Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/220

 202 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. thoritj and sanction. As all that subjects bad to do with laws was to obey them, so also all that they had to do with religion was to avail themselves of the advantages which it offered. Baptism into the Church, which was the spouse of Christ, regenerated the body ; the administration of the sac- raments kept it pure ; and no one doubted that when man's earthly course was run, the purified body, having thus been made capable of resurrection, would rise again. The plan of salvation was simple of apprehension, was universally ac- cepted, was easy to follow. Eeligion thus sat very lightly upon the inhabitants of the empire, gave them no anxiety, and, I am disposed to believe, did not very much influence their conduct. There was no enthusiasm, there were no burning questions, no zeal, and very little piety. If a com- parison were to be instituted between the religious condition of the empire and anything existing in modern times, I should again refer to Eussia. The way in which the Ortho- dox Church is accepted by the great mass of the peasants, the wonderful manner in which its practices are interwoven with the habits of the people, and form part of the military, naval, and civil discipline of the empire, are all reproductions of the condition of things which the elder branch of the same Church had presented in the twelfth century in the New Rome, except that the Slavonic spirit is, and ever has been, of a more serious tone than that which has prevailed among those either of Greek descent or who have come under the influence of Greek literature. The Greek spirit of Arianism, which was defeated at Nicsea, ultimately conquered through- out Eastern Christendom, and substituted the Hellenic for the Hebraic aspect of Christianity. The explanation of much of the difference in regard to MingVingof ^lie position of religion in modern times and in porTanT' the Wcst, and that which existed in the twelfth epirituai. ccutury, is to be found in the results which arose from the facts, first, that the teaching of the Orthodox Church was unquestioned, and, second, that the emperor was head alike of Church and State. The first weakened the intellect- ual side of the Church ; the second welded religious observ-