Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/398

 336 Outlines of Europfan History Other- Christianity opposed this view of life with an entirely differ- of°medieval ^^t One. It constantly emphasized man's existence after death, Christianity ^hich it declared to be infinitely more important than his brief sojourn on earth. Under the influence of the Church this con- ception of life gradually supplanted the pagan one in the Roman world, and it was taught to the barbarians. The monks The " Other- worldliness " became so intense that thousands gave up their ordinary occupations altogether and devoted their entire attention to preparation for the next life. They shut themselves in lonely cells ; and, not satisfied with giving up most of their natural pleasures, they inflicted bodily suffering upon themselves by hunger, cold, and other discomforts. They trusted that in this way they might avoid some of the sins into which they were apt to fall, and that, by self-infiicted punish- ment in this world, they might perchance escape some of that reserved for them in the next. The Church The barbarians were taught that their fate in the next world of salvation depended largely upon the Church. Its ministers never wearied of presenting the alternative which faced every man so soon as this short earthly existence should be over — the alternative between eternal bliss in heaven and perpetual, unspeakable tor- ment in hell. Only those who had been duly baptized could hope to reach heaven ; but baptism washed away only past sins and did not prevent constant relapse into new ones. These, un- less their guilt was removed through the Church, would surely drag the soul down to hell. Miracles a The divine power of the Church was, furthermore, estab- Church's Hshed in the eyes of the people by the wonderful works which power Christian saints were constantly performing. They healed the sick, made the blind to see and the lame to walk. They called down God's wrath upon those who opposed the Church and invoked terrible punishments upon those who treated her holy rites with contempt. To the reader of to-day the frequency of the miracles narrated by medieval writers seems astonishing. The lives of the saints, of which hundreds and hundreds have