Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/178

168 foreign influences except from the south. We may ask then why did Dr. Bussell select this period as the special characteristic of his work? Doubtless because of the second of the two objects he had in view—to show the influence of religious ideas upon the social structure. Both Christianity and Islam were universal religions; both claimed to be founded upon revelation; and every man was bound to be a believer. Religion formed the widest basis of union and the distinctive line of cleavage; it dissolved the old links and the former polities; and it determined a man's status. A man's politics meant a man's creed, as they do in the East at the present day. His fellow believers take the place of tribesmen and kinfolk. Society was regulated by a divine law which could not be annulled. Every man had his recognised place, his duties, and his rights in the social order; wars were waged for the maintenance of rights; and kings were liable to deposition if they violated the sacred law. The social structure was founded on a larger and more pervasive moral basis than ever before or since; and theology was universally held to be the Queen of Sciences.

This is the subject of the last part of the present work, more especially in the supplementary essays, which are excellent. But it is also here that the subject of heresies comes in. Scholasticism attempted to reconcile free thought and human knowledge with theological dogma; between schoolmen and theologians conflicts were frequent; thus heresies arose; and since the framework of society was religious, these heresies usually took the form both in Christendom and Islam of a social revolt. Oft-times the so-called heretics were merely pietists who protested against the worldly compromises of the Church; but divergences were sometimes fundamental. For instance, Bulgaria and the south of France were permeated by Manichaean doctrine. Dr. Bussell is successful in showiing that the opposition to and persecution of the heretics came rather from the laity than from the Church. But I think that the historical importance of these heresies is somewhat overrated; and I confess that I find the very full details given of them sometimes wearisome.

The heresies of Islam had a greater political importance than those of Christendom before the Reformation. Dr. Bussell's