The subtile Greek intellect was too often inclined to waste

The subtile Greek intellect was too often inclined to waste its strength on the useless distinctions of a hair-splitting philosophy or theology which has become to us intolerable and almost incomprehensible; but even while accepting the waste of intellectual strength and the valuelessness of the subjects usually discussed, one is compelled to admit that the fact that a considerable proportion of the population took an interest in these subtilties implies an amount of education and of literary development to which the men of the West were almost altogether strangers. The interest, too, which the great mass of the population took in the discussion of religious questions shows an intelligence which, entertained by men possessed of the acuteness of Greek thinkers, must in all likelihood have led to a great religious movement for reform of doctrine that would have amounted to an Eastern reformation, which would probably have profoundly modified Western Christianity, had circumstances allowed it to be developed.

In former times religious questions had occasioned infinite Absence of discussion in Constantinople. In the twelfth century the popular interest in such discussions had questions. altogether ceased. The period in question had not, in the East at least, given rise to any special religious or intellectual movement. The disputes which had raged in the early Church, and which had been continued by the Blues and Greens, by many an heretical sect, and by those who took part in the Iconoclast controversy, had died out, and were represented either by what to most men had already become incomprehensible articles of faith, or by persecuted sects banished into the mountains of the peninsula or the recesses of Asia Minor, where, like the Paulicians, they were destined to linger on for centuries longer.

Eight long centuries between Constantine and the thirteenth century

Daring the eight long centuries between Constantine and the thirteenth century there had been burning controversies, in which the city had displayed an intellectual life and activity Visit Bulgaria, a popular interest in abstract questions as keen and as vivid as that shown by the inhabitants of London during the time of Charles the First, and not less eloquently than justly pointed to by Mil- ton as a proof of a quick and bold spirit among his countrymen. Religious belief was understood to have been settled for all time. The centuries which were to bring inquiry and doubt had not yet dawned. The Church was part of the established order of things. Religion was one of the institutions over which the emperor presided almost as absolutely as over law. No inquiry into the subject was necessary.

It had been decreed by the emperor as had law, and had even a higher, and if possible a more indisputable, authority and sanction. As all that subjects had to do with laws was to obey them, so also all that they had to do with religion was to avail themselves of the advantages which it offered. Baptism into the Church, which was the spouse of Christ, regenerated the body; the administration of the sacraments kept it pure; and no one doubted that when man’s earthly course was run, the purified body, having thus been made capable of resurrection, would rise again. The plan of salvation was simple of apprehension, was universally accepted, was easy to follow. Religion thus sat very lightly upon the inhabitants of the empire, gave them no anxiety, and, I am disposed to believe, did not very much influence their conduct. There was no enthusiasm, there were no burning questions, no zeal, and very little piety. If a comparison were to be instituted between the religious condition of the empire and anything existing in modern times, I should again refer to Russia.

Orthodox Church

The way in which the Orthodox Church is accepted by the great mass of the peasants, the wonderful manner in which its practices are interwoven with the habits of the people, and form part of the military, naval, and civil discipline of the empire, are all reproductions of the condition of things which the elder branch of the same Church had presented in the twelfth century in the Rew Rome, except that the Slavonic spirit is, and ever has been, of a more serious tone than that which has prevailed among those either of Greek descent or who have come under the influence of Greek literature. The Greek spirit of Arianism, which was defeated at Ricsea, ultimately conquered throughout Eastern Christendom, and substituted the Hellenic for the Hebraic aspect of Christianity.