t they were numerically not important and did not affect
the general character of the cult.[2039] The Jews came as near the ideal
of a voluntary religious association as was then possible under the
hampering conditions of a racial organization and peculiar national
customs. Their genius for the organization of public religion appears in
the fact that the form of communal worship devised by them was adopted
by Christianity and Islam, and in its general outline still exists in
the Christian and Moslem worlds.

+1109+. _Zoroastrianism_ resembled Judaism in its later practical
monotheism and its elaborate ritual, but was more isolated and less
advanced in the formation of assemblies for voluntary worship. Its
pre-Sassanian period produced no church, only a national cult, which was
adopted by the Parthians and others in debased form, but otherwise did
not attract outsiders. On a sect that arose in Persia in Sassanian times
see below.[2040]

+1110+. _Christianity._ The teaching of Jesus was directed toward a
purification of the existing cult, the elimination of mechanical views,
and the emphasizing of spiritual and ethical ideals.[2041] There is no
indication that he purposed founding a separate organization.[2042] But,
after his death, his disciples were drawn together by their relation to
him, particularly when the new congregation became predominantly
Graeco-Roman. For its administration the synagogue was the model--from it
were taken the titles and functions of some of its officers and the
method of conducting public service.[2043] But the new ekklesia, the
church, followed its own lines and speedily created a new cult. Its
fundamental conception was salvation in the future through Jesus of
Nazareth, the Christ. In the beginning it was thoroughly individualistic
and voluntary. It had no connection with the State, was not a _religio
licita_; its adherents joined it solely out of preference for its
doctrines; its activity was wholly religious. But this ideal
constitution of a church was not long maintained. The introduction of
infant baptism (toward the end of the second century) and the adoption
of Christianity as the religion of the State by Constantine went far to
make membership in the Church an accident of birth or of political
position; in this regard Imperial and Medieval Christianity did not
differ from the old national religions--it was a religion but not a
church. At the present day in the greater part of Christe