to enlarge its domain, not for indulgence in polite ease or literary culture, nor for the satisfaction of individual aspirations towards an ideal life by asceticism and mortification of the flesh; they undertook works of active piety, benevolence, and charity, and their inmates were inspired by the desire to accomplish good for others rather than for themselves. The religious orders were instituted for divers ends, with definite and varying purpose. A spirit of rivalry and emulation among them grew with increase of power and wealth, and, while acknowledging a single head and pursuing a common object, the keen struggle for pre-eminence kept alive within them the fervor of religious enthusiasm. From the supreme pontiff to the mendicant friar action and progress were the characteristics of the Church, and blind adoration for the past was forgotten in anxiety for the present and hope for the future; while recognizing ancient authority and tradition, it believed in a constantly increasing and more thorough comprehension of Christ's teachings, and of the essential nature of Christian doctrines to be attained by study and gradually revealed. Its restless activity, exercised in this direction, saved it from the formalism of the East, and preserved the energy of its spiritual life; from progressive it became aggressive; victorious over the West, its ambition was insatiable, and it looked for other worlds to conquer; it aimed at universal dominion, and claimed to be, not merely orthodox, but catholic.
