METHODS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 307 



from unreasoning prejudice, were all in consequence con- 

 demned. The belief in the guilt of error and doubt became 

 universal, and that belief may confidently be pronounced to 

 be the most pernicious superstition that has ever been 

 accredited among mankind. Mistaken facts are rectified by 

 inquiry. Mistaken methods of research, though far more 

 inveterate, are gradually altered; but that spirit which 

 shrinks from inquiry as sinful, and deems a state of doubt a 

 state of guilt, is the most enduring disease that can afflict 

 the mind of man. Not till the education of Europe had 

 passed from the monasteries to the universities, not till 

 Mahomedan science, and classical freethought, and industrial 

 independence, broke the sceptre of the Church, did the 

 intellectual revival of Europe begin." 1 



485. The idea that Christianity, or rather that Christians, 

 should have ever played a part so degrading intellectually is 

 repugnant to the sentiments of most modern votaries of the 

 faith as repugnant as a similar charge against their religious 

 systems would be to Buddhists or Mahomedans. But it is 

 not realized by them that a constant struggle is being waged 

 at the present day by all the most enlightened and pro- 

 gressive of societies against the very tendencies that were 

 most conspicuous in the mental training of the early 

 Christians. A mental atmosphere which produced in im- 

 mense numbers people of the type of St. Simeon Stylites, 

 could not otherwise than result in the state of society which 

 then prevailed. A wave of real insanity spread over the 

 ancient world, and so affected the minds of its inhabitants, 

 that a modern physician could not have distinguished mania 

 due to inborn mental defect from that which resulted from 

 the ordinary training of the day. But that this insanity was 

 not a necessary accompaniment of Christian doctrines is 

 evident from the fact that some modern Christian com- 

 munities equal and even surpass in many respects the Greek 

 and Roman. The minds of most moderns, it is true, are not 

 as yet so well trained as those of our wonderful predecessors, 

 and therefore, in proportion to population, we produce fewer 

 great men, and are much more tardy and grudging in our 

 recognition of them. In other words, our training leaves us 

 less receptive. On the other hand, knowledge of physical 

 science has advanced so far that we are much less open to 

 the assaults of alien superstitions; while the industrial 

 nature of our civilization has enabled us to invent invincible 

 weapons of war which can be manufactured and used with 

 1 Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. ii., p. 206. 



