nd in Cordova in the
ninth century, when there was no persecution) a fanatical desire for the
honors of martyrdom that had to be checked by the Church leaders.

+1168+. The saint is related to the virtuous man as holiness to virtue.
The difference between them is one not of ethical practice but of motive
and sentiment--holiness is virtue consecrated to the deity. The saint,
like the martyr, is often an ethical power. When the title is given
officially as an ecclesiastical honor, it may or may not carry with it
moral excellence. In Brahmanism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam saintship has sometimes been contaminated with physical and ritual
ideas and practices, and so far ceases to have ethical value.[2115]

+1169+. The evil influence of the religious point of view on ethical
life has been of the general nature already referred to:[2116] embalming
and sanctifying outgrown and injurious social institutions; substituting
form for spirit; encouraging asceticism; drawing sharp lines of
demarcation between men on the basis of religious opinions, and so far
creating an antisocial spirit.

+1170+. The development of the sense of obligation to do right
(conscience) is due to so many different influences that it is hard to
say exactly what part any one of these has taken in the process. But
obviously religion has been an important factor in the result so far
reached. By its distinct connection of the favor of the deity with
conduct it has tended to fix attention on the latter and to strengthen
the feeling that righteousness is the sovereign thing. Though such
regard for right-doing is at first mainly egoistic, it easily becomes an
ideal, reverenced for its own sake, and more powerful because it is
identified with a person and colored by the sentiments of gratitude and
love that religion calls forth. Religion, especially in the earlier
forms of society, though not only in them, has been a pedagogue to lead
men to the acknowledgment of the supremacy of the moral law. It differs
from other such guides in the tone of mingled humility and enthusiasm
that it gives to this fealty.

+1171+. As to the existence of moral evil in the world, religion can
only regard it as the work of supernatural Powers. In the savage period
the question does not come up--moral evil is taken as a part of the
nature of things and is not curiously inquired into. In later times it
is ascribed to some malevolent spirit or deity who is either indepe