followers of the faith, and tend to increase the unity of the Church and the strength of its organism. For the only remedy against this evil is the influencing of religious convictions, and this remedy is not within the reach of the conquering state from the very nature of its principles and organism. Under the protecting wing of toleration the work of conversion is carried on more and more openly, and soon assumes large proportions; laws circumscribing the right of association only lead to a more careful selection of the organs of the Church, to a matured and thorough organization of its official authorities, and to a higher pitch of administrative centralization. The violence of the masses makes the persecuted appear in the light of victims to disorder; whilst the tyrannical acts aimed at them provoke pity for those, whose heroism rouses admiration and incites to imitation, and whose persevering tenacity survives the onslaught of the most desperate attacks, which from its very nature must be short-lived and capricious. Besides, every development in the Church at the same time weakens the established power of the state, for the most valuable elements, in joining and placing themselves at the disposal of one society, sever their connection with the other.

But the religious society itself passes meanwhile through a far-reaching internal transformation. Hand in hand with its expansion, its practical rules of life also develop, and the external law and order of the Church, although still having the propositions of faith for their centre, gradually adapt themselves, not only to the spiritual, but also to the worldly wants of the faithful. The Church acquires worldly possessions, forming its common property, which it employs in succouring and supporting the needy and the zealous; it establishes regular offices and authorities, and introduces an ordered public administration and fixed principles and rules of conduct. Individual enthusiasm no longer occupies every domain of ecclesiastical activity, but yields to disciplined and deliberate effort. The Church does not disquiet the guilelessness of the believing mind, but it permits wisdom drawn from ex

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perience to ensure the result of its labours. The claims of a holy life obtain recognition as being exceptional and as standing above the considerations of that common morality which may be generally exacted, and which is also asserted by means of discipline; considerations which, resting upon the moderating effects of civil and worldly relations, are not of so compulsory a nature, as to deprive the faithful of their chances of general activity in their own affairs, or as to exclude them entirely from the assumption of civil duties.

And thus, in spite of continual conflict and of an irreconcilable antagonism of principle between the two societies, their main conceptions draw closer and closer to each other in the minds of the masses who are unable to comprehend the final consequences of theories. In due course of time those who attribute importance to mere external forms, and deem to secure by the preservation of the latter the existence of the state, although the essential principle and tendency of its workings have undergone a change, see no extreme danger in the acceptance of the doctrines of the new society by the conquering society, and even expect the rejuvenescence of the tottering state by the help of new moral agencies, and the invigoration of its enfeebled power by the support of the Church.

§ 94. When the ruling classes who are theoretically indifferent to religion are thus brought to acknowledge the irresistible power of the latter, and, at length, outwardly accept its doctrines, the Church, too, becomes, for the time being, reconciled to the institutions of the conquering society and clings to them all the more closely, since it soon perceives them to be the most effective means of its own firm establishment. Accordingly the conquering state adds religious aims to its own aims, and the Church occupies a recognized, and very soon a leading, position in the state, its own authorities becoming the organs of the religion of the state. The sphere of the religious society thus expands to an extraordinary degree; yet this society loses its former inwardness from the very moment it no

longer deems its task to consist exclusively in the realization of its own aims. Hence arise, in a great measure, the schisms in the Church; which, indeed, had casually occurred also previously with reference to theoretical and doctrinal questions, and led to internal commotions within the religious society, commotions rendered however less violent by the hostile attitude of the dominant state against all votaries of the faith without distinction; but these schisms now become thoroughly envenomed, because the differences of opinion concerning articles of faith are coupled with diverging conduct in the political relations of life, and assume the form of questions of power, whenever the possibility of gaining the ear of the actual government seems feasible, and when protection by the state means practically the suppression of antagonists. This inaugurates the first period of the persecutions of heretics within the Church and by the Church, persecutions which are far more sanguinary than those formerly instituted by the state against religion, because now it is conviction and not mere worldly policy that lurks beneath the motives for persecution; the Church no longer recognizes the excuse of individual conviction, which had been often accepted by the indifference of the conquering society.

The scales between the mutual services rendered to each other by the religious society and the worldly state do not however remain very long evenly balanced, for the weight of the Church is constantly increasing whilst that of the state is dwindling. The former being a society in the course of development and consolidation, urges more and more vehemently the assertion of its aims, whilst the interest of amassing wealth for consumption becomes more and more subordinated to that of religion, and is at last looked upon as justified only if the wealth obtained is devoted to religious objects. The state, too, now viewed in theory as imperfect in itself and capable of righteousness only in the service of the Church, loses also politically its supremacy, and soon its independence, the earthly community thus becoming a mere preparatory stage for the

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city of God and the world to come. This gives rise to the peculiar phenomenon that, in the contest between the various creeds and denominations, victory does not in the long run adhere to the one that humbles itself most before the power of the state, but that the state eventually lends the aid of its arm to the one most favourable to the independence and to the centralization of the Church. When this happens, the state has completely changed its texture and its central principle; its common tie and its society have all become. strictly ecclesiastical.

§ 95. That phase in the life of the ecclesiastical society, during which it becomes dominant and itself the state is much less apt than the corresponding phase in the life of other societies to strike the mind, and this for various reasons. In the first place, this period presents a picture of continual warfare, coming partly from abroad, and directed against the state, which is no longer able to maintain itself as a conquering empire, and partly arising from religious persecutions and from the violent propagation of religion, in the course of which both the power of the state and that of the Church appear merely as centralized and absolute militant organisms. Thus an absolute rule is produced, under which a change in the vital principle is much less conspicuous than within the sphere of free communities. In the second place, the Church is never during any phase of its development able to manage its multifarious secular affairs immediately through its own authorities; but, keeping always spiritual and earthly tasks apart, it leaves the latter to be attended to mediately by other societies, serving as organs subordinated to spiritual aims. Hence the peculiar complexion of the ecclesiastical state, and hence also the notion, that office is not invested with independent power, such as was possessed by the authorities of the previous societies, but that it is merely the occupation of a sphere of action bearing upon fixed tasks, transferred to it by, and emanating from, a superior power. Both a hierarchy and self-government may indeed be found to hand in the conquering society, but the

hierarchy in such society is strictly an engine of power, the subordinate organs of which are the blind instruments of the superior ones, whilst in the organism of the Church all have a share of Divine right according to the extent of their functions; again, self-government, confined originally to mere local interest, becomes subsequently the depository of tasks to be solved through power delegated to it; and hence both of them, a hierarchy and self-government, can attain their full development in the ecclesiastical state alone.

Starting from this period, therefore, a double current of life may be observed within the Church itself. One, the internal current, tends purely and directly towards spiritual aims, and that higher level of faith and morality, which is the result of exclusive striving after the ideal, and of the recognition of the absolute value of the individual soul, as far as it is considered free—that is, as harmonizing in its endeavours with the requirements of faith, and which, in the monastic orders, is embodied in the devotion to aims of individual holiness, and thus enlists and absorbs the noblest and most precious elements of the society. The other manifests itself in the appropriate management of worldly affairs for the promotion of the interests of the Church in the consolidation of its rule, in disciplining, within allowable boundaries, the great mass of mankind, and in the regulation and transformation of every-day life. This circumstance gives rise to that double standard of morality applied by every Church; one standard of morality for its elect and its saints, and the other for the great multitude. Such a double standard is not the casual outgrowth of one or another system, but inevitably springs from all attempts at realizing spiritual aims through human communities. Hence arises also that antagonism between the living faith and the law, which is continually starting up in every religious society, and the reconcilement of which, resulting in the co-operation of the two factors, constitutes the most splendid triumph of ecclesiastical government. Ecclesiastical law always faithfully reflects the difficulties