it. Then it is only
temperance. It is often impossible to distinguish sharply between taboos
which only impose respect for gods, temples, etc. (cleanliness, quiet,
good clothing), and those which are ascetic. When the ascetic temper and
philosophy assumes control it easily degenerates into a mania. Acts are
regarded as meritorious in proportion as they are painful, and they are
pushed to greater and greater extravagances because what becomes
familiar loses the subjective force from which the ascetic person wins
self-satisfaction. Asceticism then becomes a mental aberration and a
practical negation of the instinct of self-preservation. It leads to
insanity.[2153] If it takes a course against other persons, it explains
the conduct of great inquisitors like Conrad of Marburg.[2154]

+680. Asceticism in India and Greece. Orphic doctrines.+ In India
ascetic acts were supposed to produce not only holiness but also power,
which might arise to superhuman degrees or even avail to overcome gods.
Rohde[2155] finds that the theological ascetic morality of the later
history of Greece, which was not a determination of the will in a given
direction but a mode of defending the soul from an external evil
influence which threatened to soil it, had its first impulse in the
notion of the antagonism between soul and body, because that notion
would cause the body to be regarded as a base constraint from which the
soul would need to be "purified." The notion of the pure soul imprisoned
in a material sensual body, and stained by the base appetites of the
latter, was current amongst the Greeks for five centuries before Christ.
Hence the antagonism between the soul and the "body," the "flesh," or
the "world." The soul passed from one body to another, according to the
Orphic sects, with intervals in which it underwent purification. In each
incarnation it underwent punishment for the misdeeds of the last
previous existence. The soul is immortal. The soul of the bad man goes
on forever in reincarnations from which it cannot escape. The soul which
is purified by the Orphic rites and Orphic mode of life is redeemed from
this eternal round and returns to God. Orpheus gives salvation by his
rites, but it is a work of grace by the redeeming gods. Orpheus provides
by his revelations and intercessions the way to salvation, and he who
would walk in this way must carefully obey his ordinances. This is a
life which must be lived. It is not ritual only. Here a