The Christianity of the Germans, and even that of the Roman provinces,
for many generations after the date of their “conversion,” was a very
different kind of religion from that which is now held by enlightened
Christians. Constantine and several of his successors were actually
worshiped after death by multitudes of the Christians of those days.
The apostolic doctrines were not conceived as a system of belief by the
people, nor even by their teachers; the personal sovereignty of Christ
as a king and warrior, and the future heaven or hell to be awarded by
him, were apprehended as practical truths, but were overlaid with a dense
mass of superstitious notions and observances, many of them legacies from
heathenism. Above all, the Germans indulged without stint their passion
for the wonderful; and the power of Christianity over them depended
largely on the supply of miracles and of potent relics which it could
furnish them. The workers of miraculous cures were numerous; they were
esteemed as the favorites of heaven, and cities and princes contended
with one another for their bones. Some of the popes were wise enough to
discourage the zeal for miracles; and as late as A. D. 590, Pope Gregory
I. wrote to St. Augustine, of England, cautioning him against spiritual
pride as a worker of them. But it was not long before the papacy became
the great center from which relics of the saints were distributed
throughout the Church. The Roman catacombs were ransacked, and bones
of saints found in an abundance sufficient to supply Christendom for
ages. The Pope’s guaranty of genuineness was final; and this resource
contributed immeasurably to increase the wealth and power of the Holy
See. The legends of the saints, as circulated and preserved, mainly
by tradition, were for centuries the intellectual food of the Church
at large; and were filled with idle and monotonous tales of wonderful
cures in mind and body, wrought by the holy men and women in their
lives, or by their corpses or their tombs. No doubt was entertained,
even by the most intelligent, of the truth of these miracles. The modern
conception of nature, as the work of a divine will which is unchangeable,
and which therefore expresses itself in fixed, uniform laws, was then
unknown. The spiritual conception of Christianity, as life by a personal
trust in a pure, holy, and loving God, was set forth, indeed, by a few
writers and preachers, and was doubtless verified in the experience of
many a humble heart; but it was far above the thoughts of the people,
or even of the clergy at large. To them no religion was of any value
which was not magical in its methods and powers, and a charm to secure
good fortune or to avert danger. In short, the Church was one thing,
Christianity another; and the priestly ambition of the great organization
to rule over men’s lives and estates entirely eclipsed and obscured the
spiritual work of the kingdom which is not of this world. Nothing in the
early German character is more attractive than the habitual and general
chastity of the people, and their reverence for the marriage tie. But
the great migrations corrupted them; and the degradation of marriage in
the succeeding centuries was promoted and completed by the influence of
the Church. Hardly any agency can be traced in history which has wrought
greater social and moral evil than the contempt for human love and for
the marriage tie, which was sedulously cultivated by the Roman Church
from the beginning of the fourth century. Yet, there are indications
enough to satisfy us that the doctrines of the New Testament had not
lost their power; and that truth, purity, divine charity, and Christian
heroism were yet kept alive in many hearts. Thousands of men and women,
whose minds and lives were darkened by the teachings and practices of
asceticism, monasticism and gross superstitions, still cherished a
devout, self-sacrificing love for their unseen Master and Lord and stood
ready to die for him. Even the idea of Christian brotherhood was not
entirely lost; and the common worship of the same Redeemer by master and
slave did much to mitigate the horrors that grew out of their relation.[D]