It is the tragic fate of all religions that they must crystallise into a
system. A reflection of the enthusiasm which animated their founders
still falls on their disciples: Follow me! But the second generation
already demands proofs, tradition and clumsy miracles; reports are drawn
up and looked upon as sacred--religion has become a glimpse into the
past. Most people never have any direct religious experience, their
salvation lies in the dogmas, the universally accepted doctrines. The
founder of a new religion is always regarded by his contemporaries as
abnormal, and is persecuted accordingly; not in malice, but of
necessity. Arnold of Brescia died at the stake; St. Francis was no more
than a heretic tolerated by the Church, and Eckhart escaped the tribunal
of the Inquisition only through his death.
I have attempted to show in diverse domains of the higher spiritual and
psychical life, how powerfully _the Christian principle of the
individual soul, the real fundamental value of the European
civilisation_, manifested itself at the time of the Crusades, and
everywhere became the germ of new things.
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