on was their logic; and a logician, as Pascal
says, must be very unfortunate or very stupid if he cannot manage to
find exceptions to every conceivable rule. In their hands casuistry
became the art of finding such exceptions. From the Greek sophists they
borrowed ingenious ways of playing off one duty against another, or duty
in general against self-interest--leaving the doubter in the alternative
of neglecting the one and being a knave, or neglecting the other and
being a fool. Or else they raised a subtle distinction between the act
and the intention. To get drunk for the sake of the drink was the mark
of a beast; but wine was a powerful stimulant to the brain, and to
fuddle oneself in order to think great thoughts was worthy of a sage. No
doubt these airy paradoxes were not always seriously taken; but it is
significant that a common Roman proverb identified "philosophizing"
(_philosophatur_) with thinking out some dirty trick.

Christianity swept the whole discussion on to a higher plane. All the
stress now fell on the disposition, not on the outward act. The good
deeds of a just man were a natural consequence of his justice; whereas a
bad man was no whit the better, because he now and then deviated into
doing right. Actions, in short, were of no account whatever, apart from
the character that produced them. "All things are lawful unto me," said
St Paul, "but all are not expedient." And St Augustine sums the whole
matter up in the famous phrase: "Have charity, and do as thou wilt."
Narrow-minded Christian consciences, however, could not stay long on
this level; law was so very much more satisfying a guide than vague,
elusive charity. And law in plenty was forthcoming, so soon as the
Church developed the discipline of public confessions followed by
appropriate penances for each fault. At first the whole proceeding was
informal and impulsive enough; but by the 7th century it had grown
thoroughly stereotyped and formal. _Libri Poenitentiales_ began to
appear--detailed lists of all possible sins, with the forfeit to be
exacted from each. As public penance finally decayed, and auricular
confession took its place, these were superseded by the _Summae de
Poenitentia_,--law-books in the strictest sense. These were huge digests
of all that popes, councils, primitive fathers had decided on every kind
of question pertaining to the confessional--what exactly is a sin, what
kind of questions the priests must ask, under what condit