blind and unreasoning, like the faith of children. The most incredible and absurd legends were
accepted without a question. And yet the morality was not a whit better, but in many respects ruder,
coarser and more passionate, than in modern times.
The church as a visible organization never had greater power over the minds of men. She
controlled all departments of life from the cradle to the grave. She monopolized all the learning
and made sciences and arts tributary to her. She took the lead in every progressive movement. She
founded universities, built lofty cathedrals, stirred up the crusades, made and unmade kings,
dispensed blessings and curses to whole nations. The mediaeval hierarchy centering in Rome
re-enacted the Jewish theocracy on a more comprehensive scale. It was a carnal anticipation of the
millennial reign of Christ. It took centuries to rear up this imposing structure, and centuries to take
it down again.
The opposition came partly from the anti-Catholic sects, which, in spite of cruel persecution,
never ceased to protest against the corruptions and tyranny of the papacy; partly from the spirit of
nationality which arose in opposition to an all-absorbing hierarchical centralization; partly from
the revival of classical and biblical learning, which undermined the reign of superstition and tradition;
and partly from the inner and deeper life of the Catholic Church itself, which loudly called for a
reformation, and struggled through the severe discipline of the law to the light and freedom of the
gospel. The mediaeval Church was a schoolmaster to lead men to Christ. The Reformation was an
emancipation of Western Christendom from the bondage of the law, and a re-conquest of that liberty
"wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Gal. v. 1).
§ 5. Periods of the Middle Age.
The Middle Age may be divided into three periods:- The missionary period from Gregory I. to Hildebrand or Gregory VII., a.d. 590–1073.
The conversion of the northern barbarians. The dawn of a new civilization. The origin and progress
of Islam. The separation of the West from the East. Some subdivide this period by Charlemagne
(800), the founder of the German-Roman Empire. - The palmy period of the papal theocracy from Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII., a.d.
1073–1294. The height of the papacy, monasticism and scholasticism. The Crusades. The conflict
between the Pope and the Emperor. If we go back to the rise of Hildebrand, this period begins in
- The decline of mediaeval Catholicism and preparation for modern Christianity, from
Boniface VIII. to the Reformation, a.d. 1294–1517. The papal exile and schism; the reformatory
councils; the decay of scholasticism; the growth of mysticism; the revival of letters, and the art of
printing; the discovery of America; forerunners of Protestantism; the dawn of the Reformation.
These three periods are related to each other as the wild youth, the ripe manhood, and the
declining old age. But the gradual dissolution of mediaevalism was only the preparation for a new
life, a destruction looking to a reconstruction.
The three periods may be treated separately, or as a continuous whole. Both methods have
their advantages: the first for a minute study; the second for a connected survey of the great
movements.