CHAPTER VI.
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY.
From the time of the completion of the doctrine of the Incarnation, Christianity steadily advanced towards Paganism. Gradually all the characteristics of polytheism crept into the Church. Idolatry, embodied specially in an important doctrine to be mentioned presently, was embodied generally in the worship of images. The great principle of local government in religion which distinguished Pagan polytheism became Christian by the worship of saints. This was soon the chief feature of ordinary Christianity. To the average Christian the local saint appeared the representative of heaven, the appointed agent through whom heavenly blessings were to be obtained. The Christian doctrine of the soul’s immortality, originally derived from Judaism, was Paganised into a resemblance to the ideas on the subject which had vaguely entered into most forms of Paganism. The old belief of the Jewish Church that dead Christians “slept” until the resurrection had become heretical by the middle of the third century.[103] The doctrine of purgatorial penance was introduced into Christianity. For this, indeed, quite apart from Pagan influence, there was a very good reason. In the early days of the Church, with the moral influence of Judaism still strong on it, and the danger of persecution keeping it pure from unworthy members, probably almost all Christians were fairly good. Being good, they were fit for heaven or the heavenly reign of Christ; and so there was no difficulty in making the simple acceptance of Christianity the test of salvation. But when the Church became popular, and especially when it became the acknowledged religious system of the empire, it was plain that a large proportion of its members were by no means fit for heaven. And yet, with its looser Pagan hold on morality, it did not care to consign to damnation faithful believers in its doctrines. The old ideas, latent generally in Paganism, and given special expression in the mysteries, of penal purification from evil exactly met the difficulty, and accordingly they were incorporated in Christianity. As before in the case of the Incarnation, it was the need of the Church that really created the doctrine; Paganism only determined its form.
Christianity took all its supernaturalism of evil from Judaism, that is, from the later developments of Judaism, with hardly the slightest change. The belief in a chief devil, having subordinates under him, in hell or some such kind of irrevocable punishment, characterized late Judaism as much as Christianity. In general, this supernaturalism of evil was less strongly developed in Pagan religions, or rather, to speak more precisely, it was a feature of eastern far more than of western theology. Still Christian Paganism, though mainly western, had no difficulty in accepting it, and it afterwards became the chief support of medieval superstition.
The decline and final ruin of the empire of Rome transformed the outward structure of Christianity. The empire died under the hands of northern barbarians, but it attained a resurrection in the shape of the Papal Church. After the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, the line of Christian development passed through the latter alone, the former remaining stagnant in consequence of its union with political despotism. The free Church of the west, becoming the real representative of Christianity, gradually embodied in itself all the attributes of imperial power. The Pope succeeded the Emperor; bishops succeeded the provincial legates; the religious tyranny of Catholicism succeeded the political tyranny of Cesarism. The pomp and ceremonial of the empire were transferred to the Church. The spirit of sensuous worship latent always in Christian Paganism of course was encouraged by this, and expressed itself in a complex ritual. But most of all Catholic imperialism exalted the clergy above the laity.
This exaltation of the clergy was the direct result of the transference of the imperial power to the Church. The long reign of despotism in the empire had unfitted the people of it for any approach to freedom. Just as formerly they had submitted to the material power which had had its centre in Rome, so now they submitted to the spiritual power which had its centre in Rome. Only by the slow training of many centuries was part of the population of Europe prepared for resistance to clerical tyranny. The Reformation rested on the political development of the peoples among whom it was successful. The clergy were the guardians, for good or for evil, of the childhood of the modern world.
The complicated system of sacraments which now arose in Christianity was largely the expression of priestly power. The distinction made between clergy and laity in the celebration of the Eucharist showed this in its clearest form. But most of all the power of absolution gave the priest an unlimited supremacy. Holding the keys of heaven and of hell, he was the master of the Christian’s soul. The foundation of this doctrine, as well as that of the general recognition of an authority peculiar to the clergy, was laid in the willing reverence felt by the early Church for the apostles, for the men who had actually seen its founder. Clerical despotism cannot be ascribed to the spirit of Paganism as distinguished from the spirit of Judaism. But still, in its extreme development under the pressure of changes in the Pagan world, it was a Pagan feature of Christianity.
A most important distinctly Pagan doctrine was connected with this idea of clerical sanctity. I have already referred to the belief of the early Church that the body and blood of Christ were really present in the elements of the Eucharist. It is quite clear from the language of St. Paul that this belief in the real presence was not a belief that the elements were actually changed into Christ’s body and blood.[104] By the faith of the communicant the sacrament was accomplished, and without faith it had no existence. The Eucharist was evidently then regarded as a constantly recurring sacrament of the once offered sacrifice of Christ’s death, which it commemorated and declared until he came again. That this was an exceedingly delicate doctrine which could be easily misinterpreted is obvious. It naturally developed into a grosser form when Paganism, with its leaning towards idolatry, became paramount in the Church. The elements were then formally consecrated, and were regarded as the actual flesh and blood of Christ. As his body, they were laid on the altar and made an object of worship. This, of course, was simple idolatry. United with the dogma of the Incarnation, it enabled the Christian to adore God as visibly present in a material shape. The doctrine was connected with the exaltation of the clergy, as the power of consecration was confined to them. Thus the sacrament of the Eucharist became the sacrifice of the mass. The elements being actually changed into his flesh and blood, Christ was again made a victim; his sacrificial death was repeated as often as the ceremony; and so the Jewish dogma of the Atonement was linked with ideas utterly antagonistic to Judaism.[105]
The deification of the Virgin Mary was another wholly Pagan development of Christianity. Female divinities were common in Pagan polytheism, and female saints replaced them in Christian Paganism. After Christ, as man, had been made the God of Christianity, this tendency to give both sexes divine representatives produced the exaltation of the Virgin as his female correlative. She became the goddess of Christianity, the real third person of the Trinity, as Feuerbach calls her.[106] As mother and wife of God, she satisfied the human instincts of Pagan religion; and so the Church ultimately put all heavenly power into her hands. The asceticism of later Christianity at the same time created the dogma of her perpetual virginity. At last, as a divine being, she was encircled with an atmosphere of miraculous privilege even from before her birth.
The most striking feature of Pagan Christianity, monasticism, was due to a variety of causes. In part it had its origin in the personal character of Christ. His insistence on inward purity was not far removed from asceticism. But though monastic asceticism may have had some of its roots in later developments of Judaism, it was foreign to Judaism as a whole. Judaism was remarkable for its clearness and balance; it pushed nothing too far. Monasticism in reality was chiefly derived from eastern Paganism, from the tendency towards asceticism so common in Oriental religions. The same tendency produced another important effect on western Christianity, namely, the celibacy of the regular clergy. When this became an accepted doctrine, the finishing touch was given to clerical power. Henceforth the Roman Church was the most highly organized ecclesiastical system the world has ever seen. With no recognized interests outside his calling, every priest belonged body and soul to a vast disciplined mass which moved and acted like one man.
Thus highly organized, the Church plunged into the darkest period of the Middle Ages. For the evils of this period Christianity cannot fairly be held responsible, except in so far as it contributed to the ruin of the Roman empire. Throughout it, on the whole, the Church was a centre of light, keeping alive the embers of civilization, and softening the barbarous tendencies of the time. But in passing through it Christianity suffered fearfully. The ignorance and harshness and corruption of the age were stamped ineffaceably upon it. And this was inevitable. In every civilized country at almost every time there are sure to be two forms of the general religion, one popular, the other that of the more educated classes. The popular religion, resting on ignorance, is always a mere superstition; the other religion, kept clear by partial knowledge from offensive crudities, is the recognized form. But during the worst period of the Middle Ages there was no such distinction; all religion was popular; even the highest classes were hopelessly lost in superstition. The gloom of this superstition, the shadow of the wretchedness of the age, left a lasting mark on Christianity. The terror of life was transferred to death; death was associated with the most repulsive images, and closely connected with hell. The fear of hell became the motive power of religion; to escape hell was to the Christian the end of life.[107] The superstitious elements from which Christianity is now struggling to release itself were mainly developed in its passage through this period.