whether the bath is ready, the answer is that the Son was made out of nothing."[1]
The letter of the law superseded the spirit; religion stiffened into formalism; piety consisted in strict observance of ceremonial rites; external holiness replaced sincere and heartfelt devotion.
The Church eagerly embraced the idea of monastic discipline, and monasticism exercised profound influence upon its destinies; but in this element of Christian life the tendency was the same: convents became the seats of mystical theology, of refined speculations on abstruse points of doctrine; penances, mortification of the flesh, worship of images and symbols, were spiritualized and raised far above the comprehension of the ignorant, who could grasp only the outward and material expression, and, blindly following their teachers, were plunged into the grossest, most superstitious, and idolatrous practices.
Delight in discussion, fondness for dialectic controversy and mental gymnastics, led to the development of inherent weaknesses of the Greek character—insincerity, fickleness, and disregard of truth. In keen but unscrupulous emulation sophistry became a justifiable weapon when reason failed; falsehood and deception were plied without hesitation to compass success. Amid the general degradation manly virtues disappeared from among the people. Instead of courageously resisting invasion, the empire purchased safety from barbarians, whom it despised, but with whom it dared not cope; the Church, in common with the community, suffered from these debasing influences, and sank into spiritual apathy. It became stationary, or, as it claimed, and still pretends to be, immutable and orthodox.
- ↑ Gibbon, vol. v., p. 17.
