Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/191

Rh If an Arab fell while fighting for Islam, he was to expect two bright-eyed damsels to descend from heaven, wipe the dust and sweat from his face, and carry him away to a voluptuous paradise. Thus the reward of fighting was in any case a harem—if the warrior survived, a harem on earth; if he died, a harem in paradise. This was the precise opposite of the Christian ideal preached by the priests and professed by the monks. Celibacy with chastisement of the flesh was the stern Church conception of the saint; gross sensuality in multiple marriage was held out as the bait for the Mohammedan warrior. A more sharp antithesis between two ideals of life was never conceived.

Nevertheless this is only one side of the shield. We should do deep injustice to Islam and at the same time flatter Christendom hypocritically if we refused to sternly face the other side. The Mohammedan sincerely believed that he was an instrument in the hand of Allah; he was sure that it was Allah's will for the infidel to be smitten down on refusing submission, and for the faith of the prophet to be maintained and spread at the point of the sword. Thus he was fired with the zeal of the missionary. Under these circumstances we can only admire the comparative tolerance of the early caliphs and their readiness to protect Jews and Christians on the simple condition of the payment of tribute. Now look at the state of the Christian world at this crisis. The Church was torn with internal factions. The strength of its best minds was given to the discussion of the most difficult points of dogma. On account of heresy in regard to these remote abstractions whole provinces were driven by persecution to disaffection. At the same time the morals of the empire were abominably corrupt. The saintly ideal of the monks—not always realised by its own professors—left the mass of the people, who frankly confessed that they could not attain to it, all the more ready to abandon any strenuous endeavours after virtue. City life was sinking into the slough of luxurious self-indulgence; and the government was feeble and only spasmodically energetic by fits and starts.