Something new had
sprung into being, something which expressed a hitherto unknown feeling
for life and for humanity, vague and uncertain in the beginning, but
growing in clearness and uniformity. On the throne of the Roman emperors
sat a bishop, whose power was increasing with the development of the new
civilisation, and whom the final victory of the new transcendental
world-principle had made master of the world. The building up of this
new civilisation had absorbed the intellectual force of a thousand
years; it had monopolised thought and every form of energy. The reward
was great. For the first time in the annals of the world the
questionings of brooding intelligence were fully answered, the anguish
of the tortured soul was stilled. The purpose of the universe, the
destiny of man, were comprehended and interpreted, good and evil being
finally known. At the close of the first Christian millenary, all moral
and intellectual values were grouped round and dominated by one supreme
ideal; the loftiest value in this world and the next, side by side with
the greatest secular power, were in the hands of the Church; together
with the imperium she had succeeded to the spiritual and ethical
inheritance of the dead civilisations.
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