account of the conditions
under which it existed. Its struggle with Oriental despotism, as well
as with Oriental mysticism, a degenerate philosophy, corrupt social and
political conditions, could not leave it unscathed. If evil at times,
it was better than the temporal government. If its rulers were
dogmatic, arbitrary, and inconsistent, they were better, nevertheless,
than the ruling temporal princes. The church represented the only
light there was in the Dark Ages. It was far superior in morality and
justice to all other institutions. If it assumed too much power it
must be remembered that it came naturally to this assumption by
attending specifically to its apparent duty in exercising the power
that the civil authority failed to exercise. The development of faith
in itself is a great factor in civilization. It must not be ignored,
although it is in great danger of passing into dogmatism. A world
burdened with dogmatism is a dead world; a world without faith is a
corrupt world leading on to death.

The Christian religion taught the value of the individual, but also
taught of the Kingdom of God, which involved a community spirit--the
universal citizenship of the Romans prepared the way, and the
individual liberty of the Germans strengthened it. Whenever the church
adhered to the teachings of the four gospels, it made for liberty of
thought, freedom of life, progress in knowledge and in the arts of
right living. {280} Whenever it ceased to follow these and put
institutionalism first, it retarded progress, in learning, science, and
philosophy, and likewise in justice and righteousness.

To the church organization as an institution are due the preservation,
perpetuation, and propagation of the teachings of Jesus, which
otherwise might have been lost or passed into legend. All the way
through the development of the Christian doctrine in Europe, under the
direction of the church there are two conflicting forces--the rule by
dogma and the freedom of individual belief. The former comes from the
Greeks and Latins, the latter from the Nordic idea of personal liberty.
Both have been essential to the development of the Christian religion
and the political life alike. The dominant force in the religious
dogma of the church was necessary to a people untutored in spiritual
development. Its error was to insist that the individual had no right
to personal belief. Yet the former established rules of faith and
prevente