northern peoples into the Roman world profoundly
modified Christianity. It shared indeed in the dreariness and corruption
of the times commonly called the "dark ages," but when at last a
productive period began the Church was the first to profit by it. Since
all educated men were priests, it assimilated the new learning--the
revived Aristotelianism--and continued its control of the universities.
In the 13th century it was supreme, and Christianity was identified with
world systems of knowledge and politics. Both were deemed alike divine
in origin, and to question their validity was an offence against God.
Christianity thus had passed through three stages in politics as in
science. At first it was persecuted by the state, then established by
it, and finally dominated over it; so its teaching was at first alien to
philosophy and despised by it, next was accepted by it and given form
and rights through it, and finally became queen of the sciences as
theology and ruled over the whole world of human knowledge. But the
triumph by its completeness ensured new conflicts; from the disorder of
the middle ages arose states which ultimately asserted complete
autonomy, and in like fashion new intellectual powers came forth which
ultimately established the independence of the sciences.

In the broadest sense the underlying principle of the struggle is the
reassertion of interest in the world. It is no longer merely the scene
for the drama of the soul and God, nor is man independent of it, but man
and nature constitute an organism, humanity being a part of the vaster
whole. Man's place is not even central, as he appears a temporary
inhabitant of a minor planet in one of the lesser stellar systems. Every
science is involved, and theology has come into conflict with
metaphysics, logic, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, zoology,
biology, history and even economics and medicine. From the modern point
of view this is unavoidable and even desirable, since "theology" here
represents the science of the 13th century. As in the political world
the states gained first the undisputed control of matters secular,
rejecting even the proffered counsel of the Church, and then proceeded
to establish their sovereignty over the Church itself, so was it in the
empire of the mind. The rights gained for independent research were
extended over the realm of religion also; the two indeed cannot remain
separate, and man must subordinate knowledge to the au