Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/220

194 rigour which is associated with Puritanism in Sir Walter Scott's novels. The reverse was the case; they introduced fray living into court and city, and set their faces against the ascetic ideal cherished by the monks. Nevertheless they were not unlike the true English Puritans of Elizabeth's time, the men who discarded "vain traditions" in order to have the Church governed by "the pure word of God," and who opposed the more materialistic ritual in favour of inward religion.

It has been maintained that one aim of Leo and his successors in suppressing image worship was to oppose the influence of the monks. Now it is a fact that, while the parish priests for the most part submitted tamely to the imperial orders, as became government officials, the monks stoutly resisted them, for it was in the monasteries that the liberty of the Church was cherished.

Besides, while the monks opposed imperial interference in ecclesiastical affairs, they were out of favour with the authorities on other grounds also. Monasticism was the deadliest enemy of militarism, and that in two ways. The monks would not fight; and therefore the monasteries were draining the empire of a large part of its able-bodied citizens, and these especially the men of grit. At the same time their celibate life was keeping down the population, and so, as has been pointed out earlier in this book, rendering the provinces too weak to withstand the onrush of teeming multitudes of more prolific races that hovered on their borders.

While, however, all this is worthy of consideration, it will not account for Iconoclasm, for Leo could have found other means of opposing monasticism, and means which would not have enlisted the populace in its favour. It was bad policy to select a ground of attack which involved a direct assault on the religion of the people. Turn where we may for an explanation, we are driven back to the conclusion that the iconoclastic enterprise was a reformation movement, the aim of which was to save Christianity from degenerating into the merely mechanical performances of