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 104 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. centres became more and more decidedly ab- sorbed in ecclesiastical questions and interests. All higher interests for centuries were concen- trated in ecclesiastical affairs. The powerful dogmatic fights which shook the empire like earthquakes, the long-continued wrestling of the parties in the image question, and still later the dogmatic war with Rome were by no means con- sidered as a decided evil. The genius of the Byzantines found pleasure in these movements to such an extent that the repeated dogmatic parliamentary battles before the greater or lesser synods appeared to them almost of more impor- tance than the actual fights of the legions with the barbaric peoples at the Danube, the Balkans, and Strymon, and with the overwhelming masses of Islam. It has been admitted in the foregoing remarks that the population sometimes devoted an exces- sive amount of attention to theological discus- sions, and it must be further conceded that there were periods when the development of monas- ticism was anything but beneficial to the state, when monasteries were universal to excess, when the clergy became a danger to the state, and finally contributed to the fall of Constanti- nople. On the other hand, historic truth com-