Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/397

 The Rise of the Papacy 335 We must now follow this most powerful and permanent of all the institutions of the later Roman Empire into the Middle Ages. We must stop first to consider how the Western, or Latin, portion of Christendom, which gradually fell apart from the Eastern, or Greek, region, came to form a separate institution under the popes, the longest and mightiest line of rulers that the world has ever seen. We shall see how a peculiar class of Christians, the monks, appeared ; how they joined hands with the clergy ; how the monks and the clergy met the barbarians, subdued and civilized them, and then ruled them for centuries. One great source of the Church's strength lay in the gen- Contrast be- eral fear of death and judgment to come, which Christianity an?chriSan had brought with it. The educated Greeks and Romans of the ^^^^^ classical period usually thought of the next life, when they thought of it at all, as a very uninteresting existence compared with that on this earth. One who committed some great crime might suffer for it after death with pains similar to those of the hell in which the Christians believed. But the great part of humanity were supposed to lead in the next world a shadowy existence, neither sad nor glad. Religion, even to the de- vout pagan, was, as we have seen, mainly an affair of this life ; the gods were worshiped with a view to securing happiness and success in this world. Since no great satisfaction could be expected in the next life, according to pagan ideas, it was naturally thought wise to make the most of this one. The possibility of pleasure ends — so the Roman poet Horace urges — when we join the shades below, as we all must do soon. Let us, therefore, take advan- tage of every harmless pleasure and improve our brief oppor- tunity to enjoy the good things of earth. We should, however, be reasonable and temperate, avoiding all excess, for that endangers happiness. Above all, we should not worry use- lessly about the future, which is in the hands of the gods and beyond our control. Such were the convictions of the majority of thoughtful pagans.