Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/29

 I] INTRODUCTION. 11 ing is their disappearance and the evolution of new Christian forms of verse as the genius of Christianity- masters the art of poetry so as to express itself and the emotions of the Christian soul through this me- dium. Likewise in art : the genius of Christianity- long follows its antique lessons, yet conquers them at last and evolves its own artistic forms in painting, sculpture, and architecture. Form is as important as substance in considering poetry and the fine arts in their transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Christianity itself was changed in its passage from apostolic times to the Middle Ages. Changes sprang from the introduction of pagan elements, and other changes from its imperial triumph in becoming the religion of state. But monasticism is the great in- stance of the recasting of primitive Christianity by the transition centuries in the form which was to be the mediaeval ideal of the Christian life. In these same centuries the primitive Christian records were superseded or changed, actually or through the way in which they were understood. Here again, as monas- ticism came to be the ideal Christian life, it became a factor in the transformation of the narratives of the Old and New Testaments. Under its influence Elijah and Elisha become monks, and Joseph is made a mar- ried celibate.* Besides the Scriptures, early Christian 1 See, e.g., CmsUd, Inst. 1, 1; Marlgnan, Cuite dea Saints sous Its M4rovingien», p. 89 sqq. The lives of monastic heroes were r^acimenti of the lives of scriptural characters, including Jesus. The scriptural characters were first refashioned to the understanding and views of the transition and medieval centuries, as, for example, by making monks of them. The imitation of these medinvally conceived scriptural porsonagM was then a twofold process, actual