the most important being that of the Assumption of Mary, or of her miraculous ascent to heaven, as described in a fabulous tradition which had been taken up by Gregory of Tours. Those who had the welfare of christendom at heart Penances and attempted to revive Church discipline in its ancient Indulgences. rigor. But it was found difficult to enforce the rules of penance among the Teutonic peoples, accustomed as they were to the payment of money as a composition for even the gravest crimes. Certain exceptional cases were, therefore, recognized, in which the prescribed penance could be commuted to a money fine. Out of this simple and seemingly reasonable arrangement there was developed the system of indulgences. As the external idea of the Church more and more prevailed, the visible official acts of the priesthood were more highly prized. The Lord's Supper continued to be regarded as a sacrifice, at which prayers for the dead were especially efficacious. The clergy suaded by the gifts of anxious friends, said masses for of the departed, that their souls might the sooner

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Masses for the dead.

the pains of purgatory. This led to the custom of private masses, at which only the officiating priest was present. The pious credu lity and superstition of the age manifested itself in a

Ordeals.

most peculiar way in the ordeal, which was a survival of heathenism, and was taken up and embellished with additional solemnities by the Church. When it became necessary to decide a dispute or detect a criminal, and the evidence was insufficient, it was customary to resort to the judgment of God. A ring was thrown into a caldron of boiling water, and the disputant or the accused, as the case might be, was required to thrust his arm in and take it out. Or he might be compelled to walk blindfold over a number of red-hot ploughshares placed at short intervals. It was believed that through the divine intervention the guiltless man would escape all harm. It might well be that the officiating priest was sometimes venal and was well paid beforehand, or if the priest was honest, and knew his innocence, that he took pains to protect Ignorance of him. These superstitions needed to be counteracted by proper instruction, and that could only come from an educated priesthood. Some of the clergy could not understand the homilies of the Fathers, which they were appointed to read in the churches, and others were unable to explain even the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in the vulgar tongue. Praiseworthy efforts were made by some of the bishops and by Charlemagne himself to create a better-trained clergy. There were not lacking distinguished men, who rose far above their contemporaries in learning and spiritual insight. The influence of Christianity, wherever it was able to penetrate the crust of legalism and the overgrowth of superstition, purified the lives of men and nourished the germs of a nobler civilization.

the clergy.

Theology. Isidore, d. 636.

These centuries were more barren in theological thought than any other period in the history of the Church. Isidore of Seville, a Spanish ecclesiastic, whose writings deal with a variety of themes, compiled a collection of "Sentences," or excerpts from the Fathers, arranged under different heads, which long served as a manual for theological study. Somewhat later, an Eastern monk, John of Damascus, who is revered as a saint in both the Greek and the Latin churches, composed in three parts a theological work called the "Fountain of Knowledge." The third portion is an "Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith," a system of theology derived from the Fathers and councils from the fourth to the

John of Damascus, d. c. 754.

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seventh century. His doctrines and arguments are borrowed from these sources. For this reason, the work is full on the Trinity and the Person of Christ, but meagre on the practical topics, on which the Greek Fathers had less to say. The work of "The Damascene was held in the Eastern Church in the highest esteem, and has retained its standing down to the present time.

The Panlicians.

660.

About the middle of the seventh century there arose in the East the sect of Paulicians. In Mananalis, near Samosata, there was a community professing dualism. One Constantine, who belonged to it, was deeply moved by reading the epistles of Paul, and by blending his teaching with his own previous opinions he framed a dualistic system of a peculiar character. He was put to death by the command of the emperor. The system, however, continued to win adherents. The Paulicians were persecuted by a succession of Greek sovereigns. It is said that under Theodore not less than one hundred thousand of them were put to death in Grecian Armenia. Paulicians were found as late as 1204, when the Latins took Constantinople. Of the tenets of this sect we have no knowledge except from their enemies. It would appear that their dualism was more like the doctrine of the Gnostics than of the Manichæans. The Evil Being is the lord of the present visible world. Christ is sent from heaven to deliver man from the body and from the world of sense. They discarded the sacraments. In some of their customs they were ascetic, but they did not oppose marriage. They received the four gospels, and most, but not all, of the epistles, together with an epistle to the Laodiceans, which they claimed to possess.

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THE MEDIEVAL ERA.

PERIOD V.

FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO POPE GREGORY VII.

(800-1073).

CHAPTER I.

THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.

THE Conversion of the English and of the Germans gave Christianity vantage-ground from which to push out its missionary stations among the kindred tribes to the North and East. The gospel was often first carried thither by adventurous travellers, or by merchants, by zealous monks anxious for the crown of martyrdom, or by the followers of some conquering army.

vian coun

tries.

829 and 855.

Louis the Pious (814-840) used his imperial influence with Harold, Prince of Jutland, to promote the introduction of ChrisChristianity tianity among tianity among the Danes. He employed as a missionary in Scandina. Ansgar, a monk of Corvey, and afterwards Archbishop of Hamburg. Christianity met with various vicissitudes until, under the Danish empire of Canute, the conqueror of Eng1014-1035. land, it became finally established in Denmark. Ansgar made two visits to Sweden, and laid the foundations of a mission on the Eastern coast. He was a man of courage and piety, and, although full of zeal, was gentle and patient. Youths who were taken in war he instructed in the principles of the gospel, so that they might preach to their fellow-countrymen. His missionary efforts were disturbed by the incursions of piratical Normans, who in one of their attacks destroyed Hamburg, the metropolitan town. Through the influence of several successive kings, Sweden at length became christianized, and was attached to the see of Bremen, to which the archbishopric had been transferred. The progress of Christianity in Norway was similar. Three of the most valiant and patriotic Norman princes,

Olaf (Lapking), 9931024.

St. Olaf, 1015-1030.

Hacon and the two Olafs, who had become acquainted with it in their travels, endeavored to introduce it by force. Their efforts met with varying success. As the pagan Swedes had found a rallying-point in their great temple at Upsala, until its destruction in 1075, so the heathen party among the Normans was not vanquished until the sacred image of Thor fell in fragments under the blows of a Christian soldier, and out of it crept a multitude of mice, snakes, and lizards. In passing from Paganism to Christianity, there was often an intermediate stage during which Christ was worshipped along with the older divinities. From Norway, Christianity spread to Greenland and Iceland. For a time, the Icelanders stoutly contended for their ancient right to eat horse-flesh and to expose those of their children whose lives they did not value. The conversions which had been made by Charlemagne among the Slavic nations were not more permanent than his conquests. The Slaves who dwelt about the Danube were opposed in the Slavic to any connection with Germany, and their ignorance of German and Latin would prevent them from being affected by influences from that direction. The Bulgarians coming from Central Asia settled on the borders of the East Roman empire, and adopted the Slavic language and customs. In their wars with the emperor they became acquainted with Christianity. Afterwards, for a time, it seemed as though they would break off the relations which had arisen between them and the Eastern Church, and subject themselves to the institutions and authority of the Roman see. For this purpose they negotiated with Pope Nicholas L; but finally, influenced by the Emperor Basilius, they attached themselves permanently to the Greek Church.

Christianity

nations.

Bulgarians.

865.

Cyrill and Methodius, missionaries from Constantinople, went among the Moravians, reduced their language to writing, conducted the services of the Church in the native tongue of the people, and gave them a version of the Scriptures. In 868, Methodius was made archbishop. When, later, they came into close connection with Rome, the use of the Slavic language and the Greek forms of worship was still allowed, but the efforts of Methodius to establish a national church were rendered ineffectual by the intrigues of the German bishops. In 908 the Moravian kingdom was overthrown by the Magyars, a horde of Asiatic barBohemia and barians, and out of its ruins arose Bohemia and HunHungary. gary. In these nations Christianity, after a severe struggle with Paganism, triumphed, largely through the influence of

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